Why So Windy?

Seriously! Why is it so windy here? Every night I wake up to my window getting attacked by nothing but air. It's a lot louder than you think it would be. There is even a gust in our house that forces my door open and pulls it back so it makes the most obnoxious creaking noise. The wind was so strong on Thursday it even killed a few people in the north! I don't understand! At least it's not raining...

So this past week was busy, busy, busy. I had a lot of homework (that takes me a bit longer to do because it's all in Spanish) and another tour of Toledo, but it was awesome. Though they can be inconvenient and take two hours, it's really nice to see new and different parts of the city. Sorry Kit that we complained a lot about time constraints this past week!!

However the weekend didn't come soon enough! I'm not sure what I'll when I return to America and I won't have a three day weekend every week. I took it slow this weekend, hanging out with friends and relaxing around the house. I caught up with TV shows and actually did some homework ahead of time! I ate at two really good restaurants but nothing compares to the food my host mother makes. Marisa is a great cook! I just feel really bad when I can't finish everything. They eat so fast and so much here that I can hardly keep up. Alberto actually told me that I needed to eat more and was shocked at the amount I left on my plate tonight. (I actually did leave more than usual tonight, it might have been the peanut butter and banana I ate at 7). He wasn't mean about it, just surprised that I don't practically lick my plate like he does.

Needless to say our dinner was delicious tonight. It was a soup with peas, ham and fried egg. I love it when we have soup for dinner because I can actually finish all of my bread (because I dip it in)! They loveee bread here and I can see why. It's so delicious and Marisa buys it fresh at least every other day. I feel bad for the people who don't have great cooks like I do, I've only had one meal that I didn't like and that's because it had a ton of mayonnaise.

This upcoming week will probably be another busy one. I'm sure I'll get a lot of homework from my literature teacher and I have to examine a church by Wednesday for my culture class. We have another tour of Toledo, community service (an hour to speak with a class in English only), intercambios (1/2 hour in Spanish, 1/2 hour in English) and an excursion all day on Friday.

I don't mind all of the extra activities because I would be bored if I sat around all day, but it does suck that I live so far outside of the casco. I need to leave at least 30 minutes early to wait at the bus stop (5-15, depending on the day and time), ride the bus into the casco (15 minutes) and then walk to school (10-15 minutes) to get anywhere on time. I hate wasting over an hour each day traveling to the main part of the city, but I do like where I live. It's newer and has a lot of great stores, restaurants and sites around. Every part of Toledo is amazing.

I might complain about homework and travelling to and from school, but I am excited for community service, intercambios, our ruta and our excursion this week. I love it so much here and I thank myself everyday for deciding to stay until June. It is a long time and I miss my friends, family and Ohio University more everyday but I don't regret my decision at all.

I need to get back to translating a song for literature. Until next time, hasta luego!

Some Pictures of Granada

Granada at night.

Gardens, a building and the view of Granada from La Alhambra.

Sitting at La Alhambra overlooking Granada.

One of the many gardens and buildings at La Alhambra in Granada.

Granada, La Alhambra

I had an amazing weekend in Granada! The weather was perfect (about 17 degrees Celsius), the city and the Alhambra were absolutely breath taking! It reminded me of a mixture of Toledo and Madrid but unique. And the Alhambra is one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my entire life. I’m sure it’s 100 times prettier in the Spring so maybe I’ll try to go back later this year.

Friday morning I woke up bright and early to catch a 9 a.m. bus from Toledo to Madrid. After eating a sandwich and buying snacks for the road, our bus left for Granada at 11:30 a.m. I mostly slept, listened to my iPod and re-read the last Harry Potter book. We had a half an hour break at a rest stop so we arrived in Granada around 5 p.m.

We hopped on another bus, got off on the wrong stop, so we had to walk up to our hostel. The weather was really nice and we were able to see the city a bit so it wasn’t too bad. I roomed with Halle, Liz and Jess and our room was in a building across the street from the other nine girls. We actually had five beds but were only “allowed” to use four. It became a personal storage bed.

We walked around some streets near our hostel and found a small grocery store to grab some food. After snacking on bread, cheese and tomatoes, we all got cleaned up and ready to go out. We all went to a few bars around our hostel but I came back around 1 a.m. It was a long day and we had another long one ahead of us!

We had another early morning on Saturday as we woke up around eight to walk to the Alhambra to buy tickets for an afternoon visit. They only allow a certain number of people in each day so we wanted to be sure to get tickets, even though it is winter.

We returned to the Alhambra around 2 p.m. for the most amazing day ever. The buildings, gardens and views were absolutely breath taking. Though most of the gardens were bare because it is the winter, I could imagine flowers and green everywhere. Liz, Jess and I actually picked an orange from one of the many orange trees inside the walls. It looked so ripe and delicious but actually tasted like a lemon. At least we can say we ate an authentic Spanish orange from the Alhambra!

Unfortunately we were unaware that we were supposed to go to the palace at 2 p.m. so we missed our tour. Everyone else was able to walk around inside for the thirty minute allotted time period so I got to see their beautiful pictures. The three of us spent well over two hours walking around outside and I took over 100 pictures of the city of Granada and all of the impressive architecture and gardens in the Alhambra.

The people who work at the Alhambra leave cat food out for stray cats so they were all over the place. Apparently the tourists love them so we made friends with some cats. It made me miss mine at home!

Saturday night we walked around again, ate gyros for dinner and then most of us stayed in and talked, played card games, read and went to bed. This morning we had to catch a bus at 10 a.m. We arrived in Madrid at 3:30 so we had to take the 4 p.m. bus to Toledo. We had “lunch” at McDonald’s in Zocodover (the main plaza inside the walls of Toledo) and then I came home, unpacked, wrote in my journal and checked my e-mails. I should start on some homework now and dinner will be in about an hour (9 p.m.). I plan to go to bed early after dinner, school tomorrow!

I had an amazing weekend and I look forward to more weekend trips and our upcoming day trips. Hasta luego!

Granada Bound!

Not much has happened in the past three or four days. I've gone to school a lot, completed a lot of literature homework and taken some siestas. Our group has been on two tours of Toledo, which have been cold, but very interesting! We've also met some possible partners for our intercambio. These "intercambios" are Toledo natives learning English whom we talk with for half an hour in Spanish and half an hour in English. Everyone was really nice and easy to talk to! Our group also watched a Spanish movie Wednesday night, "La lengua de las mariposas." It was really sad, sort of random, but a really good movie about friendship and freedom.

Tomorrow I'm going to Granada with 12 other girls from our group. This post is going to be short and sweet so you can be prepared for a longer one on Sunday or Monday (or sometime after we return). I also need to finish packing some things together and getting some sleep. It should be a fun weekend!

Until my next post about Granada, hasta luego!
Amanda

Many Tour Guides

Friday night I met up with some friends from the group to browse more shops and get dinner inside the casco. I bought a brown cardigan from a popular store here called Zara. It’s very warm and I actually wore it twice this weekend and when I was just sitting around the house.

More or less everyone from the group had been at the school on Friday to use the Internet, therefore we all met at McDonald’s for dinner. McDonald’s is seriously so much better here than it is in the states!! After dinner and a bit more shopping, we went this café called Naca Naca (which we have gone back three or four times now). It’s in Zocodover so it’s pretty central and has the best, thickest hot chocolate I’ve ever had.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to meet at the bottom of the escalators at 9 a.m. for our excursion to Madrid. Though it was freezing outside and I was tired from a long week, I was really excited to head back to Madrid.

Once in Madrid we took a quick pit-stop at a café for tea and a snack, then the group headed to the Prado art museum. Our tour guide lead us around the museum and focused on five or six paintings. I don’t normally like older art, as it sometimes all looks the same to me, but these paintings were absolutely amazing! Especially because most of them weren’t even painted with paints but with other materials like egg whites. I hope one weekend we can take an extended trip to Madrid and I can spend more time in the Prado.

We were given about an hour and a half for lunch. I ate at a restaurant called Zahara with Liz, Adrienne, Jaclyn, Jasmine, Kerry and Kate. I had an amazing hamburger and a coke! My family only drinks water in the house (which is a good thing) so it was nice to have a coke.

After lunch we met with another tour guide in Plaza Mayor. The plaza was full of street performers and musicians so that kept us occupied while we waited for our tour to begin. Our guide gave us some history lessons at the Plaza Mayor and many more as we moved on to more plazas and statues and we eventually made it to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). The cathedral situated in front of the Palace was amazing. It was completed about 15 years ago after being built for 100 years. It was pretty contemporary and had amazing art work on the ceilings. The Palace was huge and amazing as well, with 2,800 rooms I think our guide said.

The cathedral next to the Palace.

After our guided tour we took another coffee break before the bus picked us up at 6 p.m. Almost everyone fell asleep on the hour drive back to Toledo. However, we weren’t down for the count! Once home, I got ready, checked my e-mails and got ready for tapas. I met Liz, Halle and Jess for tapas at this bar called Picasso. Though the calamari was not breaded like I’m used to and the bruschetta had toppings like goat cheese, sardines and salmon, it was delicious! After dinner we headed back into the casco to meet up with the rest of our friends. It was an “early” night when I came home at 3 a.m. but I was pretty exhausted from our day in Madrid.

Sunday was dedicated to homework, sleep and lunch with Halle at an American restaurant called Rock & Ribs. I talked to my family on the phone and met up with friends at Naca Naca after dinner. This morning I had my first Cultura y Civilizacion class. The first hour was devoted to asking everyone in class what they were doing in a certain year (any year between 2002 and 2008) and what they looked like in that year. We then discussed a brief time line of Spanish history and were given a simple but fun homework assignment. After class I hung out at the café for a few minutes before returning home and passing out. I was so tired! Marisa made a really delicious stew for lunch and then I had to leave again and meet up with the group for a ruta (tour) of Toledo.

Our ruta was about two hours long. Our tour guide showed us various parts of the city and gave us the history or legends of each place. We visited ancient churches, walked down to the river and I took a lot of amazing pictures. Though it was cold as always I got to see some amazing things today.

Now I’m in another café at the school about to finish up some homework. I plan to head back home around 9 p.m. for dinner. Overall it was a great weekend and I look forward to what my second full week in Toledo will have in store. Until next time, adios!!

Routine

Monday afternoon about ten people from the group and I walked around the confusing streets of Toledo. They are extremely curvy and skinny and there are a lot of them! Every time a car is coming through someone yells “coche!” and we run to squeeze against the building walls. But it was still amazing and gorgeous! It’s so old and beautiful here in the old city, I don’t really mind the confusing streets… sometimes.

Marisa, my host mother, has made me delicious lunch and dinner after delicious lunch and dinner! I love having a huge meal in the middle of the day (around 3 p.m.) because it really does keep me full before a smaller dinner at 9:30 p.m. I never snack but we do eat a lot of carbs.

Tuesday night Becca, who lives about 5 minutes away, met me at my apartment at 9:30 and we walked together to Santa Teresa, another neighborhood outside the casco (walls of the old city). We met up with a few friends from our group and found a nearby bar to hang out. Another study abroad group was visiting Toledo for the night, so we met about 20 or so Americans at the bar. I drank “cole mocha” which is red wine and coke. I thought it was quite tasty and for only 2 euro, I couldn’t resist.

Though I got home around 2 in the morning and had to wake up at 8, I wasn’t too tired on Wednesday. We had an orientation for school on Tuesday, which was just a short introduction to our classes and quick tour of the buildings. I had been using the Internet in the café in one of the school buildings, but I recently discovered a secret corner in my room where I can use someone’s WiFi from the apartment complex. I am so happy to be connected to the world again at all times!

Wednesday afternoon I met up with some more friends at a café to drink café con leche and talk. I really like everyone in our group and I feel we all get along really well. It’s a nice break to just sit and talk (in English) with familiar faces instead of struggling to speak in Spanish 24/7 with our families, not that I’m having too much trouble!

Thursday was our first day of actual classes. My first class, at 9 a.m., is my literature class. Our professor, David, made everyone read a paragraph or so from our text book and then he would take over and talk for a few minutes, and then choose someone else to continue reading. We learned about important literary concepts that I’ve known since freshman year of high school. I guess it’s nice because it’s easy and I’ve had this knowledge for a while, but it was pretty boring and sometimes confusing in Spanish. We also have a lot of reading for homework which might take me a while. I will probably start reading on Sunday though it isn’t due until Tuesday morning.

My second class was my advanced conversation class. So far I absolutely love that class and our professor, Maria! She’s really easy to understand and a great teacher. She’ll correct you when you make a mistake, not in a condescending way, but in a way that really helps you learn. And of course, no English, so when we don’t understand a word or concept she’ll describe it in Spanish instead of giving us a direct English translation. I’ve already learned new vocabulary faster than I have with other professors. I think this class might soon become my favorite Spanish class or even my favorite class of college thus far. It just seems fun and helpful, which is really nice.

Last night our entire group (minus one person) all met at a bar called O’Brien’s and eventually we made our way to the discotheque! It was so much fun to spend time with everyone, take pictures and dance to American music. I hope we make it a point to go to a different discotheque every weekend and meet new people.

Though I had one day where I broke down and cried, the rest of my time in Toledo has been absolutely amazing. I miss OU and my family and friends so much but I love it here so it’s hard to tell how I feel sometimes. My Spanish skills are already improving in ways I didn't know possible and I can sense that I'll be learning even more new skills really soon! Tomorrow we’re taking a day trip to Madrid and I have high hopes that it’ll be a lot of fun and I'm excited to visit El Prado museum!

Hasta luego!!

The First Five Days

Hello! Remember me? (This was written yesterday at 3 p.m.) Be prepared for a long blog because this is the first time I have had Internet!

I am currently sitting in my room in my house in Buenavista, Toledo, eating chocolates that I received from Los Reyes (the kings)! My feelings about Spain over the past five days have gone from “I’m completely in love with it here!” to “Oh my God, this place is terrible, take me home now.” Right now I’m in between optimistic and sleepy. Optimistic because I know that once I’m on a schedule, a normal routine, I’ll be able to feel more comfortable in my new setting. And sleepy because I just ate a lot of paella with shrimp, clams, oysters, chicken and vegetables, with bread and a baked apple for dessert. Yum!

Traveling to Spain with Liz wasn’t too terrible, just tiring. I really enjoyed my drive from Cincinnati to Columbus with my mom and sisters and after checking over 110 pounds of luggage, we ate lunch at Max & Erma’s. Liz and I waved goodbye to our families after security and we were off! Our flight from Columbus to Philadelphia was less than an hour long. In Philadelphia we spent some time on our computers, checking Facebook and e-mail. We wanted our last meal in America to be, well, “American,” so I had chicken fingers at Friday’s and Liz a hamburger. Our flight from Philadelphia to Toledo was… uncomfortable. I think I slept about 15 minutes every hour (on a 7 hour flight), messed up an easy Sudoku puzzle and ate stale pasta. However, once we began landing in Madrid all drowsiness and unhappiness went away.

Four other members of our group, Kate, Adrienne, Jaclyn and Mike, were on our flight as well. We went through immigration fairly quickly and we were all able to get our luggage just as quickly. After checking one of my suitcases into a locker at the airport, the six of us took a bus to a metro station (later I will realize that this was pointless). Liz and I said goodbye to our friends and began a stressful two hours of directing ourselves through the metro and then through the streets of Puerta del Sol. Though we were frustrated, sweaty and anxious, we finally found our hostel with the help of some Canadians and a few friendly locals.

Without meaning to, we took a three-hour nap. Traveling is exhausting! And though it was 4 p.m. when we woke up, it felt like it was 10 in the morning. When we finally emerged from our hostel, Liz and I walked around Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor and other surrounding areas for a few hours. At dinner we ate bread, baked potatoes and chorizo at a bar. It sounds simple but it was actually really delicious and just what we needed. It had been a long day so we returned to our room, read for a bit, and fell asleep around midnight. We didn’t wake up the next day until 1:30 p.m. It was completely unintentional (but later we found out that the other group had slept in until 4 p.m.)! We left our room, walked around and ate a quick lunch of sandwiches. Every shop in the area was having a rebajas (sale) and so I took advantage of that and bought two scarves at H&M. Liz and I found an Internet café and spent an hour or so on Facebook and such. We went back to our hostel to drop off our purchases and headed back out for dinner. We spent a good three hours in a café drinking coke and eating paella and cake. It was really nice to just sit and talk about how we were missing our families and it was strange that (on that day) everyone would be moving back into school.

On our third day in Madrid, Liz and I met up with our teacher, Kit Brown, and got a mufarena (muffin) and café con leche (coffee with milk) for breakfast. We then took advantage of the sunny day and took a scenic walk to La Reina Sofia art museum. La Reina Sofia is amazing and it was free that day! Though I have been there before, all of the art, including the Guernica by Picasso, was just as incredible. The museum closed at 2:30 p.m. (it was Sunday) so we said adios to Kit and continued to walk around, grabbed a quick lunch and just enjoyed the Puerta del Sol.

The next morning we woke up early and checked out of our hostel, no problems. After a donut and coffee at Dunkin Coffee, we navigated (with much more success) the streets of Puerta del Sol and the metro to the airport. We met the rest of our group and though we had to wait for four people on a delayed plane, we began our 45-minute drive to Toledo.

My family includes Marisa, her husband Alberto, and their two children (Alberto and Laura). Alberto and Laura are grown and do not live at the apartment, but I met Alberto (32) and he was really nice and tried to talk to me a lot. Tusca, the dog, is large and black and very friendly. He’s like 14 years old so he just lays around and lets you pet him. Marisa is very sweet and patient and tries to talk to me a lot. Her accent is really hard to understand at times, but usually if I repeat a word I don’t know she’ll explain what she means. I love Alberto! He reminds me of a grandpa. He’s really helpful, has a comforting laugh and is always willing to ask me questions and talk, or just sit and watch TV. I like spending time with him the most. He took me to school yesterday for a group meeting and rode the bus with me and showed me where to go and how to get home.

I ate a plate of pasta and tomato sauce and a friend egg for lunch yesterday. It was really good! However, the Albertos ate their food really fast and then Marisa came in and just watched me eat. It was a bit strange but I just acted like she wasn’t staring at me. I unpacked, cried because everything was overwhelming, talked to my dad and wrote in my journal. Alberto and I went to school and I finally got to talk in English! I didn’t get home until about 10:30 that night because Halle and I helped Jasmine get to her apartment. After we got lost trying to find her apartment, we got lost trying to get back to Buentavista. But we did and then Marisa made me amazing fried fish and chopped up tomatoes. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until noon today!

I showered and received a perfume set from Marisa for Los Reyes (a celebration her for the three wise men). I gave Marisa and Alberto buckeyes (American chocolate is very funny here) and a photo book of Cincinnati. Alberto and I sat and talked about Cincinnati for a long time and it helped me a lot to feel more comfortable. I just got done eating our large lunch now and am waiting for 4:30. I’m meeting with some friends from the group to explore the old part of Toledo, inside the walls (I live outside the walls, in a newer part) at 5.

Tomorrow we have orientation and a tour of the school and they have Internet there. I was able to steal someone’s Internet in the apartment building for about 5 minutes but it was a very weak signal. Hopefully I’ll find a better place in the house to connect. Until next time (with a much smaller post, I promise)! I miss everyone so much but I know that I'm only just beginning my amazing journey.
Hasta luego,
Amanda