Wednesday, March 31, 2010
In which I embark on a mission and learn the value of perseverance
Yesterday I wanted to buy ribbon. The first step was figuring out how to say ribbon. I asked my trusted dictionary (also known as Javi) and he told me it's “lazo.” Ok, now where do I get this? Obviously, I went to one of the many fabric stores near my apartment. They kept telling me I had to go to a “mercería.” So I went home and looked up what the heck this was. It's a sewing store. One would think that they would have the sewing supplies in the same store as the fabric, but no. So after asking around some more, I finally figured out the area of where a sewing store was (they don't give street names, just “near the cathedral” is supposed to suffice). So heading in that general direction, I came across a store filled with yarn. This MUST be a sewing store, right? Wrong again. The store sold yarn exclusively! After another session of wandering that was prolonged by Semana Santa processions blocking streets, I saw the mecca of my journey. At last, ribbon! So I talked to the shopkeeper and he got me what I wanted. Woo hoo! But silly me, I suck at estimating in meters, so I came home with way less than I needed for my project. I'll go back today and finish the 2 day search for ribbon, once and for all!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sevilla trip
Sevilla is beautiful! We made the 3 hour drive from Granada Friday afternoon, just when everyone else was starting their Semana Santa vacations. In California, this timing would mean horrible traffic jams, but it's a whole different story here. With everyone relying on buses and trains, even the busy times on the 2 lane roads are easy. Javi even let me drive a bit! It was hard to make myself get the speedometer up to 120, and also to keep it there. The speed changes so drastically in kilometers per hour! 120 kpm is like 70 mph and that's the speed limit on most freeways here. But we made it safe and sound.
To save money, we stayed in a hostel that had great location. We were lucky enough to get at private room with its own bathroom, and no loud people staying there! After dropping our stuff off, we wandered downtown towards the cathedral. This thing was huge. It's the 3rd largest church in the world and THE largest Gothic cathedral. We just walked around the perimeter, which took like 10 minutes. There were people waiting all around it and chairs and walkways all set up for Semana Santa. Holy Week starts the Sunday before Easter and ends on Easter, but in Sevilla, they get really into it and can't wait so they start on the Friday before. Javi says people live for this week! What is basically consists of are processions of people carrying these giant things that look like floats, but are made out of wood and gold and depict scenes from Jesus' death and resurrection. There are people dressed like Ku Klux Klan members (not kidding) with candles that walk after the floats and marching bands that go before. They walk super slow and block many major roads because every church in each city has these. They all walk from their church to the town hall to the cathedral and back. So it sucks if your church is far away. I'll post pictures from Granada's processions later! Anyway, in Sevilla, people with apartments that overlook major roads where many processions will go rent out their balconies to people can watch the parades. It's like a week of 4th of July parades!
We decided there were not enough people waiting for the Friday procession, so that meant it wasn't going to be for a while. We wandered down a random street and found a fried fish place (a staple in Andalucìa), so we had some of that while waiting for a friend. We were meeting up with Ramón who had also studied abroad in Davis and is from Sevilla. We met him at a bar that had heads of bulls killed in bullfights on the walls. Lovely. After dinner, Javi talked me into getting a Burger King ice cream. I haven't stepped into one of these places in so long! They sell beer at fast food places in Spain! As in, if you get one of those meal package thingies, they ask if you want a soda or beer. We went back to the hostel and went to sleep, which turned out to be my downfall.
When I woke up, I couldn't swallow or speak or anything. It was the worst sore throat I've ever had. On the way to breakfast, we went to a pharmacy to get Ibuprofen and the pharmacist also gave me giant Altoids. He said to dissolve these things on my tongue every 3 hours to make my throat feel better. They worked, but they tasted exactly like Altoids and had the same numbing effect Altoids have. But oh well, my throat felt better AND my breath was minty fresh. We started off on a wandering tour to see all the main attractions in Sevilla. My favorite part about this city was that all the trees along the sidewalks are orange trees, and we were there when they were all blossoming, so the whole city smelled so so so good!
We started off walking along the Guadalquivir River, which had lots of rowing teams practicing in it. Along this is the Gold Tower (Torre de Oro), where all the trading ships used to unload. Actually, that's part of the reason Sevillans' accents are so much more understandable to me (no lisping); there were a lot of South American traders coming through, and their accents stuck in Sevilla. Next came the famous Plaza España, which of course was under construction (like most things I see here). But it was still impressive and had benches all the way around, one for each county in Spain. Across from this was the Parque de Marìa Luisa. It was really gigantic with lots of fearless ducks and geese roaming around. We also saw the University, which used to be a cigar factory, and is where the opera Carmen is supposed to take place. They still use the building for university purposes. It looked a bit different than anything we find at Davis!
Before lunch, we went back to the cathedral via the gardens around the Alcázar, which is a Muslim palace right across from the Catholic cathedral. The cathedral being about 10 Euros cheaper, we opted for Catholic history and wandered in there. I was pretty disappointed by how small it seemed inside. It was so huge from the outside, but it was pretty normal inside. There were courtyards with orange trees that took up a lot of space, and the organ pipes were huge, but I'm not really sure why they needed to make it so big! There were about 10 mini churches inside the main one, all with overwhelming detail. The coolest part was walking up the bell tower. It's super-duper tall, so some very smart person put in a ramp instead of stairs, making it more gradual and less like a stair-master. The signs said we went up 34 flights, but if it had been stairs, I think it would have been more like 15-20 stories. Still, it provided some pretty awesome views. From there, we could see all the places we had just been, as well as get an idea of how big Sevilla was. There were people on their rooftop pools having lunch, the white houses extended out forever, and we could see the main plaza down below with all the tiny people. We got some lunch after (more fried fish) and decided to head home.
We were supposed to stay for 2 days, but I wasn't feeling great still and we had seen most of the sights. By pure luck, the hostel lady gave us our money back without us asking! We headed off for 1 more tourist stop. Across the river, there is an island with a never-used olympic stadium, a theme park and a monastery. Weird combo, I know. The theme park was closed, but we were there to see the monastery. Apparently it was like a mini factory where monks made pottery, but that day it was deserted. We were the only people there for a good 15 minutes! It was nice to get out of the city and just wander around the gardens. There was a museum in there, but that was the only part that was functioning, it was mostly plants and a bunch of huge, old kilns. It could have been really spooky at night, or a great place to play hide-and-go seek.
From here, we headed home to Granada. Again, it was a surprisingly easy drive. I'm getting more sick, but there's no polo this week, so at least I don't have to walk home with wet hair! Oh yeah, we get the worst times here as well: 9-11 PM, and it's a 15 minute walk home! Anyway, I'm going to go to the pharmacy and try to get some decongestants. Even if I don't know what to say to get these, I think once they hear my voice they will know what I need! Mom comes on Friday!
To save money, we stayed in a hostel that had great location. We were lucky enough to get at private room with its own bathroom, and no loud people staying there! After dropping our stuff off, we wandered downtown towards the cathedral. This thing was huge. It's the 3rd largest church in the world and THE largest Gothic cathedral. We just walked around the perimeter, which took like 10 minutes. There were people waiting all around it and chairs and walkways all set up for Semana Santa. Holy Week starts the Sunday before Easter and ends on Easter, but in Sevilla, they get really into it and can't wait so they start on the Friday before. Javi says people live for this week! What is basically consists of are processions of people carrying these giant things that look like floats, but are made out of wood and gold and depict scenes from Jesus' death and resurrection. There are people dressed like Ku Klux Klan members (not kidding) with candles that walk after the floats and marching bands that go before. They walk super slow and block many major roads because every church in each city has these. They all walk from their church to the town hall to the cathedral and back. So it sucks if your church is far away. I'll post pictures from Granada's processions later! Anyway, in Sevilla, people with apartments that overlook major roads where many processions will go rent out their balconies to people can watch the parades. It's like a week of 4th of July parades!
We decided there were not enough people waiting for the Friday procession, so that meant it wasn't going to be for a while. We wandered down a random street and found a fried fish place (a staple in Andalucìa), so we had some of that while waiting for a friend. We were meeting up with Ramón who had also studied abroad in Davis and is from Sevilla. We met him at a bar that had heads of bulls killed in bullfights on the walls. Lovely. After dinner, Javi talked me into getting a Burger King ice cream. I haven't stepped into one of these places in so long! They sell beer at fast food places in Spain! As in, if you get one of those meal package thingies, they ask if you want a soda or beer. We went back to the hostel and went to sleep, which turned out to be my downfall.
When I woke up, I couldn't swallow or speak or anything. It was the worst sore throat I've ever had. On the way to breakfast, we went to a pharmacy to get Ibuprofen and the pharmacist also gave me giant Altoids. He said to dissolve these things on my tongue every 3 hours to make my throat feel better. They worked, but they tasted exactly like Altoids and had the same numbing effect Altoids have. But oh well, my throat felt better AND my breath was minty fresh. We started off on a wandering tour to see all the main attractions in Sevilla. My favorite part about this city was that all the trees along the sidewalks are orange trees, and we were there when they were all blossoming, so the whole city smelled so so so good!
We started off walking along the Guadalquivir River, which had lots of rowing teams practicing in it. Along this is the Gold Tower (Torre de Oro), where all the trading ships used to unload. Actually, that's part of the reason Sevillans' accents are so much more understandable to me (no lisping); there were a lot of South American traders coming through, and their accents stuck in Sevilla. Next came the famous Plaza España, which of course was under construction (like most things I see here). But it was still impressive and had benches all the way around, one for each county in Spain. Across from this was the Parque de Marìa Luisa. It was really gigantic with lots of fearless ducks and geese roaming around. We also saw the University, which used to be a cigar factory, and is where the opera Carmen is supposed to take place. They still use the building for university purposes. It looked a bit different than anything we find at Davis!
Before lunch, we went back to the cathedral via the gardens around the Alcázar, which is a Muslim palace right across from the Catholic cathedral. The cathedral being about 10 Euros cheaper, we opted for Catholic history and wandered in there. I was pretty disappointed by how small it seemed inside. It was so huge from the outside, but it was pretty normal inside. There were courtyards with orange trees that took up a lot of space, and the organ pipes were huge, but I'm not really sure why they needed to make it so big! There were about 10 mini churches inside the main one, all with overwhelming detail. The coolest part was walking up the bell tower. It's super-duper tall, so some very smart person put in a ramp instead of stairs, making it more gradual and less like a stair-master. The signs said we went up 34 flights, but if it had been stairs, I think it would have been more like 15-20 stories. Still, it provided some pretty awesome views. From there, we could see all the places we had just been, as well as get an idea of how big Sevilla was. There were people on their rooftop pools having lunch, the white houses extended out forever, and we could see the main plaza down below with all the tiny people. We got some lunch after (more fried fish) and decided to head home.
We were supposed to stay for 2 days, but I wasn't feeling great still and we had seen most of the sights. By pure luck, the hostel lady gave us our money back without us asking! We headed off for 1 more tourist stop. Across the river, there is an island with a never-used olympic stadium, a theme park and a monastery. Weird combo, I know. The theme park was closed, but we were there to see the monastery. Apparently it was like a mini factory where monks made pottery, but that day it was deserted. We were the only people there for a good 15 minutes! It was nice to get out of the city and just wander around the gardens. There was a museum in there, but that was the only part that was functioning, it was mostly plants and a bunch of huge, old kilns. It could have been really spooky at night, or a great place to play hide-and-go seek.
From here, we headed home to Granada. Again, it was a surprisingly easy drive. I'm getting more sick, but there's no polo this week, so at least I don't have to walk home with wet hair! Oh yeah, we get the worst times here as well: 9-11 PM, and it's a 15 minute walk home! Anyway, I'm going to go to the pharmacy and try to get some decongestants. Even if I don't know what to say to get these, I think once they hear my voice they will know what I need! Mom comes on Friday!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Barcelona Trip
Today is my day to get stuff done! We just spent 3 days in Barcelona with Javi's parents and then he and I are off on a road trip to Sevilla tomorrow. We flew to Barcalona Monday morning out of Granada's airport. It's so small that we walked across a garden and out on the tarmac to board our plane out of the 4th and last gate. On the cab ride to our hotel in Barcelona, Javi's parents were telling the cab driver about how he's going to the US, and the cabbie told him to watch out for American girls. I think he felt a bit awkward when I piped up from right behind him! After getting to the hotel, we went straight to the Boqueria market, which is essentially a food museum. They have fish with creepy eyes that stare at you, giant slabs of icky meat, really colorful fruit and veggies, beautiful handmade candy, and pretty much any Spanish food you want. It smells very interesting with all these things mixed together. We then had a really expensive and bad lunch (accidentally went to a touristy place) and headed back to the hotel. Javi and I had been there exactly a year ago and seen all the sights, and his parents have been a lot so we weren't really into sightseeing.
In fact, we were on a special mission; Javi had a rendezvous with the king of Spain. They're old pals. Actually, Javi got an awesome scholarship to study in the US from a bank here, and part of the official ceremony was shaking hands with the king and queen. There's a video from the news I put on here, and you can actually see Javi shaking hands from 1:07 to 1:13. Now the back of Javi's head is famous!
The ceremony was on Tuesday and he could only bring 2 guests, so he went off with his parents while I hung out with Ana, who had studied abroad at Davis too. We went to Parc Güell, which Gaudì intended to be a village within Barcelona. People found it too weird so that never happened, but now it's a major attraction. We wandered around it and went inside the house where he grew up, which actually had pictures of the insides of all the other buildings he designed in Barcelona, so we saved some money not having to pay to go in those! Then we wandered down to downtown and window shopped at all the designer stores. This is a very common activity in Spain, but also very annoying on the narrow sidewalks of Granada, where you have to choose to step out into traffic to pass a group of stationary women or try to push through them. Normally the 1st option is safer. Ana and I had an awesome lunch and met up for coffee with Javi. It was really fun to reminisce about Davis for a few hours and explore the city with a local. That evening, Javi and I went for a run on paths we found. This was the first time I really felt good running since I got hurt!
On Wednesday, we went to the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudì as well. The story is that he designed this elaborate church with all these crazy details, and then got hit by a cable car and died before it was finished. So basically it's been under construction for a really long time. Things take longer in Spain, but I doubt this will ever be finished. It's too bad because the church is so beautiful, but there are all these cranes and construction elevators in it! Then we took the subway to the much quieter gardens of a royal palace. I don't know what they are all called, but there were at least 4 plants in the garden that are also in our yard in Walnut Creek! I'm pretty sure that makes us royalty (by gardening, not blood or marriage). It was a smaller palace (there are lots of houses for the royal family all over Spain), but the gardens where huge and beautiful. For lunch, we went to a newer version of the Boqueria market and a very trendy restaurant that seemed like something you would find in Napa. This was the 1st place I have seen tofu here, and I took advantage of it!
We caught a plane back to Granada, but I didn't think we were going to make it on time. We got caught behind a group of old people who I don't think had ever seen a security line. If this was the case, they should have looked at all the signs and videos telling them exactly what to do! It should have been in a TV show, seriously. One went through holding his coins in his hands, a couple tried to walk through the metal detector at the same time, the person after them just walked around the metal detector, someone shut down one of the x-ray belts, it was chaos! We made it on the plane and as we were starting to descend, I noticed how weird it looked that there were only clumps of lights where there were cities instead of the whole area being utilized. Landing in the US, you can see all the grids of houses and very little open space, but here, there is no sprawl and there are big distances between each town. Everything seems more compact and efficient. We are back in our apartment for a day, I have polo tonight, and we are heading off for more adventures tomorrow after lunch!
On a different note, I got all my registration info for St. Augustine via email today. I'm officially going there. Changed my flight (after battling with all of India) to come home April 28th! The packet is very informative- there's even a dress code. Bye-bye piercings! I've connected with some classmates and found 2 girls to live with who are nice enough to let me bum off their housing search.
In fact, we were on a special mission; Javi had a rendezvous with the king of Spain. They're old pals. Actually, Javi got an awesome scholarship to study in the US from a bank here, and part of the official ceremony was shaking hands with the king and queen. There's a video from the news I put on here, and you can actually see Javi shaking hands from 1:07 to 1:13. Now the back of Javi's head is famous!
The ceremony was on Tuesday and he could only bring 2 guests, so he went off with his parents while I hung out with Ana, who had studied abroad at Davis too. We went to Parc Güell, which Gaudì intended to be a village within Barcelona. People found it too weird so that never happened, but now it's a major attraction. We wandered around it and went inside the house where he grew up, which actually had pictures of the insides of all the other buildings he designed in Barcelona, so we saved some money not having to pay to go in those! Then we wandered down to downtown and window shopped at all the designer stores. This is a very common activity in Spain, but also very annoying on the narrow sidewalks of Granada, where you have to choose to step out into traffic to pass a group of stationary women or try to push through them. Normally the 1st option is safer. Ana and I had an awesome lunch and met up for coffee with Javi. It was really fun to reminisce about Davis for a few hours and explore the city with a local. That evening, Javi and I went for a run on paths we found. This was the first time I really felt good running since I got hurt!
On Wednesday, we went to the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudì as well. The story is that he designed this elaborate church with all these crazy details, and then got hit by a cable car and died before it was finished. So basically it's been under construction for a really long time. Things take longer in Spain, but I doubt this will ever be finished. It's too bad because the church is so beautiful, but there are all these cranes and construction elevators in it! Then we took the subway to the much quieter gardens of a royal palace. I don't know what they are all called, but there were at least 4 plants in the garden that are also in our yard in Walnut Creek! I'm pretty sure that makes us royalty (by gardening, not blood or marriage). It was a smaller palace (there are lots of houses for the royal family all over Spain), but the gardens where huge and beautiful. For lunch, we went to a newer version of the Boqueria market and a very trendy restaurant that seemed like something you would find in Napa. This was the 1st place I have seen tofu here, and I took advantage of it!
We caught a plane back to Granada, but I didn't think we were going to make it on time. We got caught behind a group of old people who I don't think had ever seen a security line. If this was the case, they should have looked at all the signs and videos telling them exactly what to do! It should have been in a TV show, seriously. One went through holding his coins in his hands, a couple tried to walk through the metal detector at the same time, the person after them just walked around the metal detector, someone shut down one of the x-ray belts, it was chaos! We made it on the plane and as we were starting to descend, I noticed how weird it looked that there were only clumps of lights where there were cities instead of the whole area being utilized. Landing in the US, you can see all the grids of houses and very little open space, but here, there is no sprawl and there are big distances between each town. Everything seems more compact and efficient. We are back in our apartment for a day, I have polo tonight, and we are heading off for more adventures tomorrow after lunch!
On a different note, I got all my registration info for St. Augustine via email today. I'm officially going there. Changed my flight (after battling with all of India) to come home April 28th! The packet is very informative- there's even a dress code. Bye-bye piercings! I've connected with some classmates and found 2 girls to live with who are nice enough to let me bum off their housing search.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
I win!
So I've been living here 2 weeks. Here's a report card:
Successes
1. Buying fruit: this is harder than you would think. Here, produce stores have a counter with the shopkeepers and most of the fruits and veggies are behind them. You tell them what you want and how much of it. Pointing doesn't really cut it. Basically, I when I see what I want but don't know the name of it, I pick a veggie I know the name of and direct the person based on the relative location of what I want. For example, “la cosa a la derecha (to the right) de la berenjana (eggplant)” translates to “zucchini” in Kellish. It is like this for fish, bread, and meat/cheese shops. Everything you want is in a separate store (that is, if you want better quality and less lines than the supermarkets), so it's kinda like a treasure hunt. It's hard to be lazy here! But so far, I've come away with everything I need and nothing more!
2. Listening in water polo: Normally, when a coach talks for more than 1 minute, I start to zone out. No offense to any coaches I've had, I just can't help it. Now that I don't speak the language the drills are being taught in, I am the most attentive I have ever been in my life. I often even know what we are doing better than the girls that are from here and can explain it to them! I don't really know how usefull this set of vocab is gonna be for the rest of my life, but it is helping my communication skills a lot.
3. Finding our local spice shop: Best. Idea. EVER. First of all, it smells amazing in there. All the spices are in huge uncovered boxes. There is an open air one nearby, but having all those smells in 1 room is beautiful. They have pretty much every spice you could want and loose leaf teas. It's great because you know how when you are looking at recipes and you're like “ugh, I don't wanna buy a whole thing of cardamom, I'll never use it again”? Well, at this wonderful place, you can just buy 1 teaspoon and continue on your merry way!
4. St. Augustine: I've pretty much decided to go to grad school in San Diego. This means coming back at the end of April (NOT success!), but I looked very closely at the programs I have yet to hear from, and this is the best option. I am really excited to live in So Cal and have been talking on Facebook with people who will be in my class. Technology allows me to find a roommate online!
5. Columbia: Javi has officially been accepted to Columbia (the University, not the country. There was a confusing mix-up with that)!!! It's not exactly close to San Diego, but if I were to guess, I'd say it's closer than Spain. We are waiting to hear if he gets into UCSD, but this is a huge accomplishment. ALSO, Señor Smarty Pantalones got an award for getting the 2nd highest grade in his graduating class!
Fails
1. Laundry: I've gotten it figured out by now, but the first load of laundry I did took about 3 days to dry. Mainly because we don't have a dryer and it was raining. Clothes do NOT dry well inside! Now, I know that in order to do laundry I have to closely watch the weather report. I never realized that clean socks could depend on weather.com's predictions. I want to take pictures of our cute new home, but Javi won't let me because apparently it is embarrassing to have drying laundry visible. In fact, our balconies have a covering over the rails so no one can see our clotheslines. I thought this was weird because since no one has a dryer, who cares if we see each others' undies? It shows that we are actually doing laundry! I don't think this is so much of a cultural difference as it's just that I don't care about things like this. In the US, I'd probably be that hillbilly with my clothes drying in the front yard.
2. The doors: Someone decided it was a good idea to put the door handles in the dead center of the doors. This person was not a physics student. The only way to close them is by slamming them and using momentum. So the first day I left the apartment, I couldn't figure out how close the door. This made me feel great about myself.
3. Old ladies: They are MEAN here! As I described before with the various stores, you are served by the “take a number” technique, and these women have all kinds of tactics to get ahead in line. They take mulitple numbers for their friends, crowd around, completely ignore the system, actually push people . . . it's frightening. I can imagine how hillarious the scene looks, wth all of them swarming around, and me, at least a foot taller than all of them, getting carried away to the back of the store. Javi has learned ways to overcome these struggles, but I am still afraid of them and normally just go shopping early to avoid the chaos.
4. Bars: Cocktails do not exist here. When you go to most bars, you ask for a beer. Literally, you say, "give me a beer" and they give you the 1 kind they have on tap, which is like Bud Light equivilancy. Last night, we found a trendy looking place with 2 bars and lots of people, most of which were not drinking beer. Sounds like a good sign, right? Kinda. Turns out, they were popular because they were one of the few places that made well drinks. I asked for a margarita, which sent 3 bartenders back and forth between the 2 bars and took about 10 minutes. I got lemon juice and tequilla in a martinini glass. Enough said.
I'm "winning" by 1 points! I really love it here. We are planning on traveling a lot, so more to come soon!
Successes
1. Buying fruit: this is harder than you would think. Here, produce stores have a counter with the shopkeepers and most of the fruits and veggies are behind them. You tell them what you want and how much of it. Pointing doesn't really cut it. Basically, I when I see what I want but don't know the name of it, I pick a veggie I know the name of and direct the person based on the relative location of what I want. For example, “la cosa a la derecha (to the right) de la berenjana (eggplant)” translates to “zucchini” in Kellish. It is like this for fish, bread, and meat/cheese shops. Everything you want is in a separate store (that is, if you want better quality and less lines than the supermarkets), so it's kinda like a treasure hunt. It's hard to be lazy here! But so far, I've come away with everything I need and nothing more!
2. Listening in water polo: Normally, when a coach talks for more than 1 minute, I start to zone out. No offense to any coaches I've had, I just can't help it. Now that I don't speak the language the drills are being taught in, I am the most attentive I have ever been in my life. I often even know what we are doing better than the girls that are from here and can explain it to them! I don't really know how usefull this set of vocab is gonna be for the rest of my life, but it is helping my communication skills a lot.
3. Finding our local spice shop: Best. Idea. EVER. First of all, it smells amazing in there. All the spices are in huge uncovered boxes. There is an open air one nearby, but having all those smells in 1 room is beautiful. They have pretty much every spice you could want and loose leaf teas. It's great because you know how when you are looking at recipes and you're like “ugh, I don't wanna buy a whole thing of cardamom, I'll never use it again”? Well, at this wonderful place, you can just buy 1 teaspoon and continue on your merry way!
4. St. Augustine: I've pretty much decided to go to grad school in San Diego. This means coming back at the end of April (NOT success!), but I looked very closely at the programs I have yet to hear from, and this is the best option. I am really excited to live in So Cal and have been talking on Facebook with people who will be in my class. Technology allows me to find a roommate online!
5. Columbia: Javi has officially been accepted to Columbia (the University, not the country. There was a confusing mix-up with that)!!! It's not exactly close to San Diego, but if I were to guess, I'd say it's closer than Spain. We are waiting to hear if he gets into UCSD, but this is a huge accomplishment. ALSO, Señor Smarty Pantalones got an award for getting the 2nd highest grade in his graduating class!
Fails
1. Laundry: I've gotten it figured out by now, but the first load of laundry I did took about 3 days to dry. Mainly because we don't have a dryer and it was raining. Clothes do NOT dry well inside! Now, I know that in order to do laundry I have to closely watch the weather report. I never realized that clean socks could depend on weather.com's predictions. I want to take pictures of our cute new home, but Javi won't let me because apparently it is embarrassing to have drying laundry visible. In fact, our balconies have a covering over the rails so no one can see our clotheslines. I thought this was weird because since no one has a dryer, who cares if we see each others' undies? It shows that we are actually doing laundry! I don't think this is so much of a cultural difference as it's just that I don't care about things like this. In the US, I'd probably be that hillbilly with my clothes drying in the front yard.
2. The doors: Someone decided it was a good idea to put the door handles in the dead center of the doors. This person was not a physics student. The only way to close them is by slamming them and using momentum. So the first day I left the apartment, I couldn't figure out how close the door. This made me feel great about myself.
3. Old ladies: They are MEAN here! As I described before with the various stores, you are served by the “take a number” technique, and these women have all kinds of tactics to get ahead in line. They take mulitple numbers for their friends, crowd around, completely ignore the system, actually push people . . . it's frightening. I can imagine how hillarious the scene looks, wth all of them swarming around, and me, at least a foot taller than all of them, getting carried away to the back of the store. Javi has learned ways to overcome these struggles, but I am still afraid of them and normally just go shopping early to avoid the chaos.
4. Bars: Cocktails do not exist here. When you go to most bars, you ask for a beer. Literally, you say, "give me a beer" and they give you the 1 kind they have on tap, which is like Bud Light equivilancy. Last night, we found a trendy looking place with 2 bars and lots of people, most of which were not drinking beer. Sounds like a good sign, right? Kinda. Turns out, they were popular because they were one of the few places that made well drinks. I asked for a margarita, which sent 3 bartenders back and forth between the 2 bars and took about 10 minutes. I got lemon juice and tequilla in a martinini glass. Enough said.
I'm "winning" by 1 points! I really love it here. We are planning on traveling a lot, so more to come soon!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Cloro = Chlorine
Wednesday I did something that spans countries and cultures and brings people together no matter what their backgrounds- lap swim! It's hilarious seeing the exact same scenes but in Spanish. The university pool is in a giant marshmallow bubble, which is good because it's not heated, but everything seems so much louder. At the time I went, there were 2 lanes for lap swim and the rest for swim team and kids' classes. As soon as I walked in, I felt at home; little kids pulling on the lane lines and screaming for candy, coaches yelling angrily at a group of 13-14's, lifeguards looking like they wished we would all drown so they could get the heck out of there, and of course, the awkward dance of the lap swimming. There was a “fast” lane and a “slow” lane, but like at Hickey (UCD's lap pool), these designations are both misinterpreted as “flailing areas.” Not that I'm super fast or anything, but it seems like no pool I have ever swam in has people who know how to circle swim. At one point during my workout, a girl asked me what they pull bouy was for, and I was quite proud when I could answer in Spanish. Then she asked me what muscles it worked. I think she wanted a shorter answer, but I was the wrong person to ask for that. There was a lot of pointing involved in that answer! Anyway, I did manage to get a good swim in, as well as get info about water polo.
So yesterday, I went to my first polo practice in 2 years! Thank god I've been swimming! There are girls and boys club teams here, but the girls don't compete, just practice and scrimmage with the boys sometimes. Life is weird without Title IX . The coach wasn't there (they said he has come every other day that year!), but we practiced anyway with sprints and ball handling and passing, so that worked out well for me. Since they swim long course here (50 meters, NOT 25 yards), the sprints were a bit difficult. Like a lot. And it was indoors so I felt like my face was on fire. Luckily, the girls here are not crazy fast, so I'm already towards the front of the group in that area, but my ball handling leaves a lot to be desired. The experience level is pretty varied and not everyone was there the first day, so I think I'll fit right in the middle. There is a girl from Chicago who is studying here, a girl from Italy, and the rest are Spanish. Polo practice was another experience that seems to have little cultural difference. There were some girls sitting on the side talking, arguing about setting up the pool after, silliness during passing- I think this is gonna be great! I'm really excited about polo I get to make some friends and practice my Spanish. I need to learn how to speak in a game now. Things like hole set, I'm open, stop kicking me would be good to start learning. I am going to my first scrimmage in about an hour, so if this is my last post for a while, it's probably because my arms are too sore to pick up my laptop. Hasta lluego!
So yesterday, I went to my first polo practice in 2 years! Thank god I've been swimming! There are girls and boys club teams here, but the girls don't compete, just practice and scrimmage with the boys sometimes. Life is weird without Title IX . The coach wasn't there (they said he has come every other day that year!), but we practiced anyway with sprints and ball handling and passing, so that worked out well for me. Since they swim long course here (50 meters, NOT 25 yards), the sprints were a bit difficult. Like a lot. And it was indoors so I felt like my face was on fire. Luckily, the girls here are not crazy fast, so I'm already towards the front of the group in that area, but my ball handling leaves a lot to be desired. The experience level is pretty varied and not everyone was there the first day, so I think I'll fit right in the middle. There is a girl from Chicago who is studying here, a girl from Italy, and the rest are Spanish. Polo practice was another experience that seems to have little cultural difference. There were some girls sitting on the side talking, arguing about setting up the pool after, silliness during passing- I think this is gonna be great! I'm really excited about polo I get to make some friends and practice my Spanish. I need to learn how to speak in a game now. Things like hole set, I'm open, stop kicking me would be good to start learning. I am going to my first scrimmage in about an hour, so if this is my last post for a while, it's probably because my arms are too sore to pick up my laptop. Hasta lluego!
Monday, March 8, 2010
I'm finally here!!!
¡Estoy en España! Just a little back story on my current state of life, I have relocated to Spain to live with Javi in Granada, Spain before we both go to grad school in the US and have no lives. Before I left, people kept asking what I was going to do in Spain and the answer is: a whole lotta nada. I am going to get my Physical Therapy doctorate, which is an intense 3 year program, and I know my brain will thank me for taking a break before that. Javi will be getting his masters in Electrical Engineering starting in the Fall. The superfun part about grad school right now is that neither of us know for sure where we will be or if we will be together. Right now, we are at the hand of fate (aka admissions offices). It's so weird and hard knowing other peoples' decisions shape the rest of your life! I was planning on staying here for 4 months, but now that I got into St. Augustine in San Diego, which starts in May, I can only stay about 2 months. Not that I'm complaining, it just reminds me that I don't really get to make life decisions for the next few years! We are waiting on Javi's acceptance letters, but right now Columbia (not too shabby) is the only one. If anyone knows anyone in the UCSD Engineering department, can you bake them a cake with Javi's name on it in thick red frosting? Thanks.
Anyway, none of this waiting by the mailbox matters for now because I am here!!! The flight over was made easy with the help of melatonin and free wine, plus the fact that it was pretty empty and I had 2 seats all to myself. Well, technically I had 2 seats, but since the pregnant lady at the other end of the row took up 3 seats, I had 1. I couldn't find it in myself to ask her to move on a 10 hour flight. I should get a fake belly for the flight home.
Javi and I spent the first day in Madrid just wandering around. We had an awesome run in the main park there (Retiro). I have had a super-tight IT band after attempting marathon training, so running for 30 min. with only a 1 min. walking break in the middle was a great success! We went to a museum and watched an “interesting” performance art video. There is no way a non-jet lagged version of me would have sat through 2 men beating a clay wall for a ½ hour, but zombie Kellie did. We met up with his friends for lunch, which quickly reminded me of how much Spanish I need to start learning, and quickly!
Javi and I speak in English, but in order to communicate here, I'm gonna need to improve a LOT. I really do want to get better at Spanish, but apparently I look so American, that people automatically speak to me in English. In Madrid, we went to a piercing and tattoo place to touch-up Javi's face and neck tattoos . . . ok really because 1 of my piercings broke the day before I left and I couldn't fix it myself. I knew how to say everything I needed, but the dude broke into English immediately. I guess they want to practice their English on me! But everyday I spend here is already improving my Spanish.
Ok so hopefully I will be able to keep posting up here and stay in touch. We don't have internet yet (I'm being an internet pirate off a neighbor right now). Just wanted to put up the first update the I am safe in my new home. We are busy making it homey! I hope you keep following my trials and triumphs in my new life. Hopefully my English doesn't deteriorate as my Spanish improves and I will still be able to write semi-literate blogs!
Oh, and if you're wondering about the title: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5puAN1PGQw
Anyway, none of this waiting by the mailbox matters for now because I am here!!! The flight over was made easy with the help of melatonin and free wine, plus the fact that it was pretty empty and I had 2 seats all to myself. Well, technically I had 2 seats, but since the pregnant lady at the other end of the row took up 3 seats, I had 1. I couldn't find it in myself to ask her to move on a 10 hour flight. I should get a fake belly for the flight home.
Javi and I spent the first day in Madrid just wandering around. We had an awesome run in the main park there (Retiro). I have had a super-tight IT band after attempting marathon training, so running for 30 min. with only a 1 min. walking break in the middle was a great success! We went to a museum and watched an “interesting” performance art video. There is no way a non-jet lagged version of me would have sat through 2 men beating a clay wall for a ½ hour, but zombie Kellie did. We met up with his friends for lunch, which quickly reminded me of how much Spanish I need to start learning, and quickly!
Javi and I speak in English, but in order to communicate here, I'm gonna need to improve a LOT. I really do want to get better at Spanish, but apparently I look so American, that people automatically speak to me in English. In Madrid, we went to a piercing and tattoo place to touch-up Javi's face and neck tattoos . . . ok really because 1 of my piercings broke the day before I left and I couldn't fix it myself. I knew how to say everything I needed, but the dude broke into English immediately. I guess they want to practice their English on me! But everyday I spend here is already improving my Spanish.
Ok so hopefully I will be able to keep posting up here and stay in touch. We don't have internet yet (I'm being an internet pirate off a neighbor right now). Just wanted to put up the first update the I am safe in my new home. We are busy making it homey! I hope you keep following my trials and triumphs in my new life. Hopefully my English doesn't deteriorate as my Spanish improves and I will still be able to write semi-literate blogs!
Oh, and if you're wondering about the title: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5puAN1PGQw
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