Toledo in a Nutshell

Hello all,
Well my weekdays aren't too eventful, but last week we went on a tour of Toledo. All the students were taken on a bus across the river to one of the mountains and we got to take pictures of the city of Toledo. The view was absolutely gorgeous!
Here are a few pictures I took:
This is a photo of the river that surrounds 3/4 of Toledo. It was good to protect the city of invasion.

This is the view of the whole city.

This is a close-up of the Alcázar. It is built on the highest point of the city, and it is where the king and queen lived when Toledo was the capital. During Spain's civil war it was used by Crnl. José Moscardó as a defensive base and it was actually almost completely destroyed by the Republic soldiers. It was restored and re-built just like all of the buildings in Toledo, and now it's the home of the library and the military museum. I actually pass it each time I walk to my internship.
This is a close-up of the cathedral. Absolutely gorgeous. We walked to it and so there are closer detailed pictures. The cathedral took two centuries to be finished, but once you see the details of it, you understand completely how it took that long.

This is one of the entrances... I don't think it's the main one that people use to walk into.


I couldn't get over the detail of the designs. I just stood there looking at it for a few minutes.


Can you imagine how much time and patience it took to carve all that detail? It really makes you appreciate it to think of the talent and determination it took.
The next photos go back to the view at the top of the mountain.


This is Maggie and I with the background of Toledo. They say we're attached at the hip, but we can't help it if we're really similar and are even both from Chi-town (she's from Addison, IL and goes to Elmhurst), I mean it's definitely been nice to find someone I can be really close with. Definitely helps with the homesickness.
This is my Arcadia group. From top left are Brian and Amanda. Then Maggie, Me, Mark, Kristie and Jamie. It's a small group, but we've been able to get really close. Maggie, Brian, Mark, Jamie and I basically travel everywhere together, with a few other people here and there.

This is just a street while we were walking. This is how narrow the streets are in Toledo, and the houses are very tall too.

Now this is the entrance to the school. It's down a long, narrow walkway, and the buildings on both sides are homes so we have to be very quiet when we walk home late at night. One of the girls I was walking home with actually got yelled at one night for speaking too loudly.

And lastly, this is the plaza Zocodover, the main plaza in Toledo. To the right on the side of the street I'm on there's a building with a McDonald's. Yup, can't escape the chain even in a small town. Big Mac's here go for like 8 Euros though... so no American really goes there, except for Mark. He's had a hard time transitioning to Spanish food. I on the other hand, LOVE it! Except for the fact that I don't think I've ever eaten so much bread in my life! They have bread for every meal! But it's that irresistible baguette break that they make fresh every day and is just crunchy enough on the outside and so soft and fluffy on the inside.... Can you tell it's almost dinner time here? I'm describing bread. Haha. Anyway, this post didn't have too much writing, but I thought you would enjoy my photos of where I am living.
Until my next post,
xoxo
D

Is it Sacrilegious to Dance and Drink in a Church?

Apologies for being so behind, but I will try to write maybe two blogs before going to bed. It's almost midnight here, while everyone at home is getting ready to leave work. The time change makes it really hard to be able to set up a time to talk on Skype with the family, but weekends have been working out well... So I got an e-mail from my dad telling me that he wakes up every morning hoping there's a new blog post... Talk about pressure! So here goes, I'll try to remember as best I can where I left off...

I had my first day of classes, and it's my only class on Tuesdays, but with the siesta and all, and the fact that there are only 5 classrooms and no more than two classes go on at a time, we have night classes. So my class isn't until 6:20-7:45. It's a little weird to have class so late, but the days are long and it stays light out late so it doesn't seem that late when I'm in class. The thing I still have yet to get adjusted to is the view from the classroom windows. The windows are usually always open and when I look outside I see old buildings, and tiled roofs, it's amazing. I'll have to take a picture of the view so that everyone can enjoy what I do when I zone out and stop listening to the professor. Just Kidding, I would never do that....
Anyway, this internship class is with all of the students who are doing internships. They range from the red cross, court, teaching English, and so much more. Basically what we'll be doing during that time is kind of discussing the experiences we have and we'll be reading something, which I haven't read yet. Our books are sooo cheap here!! All of my books for 5 classes were only 30 Euros. Granted they aren't real books, they're all bounded photo copies of the real books, and my Society Through Spanish and Latin American Film class has no book, but it was still incredibly cheap! I've spent over $250 in a semester alone at Denison, it's ridiculous!
Anyway, the class was fun, we talked about differences we might encounter in a work environment in Spain versus the U.S. Such things like what to wear, how to introduce ourselves, which I soon learned to wait for the Spanish person to make the move first then I followed suit. When I went in to meet with the head of the tv station, he shook my hand, but when I met Rodrigo, he host of the show I'm on, he gave me a kiss on both cheeks. It's something else that will also take some time to get used to, but interesting nonetheless.
So we sat in a circle in the classroom, and the Professor Miguel Angel told us to go around making introductions. He went first and pulled out this little plush football, that you would never guess had the Ohio State logo! I mean what are the chances that I'll study abroad in this tiny town with 75,000 people coming from the Chicago/Ohio and an Ohio State fan all my life and one of my professors has an Ohio State football. I just had to laugh. The best part though, was that when it hit something hard the song would come on. So as it went around the circle in no particular order, and if it landed hard in someone's hands or it hit the floor, the song would play for a few seconds.
It eventually reached this kid Jason, who introduced himself, said where he was from, what school, what his major was and what his internship was and then he said "No me gusta Ohio State," "I don't like Ohio State." The professor then asked if there was anyone who did like Ohio State and I raised my hand and I said I did, and Jason replied by saying that he was a Michigan fan. Typical, I thought. We sized each other up and then after class when a group of us went to the University Bar just outside of the Fundación to have a drink and sit outside, he asked me why I was an Ohio State fan. I gave him the answer that my dad grew up in Columbus, so I've been a fan all my life, and I go to school in Ohio. And then he said that he didn't think that they would be good because one of the players got hurt, and I proceeded to tell him that they'll probably win anyway. Next thing I know they get beat... and bad by USC. But we won't talk about that. I'm a Chicagoan, ever since the Bulls went downhill in the 90's, I've gotten used to sports teams letting me down. (I'm crossing my fingers for the Cubs though!)
Anyway, the University Bar is great, they give you free tapas with every drink you order! It can range from a basket of chips, to a platter of chorizo and green olives, to little sandwiches. It's great! And Sarah, those olives they have are AMAZING! They're not acidic at all! You were definitely right, they marinate them in something that tastes great.

So the second day of classes, my third day in Toledo I had two classes, one was the Spanish Linguistics class, which I never get homework for, and the other was Women in Literature. The Contemporary Spanish Women in Literature course was twice that day, once in the morning and the other later in the afternoon at around 5. The linguistics course was alright. We're going to be learning the history of the Spanish language in Spain because there are 4 official languages in Spain. Castellano(Spanish), Vasco, Catalán and Gallego. But Spanish is the main language, 400 million people speak it in Spain.
The women's literature class will be really interesting, and the second class we already started reading one of the stories. The only thing is is that each student read one paragraph then we would switch and it went on that way the entire class but at almost every single paragraph, the professor would either re-read excerpts or explain each one. It killed me. So I read ahead and then just went back and caught up with the class when it was my turn to read. We'll see if every class will be that way, but I hope not. The story we're reading is really interesting though, I'll have to explain more about it once we're finished with it.
The professor for the lit class, Benito, is the one who taught at Denison, and is friends and keeps in touch with Profesora Llanos, one of my Spanish professors at Denison so I brought Benito a Denison care package from Llanos and I immediately became her favorite student, on the first day. Yay me! haha
Anyway, my fourth day in Toledo, and third and final day of classes for the week (we don't have classes on Fridays! They do that to give us time to travel) I had one more class but twice. One was Muslim, Jewish and Christian art in Toledo, which will be fascinating to be able to go out and see the actual art in person and not just study it from a textbook. The class is twice in one day, so the morning class will be a field trip and tour to a cathedral, sinagogue, mosque in Toledo and then the second class we learn more of the history and discuss what we saw. I'm really excited to get started on my first field trip!
I also learned that Thursdays are a big going out day in Spain so I had my first experience of staying up until 3:30am and going out to the a bar and club in the town. First, let's rewind and talk about my internship, and my first time on tv! Although I started off with a somber topic, 9/11 because it was the anniversary of the attacks, I thought the whole process went well and I was surprised that I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I spent the whole day researching and making notecards with talking points about the memorials, the security changes, the political side of it. I was so excited to get into how the Republican party has converted 9/11 from a day of remembrance to a campaign slogan, and how Republicans are focusing on how they have maintained the country and the people so safe since then and are stating that voting Democratic will bring on another 9/11 and everyone will die.
I wasn't able to say all that though. Instead, I was asked where I was on the day of, and what I thought of the memorials, and what the security changes have been. However, I did get to get a little more political and say that now the fear of flying that existed immediately after the attacks has been replaced with discrimination and racism. And that it's become acceptable to prejudge someone based on their name and appearance, especially at airports... But then he moved on to compared 9/11 with M-11, which was the train bombing that took place in Madrid in 2004. So I'll have to save my political speech for when we talk about the elections.
Anyway, later that night, I went to one of the classrooms that is also the Sala, Living Room, and has a tv in it in order to watch myself on tv. It was weird. I definitely need to smile more, which is something I should've already known from watching tv anchors smiling while they talk about a flood that's killed hundreds of people, or a shooting that took place somewhere. Smiling is on my to do list. Other than that, I felt very calm in front of the camera, and I think that I spoke very well, I knew what I was talking about. But some people walked in and watched some of it with me and they were all amazed that I was on tv. And let me tell you, word travels around FAST! I went to O'Briens later that night and it seemed like the entire school was there, but everyone came up to me and was like "I heard you're on tv, you're so famous now!" Haha it was weird.
Now, I know what you're thinking, O' Briens? An Irish pub in Spain? They are very common, and yes, I went there. One of the bartenders actually is from Puerto Rico and he speaks English perfectly. He also loves American kids and gives free drinks. And it was his birthday at midnight, so we all sang him Happy Birthday. The pub is small though, and it was packed fast, so we went walking to look for one of the discotecas that we had heard of, it's called Circulo de Arte. And guess what. It's a church turned into a dance club. As sacrilegious as I felt, it was a lot of fun. The place is huge, with really high ceilings obviously, and it's made of brick. It also has two bars, one on each end, and the DJ is lofted up above everyone. It's pretty cool.


This is the photo of the outside of the club, during the day. It's not the greatest picture, but you can get the idea of it.
Anyway, we all stayed until about 3 and then Maggie called a cab to come pick up the kids who live with families. There were 5 of them. Of course I spoke to the cab, told him where we were and gave him my name, because they you have to give your name when they arrive so they know that you were the one who called. The cab arrived quickly, and I spoke with the driver and asked him if he could take 5 people, but 4 is the limit. So I called another cab and the 5 people split up in regards to who lived in the same area. The second cab came and I went up again and told him that he needed to make to stops. I almost left before the second cab came, but Mark, who had to take it asked me to stay to talk to the driver. Haha. I'm glad I've become so useful.
Me and three girls were the ones left who live in the dorms, so we walked back to the school, and the receptionist opened the door for us, because after a certain time the door is locked and we have to ring a bell to get back in. As we walked through the door, the guy was like "What a late night" Haha little did he know we would be going to Madrid from Saturday to Sunday, stay up all night and walk through the door right on time for breakfast. But that's for another post... I do have to keep you intrigued somehow. :)
Until my next post,
xoxo
D

Reporting From Toledo... Spain That Is

So It's not that bad here... Reflecting on it more I realized it's hard because I've been in Madrid the last two days for orientation with my group and its been sooooooo fun cuz its only 7 of us and the group is like amazing so we got really really close because we've been together like 24/7 the last 2.5 days, so getting split up just made me feel lost, and kind of lonely. And it feels like almost all of the 150 who are studying here are doing homestays, which kind of sucks because it's great during the day, but then everyone leaves at night. And that's when I have time to think and that's when I get homesick and lonely.
I know now why college is so fun and I never got lonely because people didn't leave at night, everyone lives in the dorms somewhere on campus, so I never really had down time to get homesick. But even if I did, my family was a phone call away, whereas here the time difference is 7 hrs, and I can't just pick up the phone and call them because it's so expensive, I have to schedule a time to get on Skype that works for everyone. It's hard. And it'll take A LOT to get used to it, I don't know if I'll ever get used to it...

Yesterday I just felt like stuck when everyone left, like I started to get familiar with everything and then it just collapsed.

I'm just being more emotional because its a lot to take in. I mean once I get my classes and get a schedule/routine going it'll be fun. I just had to cry it out to my parents and I've been ok since then. I just also really miss school and home though. But it's normal, it's also just hard because I didn't expect me to break down at all and if I did I especially didn't think it would be in the 3rd day of being here. But I know that the first days are the hardest.

Today though, I'm back with my group, who are here right now because we've been taking tests and getting our classes and we went and walked around the town so that was good. It's been ok today so far, I'm not the only one that isn't too happy right now though which makes me feel better. A couple of them actually want to move back to the dorms, which I hope they do. And I went out last night to a restaurant with a group of like 10 people and we had sangria which was nice, and they were cool, but I like my group more haha. I'm trying to keep an open mind though. And I found out today that everyone lives 20 min or farther, which sucks. I don't know I'm trying to take it day by day.
But first thing we did today was take a two part test to see where our level of Spanish is. I failed. Haha I'm totally kidding. The first thing we had to do was write a letter to a penpal and they gave us some points we had to include. Simple enough. Then we got a 6-page packet with unfinished sentences and they gave us multiple choice options to choose the correct answer to complete the sentence. They told us to put an "X" on the letter that was correct, which I thought was so odd because usually we use X to cross something out as wrong... Maybe that's one of the new culture things I'll have to adjust to... Anyway, I was one of the first to finish so I had a lot of time to wait in between then and when we met with a professor to choose our classes. So we all just hung out, ate lunch. When I went in for my meeting, I found out that I did very well in both exams, and the professor told me that I didn't need to take a Spanish language class, but it's a requirement for the Arcadia program so she told me to do the Service Learning class that's new, but I just took that course at Denison last semester. So I'm in a Spanish Linguistics course that is a level lower. First day of class I found out we don't get homework. And we can use all of our notes in tests. If all of my classes are like that this will be a great semester! I'm also doing an internship, but our interviews for the internship are later in the day, so I technically don't even know if I'll get it or not until later in the day. If I don't get it, I'll have to pick up another class. I'm also taking Christian, Muslim and Jewish Art in Toledo. Which is an art history class, and probably the best one to be offered because Toledo is known as the city of three cultures. It used to be the home for Christians, Muslims and Jews where they all lived together. Also on my schedule is Society through Spanish and Latin American film. And finally, contemporary Spanish women writers, which is actually taught by Luisa Benito, who was a Spanish professor at Denison about 13 years ago. Honestly, what a small world!!
After getting my classes, we all waited for our internship interviews for the ones who applied for one. As time went on we found out that some of them were filled. And I started to get nervous and wonder what kind of process it was where the slots filled before they even interviewed everyone who applied. I started to get really nervous that mine would be filled also, and my nervousness became anger. The process wasn't fair for the students who had last names that were later in the alphabet resulting in later interview times. I soon found out that they didn't decide on the students based on that, rather they based it on when their application was sent. That isn't any better though, because I could have had a bad application but sent it in early and gotten the internship over someone who worked harder and could even be a better candidate. Regardless, I got my internship. I walked into the office and sat down with the professor and he looked at my application and said so you want to work with La Tribuna. And I said that I did, and he was like ok well this is what you'll be doing and went on to explain that I will be ON TV!!
I'm gonna be on a late night tv show as a special correspondent and I give my
point of view as a student from the U.S. studying abroad in Spain. So he told me that the
host of the show will give me a topic like a couple days or a day in advance and I'll do
research on it, and I ask other students, etc. and I report my opinion on the
show!!!!
I'm like freaking out, sooo excited and unexpected at the same time! I had NO idea that
it would be like this! So I also have a couple of DVDs with past students who have
interned so I can see examples. I'm soooo excited!!!
And the professor told me that I can also stick around and learn some of the other things that go into tv shows like the behind the scenes stuff. Because he was like it's all there and so
ask questions. So I'm glad the place is small so that I can get a whole experience with
the in front of and behind the camera stuff.
I'm sooo excited!!!
It is only a local television station, but I can't wait! I'm so nervous and excited at the same time!
I'm off to check out the examples that he gave me, but I cannot wait to see what this is like!
Until my next post,
xoxo
D

Goodbye Madrid... Hola Toledo

Well, as I said am waay behind on my posts, but I will be writing this post as if the day had just happened, since it's easier that way. Anyway, this is our last morning in Madrid, and we will be leaving for Toledo by bus which will take approximately an hour. We first had breakfast in the hotel like the other morning, and breakfast isn't a big thing here, it's funny. Spaniards don't live by the whole "you need a big breakfast to start your day off well" concept like they do in the States. They basically eat toast or a piece of a fresh baguette with jelly or cheese and coffee. Or they'll have some fruit. It's a small meal usually at around 8 or 9am but then they take a work break at around 10:30-11am and eat a larger breakfast type meal, some don't eat until that time. And then lunch is between 2-4, which is usually when the siesta or naptime is. That's when all of the stores close and everyone relaxes until about 5. Then they eat dinner between 9-11, and don't go out until after midnight. Since I'm a night person I think I'll be able to handle that, but it's hard to wait to eat what for me are such odd times. Of course it'll take some getting used to, but I'll have to rearrange my entire eating schedule because I snack like all day long and they do not do that here. I'll just have to buy a lot of gum to sustain me until the next meal.
Anyway, we all met in the lobby and walked to the taxi stop. We each had our own taxi since we all packed two bags and that was about all the trunk could fit. As Clif told the taxis where to drop us off, we each left individually. Turns out there was some kind of misunderstanding between three of the drivers and Clif because three of us ended up somewhere else. No worries though, I speak Spanish. My taxi followed the two in front of it and as they each pulled over on a corner, I didn't see any of the other people who had left before us. And the meter read 5 Euros, when Clif had told us it would be about a 10 Euro ride. Something was definitely wrong. So as the three taxi drivers and the four students walked out of the cab all in confusion, Brian pointed to me and told his taxi driver that I could speak Spanish. So the three taxi drivers came to me and asked me where we were supposed to go. After I told them that we had to go to the Plaza, one of the drivers was not too happy about being wrong and was convinced that this was where he was told to drop us off. So I explained that we had to catch a bus to go to Toledo and there was no bus stop here. As he reluctantly went back to his car, we all got back into ours and headed off.
Once I shut my door, my taxi driver told me that she didn't know that I spoke Spanish and that was why she didn't talk to me before. She asked me where I was from, and I found out that she is a big fan of Chicago and had visited years ago. We quickly got to the plaza and I was relieved to see that the rest of the group was waiting for us. We got our stuff on the bus and waited for students from other schools to get there. And we quickly added two more to our group of friends, two students from University of Minnesota, which I soon learned is "The U" here because there are so many of them studying in Toledo from there.
We soon headed off to Toledo and after we all introduced ourselves and asked the standard where are you from, what school do you go to, did you just get here, how was your flight questions there was that awkward pause where everyone's run out of things to say, so everyone either turned their iPods on, or tried to sleep or looked out the window or turned to have a one-on-one conversation with someone. I did all three. And there were still 45 min. left of the drive. So I wrote down some stuff to remind me of what we had done to be able to blog about it.
Once we finally got to Toledo, I saw the hills that it's built on and how old and dry everything looks. It's amazing. Gorgeous.
It looks like there is a lot of green, but this picture was taken from a hill that had a lot of green bushes, the actual town and center of Toledo which is what the photo is of is dry and all of it's colors are neutral so it makes it look drier. On the right is the Alcázar, which is one of the monuments that Toledo is known for. It used to be a roman palace in the 3rd century, and the Spanish king and queen would stay there. Alcázar is actually an arabic word. All Spanish words that start with an "Al" are arabic words. Like almohada (pillow), alambre (wire), etc.
Anyway, we had to take rolls our bags down a small street that cars would not fit through, and the handle of one of my wheeled bags broke! Luckily Maggie connected it to the top of her big bag and then I rolled her second one with mine. It was a difficult process and we were the last to get into the Funda (short for Fundación, which everyone says to call the school). I was sweating like an icy drink in the summer and then I had to carry my bags up the stairs to my room on the second floor. Which, by the way, is the first floor here because they start their lobby floor at zero. It was really confusing when we took the elevator in the hotel, and I definitely got off at the wrong floor a couple of times.
After dropping off my bags, we all had lunch, which offered many vegetable/vegetarian options. Yay! I'm thinking I'll like the food here. After lunch we got the tour of the school, which is ONE BUILDING. Yes, the dorms, the dining room, the classrooms, the laundry room and the computer labs are all in one building. One. Uno. I can get out of bed and walk up the stairs and go to class if I want. I didn't think it would be like that at all, I was expecting being able to go out to the library, or find a study room in a building. The library is on the second floor. And the classrooms are locked after classes are over. Never will I ever take Denison for granted. I mean can you imagine studying for midterms or finals and not having your own room or table to study in. I'm gonna have to find the town library, which I hope will be bigger and not have only two aisles with books. One which is only travel guides. I guess I will definitely NOT have to worry about missing anything when I travel on weekends...
Once our tour was over, the students doing a homestay left to meet their families, which was my whole group except for one girl and I suddenly got really overwhelmed and started to get really homesick and sad. I felt like I hadn't talked to my family in forever, and like I was all by myself now, and that everyone was doing a homestay... It's hard to be away, and I think I finally noticed that I was away from home for a whole semester. So I cried. I went to my room and grabbed my computer, my charger and plug converter, cell phone and first went upstairs to try to find an open classroom. That's when I found out they're locked when there's no class. So I went to the library. Closed. So I walked downstairs to a room full of couches and chairs, there were people there. All I wanted to do was be alone and talk to my parents and the place was so small there was nowhere I could call my own space. It felt like the school was getting smaller and smaller and I was convinced I had made the wrong decision. I didn't know where to go or what to do. My roommate was in my room, and I could feel the tears coming. So I walked down to the basement where the laundry room is and another computer lab. The computer lab was empty so I went in and set up shop. But once I got on Skype, my family wasn't on. So I wrote an e-mail to my dad and while trying to explain to him how I felt, I burst into tears. Don't worry, I brought my to go pack of tissues with me.
This is what I wrote him:
" I added you to my Skype, sorry I haven't responded we've been all over the place and
anytime we have free time I've been sleeping cuz I'm exhausted. I hate it here. I mean I
like it, but right now I don't. It's really late at home so I know you guys won't be up,
but I'd really like to talk to you soon. I'm really homesick right now. I think it has to
do with the fact that we just got to the school and have split up into our rooms and the
others who are oing homestays have split up with those not doing a homestay and from my
group me and another girl are the only ones staying in the dorms. And I think it's just
hard to finally have gotten close to a group of people and then they leave, and I don't
know how far they are from the school. The girl who is here and our rooms actually
connect and we each have a Puerto Rican roommate and they knew each other before. I'm
glad I share a bathroom with Amanda, the girl from my group but I think I just need some
alone time or something cuz I just don't want to be around her, and I feel like me
feeling like everything's all over the place I would try to hold onto someone or
something that would keep it the same, but I just can't stand her right now. I think it's
cuz she's been really clingy and needy cuz she's freaking out about not knowing Spanish
well enough, and being one of the only ones living in the dorms, etc. And I just can't
deal with that and my emotions either.
I think I'm also kind of freaking out because I didn't think that I would get very
homesick at all or "hate" the place so soon into the trip, but I wanna go home, and it's
hard and I know that it's just a phase and probably just that it's a lot of stuff to take
in in like 3 days. I think I might just go take a walk around the town and try to find a
quiet place.
The school is tiny. The dorm rooms are one the first and second floor and the classrooms
are on the second floor too. As is the library. And there's no place to just be by
yourself. It's gonna be really hard to get used to cuz at school there's tons of
classrooms in any building you can hide out in to work and stuff
We don't start classes yet tomorrow, we have to take a placement exam and an oral exam.
Then we have to interview for the internship position.
I'm kind of wishing that I did a homestay, just to be with a family and have my own room
which would be really nice, and I actually wish I had requested a single room.
Anyway, I'm calming down a little bit, but I really miss you guys. Here's my schedule for
tomorrow so that maybe you can e-mail me back a time we can skype or talk on the phone.

I actually have to go back to my room to get it so I'll send you another e-mail with it.

I miss you and love you,
Daniella"
The e-mail is very jumbly and rambles, but I was typing so fast and crying I didn't care.
Two minutes later, my dad was calling me on Skype and I don't think I've ever felt so relieved and happy before. Just hearing his voice made it seem like everything was gonna be ok. I talked everything out with my dad, then I iChated with my brother, but seeing the kitchen in the background made me homesick again. Then I got to talk to Cassie and she told me that she went through the same thing, but that it gets better, and then I talked to Caroline and she said the same thing, and then I talked to my mom who made me feel better. But I think the girl Rocio, who I found out is from Chicago, went to Jones high school and was doing a homestay but she wanted to move out and into the dorms reassured me that I definitely made the right decision living in the dorms. There are obviously pros and cons for both, but I was satisfied with staying in the dorms.
I spent about 5 hours on the computer and I think it made me feel better to be connected to something since I had NO way of contacting anyone in my group because they didn't have phones yet.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. I'll at least be back with my friends...
Until my next post,
xoxo
D

The Unofficial Translator

So the second day in Madrid we spent in the Palacio Real de Madrid, which is where the Kings and Queens used to live. The place was AMAZING! Here's a picture of the outside. We couldn't ake pictures inside, which I didn't know until I went up the stairs and saw the sign, but that's ok because I only took one picture of the statue of Carlos III, who was the first monarch to live in the castle. And the security guards didn't see me so I didn't get in trouble either. Hah. Before I go into detail of what I saw and how blown away I was I'll post some more of the pictures that I could take before going inside, and explain them as I go.

This is just a photo of the side of the castle that I couldn't fit into the first picture, just to show how big it is.This is one of the lamp posts that was in the large plaza in front of the castle, inside of the gated castle. It's not too interesting, but it begins to explain how much detail and how gorgeous the inside rooms were.

And this is the church right outside of the gates that surround the castle. Very breathtaking.


The following two photos are the view of Madrid from steps to the right side of the castle.















The view isn't too special and it's also not the most important part of what I saw that day, but I just wanted you all to see the pictures.

The castle has two statues, one on the left and one on the right up towards that top. And because we did an audio tour, we each got our own little audio machine which told us the history of each room and the castle, I learned that the left statue is Moctezuma and the right one is Atahualpa. Which, I thought was amazing that they would put Aztec statues of such important men on their castle. In the middle, almost at the top of the castle are four statues of the first royal family to have lived in the castle. And below are the photos.

The first is Moctezuma, then Atahualpa, then the family.As you can see from the final picture, the sky was amazing. The weather in Madrid will take a little to get used to. I expected it to be hot since I left Chicago and it was hot, and this summer Chicago being hot was a miracle. When I got into Madrid though I was cold. First, let me say that I know I get cold easily, and I wear a hoodie and sweat pants in the summer, but this really was cold. Even the other students told me that thought it was cold and not what they expected. Anyway, basically, Madrid is really chilly in the morning, and then the afternoon gets really sunny and hot, and the nights drop down and are cold again. It kind of reminded me of Guatemala where you can't walk barefoot on the tiled floors i the morning because you'll freeze and then all you want to do in the middle of the afternoon is strip your clothes off and jump in the pila or sometimes it's so hot that you'll go so far as to shower with the freezing cold water instead of heating up the water... That's only when you're desperate though, (which I can't say I have ever reached that point). Then at night you always have to put a sweater or sweatshirt on because it gets crisp. That's exactly how Madrid was. The only problem was that we started our days so early and then wouldn't get back to the hotel until late afternoon. So I soon learned that I had to either be cold in the morning but then good in the afternoon, or the other way around... let's just say that I have yet to master the weather.
Anyway, back to the palace. When we got our audio machines we all got to choose which language we wanted our tour in. One by one each student said English and I was like español. Now, this is not an exaggeration but everyone turned around to look at me and were like, "You're crazy, I could never do that, are you sure you're going to understand?" Now when people ask me how I know Spanish so well, I tell them that I'm guatemalan and that I grew up speaking it and I went to a bilingual elementary school where I learned how to read it and write it also. But for them to really understand what that means I have to say that when someone speaks to me in Spanish, it's like someone speaking to them in English, I just understand it. That's ususally when they get jealous and say, "I wish I knew Spanish like that". I guess me being here is kind of like cheating since I already know the language, but there's so much more to learn. The Spanish culture is very different than Latin American cultures, and the use of vosotros and instead of pronouncing the "s", they say "th", which is completely different also. I may not be here to learn the language but I am here to learn just as much as everyone else.
So I took the Spanish tour, which was amazing, and yes mami I did understand everything, I am not losing it like you always ask.
I walked into the palace, and as the audio tour guide explained, before walking up the steps there was a statue of Carlos III, who was the first monarch to inhabit the palace. Here's the photo of his statue that I took before knowing we couldn't take any inside... oops!
Anyway, it's a little dark, but you can begin to see how amazing the inside the palace is. If you turn around you walk up the stairs and there's two lions at the top of the steps on each side where the steps split in two one so that you can climb either side. All of the ceilings in each room and the ceiling above the steps are painted with angels, or gods and/or goddesses. The paintings are amazing, they have so much detail, the clods look real, the fabric of the clothing looks real, and they look like they were 3-D. Also, there was so much gold detail along the ceiling and the walls. The gold detail is like that on the lamp post that I have a picture of.
I mean the inside each room was breathtaking. It's so difficult to explain.

In several of the rooms, there were long crystal chandeliers. Gorgeous and still looking like new, which, made me wonder how they keep up the appearance of the place. I mean the walls were covered in tapestries and they were all still so deep and rich in their color, it was amazing. I also found out that in the winter they would cover the walls with tapestries and then in the summer they would take it down and hang up large paintings. It was an interesting idea I thought. But the tapestries to make the rooms look darker kind of an old, eerie feel. But I guess the lack of light (in order to preserve the color of the inside) except for small ones on the ceilings add to the darkness. The border of the doorways were made of marble as were most of the floors. It also makes me wonder how they keep everything clean. Everything has that antique, but very well preserved look, but I wonder how they clean it. The ceilings are so high, I would hate to have the job of dusting it and getting the cobwebs out of the corners. Walking through the rooms and hearing the story of each one and the history of the pieces in them, it made me think of the new buildings and condos going up all over Chicago. When I compare the models and photos of the new condos they are the polar opposite to the decoration and design of anything in this palace. Everything is so modern and all about the newest high tech appliances, it's crazy to think how much has changed and how the high tech modern things hundreds of years ago used to be china from Asia, or hand-painted clocks. There were about 16 different rooms and it was amazing to walk to each room and see how different they would be from the one before it. Carlos III had a room where the wallpaper was a seagreen color and it had his initials and his wife, Doña Sofia. It had a monogram with JCS which stood for Don Juan Carlos III and Doña Sofia. I thought of Lindsley when I saw it and how if she were to see the wallpaper she would probably get it made for the Beaver 6 room or get it made for her children's rooms when she has kids. Haha Love you Linds!
There was also a Room covered in china. It was small, but it was covered in 134 plaques of porcelain. and there was hand painted detail. It was gorgeous. There was also a Comedor de Gala, which is the Gala Dining Hall where they would hold big dinners and dance. The floor was wooden, and you could see the worn marks from people's shoes in the closed off section, who knows how old they were. The room was huge, and apparently during the time of Carlos III, part of it was the queen's room. But then during the period of Alfonso XIII the bedrooms were joined to form the gala dining room.
Something that was very common to find in the rooms were statues and only statue heads, or designs on the walls of angel heads. I don't know what scares me more, the statues with eyes or the ones without... I think I might have just come upon a new phobia of mine, statues. Mannequins would be included too, they just freak me out, like they're going to come to life all of a sudden. Haha.

Anyway, I was one of the people who got behind on the tour, and I didn't get to finish it, but there are a few more pictures I took like of the hallway and the patio in the middle of the palace. Here they are below.

After leaving the palace, we met up with our tour guide Mercedes. She was great we went all over Madrid and I'll explain the history that she told us while I post up the pictures. The funny think is that I'm horrible at history. Not only do I not enjoy it (I always tell my dad history doesn't matter because it's in the past), I have the worst memory for it. However, I became Mercedes' English translator. Every time we stopped and she explained something to us then moved on, everyone turned to me to explain what she had just said and translate it into English. Let me tell you, repetition definitely works. Ha...
Anyway, let us begin the tour.
This is a picture of the Plaza Mayor. After Madrid became the capital of Spain, which used to be Toledo, this is where all of the activities took place. The festivals and celebrations, and even the criminal sentencing because the jail is very close by. Therefore, they would sentence the person in the plaza then take him/her to the jail if that was the sentence.






The second photo is the right side of the plaza, the part that is cut off in the first photo. The place where the flags are is the balcony where the king and queen would stand and watch whatever was going on from above. Also, there was a law in Madrid that said that the owners of the apartments in these buildings had to give up their balcony's to the government so that the government could rent them out to the nobles and they could watch the event from a balcony. Isn't that just ridiculous?! Not only were the apartment owners kicked out of their balcony's, they didn't even get the rent money that the nobles had to pay to be able to be on the balcony's. So the people living in the apartments had to watch the events down in the plaza with everyone else! Now let us move on to clearly more entertaining and interesting things. I know everyone sees the Yoda in the right hand corner of the photo. (Don't worry I got a close up). I especially wanted to get him in the photo to contrast the old historic site with what happens in the plaza today. Hey, you gotta make money somehow!

So here's the close-up. And as you can see he is fully equipped with a light saber. If you put money in his box he waved the light saber around as if in a mock fight. But, Yoda wasn't the only entertainer. There was a spider also. This man stood up on a box (I guess that's the cool thing since Yoda was on one too?), and he was dressed all in black, and had his arms down by his sides, and when someone put money in his box he lifted up his arms he pulled up the other legs and a web all sewn together. It was kind of a waste of money if you ask me...







Anyway, the next photo is the old jail house, where I said they took the criminals. It's not a jail anymore, it's actually the town/city hall building now.














The next photo is just one of the streets in Madrid, one of the smaller ones. You can see the top of the churches in Madrid.

One of the things I noticed in Madrid was how much grafitti there was on buildings and all of the little street carts had graffiti all over them. Some of it was in English and pretty inappropriate. But here's a colorful one I thought was interesting.
The next photo is just of one of the churches we saw on the tour.
And then there was a building that was painted just very vibrant, bright colors that I thought was gorgeous.


This next photo is a picture of the bridge in Madrid. Apparently Madrid is mainly on two big hills and it used to take a long time to go from one to the other, that is until they built this bridge. However, the bridge also became the place where people went to commit suicide. I'm not sure whether you can see from the photo, but there is a fence, as well as glass to block people from being able to jump.

This is the last photo of the tour and it's one of a convent where the nuns are not able to have any contact whatsoever with anyone outside of the convent and no one can see the nuns. That's why the windows are so high up and there are so few so that they can't look out. Mercedes told us that these types of convents used to be very common, and that there was a law in Madrid that stated that no one could build a house higher than the convent walls, and if they did they couldn't have any windows above where the walls ended so that there would be no contact between the nuns and the people outside.
Also, the nuns used to hold fundraisers by selling baked goods, but since they couldn't see anyone and vice versa, they were put inside this wooden cylinder thing with no openings except something in the middle that would swivel. Someone would put their money in the little swivel drawer and then the nuns would swivel it around to get the money then but the candy on the drawer and swivel it back around to give to the buyer. How odd is that? I mean it's so difficult to imagine living a life that way. Mercedes told us though that most of the women who were nuns were the ones dropped off on the doorstep of the church by their mothers of parents who could not care for them, they were just abandoned. I guess if you grow up in that way, you never know what you're missing, so it's easier in that sense. But it's still so hard to fathom never having contact with anyone.

Once our tour was over, we had a couple of hours of free time back at the hotel which I spend laying down and trying to update my blog, which yes I know I am waaay behind on. I will catch up, promise.
The plan for the rest of the night was to meet at the lobby at 8pm to go to a flamenco dance. And our program director told us to eat something before it or we would probably starve in the middle of it. Right before we had to meet, Maggie, Amanda and I went to find something to eat but we didn't have enough time to sit down so we went to the grocery store and found pre-made salads for 1.99 Euros. They also had a cart with samples of chocolate soy milk, which tasted just like the chocolate soymilk we always have at home, and I missed home again... Anyway, Maggie and I bought one of the salads and as we checked out, I soon found out that there was no tax!!! Coming from Chicago, where they just raised the taxes I thought I had hit gold. The flamenco dance was great. There was more singing than dancing, but the talent and the deep strong voices of the singers is incredible. If you ever have a chance to see a flamenco dance, I highly recommend it. Especially in Madrid, where we got to order a drink, and which we all took full advantage of and ordered wine or sangria. :) Don't worry though dad, your sangria is still the best. ;)
After the dance, the group went to find a place to eat tapas and the girls went to one place, while the boys went to find a place where they could watch the Spain soccer team play and eat. While we were eating, I saw my first pick pocket. The four of us were sitting outside and suddenly we saw a man running towards us and he past us, and then a man was running right behind him trying to catch him. And behind both of them was a police officer, waayy behind. It was interesting haha. And it definitely made me clutch onto my purse even tighter.
After dinner we went back to the hotel which was about 12:30 pm, we slowly are trying to get used to the late nights. And at around 1 the boys came knocking at our door determined to pull a noche española where we stayed out as late as the spanish did. However, I was the only one up for it, so the 3 guy and I walked around for a bit, and we came across a hookah place, Jamie and I got really excited and convinced Brian and Mark to try it because they never had before. So we got two hookahs, strawberry flavored and sat outside and smoked it and got the attention of a lot of people wondering what it was that we were doing. We even had a conversation with two English men who had been drinking since 5pm and it was about 1:30am. One of them was wearing a red dress. Mark asked them if they were Manchester United or Leads fans and the man said Leads. As they walked away one of the guys yelled out Manchester United and the guy in the dress got so offended and started walking back towards our table and kept repeating, "Oh you're fuckin rilin' me now, you're fuckin' rilin' me." It was hilarious. I don't know what was funnier, the man being in a dress, which was inside out by the way, or the way he said the f-word.
Anyway, after stopping in O'Connells again, and realizing how uncomfortably packed and crowded and sweaty it was we left and went back to the hotel and called it a low key, yet successful night.
Until my next post,
xoxo
D

From a 4-yr olds damp foot to un sorbete de limón

I have survived my first, and almost second day in Madrid and let me tell you it has not been easy. I definitely have not experienced the whole jet lag or culture shock just yet, but the airport was a nightmare! Once we finally boarded the plane in Chicago, which was delayed because of the bad weather (Sarah we must be cursed when we travel abroad... maybe it's a genetic thing), I was so excited to get started and was even more excited when I found out that I got the aisle seat in the middle row and was sitting next to one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen. Kayla, which I soon found out is her name, was I'm guessing about 4 and she was sitting next to her brother Gaby, probably 2 and their mom. Before the flight even took off, the two kids fell asleep and I thought to myself that this sitting situation was a miracle since kids can get annoying, it seemed like they would just sleep the entire flight. Well... long did I know that I would be awoken to a 4 yr-old kicking me with her shoeless foot. Worst of all it was her damp, warm foot, the kind where you have just taken your shoe off and it's warm and damp from being enclosed in your shoe for so long and the air hasn't dried it yet. I mean as cute as her pink Dora the Explorer socks were, anyone who knows me knows that I have a foot thing, where I really don't like people's feet on or near me. If they have shoes on that's different, but otherwise it's just gross. And Kayla was no exception I don't care how cute she was.

Once we finally landed an hour after we were supposed to, I exited the plane and walked up the walkway which was gorgeous and all glass, no like the one's in the U.S. that are enclosed tunnels leading to the plane. I wish no that I had taken a picture, but I didn't want to be "that tourist" just yet. As I walked out into the airport, which seemed never ending and has high high ceilings, I followed the signs for the baggage claim. The walk took maybe 20 min. in and of itself, yes, it's one of those airports that make you walk and walk to get to baggage claim and then make you wait and wait for the conveyor belt to start. I mean honestly, you would think that if they made you walk that much to get to baggage claim, they would compensate by already having the bags going. Anyway, I finally got my bags and found out that I had to take a bus to get to Terminal 1 to meet up with the program director and the rest of the group. Not only was the shuttle bus packed, but I couldn't take the luggage cart with me so I pulled my two 50 pound bags up on the bus, was sweating all over and had to hold on to them as the bus took fast twists and turns.

I finally got off at Terminal 1 and went inside to start looking for Maggie, one of the girls in my group who said we could meet up and go to the hotel together. I walked from one end of Terminal 1 to the next and back again and then went back once more to make sure I didn't miss her. Finally, I decided to ask the Information Desk, and as I walked up and asked the guy if he knew where Arcadia University students might meet, he told me that i probably wanted to go down to the arrivals, not the departures where there was a meeting point. Not only was I exhausted, I felt like my arm was gonna to fall off because my bags were so heavy and I had just found out that I had spent probably 15 minutes walking back and forth. All I could think of was thank God I can speak the language, it was the only comforting thing I could think of at the moment. Well, I did go down one floor and continued to walk back and forth trying to find Maggie or someone with an Arcadia sign or t-shirt. None. So I asked the new information desk, who had no idea where Arcadia students were and so I just stood there waiting right underneath the sign that read "Meeting Point," "Lugar de Encuentro" hoping and wishing that I would not have to take a Taxi all by myself to the hotel. Finally, I say this man in the distance looking around and walking towards me and I looked down at his folder and it said Arcadia University. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Ok, that was definitely an exaggeration, but a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders... or it might have been that I finally took my 10+ pound carry-on purse off my shoulder. After the introductions the two of us walked out of Terminal 1 and got into a taxi and like the air that you can't feel unless it's windy, the exhaustion hit me. I was so tired from not getting enough sleep the night before I left, to not sleeping much on the plane, to the airport nightmare all I could think of was going straight to the hotel and passing out.
My journey does not end there, however. Right when you thought there was a happy ending, there's more. Once I got to the hotel, I was the second to last one to arrive, Cliff (one of the program directors) and I were getting my room key from the front desk and the room that they assigned me and Amanda seemed to have been taken by mistake, so I was given a different one. Once I got my bags into the 5 ft by 5 ft crammed elevator and down the narrow corridors to the hotel room, I finally had free time to relax and nap. Before I even closed the door though, the room phone rang and it was the front desk explaining that Amanda was in the room they had previously assigned to us and I had to go back and return the key, and take my bags down one floor. Greeeaaat I thought. Just my luck.

Anyway, turns out Amanda and all of the other kids in my group (there's 7 of us including me), are all fun and we've all gotten along at least so far. So my "free" time was really a attempt to catch up on sleep. And then we went out to dinner and had what they call raciones, which are just family style orders so that we got to pass around and try a bunch of different things. We had una ensalada mixta, eggplant tempura, some kind of queso (sorry I forgot what it's called), torta española, chorizo (which I did not have, and I am still a vegetarian even though meat is HUGE here, and plan to stay that way... ahem Sarah), and I also had a vino tinto de verano which is red wine with club soda. Very, very good. There were a few other things we tried, that I cannot remember, but everything was very good.

And then came dessert.
Or postre as it is called in Spanish.
Me and Jamie were the only ones who ordered a postre, and as I was looking on the menu, I wanted something different.
Definitely got something different.
I ordered a sorbete de limón thinking that it would sorbet.
Well... not sorbet. What I did get was a tall skinny glass with a lemon flavored beverage that had some kind of alcohol.
It's safe to say that I was definitely tipsy leaving dinner. I mean with the jet lag, lack of sleep and wine and a lemon liquor it was bound to happen.
The night ended well, with six of us being "those Americans" at the bars and clubs at 11pm when everyone else is eating dinner, and the Irish pubs on top of that, which we learned from Cliff the next day that was the typical American tourist thing to do.
Definitely learned our lesson there.

All in all, the first day was kind of a surreal blur, where I caught myself smiling because I couldn't believe I was finally here.

And, we didn't even pay for one drink the entire night. Not bad for touristy Americans.
Anyway, until my next post, which will have pictures I promise!

xoxo
D

At The Airport

So I’m sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to take off. It should be taking off in 10 minutes, but we haven’t even boarded yet, so…. I’m assuming we may be a little delayed. Nevermind that, I’m not in any rush to sit in a chair for 8 hrs and either have to make two people get up when I need to use the bathroom or one. That’s the great thing about the aisle seat that you don’t have to cause a commotion to go to the bathroom. But then there’s no place to lay against when you want to sleep… I guess it’s a no-win situation… Moving on, this post won’t be going up until after I land in Spain since I have to pay for the internet at O’Hare airport, but I decided to write a post anyway. I’m getting nervous and excited at the same time. The gate has been empty until now when the rush of people have finally showed up, and it’s kind of getting me nervous… I think I might have to go to the bathroom before boarding. I better go for now… Until Madrid!

Xoxo
D

In Limbo... Not At Camp and Not Abroad

Being the last one to leave for abroad has been both a blessing and a heartbreak. It was great to be able to go back to camp for the first weekend and see everyone, and get back into the routine of staying out late, ordering Incredibles and getting ready with the girls every night. But, while I'm back at home sitting in the living room watching re-runs of Beverly Hills 90210, just waiting for Thursday to roll around to leave for Spain... I miss camp!! I don't know how else to put it but it's so fun to sit around and be lazy in your room yet be able to mingle and go visit other friends' rooms whenever you want. I think a lot of the appeal is the fact that I'm not the only one that gets lazy at school, there is always someone willing to spend an entire Saturday and Sunday afternoon watching marathons of America's Next Top Model or VH1 specials. But when I'm at home I lay on my couch flipping through channels on my own. Everyone is either back at school or abroad so I just don't know what to do with myself. I mean I could do my like 70th load of laundry or unpack and re-pack for what seems like the 15th time, but I'll just drive myself crazy. So... I just lay here, Facebook stalking and wondering how everyone's second day of classes went, and what other's have been up to in their new homes all over Europe. Until I leave on Thursday though, I'll have none of my own stories to report on, instead I'll be checking up on everyone else's lives and waiting anxiously for my own new adventure to begin. Until then, I hope you enjoy all of my rambling.

xoxo
D