MI MADRE

We have been talking more and more with our Madre and we have been getting know here better. She really is a sweet old lady who likes taking care of us. She does not like when we leave our room a mess. Today after our dinner, which was pâté, an omelet and a salad, we went and talked with our Madre. She asked us about what we liked in our diner. We both told her that we did not like pâté. It is seriously the most disgusting looking and tasting thing every. I finally fessed up the bread, so maybe I wont have to keep hiding it in my suitcase. I also told her I really like nutella, so maybe she will buy us some because the Randi jar is running pretty low.

When we were done talking about food, Sarah asked our Madre about her favorite TV show, Mira Que Baile. Our Madre is glued to the TV whenever this show comes on. Mira Que Baile, which roughly means ‘watch that dance,’ is the Spanish version of our Dancing with Stars. Our Madre loves to watch the dancing and listen to the music. She told us when she was younger she was very skinny and liked to dance a lot, but now that she is old and fat she cannot dance anymore! She even called herself a cow! We asked what her favorite dance was. She told us she liked then all and then she asked us if we knew any dances. We told her no, but we want to learn the salsa. This is where the conversation turned really funny. She told us to go to the Rojo y Negro Café, because you can learn how to salsa there. Isabella, our Madre’s daughter was in the room too. She immediately said “No, No, No you don’t want to go there, that’s a strip club.” Isabella and our Madre went back and forth over whether the café was a strip club or not. I thought it was quite funny especially because if Isabella had not been in the room our Madre would have sent us to a strip club! It was also really cute when our Madre got up to go make her dinner she did the Cha Cha down the hall to the kitchen.

We did not have class today, so everyone had a relaxing day of nothingness. I fully enjoyed being lazy and sleeping in. I did go to my little Spanish gym and saw the most ridiculous man in the craziest shorts on the elliptical. I could not look at him because I thought I would just start laughing too hard. I went on a quest to find more Nutella, but after three supermercados I was unlucky. I will search again tomorrow.

ARROZ CUBANO

Today for lunch we had an interesting adventure, rice covered in tomato paste with over easy eggs. It is called Arroz Cubano and I highly do not recommend it. First off I can’t stand wet eggs and the tomato paste on the rice was very unusual. I gave my wet eggs to Sarah. Tonight we are having a Spanish tortilla, which is basically an omelet with potatoes and onions inside. I can handle this dish, as long as the eggs are not wet.

Yesterday I joined a gym here is Salamanca. It was 92 Euros for three months, which is about 120 dollars. I went to work out later in the day and there was a weight lighting class going on it was so funny to hear everything in Spanish. The instructor said ariba, abajo, ariba, abajo and counted out the sets in Spanish. I did the elliptical in Spanish. I did not really understand how to program it or what my weight is in Kilograms. There were lots of men working out at the gym. They all stared at me when I went to go lift weights. It was like they had never seen a girl lifting weights before!

I bought a bag to carry my camera and traveling stuff to bring on excursions when we walk through the cities. One of the girls on the trip told me that she knew someone who was carrying a small purse in Madrid, and someone came up behind her with a pair of scissors and cut the bag off and ran. I figured I should buy something more secure that I can wear across my body instead of on my shoulder.
I can’t wait for this week to be over. We will be done with intensivo, which is our grammar class, and then we will be traveling to Portugal on Friday. Unfortunately it is suppose to rain in Lisbon all weekend. I have been talking to a lot of people about their plans for spring break. We have just about two weeks off. I really want to see Paris and then go somewhere warm. A couple other girls had similar ideas, so we are going to investigate plane tickets today.

The castle of Ferdinand and Isabella

My future home!

This is one of the castles we visited in Segovia. It was snowing in Spain!

SEGOVIA

The bus ride from Toledo to Segovia took roughly two hours. Everyone fell asleep as we pulled out the city. I woke up around 15 Km outside of Segovia to find it was snowing. Ugh, I thought it did not snow in Spain, I guess I was mistaken. We pulled into the city and started walking toward a castle. This castle looked like something out of another fairy tale. It was made of different colored stucco, and had opulent turrets and spiraling towers. The windows all had decorative iron bars. We walked through the gardens, looking and the perfectly groomed bushes and the detailed marble statues. I am not sure who had once lived in this palace but it I could see myself living there. After our tour of this palace we headed into the city of Segovia. Segovia looks different from Toledo. The streets are not as narrow and winding and the buildings do not look as historic, but it still has that quaintness of an old Spanish town set in the rolling hills of the country side. Segovia is just north of Madrid. We walked through the city to the main Plaza. Jesus, our study abroad director, told us where to go to get food and to be back by three in the plaza. We left on our quest for food and settled on a restaurant about a block away. We had no idea what we were in for when we picked this place. For ten euros you could get a first plate, a second plate, and then a postre, which is dessert. For my first plate I ordered soap de castellano, big mistake. I am pretty sure the soup had pig brains in it. I took one bite of the giggly meat substance and quickly put my spoon. The waiter brought me a salad instead. I ordered fish for my second course. The fish of course came with the bones. It was okay, but I think I ended up eating more bones than fish. For dessert I tried arroz con leche, which is basically rice pudding. It was decent, but I probably wont order it again. After lunch we walked to probably the coolest place I have ever been, the castle of Ferdinand and Isabella (Spanish and king and queen that Christopher Columbus the money for his discovery of America). The castle was out of this world. It was All made of stone and had a bluish-gray roof. It looked like something out of Cinderella. It was set up above the town of Segovia, surrounded by gardens, patios and a river. The castle over looked the surrounding town and rolling farms of the countryside. Jesus gave us a tour of the castle, taking us through the main hall, the dining hall, the church inside the castle, the thrown room, the armor room, and the bedroom of Ferdinand and Isabella. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the architecture and old painting and tapestries that were hung throughout the castle. After Jesus’ tour we had the option of climbing the 152 stairs to the top of the one of the spiral towers. I was not going to pass up the spectacular view at the top, so I made the climb up the narrow winding staircase. I was not disappointed once I had reached the top. The view of Segovia was incredible. Despite the frigid temperature and my cold wet feet it was absolutely breath taking to see the town as King the Queen of Spain would have 500 years ago. After the castle tour, we headed back to Salamanca. We were back into our Madres apartment with in two hours. Our course she made us a giant feast, that I had force down. Then she came into the room the churros con chocolate. Oh god I think I was on the verge of bursting after dinner. This woman is insane. I am putting my foot down tomorrow if this does not end!!!

There were suits of armor every where in Toledo. This was in the lobby of our hotel.

Toledo

This is the view from our room at the four star hotel we stayed at in Toledo. It was such a beautiful day and city and country was so beautiful.

We got on the bus right at seven thirty in the morning. A couple of stranglers arrived after us, but we were on the road by 7:45. It took just around three hours to get to Toledo. We did stop for an extended bathroom break, because there were only three stalls for the all 30 of the ladies. We arrived in Toledo at 11ish. It was a nice sunny day, but there was a pretty strong wind that was rolling of the surrounding hills. Toledo is very, very, very hilly. Practically all of the streets have a hill or some crazy slant, also all the streets are cobblestone. The roads are extremely narrow, but this did not stop all the cars from barreling up the ally ways as we were walking on them. Toledo in general looks like some fairy tale town from a movie. It almost resembles the little towns in Bush Gardens, but its so much more beautiful. Every building was made of stone with tile roofs. We visited the giant Cathedral in our tour of Toledo. This building was quite impressive. It was built in the 13th century and took over two hundred years to build. The detail in this Cathedral was incredible. You could look at one room for a while and then keep noticing more and more details and carvings that you had not noticed before. I wish we could have spent more time there. The history and artwork was absolutely incredible. There were original painting by Velázquez and Goya and several other notable renaissance artists. I think it would have been really interesting to attend a mass in Toledo’s Cathedral, but we had to move on. Our next stop has at synagogue in Toledo. This had an incredible different feel. Spanish tile decorated the floors and there were arch ways made of stucco with intricate carvings. We tried visiting another church, but it was under renovation. After our group tour we got free time to explore the city and eat our lunches our Madres had packed us. Of course our Madre had made Sarah and I a feast for thirty people, including two giant bocadillas (sandwiches) four pieces of fruit, a giant pastry, and a stack of cookies. During our free time we walked down to the main plaza in Toledo. We walked around several of the shops. Toledo is famous for their metal and the town was filled with knife shops and swords shops. I really wanted to get a sword but I thought it was kind of impractical and would be very inconvenient to take back to the US. I decided this after we had been in about eight sword shops. I settled on a necklace and a pair of earrings for my mom. The make a very unique gold jewelry in Toledo. They use a black clay and inlay the jewelry with a gold thread into tiny designs. Then they fire the clay and gold piece in a kiln, to give it a distinct, glossy shine. After tour the town we headed back to our hotel called the Hotel de San Carlos de Los Reyes. It was a four star hotel, with one of the nicest bathrooms I have ever used. Everyone took advantage of not having limitations on hot water use. I took two very long showers to make up for my usually only three min showers I take at my Madre’s house. We went to dinner with group in the hotel restaurant. The food was nothing to write home about, but it was not fried and there was salad not dripping in oil, so I was satisfied. Some people went out to try and find a bar or a club, but my room and I decided to take advantage of the nice big beds and fluffy pillows. Breakfast the next morning was interesting. Those Spaniards love their meat. There was a whole array of meats laid out for breakfast. Thank goodness they had yogurt for me. I was not about eat any more meat! After breakfast we left Toledo and headed for Segovia.

Cual es tu favorito?

NO MAS BOTAS

Why does Spain have such awesome stores with such awesome boots? My walk to class through all the shops on La Calle Torro is the best and worst part of my day. All the stores showcasing their fabulous European fashion is so hard to just ignore, and with rebajas it makes it so much harder. Ah, I fell into one of their shopping traps today. I bought two pairs of boots. I did get a good deal. They were only 20 Euro each, so I don’t feel that bad. I cannot buy any more boots. The next thing I purchase will be for spring when its at least 60 degrees outside. Tomorrow we leave for Toledo and Segovia. We are meeting at 7:30 am in the Plaza Gabriela y Galan. Toledo is South of Madrid and Segovia is just north of Madrid. I hope we have nice weather. I am kind of sick of this strange misty rain business in Salamanca.

VEGETARIAN BY MAY

I am on the fast track plan toward become a vegetarian. I swear if I don’t see a significant increase in the amount of vegetables in my Madre’s cooking I will be a vegetarian by May. I have never seen so much meat in this old women’s freezer. It is ridiculous!! Just give me broccoli or some spinach or some leafy and green. I miss it so much. Aside from the lack of green in my life, I met some other English speaking students from Wake Forest. Wake Forest has a program here, like JMU. Only ten Wake students are on the trip this semester, but one of them was born in Salamanca and his uncle works at the shot bar, so naturally we got some free shots last night. I saw the Wake students on campus this morning walking back to the apartment from class. It is so refreshing to meet knew people and here their story. Thursday’s are a big night out in Salamanca, kind of like JMU, so our whole group decided to hit the bars last night. We danced to a very interesting mix of music last night. There was a little oldies, like I will survive, some Will Smith (Welcome to Miami), and some weird Russian music. After a fun night of dancing to random music, Sarah and I head back to our apartment. We ran into a couple drunks along the way. One was puking in an ally way, one was stumbling across the Plaza, and one was trying to talk to us but we could not tell for the life of us what language he was speaking. As we avoided all the drunken people of the street, we started discussing of favorite ice cream flavors. It turns out Sarah and I are both huge mint chip and coffee flavored ice cream lovers. As soon as we got back into the apartment, we decided to have a looksy and see if our Madre had any ice cream hidden away in the freezer. Sadly, but predictably she only had meat. As we searched the cabinet we came across on the most delicious spreads ever, Nutella!!! Que suerte!!! The cover of the nutella jar said Randi. We could not figure out what this meant because we did know anyone in the apartment named Randi. We hoped this Randi would not mind if a couple scoops of his Nutella were missing. Randi was tricky though he kept getting all over the bottle and on the counter. Que lastima. Hopefully Randi does not find out!!

This is right next to our apartment how dangerous!!!

GEURRA DE NOVIAS

After the most boring 3 hour class ever, we headed back to our apartment. Our Madre had made us paella for lunch. I was so excited, there was even shrimp in the paella! After siesta I went to look at a gym to join with a girl named Ashley. The university has a gym, but I would not really call it a gym. Its more of closet with weights in it and it smells like death. Also it’s all the way across the river, not a very convenient location to my apartment, which is in the center of the city. The gym we looked at actually looked like a gym in the US. There was all the machines and cardio equipment. There was even a Jacuzzi in the women’s locker room! It was 42 Euros a month. Which is not bad, but we are going to check out another gym today. After looking at the gym, I went to a movie with some other chicas. We went to the theater at the train station. It was really nice stadium seating, comfortable chairs, you could even buy popcorn there!! We went to the Guerra de Novias, which is the Bride Wars in english. There was no English to be found in this movie. Kate Hudson and Ann Hathaway voices were both dubbed over, which made for an interesting viewing. Just the way they talked made the movie seem so out of place. I kinda understand what they were saying, but the plot was not that difficult to follow so I could get what was going on. The ending a little weird though, I think everyone missed the fact that she got together with the brother in the end. No se, but now I want to see the English version so I can make sure I understood everything. After the movie our Madre made us dinner. I don’t think Spanish understand what a salad is. She made a salad of carrots, corn, and tomatoes. I think she forgot the lettuce. Following dinner I went to a new café with internet access. Its is an Asian tea house, but the owners are really nice and gave me free chocolate. A couple of the other girls have been going here for internet access. Getting online is such a high. You don’t realize how much time you spend online until you can’t any more. I get so happy when I just see what going on facebook. Some people actually have internet access in their houses, but we live with old people so I don’t think they really understand. Anyways this tea house is so much quieter than the other café. Tonight I am going to go to one of the cafes at the train station to get online. I can’t wait I need a good fix!!!

INAUGURATION

While everyone in the States was watching Obama take the presidential oath to be sworn into office, we were sitting at the JMU office trying to hear his first speech as president. We caught bits and pieces through the Spanish dubbing, but every time Obama started to stay some it was translated into some high speed Spanish translation that was incomprehensible. Our Madre asked us about Obama at siesta the other day. She asked if he was rich and where he got all his money. She said that all the Spanish presidents are very, very rich and have tons of mansions all over Europe. I told her that our presidents are wealthy, but they get their money for their campaigns from contributions through individuals or corporations. She understood this, so I felt really good about my Spanish. Then she said Obama will have a lot of work to do because the economy is in trouble. To celebrate the inauguration everyone met that night at the Plaza. We went to a bar that had a large screen TV playing the clips from D.C. There were a lot of Spanish guys here, so we got to test our skills. I was chatting with one guy about the horrible incident that happened to Sarah and I at the café. He laughed at my silly americaness, and then told I could go back to the café as long as I order a drink. I felt so relieved after hearing this! I tried a new drink at this bar. It was a mix of coke and wine and they call in colimocha. It was pretty good!! Towards the end of the night the Spanish guys were getting really creepo. They started taking off their shirts. Several of them got up on the bar and danced around. It seemed like the bar was turning into a strip club. I left the bar shortly after and made my way back through the plaza and to my apartment.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!! I went to class today. We went over how to give directions in different places. Our professor was getting frustrated with us because we kept making mistakes, but the class is incredible long and boring so its hard not to zone out. Tonight we are watching the inauguration at the JMU office and then going to Plaza to see what’s happening tonight. I am not the only one who is having trouble adjusting to Salamanca, so that makes me feel a lot better.

EL PAN DE MUERTE

Our Madre serves us the weirdest bread in the world. She serves it at every meal with out fail. Sometimes the pieces are big and other times they are smaller, but I try to avoid this horrible bread at all costs. I have been putting in down my shirt while she is not looking and then emptying it into my suitcase, but now I have quite a large collection of bread. I hope there are ducks in Salamanca so I can feed my bread to them. Quisas los patos les gustara el pan.

CAFE HORIBLE

So today was frustrating. The WI-FI at the JMU office does not work on Mac computers so that leaves about a third of the group out of luck on getting online. Sarah decided we would go back to the internet café we had been frequenting. We sat down at different tables because we were going to skype and got situated. Neither of us bought anything at the café because we had just had drinks at the JMU office. We both were online for about an hour when things got out of hand. One of the workers came up to Sarah and very angrily told her that she was taking up to much space. Sarah came and sat next to me. Then the same irate worker came up to both of us. He was so angry and talking so fast that we could not understand him. A lady sitting at the table next to us had to translate. Basically the worker wanted us leave because we had been their too long and were taking us too much space. It was incredible embarrassing and the whole café was staring at us. I really don’t think this would have happened in the US and it made me so upset. I don’t know where we are suppose to get online seeing as how I don’t think we are welcome back at that café.

Staying positive is hard when you don’t understand what people are saying, but I know I will get use to everything in time. At least I have a good group of JMU people here in Salamanca to help with the transition.

Today was our first day of class. We started by taking a test to determine which class we would be placed into for our first two weeks of intensive study. The test started out easy and then became very difficult at the end. I was placed in the lower section, which I was very happy about because I have not taken a Spanish class in a year. Our professor’s name is Enrique. He was very easy to understand as he explained the objectives and what to expect in the class. He assigned an essay for homework about our thoughts on Salamanca and the families we are living with for the semester. We will have this for the next two weeks and then we start taking the other classes we signed up for.

I learned something very crucial today. Because Spanish is so repetitive you have say things more than once to get your point across. So when I say I am fully at dinner, I have to say it like eight times for my Madre to get the point. I tried it today and it worked. She did not try to stuff more food down my throat!!!

I also learned another interesting fact today. In America people wear their wedding rings on their left hand, but in Spain people wear their bands on their right. Muy interesante, verdad?

I am still searching for a backpack to carry my stuff to class, but I am having no luck. I guess they don’t sell backpacks in Spain. I did buy a brush today and a coke zero. I really miss diet coke. All we drink at the house is water. I did find postcards and I also bought stamps today. The shops by the university are very touristy but they are good for buying Salamanca apparel and postcards. Another thing that is difficult to find is spiral notebooks. You would think at a university you could find school supplies everywhere, but it was quite the scavenger hunt to find them today. I did find and purchase one. The notebook is extremely long, so I had to write more to fill up the page on my essay.
I might try and find a gym to join today and possibly do some more window shopping after siesta. The rebajas are just to tempting!!

This is my room. Its so tiny!!

Plaza Mayor
The Plaza is really beautiful and lots of people meet here everyday

Estoy llena!!

I am full, estoy llena. I think I say this at every single meal. Our Madre makes way to much food and she expects us to eat it all. Her fifty year old daughter does not even eat the food the madre makes because it is so fattening. That’s my rant of the day and I am sure I will rant more about this.

Today we took a tiny tour of the city. We some the historic buildings, but the tour was manly to places we need to get to, like the mail, the doctors, the JMU office. The JMU office is so nice inside. There are couches, computers and thankgod Wi-Fi. I wish all the host families had Wi-Fi. Some people in our group lucked out and have it, but most like our house does not have internet. Luckily, there is an internet café right down the street, maybe like two minute walk. Yesterday I made my first purchase in Salamanca. I forgot toothpaste, so I bought some at una farmacia. The pharmacy is so expensive. I paid 4 Euro for a small tube and then we went to a grocery store and saw American toothpaste for 2 Euro. I was so mad, but the worst part was the toothpaste I bought tastes like licorice. I hate licorice. I also forgot a lufa, so I bought one of those at Saphora. Sometimes I wish there was a Walmart right down the street. I know that sounds horribly American, but its so much more convenient than going to a million different stores looking for one thing. I did have one exciting purchase. I bought a really cute pair of boots. Everyone in Spain wears boots with their jeans tucked in. There are millions of stores that a sell boots in all shapes and colors. I have seen some pretty crazy ones like bright orange ones with bows. Mine are a pretty basic brown pair with a buck on the back. Last night we went to a dance club/bar. It was a lot of fun to dance with everyone in the group. We also went to bar where you could 10 shots for 5 euro, that’s a pretty intense deal. I avoided 10 but did try a limon shot. Era delicioso!!

The first day

Bienvenidos a Espana

We finally arrived in Spain after being delayed in the Philadelphia airport and having to change planes. Customs was a breeze all you had to do was show them your passport and they welcomed you into their country no questions asked. Baggage claim was another fun adventure. Luckily all of my bags were there. Only one girl was missing her bags, lost some where in her connecting flight from London. On my flight there were nineteen JMU students, so we only had to wait for thirteen more people to come into Madrid. Then we took a two and half hour bus ride to Salamanca. The scenery was very different from the typically American Highway. There was lots of open land and there were several cattle randomly roaming the open fields. We passed through several small towns on our trek toward Salamanca. When we arrived in Salamanca our madres were there to great us. Our madre’s name is Ascension, she is in her late sixties or seventies. Of course Sarah and I packed the most stuff, so we had an embarrassing scene trying to fit our luggage into one tiny taxi. We ended up having to get a separate taxi for our luggage. Our Madre’s apartment is right in the center of the city, only a five minute walk from the Plaza Mayor. She lives on the fifth floor. Sarah and I share a room that’s about the size of a walk in closet. I can hold a pencil in each hand and draw on both walls! Miraculously all of our stuff actually fits, but in my dresser there are these random slanted shelves that makes my clothes fall off. After unpacking and taking showers, our Madre fed us. This was interesting she sat and watched us and talked to us. Our course we manly just smiled and nodded because I could not really understand her. I think she was talking about her daughter, No se. She did tell us that we had to finish all the food she made and she kept asking whether we liked her cooking. I was so full by the end! After dinner we went down the street to an extremely convenient internet café. The internet was free and I spent my first Euros in Spain on a very strong cappuccino. After getting in touch with the world. We left the café and met Colleen and someone in front of our apartment with their Madre, who just happens to be the niece of our Madre. We walked to the plaza and met other JMU people. The walk to the plaza was the most exciting thing so far. There were so many shops with clothes and boots and everything and all the stores had giant signs that said REBAJAS!!! This means everything is 50-70% off!! I can’t wait to go shopping. The plaza was breath taking. The whole square was lit up, the white stone looked beautiful against the dark sky. As we gathered in the plaza several Spaniards came up to us asking if we would come to their bar, we ended up going to bar called Atagualpa (I think). It was only 3.50 euro for all you can drink cerveza.

The first day