Cookies!

Hi everyone! I figured I'd update everyone on how things are going since I have a little time.

School has been going great, except last week on Thursday, they announced that my Thermodynamics class has changed hours...again. It's like they have ESP about when my other classes are, because both times this class has moved, it's been conflicting with another class. So, I just have to drop my fun Spanish History Through Cinema class and start taking Spanish Culture Postmodernity, which is equally cool, but I haven't attended class at all because I wasn't supposed to be taking it. Even worse, if I miss a certain number of classes, I can't sit for the final exam, so I have to go talk to some more people because this whole thing isn't my fault. This may sound really stressful, and it was at first, but I think my stress tolerance is increasing or something just by being in Spain. Yay?

The good news is, that's the worst thing that's happened recently :) I visited the Prado again this Sunday with Kruse, who has infinite wisdom over the subjects of the religious paintings because he's studying Theology and knows all these different languages. It's really cool! Both of us talked about how awkward church is here. Both in Germany and the United States, people sing in Catholic masses, but here, it's like a CD playing music for one song, and people just kind of mumble along to the mass. So at least I know I'm not weird for thinking Spanish church is weird.

On Sunday morning, I visited El Rastro (fleat market) again and bought a leather schoolbag! Now I really look like a European...just kidding 8) It's real leather, though, so it actually smells like leather, and lemme tell you, it's a REALLY strong scent. Right now it's airing out on the porch because my room was starting to smell like a tannery, yuck.

Oh yeah, I bought chocolate chip cookies today!! This may not sound that exciting, but cookies aren't really that big here, and I was kinda starting to miss them. (I'm not a big cookie fan in the first place so that's saying a lot.) And I bought different types of tea so now hopefully I can stay awake for my 8 am's. One of these days, I'm going to find somewhere that sells brownies. I miss those too.

Lately, there's been a lot of protests going on in Madrid. Parliament recently approved a law allowing abortion, which is somewhat unusual given the number of Catholics in Spain (it's like 76%.) I've seen a few protests from far away and MAN they're scary!! It's like 20x the GEO protests at U of I; there's so many people, it almost sounds like you're at a football game or something. It's just weird because I haven't seen many protests in my life.

One more thing: it's c-c-c-cold here this week!! The weather was great for the last couple of weeks, but it dipped down again for this week. This morning it was 34F when I was walking to school :S It stinks because I have a lot of early classes, so I have to walk to school when it's really cold. I end up wearing like 4 sweaters and a jacket and looking like a weirdo. Hopefully it gets warmer soon! I'm ready to start wearing dresses!!

I'm gonna make some Manzanilla (Chamomile) tea con anise and get to studying! :) Hasta luego, amigos!

I Made It!

I’m finally in Spain!! It felt like I would never get here.

I flew in on Thursday. The plane ride didn’t feel that long, and the flight was really empty to so I ended up having 2 seats to myself, awesome! It was a Spanish airline, so they did all of the instructions in Spanish first, then English. I guess I looked Spanish because all the flight attendants talked to me in Spanish but talked to the guy behind me in English!

It was a little sad leaving Chicago because they had all this horribly slow, sappy piano music playing in the background while we took off. Fortunately they shut that off after we were in the air, but then they showed a really strange Iberia-sponsored “news show.” It all worked out in the end because I just listened to my iPod for most of the way and watched The Hangover.

The best part was when we finally reached the coast of Portugal. We flew over Porto, Portugal and its lights looked so pretty at night. The clouds kind of made it look like it was sparkling too, so my first glimpse of Europe was absolutely beautiful.

We landed in Madrid at 7 am their time. No snow here; it’s been in the 50s all week, so that’s totally awesome. Their airport was really new but sooooo long. I went through 7 or 8 moving walkways before we got to the middle of the terminal where the exit was. It was early, so nobody was really there except the people that had just gotten off my flight.

Nobody was in the line for customs either, so I got to go straight up to the guy. He took my passport, stamped it, and said, “Bienvenida a España!” and I said, “Gracias!” Oh man that was absolutely my first conversation on Spanish soil.

Later that morning, I met my host mother. She’s really nice and definitely very motherly! After she made me a traditional Spanish breakfast, she showed me the university and then took me shopping for a bottle of coke after I said I was tired. Her husband works at the bar down the street from the apartment, so apparently I can head over there whenever I want for something free. Today she gave me a glass of sherry from the 1920s; it was really good.

Spain is so different from the United States! People are really friendly and nice to each other; it’s rare to find a stranger who’s grouchy or who won’t respond when you speak to them. Everybody, and I mean everybody, is nice. The architecture of everyday buildings is gorgeous. And they only buy furniture that fits perfectly into the space it occupies, so it’s like every room has feng shui or whatever it’s called. They listen to a lot of music in English too, even if they don’t understand it. Rihanna is really popular here, and so are a couple of bands that are obscure in the US.

Woops, this is getting long. I’ll update later because now I need to buy a new jacket! I look kind of conspicuous with my big red coat haha.

Hasta luego, amigos!

Oh hey, Ariel has a blog!

Hey, everyone! As you may know, I'm going to be studying in Madrid, Spain for the Spring semester!

...If you didn't know, surprise!!

Anyway, I figured this is the best way to update you guys, since international calls are insanely expensive and I can't skype with 200 people. I'll update a lot with interesting stuff, so don't worry, I'm not going to be telling you the thrilling details of how my thermodynamics class is going. Oh yeah, and this is going to be written a little differently than if I were to post something on facebook...I just suddenly feel like I have to pay attention to punctuation and capitalization more since I'm not just typing some lame facebook status.

I bought my plane ticket today, and it was only $700! Ahaha, I'm gonna be broke by the time I get there. Buying transatlantic plane tickets is the absolute worst. I actually found a really good deal, because most of the flights are over $1000 (in general.)

So, I'm leaving February 4th at 4:45 pm. Luckily I got a non-stop flight, so I don't have to transfer in London, Rome, Frankfurt, or Newark in New Jersey (I know, New Jersey, what the heck?!) I just get on at Ohare, wait awhile, and then plunk down at the airport in Madrid.

Wanna know how long the flight is? It's about 10 hours. God, I have never sat in one place for that long!! Suggestions on what to bring? So far, I'm bringing my iPod, a book, and some sudoku. My carry-on can only weigh 20 lbs, but that's not a problem because that's pretty much all I can carry anyway.

Well, this is getting a little long, so that's all for now! I'll update later on my host family.