Tuesday, March 29, 2011
SURPRISE
guess who's moving houses!?!? consider yourself lucky if you read this.. we aren't really telling anyone yet but we went in ana's office today (she's the one who asks us how our homestays are going) just to inquire about moving (sure that it was too late and wasn't probably gonna happen) and before we knew it we agreed to get our things together and bid farewell to this side of calle gabriela mistral thursday right before heading off to barcelona. am I nervous about the school calling Pilar tomorrow to tell her we are leaving the next day? SI! am I worried she might punish us in our sleep? SI! am I excited about living with another spanish family that actua1ly wants to host students and help them learn/practice spanish without making us feel like huge burdens? YES! so there's that. say a prayer. I am terrified of the next 48 hours. p.s. we know that our new madre is a baller because we met her earlier in the semester when she was hosting 2 other auburn guys. they had to move because of her sick uncle that she was taking care of. but he died and now she needs more students. her name is mercedes and we are going to have a grandma and a little brother! wish us luck!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Northern Spain-Alcalá-Prague
OOPS sorry it's been so long, followers. It's not because I'm lazy, it's actually because I'm busy. And time is flying here, which is getting sad! Last time I wrote about our trip to Morocco, which I already miss and want to go back. If any of you ever get the chance to go, do it. Since then..
- In Alcalá. School has been pretty easy since midterms, but it's about to kick up again with presentations and papers due. Nothing too noteworthy has been going on except I'm really loving the group and new amigos we got at school in Instituto B! Got some cool places in the US to visit after all this is over. I've never been to the Grand Canyon..
- Northern Spain. Last weekend Jane and I went to Northern Spain. They call it "Green SPain". It's so beautiful!! I feel bad admitting this but I didn't really think Spain had any pretty landscape like that. I always thought, leave it to Ireland or Scotland or somewhere like that. But I'm tellin you this place looked like the Sound of Music plus a beach. We stayed at a place called Posada de las Mananitas. The owners were like the host family we never had! haha shh dont tell pilar. but really, they were SO sweet. They made us the best breakfast and real american like coffee that weak but never ending. They even drove us to the Picos de Europa, a mountain range about an hour and a half from there. We stayed in Cantabria, but the mountains are in a region called Asturias (google image it, my pictures don't do it justice). ALl of northern spain is known for it's dairy products. HANDS DOWN best cheese I've ever had, got it straight from the monk who made it. Or did whatever to the cows to get it. Going to the north really made me appreciate Spain in a whole new way! I love Spain, it's got a little something for everyone! Really, though. I miss the Posada people.
- PRAGUE. I can't believe I went to the Czech Republic! I never really thought I'd make it to eastern europe for some reason, and all I ever thought of when I heard of it was the Bourne Identity movies or weird stuff like that. So I really wasn't sure what to expect. I went with three other girls from the Auburn group-- Amy, Jane, and Kristina. My favorite thing about Prague has to be the architecture. The buildings are SO old and the cobblestone streets are so neat. The old town square really feels like fairytale buildings or something. Charles Bridge is famous, too, and so beautiful. It links the Old Town with the Prague Castle. There's statues of a lot of influential people along the sides of the bridge, sorry I don't know who they are. We also walked to the Lennon wall. This is a wall full of graffiti inspired by John Lennon, and the other beatles too, that was created in 1980 or 90 something going against communism. Anyone and everyone can write on the wall, I think you could go one day and back another and it look completely different. We met some great hippies at the wall (had to be in their 50s at least) who insisted we write a Haiku about peace. Haha very interesting. A little history lesson- the Czech Republic was a communist country until 1989- pretty recent! Some people we talked to reassured us that that could be the reason Czechs weren't all too friendly. They were pretty rude honestly, which made me spain-sick. I was ready to get back to Spain! When I first came to Spain, I thought the people were a little cold. But I tell you what, compared to the Czechs they seem way more open and approachable. Don't get me wrong, I did love Praga though. We tried goulash, almost like a stew with beef, potatoes, and onion. I liked it a lot! But our friend Nikki claims that HUngary takes the cake as far as goulash goes in eastern europe. We also got Thai massages- they are really cheap and all over Prague! Next stop-Thailand. Who's with me? Overall, Prague was great! I consider myself lucky for being the only one out of us 4 who didn't get sick... Was it the water? a germ? there must be something in that goulash..
- In Alcalá. School has been pretty easy since midterms, but it's about to kick up again with presentations and papers due. Nothing too noteworthy has been going on except I'm really loving the group and new amigos we got at school in Instituto B! Got some cool places in the US to visit after all this is over. I've never been to the Grand Canyon..
- Northern Spain. Last weekend Jane and I went to Northern Spain. They call it "Green SPain". It's so beautiful!! I feel bad admitting this but I didn't really think Spain had any pretty landscape like that. I always thought, leave it to Ireland or Scotland or somewhere like that. But I'm tellin you this place looked like the Sound of Music plus a beach. We stayed at a place called Posada de las Mananitas. The owners were like the host family we never had! haha shh dont tell pilar. but really, they were SO sweet. They made us the best breakfast and real american like coffee that weak but never ending. They even drove us to the Picos de Europa, a mountain range about an hour and a half from there. We stayed in Cantabria, but the mountains are in a region called Asturias (google image it, my pictures don't do it justice). ALl of northern spain is known for it's dairy products. HANDS DOWN best cheese I've ever had, got it straight from the monk who made it. Or did whatever to the cows to get it. Going to the north really made me appreciate Spain in a whole new way! I love Spain, it's got a little something for everyone! Really, though. I miss the Posada people.
- PRAGUE. I can't believe I went to the Czech Republic! I never really thought I'd make it to eastern europe for some reason, and all I ever thought of when I heard of it was the Bourne Identity movies or weird stuff like that. So I really wasn't sure what to expect. I went with three other girls from the Auburn group-- Amy, Jane, and Kristina. My favorite thing about Prague has to be the architecture. The buildings are SO old and the cobblestone streets are so neat. The old town square really feels like fairytale buildings or something. Charles Bridge is famous, too, and so beautiful. It links the Old Town with the Prague Castle. There's statues of a lot of influential people along the sides of the bridge, sorry I don't know who they are. We also walked to the Lennon wall. This is a wall full of graffiti inspired by John Lennon, and the other beatles too, that was created in 1980 or 90 something going against communism. Anyone and everyone can write on the wall, I think you could go one day and back another and it look completely different. We met some great hippies at the wall (had to be in their 50s at least) who insisted we write a Haiku about peace. Haha very interesting. A little history lesson- the Czech Republic was a communist country until 1989- pretty recent! Some people we talked to reassured us that that could be the reason Czechs weren't all too friendly. They were pretty rude honestly, which made me spain-sick. I was ready to get back to Spain! When I first came to Spain, I thought the people were a little cold. But I tell you what, compared to the Czechs they seem way more open and approachable. Don't get me wrong, I did love Praga though. We tried goulash, almost like a stew with beef, potatoes, and onion. I liked it a lot! But our friend Nikki claims that HUngary takes the cake as far as goulash goes in eastern europe. We also got Thai massages- they are really cheap and all over Prague! Next stop-Thailand. Who's with me? Overall, Prague was great! I consider myself lucky for being the only one out of us 4 who didn't get sick... Was it the water? a germ? there must be something in that goulash..
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
ذهبنا إلى أفريقيا
So now I can say I've been to 3 continents! Morocco is in northern Africa, very close to Spain. Last Wednesday, my parents, Jane, and I set out to explore a new land! We flew with RyanAir to Morocco (I think my parents really enjoyed the nonstop 2 hr sales pitch for perfume and snacks). When we got there we went to the hotel, which was like SO awesome. Nice recommendation, preach, we owe ya one. That night we hopped in a cab and asked if there were any good restaurants around. Our cab driver proceeded to dump us in a sketchy alley where he promised a typical Moroccan restaurant that we'd love. Where do I even start? We walked up some steps and came to a long hallway lined with dancing/chanting Moroccans. was it scary? a little. did i feel like a vip celebrity? absolutely. they're really good at making everyone feel like they have just been twiddling their thumbs until the tourists arrive. It's like someone picked us up and threw us into the most "Moroccan" habitat ever. They had all kinds of entertainment like a belly dancer, a lady balancing a tray with candles on her head while doing the splits and being creepy, people playing music and singing, etc. After 3+ very interesting hours and wayyy too much food for 4 people (none of us speak arabic or knew how to order Moroccan cuisine) we headed back to the hotel.
Thursday morning we walked out of our hotel to walk to the market. We were followed by a man, abdul or somehting, that claimed he wanted to guide us. We told him thanks but no thanks. He kept saying, but really I dont want your money I just want to show you. We literally couldn't get him to leave. He did have some good information though.. Should we be surprised that we followed that parasight around for 4 hours and we ended up giving him money? They really know how to get ya. My parents nicknamed him paraSIGHT because he wouldn't go away but he did have some good information and take us to good places, i guess. The market is like nothing I've ever seen before! It was probably my favorite thing about Morocco. There are hundreds of souks full of different things, anything you can think of. You can walk down one street and end up in some maze and have no idea how you got there or how to get out to find the main square. The square is really cool too, its called Jemaa el Fna. There you can find anything from snake charmers, street performers, monkeys that do flips, and LOTS of fresh squeezed orange juice. Another thing about the market is haggling. Gotta be aggressive in those souks! Usually you can talk them down a good bit, shopping for things is more fun when you feel like you struck a deal.
Friday we were picked up by a friend of a friend who drove us to the mountains. We called him Abdog for short, and he is a Christian that lives in Morocco. He helped with the translation of the bible into the Berber language (the Berbers are the indigenous people-they live in the mountains and don't speak Arabic like in the city of Marrakech). He took us to a missionary's house that we know through friends. From there we went even higher up and went to a real Berber home! The family invited us in, the girls went to the kitchen where they were preparing food for us. It was like nothing I've ever seen! These people really live off the land. They were boiling water over burning firewood in their clay oven. We got to see them make the bread, too. It's so good! Although it would have tasted better if I wasn't so worried about the lack of hygiene. What they did was take the firewood out of the stove and wipe the insides clean and then slap the dough onto the sides of the interior of the stove! the bread cooked there, and it was tasty yum yum. Qué rico. that's what pilar would say. her influence lives on with us during our weekend trips.They also gave us olive oil to eat with it which they pressed from olives that grew on their own olive trees! I could go on but I won't. It was quite an experience though! Then we went to a restaurant where abdog told us his story. We had to be kind of hush hush since Islam is so prevalent there (hence the nickname and lack of picture of him) It's so crazy that people are still prosecuted for their beliefs. He's such an inspiration!
Saturday we went to Essouria, the beach. It is roughly 2 hours away from Marrakech. Amy and Kristina, two of our friends that go to Auburn, came with us! It was a really pretty drive. It seems like Morocco has every type of landscape there is: desert, beach, mountains. It's a beautiful country! Saturday got pretty crazy. We haggled in the market, saw goats standing tree branches, rode camels, the usual. Jane and I rode Jimmy and Kristina and Amy had Blanco. Couldn't get the parents to do it but maybe one day we'll go back to Morocco for round 2 with the whole clan and hit up the Sahara.
Sunday we came back to good ole Alcatraz. Just kidding, I love Alcalá. Seriously, though. Jane and I brought my mom to Alcalá Magna, the mall in our hood. We love it! We went to VIPS to eat dinner (it's got american food and I think dottie was ready for that). Dad must have eaten a little germ in the berber house because he wasn't feeling too well. I stayed the night with them in their hotel and then sent them off home Monday morning! It was sad, but we had so much fun! Thanks for coming to see me parents! Don't cry mom, I'll see ya in 2 months!
What else, what else? We watched yet another disturbing movie in film class. Last night we met some friends at Casa Roja, our favorite tapa place, and all went to Media Pinta together! Love Tuesdays with the Instituto B peeps. Here are some pictures of this past week- I don't have many and I had to borrow from Jane because I used mom's camera in Morocco!
Dinner on the first night!
te amo!
dad gets rubbed down in a spice shop (we can thank parasight for bringing us there)
monkey in Jemaa el Fna!
the "water men" - apparently they're typical moroccan icons or symbols FYI you gotta pay to take pictures with or of anyhting cool in Morocco
berber homes!
goats in a tree!
Jimmy and Blanco!
Thursday morning we walked out of our hotel to walk to the market. We were followed by a man, abdul or somehting, that claimed he wanted to guide us. We told him thanks but no thanks. He kept saying, but really I dont want your money I just want to show you. We literally couldn't get him to leave. He did have some good information though.. Should we be surprised that we followed that parasight around for 4 hours and we ended up giving him money? They really know how to get ya. My parents nicknamed him paraSIGHT because he wouldn't go away but he did have some good information and take us to good places, i guess. The market is like nothing I've ever seen before! It was probably my favorite thing about Morocco. There are hundreds of souks full of different things, anything you can think of. You can walk down one street and end up in some maze and have no idea how you got there or how to get out to find the main square. The square is really cool too, its called Jemaa el Fna. There you can find anything from snake charmers, street performers, monkeys that do flips, and LOTS of fresh squeezed orange juice. Another thing about the market is haggling. Gotta be aggressive in those souks! Usually you can talk them down a good bit, shopping for things is more fun when you feel like you struck a deal.
Friday we were picked up by a friend of a friend who drove us to the mountains. We called him Abdog for short, and he is a Christian that lives in Morocco. He helped with the translation of the bible into the Berber language (the Berbers are the indigenous people-they live in the mountains and don't speak Arabic like in the city of Marrakech). He took us to a missionary's house that we know through friends. From there we went even higher up and went to a real Berber home! The family invited us in, the girls went to the kitchen where they were preparing food for us. It was like nothing I've ever seen! These people really live off the land. They were boiling water over burning firewood in their clay oven. We got to see them make the bread, too. It's so good! Although it would have tasted better if I wasn't so worried about the lack of hygiene. What they did was take the firewood out of the stove and wipe the insides clean and then slap the dough onto the sides of the interior of the stove! the bread cooked there, and it was tasty yum yum. Qué rico. that's what pilar would say. her influence lives on with us during our weekend trips.They also gave us olive oil to eat with it which they pressed from olives that grew on their own olive trees! I could go on but I won't. It was quite an experience though! Then we went to a restaurant where abdog told us his story. We had to be kind of hush hush since Islam is so prevalent there (hence the nickname and lack of picture of him) It's so crazy that people are still prosecuted for their beliefs. He's such an inspiration!
Saturday we went to Essouria, the beach. It is roughly 2 hours away from Marrakech. Amy and Kristina, two of our friends that go to Auburn, came with us! It was a really pretty drive. It seems like Morocco has every type of landscape there is: desert, beach, mountains. It's a beautiful country! Saturday got pretty crazy. We haggled in the market, saw goats standing tree branches, rode camels, the usual. Jane and I rode Jimmy and Kristina and Amy had Blanco. Couldn't get the parents to do it but maybe one day we'll go back to Morocco for round 2 with the whole clan and hit up the Sahara.
Sunday we came back to good ole Alcatraz. Just kidding, I love Alcalá. Seriously, though. Jane and I brought my mom to Alcalá Magna, the mall in our hood. We love it! We went to VIPS to eat dinner (it's got american food and I think dottie was ready for that). Dad must have eaten a little germ in the berber house because he wasn't feeling too well. I stayed the night with them in their hotel and then sent them off home Monday morning! It was sad, but we had so much fun! Thanks for coming to see me parents! Don't cry mom, I'll see ya in 2 months!
What else, what else? We watched yet another disturbing movie in film class. Last night we met some friends at Casa Roja, our favorite tapa place, and all went to Media Pinta together! Love Tuesdays with the Instituto B peeps. Here are some pictures of this past week- I don't have many and I had to borrow from Jane because I used mom's camera in Morocco!
Dinner on the first night!
te amo!
dad gets rubbed down in a spice shop (we can thank parasight for bringing us there)
monkey in Jemaa el Fna!
the "water men" - apparently they're typical moroccan icons or symbols FYI you gotta pay to take pictures with or of anyhting cool in Morocco
berber homes!
goats in a tree!
Jimmy and Blanco!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
the weir's meet the zaldivars
So it's wednesday morning and my parents got to Madrid on Sunday! Me and Jane went to meet them and walked around some, went to the Rastro (that huge Sunday market) and ate lunch around the Plaza Mayor. After pops took a little nap, we went to the Prado museum real quick (if you wait and go when it's free then you don't feel bad for only staying long enough to see the good stuff and jetting out), then headed back to the Puerta del Sol near their hotel to eat dinner. We ate at a fun tapas place called la Descubierta! It was really fun and not too expensive and the spanish food was actually good! I stayed in their hotel with them Sunday night and took a REALLY long shower Monday morning and came back to Alcalá to study for/take a midterm. Yesterday while I had class my parents went to Segovia. In the afternoon I met them here at the train station to show them around the university and took them to meet the churreria owners, Flor and Salvador, where we also met up with some other Auburn people for them to meet! THE PLOT THICKENS. We leave the churro place with a stomach ache, not from churros, no, from being nervous about our soon to be encountered awkward meeting of the parentals between ham meet and language barriers. Buuuut it was actually really fun and Pilar really went to town on the food. She made an empanada with ham, cheese, and dates (the good/normal kind of ham), some almonds that she fries and they SO good, tortilla española (like a really thick omelet with potatoes and onions etc), different kinds of dips, chorizo of course, she DID cut meat from the ham leg that's been resting in a jamonero for a few weeks (a machine that holds the leg in place by the hoof and has a blanket type thing over it keeping it "fresh") SICK. But everything was really tasty and conversation was good (pilar is the only one who didn't speak english at the table (although we learned that she understands a lot more than we thought...) So there we were with a spread of spanish dishes and not a lot to talk about. It was me, Jane, my parents, Pilar y Fede, and Irene and her hubby Peter. Peter is a baller. He talked like 75% of the time, mostly telling us things to do in Morocco. I don't care if Peter just likes to hear himself talk, he lightens the mood in this house like TONS. cool kid. Then I showed my parents my room and its just so weird that my worlds are colliding! Then we went to meet up with some friends and then to la Media Pinta until we decided to trek it back home. Now I have to pack because we are leaving for morocco straight from class!! hopefully i will have successfully ridden a camel, seen snake charmers, not gotten sick from the food/water, etc when i get back! pictures will come later from this whole week!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
blog attempt TAKE 2
OK people. SO here's the thing. I almost changed the title of this blog to RIP, settled for being a nonblogger, and left a link to Jane's blog address. BUUTTTT, I did some blog stalking last night when I couldn't fall asleep and I decided to not be lazy, because it is cool to know what's going on in someone's life when it's hard to keep in touch with them. So maybe things will be different, maybe they won't, I'll give it another shot even though I kind of hate trying to sum up the mess of thoughts in my brain and fully explain this experience because I don't think I'm doing it justice in words! I'm going to give you a heads up though, I feel like these are about to get kinda deep and lengthy if I'm really going to say all thats going on! So don't say you haven't been warned. all of these WILL be too long and personal (title of my brother Will's old blog that I stumbled upon yesterday- haha thanks bro).
Maybe I'll start by trying to sum up things I have learned so far! I think I have a lot more to learn but here are a few things ..
1) don't complain - so I just recently realized how much I say "I'm so cold" or "I hate the cold" or even just ramble on about something annoying Pilar does. Today is day one with my attempt to stop complaining. Everyone is just as cold as the next person, and a good attitude can change everything (although I seriously enjoy long drawn out conversations with my friends here about weird things that host families are particular about or do differently - living with a random spanish family as part of a business deal in a sense is just enough to blog about in itself! what an experience)!
2) being indecisive is a choice, and one that most people think is annoying. I am super indecisive if you know me. But I just realized the other day that all it is is laziness. Maybe it takes some people longer to decide things and maybe an "indecisive" person just likes to map out all of the possibilities in their head before deciding something, but really seeing the decisiveness of some people makes me want to be that way. Just pick something and stick to it! Make a plan and keep it. Day one with not saying "I don't care" or "I don't know".
3) true comfort really does come only from the Lord. Things are SO different being here than back at home, where daily I am completely surrounded by people that I look up to and that know me so well and encourage me in so many ways. (It makes me SO thankful for my family, friends, and especially my roomieee Jane, who I am SO blessed to have here!!) I think being in such a drastic environment change can really show you where you find your comfort. Also, I feel like the fact that the Lord has a perfect plan for everyone has become so evident here! I can't tell you how many times me and Jane are like "where even are we!?" But I'm so sure that this is where I am supposed to be- and I really am loving it! Also, I felt really a lot of guilt a few weeks ago when I realized how much of my free time wasn't being spent with the Lord. Why not?? It's so frustrating because it's something I enjoy and something I truly want to do and I always would end up putting it off. I felt really crappy about it and then remembered that I have faith in HIS finished work, not how many times a week I open the bible (of course I realize quiet times are so important and great and DUH im not like stopping doing them). It's just really comforting to remember the extent of His love for us, especially when we are disappointed in or have been relying too much on ourselves. I was encouraged by my mom about depending on the Lord. I want to learn more about what that looks like! sorry for getting deep and boring I warned you!!
4) this one I'm still working on.. how to keep up with things? I still haven't figured this out. I'm just glad I haven't lost my passport, and PRAY that it doesn't ever happen. I have lost a couple important things, but I'm learning I think.
5) I can take a short shower!! My showers at home are like 15-20 minutes AT LEAST. Here, I time myself every time I take a shower (it reminds me of you papa - sara sanfilippo - because I think we used to time each other with random stuff and I can just see her saying "Time me!!!") My average shower is like 8 minutes but I am totally capable of doing it in like 5.30 if I'm reaally in a hurry.
Now let's talk about SPAIN! I really love SPain. I think at first I was seriously like freaked out my such a different culture, and all the ham. But I think I have really learned to appreciate this place and the people and the culture and all that! Here's some things I like about Spain.
1) I like that you can get around without a car. Thank heavens for the train that goes to Madrid. Thank goodness for the local bus that we take to class when its frrreeeezing or raining. and you can basically go anywhere in Europe for really cheap on a plane! BUT I can NOT wait to drive again! With the windows down fo sho. and some good music on (by the way my one of my speakers is busted in my car, parents, if you ever get bored and wanna take a drive over to the shop to get it fixed.???)
2) I LOVE that when you eat in a restaurant here, an hour, or two even goes by without them giving you the bill. They don't try to get you in and out in 30 minutes like in the states. They really know how to enjoy their mealtime and make it chill. They're never in a rush, which I love.
3) Arroz con leche. precious pilar made it for us the other day because she knows its our fave, ha. I wrote down the recipes and instructions!
4) New friends! I have met some really awesome people from other programs here! I'll talk more about them soon and post pictures too.
4) gummy candy. made in china, sold by chinos, affordable, amazing.
5) My school. I really love my teachers!! I want to take solo pics of them when they aren't looking so I can show yall. They actually seem like they enjoy teaching us and I really love learning Spanish its so fun!
Things I appreciate about America.
1) Business hours. Over here, nothing opens until like 10. And there's like no where to study, because the library hours aren't even good. I miss RBD!!! best library ever. I can't wait to study there next fall, with a HUGE coffee from caribou, I might even pull an all nighter just to take advantage of it being open 24 hrs.
2) It's really new. We had midterms this week and for my civ class (basically history) I had to cram like 2000 years of Spanish history into my brain. I think the year that we left off on was even earlier than the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. You wouldn't believe how many people fought over this land to settle here, its insane. Needless to say, American history is a lot easier to grasp.
3) Fountain drinks. I don't know why, but the poor Spanish people just don't know how to enjoy a good soft drink like we do in America - 32 oz (at least) filled to the brim with ice to break your teeth on. I miss that! It reminds me of going out to smiths with my young life team (I feel like we always found a way to fit a fountain drink from the gas station in on our drives out there)
There's more, duh but this is long and I think the bathroom is vacant so I better go-- last night I totally walked in on Peter!! super AWK but at least he wasn't peeing or anything he was just looking at himself in the mirror. (PS if you don't know who peter is, it's our host sister's husband- they are living here until they move to sweden in a month.. )
OH WAIT here's what happened in the past week!
- Wednesday we went to the Prado Museum with our school. It was awesome! We saw the paintings of Grecco (my fave), Velázquez, and Goya. Afterwards, me Jane and Kristina explored Madrid. We walked around and ended up in Chueca, a hip district (actually known as the gay area), where they have a lot of cool shops. We went to the Plaza Mayor and got sushi at the Mercado de San Miguel! It's da bomb.
- Friday we went to Toledo! I loved this city. Its a real pretty city known for having influence from 3 cultures living there together at the same time: christians, muslims, and jews. It's famous for marzipan too!
- So we were supposed to go on a field trip to Soria yesterday with our conversation class. Soria was described by our host brother as a miserable, FREEZING place, and he compared it to North Dakota. We were not excited, and after only getting 3 hours of sleep we woke up to head to school and Pilar told us it had snowed! No Soria trip for us, thank gosh for the snow.
- My parents are coming tomorrow!!! I am SO excited!!
Maybe I'll start by trying to sum up things I have learned so far! I think I have a lot more to learn but here are a few things ..
1) don't complain - so I just recently realized how much I say "I'm so cold" or "I hate the cold" or even just ramble on about something annoying Pilar does. Today is day one with my attempt to stop complaining. Everyone is just as cold as the next person, and a good attitude can change everything (although I seriously enjoy long drawn out conversations with my friends here about weird things that host families are particular about or do differently - living with a random spanish family as part of a business deal in a sense is just enough to blog about in itself! what an experience)!
2) being indecisive is a choice, and one that most people think is annoying. I am super indecisive if you know me. But I just realized the other day that all it is is laziness. Maybe it takes some people longer to decide things and maybe an "indecisive" person just likes to map out all of the possibilities in their head before deciding something, but really seeing the decisiveness of some people makes me want to be that way. Just pick something and stick to it! Make a plan and keep it. Day one with not saying "I don't care" or "I don't know".
3) true comfort really does come only from the Lord. Things are SO different being here than back at home, where daily I am completely surrounded by people that I look up to and that know me so well and encourage me in so many ways. (It makes me SO thankful for my family, friends, and especially my roomieee Jane, who I am SO blessed to have here!!) I think being in such a drastic environment change can really show you where you find your comfort. Also, I feel like the fact that the Lord has a perfect plan for everyone has become so evident here! I can't tell you how many times me and Jane are like "where even are we!?" But I'm so sure that this is where I am supposed to be- and I really am loving it! Also, I felt really a lot of guilt a few weeks ago when I realized how much of my free time wasn't being spent with the Lord. Why not?? It's so frustrating because it's something I enjoy and something I truly want to do and I always would end up putting it off. I felt really crappy about it and then remembered that I have faith in HIS finished work, not how many times a week I open the bible (of course I realize quiet times are so important and great and DUH im not like stopping doing them). It's just really comforting to remember the extent of His love for us, especially when we are disappointed in or have been relying too much on ourselves. I was encouraged by my mom about depending on the Lord. I want to learn more about what that looks like! sorry for getting deep and boring I warned you!!
4) this one I'm still working on.. how to keep up with things? I still haven't figured this out. I'm just glad I haven't lost my passport, and PRAY that it doesn't ever happen. I have lost a couple important things, but I'm learning I think.
5) I can take a short shower!! My showers at home are like 15-20 minutes AT LEAST. Here, I time myself every time I take a shower (it reminds me of you papa - sara sanfilippo - because I think we used to time each other with random stuff and I can just see her saying "Time me!!!") My average shower is like 8 minutes but I am totally capable of doing it in like 5.30 if I'm reaally in a hurry.
Now let's talk about SPAIN! I really love SPain. I think at first I was seriously like freaked out my such a different culture, and all the ham. But I think I have really learned to appreciate this place and the people and the culture and all that! Here's some things I like about Spain.
1) I like that you can get around without a car. Thank heavens for the train that goes to Madrid. Thank goodness for the local bus that we take to class when its frrreeeezing or raining. and you can basically go anywhere in Europe for really cheap on a plane! BUT I can NOT wait to drive again! With the windows down fo sho. and some good music on (by the way my one of my speakers is busted in my car, parents, if you ever get bored and wanna take a drive over to the shop to get it fixed.???)
2) I LOVE that when you eat in a restaurant here, an hour, or two even goes by without them giving you the bill. They don't try to get you in and out in 30 minutes like in the states. They really know how to enjoy their mealtime and make it chill. They're never in a rush, which I love.
3) Arroz con leche. precious pilar made it for us the other day because she knows its our fave, ha. I wrote down the recipes and instructions!
4) New friends! I have met some really awesome people from other programs here! I'll talk more about them soon and post pictures too.
4) gummy candy. made in china, sold by chinos, affordable, amazing.
5) My school. I really love my teachers!! I want to take solo pics of them when they aren't looking so I can show yall. They actually seem like they enjoy teaching us and I really love learning Spanish its so fun!
Things I appreciate about America.
1) Business hours. Over here, nothing opens until like 10. And there's like no where to study, because the library hours aren't even good. I miss RBD!!! best library ever. I can't wait to study there next fall, with a HUGE coffee from caribou, I might even pull an all nighter just to take advantage of it being open 24 hrs.
2) It's really new. We had midterms this week and for my civ class (basically history) I had to cram like 2000 years of Spanish history into my brain. I think the year that we left off on was even earlier than the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. You wouldn't believe how many people fought over this land to settle here, its insane. Needless to say, American history is a lot easier to grasp.
3) Fountain drinks. I don't know why, but the poor Spanish people just don't know how to enjoy a good soft drink like we do in America - 32 oz (at least) filled to the brim with ice to break your teeth on. I miss that! It reminds me of going out to smiths with my young life team (I feel like we always found a way to fit a fountain drink from the gas station in on our drives out there)
There's more, duh but this is long and I think the bathroom is vacant so I better go-- last night I totally walked in on Peter!! super AWK but at least he wasn't peeing or anything he was just looking at himself in the mirror. (PS if you don't know who peter is, it's our host sister's husband- they are living here until they move to sweden in a month.. )
OH WAIT here's what happened in the past week!
- Wednesday we went to the Prado Museum with our school. It was awesome! We saw the paintings of Grecco (my fave), Velázquez, and Goya. Afterwards, me Jane and Kristina explored Madrid. We walked around and ended up in Chueca, a hip district (actually known as the gay area), where they have a lot of cool shops. We went to the Plaza Mayor and got sushi at the Mercado de San Miguel! It's da bomb.
- Friday we went to Toledo! I loved this city. Its a real pretty city known for having influence from 3 cultures living there together at the same time: christians, muslims, and jews. It's famous for marzipan too!
- So we were supposed to go on a field trip to Soria yesterday with our conversation class. Soria was described by our host brother as a miserable, FREEZING place, and he compared it to North Dakota. We were not excited, and after only getting 3 hours of sleep we woke up to head to school and Pilar told us it had snowed! No Soria trip for us, thank gosh for the snow.
- My parents are coming tomorrow!!! I am SO excited!!
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