Greetings from Spain!
Welcome to my blog. Hopefully this will provide some entertainment for my friends and a place reflect and/or vent for me. It unfortunately might also provide some great black mail material for my enemies but I'm going to try to avoid that and try and self censor a bit.
I'm now on my second week here in Spain, and it has been quite a roller coaster. It began with a travel catastrophe where I ended up stranded, crying, and speaking bad spanish at 3am in downtown Madrid, but now I'm fine. It was one of the more traumatic experiences of my life and I like pretend it didn't happen. But now I'm here and safe and having a great time.
Valladolid is a great little city. It's very compact with lots of high rise apartment buildings with stores and shops on the ground level. In Valladolid, you walk ALOT. I think I cover at minimum a good six miles a day but certainly have walked more than that. I live in an apartment building on Paseo Zorilla which is a big main street lined with cafés, bars, and small clothing shops. My room has two beds (sometimes she hosts more than one student) and is highly decorated in a mildly abrasive shade of yellow. But, I mean, yellow is cheerful. There is a window in my room that overlooks the busy main street, reminiscent of an apartment in NYC. The apartment itself has three bedrooms and one bathroom that I share with my host mom and brother, Carlos. My school is a 20 minute walk from my house, which is fantastic. The city is full of small plazas, fountains, statues and beautiful old spanish churches. I particularly love the dark red, yellow and pastel blue colored buildings and the way the city is always full of light (Except at from 7-8am).
There is so much to say, I don't know where to start. I guess I'll start with the basics.
First and foremost, La comida. The food here is definitely different. My host mom has cooked a variety of different things, the majority of which has different meats (mostly pork, fish, and beef), potatoes, bread, soups, and oil. There is usually at LEAST one fried item, usually french fries. For example, for lunch today I had a rice, carrot, and chorizo stew situation, followed by an entire fish that was deep fried. I still don't know what kind of fish it was. All I know is that it was caro (expensive) had both a spine and two inedible fins on the top and bottom, that I butchered it horribly (and was chastised accordingly in spanish) and I could see the eye socket. ¡Que horrible! After lunch I had to grab an orange to cleanse my confused pallet. Every morning I eat (or am allowed to eat) Yoohoos (some kind of cereal with monkeys on the box) and fruit. I've been eating a lot of kiwis and crappy apples.
The good news is Tapas. Tapas are muy deliciosas. On Friday night I went out for tapas and ate the Best Calamari Ever and other assorted goodies. I'm still learning all the ins and outs of ordering tapas. It can be complicated because there are different words for different sizes (raciones o tapas). The other good news is Sangría and run miel (run shot with honey).
I think the hardest adaptations I've had to make are the daily schedule, the language barrier, and shower limitations. People in Spain typically get up around 9-9:30, eat a tiny breakfast, then head to work/school (Except my classes start at 9am). Then, at 2pm, all the businesses close and everyone goes home for La Comida which is a big lunch. Then, after La Siesta, which is optional, the businesses re-open at 5pm until 9pm. Dinner is at 9:30pm, after which everything closes except Tapas and Bars. Tapas close at midnight and bars stay open til 3am, sometimes 6am. Everyone goes out Saturday night and everyone sleeps all day Sunday.
I am speaking a lot of spanish. My host mom doesn't speak a lick of english, plus, she mumbles and speaks really quickly. I've gotten better, but it can be really hard feeling like an idiot. All my classes are in spanish, but they are super easy and my spanish seems to be way better than average among the American kids. But, I have a long way to go in terms of conversational spanish. When we went to the bars Saturday night, I tried talking to some Españolas and I think it came out something like this (In english):
Me: "Hello! What is your name?"
Them: "My name is Juan. Where are you from? Are you from around here?"
Me: "I am a student"
Them: "Uh, Cool. How long have you been here?"
Me: "What? My name is Grace."
Them: "Yes."
Me: "My Spanish is bad"
Them: "Uh, kinda"
Finally, the other living limitations have been hard. You can't have more than one light on at one time. Showers need to be limited to 5-10 minutes and you must turn the water off while you shampoo, etc. It is best if you do everything except shower/use the bathroom in your own room. Plus, its weird to not get to chose or cook your food or clean your clothes, things I've been doing for years. I'm trying to run once and a while in an effort to fight against fried food. But they stare at you when you run!! I don't know how people stay thing here, honestly.
The other important thing I've learned is the Spanish are extremely stylish but do not dance. Everyone here wears NICE clothes. The young women wear skinny jeans and high leather boats with nice button up wool coats and scarves. No earrings. The mean wear slacks and leather jackets. The young men all look like they play on Real Madrid, with highly groomed hair and soccer jackets. At the clubs, there is loud music, black lights, alcohol, but no dancing. Only awkward swaying. I was quite the celebrity at the Discoteca Saturday night because I like to get down. The guys would clap for me and stare in curiosity at my strange foreign movements. Once in a while they would approach me and take my hand, moving me in a slow circle. That's it. No other forms of touching. They will talk, but no touch.
Alright, well that certainly is enough for today. There is more to say, but I'm tired and it's Siesta time. If any of you bloggers has any tips or advice for me, I still do not know how to put in pictures, format it, etc.
¡Besos!
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