Estoy viva y bien (I'm Alive and Good)

It has been awhile, and this post is mainly to assure you all that I am not just still alive, but also doing quite well. My days have been filled with Lauren (best friend from Pioneer) and Jackie (Lauren's best friend from college), which is fantastic--I wouldn't have it any other way--but it means that I don't have much time to do the things that I normally do, such as update this blog. I spend the days out and about with them, walking, talking, eating, laughing, etc. It has been really, really wonderful spending time with them. I haven't seen Lauren in too long and it's always great to see her again and spend time with her. I haven't seen Jackie since freshman year when I visited American, but it has been equally fantastic spending more time with her. So yes, lots of spending time, lots of fantastic, wonderful greatness.

Lauren has almost all of the noteworthy pictures on her camera, so I will wait till she puts those suckers up on facebook to illustrate our grand Sevilla adventures on the blog. They arrived on Monday, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday exploring Sevilla and kept conveniently running into Pepe giving tours to the new semester kids, so we hopped on those and I translated (like in the Alcazar, in a church, etc). Then today we went to the nearby village, Santiponce, to see Italica, the Roman ruins. Tomorrow we're hopping on the centro's bus to Cadiz (the new semester kids have a day trip planned and there are enough empty seats on the bus for us to go for free) and Lauren and Jackie will spend the weekend in Granada. They come back Sunday night and leave Monday morning for Paris, where they'll spend their semester.

Ok, that's all for now. I'm exhausted and have to get up early to make that bus to Cadiz. Excited, too, of course. Exhausted and excited. And happy.
(This is officially the shortest blog post I have ever written.)

Nuestro amigo, cisne (Our Friend, Cisne)

Immediately after I wrote that I doubted anything interesting would be happening in my life, interesting things happened! Imagine that!

1) I started 'teaching English' on Wednesday evening. I will be doing four hours a week of teaching. Two hours a week I play (you know, games... playmobil, soccer, etc) with Nacho, 4, and Jave, 6, but the catch is that I have to speak English the whole time. The dad--really nice guy--just wants them to be around English, considering they're too young to learn in more of a classroom type of setting. It was fun, although I have to admit, tiring, too. The kids are really cute and I always love listening to little Spanish kids (and realizing that they often have better Spanish than I do). Playing with them and answering back in English was especially fun because they would keep asking me things in Spanish, like "hey, do you speak any Spanish? Come on, let's hear it, I don't believe you! Nacho, do you think she speaks Spanish? I don't think she does" and I would have to answer completely in English, which just made them stare at me, confused, sometimes giggle, and often throw their hands up and scream "ay yay yay dios mio"! It's quite fun to watch. Ok, so that's half of the job, 2 hours a week. The other half is spending time with the dad, Ignacio, and his wife, Olga, and just sitting and conversing with them in English. I haven't done that yet -- we're going to wait to start until my second semester schedule is solidified -- but it should be easy and relaxed. I imagine it will be later in the evening, once the kids are asleep. I get paid 10 euro (EURO, PEOPLE) an hour, so it's definitely not a bad gig. Plus it's like a very small taste of what being a au pair would be like... and I think just a little taste will suit me just fine.

2) I have been playing a decent bit of Roller Coaster Tycoon. Not an obscene amount, but probably more than I should. My parents brought it for me upon request when they came for winter break. Anyway, 2 nights ago I had a dream that I was at school with all my friends and people and some maniac started building a theme park right in the middle of the school and it was killing people left and right and was unstoppable and we were all running in every direction, etc. At first, people thought it was cool and they ditched school to go on the rides, but as the rides started breaking and going up in flames, that ended pretty quickly. I felt responsible in the dream and I had to run away from the cops (not sure why). So, uh, yeah. I had a dream about Roller Coaster Tycoon from the perspective of a figure in the game... that's about as low and lame as it gets.

3) Austin is in Madrid for the weekend with the new kids doing orientation, which leaves me to work on my desarrollo local paper... sigh... we have to create something to sell and write a paper about it and I think I decided I'm going to sell microwavable tapas (to be sold in the USA only). TV dinners for the American TV generation who want to experience Andalucia without leaving their house. I think it's a pretty hilarious/good idea. Now I just need to make sure that the sarcasm I use about both American and Spanish cultures and the jokes I put into the paper are understood by the professor... that's the problem with trying to do creative writing in Spanish: I don't know if my humor will be understood or dismissed!

4) To end on a fun note, Fernando made us dessert last night. He carved a swan out of an apple!! It was incredible!! I took some pictures, so enjoy!

It was hard to find an angle to capture all sides of the Swan (no duh), but this picture shows it pretty well. Fernando carved above AND below the wing!!

Fernando and my new roommate, Austin, happily holding up the Swan. Mayte is there, in the background, avoiding being in the picture.

Austin and I pooled our own creative resources together and left this on the kitchen table when we were done eating... the note says "Here is our dear friend Cisne. Loved for his savory wings and his ability to convert two vegetarians into lovers of the world of meat, we hope that his body rests in peace." Yeah. Doing a RIP is way hard in a second language. Just putting that out there.

And that is the story of our dear Swan, Cisne.
Have a great weekend, everyone!

"Los fundamentales contemporáneas" ("Contemporary Fundamentals")

Ay, it has been awhile! I will blame mostly exams (I had my first one on Monday) and the studying that has been taking place, but also there has just been a general lack of exciting things going on lately (ha, yes, hence exam period). Exams and fun are not normally two things that go together, although exam period has produced a few interesting stories, which are worth repeating. And, of course, there will also be the usual randomness...

So, exams first. I had my exam for Anthro of Contemporary Societies on Monday from 3-6pm. At the beginning of the period, we had to turn in our 15-page paper. I wrote about time and progress (yes, it was the paper that I have been publicly complaining about for several weeks), and I actually am somewhat proud of what I produced. I ended up with 17 pages, which is easily the longest paper I have ever written in Spanish, and I can happily say that almost all of it was not bullshit, as I was expecting it to be. I don't think what I wrote would fly in the US--it was a lot of summaries of other people's theories and understandings of time and progress, like Walter Benjamin and Max Weber--but I think here in Spain, where the expectations are that you digest and regurgitate, it will be fine. Good, maybe, even. There's potential. Like I said, i was proud.

So anyway, I turned that beast in at the beginning of the exam period. Then we had the exam. Our professor (my lover, remember him? Antonio, probably a grandfather?) wasn't there--he has been in Cuba for the past month doing research, I think--so we had a different professor proctor the exam. He said that the directions Antonio had left him were incredibly vague, which indeed they were. There were two parts to the test. For the first part, we were given three "questions" and had to pick one to answer. The "question" I picked was the title of this blog entry: "Los fundamentales contemporáneas", or "Contemporary Fundamentals." What?! Not a coherent question and probably the vaguest prompt ever imaginable other than just straight up writing "life" and having the class respond to that. I basically just took everything I knew about the class and went on an hour writing rant. I think that was what Antonio wanted, but it was SO different than what I'm used to in the US. It was the first time I have been in an exam and bullshitting the answer was actually also the correct answer. It was weird. That said, there was of course a lot I could write from what I had learned in class, but still. I feel like someone who never went to class (and there were a lot of people like that; I am in Spain) could still do reasonably well. It's ultimately a question you can answer (passably, anyway) from just observing the world around you.

That was my first exam experience. Oh, and the second question we had was relating this article to the material that we had learned in "theme one, section one" of the class, but I couldn't remember what topic that was! It was weird to me that Antonio would expect us to remember, but then I do remember the other Spanish kids highlighting their syllabus like nobody's business and always looking back to what we were talking about in class and where it fit in with the outline of the material we were going to cover. I guess now I know why. Mental note for the future!

Now I have 2 weeks until my next exam, the one for local development, but I also have to turn in 13 pages worth of work at the start of that exam, too. Two weeks is definitely sufficient time, but Lauren, my best friend from Ann Arbor, is coming on Monday(!!!!!) for a week with a friend of hers from college before she goes off to Paris for the semester. Lauren is leaving a couple of days before my exam, so I should probably get my essay on sooner rather than later. But motivating myself to start this early is hard... I wish my exams weren't so spread apart, but hey, at least I don't have to be taking the Anthro of America one that's on Monday!

And now, onto the more random pensamientos of the last week:

1) Mayte spells her name with a 'y', obviously, as you can see. But in Spain, everyone always spells this nickname with an 'i', like "Maite." It turns out that Fernando is responsible for changing the spelling of Mayte's name. Her real name is "Maria Teresa," so Fernando decided that her nickname should be "MaYte" for "Maria y (which means 'and') Teresa." Get it, get it, get it?! I think it's genius. It also explains Fernando really well...

2) When I get back to the US and see all of the clothes that I have and didn't bring, it is going to feel like Christmas. Or, er, Hannukah. Not to say I miss them, per se, but I have gotten so used to wearing the same 2ish weeks of clothing over and over that it will be weird and very nice to have more of an assortment of clothing again. Who knew such excitement could come from going through things that you already had! It's good. Simple happiness, plus less consumerism on my part. All around win-win situation.

3) I had two good intercambios in the past several days. One with a really nice Chemical Engineer (ChemE, in Cornell terms), Cristina, who is 21. We had fantastic conversation and just clicked. It was really nice. Then I had another one yesterday with a girl named Angela who is working on her dissertation on Art History. I think I held her to unfairly high standards... :P But anyway, she was still nice and I will probably contact both of them again after Lauren comes and I finish exams. Maybe I can start actually forming relationships with the people I have intercambios with! What a concept!

4) I watched the inauguration on my computer last night. Everyone was talking about it and a lot of classes, etc, were canceled here, too. It wasn't just a big deal for Americans, but for Spaniards, too. It's just a follow-up example to the election, and it shows how much people around the world tune into the US in ways that we never bother tuning into them. So people here paid a lot of attention to the inauguration. I liked the speech a lot. Obama definitely has skill.

5) Ha, this should probably be a subpoint of 4), but I'm not feeling pathetic enough to organize my blog entry as such. Anyway, the Spanish news channels were playing coverage of the inauguration, Obama, etc, for most of the day until 6pm, when the inauguration was our time, and they kept replaying the Spanish 'vota por Obama hoy' song that was used to get the Latina vote. I had never heard it before. Maybe I live in a box and you all already know it (I don't know how popular it was), but I thought it was really interesting and somewhat funny how bad it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoT_tWJLgfI

Ok, nothing too interesting coming up, but I'll write if anything worth sharing happens. Hasta luego!

"Tú escribes mucho mejor que hablas" ("You Write Much Better than You Speak")

A bunch of things here and there, as usual...

1) I have my new roommate now! It's working out really, really well. I went to the hotel to wait with Austin for Mayte to come and get us, and the whole experience was fun and slightly weird (again). It was all the same as what I had already done, except I wasn't doing it. I was the outsider. I looked at Pepe's list and knew things about each of the senoras, about where the kids were going, and, accordingly, what their semester was going to be like. Weird and fun at the same time. It was also fun to actually meet some of the senoras that I had heard so much about but never met previously -- like Amelia's senora, Mercedes. She came and was waiting for her new chica to come down, so I talked to her and told her I had heard a lot about her and we bonded over what a fantastic girl Amelia is. Like I said, fun and weird.

2) Today was the last day of classes before exams. Exam period lasts several weeks. My first exam is on Monday.

3) I don't have to take one of my exams, Antro of America, because I have done all the essays (in class and take home) throughout the semester and gone to every class. This is good news. Fantastic news, in fact, that I am going to pass the class (all I need to do) without needing the exam. Anyway, I went to her office hours after class to ask if I needed to take the exam, and so she was reading over what I had turned in, and at one point she looked up, kind of looked at me for a second, and then said "you write a lot better than you speak, huh?" Yeah. I think she might've meant it as a compliment, but there is no way to not take that as an insult. The phrase of the day, indeed.

4) No, actually, I think I said the phrase of the day earlier in the day. Liliana and I were in our desarrollo local (local development) class and there were more people there than usual. I turned around at one point and I had never seen the kid sitting behind Liliana before. So I turned to Lili and wrote on her paper and said that I'd never seen the kid sitting behind her in my life. It was pretty hilarious, when tied in with the grand theme that Spaniards don't come to class. This kid had been in our class the whole semester and this was the first time he showed and he is probably still going to pass the class. Bueno... maybe you had to be there.

5) I'm going to teach English for mad cash, mad money starting next week. My friend Lauren from last semester taught this guy's kids (4 and 6 years old) and I'm taking over for her in the coming semester. He sounds really nice and hey -- a little more money in the pocket never hurt. Plus little Spanish kids are always, always, always adorable!

6) They post grades publicly here on a wall in each department. I saw some guy named "Alfredo Rodriguez Rodriguez". Not joking. Spaniards always have 2 last names (mom's and dad's) but 2 last names that are the same?! Why would they do that?! They should make up a new one or pick a maiden name or something!! Crazy.

And now, on to shower, watching the office with Austin, and... um... yeah... that thing called "work"?
Buenas noches!

Los nuevos estudiantes y el trabajo antiguo (New Students and Old Work)

So, first and foremost, the new students arrived Sunday. Liliana and I picked them up at the hotel and brought them to the center for the first time. It was kind of fun but also kind of weird. I know, descriptive. Fun because most of them seem nice and I'm excited to have more people around, to have a new person in the house, etc. Weird because it feels like such a long time ago since I was at the same hotel doing the same things and being equally confused. It's definitely one way of rubbing in the progress I've made and how much the newbies have to learn. It's going to be frustrating at times, I think -- especially once people move into their homestays and are trying to figure everything out about the neighborhood and public transportation that I already know. Ah, well. Such is the life of being here for a year.

What's weird, though, is that for them, second semester is in full force, but I'm still finishing up first semester (exams start Monday, gulp, trying to crank out a 15-pager on time and progress). They haven't entered into the world of obligations here yet, whereas I'm working my hardest to get out of it and have a little break. It's two very different ways of being, that's for sure. It's like taking someone at Cornell who just got there a few days before the semester started and putting him with someone in the thick of finals at Cornell. The two do just not work together. It's two completely different modes.

I also already know who my new roommate will be, and she's moving in on Thursday. Her name is Austin and she's from Cornell. I had a Spanish class with her sophomore year and she's buena gente (Spanish saying for a good person, a person you like, etc... literally means 'good people'). She's one of two vegetarians who came and the only one from Cornell, so it makes sense that we would live together. She came out of her meeting with Luisa today and told me that it was official and that she was going to live with me, so there we go! And ya esta! I'm excited. I'm also ready to have reliable internet in my room, and Austin's down with buying it, so that we shall do.

In other news, I cut my bangs a few nights ago. That was a mistake. Normally it's fine and I'm careful and take my time, but this time my bangs were super long and by the time I finally cut them they were just really irritating me, so I might've... uh... overreacted a bit. Now I have super short bangs. I don't think they really look that genuinely awful, more just bad, and I'm not a fan of shorter bangs generally speaking. Oh well. They'll grow. Luisa keeps coming over and fussing with my hear and clicking her tongue. It's kind of funny, kind of insulting. But mostly funny. She also gave me the address of some good hair places. Ha, I can take a hint! I probably will go at the end of the month to get a trim, though. Gotta keep the hair in tip top shape for locks of love!

There was a bit of snow in Madrid--maybe 5 or 6 inches, max--and the everyone is acting like the world is going to end. The highways in Madrid were backed up for hours and the airport shut down (mom and dad, good thing you left when you did because the reports after said Iberia was in the most trouble out of all the cancellations and that Madrid was filled for two days and two nights with people sleeping on the floor). The news was showing pictures of what I consider normal for an airport in winter and Mayte and Nando were gasping and talking about how much snow it was and how it must be impossible to fly in that. I understand that I should be comparing Madrid's snow to the snow somewhere in the south in the US, but I can't help but not... it's just a little bit of snow, people! Come on!

Ok, so saving probably the most important piece of information for last... don't worry, it's still not that important, but I think I might've come across what I want to write my senior thesis on. I think it would be really interesting to do an ethnography of cafe behavioral tendencies among students in Sevilla, Ann Arbor, and Ithaca and use the differences as a way to underline the main differences in the way the two cultures (US and Spain) experience time. It sounds a bit fluffy at first, I know, but there are a ton of differences in cafe culture and etiquette. There's a plethera of information and a lot that I know I could already talk about and have fun talking about. There are also 2-3 cafes in each city that are completely made for and taken over by students, so that makes the sample size easy. I could do interviews if I want, but it wouldn't be necessary; I could base everything strictly on my observations. For example, I have never seen any student do any work in a cafe in my almost 5 months here. Can you imagine walking into Espresso Royal on State Street in Ann Arbor or stopping by Stella's in Collegetown and just finding large groups of students talking and laughing together for hours on end? ...Nope. Not our way of life, not our work ethic, not how we think. Lots to be said about that, about notions of day and night, and about indoor and outdoor as representations of time. Yep. I'm telling you. It's dynamite. My dad gave me the idea at first and I said no immediately, but after thinking about it more... yes, it's a good idea. Thank you, dear payder.

Ok, that's all for now. This 15-page paper is calling me and I better answer... hasta pronto!

Spain Once Again

Here are pictures from Ronda and, the last stop, Sevilla once again. I put up several pictures of Ronda in September when I went there for the day with the program, so I won't put up too many more here again, but there are gorges (ha ha ha) drop-offs with picturesque white houses and mountains in the distance. Very nice indeed.

Exploring Ronda.

Mommy with a view! It was very cloudy and very foggy... I guess that's what we get for going into the hills during "winter"...

Jenny and the bridge that Hemingway made famous.

This was our joking "Dad Happily Goes Back to Civilization" picture. The hotel in Ronda had an open bar area where you could make excellent Cappucino at whatever hour your heart desired...

Back in Sevilla. Come on, you knew this was coming (we took loads like this, so be glad I only uploaded one)!

Alcazar. Again, already been there and uploaded photos way back in the day, so I didn't upload many more...

Jenny in the Alcazar. Alhambra, new school style.

The last picture taken on my camera... at the top of the apartment building we stayed in, with the Cathedral and Giralda in the background. Oh, how picturesque.

So, that was my two weeks, in a nutshell. Like I wrote earlier, there is a lot that I could say and didn't and a lot of details and fun moments that are getting lost. I don't know when I would have the time to write all of that, though (and I don't know how many of you would actually want to read it!), so this will have to do.

One thing I will say briefly, though, is that the Spanish absolutely know how to celebrate the holidays. They don't have Santa Claus (who, if you think about it, is kind of absurd -- a fat old guy who wears read and flies around?). Instead, they have the 3 kings who come in early January. The celebrate December 25, but the presents and goodies all arrive later. The 3 kings, representing the 3 kings that came to bestow presents upon baby Jesus, climb up your balcony on the night of the 5th using a ladder (Spaniards are aware of the law of gravity) and leave candy all over the balcony (and in your shoes, which you put out on the balcony), and then leave presents for each person in their spot in the living room. No random trees with lights. No random socks hanging over the fireplace. No random plants hanging from the ceiling so you can get some action. The Spanish way of celebrating things actually makes sense!! So, on the morning of the 6th, everyone wakes up much like on Christmas Day in the US, and goes into the living room to find their place on the couch filled with presents.

I like that way much, much better. There are also parades and festivities in the days leading up to the 5th all over town, where they throw tons of candy and carry big 'mail bins' that will be delivered to the 3 kings so that kids can tell the 3 kings what presents they want.

Ok, so I know I'm not Christian and probably don't really have a right to have a preference... but come on, folks. Spanish tradition obviously trumps the US's bizarre one, hands down.

For me, now, it's back to reality in a big way. Final exams begin next Monday. I have 3 exams to take and about 30 pages to write in Spanish. Gulp. Wish me luck! I'll write more soon, now that I'm getting back in the groove of things.

Fes and Azrou, Morocco

A disclaimer before I begin: the Medina of Fez is total chaos. As my friend Amelia described it to me before I went, it is an overload on all of the senses. She is completely right. It was hard to take pictures in Fes that really justified it -- it's a total maze with everything happening all at once. So rather than trying to take full pictures of the narrow winding roads, I focused on the stands and the colors instead. Enjoy!

Old buildings in the old Jewish Quarter of Fes.

Small overlook of Fes (the amount of Satellite dishes was incredible).

Food for sale!

Higher panoramic view and overlook of Fes.

The tannery of Fes. People stand knee-deep in the different dyes, dying leather all day. The smell was unbelievable. I can only imagine what it's like in summer...

Products of the tannery! Slippers stacked and stacked and stacked...

More slippers, more styles, more colors, more sizes.

Fes is known for the rug work, apparently... my mom wanted to check it out.

The Medina of Fes is strictly pedestrian (it is impossible that a car could ever manage in there), but donkeys are allowed! They seemed to be used a lot for water deliveries, like this one here.

The weekly market in Azrou.

Left to right: Dad, Mom, Jenny, Omar (driver's son), Abdo (driver), Hanan (driver's wife). Abdo's family came along with us for the day! It was great!

City of Azrou.

Omar, Hanan, and our lunch a'cooking behind them.

Ok, I'm out of time and out of internet. I'll finish up these series tomorrow and get back in the normal blog groove!

Meknes Dietary Delights, Roman Ruins, Lunch near Tetouan

Continuing right along...

At the market in Meknes.

Olives, olives, olives... At restaurants, you always get unlimited bread and a dish of olives that come with your meal. That's how it should be everywhere, I think...

I almost vomited walking through this section of the market. Yes. Those are real. Yes. They look much more convincing in person.

Ok, now we're talking. I can handle this stuff!

My family and the Romans. Practically best friends forever.

I. Love. This. Picture. Look at the rays from the sun! ...deep.

My sister at the port where we stopped for lunch.

Our lunch, fresh off the grill... mmm, sardines! (Our driver did the ordering on this one!)

Jenny, digging in...

And the remnants.

For the record: I recognize that there are a disproportionate number of pictures of my sister. That is because I am always the one taking the picture, and let's just say that my sister is more enthused to be in front of a camera than my dear parents are.

Chefchaouen, Morocco

Moving right along... Chefchaouen was probably my favorite place that we went to in Morocco. Nestled in the Rif Mountain range, the buildings in the old Medina (city center) are all whitewashed and painted different shades of blues. The Jews brought that tradition to the city many centuries ago.

Men in typical Moroccan dress sitting outside of the Casbah in the main plaza.

Me and my sissy.

Jenny and dad outside of one of the places we ate -- I could not get enough of that blue!

Random Arab Woman With Chicken. Deceased Chicken. Newly Deceased Chicken. A classic.

Scarves and freshly baked bread...

The city from one hill over.

Uhh... can you say... tourists?

Typical house. I love it.

Sevilla with the Family

To be honest, I have been dreading updating this blog. Too much has happened in the two weeks off! This is why I'm normally so obsessive about keeping up everything here... once you get behind, it is very intimidating to catch up. I know that there is a lot that I should say and I know that there is no way I am ever going to have time (or even the memory!) to say everything that I should.

I decided the best way to go about catching this blog up and moving on with the end of first semester and the beginning of second semester is just to do several posts of picture updates in the various places that I went with my family. Overall, I had a really, really fantastic time with them and it was hard to see them go. We spent time in Sevilla, then went to Morocco by ferry where we went to Tetouan, Chefchaouen, Meknes, Fes, Ifrane, Azrou, and the famous Roman Ruins (still can't remember their name!). After 6 days in Morocco, we took the train up from Fes to Tanger, then the boat back to Spain. We spent a night in Ronda and then we spent the last few days of their visit back in Sevilla.

Here are the pictures from the first round in Sevilla:

Aw, shucks. Sisterly love.

Barrio Santa Cruz (good color combinations, family)!

Jenny on the river with Triana, an old neighborhood, in the background.

Torre del Oro. Yeah, uh... I don't think my mom got the message.

Random shot of Barrio Santa Cruz, taken during lunch.

Jenny being... Jenny. Late night walking around on Christmas Eve (side note: we had the most genuinely awful Chinese Restaurant experience on Christmas day. Also, most people in there were Jewish tourists from the east coast. Figures).

Jenny in Plaza de Espanya.

Jenny in front of my school!