family picture

All right here they are.

la familia

I can only imagine how creepy this might seem to my host family, but I wanted to show you a picture of them so here’s a picture of a family picture. That’s Carlos, Araceli, Carlos and Ivan in the front. Nevermind, the picture's coming tomorrow...

So, I definitely have a cold, which is weird because I don’t know what to do about it here. I asked my mom if it’s normal for students to get sick the first few weeks with all of the adjustments and stress, etc. Her fix for me was something called moxa (?), which I still don’t understand. From what I gathered it’s a type of ancient Chinese medicine that comes in the form of a cigar sized stick of packed herbs. We went outside and she lit the moxa, which burns kind of like a cigar, and then she held it over points on my hands and arms that she said are correlated to my throat, etc. She told me they use it often in her studio and she uses it when she feels sick as well. I don’t feel any better, but it was definitely an interesting experience. I think I’ll go get Tylenol tomorrow.

For whatever reason we all had a rough day today. It’s like all the stress and lack of sleep and different schedule all caught up with us and we were all dragging this afternoon in class. So, I’m sick, exhausted and totally overwhelmed and my friend Jessie and I just totally broke down on our walk home and went to Burger King. It’s funny how soothing a big order of fries and a Whopper can be. And what a plunge in quality it is from the spaghetti with homemade meat sauce my host dad made for lunch. I was so convinced I was not going to be “that American”, but man it feels so great to be full.

We took a placement test this morning that we are finishing tomorrow afternoon with an oral interview and then we have the rest of the afternoon off to get ready for Seville. The bus leaves at 9:00 Friday morning and we’ll spend the weekend there.
bss

Unconscious Incompetence

There was a counselor who came and spoke to us about culture shock the other morning and that was how she described this “honey moon” phase we’re in right now. We are all essentially all being just overwhelming American in a culture very different from our own and we are blissfully unaware of the grammatical errors, cultural faux pas and stares at our white faces and blonde hair. There are so many things we are all trying to adjust to, from finding an entire leg of animal in the cupboard next to the cereal, to freezing in the shower, to the more forward Spanish men, to the lack of a personal bubble. But it all makes for good stories, usually told over a huge meal to recover from the famished feeling we’ve felt all day long.

Anyway, the past few days have been more or less uneventful, though I suppose that’s odd to say as I am in Spain. Our classes have taken lots of paseos through the city, yesterday we walked through Sacramonte, an area where essentially all the house are in caves and is prominently inhabited by the gypsy population of Granada. Most of our walks take us up hills and it’s fabulous to just stand and enjoy the view. I’m registered for a flamenco course so last night our flamenco instructor took us to an incredible flamenco show at a great little theater close to the IES center. It was interesting because the three dancers were three women, a 20, 40 and 60 year old, and extremely talented.

I still haven’t adjusted to the eating schedule (which is such a big deal to me that I probably mention it every time I write, sorry, what can I say, eating is a pretty big deal), so I’m hungry most of the time, but when I do eat I’ve been pretty impressed. My host momma’s momma made flan and told Araceli to make sure “la nina” (that would be me) was sure to try it. It was very interesting, especially since I’m used to my dad’s flan, but it was casi lo mismo, just with a ton of lemon. Then today for lunch we had an incredible Spanish tortilla. My host dad came in to the kitchen just raving about the food and my host mom gave him a smile that I didn’t understand until she told me that he had cooked it. I was very complementary and he was just tickled. During flamenco shows the crowd yells out when they are enjoying the dancing and the music, it keeps them going or something like that. Araceli compared men cooking to the flamenco dancers, the more you complement their cooking, the more prideful they are and the more they tend to cook. Ha.

I know it’s been a bizarre and somewhat scattered post, but I’m exhausted and there’s really too much to see, hear and do to successfully rely it all. But enjoy the picture! It’s the view of the city from my room.
bss (besos….)

So, I'm realizing now that while I was on the island the reason I was able to write eveyday was because I actually had free time to do things like blog. There will never be enough time to rehash all of my daily activities so I'll just highlight the major events of my last few days.

I suppose that showering won't seem like a major event to anyone else, but showering "navy style" here for the first time was a bit of an adventure. Whenever I want hot water in the bathroom I go to this little porch outside the bathroom and hook up the gas to the water heater and light it. So I'm showering and everytime I turn off the water to soap up I start shivering. I was pretty convinced that it was actually so cold and that I was over reacting a bit, but when I got out of the shower I could see my breath in the bathroom. Needless to say I either need to work out a better system or I will be very glad to welcome in the warmer weather.

For the next week I'll be in an intensive language orientation class designed to help us with Spanish that will be immediately useful to us, directions, ordering food, etc. Every day in class we go for un paseo, a walk, so our teacher can introduce to another part of the city. Two days ago we walked to the Alhambra so we could see the view of the city. The Alhambra sits on a hill in Granada so once at the top you have an incredible view of the entire city. Unfortunately this also means you have a pretty intense hike to get there. Then that afternoon we walked to the Albyzin, which is the older portion of the city, also very high with another beautiful view of the city. It was so incredible to be able to see the entire city, but about four hours of really engaging walking later we were all exhausted.

Yesterday the whole IES group took a bus about an hour and a half away to a city situated in the Sierra Nevada where we met with three guides who took us on a three hours hike through the mountains to another city where the buses met us. The walk was way harder than I anticipated, which was pretty unfortunate because we were all forced to spend more time watching our feet than the surroundings. And we were all panting a good portion of the time so talking was fairly limited. All of these little cities in the mountains look incredibly pristine and whitewashed from our view on the hike (see picture...), which was a bit ironic to me because the chapter I'm reading in Moby-Dick right now is the portion about the terror the color white can cause. While we were hiking we passed a little house that belongs to a little Spanish man in his 90's named Enrique. Most of us stopped and talked with him for minute and took pictures with him, which of course thrilled him to no end. Today I'm hurting like crazy, but it was absolutely beautiful.

I'm still adjusting to the city, I've been hopelessly lost a few times, and to the home life, but my family here has been just incredible. The past few days my host brother and I have had lunch together and it's been a blast getting to talk to him. Yesterday he showed me his snakeboarding video on youtube. You can check it out at http://youtube.com/watch?v=UYAtAlnvVy4.

It's a beautiful day here again so I think I'll sit out on the terrace and read. Hasta pronto, besitos.
aml

Due to a lack of internet here's three days worth at once...

Jan. 21st
Before every major venture, going to college, moving for an internship, going on a big trip, I always get nervous. And it’s always for the same reasons, is security going to dig through my carry on? Am I going to make it to my flight on time? I know I’ve forgotten something, but is it important and is it replaceable? This time around I’m facing a new set of fears, will I be able to find my way around the airport? Will my bags be under the weight limit? Is everything I’m taking actually enough for four months abroad? Though I know that the answer is yes and that as intimidating things are right now I am sufficiently capable, I am still nervous. It seems to be my nature to try to be over prepared emotionally and mentally for experiences like this, but I’m finding that all I need is to sit, be calm and breathe deeply. I am as prepared as I will be and I will be fine. Even more than fine, and four months from now I know I will dread making the return trip and leaving a beautiful country, new friends and a second family. Oh dear. Here goes nothing.

Jan. 22nd
Eleven hours in a plane, 4 airports, one customs stop and three trips through security later I made it to Malaga with several others in my program. I think I only slept a few hours on the plane, partially due to badly timed caffeine and partially because of Jackie Chan, so I’ve been seriously dragging today. However, we had a lot to do today so there wasn’t much down time for a nap and even then I was too excited to sleep. After a wild cab ride we checked into the hotel, met the IES directors and got to know each other a bit. At two o’clock I went with a group for a nice long walk to see the beach here, afterwards a small group of us split off with Javier and had an interesting and very authentic lunch of lightly fried seafood (some of which I think make have been whole baby squid) and grilled fish. I broke off from the group and took a slow winding walk back so I could see a bit more of Malaga. Tonight we went to the Picasso museum, which we rushed through considered how tired we all were, and a few of us got sandwiches to go, which we ate on the walk back to the hotel. I’m exhausted so the plan was to go straight to bed, but there was a bugle and drum marching band playing outside the hotel so I went outside and listened for awhile instead. Apparently they are practicing for a procession during Holy Week mid March. It’s been a long, busy and amazing day.

Jan. 23rd
It would be difficult to explain the sorts of overwhelming emotions I feel after today. We had orientation this morning, but I’m still so exhausted that it was at times difficult to focus. In the different sessions we talked about life in a homestay, how to maintain health and well being in Spain and cultural differences. It was interesting listening to Javier talk about things like the concept of personal space in the EEUU versus Spain and to hear about his experiences as a Spaniard living in the states. It seems to be the American tendency to immediately view other cultures as rude, but in some senses it seems instead that we as a people are cold. We don’t hug and kiss as often as we should and we have a very definitive bubble of personal space.

We ate tapas for lunch as a group at a beautiful restaurant called El Pimpi (go ahead, laugh away). Because we were such a large group (82 students in the program) they ordered for us and the waiters brought out plate after plate after plate. I think two or three times I was certain that was it only to see armfuls of plates headed our way. In my intense desire to try everything I ate Spainish tortilla, jamon serrano y queso, little sandwiches with turkey or ham or ground pork, a salad with tuna, little slices of bread with tapenade and anchovies or other types of fish and I think a few others I’m forgetting and then little pastries for dessert with a glass of a vino dulce de Malaga. Though you only eat very small portions of each dish I left very full and even more tired. Then my group loaded the bus at 5:15 and made the roughly hour drive to Granada. We met our host families, Carlos the son of my host parents came to pick me up and walk me home, and a short walk and short taxi ride later we got to our apartment. It’s right in the middle of a busy section of town with a major mall across the street and little shops lining the streets under us. We are on the top floor and have a tremendous terreza that wraps around the corner of the building. After a short tour I got to pick, which of the two rooms I preferred, I of course chose the room with the better of the two views though it is significantly smaller. My host mom Araceli has a studio nearby where she instructs martial arts lessons and my host dad, whose name I embarrassingly enough cannot remember right now, is a painter. I have to walk through his studio to get to my room and so I’ve gotten to look at his work and talk to him about some of the pieces, which I love. He did a series of paintings of kings of Granada that were inspired by a time when he worked at the Alhambra. They also have two sons, Carlos y Ivan, Carlos is a design engineering student in Malaga and Ivan is 22 and has cerebral palsy and lives here in the apartment. Anyway, after the introductions, etc., we had a fabulous dinner together. Calabazita soup (I would translate, but all I understand is that calabazitas are essentially squash that look like cucumbers), tomates, lettuce with anchovies (I had no idea they ate so many anchovies in Spain), jamon serrano y queso, Spanish chorizo and queso and for dessert we had fruit salad with dates, pears, oranges and kiwi. I asked about the fruit because last time in Spain I hardly had any, apparently this region that is close to the Mediteranean has such tropical weather that they have kiwi, papaya and other tropical fruits. I had three very good and very big meals today, but today’s the only day, I have to begin to function on the Spanish schedule now. I just adore this family and they were all so thrilled to meet me. Ari asked for me to speak a little English to Ivan, she told me he loves to hear English, so I said a few things to him and even he was absolutely beaming. I really lucked out, again.

It’s kind of strange, this is the first moment I’ve really had to myself, I even had a roommate last night at the hotel, and the depth of my exhaustion and the noises of the city are beginning to make this all more real. Actually I might go to bed now, probably hours earlier than the average Spaniard.