Segovia

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I've made it through my first week of classes. The good news is that I got an A in my intensive course (a good way to contribute to my GPA after only three weeks!). The bad news is that as of yesterday I changed two of my classes and so I have to make up the work.

When I was selecting my study abroad classes at GW, I had wanted to take History of Spain to fulfill my non-US history requirement for my international affairs major, but my academic advisor told me that it wouldn't fulfill it. So, I listened to her and registered for History of Europe in the 20th Century hoping to learn about things I've already studied but from a Spanish point of view and hopefully learn a lot more about the formation of the European Union, etc. I also chose the European History course because it was listed on the study abroad website as a class taught entirely in Spanish (although you can use English for papers and exams).

But after my first two classes, I was bored out of my mind. I didn't even get through my first reading assignment because it started talking about WWI and after my high school AP Euro class and my U.S. Diplomatic History class last semester, I just couldn't learn about the same things any more especially from the same point of view! After our trip to Segovia this past Saturday, I decided that I really wanted to switch to History of Spain even if my advisor was correct about it not counting, even though I think that's a mistake because my lovely friend Sarah Mennone who has been a great help to me since she did this same program a few years ago said she used the same class for credit with the same major.

Not only that, but after the first class one student in my class who is a business major and has never taken a history class since high school was totally lost and asked for the class to be taught in English since our professor is fluent enough. We (there's only three of us in the class) met with Carmela to talk about it and she proposed a mix of the two languages. But on the second day of class, our professor spoke mostly in English and his accent was so heavy that it was difficult to concentrate. I'd actually rather have him speak in Spanish and stop him when I didn't understand a word or phrase instead of listening to his English!

The other problem was that if I were to drop European History for Spanish History, the History of Spain class would be the same time as my International Marketing class which I actually enjoy a lot. The professor has done a great job in the past two classes of integrating information about Spain's economy into his lectures on the basics of marketing which is so interesting. Also, we're going to be doing some case studies later in the semester based on Spanish companies which will be a unique way to learn the subject from a new angle.

After much stressing out this past weekend, I drew up my new ideal schedule, e-mailed Carmela, and then went to her office yesterday. I was worried because she told us the first day that we would not be permitted to drop a class with only three people in it under any circumstances. Apparently some people had already tried to drop a class because they didn't like it and she refused. I sat down and explained the whole thing in English, and she acknowledged that the website was incorrect about European History being listed as in Spanish and that it would be a waste for me to be in a class in which all of the material was familiar. I told her I was confident I could make up the material I missed in History of Spain and that I could easily transfer to International Business from International Marketing because both classes have the same professor and there was a lot of overlap between the two, especially in the first two classes. In the end, she agreed to all the changes I proposed but asked me to keep it quiet because my case was an exception. Woohoo!

As of today, I start my new schedule. My Mondays and Wednesdays remain the same: language class from 9 am to 11 am at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Art History at the Reina Sofia on Mondays and the Prado on Wednesdays from 3 pm to 5 pm, and Flamenco Dance at a dance studio nearby the art museums from 5:45 pm to 6:45 pm. Now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will have History of Spain from 4 pm to 6 pm and then International Business from 6:45 pm to 8:45 pm. It will be kind of nice to start my Tuesdays and Thursdays late because now I can sleep in, exercise, do homework, and go out in the city before I have class.

Now on to what I've been doing since last week. Other than the confusion with switching classes, I've enjoyed them so far. In art we've been looking at slides and taking notes in the Reina Sofia on Mondays and then on Wednesdays at the Prado we walk around to different works and our professor points out things about them. It's much more exciting to learn about a piece of art when it's right in front of you! We've started at the beginning of the Renaissance and went over Greek and Roman sculpture. In Flamenco so far we've learned two parts to a three part dance and yesterday added in the hand movements and started the beginning of the third part. I really like my dance teacher because she's young and really funny. She's actually from Mexico but has been living here in Madrid for a few years. She said she will tell us when her performances are so we can go watch her!

Last Wednesday night I attended a free ESL workshop to learn tips on how to teach English as a second language here. Carmela said if she heard of anyone who wanted private tutoring in English she would set us up with them, so I thought I should take the free class just in case since it couldn't hurt to be prepared. It was pretty interesting and I learned a lot over thr 2.5 hours. The English Center didn't actually set us up with clients but I think I'd rather go through Carmela before randomly advertising on the metro or something.

Thursday morning I had my flamenco class history exam. It was only 20 questions with 2 options for each question but was a little tricky because there's a lot of history. I also have a flamenco paper do tomorrow on any topic I want about 2-3 pages in length written in Spanish. One thing I learned so far is that flamenco actually applies to a style of singing and guitar as well as dancing. Flamenco originated from the Andalucia area in the south of Spain, so even though foreigners identify it as the national dance of Spain it really is just one of many.

I went out with some people in my program on Thursday night since we never have class on Friday (although we will be using Fridays for travel). We met at a bar that looked like a cave inside and when someone ordered the house drink (something with milk, cinnamon, and a mix of different alcohols) they rang a bell and the milk stuff came out of a stalactite hanging down from the ceiling over the bar which was funny. I split it with Jordan and I'm glad I tried it but it was definitely a little strange. We stayed there from about 11ish to a little after 1 am and then decided to move on to a well-known discoteca in the Sol area called Joy where other people in our program were already inside.

Unfortunately the line was pretty long and we eventually agreed to just come back another time. Instead we went into a club a few blocks away. The cover was 12 Euro but with it you got 2 drink tickets so it was pretty much like breaking even. It was pretty crazy inside but a lot of fun. Some people left around 3 am but I decided to stay. Finally the rest of us decided to leave around 5 am but Hallie couldn't find the receipt she'd received for checking our coats and the girls working the coat check said we'd have to wait until 6 am to get them back. There was no way we were going to wait for another hour and so we just kept describing what our coats looked like until the finally caved. Most people took a cab home but I was sick of paying for a cab, especially since I was only a few blocks away from where the Buho, or Owl (night) Bus, departed while the metro is closed every night from 1:30 am to 5:30 am. I had a lot of trouble figuring out which line I needed and so finally I just waited until the metro re-opened at 6 am and took that home. Needless to say, I slept in until about 3 pm on Friday morning!

On Friday, a friend that I met last semester from the GW Newman Center, Shannon, was in town after finding cheap airline tickets online with her roommate and friends. I met them at the Prado in the afternoon during their free evening admission hours. It was fun to tell her what I had learned so far about the works from my art class. When I told Patricia that night at dinner, she used a Spanish expression that translated to a person with one eye leading the blind because although I wasn't an expert I could tell them a little bit about the museum they knew nothing about. I just thought it was funny that Spanish actually has a word for someone with only one eye.

Patricia has been making more great meals for me. Now that I'm not away at school every day for my intensive course, she's been leaving me real Spanish lunches at home that I can re-heat. I've had some more delicious squash soup, lentil soup, spaghetti with peppers, empanadias, paella, and salads. We've also had some interesting conversations. One night we were talking about the Spanish Civil War and she was saying her one grandmother was actually assassinated by fighters on the left, not because she was directly involved in the fighting but because she was a symbol of the right (the conservative, Catholic, upper class people). Her other grandmother lost an eye. I told her I didn't learn anything about the war in school in the US and so she gave me a packet of chapters copied from a textbook about Franco's regime and the war written by an American for American students to understand. We were also talking about Cuba because my marketing professor was telling us about how he had vacationed there with friends recently and how it's so weird to me that here people go there frequently because at home Americans are prohibited. Patricia said she had gone with her family before because one of her uncles was an ambassador to Cuba but she did not enjoy going because she hates communism and said it was horrible to see the widespread oppression, poverty, and prostitution catering to the tourists there. After talking to other people in my program, it's really interesting that half of them loved Franco and the programs his government brought about and also love the current socialist Prime Minister Zapatero, and then others like my senora Patricia absolutely hate both!

Patricia and I also talked about her history as a home stay mom. She has worked for GW the past few years but has also had students from other universities, such as Stetson and Colgate. She went into her room and got out her planner where she keeps a list of all the student's she's had- 16 total before me! The funny this was she had marked a letter grade next to each one after their stay, haha. In all she's very much enjoyed all of her students except for one crazy girl who would mix her prescription Prozac with alcohol all the time and was a mess. Patricia told me she doesn't care about the nationality, religion, habits, etc. about the students that stay with her, as long as they aren't crazy like this girl was.

Friday night I went to bed around midnight because we had to meet at the Colon metro stop at 9 am for our day trip to Segovia. Our tour guide Ane was the same woman from CSDI who gave us a tour around Old Madrid and took us to Cordoba. She is very knowledgeable in Spanish history and extremely nice. Thankfully most people were on time unlike our departure to Cordoba, although Ashley missed the bus because she set her alarm on her phone but it wasn't working properly but she was able to take a Renfe on her own. The bus ride was only an hour. Our driver Javier parked it in a lot and then we walked up this steep hill to get to the Alcazar, a fort/palace used by the Spanish monarchy originally built by Arabs. It was beautifully decorated and incorporated a lot of Arab designs in the ornate ceiling art. Since it was on a hill it also had great views. Ane also bought tickets for us to go up into the tower. Like when we visited the tower inside the Alcazar de los Reyes Catolicos in Cordoba, the steps were long, windy, and steep. We finally made it to the top and the view was great.

After that we walked into the middle of town to the Plaza Mayor past Sevogia's cathedral, which Ane explained was along with the cathedral in Salamanca the last to be built in Gothic architecture. We walked down the main streets for about 20 minutes until we got to the famous aqueducts built by the Romans. It was quite a sight to see! We had free time for two hours to eat and shop but I asked Ane if I could go back to the cathedral. She actually offered to go back with me and give me a tour which was awesome. By then Ashley had arrived at the aqueducts and so she and Edgar came with me to the cathedral. Ane not only paid for our admission for us but gave us a great tour, pointing out the specifics of its Gothic architecture in the ceiling, floor, and arch designs. One thing I will never get over is the fact that people are buried everywhere underneath the floor of these cathedrals.

After about an hour in the cathedral, Ashley, Edgar and I walked around the town on our own. We stopped for a snack in a little shop and Ashley and I got waffles with whipped cream and strawberry sauce for only 3 Euros. Yum. We also wandered around and found ourselves at a lookout point at the top of the aqueducts, which was probably my favorite part of the trip.

Around 3:30 pm we all re-grouped and got back on the bus. Thankfully we didn't have to trudge down that big hill we came up in the beginning. When we got back, I ate dinner and then most of us met up around 11:30 pm at the same "milk bar" place I went Thursday night. After that people wanted to go to a popular club but since we knew the lines would be long again we went to a favorite bar called Irish Rover off the Santiago Bernabeu stop. More people from our program met up with us there later and it was a lot of fun. Around 4 am when the bar closed most people went to the club next door but I took at taxi home.

On Sunday I woke up at 10:30 am and skyped with my friend Marissa from GW who is studying abroad in Switzerland right now. That was a lot of fun and easy since she's in the same time zone. After I ate breakfast I met up with Ashley to go to the Rastro, the famous flea market in Madrid held only on Sundays in the working class neighborhood Latina. I have never seen a flea market so big and with so many people! It went on for streets in every direction. We were probably there around noon, the most crowded time because it goes from about 9 or 10 am until 3 pm. I definitely want to go back to buy presents for friends and family there because they have neat stuff but it is affordable. For my family and South Jersey friends, Rastro definitely blows Cow Town out of the water! Haha.

The rest of Sunday I napped and watched TV. Lately I've seen dubbed episodes of Walker Texas Ranger on TV which is hilarious. It's usually on in the afternoon when I eat my lunch between language class and art on Mondays and Wednesdays. Patricia also showed me this funny show called Escenas de Matrimonio about 5 or 6 married couples all different ages who fight all the time, kind of like Everybody Loves Raymond or one of the million America sitcoms about marriage. That show is on at 9:45 on certain nights so I'll have to check it out even though I don't get all the jokes. I haven't been following Pasa Palabra as much lately because usually we eat dinner in the middle of it, but it's definitely the game show to watch in Spain.

Sunday evening I went to the 7:30 mass again at Patricia's church nearby. When I got home she asked if I understood anything and I admitted that I really hadn't and told her I was going to look for some kind of book that had the English and Spanish mass side by side so I could follow along easier. She gave me an old copy of Magnificat, which is a monthly book with prayers, meditations, info on the lives of saints, etc. for every day of the month. In the middle it also has the order of the mass and so she said I could borrow it to follow along and try to memorize a few prayers which I found very helpful. Patricia told me how she went to grade school and college at Catholic institutions ran by monks (I forget which order- there are so many here!) and for two years went to a school ran by Opus Dei which she wasn't too fond of, although her sister currently belongs to an Opus Dei church. She said she didn't go to church when she was younger but at some point it became a very important part of her life. I asked her if the nearby church had Eucharistic Adoration and she said it didn't but she could show me another church where they have it 24 hours a day accessible by bus where she stops in sometimes during her lunch break.

This upcoming weekend I am going to Barcelona! I have contacted a friend of my Uncle Mark named Jose Maria who showed my parents around Barcelona when they went years ago. I gave him my set schedule of activities with GW and he has graciously agreed to show me around in my free time, so I am very excited to see the city with someone who knows it! Tomorrow I am going to a play with Carmela for free as well.

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Photos

Trudging up the hill.
We need to start exercising more...

Alcazar
Ornate ceilings

Alcazar
Queen Isabella's coronation

Alcazar
The view outside the window

Alcazar
More cool ceilings

Alcazar
Lots of detail everywhere

Alcazar
This was my favorite room. All around the room were likenesses of past rulers of Castille before Spain was united.

Alcazar
More detailed walls

Alcazar
The chapel

Alcazar
More armor

Comments

[Rosemary]

The aqueducts look so cool!!!

[sarah]

DYING OF JEALOUSY
OMG JULIE you're killing me i want to be there SO BAD