Guadalupe y Trujillo

Speaking of food, check out what my madre brought home the other day:

Yes, that's an entire leg of jamón serrano (complete with foot hidden behind tin foil decoration). When I told my madre I wanted to take a picture, she made me wait until she decorated it and put her cake in front of it (it's called a gypsy's arm- white cake rolled with homemade plum preserves as filling).

Last weekend, my program took us on an excursion to Guadelupe and Trujillo, two towns not too far from Cáceres. Guadelupe is famous for its monastary in which resides the most famous statue of the virgin of Guadelupe. Apparently, many people make pilgrimages here to pray to her. The monastary was beautiful and it was interesting to be in such an important religious building. There was actually a mass going on while we were taking the tour.

Courtyard (it was actually green because it had just rained!)

One of my favorite parts of the building was a room in which the old choir books were kept. Old as in massive hand painted leather-bound volumes, so heavy they had wheels attached to the bottoms to make it easier to move. Also, in order for everyone to be able to read from the same book the writing was huge! With the music, there was probably less than a sentence on each page. The drawings were very  beautiful, with crazy detail and lots of gold paint which I liked.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the church, or else I would have some crazy things to show you. There was an entire room dedicated to the crowns made for the virgin (diamond and gold and filled with precious stones). There were also all these wooden hands and when I asked what the significance of them was, I realized that they were actually hollow and contained the bones of saints. It was pretty crazy.

We finally got into the room where the statue of the virgin was and it was pretty hectic. It was really crowded, and there was a line that formed so people could file past the nook where she was and kiss a picture of her. I didn't kiss the picture but I did get a pretty close look at the statue. It was surprisingly small although dressed in an incredible (and very triangular) embroidered dress and was wearing a super fancy crown. The thing that was most surprising was that the actual statue was made out of wood, and so it was dark skinned, which was slightly shocking after seeing painting after painting of white saints and religious people. The story behind this particular statue is that it was found buried in the ground (and according to the paintings came out glowing), although these stories were made up in order to have a miraculous background.

At this point we were all starving, but our professor had us walk to another part of the city to see a hospital type building.  Walking through the curving cobbled streets was really awesome, because between the buildings you could see the incredible landscape. The countryside where Guadalupe is is gorgeous, filled with mountains and valleys.

This is where people used to come to get water.

Although the hospital where the monks used to make medicines wasn't very interesting because we couldn't go inside past the main courtyard, there was a great view from the stairs in front.

After that, we all climbed back on our bus and drove to Trujillo, a very historic city where Pizarro (the conquistador of Peru) was from. Apparently many of the Spanish conquistadors were from Extremadura because since it is a poor region of Spain, they had the most to gain from treasure seeking in the new world.

The city was cool because it was built on a hill and as you climbed away from the main plaza, you were in a way walking back into time (Catholic -> Roman -> Muslim). It was an extremely beautiful and I felt really cool walking through such an old city. When we reached the top of the city we were at the oldest part, where there was a castle that we got to walk around in (not really in so much as on- it was pretty much turreted walls with towers at the corners). It was my first castle experience and it was pretty cool. A little bit scary because the turrets are far enough apart and low enough in between to make you nervous.

That tower you see in the upper left was separate from the rest of the castle so that if it was overtaken they could destroy the middle bridge and strand the enemies on the tower

That's all for now. I've got to go write a paper and prepare a presentation for school tomorrow (I still don't understand how they think they can give us homework here). I'll leave you with a view:

The food here is amazing but...

And so it begins.

¡Buenas! (as in buenas tardes or good afternoon)

Life here never stops (except on Sunday's and between 2 and 5 every day, but nevertheless...). I started my University classes last Thursday, so this has been my first full week of school. I've switched from Archeology of Rome to International Migration. I had gone to class that fist day and not understood a single word of what the professor was saying except something about needing prior knowledge of Roman culture. When I approached her after class, explaining that I was an international student and was slightly confused she didn't slow down her talking at all! Pretty terrible first day experience. International migration is slightly better. The prof is still super hard to understand, but there is another girl from my program and a German ERASMUS (the European international students) who are struggling along with me. The proffesor does a lot of dication of definitions and it's funny (but slightly not at all) because when I read over what I wrote down later, there's tons of made up words and things that just don't make sense at all.

The teaching english class has been good so far, easy (although I feel like I'm cheating slightly) but a great place to meet Spanish students who want to improve their english. Also it will be super usefull if I ever want to teach abroad. A lot of the stuff we're talking about in class so far is activities and introduction type stuff that we did all the time at camp!

Whoever told me we don't ever have homework was exaggerating slightly. Or maybe I'm taking the wrong classes, because I definetly have homework. Papers and presentations in 4/5 of my classes. Long papers. Like, 8-10 pages (in Spanish...). On top of that, we've started our ICRPs (Inter-cultural research project). I am going to be working at an elementary school a few days a week helping out in the english classrooms. I haven't started yet, but I think it will be pretty fun. Spanish kids are SO cute (not to mention better at spanish than me).

Don't worry though (Mom and Dad), even though I'm busy I'm still having a great time. This weekend, we're taking an excursion with our program to Guadelupe and Trujillo. I missed the informational session on it today because I had a meeting for my ICRP, so I'm not sure what we'll be doing or seeing, but I'm excited to see more of Spain.

Hasta Luego

Markets, Mérida, and Mountains

I've been so busy lately it is crazy. Last week we had orientation activities in which they told us about all the cultural faux-pas we've all been making since we got here. Some interesting facts: you NEVER are barefoot at home (always wear slippers), hands above the table as you eat, always say hello and goodbye when you enter/leave rooms, Spanish people don't say please or thank you as much as Americans (it is much more serious), people from Extremadura (the region I'm in) are extra impossible to understand, and much more.

We also got placed into our Spanish classes, and chose our University classes. My first day of class is tomorrow because today there is a general strike in Spain and the buses are not running. My first class is Archaeology of Rome (a University class with no one I know in it!) at 9 tomorrow morning-- school again? What? I'm also taking Teaching English as a foreign language with the University. My K classes (with only other students from my program) are Art and Culture, Images (some sort of culture class), and Spanish.

 On Wednesdays during the summer there's a huge outdoor market that happens, where they sell food, clothes, shoes, fabric, and jewlery. All the vendors are constantly shouting for your attention. "¡Un Euro, Un Euro, Un Euro!" (One Euro, but when they say it, it ends up sounding more like oon-eh-oorow-oon-eh-oorow-oon-eh-oorow).

All the food at the market looked so good. They had rows upon rows of fruit. Spanish fruit is so good. I don't know what's so different about it, but I've had the best peach of my life, and the sweetest melon ever here.

 They also had tons of vegetables (note the giant peppers), all sorts of breads and pastries, and of course jamón, chorizo, and queso (ham, sausage, and cheese for all my non-spanish speakers out there).
I actually went back to the market today and bought a ring and some cough drops (knock on wood I'm not getting sick).

We took a trip out to a contemporary art museam, el Museo Malpartida, created in an old wool washing facility by the German artist Vostell. The museam is out in the campo (countryside) and it was really refreshing to see some new landscape. There were also a ton of sheep, which was kind of cool to see. Vostell's art focused on critisim of today's consumer driven world, and the installations were very dark and mechanical. We then followed the docent out a door and suddenly found ourselves standing at the edge of a giant resevoir looking out over a stormy sky and beautiful rounded boulders. It was really breathtaking. It was the first day it wasn't overwhelmingly hot, and I was sad that we didn't have time to walk the path around the lake.

On the way into the museum.

Am I still in Spain?

On Saturday we had our first mini excursion to a town called  Mérida, which is only about 45 minutes away. Mérida is home to some of the most well preserved roman ruins around. It was so cool. Words probably can't do it justice, so I'll just show you:

Aquaducts

Second longest roman bridge

Amphitheater (interesting fact: sometimes they would fill it with water and have ship battles)

Theater

Me, Colleen, and the goddess of cereal (no joke)

Ruins of a GIANT roman house

Flan. My new obsession.

Among other things we did in Cáceres over the last week was to climb the mountain that overlooks the city. It isn't a mountain in the sense that you need gear to climb it, rather just a very large hill, but in Spain's flat landscape it's pretty impressive. The street winds up and up for a long time past gorgeous villas and endless landscape until you reach the top where there's a church and a huge statue of the patron saint of Cáceres, Santa María. There were tons of people walking up the mountain, and apprently there are many who get up and climb it at 5:30 every morning. I imagine the sunrise is amazing from up there.

You can see my university from the top. (Very small, but it's the lighter colored building just above the brick one in the middle right hand side)

Cáceres

View of the old city on the way back into town

The pictures I promised yesterday!

First view

Park-ish space that we walk through to get to town

Typical street

Plaza outside my apartment

Mi cuarto!

The view outside my window (another apartment building with a plaza in front)

First Impressions

It's hard to believe I've only been here two and a half days. It already feels like forever. Yesterday we had a quick tour of the city with our resident director and then all went home for la comida. After my siesta (I am whold-heartedly embracing the spanish lifestyle) I called up my vecino (neighbor) Lara and we walked around town for a bit. I was wearing some cute flats that I've worn before but never very far, resulting in gaping holes in my toes and bleeding heels. Ouch. I need to go buy some bandaids pronto.

Spaniards eat "cena" (dinner) at around 10, although my family doesn't really eat together, just when they're hungry. My padre cooked me some sachichas, which turned out to be hotdogs. After, I met up with some friends in el centro (downtown basically) and we went in search of bars. After much wandering, we eventually found one that was playing music and was full of young people.

As we were leaving the bar, we somehow got talking with a group of university students who knew one of last year's international students at K. We were a big hit with them, probably becuase we're foreign and therefore a novelty. They told us to come with them to a club and shouted out to all their friends "¡Estado Unidos!" (United States!). After walking all the way across town to the club, the line was way too long. At this point we though we'd just go home since it was 3 in the morning, but our new spanish friends convinced us to come to a different club. We came to a plaza filled with bars and clubs, but decided at that point to go to bed. Apparently the club they had been thinking of didn't actually open until 5 IN THE MORNING. Yes, that's right. This club opens after the others close. Then they serve breakfast around 9. (And thus the logic behind the siesta).

Today we had the day off so me and Lara wandered around and found a really pretty park. It was super hot, and we were really tempted to go swimming in the pond, but we figured that would be highly frowned upon so we restrained ourselves. We then walked to a greenspace that runs along the main road into town and met up with two other K girls. Everyone sits on benches here (mostly old people, but others too) and we ended up sitting for almost four hours talking.

To make this incredibly long post even longer, here's some pictures:

Just kidding, they're taking way to long to upload and I have to get up early tomorrow to go tour the University. I swear I'll post them soon.

¡Estoy aquí! Now when will it start to feel real?

We made it safely to Spain! Our flight from Philadelphia was late because we sat on the runway for over 2 hours waiting for other planes to take off. Of course I got no sleep so now I'm exhausted but it's ok because after la comida (lunch) is siesta. Yessss this is my kind of country.

We got through customs and met with our resident director to take a bus to Cáceres. Turns out it's a 4 hour bus ride (who told me it was 2??) but we stopped half way for noms and they gave us our orientation packets (FINALLY). They also gave us cell phones which was really nice but minutes are sooo expensive here so I don't think any of us will be using them much and definitely not to call home. The first thing I thought when I looked out the window on the plane was that everything was brown. This is true, but there's also a ton of really awesome trees and here in town there's actually some big parks and lots of palm trees.

When the bus pulled up all the padres (parents) were waiting on the sidewalk and called out our names as we got off the bus. They had already known who we were but they were unknown to us. Probably one of the most terrifying moments of my trip thus far. Mi madre Carmen greeted me immediately and introduced me to Paco (who I'm assuming is her husband although that was never officially stated). We then got my bags and Carmen held on to my arm as we crossed the insanely busy street. Cars don't stop for pedestrians here like they do in Ann Arbor. We made it to the car at which point my only reaction was "¡Estoy vivo!" (I'm alive!). When then drove to their apartment and took the littlest elevator ever up to the third floor. You had to push open the door of the elevator by hand...

I also have a sister named Carmen who I'm guessing is in her late 20s and a puppy named Sultan. My room is super cute (and purple) and I have my own bathroom. It's really hot in my room right now and I have no fan, but I suppose I'll get used to it. Apparently there was a huge storm last night here with hail and a tornado(?). I'm not always positive what they're saying to me although they say I speak Spanish well. Good sign, as I get the impression they do not speak english at all.

We all ate together in the cute little kitchen and everything was so good. We had some kind of soup with eggs and noodles in it, peppers stuffed with "carne" (meat), chicken, salad, fresh cheese, melon, and of course, bread. I'm stuffed. I also don't know how to say I'm full yet so I should probably look that up.

Anyway, I'll update more later. Now I'm going to nap and then my madre is going to show me around town.

¡Hasta luego!