Aventura into Modernism: Barcelona

Well my trip to Barcelona was almost a month ago, so I should probably write about it before I forget what we did! It was a very memorable experience though, and we got to do so much in the time we were there, it was really worthwhile. That weekend we had Thursday and Friday off which was why almost everyone in the program traveled somewhere. Rachel and I chose Barcelona because it was cheaper than Paris that particular weekend and the boys (Sean and Dan) decided to come along as well. We looked for cheap flights but it turned out the overnight train was cheaper, and would give us four full days if we left Wednesday night and returned Monday morning. So that’s what we did, and it was good way to travel.

Thursday we got into the train station and made our way to our hostel. It was a really nice place and they let us leave our luggage in the back room before coming back to check in later. We were all rather tired so we went to get some coffee and breakfast at a café. We tried to speak Spanish to the server but she just responded in English which surprised us at first, but was something we quickly got used to. Barcelona is the capital of Cataluña, a region of Spain that has its own culture very distinct from the rest of the country. Catalan is their national and official language (as well as Castilian [Spanish]) but pretty much everybody also speaks English, Spanish and French. All of the signs are in Catalan then English then Spanish and sometimes French. It is a very diverse city. It’s also really modern and has been ever since the 19^th century when the city gained fame and recognition by being chosen to host the Universal Expositions of 1888. With the 1929 International Fair and the 1992 Summer Olympic Games also being held in Barcelona the city has always had good reason to keep ahead in fashion, architecture, art and style. Throughout all of the international recognition, Barcelona has upheld and defended its own culture and the Catalan people are fiercely proud of their roots. We had a few really good experiences talking with some older Catalonians and hearing their opinions on the language, music and dancing of Catalonia.

So, after breakfast we decided to walk around a little and stretch our legs, so we walked down to the pier to see the ocean. We found the aquarium (largest in Spain!) and decided that would be a good early-morning attraction since it opened early than most other things and it was still only 9am. That was fun; we got to see schools of children as well as fish J. Plus they were speaking Catalan! (The children, not the fish) Anyway, after that we walked up the pier a ways looking at the variety of sailboats and enjoying the fresh salty breeze. We saw the statue of Columbus pointing the way to America and argued about why it was in Barcelona and not Seville. (Although he departed for “India” from Seville, Columbus was received by the Catholic Monarchs in Barcelona upon his return from the New World). We then walked up the famous street, Las Ramblas, which has a center sidewalk wider than both the streets on either side combined. It is lined with restaurants, shops and famous buildings, and the center walkway is always filled with street vendors, performers and tiny shop stalls. We went in search of Antoni Gaudí’s first buildings that he designed, Palau Güell. It was open when we got there, and free(!) but unfortunately it was being renovated so we were only allowed to go down to the basement. It was still interesting though, and the exterior was awesome of course. Then we walked over to the site of the old hospital which had a cool library and a gorgeous courtyard. We walked around there a little and went inside the library to explore. I found some cool Spanish comic books and then got lost in an Impressionism art book for a while.

We then went in search of the popular market La Boqueria which is filled with all sorts of fresh food stalls, quite a few bars and several places to sit and order fried food such as seafood. We all got pretty hungry looking at all the options but decided to find a place to sit and eat somewhere since we’d been walking for almost five hours already. We went back up Las Ramblas and found a Basque restaurant that looked good. It was! Rachel and I shared a couple tapas, fried potatoes with this amazing spicy sauce, slices of fresh cheese (they went together really well!) and then vegetarian paella, which was awesome. The boys also got paella but theirs had seafood (like how normal people eat it).

After lunch we went back to the hostel to check in and rest awhile. That evening we decided to go to the CHOCOLATE museum. Yeah, Barcelona has a wonderful reputation for chocolate, and it was actually where modern chocolate was invented! Since Spanish explores brought back all sorts of valuable things from South America, the cocoa bean made it back eventually and someone decided to revitalize the ancient recipe for hot chocolate and add sugar and milk to make it similar to what it is now. So that was fantastic. However, funny thing happened when Rachel and I made it to the café attached to the museum and gift shop. We decided to get a cop of hot chocolate, you know, as you should in a chocolate museum. Well, we ordered our hot chocolate, highly anticipating the rich dark hot heavenly chocolate, when, much to our astonishment, the waitress told us they were out of chocolate. We laughed, assuming it was joke since we could literally SEE the chocolate factory that was also attached. But she was serious. They actually DID run out of chocolate! We were so disappointed we just left and took as many free samples of chocolate as we could manage on our way out. At least they were good free samples.

The rest of the afternoon we wandered around and did some window shopping and exploring of the city center. For dinner we stopped at an amazing fast food falafel pita sandwich place. It was delicious and highly satisfying, especially since it was a full meal under 5 Euros. The boys wanted to go down to the beach for a little while, so we went with them and got to stick our feet in the Mediterranean sea! It was surprisingly cold, but nice.

Friday was a wonderful day. We had big plans to visit all of Gaudi’s most famous works of architecture. After a yummy breakfast of nutella on toast with hot chocolate at the hostel, we started out walking up Las Ramblas to get to Casa Batlló. This was Gaudi’s first complete house that he designed for a patron. It ended up being my favorite of all of his works. The whole house is designed to be super economical, and to reflect the relationship between humans and nature. It was gorgeous! The guided tour was free so that was an added bonus because we learned a lot. After that house we walked a couple blocks to La Pedrera, or Casa Milá, which is probably his most famous house just because of the recognizable façade: it is completely curvy and wavy. It turns out the whole house is like that; there are no straight walls in the entire house at all! The house also has a very memorable roof as well, it also imitates waves or hills and the whole thing is steps up and down and strange statues that kind of look like trees. It was very cool. The interior of the house was pretty neat as well because it still had a lot of original furniture designed by Gaudi.

The last building we visited by Gaudi was the Sagrada Familia, his famous unfinished cathedral. That was quite the building. It is immense, first of all, and it is also just overwhelmingly complex. The exterior has four main façades that are each dedicated to a different religious event or theme. The Nativity façade was the first one that was finished, and the passion façade is probably the most famous. The other two aren’t finished. The building has eight towers currently, and I think it is supposed to have sixteen in all! The Jesus tower will eventually be the tallest and in the center of the church. Gaudi was a surprisingly religious and spiritual man; he dedicated the last twenty years of his life completely to this project. It was expensive though, and not well funded so unfortunately they were delayed often. Apparently Gaudi was so intent on continuing he would go out to the streets and beg for money from passers-by! That’s dedication to your work, I guess. Anyway, we were able to take an elevator UP one of the towers and take a bridge across to the other tower and walk down the staircase! That was awesome, and the view was amazing. One of my hopes for the future is that the cathedral is completed within my lifetime so I can visit it as a finished work. The interior was overwhelming and the stained glass was beautiful… It was just spectacular.

After the Sagrada Familia we were all a little tired of looking at architecture, and very hungry. We decided to head up to the park that Gaudi designed and eat a picnic lunch. The climb up the mountain side was pretty intense, thank god they installed escalators at some point, I can’t imagine climbing up that high ever all by staircase, especially on an empty stomach! We found a place to stop for groceries near the top of the hill, and finally made it into the park. It was a very well-deserved lunch after that climb. We explored the park for a few hours after that and enjoyed the people-watching in the plaza surrounded by the world longest bench which just happens to be decorated in beautiful rainbow colored mosaics. We got to see the famous mosaic lizard statue as well which was pretty awesome.

We were all still exhausted after a day full of walking so we went back to the hostel to rest again (plus we are really getting used to the whole siesta after lunch thing). We did a little planning for the next day (the boys decided they were going to take a bus and tram thing UP a nearby mountain to go see a famous monastery on the edge of the Alps) and then decided to go for another walk down by the beach.

Saturday morning the boys left early and Rachel and I slept in. We decided to take the subway over to Montjuic, a neighborhood of the city that is up on a cliff overlooking the rest of the city. It was a gorgeous day, and it was nice to walk around. We climbed up to the main building, the National Art Museum of Barcelona, and of course went inside. Some of the works of art I had just studied in my class were there so that was very exciting for me. There were a lot of good romantic pieces, as well as renaissance and modern. I enjoyed it. Then we wandered around a little while and found a hidden equestrian school! I watched them training for a while and the Rachel told me she was hungry. So we went to get sandwiches and watch people (very customary when you’re eating outside) and then walked over to the Olympic stadium which is now used for Barcelona’s soccer team. That was pretty big. The really neat part was the extensive grounds leading off to one side of the stadium that was literally just small fields of grass and pools of water at varying levels. There were tons of people out and about, and plenty of little children running around. It was great entertainment. After a little while Rachel and I went back to our hostel and took a nap again. Then we got up and decided to go find the little coffee chop called the Four Cats Café that my friend Rachel from home told me I should look for. It was super close to our hostel so we went and had a cup of hot chocolate which was amazing. The café is famous for having been the favorite hangout of many popular modern artists, Picasso was one of them. The café was gifted a few of their early sketches, and uses one of them as their logo. It was pretty neat. Later we were walking around and heard this starnge drumming coming from the central plaza. Turns out it was a huge political rally day and we ended walking right into the center of it! People were drumming and dancing and waving signs around... the whole plaza was super crowded and it was crazy. We felt a little overwhelmed by it all but a local Catalonian told us it wasn't anything to be worried about. Apparently it was just a general rally to raise awareness about the upcoming elections. It was really neat. And the coolest thing was right after this huge poitical rally when a band set up in the plaza and people formed circles and started dancing! Apparently every Saturday night in the plaza in front of the government building people gather to dance the traditional Catalonia dance. It was super neat. We watched for quite a while and listened to the band which was really good.

We did some more window shopping for a while, and then the boys called to say they’d returned. We went out to get some food and then decided to go to this jazz club for dessert and a glass of wine. That was a wonderful experience because it was a very classy place. The wine was delicious (I chose it, I’m getting pretty good!) and the dessert was phenomenal. We had fruit and chocolate fondue… just imagine. The music was good too, it was really interesting to hear jazz being played in a Barcelona restaurant in Spain. We heard Miles Davis, and A Girl from Iponema which definitely brought back some Now and Then memories.

Sunday was the day we decided to go to the Picasso museum because it was free on the first Sunday of the month. Hooray! The line was incredibly long of course though, because everyone had the same idea as us but it moved pretty quickly. The museum was obviously crowded, but it was worth it. There were some amazing works in there that had been a part of Picasso’s personal collection. They were all works that had inspired him so that was interesting. Picasso’s art was obviously fantastic. I had no idea that he was such an amazing artist in so many different categories of art. He could do ANYTHING. I know many people look at his work and say, “well that doesn’t even LOOK like a person, I could put those shapes together and call it my grandma…” but this guy was actually a phenomenal artist. It was incredible to see samples of his work from his entire lifetime. And most exciting for me was seeing his renditions of Las Meninas a famous piece by Veázquez of which Picasso decided to do an extensive study (as in 44 different paintings and representations of this one work). It was so cool.

After the museum Rachel and I went over to the Music Palace of Catalonia for which was had reserved a tour for the afternoon. The palace is a famous old concert hall that was designed by a contemporary of Gaudi, with many of the same ideals of nature and economical design. The concert hall can be completely lit by natural lighting, and is decorated so beautifully I feel I would be distracted by all of the beauty if I were ever on that stage. The center of the ceiling has a “chandelier” type structure that is really a stained glass window in the shape of a water droplet hanging from the ceiling. The glass is rainbow colored, and kind of looks like the sun. The pillars and walls are all decorated in beautiful tiles and mosaics of every color. The background of the stage was also incredible because it was decorated with twelve different muses in statue form, coming out of the wall. Each one had a mosaic tiled costume on to represent a different region or coutry of the world, and each was holding a musical instrument to correspond. It was really gorgeous. Unfortunately, due to ownership of copyrights and stuff we were not allowed to take pictures. But I bought postcards! The tour was interesting as well, and I learned a lot.

After the Palace we went to meet the boys to go get another picnic lunch. We took it over to a large city park to sit and each and enjoy the sunshine. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of people out doing the same thing we were. There were lots of children running around and biking and playing. It was a fabulous way to spend the lunchtime and we were able to lay in the sun in the grass for our siesta time. We explored the park a little while and discovered there was a zoo attached! It was closed, unfortunately, but we walked around the edge a while and managed to see a few antelope and an elephant. That was cool. Then we found a large pond upon which people were rowing boats around. We inquired into the price and decide the two euro was definitely worth it for a half an hour. So we rented a boat, got in, and had a grand old time trying to teach Sean how to properly row a boat. Rachel finally ended up helping him on one side, and the Dan switched with him after an interesting episode with a tree. After almost falling out during the switch we rowed around contentedly for a while until we came to a bridge. Wanting to under the bridge and realizing we would barely fit even while ducking, we decided it was a must. That was a great time and I have pictures to document it.

The few hours we had left before heading back to the train station were spent leisurely wandering the beach. We took more pictures and watched more people, and ate some more ice-cream before heading back to the center for another wonderfully filling falafel-pita meal. After some issues with a lost ticket by Dan (long story) we made it back to the train station and safely on our train just in time. It was a very exciting trip in all, and I feel like I learned a lot...cheesy but true!

I’ll keep the stories coming if you would like to keep reading them ;)

Love love love,

Maia Jo

Córdoba and Ronda, as well as Sevilla

Hello everyone!

I know it has been quite a while since I have posted anything, and I apologize. I have been busy traveling and doing homework! Craziness. Since my last post I have been to Córdoba, Ronda and Barcelona within Spain, and now yesterday I returned from Paris! I am going to keep this blog contained to Córdoba and Ronda though just so as not to overwhelm anyone, myself included! At the end I will catch you up on what’s going on in Sevilla right now so I don’t get too far behind. Feel free to skip ahead if you wish!

Córdoba: Alright, Córdoba was a day trip that I took with my program here, CIEE and it was very nice. Córdoba is only about an hour and a half away, and its main attraction is the mezquita (mosque), a building dedicated to Islam gatherings, reflection and education. It is a gorgeous complex; you initially walk into a courtyard filled with orange trees and small waterways. The alminar (tower?) stands proudly on one side and the entrance to the mezquita is a beautiful mosaic-covered arch on the other side. Immediately upon entering the mezquita you understand the importance and popularity of the building after hundreds of years. The entire building is a maze of arches painted in candy-striped brick red and cream that make it seem as if you were in a maze of a child’s play land. But it is beautiful. There are mosaics on the wall, and the floor is beautifully tiled and the light is dim enough to make you feel very relaxed and peaceful. Walking around to the other side is the enclosed arch that is used to indicate the direction to Mecca. Just around the corner, surprisingly, is a small chapel. When the Spanish took over Al-Alandalus and renamed it Andalusia, they destroyed almost all of the mezquitas and build churches on the same location. Fortunately, they realized the beauty of a few of the larger ones and just decided to build churches and chapels within them to “Christianize” them. So that’s what happened here. There is even a larger altar and worship space directly in the middle of the mezquita which was very confusing. The mixture of architecture and cultural styles was so different, but it was really interesting.

After visiting the mezquita, we went to a Jewish synagogue, one of the oldest in southern Spain. The Muslims in Córdoba, during their rule, were very accepting of Jews and Christians, so it was an extremely diverse city until the Catholic monarchs kicked everybody out who refused to convert to Christianity. That was also a beautiful building. It was simple, but I feel sometimes that simplicity is better within a worship space. I get a little overwhelmed by the Romanic, romantic and renaissance styles of covering every inch of space in decoration and art, even though it may be pretty.

The rest of the day was given to us for free time to explore. I hung out with my friends from Olaf and a few others from the program. We wandered the streets for a while, looked in the shops, and enjoyed the sunshine. We stopped in a small restaurant for lunch around 2:30 and had paella in the central courtyard next to a fountain and under the blue sky. Later we had ice cream and walked down to the river and the popular walking bridge. It was a really relaxing day, and nice to see the natural lands just beyond the river. I had forgotten how much I missed the peace and quiet of nature. Sevilla is wonderful, but it is a city filled with people, cars, buses and noise; it was nice to almost see the country again.

On our way back the program took a short stop at a winery in a small town outside Córdoba. We had a tour of the winery and the buildings where they ferment, distill and bottle the wine. The barn filled with wine barrels was really neat; I’ll put pictures up on my website. Then we were all treated to a short wine-tasting session. They gave us three little samples to try, one dry, one sweet, and one dessert wine. The first two were good, but the last one did not appeal to me at all. It basically tasted like liquefied raisins, which essential is what it was. It was a good amount of wine though, enough to make people sleepy on the way home during siesta time (which was a great strategy on the part of the program leaders to keep us quiet on the bus).

Ronda: My trip to Ronda was a very spontaneous one. It was a weekend when not many people had plans, but we didn’t all have too much to do either. So on Friday night my friends and I decided we should go somewhere the next day. We met at the bus station at 9 am the next day to decide where. Sean and Molly had heard a lot of good things about Ronda so that was the winner. I had no clue, and neither did Dan so we just smiled and agreed and bought our tickets to Ronda. On our way there I knew we’d made the right decision because we were driving through the mountains and past huge cliffs of limestone and over great green valleys filled with goats and sheep. Just the ride there was worth the whole trip. It was about two and half hours by bus so we got there around noon. The day was slightly rainy and chilly but we didn’t mind. The big attraction of Ronda is the fact that the town is split in two by a huge cavernous valley with a river and waterfalls below, but it is joined by a gorgeous bridge right at the top called the New Bridge even though it’s a couple hundred years old. The views were spectacular! The town in general was very quaint and old-fashioned and there was plenty to see. We walked around a while and found a cheap place to eat a good meal and warm up a bit. Then we went in a museum which used to be an old palace. The building was gorgeous, and there was a whole exhibit on history of the world (if anyone can put that into one exhibit, the Spanish can).

Later on we walked down some huge hills (to the great excitement of Sean, he loves hills…) to get a better view of the bridge. It was chilly so the walk warmed us up a bit, especially when we had to go back up! The trails went right along the edge of the cliffs so it was a spectacular view. There were a few other tourists around but at one point we were approached by a local who had a LOT to say. He asked where we were from and why were we in Ronda and told us there’s a good tea shop up the road and let us know that he had a cousin in Sevilla and did we know him? And by the way it’s chilly—we should go visit his friend at the tea shop. He was very amusing; he practically followed us up the entire path. Back at the top, we took a short trip down underneath the New Bridge to the part where they constructed it. That’s kind of confusing, but you’ll understand when I get the pictures to put. Unfortunately my camera died, as did Sean’s and Dan’s, so we were all relying on Molly to take really good pictures! Sean took it from her for a while to ensure that himself. Molly and I were getting cold and wanted some coffee so went to the nearby Café de Indias while Sean and Dan walked down a really big hill nearly to the river at the bottom of the ravine. They took Molly’s camera and assured her they wouldn’t drop it in the river. They came back safely and in time to walk back to catch our bus back to Sevilla.

Sevilla: So now I am back in Sevilla after Paris (I will write about that soon). Before our break I was mostly doing normal school things and hanging out with friends, nothing too exciting. My friend Rachel is in an orchestra here and is now good friends with some Spaniards from that so we have been hanging out with them some which is great. It’s rather hard to be friends with Spaniards I have realized. Even though it’s easy to make friends, it’s difficult to plan things and have it work out since they all already have solid groups of friends and regular schedules and places to meet and make plans I feel like I’m intruding if I try to make plans as well. I DO try, but the other difficulty is the fact that talking on the phone is really out of the question. First it’s expensive; you don’t call someone unless you have something specific to say with specific plans. Also it’s just hard to talk in and understand Spanish on the phone. So, I have resorted to texting, but when that fails you just have to give up and try again some other time. It’s kind of frustrating. But I am getting better at it, and more confident. Once I am out with them it’s easy to communicate, it’s just the planning that’s difficult.

This week, Semana Santa, holy week, is probably the most important week of the year in Sevilla. I am very glad to be here and experience the traditions. So far my Spanish mother is feeding me all sorts of yummy traditional foods. This morning I had a piece of bread called a torrija that was soaked in wine and honey and then fried and sprinkled with sugar. It was crazy good. She’s still in the kitchen cooking and baking all sorts of traditional foods.

The reason Semana Santa is so popular is because of the pasos, huge float-type things that are carried by 25-35 men hidden underneath. Each one depicts a scene from the Passion of Christ or the Suffering of Mary. Each church that is officially part of the ceremony has one of each. The pasos are usually decorated with candles and roses and flowers and are just extraordinary. Each one processes from its church to the main avenues of the city up to the cathedral where they rest, light the candles and say prayers and vigils. Many are accompanied by music, and all are preceded by costaleros who wear capuchones, the tall pointy hat that unfortunately reminds Americans of the KKK. Obviously the tradition here in Spain is much much older and has nothing to do with them. The costaleros often carry candles or crosses, and wear different colors according to the paso and scene that they are walking with. I still don’t understand all of it, but I’m sure I will after I see more of it. So far I have only seen the pasos within their church; it rained yesterday so not all of them took the route to the cathedral which was really disappointing.

It has been raining a little bit today which is awful and really weird for Sevilla so hopefully it stops in time for the pasos to process. Tonight is the most important series and I am really excited to see it. There is a madrugada procession starting just after midnight so everything will be lit up and wonderful. The rest of the weekend is also really important so I will try to see a lot of it and take good pictures. Unfortunately I still have homework, but I will get that done eventually! It is really wonderful to be a part of the traditions here, and I am really grateful to my Spanish mother for teaching me all that she has about the week and including me in all of the activities. I will keep you updated, and write my blog about Barcelona and Paris before I go to Italy! Oh craziness. J

Hope you all are well and that the weather warms up soon. Keep me updated on your lives, I miss you all!!

Love love love,

Maia Jo

¡Carnaval!

This past weekend was quite the adventure for me. Like many countries, Spain celebrates the time just before lent with a rowdy week of celebrations. In Cádiz, a city surrounded by the ocean on three sides, the celebration actually lasts two weeks and is way more than just a party. It's a costume competition, a place where you can dress up as anything imaginable and show your creativity to the world. Also, there are group competitions of singing and costume creating as a team. Each team chooses a well know Spanish song, usually a folk song and changes the words to create some sort of parody, silly joke, or political statement. It's really amusing, but sometimes hard to follow or really understand when you don't know the original song.

So the bus to Cádiz left at 9pm on Saturday night. It was about a two hour ride down there, but I went with a four close friends and we chatted and sang Disney songs on the way there. Driving into the city, we saw huge decorated signs and banners and plenty of people walking around dressed up. Cadiz is on a small peninsula, so while it is in southern Spain and very popular in the summer because of its famous beaches, it was rather cold that night because of the wind coming from all directions. I was dressed as a gypsy (Gitana, or cíngara, if you want to be politically correct) so I was well covered. I wore a long patchwork sparkly skirt with tights, a couple random colorful shirts and a wide pink/green shawl. I also adorned myself with plenty of jewelry and huge purple earrings. My friends and I had all bought masks together as well, they were jest cheap paper eye masks but they were super sparkly and had pink and purple feathers on them so they looked pretty awesome. Most of the groups of people that go to Carnaval all dress alike, or dress to create a theme or family from a movie or something. We saw the characters from Shrek, the Incredibles family, several clans of men dressed as nuns, and quite a few groups of pirates. One girl that had been on the bus with us, Julie, was dressed as a pirate so any time we saw a group of pirates they would all shout "Oye, mira! Una pirata!! Ven aquí, un foto!!" It was quite the pirate comradery. There were people dressed as hippies, gypsies, doctors, nurses, cows, boxes of candy, old couples, Smurfs, trolls, fairies, princesses, kings, knights, witches, cowboys, spacemen…I could go on and on. It was basically Halloween and Mardi Gras combined into a weeklong competitive festival.

For the first half of the night we wandered around, enjoying the festivities and watching the shows on the random stages that were strategically set up in almost every plaza. There were plenty of places to stop and get food or something to drink, and my favorite was this little street vendor stall that was selling something similar to mini doughnuts. WOW those were amazing little fried balls of dough drizzled in hot chocolate and caramel and topped with powdered sugar. It was fantastic. Around 2:30 in the morning is when the discotecas start to become popular and crowded so we made our way over to the street where they were all located around that time. We found a good club and danced for a while and then went to another one. That's the popular thing to do, move from place to place so you meet new people and don't get bored. The whole time we were hanging out with a few other people from our bus: a few girls from Finland and Germany, and Julie, who was from France. Julie spoke Spanish really well so we talked with her most of the night; she was a lot of fun. She's also studying in Sevilla, so hopefully we will be able to hang out with her again some time.

The bus back to Seville was scheduled to leave at about 5:00 am, so we headed back around 4:45. The streets were still packed with people, but you could tell things were settling down. We snapped a few photos of main plaza to remember what it looked like and then boarded the bus back home. Back in Seville at 7am on a Sunday morning we weren't too surprised to see people still out on the streets at that hour. There were plenty of taxis out and a sufficient number of people walking home for me to feel safe walking along the main road back to my apartment. Overall, it was quite the experience. I don't know if staying out all night at a party like that is something I could do ever again in my life but I feel like it was worth it, and I'm glad I did it once. Luckily I didn't have anything to do that Sunday so I slept until 2:30 in the afternoon, and then took a nap again after lunch.

Well, that about sums up my Carnaval experience. I hope you were able to celebrate the start of Lent in some exciting manner as well. I will update you on my more recent excursions very soon. Keep in touch!!

Love love love,

Maia Jo

On Spain: walking, eating, sleeping, and ignoring the men…

So, having lived in Spain for a month now, I know quite a bit more about the culture and the ways of everyday life. I have grown accustomed to some, while others are still quite odd to me. On my way to class every day I tend to think a lot (since it takes me about 35 minutes I have plenty of time to do this). One day I was realizing a few things that I now do out of habit, being used to the ways of the city here in Seville. It was very exciting and I decided to make a list and add to it over a week or so. However, these habits came after a few mistakes and plenty of observing others' mistakes. Thankfully I am a lot more "street-wise" after a month in this wonderful city. So, here is my list of things I have learned about the city and its people so far:

1. The streets in the old Jewish quarter, Barrio Santa Cruz, were designed to make people lost. Don't wander through it expecting to find your way back within 20 minutes.
   
2. The nice looking ladies walking around the plaza will try to give you a tiny leafy branch. It's NOT free. Neither is the advice they give you about your life after they've grabbed your hand and pointed to some squiggly line that means "certain failure."
   
3. A sunny forecast should be translated as "wear your sunglasses or go blind." A cloudy forecast (of which we've only had three) still requires sunglasses given that the sun will come out after only a few hours of clouds.
   
4. Spaniards are excellent at underestimating the amount of time something will take. A "five minute wait" at a restaurant is usually more like 35.
   
5. The tiny one way streets in the middle of the city should be walked along with caution. Passing taxis, cars, and motorcycles don't often slow down and the "sidewalks" are really curbs on which to stand on while flattening yourself against the building at the exact moment the vehicle zooms by, inches from your body. Now I know at least one good reason for Spaniards to stay thin.
   
6. Spanish women rock at wearing stilettos, over kilometers of cobblestone streets, beat up sidewalks and roads under construction. I, however, still need some practice.
   
7. Spanish men are very good at making you feel slightly uncomfortable while tottering over their construction zones in your normal-sized heels since they don't ever seem to be working but rather taking a mid-morning, pre-lunch, post-lunch, or evening break.
   
8. More on Spanish men: "Guapa" means "beautiful" and they say it all the time (followed by quite a few slang words I don't care to know the meaning of). Don't look at them, don't respond, and don't say "hello" in English just because they know how and said it first. They only want to get your attention and they're not being rude (to their standards), just overtly forward (to mine). If you hear hissing or clicking, don't be offended--it's just the younger Spanish men that haven't quite grown into the courage it takes to say things out loud to women passing by.
   
9. On Spanish men in discotecas: Most of the time they don't ask before dancing with you. The most effective way to rid yourself of one is to push him away and say "¡No me tocas!" which means "Don't touch me!" (If he's being forward he deserves an equally forward response.) If he pays for your drink at the bar before you can, thank him, introduce yourself, and promptly go back to your group of friends. Most likely you'll be going to a new bar in a matter of minutes so just ignore the fact that he keeps watching you from afar. Spaniards are very curious miradores—people-watchers—no matter where they are or what time of day it is.
   
10. The Spanish way of walking, now that I have gotten used to it, will get you to where you are going about 10 or 15 minutes later than you had planned on getting there. Thankfully it's not usually an issue since whatever you're going to, whether it is a class, a meeting, or a fiesta, probably won't start until about 10 or 15 minutes after the scheduled time anyway.
    
11. Spanish children are nocturnal. They stay out just as late as their parents, toddling alongside during the evening paseo through the streets around 10 or 11 o'clock, just after dinner. The babies that are tired still come along, sleeping contently in their strollers, unaware of the noisy bar atmosphere while mom and dad chat with friends and have a drink or two.
    
12. Breakfast is buttered toast and a cup of rich hot chocolate. Most Spaniards wake up around 8:30am and eat breakfast during a break at work around 10:30am. It's acceptable to have a drink with breakfast too. Eating bacon, eggs, or pancakes for breakfast is about as rare as driving a car bigger than a Honda 4-door.
    
13. That huge gathering of people in the plaza in front of the church standing around drinking beer, chatting with friends and snacking around 2:30 in the afternoon is not a party. They do that every day.
    
14. Spain is the world's biggest producer of olive oil. The Andalucían countryside is jam-packed with olive trees. That said, olive oil is poured liberally over food and used in all of the cooking. While it is filled with antioxidants, vitamins and is very good for your skin and nails, it is also filled with calories. Another reason for Spaniards to walk everywhere. Hopefully, since most people end up walking close to five miles every day just going to and from work and wandering around during the evening paseo, you gain the beauty benefits of the oil and not the fattening benefits.
    
15. The internet is a luxury. Cell phones are for emergencies and last minute changes in plans. Technology has not yet hit southern Spain full swing, which is a nice change (but can be rather annoying). Most people are out and about so often they just naturally run into the people they want to meet at one of their favorite hangouts and don't need to call each other.
    
16. On parking: it is acceptable to park your car with two wheels on the sidewalk and two wheels in the street of a one way road. On larger roads where there are two "driving lanes" and one "parking lane" in each direction, you may park your car in the middle lane at your risk—other cars will just be forced to swerve around it at the last minute. On these same streets it is acceptable to park your car on the sidewalk if you feel it should be a parking space, even if it's right in front of the stoplight. It's common to move the large rolling garbage bins in order to create your own parking space.
    
17. Motorcycles often drive on sidewalks.
    
18. That man on the bike by the river with the megaphone is not yelling at you as go for your morning run; he's coaching the crew team in their boats on the river.
    
19. "Sometime during the morning" can mean anytime between 9am and 3pm.
    
20. Madrugada is a word for the time between midnight and sunrise. It's a surprisingly usefully word for making plans on the weekends—Spaniards utilize this time for socializing rather than sleeping.
    
21. Given that last statement it's useful to know that you can sleep until 2pm on the weekends and not miss lunch.
    

 

Well, there you are. I am sure there are more things that I have learned that I forgot to include, but I think this is a pretty comprehensive list of cultural oddities. Of course, it ended up being longer than I anticipated so I apologize for the length. Hopefully you enjoyed it though and feel free to leave comments! I will write again soon.

Love, love, love,

Maia Jo

 

 

 

 

¡Granada!

Hello my wonderful family and friends! How are things in the winter wonderland? I was thinking of you fondly this weekend when I saw the beautiful white snow of the Sierra Nevada, the mountain range just north of Granada. I took some lovely pictures which I think I can include here. Granada is at a much higher altitude than Sevilla, so it was quite a bit colder as well even though the sun was shining the whole weekend. I loved Granada, not only because of its geographical location, but also because of its history. It also had a really different energy; it was a little more laid back than Sevilla, and there were lots of hippies, gypsies and artisans so there was a wide variety of people. It was very good experience, and I hope I can go back again sometime during the spring when all the flowers are blooming.

We left around 9am on Saturday morning and the bus ride was about 3 hours long. Most of us were tired from the night before since everybody goes out on Friday nights so pretty much everybody slept the whole way. My Friday night was really fun: I went to a short comedy musical at a small theater with five of my closest friends here. Before the show, around 7pm we went to a cafetería for coffee and churros (a really yummy deep fried pastry thing you dip in rich hot dark chocolate). We then went to pick up our tickets at the theater and had about 45 minutes before the show so we went to a bar up the street and each had a tinto de verano which is a mixed drink of red wine and orange Fanta, very popular. We then went to the show, which was really funny-it was about four stereotypical Sevillanos stuck in the metro system. It really helped me pick up on some common jokes among Spaniards, which was great. After the show, around 10:30, we walked to an old Arab bath house that has been converted into a nice Italian restaurant. The food was delicious and the restaurant was beautiful and very unique. Overall it was a very enjoyable evening.

So anyway, we got to Granada around noon and got settled into the very nice hotel and went to have lunch in the buffet which was delicious (pasta!!). After lunch we got into tour groups and walked just down the road to La Alhambra, the most famous site in Granada, if not in all of Andalusia or even Spain. La Alhambra is a complex maze of palaces and gardens dating back to the time when Granada (and most of Andalusia) was occupied by the Arabs, so it is very Islamic. It was built in the 14^th century and was considered to be a separate city above the old city of Granada previously named Ilbyr. It's perched high on cliff looking over the rest of the city. When the Spanish took over in the 15^th century they kept the palace and the rest of la Alhambra intact and built a grand palace in the center for Charles V which is exemplary of Spanish Renaissance. They also continued to use the summer home, Albaicín, on a neighboring cliff face. It is absolutely gorgeous and will be even more so in the spring when all of the flowers are blooming.

After that tour we walked down the steepest hill I've ever walked down in my life. Well technically it was mountain so I guess that explains it. We were led by our tour guide to a Tea House in the middle of the city which was absolutely fantastic. It felt like I was crawling into a hobbit hole under a little hill and the interior had been decorated by a hippie from India. It was a labyrinth of hallways and cave-like rooms stuffed with tiny tables and gorgeous hanging lamps and little poufs to perch on. Other people were lounging on bright colorful blankets under "natural" overhangs in the wall with rickety tables covered in candles to light the space. Several groups were smoking from hookahs and many were calming sipping tea while boisterously chatting about the weather, politics or the latest topic on the news. It was amazing. We had some sweet tea and small sugary snacks and just sat in wonder for quite a while, taking it all in. It was probably my favorite spot in the city and I wish we had something like that at St Olaf.

After tea, Bridget and Dan and Sean and I walked to a plaza to meet Bridget's friend Mike who is studying in Granada. He kindly offered to be our tour guide for the evening. So we spent the next few hours walking around the city with him and his friend Sophie, another American studying in Granada. They had a lot of good ideas for where to take us. We walked to the top of another huge hill (felt like a mountain) just in time to see the sunset over the city. We also walked back down to see the barrio of El Sacromonte where all of the houses are literally built into the side of the mountain like caves. After going back to the hotel for another buffet dinner (more pasta!!), we met up with Mike and Sophie again and they took us to another beautiful hill overlooking the other side of the city so we could see it at night. They then took us out to experience the night life of Granada, a famous tapas bar and a discoteca. It was great night.

Sunday morning we woke up, rather reluctantly, and had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel again. We boarded a bus with our tour group and drove up a neighboring mountain to walk through the barrio of Albaicin, named for its famous view of the summer home on the other cliff. It was nice to hear a little more history on the area, and neat to see during the day. Then we walked back down the mountain (my quads hurt) to visit the Royal Chapel, the famous resting place of the Catholic Monarch, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel. It was gorgeous, and rather haunting to see the tombs of these famous and rather infamous rulers who united Spain and rather brutally enforced Catholicism. It was quite the experience. I would have like to see the Cathedral but there wasn't time and it cost extra. Maybe next time J

We spent the last hour and a half exploring the city and discovering gorgeous plazas and hidden alleyways filled with artisans' shops and hippie musicians playing didgeridoos, drums, cymbals, and nylon string guitars. It was fantastic. The Islamic influence was very evident and was amazing to see such color and geometric life everywhere mixed with the proud elaborate Spanish emblems and statues of the high Renaissance. I loved it.

Well I would say that was my favorite weekend so far here in Spain. I had a wonderful time and I am excited to continue traveling around Spain. In a couple of weeks I am going down to Cadiz for a night to celebrate the amazing festival of Carnival. It's somewhat like a Mardi Gras of Spain, so I'm told, and it should be quite an experience. Apparently I need a mask or costume of some kind. Cadiz, being the southern-most tip of Spain, is surrounded by beaches so I am equally excited to see that. I will keep you all updated and put up more pictures on Shutterfly or something so you can see them all! Take care, stay warm, keep smiling, drink lots of tea, and write to me J

Love, love, love

Maia Jo

PS: Here is a link to my photo albums! I put up pictures of Madrid and will go in order from when they were taken. So Granada pictures will be up last but I will let you know when that happens. Happy viewing!

http://picasaweb.google.com/maiajoh

The Convivencia, Rocía and the ocean!

 

What a fun weekend! I am so glad I decided to go to Granada next weekend so that I could go to the convivencia with Mercedes and her cousins. So, I wasn't really sure what the convivencia was exactly but I thought it sounded like a Catholic outdoor mass, Lutheran potluck and hippie drum jam. I was exactly right, that's how it felt! It was so fun though, I'll give you the whole day in detail. It was definitely something that most of my classmates here won't get to experience because it was so unique. I am really thankful to my Señora for taking us.

Sunday morning we woke up pretty early (which was fine since I slept so much on Saturday… until 1:30pm and back in bed at 11pm!) and were ready to leave at 9:30. Merdeces' cousin and her spouse came to pick us up in their car and loaded all of the food, drinks, chairs and the table into the trunk. Mercedes had packed a good amount of food for Bridget and I since we weren't sure what all would be vegetarian-friendly there. So we climbed into the car, nice and cozy with five of us, and drove through the city, toward the west. We were driving pretty much southwest the whole way, and it was great to see the outskirts of Sevilla, and the surrounding suburbs. Some of the houses are pretty huge, especially those on the "mountain" just west of the city. It was a clear morning, and we had a great view of the city from up there.

After driving for about forty minutes we were well out into the country. We had driven into the smaller county of Huelva, which is directly west of Sevilla and the Andalucían county closest to Portugal. Now before we left, Mercedes had given Bridget and I each a juice box and a cookie (I swear we feel like little children again since she feeds us and does our laundry and cleans our room and we say such simple things since we're still learning Spanish). We were a little confused by the lack of real food for breakfast but just went with it. Turns out that normal Spaniards prefer to eat breakfast around 10:30 after they've left home for the day, either on their way to work or on a break from work. So around 10:30 that morning we drove into a small town and found a small café/bar to eat breakfast. We just had coffee with milk and buttered toast (huge pieces) which is a typical breakfast. It was perfect though. Mercedes and her cousins are so funny together, Bridget and I really enjoyed listening to them talk and argue and discuss all sorts of things on our way there.

Back on the road again, Mercedes said we were only about 25km away from the site. The roads started getting smaller and bumpier and we finally turned onto the right one (after a good amount of loud debating and arguing). We pulled into a good sized fenced into plot of land with an olive orchard on one side, flat sandy land in the middle and several large pine trees (the branches were very high off the ground and formed a more circular top instead of a triangle). There were several other cars there already and plenty of people milling about and chatting. We got and walked around a bit, being introduced to everyone as Mercedes' American girls. Everyone was very nice and welcoming, but they were reluctant to talk because I don't think they knew how much Spanish we knew. Everyone is from the same church though, and apparently they do this outdoor mass/potluck thing fairly often. A few people were setting up the altar, which was gorgeous. They had brought beautiful flowers, and were adding all sorts of natural wildflowers and pinecones as well. The Virgin Mary was there too, but she was covered up until the priest came. So we were all ready to start the mass, but the priest wasn't there yet. He was already 40 minutes late, but no one really seemed to mind or be too concerned. I asked someone when it was supposed to start and they said, "Oh well at first we said to start at 11 but then it was 11:30 and I think some people thought it started at noon." It was 12:30. Oh Spaniards.

The priest showed up around 12:45 and we started mass. It was nice to listen along, and I felt that I was able to follow pretty well, thanks to my knowledge of the Catholic mass from the time I spent at Christina's church during my elementary years. We weren't allowed communion of course, but other than that I felt that everyone was very welcoming and kind. After the mass everyone was hungry so we quickly set up all of the tables in one long line and brought out the food. So much food! I couldn't believe it. Bridget and I had to do a lot of asking to discover which foods had meat and which didn't. Unfortunately, it turns out that several things are not considered "meat" to most Spaniards. For example, one mini sandwich that looked meat free was given to me by a nice lady. I asked her, "Does this have meat in it?" "On no, of course not," she replied. But Mercedes stepped in, thankfully and said yes in fact, that sandwich has ham in it. Ham, not a meat? What? I was so confused. Bridget then picked up a croquette, a fried food that is usually just filled with potatoes or cheese. She asked Mercedes' cousin, does this have meat? "No," he replied, "no meat". Just as she took a bite though, he continued and said, "It has chicken in it." She looked at me, mortified, and promptly found a napkin. We laughed about it later, and finally realized that only Mercedes and her cousin's wife really understood our definition of meat. How --strange. We've had that issue before though, someone asking us, "You don't eat meat?" And we reply, "No, no meat." "I suppose you eat fish then." "No, no fish." "How about ham then, you must eat ham, right?" "No, no ham. No fish, no chicken, no ham, NO MEAT." It's very difficult. But it makes me more and more thankful that we have Mercedes who understands completely and even owns an organic foods store to supply our needs. She's wonderful.

Even though most of the food was meat-filled (or whole pieces of fish, head and all) Bridget and I managed to stuff ourselves with bread and cheese and tortillas and oranges and potato chips and lettuce and coke and wine and crackers. It was wonderful. Shortly after the meal, the musicians from the mass brought out their instruments again. During the mass the members of the choir sang songs and played the guitar, drums, flute whistles (I think) and finger clappers. It was very authentically Spanish and I loved it. So after lunch they brought out the instruments again and continued to play. People clapped along, several women got up to dance Sevillanas, and a little one-year-old boy played a mini drum and danced as well. The other children danced along as well, and it was a great sight. The sun was so warm and the air was still slightly cool, it was a perfect beautiful day.

Around 4:00 Mercedes began to gather things together and we packed up the car. She said we were leaving a little early so we could go to the town El Rocío and see the church and Virgin Mary there. She was very excited and said it was her favorite place in most of Andalucía. So we piled back in the car and continued to drive southwest. It was only 30km to El Rocío and it was nice drive since we drove through a small section of the Doñana National Park, which was very pretty. The town of Rocío was absolutely gorgeous. All of the streets were sandy and lined with small shops and there seemed to be horses everywhere so it reminded me of an old fashioned western town except all the building were white stucco. There was a small lake, or wetland area, along the edge of the town, and a beautiful walkway that wound between the lake and the plaza that led up to the church. The church itself was a beautiful white stucco building, not too huge, but fairly crowded with people. The interior was sparsely decorated, except for the altar, which was grandiose and almost completely gold. It was almost impossible to distinguish the Virgin Mary from all of the ornate and complex decorations that surrounded her. It was beautiful though. The altar was surrounded by beautiful flowers that had been given in memory of loved ones or in dedication. What a sight.

After walking around the town a bit and admiring the sights and watching the people and the children all dressed to nines, Mercedes asked if we would like to go to the beach. "The beach??" we asked. Apparently it was only another 15 km away and we could easily drive there to have an afternoon snack of coffee with milk. I was ecstatic. I love the ocean, and I had been super anxious to see it. We were on the side of the peninsula that has its coast on the Atlantic Ocean and we drove to the town of Matalascañas, which is a fairly popular beach since it is the closest to Sevilla. Here is a link to a map of Andalucía, followed by one that zooms in so you can see where we were:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/spain/andalucia/

http://www.malagacar.com/maps/huelva/huelva_complete_map.asp

We got to the beach at the perfect time. The sun was on its way to setting and the sky was beautiful. The coast is fairly rocky and steep all along the ocean, but the beach was very long in one direction and plenty big. The walkway down to the beach is fairly steep and there is a boardwalk type thing that has shops and few restaurants and leads to the larger hotels. The sand was gorgeous and the water was shallow fairly far out. We didn't go swimming, but I could tell just because a lot of waves were breaking farther out. It was beautiful, and so peaceful, because it wasn't too crowded. Even though the weather is warm during the day, it still gets cool at night and it's nothing like the heat that we will have starting around April. Apparently it gets up to 35 degrees Celsius as a norm. I have no idea what that translates to but when 22 Celsius is around 70 Fahrenheit, I don't think I want to know. Anyways, we sat and had a cup of coffee up on the boardwalk and watched the ocean and the few crazy people attempting to swim in 10 degree Celsius water. After we'd finished our coffee, Bridget and I decided to walk down the steps to the beach and go stick our feet in the water. I can't be that close to the ocean and not at least put my feet in. So we rolled up our jeans, left our purses with Mercedes and ran down the water. It was COLD. But we had fun. Again, we kind of felt like little kids, playing the surf, chasing and running from the waves, drawing with our toes in the sand and picking up shells. It was wonderful.

After a little while, the sun was really setting, and we needed to head back. The sky was beautiful though and I'm glad we got to see it. Mercedes said we could come again once it warmed up and spend the whole day swimming and laying the sun. I am super excited! The drive back wasn't as long as I expected, only about an hour and twenty minutes. We drove pretty fast though. I am just glad that we are actually pretty close to the ocean; I can't wait to go back once it warms up. Well I think I should close for now. Overall, it was a perfect day, and I had so much fun. I am excited for next weekend as well since we are going to Granada with CIEE. We are going to be there from Saturday around noon to Sunday night. I will keep you updated though J Hopefully it warms up a little bit there!

Love, love, love,

Maia Jo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in Grammar School

Saturday January 19, 2008

Well I made it through my first week of class! It wasn’t that difficult, considering I only have one class right now and hardly any homework. My class is three hours long though, so it’s always a little difficult to get through, especially since it’s from 3:00 to 6:00 and I always have to rush there after my 2:00 lunch. It’s nice to be able to sleep in every morning though. My poor roommate Bridget has to be at class at 9am and it’s about a 35 minute walk from our apartment. She is not a morning person either, so I kind of feel bad that she has to get up while I’m still sleeping. However, there were a few mornings I decided to get up early too, just to get to the palacio early enough to use the computers or the printer.

My class has been fine, though not my favorite subject ever. It’s an intensive grammar session, so literally all we do is review grammar rules, fill out worksheets and practice speaking. The speaking is good for us, but with everything else I feel like I am back in high school. I know review is good though, and there are definitely a few very large gaps in my knowledge. For example, there are apparently four different past tenses, but I only ever learned two of them. I am able to use the other two, but I never really learned how to or learned the reasons for using one over the other. So that was a good lesson. I have definitely made good friends in class already too, which is nice. One thing that really makes me laugh but I definitely appreciate is the fact that CIEE has hired several Spanish university students to come to the palacio at a certain time and hang out with us during our break time when we’re not class just to speak Spanish with us and encourage us not to speak in English. It’s very amusing, and probably the easiest job in the world, but it’s a really good idea and I am glad they do it. There are three girls in particular that I have been talking with every day, and they are so nice and easy to talk to. We exchanged numbers yesterday too, so hopefully I will get a chance to hang out with them outside of the times they are getting paid to talk me!

Outside of going to class for a few hours every day, I have really been just trying to enjoy having free time to walk around and get to know the city a little better. I do a lot of walking, partly because I enjoy it, and partly because I am trying to fight off all the food my Señora has been constantly feeding me. The walking is great exercise, and I can feel it in my calves, but I can’t believe how much I miss dance right now. The other day I woke up kind of late and didn’t go for a morning walk but by around noon I was getting so restless and felt so cooped up Bridget finally just said to me, “Maia you have been PACING the entire three-roomed apartment for twenty minutes! Lunch isn’t for another two hours GO OUTSIDE.” I happily obliged and pretty much powered walked around the city for an hour and a half trying to burn off some energy. I have been trying to find a place where I can dance regularly, and I know my Señora has been looking around too which is so sweet of her. I don’t really mind if I take classes, or if I just find a studio where I can go and use up some energy. I suppose once the regular classes start I may not have the same amount of free time, but either way I really miss having a place to dance whenever I want to. However, there are so many other amazing things here; I know it’s worth it.

Tomorrow is Sunday (already!) and I am very excited because Mercedes is going to take Bridget and I to something called a convivencia. It’s apparently out in the countryside just outside of Sevilla, and from what I gathered, it sounds like a Catholic outdoor mass followed by a Lutheran potluck and a hippie style drum jam complete with music and singing and dancing. Confusing, I know. In any case, it sounds like a lot of fun, and I am excited to see more of the countryside and hang out with Spaniards all day. The weather was perfect today, and it should be the same tomorrow: sunny skies, temperature around 65 degrees and a slight warm breeze. I love it! So I am excited for that, especially since it’s an opportunity for me that isn’t being offered through CIEE. A lot of my friends are in Granada this weekend with CIEE, but Bridget and I decided to go next weekend with the second tour group so with could go with Mercedes to the convivencia.

I will bring my camera tomorrow and take lots of pictures for you all to see, even though it will be extremely American of me. I don’t mind being labeled as an American, because obviously that’s who I am, as long as people know that I can and do speak Spanish, and that that’s the reason I’m here. I am glad I have made a few Spanish friends already, and I try to hang out with them when I can instead of all Americans, just so I am forced to speak more Spanish. However, there are a few Spaniards that insist on speaking to us in English so they can practice and they we continue to speak in Spanish and what we end up with is a strange Spanglish because we are all speaking in English and Spanish at the same time and trying to explain things in both languages and helping and correcting one another constantly. It’s very confusing and makes my head hurt but at least it’s not a total language barrier. I also learned very quickly that a date with a Spaniard is way more nerve racking than with any English speaking person because the difficulty of trying to figure out what to say is multiplied by about a hundred when you’re worried about the culture and customs and your own ability to say whatever it is that you think you are wanting to say. That was fun.

Well, anyway, I think it’s time for me to close my computer now. I don’t have internet right here so I will have to save this on a flash drive and put online later. I finished my café con leche and I think I have been sitting for too long in front of my computer by myself not talking to anyone for comfort levels of the Spaniards’ at the table next to me. I think they’re concerned about my social habits. I don’t think anyone does anything alone here, it’s amazing. In any coffee shop after 4pm the average number of people crowded around a tiny single person table is about 3.7 people plus 1.3 strollers. I’m usually left with just my table and the chair I’m sitting on after about four minutes since everyone else always needs an extra chair for their grandma’s second cousin or fiancée’s best friend that just showed up.
Okay, well I will try to get this up soon. I hope you enjoyed reading it J Hopefully you are all still doing well, please keep me updated! I miss you all terribly, and I am thinking of you!
Love, love, love,
Maia Jo

After a fun weekend!

January 14, 2007

Well, today starts my first day of class here in Spain! For some reason I am up really early; it’s only nine o’clock and am already at a café, drinking my tea and watching the people go by on their way to work or school. Not everyone is awake of course, it’s much too early. Even the sun is struggling to stay up on this grey and slightly misty morning. My chai tea is nice and sweet though and I feel ready to start a day of school. Of course, I don’t have class until afternoon (which is really more like after 3 here) but I decided to get up and try to get a few things done before I have any homework to do.

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday was a pretty laid back day and Saturday was a wonderfully clear, crisp day with lots of sunshine. Yesterday was slightly rainy again, but by the end of the month we’ll have plenty of sunny days for weeks on end.

Friday was a nice day, with just a few things to do to prepare for registration and the rest of the semester. At the palacio, the main building for CIEE classes, there were program organizers and activity coordinators handing out flyers and standing by tables talking up their projects and semester activities. There is plenty to do here, and I am eager to get involved. There are several volunteer opportunities, which would be perfect, a couple of teaching opportunities, plenty of excursions around Spain, and also several places where I would be able to take dance classes. I am obviously interested in learning the flamenco, as well as the traditional sevillano dance called, remarkably, sevillanos. It is a dance that is typically performed and danced by all during the week of la feria, a huge festival during April.

My main goal though, is to join an interest group through CIEE. These groups are focused on one main topic, and throughout the semester, have several meetings and activities related to learning more about the topic. There are several that interested me, but I think I am going to choose the one that focuses on human rights. This group provides several opportunities to get out into the community and work with children, the homeless, and the underprivileged. It also focuses on the relationship between the Spanish Catholics and the Muslims. At the end of the semester there is a trip to Morocco for four days. The trip at the end really sealed the deal for me, because I have always been fascinated by the culture and traditions of Morocco and I don’t know if I would ever have another opportunity to go.

The weekend was mostly fun for me because we had a lot of free time. I took a long time on Saturday to go out on my own and walk around, explore the streets and write a few postcards at a nice café. I have to say the every day I notice little things about the culture here that I absolutely love. One of them is the Spaniards love of conversation and company. Saturday was a beautifully sunny day and I swear the entire population of the city was outside, just walking around, taking the time to catch up with friends and family, people watching and shopping and letting the children run around a play or sleep in carriages. I swear it must be the most popular medical remedy or something to dress up your baby in the most stylish outfits and promenade around the city for hours on end in the sunshine or even rain in the company of friends and families and other babies in cute carriages. While I was sitting in a sunny square, people watching and waiting to meet my friends, I saw a young mom pushing an adorable fancy carriage around. She saw the bench I was sitting was vacant on the other and came over to sit down. I saw the most adorable baby inside the carriage; she was so tiny and pink and perfect and had the most beautiful dark hair ruffled on top of her head. I smiled at the mom, told her the baby was beautiful and asked how old she was. She was twelve days old. A few minutes after the stopped, the baby woke up and began to cry a little. The mother laughed and said, she just wants to be moving along then I guess, and they continued their walk around the plaza.

I also had a fun weekend because I went out on Saturday night with couple of Spanish friends, and met a few new Spaniards as well. That was very nice because I was forced to listen to Spanish the whole night, as opposed to Americans trying to speak Spanish and then failing and reverting to English or a Spanglish of their own creation. I was also forced to respond which was really difficult, especially in a noisy atmosphere, but it was worth it. My whole goal here is to learn Spanish, and I knew it would be hard so I’m just going to have to accept that.

Sunday was another nice day, simply because I had no obligations. My roommate Bridget and I slept in really late, had a nice lunch with our Spanish mother, and met a couple of friends just outside the university. We then all walked to a huge, beautiful park located right in the middle of Sevilla. Just outside the park is a huge plaza and a beautiful old building that looks like it had once been a palace. I have no idea what it really is, but it was gorgeous. I am sure I will learn about it sometime. I took plenty of pictures and will put them online sometime soon. The park itself is huge and so incredibly beautiful and well taken care of. I felt like I back in Thailand one point because of the beautiful rivers, huge trees, and gorgeous fountains surrounded by little covered walkways draped in greenery. We walked around for quite awhile and commented on how it would be even more beautiful in the spring and summer.

There was a football game on at six and it was beginning to look more and more like rain, so we decided to head towards a small pub that always had several games playing. The boys had some garlic bread and lemonade, the girls had coffee or tea, and we sat biting our nails and shouting at the TV in various languages for an hour and half until we were able to breathe a sigh of relief for the Betis victory of 3-2 over a team that should have played much worse than it did.

Later that night, back at home, I was talking with my Spanish mother and noticed that she was reading a book by my favorite Hispanic author, Isabel Allende. I asked her about the book and told her I had read one of the other in my Spanish class last fall. She got really excited and hurried off to her room, telling me to wait for a minute. She came back with a huge stack of books in her arms, all by Isabel Allende. She told me how much she loved to read, and how her children kept buying her books for every special occasion, especially once they found out who her favorite author was. I was very excited then too, because I too love to read, and had been looking in several bookstore for another book by this author. Mercedes told me that, of course, I am more than welcome to borrow whichever book I would like, whenever I want. I am very excited about that, and I can’t decide which one to read first. I only hope that I still have time to read after classes start!

Love, love, love

Maia Jo

Week One

¡Hola a todos!

How are you? I am doing really well  I am happy to be here, finally, in Seville, Spain! I can't believe how much has already happened. Hopefully this blog will be a good place for me to record everything, and an easy way for everyone to check up on me. Please send me emails and messages, I love hearing from all of you too!

So anyways, here's how my life has been so far: On Saturday the 5th I arrived in Madrid, tired beyond all belief, alone, confused and with no luggage! I had my carry-on, but both of my bags were lost on the way to Madrid. I don't really know how it happened, but I told someone at information and she gave me confusing instructions and told me to call later. So I decided to make my way into Madrid and find the hostel where I could meet my friends. Five of my friends from St Olaf had arrived the day before (I was getting home from a cruise to the Bahamas—very fun!) and we all had reservations at the same hostel for the weekend. So I took a taxi there (much less stressful than the subway), made it up to the fifth floor, and collapsed in my bed which was in a huge room with ten other people, kind of strange…. I knew they had internet there and my friends were in the lobby so I joined them out there and sent a few important emails letting people know I was safe and alive and didn't have my luggage but was certain they would arrive soon. I was tired, but very excited to see Madrid and it was only about 4 in the afternoon and I was starving. So my friends and I decided to head out and walk around a bit. They had been to a museum in the morning so we mostly just walked around, past the palace and through a park and then saw some neat ancient Egyptian ruins from Abu Simbel that were brought up to Madrid in thanks for some good deed that some rich person from Spain did for some important person from Egypt.

Later we walked through a really amazing art market that was up especially for the weekend of El Día de los Tres Magos (Three King's Day, huge holiday in Spain). Finally we found a nice pizzeria to eat at and I had lasagna and salad which tasted amazing! I was tired by then so we went back to the hostel and slept. The next day, Sunday, was a holiday, so not much was open. Hardly anything is open on Sundays anyway, so it was fine to just walk around and see the sights. There is a huge park in the middle of the city, similar to Central Park in NYC, and it was such a nice day that so many people were out walking around. It's a very cultural thing to do, walk around with friends and family, talking and stopping for drinks, even the young children go along in strollers. From 8-midnight the streets are filled with Spaniards out and about—everyone is very sociable around here. There was a kind of central square in the park next a a lake where people could rent rowboats and there were a whole bunch of drummers having a drum jam; it felt very hippie—people were dancing and clapping, it was very fun. I took a lot of pictures.

That night was VERY fun. The two guys that were there are both big football fans (soccer). There just so happened to be a football game between Real Madrid and some other team. So, naturally we went to the stadium and bought tickets! They were about 30 euro, which was a little pricey for me, but TOTALLY worth it!! It was sooo much fun, and such a cultural experience. We bought the cheapest tickets and the stadium is the second biggest in Europe, I think, so we were literally in the TOP row of the stadium, super high up but we could still see pretty well. You wouldn't believe the noise and the fans… it was completely packed for a pretty regular season game… It was just unbelievable. I took a ton of pictures with my lovely zoom camera .

Monday we got up and took a couple taxis to the bus station (there were six of us in Madrid together). We had bought our bus tickets the day before so we just got up and left. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, being six hours long. I slept some, we stopped to eat some bread and peanut butter and crackers and oranges while at a bus station, and then I read for a while and looked at the scenery. I realized that I better start liking olives real soon because most of the countryside is used for growing olive trees! Olives and oranges are the most popular crops here, especially olives in the middle of Spain. We saw some goats and sheep too and drove up and down a few small mountains. There were some very quaint little towns, and some beautiful houses. I kept feeling like I was somewhere in the middle of Italy because of the dry landscape, olive trees, and pretty stuccos houses with red tiled roofs. It was very pretty though.

These past few days in Seville have been VERY fun. I am really enjoying the city, it is so beautiful. I feel like I will get to know it very well. My first impressions were of a very confusing city, with lots of small winding streets and a few large modern buildings by the river. But that was just the view from the bus station to the hotel in the taxi, the real Sevilla, the Centro (where the University and Palacio are located, the commercial and historical center and the city) and the area I am living in are so much nicer and more how I imagined it. Our taxi driver was very fun and enjoyable to talk with. We got to the hotel, which was very nice, and checked in. I originally was in a room with another girl from CIEE that only had one bed! That wasn't going to work so I switched and had my own room for two nice which was wonderful after the hostel with 10 other people in one room and the bathroom down the hall. At the hotel we began our orientation sessions, which was mostly a lot of stuff I had already heard at St Olaf. They fed us dinner that night, then walked around the streets nearby since it was a warm night. Most of us were tired from traveling so much so we went to bed early.

Tuesday was mostly an orientation day. We ate breakfast in the hotel, and met up with our groups, led by a Spanish guide (all college students). We walked around the city a bit and got to know the area. We walked to the University, which is a beautiful building that used to be a palace. After a late lunch and short siesta, we were all split up into small groups of three or four to go on a "scavenger hunt" around Seville to the most popular and well known spots in the Centro. That was really helpful for me because we all used our maps and were able to navigate by ourselves and explore a little bit more into the city. I feel so safe here, there are always people out and about walking around, and once you know the main streets it's easy to navigate around. Everything is so clean, too. There is like a whole army of street cleaners that clean every night and during the day; there are plenty of waste bins; and not many people eat or drink on the go as it is. I love the whole atmosphere, there aren't too many tourists but there are a few horse and carriages that clop around, and plenty of old beautiful buildings. The Islamic influence is very evident this far south in Spain, in Andalusia (it was Muslim ruled for 700 years) so there are many buildings that have gorgeous colorful tiling and geometric mosaics. It's beautiful.

Tuesday night was very fun because we all went as a group to a traditional flamenco show! It was wonderful. It was so very beautiful, and I was amazed at the skills of the dancers, the guitarist and the singer. If you have never heard a traditional flamenco guitarist, I recommend finding something on iTunes PRONTO  It is sooo beautiful. And the singing was different than what I expected, but very very good. And the dancing was fantastic. The dresses that the woman wore were beautiful, of course. The footwork was so intricate… the duet between the man and woman was so intense and passionate and amazing…. I loved it. I was very impressed.

Tuesday night we also went out for our first night of tapas! Tapas is a very popular cultural tradition here. Basically when you go to tapear you go out with friends or a group to a bar, have a drink a buy a small appetizer dish to share. You stay a chat a while, maybe dance a little, depending where you are, or just stay and mingle. Typically you then move on to another bar after a short time and do it all over again! What we did though, which our large group, was order several different tapas and a couple pitchers of drinks and stayed at one bar to chat and get to know each other more. It was very enjoyable, but I think I had too much fried cheese. That ended up being our dinner, so it was a little weird, especially at 9:30 at night, and I was hungry for something more nutritious. Luckily I had an apple from breakfast that I had saved so I ate that.

Wednesday morning was very nerve racking for me. Moving day! I was excited to finally be in one place, but nervous about meeting my señora, my host mom. The program here is very big this year, so many of the students have a roommate for their home stay. My roommate's name is Bridgett and she's from Chicago. She's very nice and we get along well so far. We were both nervous about our home stay because we have heard many different stories about different circumstances. Our señora came to meet us though and she is very nice. Her name is Mercedes Martinez Hidalgo and she lives in a small apartment across the river from the Centro in a wealthy neighborhood that's about a 25 minute walk from the Palacio, where my classes will be. She lives alone, but has a small orange cat named Ruby. Her apartment is nice, but Bridgett and I have to share a small room with bunk beds and only one closet. At first we were really worried, but now I don't think it will be too much of a problem. We finally managed to fit all of our stuff in, but we were both a little stressed out about it for a while. We were both so tired and managed to a take a nap before lunch (which is served at 2:30pm). Our señora is a very good cook, and since Bridgett and I are both vegetarians, CIEE made sure to put us with a senora who likes to cook for vegetarians  We had a really good lentil, rice and vegetable, soup, bread, and salad with tomatoes, walnuts and olive oil dressing. I had to back in the Centro to buy a cell phone with my friends at 4, so after lunch we left again. All of the American students also had oral interviews that afternoon so I went over to the Palacio at 5:30 for mine. It was really easy, and my professor was very friendly and had some good advice for dance classes and teaching opportunities while I am here.

Last night, Wednesday night, we all went out for tapas again. We ate a little bit later (at 10) and managed to find a place where we could sit and share a variety of dishes again. It was a little bit healthier because we ordered a few vegetarian plates. Our guide, Antonio, was very specific about that and good about accommodating for everybody. After tapas we walked to another bar and met up with our other half. In all, I think there must be close to a hundred students in the liberal arts program here in Seville with CIEE. After meeting at the bar, we all walked to a discoteca (dance club), and danced well into the morning. Since it's so hot during the day and they eat a late lunch and then siesta until 4 or 5, it's very typical for Spaniards to START partying at about 1 or 2 in the morning and stay out until 5 or 6am! I am not able to do that. I stayed out for maybe an hour, and then walked back with friends. It was fun to dance, and I am getting used to greeting everyone with a kiss on each cheek. Hopefully I will start to get used to the different sleeping/waking/eating times as well 

Yesterday was Thursday! We went to visit the ancient Roman ruins of Italica, a city that was very rich and prosperous during the third century AD. We had to get up pretty early to go, which was really difficult considering how late most of us stayed out last night. But it was worth it, especially since we got in for "free" having paid to be in this program… It was super foggy yesterday, which made the whole excursion very sublime and almost as though we were really there in Roman times. There is a good amount of a coliseum that has been preserved very well just outside the city ruins, and that was very neat to see. Our tour group was small, only 12 of us per group, and our guide, one of the professors with CIEE was very knowledgeable and extremely helpful. He gave us so much information and it was all the interesting stuff, like how the Romans lived, and what this part of the city was for, or why they did such and such. I learned a lot. The rest of the day was really low key. We came back to our house around and had lunch around 2:30, took a nice long nap, and then I went out to meet some friends and go shopping for a few things like hangers, oranges, and cereal. We had gelato, sat outside and watched the passersby, and then I walked home again around 9:30 for dinner. Just now, Bridgett and I sat with Mercedes (our señora) and watched a little Spanish TV. I am going to bed very soon and I get to sleep in tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are getting ready for registration… I can't believe I have to start class on Monday! Oh well, it will be nice to have a regular schedule. Hopefully I can find a regular time to send out emails so they don't have to be song long either!

I can't believe how much I wrote about these last few days, but so much happened I wanted to fill you in! Don't worry if you didn't read it all at once (I definitely didn't write it all at once), or maybe it's halfway through March when you started it and July when you finish and I'm already home; it doesn't matter. This is a good way for me to remember everything I did, and hopefully just something interesting for you all to read in your free time. Write me back and tell me how your lives are! I obviously don't have very easy access to the internet, but I promise I will get back to you soon, and I will definitely enjoy reading your emails.

Love, love love,
Maia Jo