Week 1

Buenas Tardes!

First, I must say – Spain is the most beautiful country ever! We arrived in Madrid on the 28^th and it didn’t look like anything too different from a big city you would find in the U.S, though it was surprisingly clean. Spoken Spanish sounds pretty different here and it has taken a couple of days to adjust to. After we checked into our hotel (which was very nice) we went to get our money exchanged. People here are pretty nice - most of them are very kind and willing to help but once in a while you run into someone who doesn’t like tourists or just isn’t very friendly in general. We spent the day walking around Madrid and ate in a cute little café, went to the Real Madrid stadium, took the metro, and bought some delicious gelato on the way back. One of the students in our group was “tricked” into pulling out his wallet (not a very good move) and had 60 euros stolen from him. That’s a lot of money! But if anything, it was a good reminder for the rest of us to be extra careful. We took a panoramic tour of the city on the bus in the evening and then met some new members of our group. We all get along so well! Our director is awesome and ISA is the BEST program provider I could have asked for – ¡Qué suerte! To end our first night in Madrid we went and got a couple drinks at an outside restaurant and watched the sun go down (which is shockingly around 10pm).

We met in the morning the next day and had a tour of the Museo del Prado. This museum has one of the finest collections of European art and is based on the former Spanish Royal Collection. It’s one of the most visited sites in the world. We saw the most famous paintings in the Museum – those by Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and El Greco. After the museum we had free time for lunch and then had another tour, this time of the Palacio Real de Madrid which is the official residence of King Philip V (the King of Spain) though it is only used for important ceremonies and the family does not live there. The palace has 2800 rooms and is the largest palace in all of Europe. It was beautiful and magnificent both inside and out. After the tour we had free time for dinner again so we rode the metro back and I took a nice two hour siesta. We’ve been told many times that “¡Una siesta no es dos horas… sino que es veinte minutos!” I love Spanish culture and am happy to adjust the way I do many things but I’m not sure that twenty minute naps will suffice. But our family is used to having Americans here so they don’t seem to mind. And my two hour nap was much needed – because at night we went out Spanish style! We left the hotel around 1am and returned around 5am. When I was going up to my room I ran into my roommate, Andrea, who was in a previous program in Granada and had just arrived in Madrid. She told me she was proud of me for “Doin’ it up the Spanish way” the second night here!

Then, two hours after I fell asleep, we got our wakeup call – which is when I realized then how important those afternoon siestas are! We got on the bus and it took about 2 hours to get to Toledo. The scenery was pretty but quite similar to what we had seen…until we got into the city. Toledo absolutely took my breath away. We were given a tour of the city by the best tour guide ever (of course all tours are given mostly in Spanish). We got to see the Synagogue of El Transito, the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, and the Museo Sefardí that displays Spanish and Jewish art. For lunch we went to a little restaurant right next to the downtown area. There are a lot of differences in the style of eating here – they don’t use butter or salt, everything has olive oil and tuna in it (you’d be surprised all that you can do with tuna) and if you get water it is always bottled. The tap water is fine to drink but it’s rude to ask for it and no one does. We got back on the bus after a little shopping (not much was open though because everything shuts down during the hottest part of the day, usually between 2 and 6, when people go home to eat lunch and take their siestas) and then we went to our incredible hotel which was called hotel Beatriz. We had an excellent view of the entire city from our room and they had a giant sparkling blue pool and great food! The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed and I had time to catch up with my family and friends, which was much needed.

We arrived in Salamanca the next day and met our host family after a short stop in Avila and a tour around the city. Our family is SO NICE! We were shown the house (which has no air conditioning or internet, similar to most Spanish homes) and we had some time to unpack before they took us for a tour around the Plaza Mayor, something like to a downtown square back home (but much more grand and beautiful and there is always music playing and tons of people out). Our Senora is an excellent cook and takes great care of us. She speak very quickly and uses big words so she talks more to Andrea, who has been here for three months already and is much better at speaking than I am. Her husband is a little more soft spoken and doesn’t talk as much or as fast, so he talks to me. It works out very well :)

Our placement tests were the next day. While waiting for our results we had a walking tour of Salamanca, went back and took a nap, got some lunch, and met again at the ISA office to talk about our classes. We went out until about 2am…which is kind of considered going out but not really “going out.” They hand out lots of coupons for free drinks so it’s easy to bar hop and end up not spending more than 1 euro for the night. Such a good system! Yesterday and today were the first two days of classes, and I LOVE my classes. The teachers are excellent and do such a great job. Class is from 9 am to 2 pm and there are many international students in all of my classes – in fact, I’m one of like two students from the States in each class. Many of the students don’t speak English, so in Spanish is the only way we can communicate. It’s actually very, very cool! I love hearing Spanish around me at all times of the day, and I think I’m picking it up surprisingly fast. I can’t wait to see where I am at the end of this month!

A couple little cultural differences to note before I end:

• There are co-ed bathrooms in a lot of the clubs and, as I have read, people in Spain seem to be quite open about issues like homosexuality and self expression. 
• Greetings in Spain consist of “dos besos” or two kisses on each cheek. If you extend your hand as most do in the States it is seen as an insult because you are forcing separation between yourself and the person you are meeting. 
• It’s not necessary to travel with your passport on you at all times in Spain, but if you are in a touristy location and try to buy something with a credit card they won’t let you buy it without showing your passport or some form of ID. 
• They clean the streets, scrub the walls and power wash the sidewalks every day, but they do nothing about the rampant and un-artistic graffiti that is scattered throughout the city.
• They have the cutest shoes ever! 
• Those international students that have been to the states primarily have been either to Florida, California or Texas - and they all want to live there. Which is crazy to me because I want to live HERE! The grass is always greener I suppose. 
• Breakfast consists of coffee and a piece of toast or a pastry around 8am, lunch is a huge three course meal around 2pm, and they have medium sized dinners around 9 or 10pm. The fruit is incredible! 
• People here are huge on conservation of things like water and electricity. They are very careful to turn everything off as soon as they are finished using it and don’t seem to waste much.

I am thinking about changing my fall program from Barcelona to a program in Sevilla. If I am able, I think I will have a much better experience. Sevilla is in the south of Spain and has beautiful scenery, culture and history. After meeting people that have traveled through Spain, I think the Catalan they speak in Barcelona will be difficult for me and I won’t learn as much. There are also a lot of tourists in Barcelona so it would be too easy to get around speaking English, and there is quite a bit of anti-government sentiment because people in Catalunya want to have a separate country with Barcelona as their capital. We’ll see how it works out but if I am able to change, my fall program won’t start until three weeks after this program ends – so I’ll be able to travel around Europe for two weeks before AND after school! I’m PUMPED!

I loved everyone’s comments – thank you for reading!! :)

Ciao!

First Day of Travel!

Hi Everyone!

This is my very first blog entry EVER! I am currently entering into my senior year at the U of A seeking a degree in Marketing Management. Right now I'm on my way to Madrid, Spain - I'm going to spend the rest of the summer doing an intensive month program in Salamanca and then I'll move to Barcelona for the fall. My only other abroad experience was a three week survey of India this past winter that I participated in with a great group of students from both the Walton College and the MBA program. India was like nothing I've ever seen, and I'm expecting my trip in Spain to be equally as interesting and wonderful.

I was much more prepared for this trip than I was for my trip to India, both mentally and materially. I am thankful to have had a prior international experience that was much shorter so that I was able to more comfortably and confidently pursue, plan and prepare for this current opportunity.

It was hard to say goodbye to my family at XNA, because 5 months away is a loooong time, but as soon as I got through security I felt prepared and ready to go. I am so excited for this trip. I am hoping to immerse myself fully in the Spanish culture and soak in all the charm that Spain has to offer. If you're gonna go, go all the way. I know that I will not only learn so much more about the world and about other people and ways of life, but I will also learn a lot about myself.

I am doing homestays in both of my programs, so I will be staying with two different families. The only thing I know so far is that my first family has hosted international students before and they've said the family is very kind and welcoming. I found out who my roommate is going to be, and have been in touch with her a little through facebook. She is currently finishing a program in Granada, so it was great to be able to ask her some questions about packing and suggestions that she had for travel. She seems like a sweet girl and I am excited to meet her and the family that I'll be staying with!

I bought a copy of Rick Steves' Spain 2011 Travel Guide to bring with me and I read a little bit of it on my first flight. It's a great book! Very interesting and easy to read and extremely relevant. Spain, much unlike the United States, is more of a collection of distinct regions rather than a centralized nation. The book says that "people think of themselves first and foremost as Basques, Catalans, Andalusians, Galicians, Leonese, and so on...and only second as Spaniards." There are 45 million people that live in Spain, and they have 50 million visitors annually. What I found most interesting and significant to the development of the current Spanish cultural state is the fact that under the fascist dictator Francisco Franco, and with the help of the Pyrenese Mountain barrier, Spain secluded itself from the rest of Europe for almost three centuries. This isolation contributed to the unusual customs that are now staples of Spanish culture, such as the bullfights, flamenco dancing, and the interesting national obsession with ham. The isolation period ended with Franco's death at the end of the 20th century and since then the culture has swung far from its conservative past. Spain is still 94 percent Roman Catholic - yet the country has come to the forefront of movements in affairs such as liberal reforms in abortion and gay marriage. Extreme religiosity has been transformed into extreme secularism and the enticing culture of consumerism has changed the saving and spending habits of the Spanish people. Yet they balance the seeping influences of the 21st century with a solid sense of their roots - Spaniards are still largely family oriented and a good part of the country still follows the "siesta schedule" focused on a large meal in the middle of the day with family and friends.

So as of yet I don't have much to report about my trip, other than the fact that the first flight was FREEZING! My mom always tells me to dress warmly on planes, and I always shrug it off and don't really pay attention. But boy did I pay for it this time. Lesson #1 of the trip - Mother is, still, always right.

Sorry for the overload of Rick Steves, but he has one more article that I wanted to share. It's called his "Back Door Travel Philosophy." He has some excellent quotes that I think will be extremely helpful for me to keep in the back of my mind and to help me get the most out of my trip. He says, "Travel is intensified living...maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. It's recess, and we need it. Connecting with people carbonates your experience. If your trip is low on magic moments, kick yourself and make things happen. Seek the truth. Travel, like the world, is a series of hills and valleys. Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something's not to your liking, change your liking. Thoughtful travel engages us with the world. In tough economic times, it reminds us what is truly important. By broadening perspectives, travel teaches new ways to measure quality of life."


"Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity, helping us understand and appreciate other cultures. Rather than fear the diversity on this planet, celebrate it. Among your most prized souvenirs will be the strands of different cultures you choose to knit into your own character. The world is a cultural yarn shop, and Back Door travelers are weaving the ultimate tapestry. Join in!"


Hope everyone is enjoying their summer...I'll be in touch soon!

Ariel