Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I've been really busy with class and keeping up with life in general in Madrid.
The reason I titled this thankfulness, is because of something I am slowly discovering. People here can understand me better every day. And the more I listen to Spanish, the less I try to mentally translate and the more I just understand in Spanish. That's something I never saw happening, even though sometimes I do think in Spanish, I think it's the matter of hearing it spoken by other people, and understanding without the extra pause of translation. It feels great!
Also, I'm very thankful for the opportunities I have while here. I've gotten to see lots of incredible things, including El Escorial, and Palacio Real. And there are no signs of stopping in that department. Tomorrow, we're going to the Congreso, and Saturday to Toledo, followed by a bullfight on Sunday. And I just found out that before we leave, we're going to Real Madrid match! :) I'm really excited about that! We get to see what their two newest players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, bring to the team.
Anyway, this experience is teaching me so much about Spanish and about myself. I'm so glad I'm here.
The First Round with Homesickness. Homesickness is down for the count...
Well, yesterday was my birthday, and while I've spent it outside of the US before, and without my family, this was the first time I spent it with people I haven't known that long. Not that the girls aren't great, but when it's your birthday, being with old friends and family is generally what you want.
We went to Palacio Real first, and it was absolutely stunning. We only saw around 20 rooms out of 2800, so yeah. Serious business! It was pretty cool walking through rooms where kings and queens and all other types of royalty had walked. Unfortunately, we weren't really allowed to take pictures very much. :( Or I'd be posting them for you to see.
Anyway, after that, we went out for lunch to celebrate my birthday, which was fun, but by the time we got back, we were rather exhausted. So I came up to my room to rest, and thought, "I'll call my mom w/ my calling card." I went down to use the phone here, but the guy told me it doesn't dial out, it's broken.
So, dejected, I return to my room on the verge of tears, and sign online to see if my mom was there. She' wasn't, but another wonderful mom, Mrs. Rush, was. She ended up calling my mom for me to let her know I wanted to talk to her.
So Mom called last night, problem solved, and homesickness beaten. For now.
We went to Nebrija today to take our placement tests, and I was surprised at how easy parts of it were. I think honestly I psych myself out and don't trust myself to know as much as I do know. I felt much better when all was said and done.
Then I went out to find the Tobacco store on our street, so I could buy stamps, but alas, twas closed for Siesta. :(
But I managed to find a gift for a friend while I was out.
And now, I'm waiting for dinner!
Talk to you soon!
By the way, if anybody has anything specific they want to ask or have me blog about, email me! :D
To Salamanca and Back Again. :)
Wow! What a fun weekend we had! Friday, after moving into the Residencia, we left for Salamanca, with our group and the other group here in Madrid. We were really tired on the bus, but managed to get going once we got to Salamanca. This was partially because of the beauty of this city!
We took a walk around and had dinner at a cafe, where we sat outside, and this was our view:
Too beautiful for words. I loved it.
After dinner, we returned to our Hostel, before going to the Plaza Mayor, which was literally 3 meters away from our Hostel, tops. It is a beautiful place, and I would love to own one of the apartments over looking it, but to give you some idea of how much it costs to purchase one of those, our guide told us it was somewhere around 12,000€ per square meter... But honestly, I think it would be worth it for this view:
I can't get over how beautiful it was. I took almost 100 pictures in Salamanca, but I'm only going to post a few here for now... :)
These are mostly from the walking tour we took on Saturday morning.
This is the word Victor, which is Latin for victory... In the past, students at the University of Salamanca who wanted their doctorate spent the last night after their studies praying in the chapel. If they made it through, which apparently was quite difficult, they paid for food for all of the professors the next day, and used the blood of a bull to paint Victor, their name, and the date of their achievement. Today, this tradition is still around, but red paint is used instead of the bull's blood.
If you look very closely at this, you can find a frog... This, too, is a big part of the university's history. This facade was made to be used as a symbol of the good life versus the bad. The frog symbolized human lust. But eventually, the frog came to be seen as a good luck symbol, and the students would try to find him for luck.
This is the dome inside the "New" Cathedral. Absolutely beautiful!
This is really interesting, because here, on a Cathedral built around 400 years ago, there's an astronaut. The guide explained to us that part of this facade was destroyed in the Earthquake of Lisbon, and was rebuilt in the 20th century. They put the astronaut there to symbolize the new time period.
After the walking tour, we took a break, and then, we headed for the countryside to ride horses and swim, as well as eat dinner. Horseback riding was definitely fun, though I had a super mean horse who kept biting the other horses! I had to keep a tight rein on him all the time. He managed to bite 3 horses, and to try to bite me, too! I didn't get bitten, though. I think he would have been really fun to ride alone, but with the other horses, it was weird.
We went swimming, but only for a bit, because the water was SO cold! Then we laid out for a while, I got a little sunburn, and we had dinner. It was a surprisingly big dinner, since dinners are usually so light in Spain. But we had a lot of fun.
Then we went back to the hostel, stayed the night, and went home yesterday.
Today, we toured our university, and bought our metro passes.
And tomorrow, I'll turn 21! :D
Today, we moved into the residencia, and sadly, I don't have a roommate yet, and if and when I do, she will probably not be Spanish. :( However, Maria Angeles, our Resident Director, told us that we can go to this particular place and they will put us with Spanish speakers, so we can help them with their English and they can help us with our Spanish. And of course, there will be classes, and the Spanish speakers who work here.
Anyway, later today, we'll be going to Salamanca to spend the weekend. It should be a lot of fun... We're going to go horseback riding, take a walking tour, and go swimming! That sounds like fun to me!
Next week, we start classes, so I'm interested to see how that is going to be.
But right now, I'm getting familiar with the Residencia.
Well, here I am in Madrid, in a really nice 4-star hotel for orientation week. Tomorrow we leave for a short trip to Salamanca, which should be a great deal of fun.
Upon arrival here in Madrid, I was instantly struck by the fact that the culture just flows through everything from the buildings and statues to the restaurants and the people. I'm surrounded by such beautiful places here in the center of the city... Not too far from me is Puerta del Sol, which is a big circle in the city where you leave the shade and are just blasted with sun... It's really a very interesting place, full of people, with lots of news stands and things. The first time I went there, I saw nuns and priests sharing the 10 commandments. Very interesting.
There are many shops and boutiques (I already got my Real Madrid Football Club jersey!), and so many restaurants that it's almost impossible to decide where to eat.
One interesting thing about the restaurants is that the waiters here are much less attentive than those in the U.S. It's not that they're rude, but once you get your food, they basically leave you alone unless you ask for them. However, one lady in the restaurant where I ate lunch today was super nice and helped me and 2 of the other girls here with our Spanish. She was really nice.
Like I said before, this city breathes culture and history. Everything here seems to be a mix between the progressive and the traditional... But the traditional is so strong.
I'm not really sure what else to add at this point... But stay tuned. :)
~ Erin Hudson
Dear Erin,
I am so excited about your upcoming study abroad experience in Madrid. I could sense enthusiam about your trip to Spain in your voice and facial expressions while in my office yesterday.
There is one thing I would like to mention once more, and that is that you will probably experience culture shock. Knowing this and being aware of it in advance will help you know what to do to relieve some of it when it hits you. There will be moments of sadness and longing for your home and family, your country, but remember "sigue adelante con tus clases y aprovecha esta nueva experiencia en España". The things back home will be there when you return. Make sure that each day is spent experiencing first-hand Spanish culture and language. Speak Spanish, not English!
Te saludo atentamente y quedo a la espera de tu correo electrónico y tus fotos.
J. Carter
Recent Comments