Learning to be Spanish

Spain is definitely not on the top of Europeans best food list.. I know they are competing with Italy and France.. but they aren't trying very hard. :) hehe. However they do have a few good dishes going for them!
- Paella! Paella is like a rice and seafood or rice and chicken dish. Nothing extravagant but a very rich and delicious flavor. Candace and I had tried some of the paella and restaurants around the city and were completely under-enthused. So Candace was talking with her house mom one day and her mom said that Paella is only as good as the ingredients in it and the only place in the city that you'd find good real paella is in a very fancy expensive restaurant -- bummer. She then followed that up with but still the best way to have paella is homemade. She told Candace to invite some friends over and we could make REAL paella! We arrived at Candace's house to a plethora or ingredients including a ton of fresh seafood! Lourdes (the mom) took us through everything step by step! It was amazing and the secret ingredient- saffron! Along with the Paella we had semi-sweet wine from Italy and a Rose after dinner. Also a salad with lettuce, tomatoes and battered and friend goat cheese - yum, with a homemade dressing of some kind - double yum. And of course Ali-oli, not positive what it is but it's a rich white sauce that they use with a lot of things!

Some other Spanish things we have been doing...
- Saw a bullfight. It was gruesome but kind of interesting. I guess the fall is like the time the young torreros learn how to fight and so it wasn't a like "good" performance, meaning they took too long to kill them. General info- there are six bulls that are fought. The come out and and run it around and then take these little swords and stab them six times, then guys on horses stab it twice with a long thing and then the main matador comes out with a sword and does the finishes the job. then the three mules come out and drag the bull away. They drug the bulls before they come fight too, but if they bull is like too drugged to fight they'll just take it back and kill it. So one was too drugged and kept like tripping and falling on his knees (which is like an unfair fight so they change it I guess) So they bring out this herd of giant herding.. idk giant cows to herd the bull to the back. I don't think I have a picture of this but it was interesting! Here is a blurry pic of the guys on the horses- that part was really scary.

I live about 5 minutes from the Royal Palace here in Madrid. It's simply amazing

And because we are perfecting our Spanish-ness we attended an amazing futbol game!! Real Madrid won 3-0 of course! We were in the fourth row- No big deal :-) hehe

Stay tuned! Always more to come :-) Until next time besos!
Hasta Luego

Segovia!

Part of the tuition I pay here goes to two day trips, that provide students with more culture and history information about Spain. The first one was two weeks ago and it was to Segovia. It was about an hour and a half away on a bus. The drive there was interesting because being right in the middle of the city it's kinda hard to know what the land actually looks like.. some of it looks like Colorado, some small mountains, sort of dry, some pine trees. When we were there we had a whole day of things to do including seeing some awesome castles and eating their famous pork.
The first thing we did was go to Alcazar, an amazing and HUGE castle. Now it is true that I haven't see a lot of castles but still it was really big. Everything I've seen in movies with castles is sort of true too. It was built to be a fortress, located high on the hill with a wall around it and the rest of the little town. Seriously a big wall with a big door around the whole city! and this enormous castle!

So you go through the big entrance and through the town and arrive at the castle. You cross a little bridge with a quite a big drop underneath and in the castle you go.

Inside also looked like what you could expect from a castle. A courtyard and tons of rooms, ornately decorated with big doors and lots of art work, well lots of family photos. I would recommend checking out my facebook album on this because there are just too many picture and sooo many details. A few highlights were definitely the ceilings. They are SO beautiful! And then the rooms for like dinners and gatherings, where there is just a ton of paintings of all the kings and queens and just everything you would need to have in a royal palace. It was amazing the stuff they had like the tables and chairs and throws and desks and for how old they were they still look impressive. The tapestries were very neat and complex as well. There were a lot hanging from the walls, again with just different depictions of the royal family and some religions ones. In the royal bed room the walls were covered in tapestries so it wouldn't be too cold. There was an elegant canopy for the bed because there was always at least two guards in the room at all time. The view looking out of the castle was pretty amazing, you could see the whole little town of Segovia and then on the other side you could just see for miles the fields and everything, you would definitely be able to see enemies coming!!

From there we went to town and had a little time off before lunch. We walked around saw the main square, saw the some buildings, grabbed a coffee. Then we went over to lunch. The famous lunch of Segovia is "Roast Suckling Pig." Cute name right? Well it was quite something. I don't know how exactly they cooked it but it came out... the whole piglet all cooked and ready to go. Crispy outside and juicy inside. The fun was in the presentation. Come out the entire piglet, head and hooves and all. They set it on the table and grab a plate. They then proceed to smash the plate into the piglet cutting it nicely into sections. The last cut is right through the middle of the head and then the plate is dropped on the floor - Cheers.
After our huge lunch we went to the Roman Aqueducts - also simply amazing. So big and no cement... how how how how how?! After that we left to drive a little outside of Segovia to another royal estate, not exactly who lives there or what it was for, someone said it's just the royalty's summer home or something. But it was also very neat and had a huge gardened area!

Differences

Obviously Spain is different. It is a different country, different language, different culture, different heritage... different.. But do you know HOW much is different - here are a few.

1. milk- Sorry Spain.. your milk is not as good as ours. and it is not refrigerated until after opened.
2. fridg stuff- actually a whole bunch of things are bought not refrigerated like juice and eggs.
3. sidewalks- so old and made of stone. its obvious but you notice it a lot while you are constantly tripping.
4. no peanut butter- I guess Brazil isn't the only place missing peanut butter.
5. no sauce- there is a simple lack of sauce. no mayo on your sandwiches, no dressing on your salad, no sauce on your meat. I don't know, for someone who loves sauce... there isn't much of it.
6. wine and beer everywhere - they sell beer, and possibly wine, in our university cafeteria. I guess the drinking age is lower so it is plausible age wise, but not as much location wise. they sell it wine and beer almost all day long, im talking 24 hours. Im actually pretty sure you could get a "drink" of some sort at ANY hour. Even if it is Baileys in your espresso, it's possible. And most places you go in to get coffee has a full bar right there! Even McDonalds sells beer.
7. Laws dont really matter here.. im sure some do, as I live close to a police station and I do hear sirens daily, but laws like drinking in public, peeing in public, driving laws... all seem somewhat optional. Everyone just walks around with a beer or wine, no matter what age - all the people with MIPs Im sure aren't thrilled on the US's views on this one. haha. It is interesting.
8. Driving- Im not driving a car here and im happy about it. The driving seems somewhat random guided by signs.. but scary nonetheless. Sometimes peds have the right of way, sometimes the cars dont seem to care. Hitting things doesn't seem to be too much of a problem... parking is more of a speed than accuracy type situation. Not saying americans are good drivers, just that maybe neither are spainards.
9. Meat- America might have to win this one. lol Spain has a lot of ham. not in the fridge either, but ham. ham legs hanging from the ceiling in so many places. I don't know exactly where all the pigs are but there is a TON of ham. AND a ton of seafood. Now yes, Spain is vastly surrounded by ocean but Madrid is vastly surrounded by Spain. Either way the seafood is good, just lacking in sauce. Hello- what do you dip your calamari in? Steak... I wish I knew where they were keeping all the steak. All I see is ham, no steak, barely any chicken and yet again seafood. I love all kinds of meat but seafood I like with a little tartar sauce and ham sandwiches I like with mayo- call me American.
10. Grocery shopping- I know the names of most foods, and I know how to talk about prices, but there is something so darn difficult about buying food here! there are a lot of different places to buy your food, some of the stores are split up and you buy bread in one, meat in one, seafood in one and veggies in one, but some 'supermercados' have most of that in one, in a much smaller store. And you go in and look around forever trying to understand the organizational patterns that somewhat don't exist and then you go to grab fruit or veggies and get yelled at because you are not supposed to touch them, just tell the clerk which ones you want. Slightly overwhelming.
11. shopping- stores in general are actually pretty interesting. Today Candace and I went to Corte Ingles, which is this big store with like everything. Each floor has something different, no groceries however and it was very cool but one thing I couldn't find, not even in the 'Farmacia' was aspirin. But there was a tobacco store next to the pharmacy-- I'm not sure which makes less sense.
12. Plazas- big win for Spain. lovely little gather places at intersections where you can sit and have a cup a tea or coffee or just hang out, meet friends, i dont know everything! Each one is so cute and so distinct, plazas are definitely something that is missing in America. Starbucks, sorry you tried.
13. Sleeping. Sleeping is not the different thing but when you sleep definitely is the tricky part. Ok, so during the weekend, or any day you please, you can stay out till whenever, probably 5 am is good. So living very downtown, noise is somewhat loud till about 5. Then I guess it is quiet till about 8. Then many people wake up and go to work. ONLY to return home at some point in the afternoon maybe 2, 3 o clock, put back on those PJs and get back into bed. Only for a little bit, siesta is 20 minutes more or less. However during this elongated lunch break many stores and restaurants are closed. Only to open back up in the evening and start going on their night time hours. Odd. Then stores closes but restaurants and bars and everything stay open. Each thing has random hours of being open but essentially Spain is not really into the 8 hours of sleep a night situation that is so highly recommended in the States.
14. Things are small here and big in the States. Plain and simple.
15. TAPAS- this should have come much earlier. Ok so you go to dinner and you pick something off the menu and you get excited for your dinner. Then you get a little plate of goodies - potato chips, olives, noodles, fries, chicken wing things, corn nuts, peanuts, noodle salads, whatever they feel like just a plate and a toothpick to snack. then if you are at dinner you get a basket of bread. then you get dinner, sometimes more than you expected sometimes less, there really is no way to tell. but the point is you are already somewhat full and it is interesting and funny and cool.
16. the smile. hear apparently a smile means I love you- slight exaggeration but really people dont smile at strangers. and if you do it is because you are interested in them. I tend to be a smiley person, but Ive learned that when Im by myself, less of an expression is easier to walk around with. :/
17. No smiling but staring is perfectly good. People just stare, you acknowledge they are staring but the don't look away. All you can do is get used to it and act like its not weird.
18. besos/besitos- hugs and kisses. once you get past the whole awkward smile no smile thing and find that someone is your friend you greet them with a kiss to each cheek, hugs are welcome as well. haha mean mean mean stare- hi hi hi kisses. make up your mind.
19. Kissing- different than friendly besos, Spanish people love to get their mac on. Couples do NOT hold back on their PDA. one metro ride and you will find I am not kidding. Either way haha.
20. Lets see one more thing that is different.. I could go on forever. BUT I think Im going to have to go with water. I know we may use a little much water in the US but how are people supposed to stay hydrated over here. You don't get water with meals unless you ask for it, and then you have to buy a bottle. I haven't seen a single drinking fountain. The water tastes super good, but I am learning to bring a water bottle around with me everywhere because they are quite stingy on sharing their water..

Dont take this the wrong way... I love the US and I love Spain. they are simply two different places. <3

Madrid, Espana

HOLA everyone!!
About ten days ago I arrived here in Madrid and I have to say I can't believe how breathtaking this past week has been. This city is everything people say it is. It is so hard to understand how every building can be so amazing until you see it. We had a few days of USAC (the program Im using) orientation and things, so it was like meeting people in the program and then exploring the city a little and that was a lot of fun, there are some great people in the program but now we are settled in to our places and going to school and stuff and its been an entirely different feeling.
I live in a cute apartment, for Spanish living- I live in a GIANT apartment. :) It is awesome. My roommate's name is Paula and she is precious. She was a journalist for a few years and still does freelance. She used to do sports reporting and news and culture and everything and now she just writes sometimes, like right now she is writing an article for Rolling Stone- WOW. She is so sweet but she hasn't been here much, because she is in southern Spain on the set of a Spanish TV series. So I've only talked with her a little, but we email and Im looking forward to her returning. Soon, although I don't know exactly when, we will be getting another roommate - Javier. I don't know anything about him but it will be exciting to meet him. The apartment is great, there are two bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen with a little dinning room area and balconies where you can look out onto the street. I actually have my own little balcony in my room. From my room I can look down the street and see some of the Plaza de Espana. Obviously a very big beautiful and important plaza. The Royal Palace is a ten minute walk and everything I need is within five. However, because I am living right in the middle of the city, right off the Grand Via, I am a little ways from school. So it takes me about 35 minutes to get to school via Metro but its really not to bad, I can do homework or read or eat breakfast on there.
The metro system here is SO great! It is the easiest thing to hop on the metro and be exactly where you want to be so fast! and even if you don't know exactly where you are going, you can follow the stops and the signs so easily, I haven't been lost or even confused once! Plus I feel entirely safe, people at school and Paula do remind me to watch my things but I have yet to feel nervous or uncomfortable anywhere.
The places I go might be easier to see in picture because everything has so much detail that it is so hard to describe! But I have made some friends through the USAC program and I will meet an intercambio soon. Someone who is Spanish who you just talk to and hang out with to get a better understanding of the real Spain. And hopefully my roommate will come back soon as well. haha. School is going well more or less. The classes I am in I feel fine about, I'm excited for but there was a scheduling conflict for one of my classes - so that has been a bit of a nightmare to sort out but I think it is getting all settled.
But that is that and I am headed out to meet Candace, I will try to get on here and write a little once or twice a week- keep everyone up to date :)
Besitos
Lisa