Volcano Day!

Ok, so to update you on what I did on Saturday and today.

Saturday, March 27: We toured pretty much all of Rome and the Vatican. I SAW THE SISTINE CHAPEL! It was so cool to stand underneath Michelangelo's frescoes! We also saw the Spanish steps (and I went on about Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, and Roman Holiday), the Trevi Fountain (I threw a coin in and made a wish), the Pantheon (it was way too crowded to get in, but I caught a glimpse and got to be the nerd I am and explain everything to my friends that I learned about the Pantheon in Art History last semester - be proud, Annie), and the outside of the Colosseum (we arrived too late to go in - that's our plan for tomorrow). We also finally had gelato! YUM!

At night, we had to stay out in Rome all night because the first train to Naples was before the hostel's shuttle started running. The reception told us there'd be a bar to go nearby the train station. There really wasn't. We ended up finding a chill place with comfy couches and waited there until the train station opened up.

Sunday, March 28th: Our longest day by far. It was crazy! We got on the train at quarter to six this morning and got some sleep on the 3 hour train to Naples. After that, we grabbed breakfast (an espresso based drink included) and headed to Pompeii. I have been wanting to see Pompeii since I was in 6th grade, so it was so awesome to go! I recommend a guided tour so that you can actually understand what's going on. Plus, the tour isn't too expensive and the guides are really good (and the groups are about 6-8 people, so you can actually ask questions and pay attention). I really loved Pompeii! I also couldn't help but think of the Doctor Who episode, haha!

After Pompeii, we went back to Naples to get PIZZA! We wanted to go to the original restaurant, but it was closed. At 4 in the afternoon. After walking all day (on little sleep and food), we were a little upset. We finally found a place that was open and probably a whole lot cheaper than Pizzeria Brandi. Besides, anywhere you go in Naples, the pizza is going to be great! The dough was different - a little spongier/stretchier (I can't quite explain it), but it was great. Plus, they used buffalo mozzarella and had a great balance of sauce, bread, cheese, and toppings. All in all, I love pizza from Naples, but I don't care for the city itself. The city is a little dirty and kinda sketchy and doesn't really have a lot of attractions. Although, making a stop on the way back to Rome from Pompeii for pizza is a MUST! By far, the best pizza I have ever purchased (and you know what? I've never actually purchased a Chicago pizza nor homemade pizza, so Naples can definitely receive that title). I'm still partial to Chicago and homemade pizza, but Naples is truly fantastic. I'm so torn.

Well, we finish up our tour of Italy with some more sightseeing in Rome tomorrow and leave from Pisa early Tuesday morning. I'm pretty sure we'll see some Semana Santa events in Spain, so I'll have to fill you all in on that later.

Ciao!

Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy

Ok, so I'm taking advantage of the free internet at the "Rome" hostel (it's actually about half an hour away) and Ke$ha comes on with "Tik Tok" and we all stop and sing the opening, hence the title of the post.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm in Italy now. We flew into Pisa yesterday and stayed in a fabulous little hotel (it was way cheaper than the cheapest motel in the states and the quality of a 3 star hotel or so). It was quite an adventure getting there. The first bus driver directed us to the wrong bus and the second bus driver kicked us out in the middle of freaking nowhere near Pisa. Luckily, there was an open cafe with a super nice owner who not only called us a cab, but waited 10 minutes on hold. It was really frustrating, especially since no one spoke English or even Spanish, but we survived.

This morning, we went to the tower. I refused to pay the 15€ to climb up the stairs since it seemed rather unnecessary to pay that much money to climb up a bunch of stairs. I did take the touristy picture holding up the tower, though! :)

We meant to go to Florence, but fell behind schedule, and ended up just taking a train to Rome this afternoon (thank goodness, because we didn't get into Rome until 7:45, and didn't get to the hostel (after taking the Metro) until, maybe 9 PM). Sorry, statue of David, but I'll have to come back to Italy to see you.

So, moving on to Rome. We got into the train station and ended up having to take the metro out to the suburbs (which, are supposed to be like the inner-city). The metro was a little sketch, but we found the hostel, and it's actually not so bad. Plus, we ran into another girl from our program, and some other cool people on the way. I also had pizza in Italy for the first time. The crust was thin like Chicago pizza (further proving Chicago pizza's awesomeness). It was quite delicious.

I feel like I had a K.Kelles moment today. I felt very accomplished in successfully navigating the metro of a foreign city (and in a country where I don't speak the language). I don't know why I thought of K.Kelles, but I think perhaps the phrasing I thought in my head was something similar to her phrasing.

Ok, well, there's my epic adventure of attempting to navigate public transit in Italy (one succes story and one not so successful story). Stay tuned for my adventures in Rome (including the Vatican), Pompeii (I feel like we picked Pompeii over Florence, sorry Annie), and Napels!

Aula de Informatica

I´m taking advantage of my Universidad de Cordoba e-mail account and using the computer room to surf the web (without the interruption of my finicky computer). The Spanish keyboard is slightly different from the American keyboard, especially since there is an extra key for the ñ right where the semi-colon key should be. Anyway, moving on.

Last Friday, I went to Sevilla with the group. It was nice - not my favorite. The weather was beautiful, so that was a bonus. We saw another cathedral and just chilled in the city. I did enjoy going to the Plaza de España. A bunch of cities have mosaics in the plaza. We definitely went to the Cordoba one to take pictures.

Ok, off to the other computer to print off my boarding pass for ITALY!!!!! Tomorrow, I leave from Sevilla to Pisa. I will update you all on my Semana Santa vacations after Easter!

Que pasa, calabasa?

So, I just realized that it has been almost a month since I last posted. Oops. For those of you who don't know, I've been having some computer issues, and thus have not been posting much (in fact, this is my second attempt at posting this one). Anyway, I'm hoping to get better at updating my blog.

I finally have a class schedule (we didn't do final registration until March 3rd - talk about being different than Wellesley). With the program, I'm taking a class on image, gender, and sexuality in contemporary Spanish cinema (AKA, watching a lot of Almodovar films), a class on the history of Islam (with special attention to Andalucia), a comparative politics course on the political institutions of Spain and the United States. As a part of the program, I have to take at least one course of "direct matriculation" into the University of Cordoba. For that course, I am taking a course at the Facultad de Derecho (which I guess would be the school of laws/rights) on the Spanish constitution. I don't have class on Fridays, which is fabulous (although, I get really confused during the weekend because I'm not used to having 3 days).

This past month has mostly been me settling in, picking my courses, and finally having a regular schedule (of course, I didn't get this regular schedule until all of my friends in the states were heading into mid-terms, haha).

I've also started taking Sevillanas, which is a lot of fun. I can't wait to dance it at Feria in May! I've also been taking the cooking courses when they're offered. The classes aren't quite what I thought - a lot more watching than actual doing. I'd prefer to learn how to cook by doing. Oh well, at least I have recipes for a lot of Spanish food (and we go to a restaurant after class to try everything that we learned how to cook in class, so I guess I can't complain if they want to feed me).

I have also been watching A TON of TV in Spanish (American movies and TV series, Bob Esponja [Spongebob Squarepants], etc.). I actually watch a lot of American series here that I don't watch at home because it's difficult for me to watch my favorite series (I keep wanting to hear the original actors' voices). I did watch The Sound of Music the other day - that was pretty great. In the song, "Do-Re-Mi," my favorite Spanish line was "Fa es lejos en ingles" (Fa is "far" in English).

Yes, so, that's about all. I'm going to Sevilla next week, and Italy the week after (I'm going to Rome and Pisa for spring break & I'm going to be in Spain for part of Holy Week. I'm really excited!). We also have a trip planned to Granada in April and there are a ton of festivals coming up in May. I can't believe I've already been in Spain for 1.5 months and I've been in Cordoba for a little over a month (and only have about 2.5 months left)!

Hasta luego!

Pictures!

Here are some photos, as promised.

Ávila:


Salamanca (La Plaza Mayor at night):


Segovia:


- The Aqueduct (totally knew it - thank you ARTH100! --> the Romans loved the arches)


- El Alcázar:


Madrid (El Palacio Real):


Toledo:


Barcelona:


Córdoba:


I'll probably post some more later or work on making a slideshow...

¡Estoy en Córdoba (finalmente)!

I'm here! Yay! I'm living with a family near the university. I have a host mom and a host dad. They have 2 adult daughters who live with their families in the apartment-like houses upstairs. They all share a patio and everyone is always coming in and out of the other houses.

Apparently, central heating & air conditioning is a new thing to either Spain or the smaller cities, like Córdoba. Because of this, houses have been built to keep things cool during the summer, which also means it's quite cool in the house during the winter. This also means that it's pretty chilly in my bedroom. I can't wait for the weather to warm up. In the meantime, we have the kitchen and family room tables! Why am I so excited about the tables? Well, there is a heater under each table, and a blanket (held in place by a piece of stone or wood that serves as the actual table surface) covering the table. So, we sit around the tables with the blankets over our laps to catch the warmth from the heaters! It's a really nice system and I especially enjoy it in the morning & on days like today when it's cold and rainy (and my socks are wet).

And, as promised, I'm going to talk about food with the host family. Breakfast is usually a little something with coffee or hot chocolate. They drink whole milk, so I usually put the Nesquick chocolate powder or instant coffee into it. Lunch and dinner vary from day to day (in terms of what is served - the hours are pretty standard), and there's usually a salad of sorts at one or both of the meals. There is always fruit in the house! We usually have an apple or orange or banana (or a combination of the three) after meals. We also always have bread! It's kind of like heaven - all I need is a bunch of cheese. Today, at lunch, we had oranges in oil (olive, I believe) with some sugar and ate it with bread (in addition to a stew like dish that I can't remember the name of -- I can't really remember any of the names of the food we eat, but it's all SO GOOD!). I think the orange dish my new favorite food. I mean, it doesn't get much better than fruit and bread (well, I could use some cheese! I LOVE CHEESE!). Well, moving on...

I've also noted a couple more cultural differences that are very interesting. It's superstition in Spain that you get sick from walking around barefoot on the cold floors. Our program director warned us of this superstition, and I thought that walking around in socks would suffice, but alas, it did not. My host mom asked if I had house shoes, but of course, I forgot my slippers at home. She quickly found a spare pair for me to borrow while I'm here.

Also, I meant to mention this before, but we went over some stereotypes that Spaniards have of various ethnic groups. I don't think anyone in the group has encountered racism here, but there are stereotypes. Apparently, all Asians are Chinos (or Chinese) and they're the people who have all of the counterfeit goods.

One more thing: THEY USE "VOSOTROS " (2nd person plural familiar) HERE! To all of the Spanish teachers that I had in high school, remember when you said, "Don't bother learning the "vosotros" because they only use that in Spain"? Well, I'm in Spain now, and I don't know it. I can recognize when people are using it, but I'm not able to conjugate verbs into the "vosotros." I think it's common in the United States for Spanish teachers to skip "vosotros" and vocabulary words that are only used in Spain, and that kind of sucks for their students that go on to study in Spain. I guess it makes more sense to focus on the stuff that all Spanish speaking people use, but it would be nice if they at least taught us "vosotros."

Well, that's all for now.

Somos diferentes - Parte 2

I forgot two of the most important cultural differences- the greeting and their stereotypes of urban vs. suburban!

When you meet someone new, you give them a kiss on each cheek in addition to shaking hands and all that. I realized how formal, and dare I say, stiff we are when it comes to greeting people in the United States while talking to this guy in Barcelona. He asked the group of us how we greet people in the United States, and we told him that the first time, all we do is shake hands. With our friends, we'll shake hands, maybe give a quick nod (you know, the "hey, what's up?" nod), and sometimes, hug them (depending on how close we are), but we'd never do more than a handshake with strangers. He exclaimed something along the lines of, "How cold!" and I realized that it is indeed rather cold. In Spain, the greeting is a lot more warm and friendly. Despite the fact that greeting people in Spain requires getting a lot more into the personal space of a stranger, I haven't found it weird to transition into at all. It makes things feel a lot less formal, and I think it loosens people up a little bit. Plus, it kind of feels like everyone is family or close friends upon their first greeting, and I really like that. So, look out guys, I may come back to the states ready to kiss everyone on their cheeks!

Ok, on to the urban and suburban stereotypes. In Spain, the stereotypes concerning the inner-city and the suburbs are the complete opposite of American stereotypes. So, in Spain, the closer you are to actually living in the city, the better off you are. The richest neighborhoods are actually in the city and are close to the center. The poorer neighborhoods are in the suburbs. It is interesting to see this flip.