Madrid Madness!

Hi Friends! I have returned from my weekend in Madrid, and boy, do I have some stories for you...

My weekend started with a school-sponsored trip to the Prado Museum in Madrid, which is one of the world's largest and most respected art museums. Normally, I am kind of plus-minus on the whole art thing, but I was pretty excited to go to the museum, since practically all of my Spanish classes since my days at WHHS have covered the same 4 or 5 major Spanish paintings, and this was finally my opportunity to see some in person. We got to the museum at about 4 and then had a guided tour provided by my art professor until about 6. Among the jaw-dropping works of art we saw was Velázquez's "Las Meninas," as seen below:

After our tour, we were free to do whatever we pleased, which for my group meant spending the weekend touring Madrid. We dropped our bags off at the hostel to find that the shower room consisted of 3 showers and 3 completely clear plastic doors...and that was it. No curtains, no blurred glass doors, not any sense of privacy. At this point in time, I began to get a little bit nervous, since I have never really showered as a spectator sport. Additionally, I wasn't sure if this was some European thing I hadn't previously encountered, or if there was a more plausible explanation for this lack of privacy. Thankfully, the hostel owners appeared shortly thereafter to install some much-needed shower curtains. We all breathed a sigh of relief at this prospect!

On Friday night, half of our group went to see "Bella y la Bestia" (or Beauty and the Beast, for all you English-speakers) on Madrid's Broadway, while the rest of us went foraging for dinner. My group consisted of me, my friend Sierra, and her friend from home, Mary. We decided to embrace the European culture and have some tapas, which are basically like early evening appetizers to tide you over until a more socially appropriate dinner time, like 10:30. We sat down at the table to be greeted by a relatively curt waiter who provided us with a generous one menu for the three of us to share. We finally decided on an order of french fries and two orders of croquetas, which are essentially ham or chicken rolled with cheese and mashed potatoes and then deep fried. However, there evidently was some sort of communication problem, most likely due to us mis-reading the menu, but we ended up with a plate of potato chips and 2 croquetas...not 2 plates of croquetas...only 2. Essentially, the three of us ended up with about 4 bites of food apiece and that did little to quiet our growling tummies.

On our walk to the tapas bar, we had noticed how Americanized Madrid is, with McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, and other American staples lining the streets. After our less than satisfying tapas experience, we were frustrated and still hungry, so we decided to bite the bullet, and we had dinner at Pizza Hut. I know, I know, not necessarily the most adventurous or culturally appropriate dinner choice, but after being here for nearly a month, some wonderfully greasy American food was very appealing, and Pizza Hut fit the bill. We managed to order a 3-topping pizza, but we only wanted 2 toppings, so the Spanish Pizza Hut staff decided to help us out and chose ham as our 3rd topping. Although it wasn't what we ordered, we still scarfed it all down, including an order of equally greasy cheesy garlic bread. I think my favorite part of the entire Pizza Hut experience was the decor in the restaurant--there was a Pizza Hut version of Las Meninas, as seen here:



(Not the best picture, but here are some of the highlights...a Pizza Hut delivery guy at the door, the princess eating Pizza Hut, one of her maids has a Spice Girls poster, and everyone is drinking wine.)

After gorging ourselves on pizza, we called it a night. On Saturday, we slept in and then headed from our hostel to Madrid's famous areas, including the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor. All of these areas were completely packed to the brim with tourists and locals alike, creating a very hustle-bustle environment similar to Chicago or New York City. The streets were lined with the typical touristy shops, all selling the exact same low-quality goods. After being a tourist for a bit, we then decided to head back to the Gran Vía, which is basically Madrid's equivalent of NYC's 5th Avenue, or Pittsburgh's Walnut Street. We shopped a bit and then took a well-earned siesta. For dinner, we headed to the Mexican restaurant next door to our hostel. I realize, again, that this isn't really pushing the food limits, but we have all been craving Mexican, which is nowhere to be found in Spain. However, in my defense, I ordered a "Gringa Peliroja" without really knowing what it was; I ordered it entirely based on the fact that the dish's name translates to "Red-Headed White Girl," which I deemed to be appropriate. It turned out to be a pork and cheese quesadilla-like thing, which turned out A-OK.

Following dinner, we decided to walk back over the Plaza Mayor to have churros y chocolate, a traditional Spanish dish, only to find that the cafe makes their churros in the morning, so there were none available at 11:00 at night. We then settled for a nearby ice cream shop which also happened to be a crepe shop, so we indulged and had some deliciously gigantic crepes, stuffed to the brim with Nutella and strawberries. Needless to say, I was pretty much ecstatic with this turn of events. :)

On Sunday, we woke up early to head over to Madrid's Sunday Marketplace to do some serious shopping. The market was absolutely HUGE, spanning for multiple blocks. After some surveying of the options, it quickly became apparent that many of the tents sold strikingly similar items, so it was just a matter of nailing down price and/or quality criteria to help you pick where to buy. I was able to put a relatively significant dent in my souvenir shopping, which was a relief. On a sidenote, weather.com said that it was supposed to rain in Madrid all weekend, so I had my rain coat with me all weekend, and of course...it didn't rain a drop. Thus, on Sunday, I decided not to take my coat to the market, and of course...it poured. Always a treat. Another sidenote: a man offered to sell me himself at the market (twice), so that is always good to know. My guide book did not include the fun fact that I can buy scuzzy human beings at the Madrid market. Interesting.

After the market, we headed back to the hostel to check out, and then had 5 hours to kill between check-out and the bull fight. Unfortunately, we had to lug all of our purchases and bags with us during these 5 hours, so that was a bit of a struggle for us. We toured around one of Madrid's famous parks for a bit and then picked up our bull fight tickets before grabbing lunch. At this point in time, we still had over 3 hours, so we found a Starbucks and plopped down in comfy chairs for the next 3 hours. Finally, it came time to board the metro to head to the bull fight (dun dun dunnnnnn)...

After ascending from the metro stop, we were instantaneously greeted with ticket scalpers, souvenir stands, and concession stands, very similar to the area outside of an American sporting event. The Plaza de Toros, where the bull fight was held, was absolutely gigantic! We headed in to find our seats shortly before the actual fight began, only to find that all of the spectators were packed like sardines into the first 10 rows of the gigantic circular stadium. Every spectator had about 12 inches in which to sit, and it was definitely made more complicated by the fact that we had our backpacks and shopping bags, and we were seated as far from the aisle as possible. All of our host parents and most of our real parents had expressed some skepticism about whether or not we would like the bull fight, but in all honesty, I figured it would be not too bad. Here's how it went:

Prior to the actual bull fight, a little band in the stands played some music and then all of the matadors and their assistants entered the stadium, bowing out of respect and waving to the spectators. It was a bit reminscent of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics...but on a much smaller level. They then grabbed their capes and did a few minutes worth of warm-ups before the bull even entered the stadium. Finally, the time came for the fight to begin.

Essentially, there are 4 rounds within a bull fight. During the first round, a group of about 5-10 men with pink capes are evenly spaced around the circumference of the circular stadium. One man will jump toward the center, yelling at the bull to catch its attention, and then using the cape to encourage the bull to charge in that direction. As the bull charges, that man has to run like heck to duck into a little cubby-area available for protection. As the bull charged in one direction, a man on the complete opposite side of the stadium hopped into the ring, ready to attract the bull in that direction, and this cycle continued for about 5 minutes. Here's a picture of Round #1 activity:


Now, onto the second round. During this round, two horses enter the ring. I am not entirely sure what their purpose is in the grand scheme of the bull fight, I have heard that they are there to calm the bull down a bit, but it was exciting nonetheless. An important note is that the horses are blindfolded, so it's easy to assume that they likely don't have any idea they are in close proximity to an already-enraged bull. The horses also have some "padding" which essentially consists of a quilt tossed over the horse's midsection. Additionally, there are riders on these horses, equipped with giant spikes on spears.


I didn't understand what all of this special equipment was meant for, until the actual action started. Pretty much as soon as the horses entered the ring, the revved up bull charged at one of them, butting into the horse's midsection. After a few smaller charges, the bull managed to gather up enough strength and speed to send the horse flying a few inches, knocking it completely to the ground. At this point in time, I wasn't sure if that was typical for this part of the fight or not, but based on the reactions I heard around me, it wasn't. All we could see was the horse's hooves, which were definitely not moving in the slightest. I was convinced the horse had died, which was pretty jarring. The way this situation was handled consisted of one of the pink-cape men from the first round coming back into the ring and spreading his cape as wide as possible to shield the horse and its surrounding action from as many spectators as possible. Then, a group of about 5 men with ropes come and tie loops around the horse, pulling with all of their might. I assumed they were pulling to remove the carcass, but it turned out that they were pulling the horse to its feet so it could safely exit the ring. In the end, the horse appeared to be OK, but the shock had not worn off for us. While the 1st horse was being tended to, the bull moved on to the 2nd horse, which was positioned very close to our seats, charging at the midsection yet again. This time, the picador, which is the name for the man riding the horse, was ready, and proceeded to use his spear on a stake to repeatedly jab at the bull, producing the first spurts of blood. After a little more aggression, the 2nd horse exited the ring as well, ending the 2nd round. I was definitely not expecting it to become so violent so quickly, so I was pretty much aghast at this point in time.

Now, onto Round #3!! In this round, men called bandielleros come into the ring with what appear to be flowery stakes. Their job is to stab these stakes into the neck and back muscles of the bull to weaken it and prevent it from retaining its strength and aggression for the matadors. This round, like all the others, was frightening, as the bull at the beginning of the round still had all of its strength, speed, and agility. The bandiellero basically had to attract the bull's attention, get it to charge, stab it, dodge it, and then run like crazy to hop over the wall before being publicly gored. Some instances, it seemed like a ridiculously close call, but maybe that's just my inexperienced opinion. Each blow to the bull produced more and more blood (duh, I guess), but I really didn't expect to be able to see the constant waves of blood pouring over the bull's sides. It was really visible and not exactly the best sight. After the bandielleros did their business, it was time for the main event: The Matador!



The matador's role in the entire bull fight, in the 4th round, is basically all for show. By this point in time, the bull is exhausted, stabbed repeatedly, bleeding excessively, and not really a huge threat anymore. The matador plays around with the bull, antagonizing the bull until it builds up the steam to charge yet again, and the closer the bull gets to the matador, the more credit the matador gets. In fact, by the time the matador had finished with his show, his largely white suit had a healthy splattering of bright red blood on it, so I guess that means he did a good job, but I don't know for sure. So, the matador yells at the bull, waves his red cape, and everything that you typically imagine with a bull fight. After about 10 minutes of showmanship, he finally prepares to deliver the fatal blow by thrusting a sword into the bull. Our matador struggled with this task, as the first attempt left about 80% of the sword's blade outside of the bull, before it actually fell out. No one knew for sure, but we all agreed that this must be a big no-no in the world of matador-ing. So, he grabbed a second sword and embarrassingly tried again, and this time delivered a very forceful blow, with the entirety of the blade being forced into the bull's body. You know how in war movies, when someone is impaled with a blade, blood shoots out of them like a fountain? Well, that was exactly what happened at this point in time. After the good sword thrust, blood was shooting at least 2 feet above the bull, which was supremely disgusting. At this point in time, the bull kind of staggered over toward the wall of the plaza, while 3 or 4 men from the first round re-appeared with their bright pink capes, waving them constantly right in the bull's face to disorient it and prevent it from having any last-minute surges of strength to inflict damage. It was at this point that I felt bad for the bull, since who really wants to have the very last moments of their public death to be spent with crazy things being thrown in their face, completely disoriented and lost? Apparently the bull was not dying quickly enough, as a man entered the ring with a dagger and proceeded to repeatedly stab the bull until it was 100% no doubt about it dead. That was a lovely cherry on top of the gruesome sundae for us.



















If you couldn't tell from these reaction pictures, no one was really enjoying themselves by this point in the bull fight. As we saw the bull's carcass being dragged from the ring by decorated horses, we unamimously decided we had gotten our money's worth and it was time to leave. Typically, bull fights last for 2 hours, with 6 bulls being killed, but we felt we had achieved our cultural experience with the solitary bull. This ended our weekend in Madrid, and I am sure it is a time that will be hard to forget, no matter how much some of us may try to wipe it from our memories. Hannah taped the fight and our running dialogue/commentary, so once that gets posted, I will be sure to include it on my blog so all of you can feel like you were witnessing that warm fuzzy moment yourselves!

Sorry again for the marathon post, but I guess that's just the way it's meant to be!

News from España!

Hola Mis Amigos!

Everything is going swimmingly here in Spain. It is ridiculously nice to have only 3 days of class, so basically, if you blink, it's the weekend again! The week has been pretty non-descript, so I will give you some of the highlights/more interesting moments...

- I was assigned a 4-5 page paper in my philosophy. I initially thought it was to be based on an entire Spanish philosophy book, but then it turns out that I only have to read about 3/4 of a page to write the paper. While on the one hand, I am relieved that I have to read so little, on the other hand, I am a bit stressed about coming up with 4 to 5 pages of material based on so little. Oh well!

- I have been booking travel plans like crazy, and I am proud to say that my weekends are nearly all full! Here's the rundown:

September 19-21: Granada (check)
September 26-28: Madrid
October 3-5: Avila and Salamanca
October 10-12: Sevilla
October 19: Real Madrid game
October 24-26: Paris
October 31-November 2: Rome
November 7-9: Athens
November 14: Segovia
November 28-30: Barcelona (with my family)

I hope you all are ridiculously excited to live vicariously through me as I have these travels :)

In reality, that's about all there is to comment on. As a sidenote, my friend Hannah and I are in a bit of a competition to see whose blog garners more views. As of now, I am blowing her out of the water, so I would like to commend my readers, and ask that they keep up the good work!

Amor de España,
Jill

Photo Update, Part 2!

Hello there!

I have posted on album thus far on Picasa. Here's the link:

http://picasaweb.google.es/JillSchroeder10

Additionally, the link for my photo albums will (hopefully) always be on the left-hand side of this blog, under the picture of me. Let me know if you have any problems seeing my photos!

Photo Update!

Hi Everyone!

I have spent a considerable part of today assessing my photo situation, since my memory card filled over the weekend. I am in the process of creating some albums that can easily be shared online. Ideally, they will be linked to this blog in the next 24 hours or so, so keep your eyes peeled to get some exciting "Jill in Spain" photo action!

On a sidenote, I was super excited to see that a little old woman in my apartment building has a welsh corgi, the type of dog my family has. I was so excited that I gathered up the courage to go talk to her about her dog. That type of spontaneous conversation in Spanish is not something I have done thus far, so I was really excited and proud of myself after the brief exchange.

Thus, I dedicate today, and my monumental feat of starting a conversation with a stranger in Spanish, to my canine pal, Sammi. Look how cute she is!

Granada!!

Just to prepare you all, I am pretty sure that this post will be a marathon of sorts...

First off, a quick update on the furry fridge friend: As of Friday morning, it was gone. I will probably never know what it was, how it was cooked, or how it tasted, but that's OK by me.

On Friday, the Fund offered a guided tour of Madrid for us, which was really short but still interesting. We all loaded up onto the bus, and promptly went into comatose-like sleep. After about an hour, we arrived in Madrid, which is definitely more of a city than Toledo, to state the obvious. Toledo is rustic and pretty laid-back, while Madrid has a hustle and bustle about it, complete with a big city feel. Anyhow, we toured the outside of the Royal Palace before our tour of the interior. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take any pictures of the inside, so I'll just describe it. Every room was completely decked out in red and gold, plush fabrics, intricate sculptures, huge portraits, ceiling murals, and every other decadent European item you could imagine. In all honesty, I had a bit of a headache after the tour, since it was just an hour of being barraged with detail and decadence. It was still really beautiful, as you would expect. I think I could have lived there and been happy.

The exterior of the palace had this gigantic courtyard between the palace and Madrid's cathedral, which are actually connected to form one MONSTRUOUS building. It was all very regal, and provided some good photo ops.



After our tour of the palace, we hopped onto a bus to do a little tour of the city. No one seemed to get very much out of it, since we were all excited to be beginning our weekend plans and travels, so listening to mumbled Spanish on a bus's PA system wasn't high on the priority list. After the bus tour, we stopped for lunch at a relatively well-known Madrid eatery, called "El Museo de Jamón", which literally translates to "The Museum of Ham". There were tons and tons of hams hanging from the ceiling in the restaurant, which explains why we received chicken for lunch. Apparently the ham is so high-quality that it is is really expensive, and not really appropriate for a group of college students. I am not complaining, though, since a lunch of chicken tenders and french fries is always A-OK by me!

At the conclusion of our deliciously fried lunch, a group of 5 of us (me, Hannah, Christie, Sierra, and Flan) hopped on the metro to get to the Madrid bus station. It was amazingly easy, and although we stuck out (as always) with our gigantic backpacks and lack of Spanish, we successfully navigated a few metro stops and made it to the bus station. Unfortunately, the bus station was a little less user-friendly than the metro stations, as it was an explosion of people, cigarette smoke, Spanish, buses, exhaust, and heat. Our bus was supposed to leave at 3:30 and didn't actually arrive at the bus station until 3:35. The boarding process consisted of the bus driver getting off the bus, looking at people's name on a sheet of paper, and then letting them board the bus. He also smoked the entire time, and paused to take a few phone calls. He asked for absolutely no ID, so you could have claimed you were anyone, and boarded the bus lickety-split. Additionally, the concept of "a line" is pretty foreign here. Instead of realizing that we ALL had assigned seats, meaning everyone had a spot on the bus, people charged at the bus driver, pushing in from all directions, leaving us to fend for ourselves. The entire experience was so so SO non-American. Can you imagine no lines, or the pilot hopping off the airplane to start boarding the passengers? Nevertheless, we survived and boarded the bus successfully.

We then began our 5-hour bus ride to Granada. Surprisingly, the ride passed very quickly, as we chit-chatted the entire time there. I am pretty sure we were the nuisances on the bus, but that's not the first, nor the last, time that will probably happen. The bus stopped once at a grungy little rest stop, but it was a good opportunity to get out, stretch, and get a snack. At about 9:00, we got to the Granada bus station, got directions to our hostel, and then hopped on a city bus. We misread the map a teeny bit and ended up on a iffy part of a street, but then quickly got ourselves re-oriented and found our hostel.

After settling in, we decided to forage for dinner, which proved to be more difficult than we imagined, since there were very few casual/cheap eateries. We finally settled on a bar and grabbed some sandwiches before heading back to the hostel for the night. We had a long day planned for Saturday, so no one was terribly inclined to dabble in Granada nightlife on Friday.

Since we stayed in a hostel, we had 2 rooms, all to ourselves, but we had a communal bathroom. It wasn't too bad, or too good, but it served its purpose. I was the first one to shower, which shouldn't have been too eventful. WRONG. All Spanish showers I have encountered consist of a handheld shower head, and most showers have a little hook of sorts for you to place the shower head, effectively creating a "regular" shower. The hostel's shower did not have that hook, meaning you had to hold onto the shower head at all times. This didn't prove to be a problem until I needed to get some shampoo into my hands. I laid the shower head down, with the water spraying toward the tub so it wouldn't make a mess. Well...the water pressure was so strong that spraying toward the tub consequently flipped the shower head 180 degrees, meaning the water was spraying at this point in time directly into my eyes. In reality, that's not too bad. However, when the water hit my eyes, I moved my foot to try and redirect the spray, and that in turn made the shower head start to snake all over the place, spraying water over literally every square inch of the entire bathroom. Not every square inch of the shower area...of the entire bathroom. By the time I cleared out my eyes and was able to grab the shower head, it was quite the sight. Needless to say, I quickly finished up my shower and apologized to my friends, who all had a hearty laugh at my expense. Live and learn!

After the shower debacle, we all headed to bed. The main sight in Granada is the Alhambra, which is a Muslim palace and fortress. History lesson: Granada was the last city in Spain to be under Muslim control during the rise of the Catholic Spanish Monarchs. It fell to the Catholics in 1492, same year as Columbus's discovery, and these two events cemented Spain as a world power. So, we were dead-set on seeing this huge attraction. It turns out that a whopping 18,000 people visit the site each day, and about 16,000 of the tickets are sold in advance. As luck would have it, we did NOT manage to get advanced tickets, meaning we had to wake up obscenely early to try and buy day-of tickets. The ticket office opens at 8:00, so we got there at 7:15. I don't even remember the last time I was up that early! Fortunately, we got tickets without a problem, and it turned out to be worth the early morning. The gardens were gorgeous, but the palace was really the must-see location. Similar to the palace in Madrid, all of the rooms were intricate to the max, covered in ornate carvings, colorful tiles, and beautiful fountains. We all joked that going to such a lavish place without a tour guide or teacher to make sure we were learning essentially turned it into a fun house for us, as we were able to take all sorts of crazy pictures without feeling terribly uncomfortable.



After spending quite a few hours touring the palace and all of its accompanying grounds, we headed back to the hostel to rest. Along the way, we stopped in a few tourist shops and had some lunch...paella and sangria, how Spanish of me! As we were walking back to the hostel, we saw a gigantic sign for a Hannagan and Sons pub, and the sign had the ND leprechaun on it. We hustled over there only to find out that they do NOT carry ND football games, which was a bit of a let-down, but the bar owner suggested another Irish pub in town that might. We decided to check the place out later that day to see how realistic it would be to watch our very first Notre Dame game in Spain. Ultimately, it didn't work out, but more on that later.

We had a brief siesta back at the hostel and then headed out to do some shopping. We had read that Granada has a large Arabic Marketplace near the Cathedral. I thought I knew were I was going and led the way. Well...about an hour and what seemed like at least 4 miles of walking later, we all agreed that my sense of direction was a bit off. After a bit of brainstorming, we found our way to the cathedral. We went into it, thinking the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabela were there, when in actuality they were not. Another error on my part, whoopsie. Anyhow, the Cathedral still proved to be quite the sight, as you would probably expect. There had to have been at least 20 altars, the organ was gigantic, and everything was gilded to the nth degree. We decided to bail on seeking out the tombs, and instead shopped around a bit in the Arab Quarter, which turned out to be mostly touristy stuff.

(not the best pic, sorry!)


For dinner, we headed to a little cafe which had good, and more importantly, cheap sandwiches. We then trekked to Paddy's, the other Irish pub that supposedly would be showing the ND game. We made it there only to discover that the one channel that shows American college football shows only one game per week, and it turned out to be the Tennessee-Florida game. The good news was that we could at least see score updates on the ticker, the bad news is, they weren't good score updates. Although the team didn't pull out a win, we still had a blast at the pub, and the bartender was amazingly nice and both parties seemed happy to be talking English.

On Sunday, we had a pretty relaxed day, consisting of returning to Toledo. All in all, the Granada weekend was amazingly awesome, and it makes me so so so excited to travel more in the future. We all agreed that it's sort of like being on an extended spring break, with an occassional class here or there. I think I could get used to this!

Sorry for the War and Peace-style post, but it shouldn't really surprise anyone reading this that I can run on a bit :)

Close Encounters with the Refrigerated Kind

OK, so I realize that in my last post, I bragged about how adventurous I have been in the food department. Well, after a chance discovery this morning, I may be eating my words (no pun intended...OK, a little pun intended).

This morning, I opened our fridge to grab my juice box that makes up a significant portion of my breakfast. The fridge is pretty huge, and I rarely take the time to look around and its other contents. However, this morning I was running early, so I took an extra 30 seconds to cast a glance over all of the shelves. WELL. I noticed a plastic shopping bag with these gray, long, skinny things poking out. It appeared to be some sort of gray asparagus, to give you all an idea of what I saw. Only when I looked closer did I notice that the gray was actually FUR. And at the end of the long things, there were CLAWS. I have no idea what was actually in the bag, but I am thinking it was a rabbit or something along those size guidelines. Still...to be unexpectedly greeted at 8 AM with a dead animal in the fridge was a bit jarring. I felt like I had accidentally stumbled upon a dead body hidden in someone's freezer.

Fortunately, I have lunch and a dinner today at the Fund, and I will be traveling this weekend. Thus, the only meal I will be eating at my home over the next 72 hours will be breakfast tomorrow, which will assuredly be a juice box VERY quickly taken out of the fridge.

I just wanted to share this culturally surprising experience with all of you. Yeesh.

La Vida Buena

Hello!

Since it has been a few days since my last update, I feel compelled to let everyone know what is new in my life. Unfortunately, it's not too terribly much. Classes are starting to enter a routine, which is nice. Even better news, I am definitely noticing an improvement in my abilities to understand my professors and my host family. Speaking is a different matter, but I'll take what I can get at this point in time.

The food here continues to confuse and surprise me. There have been a few instances during which I am served a plate of food, and in all honesty, I am not 100% sure what the main course is. I can tell it's a protein of sorts, but beyond that, it's anybody's guess. Thankfully, all of my confusion has ended in the discovery of chicken or fish, but I am not letting my guard down quite yet. Most of you reading this already know that I am a picky eater and my friends and family remind me of that continually. Well, I'll have you all know that I am being very adventurous here, at least in my opinion. I have tried new fruits, including one today that I don't even know what the American equivalent is, I have cleaned my plate at every meal, and I have not asked questions. Perhaps, most surprising of all, I have had a few tomatoes (gasp!). While they weren't as gross as I expected/remembered, I am not quitting the anti-tomato campaign quite yet. I am secretly hoping there is another disease outbreak associated with tomatoes so that I can get a break from the attempts to convert me to a tomato-lover. Keep your fingers crossed!

I have made my first "OMG, that's so European" purchase! A few friends and I went to a marketplace in Toledo (a very similar market to the one I described in an earlier post). I tracked down some "very European" shoes for a bargain of 10 euros, and snagged them up. Unfortunately, I have accrued quite the collection of blisters, so I am on a strictly-flip-flop regimen at this point in time, but I am eager to incorporate the new Euro-wear into my wardrobe.

As the semester progresses, we are beginning to nail down some travel plans, which is probably the most exciting and appealing aspect of studying abroad in the first place. It's still a bit early, but we have booked trips to Granada this coming weekend, and the Fund provides a trip to Salamanca in 2 weeks, which Notre Dame finances. Once I accumulate a few more photos, I'll be sure to post them online and provide all of you loyal blog-readers with a glimpse into my Spanish life.

A few more observations about Spanish life in general...

- No one ever goes barefoot in the house. No matter how hot it may be, everyone puts on furry slippers and scuttles around the place.

- The "walk" and "don't walk" lights are red and green, which makes a good deal of sense, if you think about it. Kind of makes you wonder why the US decided to use orange and white.

- A good deal of the ads on TV here would have people all up in arms back in the States. I have seen a far amount of butt, among other body parts, and the shock value has yet to wear off.

- There is an internet cafe in Toledo which advertises "Cyber Cafe + American Pastry"...which happens to be donuts. I am filled with patriotism every time I pass by this fine establishment.

- Graffiti is EVERYWHERE. A lot of it is pretty serious social commentary and/or curse words, but there are some really artistic pieces, including a caricature of Don Quixote. I will be sure to snag a picture of the good graffiti to show you all!

- Last but not least, and this isn't a reflection on Spain, but I would like to wish my sister-in-law, Megan, a happy 24th birthday!!!

Amor de España,
Jill (or as my host family says, Jeeeeeeeeeel [rhymes with eel])

Weekend Craziness!

Hola, muchachos!

I have officially experienced my first weekend here in Toledo, and it has definitely been interesting!

Friday, after the tour, I came back to my apartment and promptly passed out for a lovely little siesta. For those of you who don't know, the Spanish culture has this amazing concept, where they essentially hit a "pause" button in the middle of their day, and everyone has the opportunity to go home, have lunch with their families, and then sleep it off to recharge for the rest of their day. Most days, I haven't taken advantage of this opportunity, but after a long week, I was definitely ready for some additional Z's. After my siesta, I spent some time with the fam before heading out for the night.

A few friends and I went to a local bar, and we arrived at about 11:30 to find the place basically deserted. This is an after-effect of the siesta; since people nap in the middle of the day, they have the energy to go late into the night, meaning late-night hotspots aren't populated until the wee hours of the morning. Anyhow, we decided to try out our spanish skills and order a drink. I told the bartender I liked orange, expecting an orange juice-based drink, and instead was handed an orange soda with some alcohol mixed in. Definitely not what I was expecting, but not too shabby nonetheless.

On Saturday, my madre asked if I would like to accompany my host sister and g-ma to the market. I assumed it was a little farmer's market and we would pick up some fresh produce, so I agreed and gladly tagged along. Definitely not a farmer's market. Instead, "the market" means an open-air shopping EXTRAVAGANZA!! This entire parking lot was covered with tents and vendors, selling everything from underwear to belts to shoes to coats. Most of the prices I saw were pretty reasonable, and I am 95% sure all of the merchandise was new, as in no previous ownership. Like I said, 95% sure. Since I was expecting green beans and broccoli, I had no money on me and therefore made no purchases, but I think it's safe to say that I will be returning to that market on a future Saturday, ready to spend some euros!

After the market, I then took the bus to the local shopping mall with my friend Hannah. This mall is absolutely huge, but shopping was pretty overwhelming. I normally can shop with the best of them, but this new environment kind of stunned me into inaction. All of the prices had to mentally be converted to US dollars so you could have a handle on how much you were actually spending, the fashions were totally different, and most of the fabrics even felt different. Sadly, I walked away from this shopping trip empty-handed as well, but I am confident that I will be making some purchases in the not-too-distant future. At the conclusion of our time at the mall, Hannah and I decided to hop back on the bus and go home. However, we got on the bus going in the wrong direction, so we had to sit on the bus for 90% of its loop, as opposed to the 10% we expected. Yet another case of "live and learn" here in Spain!

On Sunday afternoon, a few friends and I decided to go to a local soccer game (basically the equivalent of a Chiefs game, for all the Johnstowners out there). Obviously, soccer is the premiere sport here in Spain, so I was very excited about the prospect of seeing a sport I love in a country that loves it, too. We made sure to get to the field at least 30 minutes early to be absolutely sure that we would get in. Well, at 4:30 for the 5:00 game, we were 5 of the probably 10 people in the entire stadium. Apparently the demand for tickets wasn't as great as we expected. As kick-off neared, the stadium did fill up more, although it was far from a sell-out. Toledo won 4-0, which was exciting. We sat front row, so it was easy to see how much pulling and grabbing was being done, in addition to which falls were dives versus real falls caused by legitimate fouls. At halftime, we were treated to a fight breaking out among some of the teenager fans, complete with punches, kicks, and police intervention. Thankfully, the fight was on the opposite side of the stadium, so it was more of a cultural exposition than a fearful moment. All in all, my first European soccer experience basically lived up to my expectations, with big celebrations upon goals, and loud cheers throughout the entire game.

The final memorable moment of this first weekend came as I was eating dinner with my host family. We had the TV on, and my padre switched the channel to this game show network, or something similar. The show appeared to be the Spanish version of "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge," aka a show where contestants do ridiculous things in hopes of earning some money, while the viewers laugh hysterically at their foibles. One of the mini-games on this episode consisted of contestants dressed up as knights, and they were attached to bungee cords which were attached to the wall. The knights then had to stretch the cords out as far as possible to grab a sword from a rock in the middle of the arena, then return to their portion of the wall, and place the sword in a basket. At this point in time, it sounds a bit difficult, but really not too bad, right? Well, that's what I thought. Shortly before the game began, the show introduced one more little obstacle: A LIVE BULL CALF. That's right, while the contestants ran from one end of the arena to the other, stretching a bungee cord behind them, they also had to avoid a charging bull calf the entire time. This calf appeared to have some oomph behind it, as it was able to knock down all 4 of the contestants repeatedly over the 5-minute period. Thankfully, the arena also staffed men whose jobs appeared to be to pick up the assaulted contestants and distract the calf while the contestants regained some composure and kept fighting for those swords. Rarely during my first few days in Spain have I felt the overwhelming urge to blog about something I saw or did. This would be a very clear exception.

OK, so that about summarizes my weekend in Toledo. I hope everyone had a great weekend themselves :)

Jill

La Primera Semana en Total

Hi Everyone!

It's been an exciting first week, passing by in the blink of an eye while simultaneously taking an eternity. Here's a recap of some revelations, memories, and interesting moments...

-I have now taken all of my classes, and I think that this semester will be challenging only in the language aspect. I feel like if these classes were in English, it would be a tremendous difference from the work/stress loads that are customary at ND. Not that I'm complaining.

-On Friday, we took a guided tour of Toledo, which was really interesting. Prior the tour, my only knowledge of the city consisted of the route from my bus stop to the Fund and back again. I know have a greater appreciation for its history, and more importantly, its shopping!

-Toledo has many monasteries and convents, some of them even are the type where the monks remain in solitude in the monastery, never setting foot outside its doors.

-Toledo is known for its swords, which are available in practically every other store here. One interesting tidbit is that Toledo sword crafters created the swords used in the Lord of the Rings movies and the Harry Potter movies, in addition to supplying swords to the U.S. Marine Corps.

-Toledo's streets are phenomenally difficult to walk on, since they all are uphill or downhill, not to mention curvy, and many of them are dead ends. In addition to this, they are made of cobblestones, so the slightest err in balance can be costly. Originally, the Spanish government planned to pave all of the streets, but then Madrid became the capital and Toledo became the neglected sister city, so to speak, so no one bothered fixing it up. Now the cobblestones are a nifty part of the city's culture, so there's no real desire to remove them.

-Marzipan is gigantic here. I kid you not, nearly every store I pass sells either marzipan or swords in some form. It's simultaneously very butch and petite.

-A lot of social customs have taken some getting used to. For example, American individuals stick out to the most extreme degree, so the stares we get are frequent and not subtle in the slightest. Additionally, there have been quite a few honks and quickly spoken Spanish phrases shouted from car windows. I can't tell what those phrases are, but you get the jist. I was taking a picture for my friend, Hannah, and a car stopped in the middle of the intersection, swung open the door, and started yelling "oh, ya, foto foto foto"...it was pretty surprising and mildly amusing. I even managed to capture said car in the picture. She then decided she wanted a picture without the distraction of the car, so we tried again, but the car had simply gone around a traffic circle and showed up again. It was definitely apparent that we were tourists, and American tourists at that, meaning that we were pretty much fair game to tease at free will.

-The eating schedule is definitely a trying transition. Breakfast is whenever I am running out the bus stop, usually consisting of a juice box and/or some sour gummy worms (thanks, Lusks!). Lunch is at 2:30, meaning I usually have 6+ hours betweek breakfast and lunch, which is difficult. Then, dinner isn't until 10:00, so I have another long gap between eating. Thankfully, snacks are pretty plentiful along Toledo's streets, so we have all been able to grab a little sustenance during those long droughts of food.

OK, I think that's all I can dig out of my continually exhausted brain at this point in time.

If anyone out there feels particularly compelled to send me a piece of mail, here's my address:

Jill Schroeder
Fundacion Ortega y Gasset
Centro de Estudios Internacionales
San Juan de la Penitencia
Callejon de San Justo
45001 Toledo, SPAIN

Go Irish!
Jill

Hola!

Well, I have had my first two days of class at the Fund, and they have been completely exhausting. I start earlier than I do normally at ND and I leave much later than normal. This is going to take some getting used to. I had my literature class, which focuses on Spanish Lit of the 16th and 17th centuries, my art class, my culture class, and my philosophy class. From what I have been able to understand of my professors' lectures, which isn't always a lot, they all seem like they are going to be relatively interesting. At this point in time, the only huge obstacle is that I am not getting every word my professors say, so I oftentimes end a lecture feeling a bit lost and/or confused. I am sure (or should I say hopeful?) that this will improve over time. Many of the classes require long papers, which should be a bit of a challenge, as I have only written 4 pages or so in Spanish, and now they are asking me for 10. The good news is, all of us students are in the same boat, so we'll sink or swim together, I guess!

Another interesting aspect of the classes is that most of them meet twice within one day, so we have a morning session and an afternoon session. This is probably the most marked difference from my typical classroom schedule, except for the langauge, of course. It's kind of hard to come to grips with, as a class I may find a bit boring is difficult to sit through twice within one day, but at the same time, it is nice knowing that I don't have to withstand that for an entire week!

We are beginning to explore the city of Toledo a bit more, day by day, and finding little stores or cafes that are becoming personal favorites. Last night, a girl from the Notre Dame group had her 21st birthday, so all of us went to a little pizza place and celebrated with her. It was really fun, and the fact that we had some good old-fashioned comfort food in the form of pizza definitely was a plus. My group all decided on ordering sausage, and we got a pizza covered in what appears to be hot dog pieces. Close, but no cigar. We were all famished, so the hot dog pizza disappeared in no time, and now we all know not to order "salchichas" if we want sausage!

Now that I have been here for a few days, I am beginning to understand why exactly siestas are so popular here. The days are so long, and at this point in time very hot, that a nap in the middle of the day is practically a necessity just to survive. One of my friends claims that a siesta is great, since it's "all of the nap without any of the guilt." I thought that was a pretty adequate summary of the entire idea.

OK, well I am off to concentrate my brains out in yet another class.

Hasta luego,
Jill

El Primer Día En La Fundación

Hola, Todos!

I just returned from my first complete day at the Fund, and boy, was it crazy! My day started with me catching the bus at 8:15 this morning, which is apparently an obscenely early hour in Spanish culture. The streets looked practically deserted, and the sun hadn't even completely risen. I met up with a few other ND girls on the bus, and then we hopped off to begin our first day at the Fund.

During our entire preparation for Spain, our various advisers have stressed the placement exams that occur prior to us officially selecting our classes. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed about this process, especially because there was both a written and oral portion. I was pleasantly surprised when the written portion consisted of writing a mock pen-pal letter to an American teenager, and then 60 multiple choice questions that were either so clear or so hard that I just picked an answer and moved right along.

Between the two portions, we had some time off, so my friend Hannah and I went to the main plaza in Toledo and had some "Coca-Cola Lights" as they call them here. It was fun to just casually talk (in English) and watch all of the people going by this busy area.

The oral portion was consistently my larger worry for the placement exams, but this turned out to be a breeze as well. It's really enjoyable to talk to professional Spanish educators, especially those with experience in teaching non-Spanish-speaking students, because they speak at a pace slow enough for you to understand and fast enough to feel like you aren't being treated like a complete rookie. Basically, the oral portion consisted of reviewing the scores from the written portion, which turned out to be OK, and then picking which classes we wanted to take. As of now, assuming no classes are so completely impossible to deal with, I am taking a history class, a literature class, a culture class, a philosophy class (gag), and an art class. The best part of all is that if I keep my schedule as it stands now....I only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!! Those 4-day weekends will be great for traveling! Granted, the days I DO have class will be pretty packed, but I'll take it.

After the placement exams were all over, we basically had the rest of the afternoon to relax and connect with other students and the city of Toledo. A large group of us went for a walk around the perimeter of the entire old city portion, which took about an hour in the blazing heat. It was really interesting to see all of the old-fashioned architecture, but it was difficult to focus on anything besides the insufferable heat. Fortunately, the entire group has a guided tour of Toledo on Friday, so I'll be sure to pay more attention then.

Finally, our day ended with a final orientation, where our faculty members gave us the final tips and then we had a huge fiesta. The Fund had all sorts of finger foods and desserts for us to try, all authentic Spanish food. I'll be honest, the desserts were a big attraction for me, as chocolate has been sort of a rare treat over these past three days. The party was held in a Spanish courtyard, so we had nothing above us but the stars. A mariachi band (or whatever the Spanish equivalent is) played and sang for us, and I think it's safe to say we all felt authentically Spanish for that brief period of time.

Hasta luego,
Jill

Hola!

I have successfully arrived in Spain after a long day of traveling. To summarize, I drove from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, flew from Pittsburgh to JFK, stood in line there for about 3 hours, spotted Audrina from The Hills (OMG I know!), had a 1-hour delay on the tarmac, flew from JFK to Madrid, took a 1-hour bus to our university's neighborhood, and then had to lug all of our baggage up a hilly road, made of cobblestone, in the pouring rain.

After all of that, we were offically introduced to our new home for the next 3-ish months: The Fundación José Ortega y Gasset, fondly referred to as "The Fund". We checked in and then had the tour of the facility, which is a former monastery. The building houses all of the students who opt not to live with a host family, all of the classrooms, a gym, 2 computer labs, a cafeteria, a dining room, and the administrative offices. Each semester, about 100 non-Spanish students enroll at the Fund, to give you an idea.

After our orientation, we had a meeting with a woman who briefed us on living with a host family, which all Notre Dame students have chosen to do. She spoke very fast, and I was very tired, so I missed most of what she said. Hopefully it wasn't too important. After our briefing, we received our family assignments. We were then herded down a flight of stairs to meet our families. It was a little uncomfortable, since all of the students were crammed on a flight of stairs and all of the host parents were squeezed onto the floor. The director called the students one by one, and then everyone watched as you formally introduced yourself to your new parent(s), with a kiss on both cheeks. Like I said, a little uncomfortable.

We then had a VERY brief meet and greet with the families before being shuttled to our new home. Toledo is a very old city, and when it was established, the government constructed a wall around the entire city to protect it from invaders. Since the construction of the wall, the city has expanded, so there's living "inside the walls" versus "outside the walls". I am living in a region known as Poligino, which is outside the walls, meaning I have a 15 minute bus ride to the Fund. The apartment I am staying in is very nice, and I have my own room. I was lucky enough to get a Spanish family that doesn't smoke, which is a rarity in this country. My host family consists of a host mom, host dad, brother (22 years old) and sister (20 years old). I haven't met the siblings yet, as they are on vacation, but the parents have been very accommodating and patient to say the least.

That about summarizes my first day in Spain. On Monday, I have to take an oral and written placement exam to determine my language skills, and then I start classes on Tuesday. I am very much looking forward to establishing a routine with classes. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves, wherever they may be, and I will end this post by saying Go Irish! Beat Aztecs!

Amor de España,
Jill

First Post!

Hi Everyone!

This is just an introductory post to explain the point of this blog. Rather than sending out really long group emails, I figured I would start a blog and post all of my stories and adventures online for people to read at their own convenience.

I leave Friday, so I better get back to my packing!