My classes for this semester

Advanced Spanish Language in context I. Review and refinement of grammatical structure, practical vocabulary and syntax. Regular written compositions will be required. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of conversational skills. (Two sections.) Section 2 will include a fourth weekly hour of conversation and reading practice. Prof. Vivian Samudio.

Culture shock: Spain's cultural diversity. Introduction to the nature and methods of cultural anthropology and study of aspects of Spanish life from an anthropological perspective: ethnic groups, family relationships, "fiestas," religion, values and beliefs, giving special emphasis to the matter of gender. Students will learn to observe, define and interpret the anthropological differences of a foreign culture and thus better understand the "culture shock" that results from contact with Spanish life. Prof. Aída Bueno

History of Spanish Art - I (From Prehistory to Baroque). Study of Medieval and Renaissance masterpieces in architecture, sculpture and painting, with an emphasis on El Greco and the 17th-century realists, notably Velásquez, Ribera, and Zurbarán. Reference to the architecture and sculpture as a basis for the students' appreciation of the museums and monuments visited during group and individual excursions throughout Spain. Prof. Alfredo Ramón and Prof. Linda Hament.

Spain today: social and professional learning. (Internship) Study of and active participation in Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) and other social institutions in order to comprehend how the Spanish people, and Spanish youth in particular, are responding to the needs of contemporary life. The course includes weekly hands-on involvement in Spanish life and customs outside the classroom (through a project chosen by the student from an extensive list of possibilities), regular class meetings, and guest lectures from experts in different fields. A project prospectus, ample field notes, and lengthy research paper are required. Prof. Sheila Klaiber.

September 6, Madrid Orientation

Last day of orientation classes today! In the first class we were paired up with partners and each received a picture. We had ten minutes to write a story about the picture both in the present, and the story leading up to that point to practice using the different past tenses. Then we presented these orally to the class. In the second class we talked about letters and syllables, and in the third we took a multiple choice test. I felt like I did quite well on the test because it was all grammar and that is mostly what we learn in our Spanish classes in the US.

That test was combined with the oral exam from earlier, a short letter we had written, and our responses to questions after listening to a passage to give us our placement in the Spanish class we all have to take.

We didn't have time to return to our houses for lunch today so we all brought sandwiches with us along with made by our "mothers" this morning. That was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone again on the patio, and then I went off with a few other people to try to find a tobacco shop where we could get the form to get the month pass for the metro. I've been trying to do this for a long time but there kept being more things I needed or the tobacco shops would be closed whenever I wanted to use them.

We finally found one, but this one had a different rule from the others and we had to have our passports, a copy of our passports 2 pictures, and the form. None of the other ones require the passport so I didn't have it with me. After that and finding more people from our group we explored the area a bit then returned to the center to sign up for classes.

I've been looking forward to taking flamenco, but had to drop it in order to take the internship class I want to take in order to become more part of a community and around my Spaniards. So my classes are: Advanced Spanish I, Culture shock: the cultural diversity in Spain (an anthropological class), Spain today: social and professional learning (internship), and History of Spanish Art (prehistory to baroque). They all look like they are going to be good!

After that and waiting in line forever to make the change to the internship class (it has a class part to it too and I guess it's really really good) I went to a cafe with three other students and we got a little snack and just relaxed. I walked with JaJa towards her house where I finally found a tobacco shop I could turn my form in to and retuned to my home are via subway. I explored around my apartment area looking for gyms (they're all really expensive) and seeing what was there.

When I finally got back to the house a little after 7 pm Marías brother and daughter were there and I talked with her daughter for a while which I really enjoyed. She is a journalist and I was able to ask her questions about the area and some learn more. La noche en blanco is coming up the day we return from our orientation trip and is a night when all of the museums and other similar buildings and exhibits are open for the entire night and free to everyone so there are a lot of people out in the streets and it is a great time to be out and about.

Tomorrow morning we leave very early for Galicia and other towns in northern Spain and will return on the 11th!

September 5, Madrid Orientation

The same three classes again today. The teachers are all really great, entertaining, and I feel like I'm going to learn a lot this semester if all of the teachers are like this. My favorite was the civilization class probably because it was learning about Spain rather than just reviewing grammar.

I returned to the house for lunch today that I shared with María and her mother. Her mother doesn't actually live there, she is just staying there for a while while she recovers from I think being in the hospital. At the end and after lunch I watched the news with them and it is really interesting how much other countries talk about international news a lot more than we do in the United States.

I went for a run after lunch to and around the park next to the old royal palace near my house, but didn't actually go in the park because I have to run all the way around it to get to the entrance. I will next time though when I have more time. Something really different here is that pretty much everywhere is closed on Sundays and the streets didn't have many people on them at all.

After that I took the metro up 3 stops to meet up with my small tour group and get a tour of the old area of Madrid which has a lot more going on than near my house and the school and is the central area for people to go out for the night or just during the day. Lucia was our guide this time and awesome! She showed us to the more tourists areas and views along with through the popular streets. She also explained a lot more just about Madrid and what we were seeing all around us.

We ended our little tour after getting drinks at a bar in a smaller plaza, and then she led us to El Tigre which is a bar where we met up with other groups and I hung out there with people until about 11 pm when I headed back to mi casa. It was standing room only and extremely crowded, but a very popular spot for locals. It was cheap, good, and they gave everyone a plate of free tapas with every drink they ordered. Or if people ordered together they would just stack the plate really high with food. Here people don't drink to get drunk, but drinking is done as a social pastime almost always with food. It was really fun to hang out and get to know the people from my program a lot better and we all spoke Spanish the whole time except when a few people were talking to some other Americans!

September 4, Madrid Orientation

So I left the house an hour before classes started and got there right as they were starting. I've figured out the metro, I just have to hope the trains get there when I need them to!

Today was the first day of actual classes and we had three different ones, each an hour long. The first two for my group were language classes followed by a civilization class. In the first two we are reviewing for the placement exam on Monday and went over introductions, ser vs estar and direct and indirect object pronouns. In the civilization class we talked more about Spain and I really liked the teacher and found it very interesting.

The big even today was our first lunch together as a program. All of the students traveled together on the metro to the very large football stadium that Real Madrid plays in. (It is the most visited museum in all of Madrid) We had a bunch of different tables in their fancy restaurant overlooking the field with an excellent view. There were about 9 people or so per table and that was a really good size for getting to know each other better. The food was also really good and they served us 10 different dishes/courses. A red pepper dish, gazpacho, croquettes, fried potato columns with a tomato sauce on top, sushi, giant hamburgers, "my first cake", tiny brownie cake bites, and three tiny pieces of fruit on a skewer at the end. The hamburgers were huge but thankfully the rest of the courses were just tiny samplings.

After that we had the afternoon free and I wanted to do the recommended bus tour with some other people, but everyone else in the group went to corte ingles a giant store that is a cross between, nordstroms, sears, an electronics store, and a supermarket/drug store to buy shampoo and other things they needed. I thought people would go around and explore the city after but they didn't- they just all went home. I headed back on the metro and train with Yinan to show her how to use the train because she lives very close to me and bought a cheap purse large enough for my notebooks so I don't have to walk around with a backpack not being able to see if someone is getting in my stuff.

The rest of the night I hung out around the house and in my room trying to figure out Madrid a little bit better from maps, the internet and other handouts I had received at one point or another.

September 3, Madrid, first day of orientation

First day of school/orientation today! My host mother guessed that it would take about half an hour to get to the school from our house, so I decided to give myself an hour just to be safe because it was the first day, I still had to figure it out on my own, and I thought that it might be a little bit longer.

I actually only got out 50 minutes before class and then had to wait ten minutes for the first train just standing on the station. The metro pulled in to the stop and left just below me before I could get to it, then the one I got on had its final stop the stop before mine, but the next metro came only one minute later. I ended up getting to school five minutes late and then tripped up the very first stair to go to the class where everyone was sitting quietly as they were handing out folders. But it was okay because there were at least 8 people who came in later than me too.

They introduced the three directors then went over the things in our folders such as the language pledge, money for our host families, keys, health insurance cards and other paperwork type stuff. Then we did little icebreaker sheets in small groups then took turns introducing someone else from our group to the class. After that there were some small snacks and time to hang out and meet each other more.

People might or might not have come with friends, but I am one of the only people who came from a school who only has one person in the program. So far everyone seems really nice and inclusive so I don’t think that it will be a problem. We all signed a contract saying that we would speak only in Spanish unless it is an emergency or are talking to someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, and I’m impressed and very happy that we can all carry on conversations well in Spanish in pretty much the same way that we would be talking in English.

I explored the streets close to my house a little bit before lunch in search of a tobacco shop to get the form to fill out to get my monthly metro pass along to see if there are any gyms close by that would be in my price range. I found one but I think the “free” sauna and jacuzzi lead to its higher than I want price.

For lunch it was María, her mother, her son and I. She has five grown children, and I think the son coming there for lunch every day is a usual occurrence. He speaks very good English and is going to give me his number in case there is ever an emergency and I need to speak English to someone.

When I told my host mother that my parents are in Madrid, she invited them over for coffee around 4:30 to meet her and see where I would be living. I finally got a hold of my parents last night after leaving a message for them at the front desk of their hotel, and then they called back the house. I had to leave at 4:30 to get to the school by 5:30 for a walking orientation trip with a local Spanish student, and saw my parents in the lobby right before they got in the elevator.

María was worried when I had to leave because she doesn’t speak any English, and when I asked her about it later I guess it turned out really well because she would speak to my mom in French, who would then translate to my dad in English, who would then ask her questions in Spanish. Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Back at the school we broke into five smaller groups, there are 38 people in the program, we each had a student from the University of Madrid guide us around the area to get a little more oriented with the area. There isn’t really much close to the school, so we went one metro stop up and then walked around a little bit there.

I didn’t exactly feel that much more oriented or know what I was seeing, but at the end we stopped for drinks at a place where all the groups were stopping and they brought us, paid for by the program, pitchers of beer and sangria. With that they brought us some tapas that I think come free with rounds of drinks and some bars, and I found out after trying what I thought was just a piece of pork that I had actually had a bit of a pig ear. It was actually quite good.

Everyone from this program has come from good small liberal arts schools almost all on the east coast. From the west there is me from Reed and a few people from the Claremont McKenna schools in southern California. It is a lot of fun and two people mentioned people that they know who go to Reed, Hannah Brannon and Eli, and I know both of them. Still not as weird though as one of my best friends from home and one of the best friends of my friend Lauren being roommates during orientation at NYU and being on the same study abroad trip in London together.

September 2, Granada to Madrid

Not a ton of stuff going on today. After breakfast and sandwiches (bocadillos) to go for the train later, we walked the two blocks to the station with our bags. Getting on the train and storing our bags was no problem since we were at the front of the line, and then during the five hour train ride I was able to catch up on my journal/blog, take maybe half an hour nap, and watch the end of Invictus while reading the Spanish subtitles.

The train ride was actually quite nice and once we got to a certain point we started going faster and through the hills instead of just around them making my ears pop and we went through the dark tunnels. The view out the windows until the very very end when we got to Madrid was of rolling hills, some covered in lines of olive trees, and little white towns that occasionally popped up and one even had a large castle and the top of its hill.

Taking the taxi with my parents from the train station to my host family’s house wasn’t a problem at all and my parents waited to make sure that I got buzzed in before they headed off. I’m on the seventh floor out of eight and thankfully they had an elevator for my 50+ pound bag. Thank you so much to my friends who told me to only bring one- it saved so much hassle!

My host mother is named María and she is very nice and welcoming and along with her elderly mother who is there most of the time, they are my company in the house. She offered me lunch, but I had already eaten, and then I was able to move into my little room and unpack. It is very cute with a little bed and desk and a closet with drawers. There are also bright pictures on the walls, black frames for me to put my pictures, and two book shelves full of books, traveling and novels, that I’m guessing are a collection of books from her and what students have left for the next students over the past ten years. I had a bunch of extra time to relax and get settled, but I’m nervous.

Later in the afternoon María went with me to show me how I would get to school in the morning. The house is right between two different stations and both are very close. We went to the train and got on there, then got off at another really big stop with the train, metro, and bus, then bought another ticket to take the metro to the stop I get off for my school. She walked the two blocks with me to show me where the school is and then we took the bus back so that I’ll know how to get there in all of the different ways.

While some people have specific times that they have to be at their house for meals, for me breakfast will be me just getting it on my own whenever I want it in the morning, lunch will probably be some time around two, but when I want it, and for dinner I just tell her when I want to eat each day and she will make it for me. Lunch is the largest and most important meal of the day, and dinner is usually smaller and a sandwich or salad or something like that.

Later in the night I was able to skype with River, and having skype is going to make this time in another country a whole lot easier.

September 1, Granada

We visited the Alhambra today. It is an ancient Moorish palace and ruins that the Christians then took over and added some of their own buildings to. There is a section that the ticket can get people into at any time, but there are specific times on the tickets that allow people into the Islamic palace because it is so popular. Our time for palace entrance was 9 am, but because we the machine wouldn’t give us our tickets the day before, we had to get there about 8 am when it opened to make sure to get our tickets in time.

There wasn’t much of a line that early so it wasn’t a problem getting the tickets we bought a couple months ago and head in. It was a twenty minute walk to the restricted area to the restricted area, so we headed slowly in that direction enjoying the sights along the way such as old ruins and the old bath houses.

In different areas there were great views of the white buildings and the city of Granada and of other parts of the Alhambra. All of the 9 o clock tickets were let in to the first room leading that was part of the palace and cameras were flashing everywhere. It wasn’t that large of a room, but the decorations and details were very detailed and intricate. They couldn’t do any pictures of people so they had to find different ways of doing art along with the beautiful Arabic writing on the walls in some areas writing out poems.

There was a lot of blue paint and tiling in very pretty designs all over the walls along with similar designs carved into the walls completely covering the high walls up to the differently decorated ceilings. There were also many many aches, open areas for sunlight, and fantastic views of nature and the city below. I can definitely see why it is so popular and why so many people visit all the time.

We had an individual audio tour guide with someone reading what Washington Irving had written about the rooms and their purposes when he was there. It was all very informative and interesting and I really enjoyed the entire place. There were many different types of rooms decorated in different ways and quite a few courtyards with small pools or gardens in them.

Mom and I split up from Dad to go at our own pace while Dad listened to all of the information stations, took a ton of pictures, and probably offered to take the pictures of everyone taking a picture so they could have a picture of everyone in the group including the person with the camera. The extra time at the end let us enjoy the extensive gardens and views outside the restricted area.

When Dad finally emerged we headed over to Charles V’s palace. I expected a lot more. It was a circle with two floors and a large open courtyard in the middle. It seemed very plain to me. That could also be because we couldn’t get into the rooms because we didn’t want to pay the extra and take the extra time to go in the separate museums there.

From there we headed to the summer palace. It had a lot more of the same Islamic architectures and decorations with expansive gardens with many different plants, trees, flower, fountains and different ways of walking around in it in order to get there. The entire walk there looked out over a great view of the rest of the Alhambra and while it was smaller was still very pretty.

Lunch led us to Olivers, a tapas bar back in the main restaurant area and a little shopping along the narrow pedestrian streets that had the little shops filled on either side completely filled and flowing out into the street leaving the walls completely filled with no brick or stone to be seen. Mom and I walked by the large church in Granada, which was much larger and had more renaissance decorations and feel to it and had very detailed and large façades on the outside with statues of mother Mary and other famous religious figures along with stained glass windows.

The three of us finally made it up to Plaza Nueva after that, less impressive than I was expecting, and then stopped for an order of churros and chocolate since that is a traditional snack here that we have seen and wanted to try but haven’t had the chance to yet

We bussed back to the hotel, now knowing how to do it with the kinds of cards the use there, and took our siesta. After Mom and I walked some through the Moorish quarter up to the view we had been to before, then met Dad at a Moroccan restaurant for dinner.

That was the end of our say so we went back to the hotel, packed most of our stuff up, talked to Daniel on skype, and then went to bed.