Several Significant Statements Sobre Studying in Spain this Spring

For you non-Spanish speakers, “sobre” means “about.” I just didn’t want to spoil this entire alliteration thing I had going on with the title. Also, there are more than just several statements…again, couldn’t ruin the alliteration. Sorry about the brief deception.

1)  It’s only been two days and I recommend coming here with all my heart. I LOVE it! Everything is so lovely. Flowers all over the place. Beautiful beautiful old buildings…seriously, fantastic architecture that is centuries upon centuries old.  Street musicians. Quaint outdoor cafes. Clean. A plethora of parks and plazas. Cobble stone streets. Lots of little stores and stands. Charming atmosphere.  Are you sold yet? Because I definitely am.

I realized I forgot to take a picture of the streets here...so I snapped

one from where I'm sitting right now (Plaza de Cervantes).

2)    Cervantes was born here in Alcala. He’s an important dude. Know him and Don Quixote at all costs. Or you can just feel like an idiot. Let’s just say, I was very glad I had sparknoted the book before coming. Oh, and extra credit points with the teacher if you can pull out a copy of Don Quixote in Spanish out of your backpack and say you’re reading it…like one of the kids in our group did. No lie. He was carrying around all six million pages of it. Now that’s a real overachiever right there.

Chilling with Don Quixote.

       

Me and my buddy Sancho. In front of la casa de Cervantes. 

3) Soccer, or futbol as they call it here, is also a big deal. A group of us watched the game (Real Madrid vs. Barcelona) in a bar in Alcala. When we first walked in and sat down around the screen, everybody’s head swiveled toward us. It was pretty awkward. Surprised looks from the guys. Death stares from the girls. But fifteen minutes into the game, we were an accepted part of the group. And then it was so much fun it was ridiculous. Everybody was around our age. Oh, and this was the biggest game of the year. We cheered for Real Madrid. Unfortunately, Barcelona was better, and they beat us 2-0. Kind of sad. The Barcelona fans had no qualms about telling us we lost. Both in Spanish and English. “You…lose…lost…!!!”

A group of us girls at the bar.

4) I brought an adapter with me to Spain…I totally forgot about getting a converter.  I plugged in my straightener and it started smoking. I thought , how weird. And then it ceased to smoke. Um…whoops. I now have a broken straightener. So if you feel like buying me a new straightener, feel free. Or an adapter would be nice too. Actually, I’ll take both, thanks. I didn't take a picture of this one...But imagine me with a sad face + a broken straightener and you've pretty much got it.

5) I’m living with a great family. They’re really nice. But we have a lot of little rules. Like how to shut the door. I received a one-on-one tutorial on how to close the bedroom and bathroom doors with the least amount of noise. We can only shower during the afternoon/night.  And those showers need to be limited to five minutes. Five minutes?!? But, Laura and I have done it. We. Have. Done. It. And will continue to do it. Oh, I’m so proud. I think that’s probably as bad as culture shock is going to get for me, so I’m feeling gooooood.

This is the outside of my house. We live in a townhouse type
deal inside of the gate. Oh, and there are roses everywhere here.

6) Living with a host family is a great way to really eat Spanish food. Our food is fantastic…like really, it is tasty. I would just never ever order what we eat at a restaurant. For example, we ate fish soup for lunch. I don’t eat sea food. An overwhelming desire to be polite is a great motivator though and I ate it all. By the time I had finished my bowlful, I had decided it wasn’t too bad. I can’t decide whether the food here is healthier or not. I definitely eat way more vegetables and fruit. But man, olive oil by the SPOONFUL.  And there’s a lot of deep-fried food. It’s olive oil though. That’s how I justify eating it.

7)    Speaking of food, the bread, juice, and yogurt here is better by 100000000X. Haley can testify to the fact that I eat lots of yogurt at home. Well, good thing we don’t have Spanish yogurt in Provo or I would probably eat even more.

8) I used to dislike the Provo road naming system. Well, I’m madly in love with it now. Laura and I have gotten lost out of our minds in the twisty, winding, cobble-stoned streets of Alcala twice now. Yesterday began with us leaving our house to go to school…at 8:30. School started at 9:00, but the bus ride is like 10 minutes, so we weren’t too worried. Well, we got on the right bus going the wrong way. We were on the flipping bus for an hour. After about 35 minutes of suffering on the bus, I got up the nerve to ask the bus driver if we were close to the Plaza of Cervantes. He stared at me. He thought, What an American idiot…And then he told me it was a long ways away, to just sit down, and that he would tell us when to get off.  We finally arrived…and then we couldn’t find the school. The bad thing with it being such an old building is that 95% of the buildings here are old. We found it eventually…and finally arrived at our classroom over an hour late. P.S. Actually, I’m kind of in love with the twisty, winding, cobble-stoned streets of Alcala, at least whenever I’m not lost. Call it an affair, if you will.

I also love all the fountains. This particularly famous fountain happens to be in Madrid.
However, there are tons of fountains in Alcala as well.

9) El Prado is huge. It’s full of beautiful art. Oh, and it’s huge. You need lots of time. But even more than that, you need lots of stamina.  I am convinced that it takes a lot of energy to appreciate art because by the end of it all, I felt like I had just run the Provo half-marathon again.

Laura (my roommate) and I outside
of the Prado Museum.

10)   Do not wear tshirts. Or sweats. Also, never go barefoot in the house. Our mom is convinced that we will catch our death of cold should we ever walk on the tile floors without shoes on.

11)    Jet lag is over-hyped (if that’s a word). I was way tired the day I got here. But since then, I have had barely any problems with it. I’m hoping for the same kind of luck on the return trip. Especially because classes start at BYU the day after I get back.

12) I love Spain.

And churros. And chocolate caliente.