Spain

So I began day 2 here with my family in Cordoba. It was kinda nice to wake up this morning and have everyone still sleeping so i could get myself ready and not have to concentrate too hard on forming a sentence, which takes lots of work!

So off to school I went, its about a 20 minute walk or a short bus ride, but as the lady at the bus stop informed my, i had just missed the bus and didnt know how long until the next one. Punctuality isnt really a big deal here in Spain for public transportation schedules, or store hours which can be frustrating. So the walk was nice, its cool here in the mornings and warm and sunny in the afternoons here (save for today when it was/is raining). Got to school, found the classes, sat down, answered the same questions they ask on every spanish exam: how long have you studied spanish? why do you continue to study? why are you studying abroad? why in Cordoba? and the lot....then off to more placement testing with an oral examination with much of the same questions, but in addition we had to describe some art. Needless to say, enought questions was enough and i welcomed the orientation that came next. To my dissappointment was boring as all hell, and the professor, a Poli-Sci prof from UCSD was the culprit. This man was literally foaming at the mouth (you know those people that have spit at the corner of thier mouth the entire time they talk, well that was him) and proceeded to repeat himself a ridiculous number of times.

I was relieved to finally get out of there and head home for la almuerza (lunch) and my siesta, which I had filled up with plans to meet friends at el centro (the city center) and get a cell phone, which I had to figure out the plans and what i wanted entirely in Spanish (uugghh) but hey, im finally connected to the rest of the world.

After that some of the other guys in the program and I met up in the Plaza de las Tendillas at the middle of the city to hang out where it proceeded to pour, yeah, thats right, in the middle of the heat, in summer, it was pouring! So we ventured away from the city and walked around through the small cobblestone streets just wide enough for one car and three college kids jumping out of the way as it whips around the blind curve.

The streets are beautiful. The city is very old and all the old builings and churches and walls are still erect and you weave your way inbetween all of them in a maze to find your way to some plaza or outlet. Its great, and being lost was never so fun and exciting!

I am definitely ready to start school here, there is a lull in the day for siesta and im (a) not used to it yet and (b) dont like it too much cause i feel like i waste valuable daylight hours. Ill either adjust or find something to do with that time... hoping to find a gym asap, this not working out thing is killin me.

Well, school officially starts tomorrow with classes and the like, then thursday is a holiday and if the weather is nice there is talk of going to Cadiz,a gorgeous city on the western coast of Spain just south of Portugal. Back to class Friday then the weekend..yeah!!!

SATURDAY 09.03.05: So today i had to say goodbye to Nicole as i dropped her off at the airport and boarded my train to Cordoba. The 4 1/2 hour bus ride sounded awful in the heat so i opted for the faster and more expensive train. I arrive in Cordoba 2 hours later to a swealtering desert, literally, in the middle of Andalucia. Cordoba is a historical town where Christianity, Islam and Judaism all intersected at one point or another, so the town is a melting pot of architecture and cultural influence from all 3. The city of Cordoba itself looks a lot like Petaluma or Santa Rosa, it has the small town feel but 300,000 inhabitants. The hills around the city are reminicint of the ones around Santa Rosa or in Novato. They are all tree covered but are more rocky as it is too hot here for grass to grow now.

When i finally arrived the tourist office was closed for siesta so i had to go on the little info i had from the travel book and take the #3 bus to the area where the hostels are. By the time i got off the bus and looked for any one of the 3 listed in my book i was hot, tired, sweaty, frustrated, and ready to settle somewhere. So, i found the hotel i was going to be staying at the next night and where i was supposed to meet for my program and forked over the extra dough for nice night to myself in an air conditioned room...ahh sweet luxury!

After settling in, I decided to stroll the town a little and find a supermercado to get some food for the rest of the weekend because EVERYTHING is closed on sunday, except for church and 2, 24 hour markets. El Corte Ingles is the department store of all dept. stores and aside from having everything you could ever want from a Sears Roebuck catalogue, the grocery store is on the 5th floor. Dinner was fresh fruit, turkey (a rarity here in this part where Ham is a staple) and whole wheat bread (calle pan integral). Dinner, a little spanish dubbed TV, some soccer (called futbol) in every language and a long hot shower put this baby to bed in no time.

SUNDAY 09.04.05: Today the rest of the program arrived. I awoke to a beautiful morning and took my time getting up and around. I went for a walk to see the city all locked up, as things are on sundays, and headed back to the hotel where the rest of the students in my program arrived. The day was basically a meet and greet/ eat and drink for all the students to get to know each other and chat. Not too eventful but a nice way to start off the program together.

MONDAY 09.06.05: Today we met our families. After a short orientation about Cordoba, Spain and what to expect from our families and culturally from the experience we were greeted by our host families. Finally my family arrived to pick me up and I was greeted by my host ´mom´ Carmen, and my younger host siblings, Carmen, 10, and Diego, 8. We went back to thier flat which is on hte 4th floor of a beautiful building about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the University. There i have my own room with a great balcony overlooking the neighborhood. There is even a cute yellow and white striped awning covering the balcony, how european, i love it! The rest of the flat is very cute as well. The two kids have thier own rooms. Diego´s is covered wall to wall in toys and action figures and Carmen´s walls, which are the same baby yellow with rocking paper wallpaper from when she was born, are covered in her artwork and awards. Both kids are very lively, but because thier family has hosted 3 others before me, they are also very respectful of my space. Carmen, their mother, is also very welcoming in opening up her home (and kitchen) to me. It is a very welcoming environment and I am looking forward to getting to know my family here.

Tomorrow we take placement tests and hopefully find my way around the university. The other kids in my program seem really cool, and everyone is really into the whole experience and ready to dive into stuff which is a good motivation to go out and learn new things.

I am definintely feeling the homesickness set in, or mayve some culture shock, probably both. There is always that weird getting settled stage and i dont think i like it but soon things will start to feel normal, and by then it will be time to leave. So im going to enjoy the ups and downs and live it up!

[/b]So Nicole and I managed to drag ourselves to the Nice airport. We had to do our last night in Cote d'Azur right so we hit up every place we knew of (rounding the nights number of bars, clubs and caves, yeah thatr right, caves, to 5) before heading back to Saint Euxpery for what we can call a power nap.

We got to Madrid, and easily found the luggage storage for my ridiculously large backpack and navigated the metro into the heart of the city. Finding no room at the inn, we frustratedly (is that a word??) found an internet cafe and researched a hostel that did have vacancy. Two hours later we had ridden yet another metro line and arrived at the creepiest building EVER: our hostel in the just off of Atoche. The place was dim save for a small entry hall light and was a combination of the Hollywood Tower Hotel and the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, down to the elevator in which you could barely fit me and a backpack, let alone Nicole and I and all our stuff! Finally we arrived at la tercera planta (3rd floor) and were given our own room with our own bathroom!!!!! We decided to make the most of the night and headed out for a stroll on the real city that never sleeps (Madrid-ians get an average of 1 hour less sleep than the rest of Europe). By midnight we were ready to turn in (baby bedtime by Madrid standards).

Up not so early the next day, Nicole mapped out our day and we hit up many of the historical sites Madrid has to offer. We started at the Plaza de J. Buenavente named after the Nobel prize winning playwrite (prolly misspelled). Next was off the the [/b]Puerta del Sol[/b], a huge shopping district with clock tower where, at midnight on New Year's Eve you are supposed to stuff 12 grapes into your mouth by the 12th stroke. Then off to the [/b]Plaza Mayor[/b] which is a huge rectangular cobblestone plaza bordered on all 4 sides by gorgeous gothic buildings housing the municipal services officies for Madrid.

The heat finally got to us and I was forced to get ice cream! My new fav Euro trend is pistachio ice cream, its fabulous! Then after our fat break, we headed down past the Cathedral de San Isisdro which burnt down entirely in the Spanish Civil War and left only San Isidro and hist wife's remains. Then down to the gorgeous Basilica de San Fransisco where we headed north towards the [/b]Palacio Royal and Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena[/b]. The Palacio is huge and looks like a Spanish version of the Palace of Versaille down to the ornate wrought iron gates adorned with gold and the huge courtyard leading up to the daunting white palace. We didnt go inside the palace and instead headed into the cathedral for the Exposicion Inmaculada.

The Exposicion was a collection of portraits, sculptures, paintings, and replicas of the Virgin Mary from Dioceses all over the world. It was really well put together and it was interesting to see all the different depictions of Mary throughout time and from different cultures.

Heading away from the Palacio and the Cathedral we walked up to the [/b]Plaza de Espana[/b] where the monument to Cervantes stood. The sculpture of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza are particularly prideful for the Spainiards this year as it marks the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' classic satire.

Dinner that night was Tapas and Sangria and i even got adventurous eating tapas with cheese (eeiiwww) and even worse, anchovies! I could stomach more than a bite of the later, but hey, at least i tried!

That night was our last night in Madrid so we decided to rally for a little excitement and after running into a friend from High School in a freakish coincidence, we headed off to a movie to kill time before going out.

Spanish nightlife begins, apparently around 2am, and when we were finally beat we headed back at 4am with the rest of Madrid going strong.

I guess its a good thing I am not studying in Madrid because Im not sure i could hack it there.

So i dropped nicole at the airport this morning before heading off to Cordoba by train. And after a heck of a time finding a place i decided on the hotel where I will be meeting the other people in my program tomorrow for a night of relaxation and privacy.