Sunday, January 30, 2011

Flamenco y Chupitas

¡Hola a todos!

It has been a week since I have last written so I have much to update you all on!

For the past week I have been taking an intensive Spanish grammar class with my fellow IES students. The class was taught by a professor from the University of Salamanca. We pretty much reviewed a lot of vocabulary, learned some new Spanish phrases, and found out more about the culture of Spain. So for the most part of each day this past week, I was in class. However, we did have some fun activities this week! We learned how to Flamenco and played some fútbol!

Flamenco was pretty interesting. I thought it harder than Salsa, but that's probably because I have no rhythm and when I don't have a partner who's keeping the rhythm for me, I sort of fail. But it was still fun all the same. My favorite part of this week though was playing fútbol with some real españoles!! We had a little indoor tournament with some students from the university. It wasn't us versus them or anything, the teams were mixed. Unfortunately, my team lost. However, the españoles were very impressed that I could actually play soccer (I hear that if you are American and can dribble they are surprised) and called me "Messi." BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I wish.
Anyway, but we made some new friends and they took us out to a more "Spanish" bar that night and then later to a discoteca. YAY for Spanish friends!

Yesterday, we went to Toro and Zamora. Toro is famous for its wine and so we went to the place where they make the wine, were given a little tour, and did some wine tasting! Needless to say, we all enjoyed that very much. It was really cool. They have this big machine that crushes the grapes and then the juice goes into this HUGE metal vats, and after they are in their for a while at the right pressure and temperature, they transfer the wine to barrels and let it age before they bottle it up and let it age some more. We tried red, white, and rose wine. I liked the white the best. Had more of a citrus fresh fruity flavor. After that, we drove to Zamora, a cute little rural town where one of our IES leaders is from. He gave us a tour and then we went to lunch. Lunch was a very interesting experience. First of all, we drove to the outskirts of Zamora where there is like nothing and walked down this little dirt path almost out in a field. The restaurant was underground so there was this door sort of built into the ground that you walked down to get to the restaurant. The restaurant in itself was a really cool place. The ambience and the food reminded me of barbeque. Actually, that's exactly how I would describe the food - Spanish barbeque. You could tell all the meat had just come off a grill or something. We ate chorizo, some kind of pork/bacon thing, and then ribs. And they had this sauce that you dipped the ribs in that reminded me a lot of Eastern-style bbq sauce. It was definitely vinegar based. At the end of the meal they brought out "chupitas." Chupitas are shots taken after dinner to help with the digestion of the meal. We were given these little shot glasses in the shape of tiny beer mugs and you poured the liquor in (I have no clue what kind it was) about halfway and then there was a flavoring that added to it. You had two choices the green, which tasted like green apples, or the red, which tasted like cherries. I tried both. It was pretty good. I'm sure it made the shot easier to take at least.

So yes, that is what has been going on here for the past week! I hope you are all doing well.
I miss you and love you all!!
LOVE AND PRAYERS,
Hope

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Segovia





¡Hola a todos!
Ayer visitamos Segovia, una ciudad muy rural y pintoresca.
Yesterday, we visited Segovia! A cute little city out in the middle of nowhere. However, it is a very historical city. As you can see above, there are two very important structures there. One is a roman aqueduct which literally runs through the middle of the town. The other is a palace in which Fernando e Isabel lived. FUN FACT: This castle was Walt Disney's inspiration for Cinderella's castle in Disney World! So yes, I was very very excited to have the opportunity to see it and tour it. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold outside. Like -5 degrees C. Which I think is like 27 degrees F. Anyway, I was freezing the ENTIRE TIME. So Segovia was not as enjoyable as I imagine it would have been on a warmer day. Besides visiting the aqueduct and the castle we passed a couple of churches, the Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral, and some other little places of historical importance. I am not sure what everything was because I was not paying very close attention. My attention was mainly focused on trying to get my feet warm because I literally lost feeling in them.

The best part of the day by far was when we stopped at a restaurant on our way home to eat some authentic Spanish cuisine! Not that I am not eating that everyday now. But this was a very nice restaurant called El Rancho de la Aldegüela. First they brought out some appetizers or tapas for us to eat. In the picture above you will see croquetas caseras, pimientos rojos asados, and pan tomaca. Croquetas caseras are sort of like mozarella sticks, but shorter and fatter and I don't think cheese is on the inside. I think it's some kind of creamy thick milk mixture filling. Anyway, they were delicious! Pimientos rojos asados are roasted red peppers. And pan tomaca is like Spanish brushetta. They crush up the inside of the tomato and mix it with olive oil and salt and put it on top of thinly sliced toasted pieces of bread. SO GOOD! We also had tortilla de patata, which is sort of like a potato omelette. Next, they brought out the ensalada mixta y pollo asado (mixed salad and roast chicken). The salad consisted of iceberg lettuce, onion, boiled egg, olives, tomatoes, and tuna. It was tossed in olive oil and vinegar. The roast chicken was by far the best roast chicken I have EVER had. So juicy. So tender. OM NOM NOM! For dessert we were treated to a local delicacy, Ponche de Segovia. It tasted like a combination between tres leches cake and creme brullee. The cake was spongy and soaked in some kind of sweet milk, filled with vanilla pudding, spiced with cinnamon, had slightly carmelized sugar on top, and was dusted with powered sugar. I literally said, "This must be what heaven tastes like."

Last night was pretty fun too. All of us went to a bar called the Irish Rover (yeah, I think it's a pretty American place to go because they have weekly beer pong tournaments there). It was really cute though. Most of the girls ordered Sangria because it was only like three euros per glass. We had fun dancing and we knew all the songs because they were all American songs by Lady Gaga and Rihanna, etc. Also, we arrived at the bar early and left early. Got there at like 11pm and left at 2am. This is very unusual. Spanish people usually don't get to the bars until like 12:30-1ish and stay out until like 4am or later. So when Julia and I told our Señora we had arrived home at 2:30am. She said, "Ay, tan pronto!" or "Oh, how early!" Haha. I told her I liked to sleep.

So that was my exciting Saturday! This morning I went to Mass. A very interesting experience. But I'll have to talk more about that later!

¡ABRAZOS PARA TODOS!
Hope

Thursday, January 20, 2011

¿Salsa en España?

¡HOLA A TODOS!
Espero que estén bien.
Last night was quite a night!! The IES staff people had a pizza party for us at a bar called El Savor. It is the only Latin American style bar in Salamanca. They play Latin American music and teach Latin American dances like salsa and meringue. During dinner, (Oh and did I mention we were given one free drink with dinner? The sangria was delicious.) a traditional Spanish band called Tuna de Medicina de la universidad de Salamanca serenaded us. A "Tuna" is a group of university students, professors, etc. that wear these old traditional clothes, like tights with bloomers, play string instruments, and sing old Spanish and Latin American folk songs. Our Tuna was from the Medical school at the University of Salamanca. They were pretty awesome. I will post a link below if you wanna check them out. After their performance a Venezuelan lady gave us a salsa class!! It must have been quite a sight. 24 American students dancing salsa in a Spanish bar. Oh the things that happen while one is abroad.

Not much happened today. We attended a "charla" (or lecture) about the cultural differences between Spain and America. This was a very interesting talk. David, one of the IES staff, lead the discussion because has studied abroad in America in California and also dated an American girl for seven years. He asked us what things we have noticed since we have arrived here. The main things we have noticed from what I remember from the talk is that here in Spain people are much more physically affectionate in public. Young boys and girls make out all over the place, which is fine I guess. You can choose not to look. But I love how all the middle-age and old couples walk around the street arm in arm or holding hands. It's SO CUTE! You don't really see that too often in America. Also, people here are just more rude in general. We are not suppose to smile at people we see on the street, especially if you are a girl. DO NOT SMILE AT A BOY! That means you are in to him. At restaurants and stuff the waiters and waitresses do not come and check on you and ask if you need anything. They take your order and bring you your check and that is it. And they aren't even nice when they ask what you want. I need to learn how to not take these things personally because that's just how the españoles are, but I always feel like I'm doing something wrong when I don't get a more positive response from people. Then a psychologist came and talked to us about culture shock. He explained the process of adjusting to the culture here and then re-adjusting to our own culture when we return home. Fun stuff. It actually was pretty fun because he made half of us pretend we were españoles y the other half act as Americans and interact with each other. After that our student orientation leader gave us a quick tour of the campus of the University of Salamanca and the Pontificia universidad de Salamanca. THEN, a couple of my new friends and I went and had churros con chocolate. OM NOM!!

MISS YOU ALL AND LOVE YOU!!!
Hope

video of Tuna de Medicina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EsECKpVhYY&feature=related

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Dia Dos

































¡Mi segunda dia en España fue muy interesante!

Today was the first day of orientation, which lasts for a pretty long time. Classes do not start until the very end of January. So for the next couple days I will be listening to más charlas (talks where they tell us about safety and registration, etc.), registering for classes, and exploring this beautiful city. Most of the charlas were really boring and because everyone was so jet-lagged we kept falling asleep, or at least I did. However, we did go on an awesome scavenger hunt which allowed us to walk around the city for the first time. I TOOK SOME GREAT FOTOS! Salamanca es muy muy bonita. All the old buildings are of Greco-Romano architecture and are absolutely gorgeous.

Lunch today consisted of a dish that, if I heard correctly, is called Comida Madrileña.

I think it was boiled celery, garbanzo beans, and some type of meat of what kind I am not sure. My Señora also added chorizo (Spanish sausage) to the mix. ¡Fue muy delicioso!

Tonight was a momentous occasion because I taught Julia (my IES housemate), Javier, and Sergio how to play Dutch Blitz. The kids loved it. It was hard to explain in Spanish since I am still getting the hang of speaking the language, but everyone did finally get it and we had a great time playing tonight. Javier y Sergio want to play again tomorrow night as well.

What did I begin?

Necesito dormir, pero escribiré más mañana.

LOVE AND PRAYERS!!!

Hope

p.s. The pictures are of the Plaza Mayor and the Cathedral in Salamanca. Plaza Mayor is like a huge town square.


Monday, January 17, 2011

¡Estoy aquí!

¡HOLA HOLA HOLA!
¡Mis amigos y mi familia!
Right now it is 10:53 your time but it is 16:52 (4:52pm) my time. Needless to say, I am exhausted and want nothing else than to go to bed right now. But I wanted to inform you all that I have arrived safely at my destination and miss you all dearly! The flight was fine and there were two girls going to Salamanca sitting in rows near me so we were able to figure out what to do at the air port together. Once we arrived, we found some other IES Salamanca students who had landed with us at 6:30 that morning and we waited for 3 and half hours to be picked up. IES is hardcore and will not speak to us in English. But this is a reason I chose this program, right?
Meeting my host family has definitely been the highlight of my day so far. Rafa, my host dad is really funny and works for a local TV station. María Jesús, my host mom made us a lovely dish of pasta and chorizo for lunch and was very welcoming. I can't say I understand exactly everything they say yet, but luckily my housemate, Julia, seems to. Julia is SO NICE and goes to Penn State.
Rafa and María Jesús have two boys, Sergio (10) y Javier (12). THEY ARE ADORABLE!!! And they love talking to us! They literally interviewed us all throughout lunch about what we like to do and what is our favorite color and what kind of food do we like to eat. They both love soccer so I am hoping I will be able to get to play with them a bit!
The plan for the rest of the day is to chill out and take a little siesta and then later go on a walk with mi familia and they are going to show us Salamanca! Salamanca is, by the way, a beautiful little city with old large churches, parks, and lots of people. I think I'm going to really love it here.
Tomorrow orientation starts and lasts until the 30th. Hopefully, I will not fail my Spanish grammar placement quiz.
I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU DEARLY!!!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Getting ready to go!! (¡Me estoy preparando para ir!)

Okay, so when you create this blog thing it makes you feel like you have to post something RIGHT AWAY. So this is gonna be short and simple. I am leaving in 10 days for SALAMANCA, SPAIN. I have not started packing. I have only looked at the list. But that's okay, not worried...yet. I have however finally found out who I am going to be staying with over there! Mi familia consists of my Señora, Mariaje, her husband, Rafa, and their two boys, Javier (10) and Sergio (8). I AM SUPER EXCITED to meet them! I get a room to myself, but luckily another IES student will be in the same home as me. I am looking forward to meeting her as well.

That's all for now!