Abandoned Blog

For anyone still reading and possibly wondering what the heck happened to my blog, I decided a while back that writing blog entries in English was counterproductive to the excellent learning environment I have here in Córdoba (for learning Spanish of course!), and was furthermore taking away from all the lovely stories I want to tell when I get back! See you all in a few months!

besitos.

Lisbon and my first (and best!) experience couchsurfing

Buenas noches! This will be a quick post because I'm tired from lots of traveling, looking forward to lots more traveling, and have class early tomorrow morning. This afternoon I got back from the most amazing whirlwind trip to Lisbon, Portugal. It was my first time couchsurfing (although I have hosted surfers here in Córdoba) and I honestly cannot imagine a better introductory surf. We stayed with three Portuguese guys: Rodrigo, Arlindo, and Joao who are all still within their first 3 months working as doctors in Lisbon. Despite this, they had an incredible amount of free time to show us around the city (including nightlife), give recommendations, and sit down for long talks about Portuguese/Spanish/American culture and vocabulary (learned some key words in Portuguese, especially ordering a drink which translated to "a kick in the vagina"). Besides the general awesomeness of our hosts and lisbon in general, highlights of the trip included getting burned at the beach, finding my name on a poster (first living proof I've found that it actually DOES mean butterfly!), drinking ginjinha; a sort of cherry liqour (and even buying a bottle to bring back), and the most extensive junk market I have ever seen which sold everything from dirty old bottles to phone chargers.

Once again, pictures speak better to experiences like these so take a gander:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087292&id=1451700384&l=e525867861

besitos,
ness

Blueberries and Birthday

A lot of time has passed fast. This past weekend the team and I attended our second Middlebury sponsored event of the semester: a trip to Huelva and the coast which included some priceless environmental info for the end-of-year project that none of us really want to do. ah well. Highlights of the trip included visiting the exact point where Columbus' voyage left to discover the Indias (or whatever he left to discover...I've recently heard a bit of controversy surrounding his voyage including a claim that he left in search of the Americas which he already knew existed. hmmmmm...will have to ponder this further at another date. Anyway, we got to see some exact replicas of his three ships, including life size models of Columbus and crew as well as horrendously political incorrect images of the "natives." At this point in the trip there are some excellent photos on facebook which I will include at the end. Second highlight of the trip was a visit to a blueberry farm which was oddly half organic and half conventional. Second odd thing was that the owners of the farm were familiar with a blueberry farm in Eugene. Unfortunately their Andalusian accent made it impossible for me to understand the name of the farm, but small world anyway. Next day we headed to the Parque Nacinal Doñana which was absolutely amazing (it's supposed to be one of the most-visited or most famous...not sure which, nacional parks i Europe). I think the pictures speak better to that adventure and there are plenty on facebook, but I will say that our tour consisted of riding in a giant green monster truck and I got to sit UP FRONT. Fourth best part of the trip was finally hitting the spanish beach!!! I noted at the beginning of the Huelva visit that we had so far made 2 trips to coastal towns (Cádiz for Carnaval and Málaga for our first Midd adventure) without once nearing the ocean. I got a pretty nasty sunburn, but it was great anyway and I came home with some truly wonderful seashells. Unfortunately, my birthday had to land on the day after our return from Huelva, so, after waking up to a 6am hotel wake up call that morning (which I strongly protested...we didn't have to be downstairs until 6:45), we got back to Córdoba around 10pm an started my birthday celebrations. I would have rather gone to bed, but hey you only turn 21 once (although I plan to celebrate again where it counts upon returning to the states). That night ended with me passing out on the couch, but not before playing a few rounds of good old american beer pong. haha. The 8:30am start to my birthday on a friend's couch could have been better...

Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086530&id=1451700384&l=c05e58f893
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084173&id=1451700384&l=882483c368
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084075&id=1451700384&l=d4276228e8

A taste of the inferno

EEK! Even setting myself the seemingly achievable goal of one blog post a week seems to be too much for me. My apologies.
I'm a little backed up on my recollections, so I'll try to start where I left off. One week ago (goodness, I believe it was one week?) Zoe and I woke up Saturday morning, which was really probably late afternoon,  hankering after some adventure, probably due to the damp (dank!) weather we were experiencing. Sooooo, it being a bit late in the day to go anywhere that day, we decided to back our backpacks and more importantly our stylish rainboots on Sunday and head to Baena, which is a little pueblo about an hour from Córdoba by bus. This ended up being a sort of mixed experience: positive because the village was GORGEOUS (I'm going to put a link to my photos at the bottom and I highly recommend looking at the Baena cemetery, as odd as that sounds) and it felt good to get some exercise walking around and interesting (not quite negative!) due to the immense downpour we experienced later in the afternoon while waiting for the only bus of the day to take us home. I think Baena is better described by photos, so take look. Basically it was a typically sleepy pueblo complete with amazing buildings all piled on a hill, old church/ex-mezquita, orange trees (what village in Andalucia would be complete without them? This time I ate one despite countless warnings that they are bitter and ust for decoration) and cute spanish kids playing soccer in the streets.
Ok, now for the more recent stuff. This past weekend may have been the most beautiful I have EVER seen in March. Ever. I would guess the temperature probably peaked around 80, maybe higher on both Saturday and Sunday, which made me really glad I postponed my trip to Granada to enjoy the beautiful sunshine! While I am enjoying the warmth, it's a bit frightening to think what the weather will be like in July. I'm starting to undertsand the commonly used local term "infierno"....Needless to say I spent the weekend sunbathing, whether it was on Zoe's terraza half sweating to death, or in la plaza de la corredera eating salmorejo (super typical Córdobese dish, basically gazpacho, but thicker and delicious!), or walking the city. The sunshine also meant I did my laundry for the first time in quite a while! Interestingly enough, dryers are not really a concept here (maybe the really wealthy have them, I haven't quite figured it out?), so dry weather=all my laundry blowing in the breeze up on the roof! I even learned the correct way to maximize a small number of clothespins (thank you, Zoe!)
My internship as it turns out is off to an amazing start. Yesterday was el Día Internacional contra el Racismo (international day against racism) and we had a big party for staff and immigrants (I suppose you would call them "clients?"). This turned out to be a huge blast, I got a henna tattoo and had my name written for me in both Chinese and Arabic (actually I had it written twice in Arabic by two different immigrants. The two could not look more different, go figure). I also had an older co-worker offer to show me how to make salmorejo in her house because I liked it so much! Something for y'all to look forward to when I get back...The only downside to the day was the constant supply of free desserts which sat out all day tempting me. Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but I decided to give up sugar for lent just for the heck of it (wouldn't hurt if it helped me cut my jar-of-nutella-a-week habit either!)
lastly, I just finished organizing my first ever couchsurfing experience in Lisbon, Portugal!! I'll be there the week after my birthday and could not be more excited about visiting the city and not having to pay for a hostel. HA.

Here are my photo albums. From now on I'm going to try to post the links at the bottom of each entry for anyone interested:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084173&id=1451700384&l=882483c368
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084075&id=1451700384&l=d4276228e8

Caracoles, etc...

good evening faithful readers!

Today was one of the most unproductive days I have had so far in España and included watching the lion king 2 (dubbed in Spanish, so at least I'm learning!), drinking a cup of coffee, thinking about going for a run (and then thinking better of it), and making a pot of chicken soup. Sooooo, on that note, here I am rounding out my unproductive day with a very productive blog entry.
Updates: let's see, the other day I ate snails. It took me a little while to catch on, but it turns out this is snail season, which I realized after about 2 days of seeing tents crop up all over the city advertising "caracoles." I have always heard that escargot is something everyone "has" to try, and that you don't really notice the snails because of all the melted butter and garlic oozing out of their every orifice, so I figured "what the heck?" and a few friends and I stopped by a tent. We were even more excited to find out that an order of caracoles is only 1 euro (what a bargain!) and proceeded to order one each. Here's the deal: apparently caracoles are NOT escargot. Not even close. What the waiter presented  to us were three plastic cups of whole garden snails (the little kind), complete with shells (maybe even little faces?), swimming in some sort of brown water that I didn't have the heart (nor the stomach, for that matter) to try. Anyway, turns out they're ok. I manage to stomach them--proud to say I ate EVERY LAST ONE before hurrying off to order coffee asap to drown the taste. There are some pretty nice pictures of this happening on my facebook, so--as I don't believe I have the technical ability to upload any photos here--I'll include links at the end to my albums for any non-facebookers.
Second update: I had an interview for an internship last Thursday. Bad news: I used google maps to get directions and forgot to change the settings to "on foot." Turns out using car directiosn can really screw you up when there are roundabouts involved and I ended up walking in the wrong direction for half an hour. Good news: I guess they didn't really care because I got the internship! The organization is called Córdoba Acoge and they work with local immigrants in the area while also working with the community to reduce racism. I'm still trying desperately to believe that the racism that crops up almost daily here (don't even get me started on the jokes) is out of ignorance and not bad intentions. Either way, I'm excited to start work on Monday! Second piece of good news: the internship is for credit which means I get to drop the most boring class on the face of the earth: La Mezquita: Catedral de Córdoba. The levels of dullness achieved in this class have surprised me more than almost anything here, mostly because it came highly recommended by both Whitties who studied in Córdoba (via the study abroad office) and Middlebury staff in Madrid. However, that class was DULL.  I've already talked about the history behind the local mosque-turned-cathedral, so I won't go into it again. I guess I should have known I was in trouble when the professor announced on the first day that the class would NOT be covering the history behind the controversy surrounding La Mezquita's religious affiliation. Not only did the class ignore the religious and political arguments surrounding the mosque it almost entirely (so far, I guess I shouldn't be too judgmental) ignores its history as well. Instead, we spent 3 hours a week being lectured at about minute differences in pillar decoration. HA. I guess I know now never to take another Art History course.
TTFN!

For those interested: Here are links to my facebook photo albums.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084075&id=1451700384&l=d4276228e8

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084173&id=1451700384&l=882483c368

1 month and 3 days later...

Hola!

Here I am in Spain. I've spent exactly one month and three days here and, as of now, have written exactly three sentences in my blog. I've gotten a few complaints (oh hey, caro and court), so, this means I'm going to have to catch you all up (whoever you all are) in a very short amount of time and space. Here goes:

The last month has been full of approximately 1 million new experiences, surprises, etc...so I apologize in advance for the haphazard nature of this entry.
I arrived in Madrid at 10am on February 4th more jet-lagged than I have ever felt in my life. Luckily, I was oined on the last leg of my journey--atlanta to madrid--by my friend Zoe who also goes to Whitman and is studying on the same program in Córdoba (note here: for those of you who don't know Zoe, I'm going to assume in the following posts that you do). We somehow managed to get our tired bodies and enormous suitcases out of the airport and found ourselves an overpriced airport shuttle into downtown Madrid where we planned to stay with our friend Dorian for a few days until we left for Córdoba. The next few days we spent in Madrid are extremely hazy. Let's just say, they involved a lot of sleep, tiny sandwiches, a bit of walking around, more sleeping (this time in a park), and dreading the Spanish lifestyle of coming back from clubs between 6 and 7 am (a lifestyle, I might at, to which we are now quite accustomed).
Exactly one month ago today, we packed up our bags again and, after coffee and delicious breakfast courtesy of Middlebury, and various boring safety briefings (terrible word choice, they were anything but brief) we got on the train to Córdoba, this time with the other 5 girls from our tiny program. The next few days were a bit hellish. We took on the daunting task of finding 7 rooms in 7 different apartments (per Middlebury requirements which say we all need to live separately) with the help of only one Middlebury employee: a student here named Jose who has since become a close friend. Apartment hunting mid-school year was one of the more stressful things I have ever done and involved more than one apartment reeking of tobacco and even a hospital visit.
I don't want to bore anyone with little details, so let's just say a week later we were all settled and not really ready to start classes (which we did anyway). Classes are not the best, but easy enough to understand. So far I've had very little work for any of them (which has been wonderful, but worries me a bit about when finals roll around). I am still working on getting an internship with an organization called Córdoba Acoge which helps local immigrants. My interview is this coming Thursday, so more on that later.
I've managed to squeeze in a few touristy things since I've been here. We went to visit el Alkázar the first week here, which it turns out was the palace (ok, can't remember if it was a palace, so we'll just say "place") where Isabella and Ferdinand gave Christopher Columbus (or Cristobal Colón) permission and presumably funding for his journey to America! I also went on a fascinating tour of La Mezquita (the second largest mosque in the world, which is actually now a Cathedral...I recently found out that it is extremely illegal for Muslims to pray there, despite the building's history). I also now have three weekend trips under my belt! The first, to Málaga, was a Middlebury-organized trip and hence a bit tedious. The whole day was very planned out meaning we didn't even get to go to the gorgeous beach! Although we did see an ancient Roman theater, which I guess is also cool. Haha. The second trip was to the countryside (a little village called Espiel, where our aforementioned friend Jose invited us to come spend the weekend with his friends and family). That trip was much less regimented and involved a bit of hiking, and a LOT of drinking (sorry mommy!), but with very beautiful scenery. I just returned from the third trip, which was to Cádiz for CARNAVAL which was certainly a "experience." I wish I could put up photos now (of carnaval and everything else) but I am waiting for my camera cord, sent by my lovely mother, to arrive in 2 weeks. Carnaval was out of control. Thousands (like MANY thousands) of people everywhere in the most elaborate costumes I have ever seen anyone of my age group wear. One thing my American friends and I wee quick to note, was that girls here don't go for the slutty/sexy costume look that many American girls tend to shoot for. When I say all out, I mean they were dressed as cows and wearing onesies and face paint. Perhaps the most surprising thing about our trip to Cádiz (from the American perspective) is that our bus left at 6:30pm from Córdoba, getting us to Cádiz around 11pm and then leaving Cádiz at 6:30am to return us to Córdoba around 11am. People, that is more than 8 hours of bus for less than 8 hours of party!!
Ok, almost done. You all are caught up until yesterday morning, and all I've done since then is recover fom my night of zero sleep. All that's left are a few comments on spanish things in general.
The other day I ad to write an essay for my Spanish language class on culture shock "el choque cultural") and I was surprised by the number of things I could think of to write on. I expected zero culture shock here. First, because I have already lived in Spain, and second because it's a developed nation, Europe is similar to the US, blah, blah, blah...I'm sure countless things will occur to me later that I should have added here, but here are a few gems:
First, the male style. I have never been anywhere where it is more acceptable for straight men to spend as much, if not more, time grooming themselves than women. Nearly every spanish friend I have made uses some sort of product (namely) gel in his hair on a regular basis and is extremely protective of his carefully constructed hairstyle (i.e. don't touch it!). I even have a friend here (who shall remain unnamed) who told us he waxes his legs during the summer, and could not understand why we fond that unusual.
Second, just a little tidbit I've found here. Drinking and driving does not seem to be a huge deal. Spain has long had very strict rules on the use of cell phones while driving and, as a result, most people will willingly drive with an open 40 (or litro) in the car, but will ignore a ringing cell phone or hand it to a passenger.
Ok, I can't think of anymore right now. More next time!

Besos,
ness

Hello friends, family, and family friends. Here, I will make every effort to document my travels in Spain to the best of my ability. We'll see how much actually goes up. Enjoy!

love, ness