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
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