Rations/Raciones

Let’s turn back to gastronomic themes. As I’ve mentioned before, I eat very well here, but the Spanish diet leaves something to be desired: peanut butter. I could say that I have subsisted off of peanut butter and jelly for most of my life, but subsist is so basic and uninspiring--exactly the opposite of my zest for this remarkable sandwich. In Spain, peanut butter is hard to find and is very expensive compared to that at home. What’s more, the best brand I have seen here is Peter Pan. Unacceptable.

So, it is certainly a good thing that I squeezed two jars of peanut butter into my suitcases before leaving home. Two jars over the course of four months would not usually cut it for me, so I must ration the spread. I only eat it sometimes for breakfast. Now, I have enjoyed a lot of good bread here (topic for another post), but we sometimes run out before morning. Yesterday, though, I found half of a loaf in the cereal cupboard before heading to class. Win. After spreading some Jif onto half of my piece of bread, I thought that the other half looked rather bare. I took the initiative to snoop around my señora’s fridge, and sure enough, there was a jar of strawberry jam. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to tell you all that I enjoyed my first pb&j in two weeks.

Right now some of you are probably feeling bad for me because the most exciting subject on which I can write two paragraphs is a mere sandwich, but be assured that my day ended with a more sundry dining experience. Because Charo was going out to the theater last night, Annie and I decided to hit up our neighborhood tapas bars. When dining at a tapas bar, you can usually order one of three plate sizes: tapas, media ración (half-ration), and ración, tapas being the smallest. Annie and I decided to get an assortment of tapas and media raciones in order to sample as much as possible.

Our first visit proved to be pretty disappointing because, though the food was good, the waiter ripped us off because he thought he could get away with fooling us Americans. Fool me once...It’s a shame because the papas fritas (papa=potato) tasted better than any French fries I have ever eaten.

Annie with our rather tasty little friends

Next, Annie and I moved on to La Cigala de Oro (a nice little play on “Siglo de Oro”), which one of my program’s guides had recommended to me. Our experience there was far better. The service was unbeatable, the shrimp and lobster were delicious, and we didn’t have to break the bank for any of it. At one point a waiter working behind the bar asked if we were French, to which Annie responded that we were not French but American. She proceeded to converse with him in French anyhow, which left me dumbfounded for a moment because I had no idea that Annie could speak French. Once I finally caught on to what was happening, we started talking with more of the staff, all of whom were amiable. Annie has been dubbed “la professora” because they thought that she spoke Spanish very well for an American. La Cigala de Oro is one of those places that makes you feel at home, even in a foreign country. I know that we will be back more than once while we are in Sevilla.

A glass of anthrax

This Monday I began a two-week intensive session of Spanish for Business. Somehow I landed myself in the highest group for this session. I’m not really sure how that happened, but from 9-12 each morning, I walk twenty minutes to the business school for three hours of immersion with our professor, Antonio.

Antonio is one of those rare professors who is a truly excellent teacher. He’s an older but very fashionable man (take note, American profs), and he’s here to teach us. Not to be our best friend. Not to make us think he is cool. To teach. We move at a grueling pace, and a lot of us get lost because we have never encountered business vocabulary in a Spanish class before. Heck, I don’t even know some of this business vocabulary in English. So, as you may imagine, my classmates and I make plenty of mistakes in class.

Occasionally these mistakes throw Antonio into a state of semi-despair, and he declares something like, “Quiero llorar. Quiero llorar por diez años.” Translation: “I want to cry. I want to cry for ten years.” I got one of those on Monday.  When he doesn’t want to cry, Antonio will ask someone for a glass of anthrax or for a jackknife so that he can cut off his fingers.  Today he threatened to stick his hand into the electrical box. While at first others seemed to be taken aback by such commentary, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The man has a sense of humor! I make a mistake, he wants to hurt himself, I laugh, and we move on. Antonio is absolutely brilliant, and I will be better off because of his rigorous pace.

(Cognitive) Map fail

Already, I am understanding locals much better than when I first arrived. My responses back to them are what really need the work, especially when they ask me directions. Now tell me people, do I look Spanish? Because yesterday I was stopped twice by Spaniards asking if I knew how to get to such-and-such street. I had to give them that wrinkly-brow face and say “No, lo siento,” because I have no idea where the hell I am going these days, never mind where others are going.

I am continually losing myself in this city. The streets are ridiculous. I understand why El Centro is an absolute mess—that area is centuries old, built up long before the age of cars when people apparently had plenty of time for getting lost. The rest of the city, though, has less of an excuse. The first problem is that there are no street signs here. The only labels are the street names tiled onto corner buildings, but sometimes those are not even present. The second problem is that it seems like a street's name changes every three to five blocks, even if that street is continuing in a basically straight manner. I’m not sure how to explain that one. The final problem is that I must have just about the most useless map of Sevilla out there, which was given to me by my program during orientation. The streets are all represented, but again, many of them are not labeled. I am used to having a clue, so this experience has made me very uncomfortable. Directions in the U.S. will never be this confusing, so I figure that once I conquer this, I’ll be good to go for a while.

Home stay

Ah, finally I catch up on posting! The jet lag has really been bringing me down. I always want to sleep, and I feel pretty cranky sometimes. I think it is for the best that I am not yet able to express sarcasm in Spanish.

I am in a home stay now with my señora, Charo, and my friend Annie. We each have our own rooms next to each other, and I think it’s fair to say that I have comfortably moved in now. Charo is an excellent cook (thank goodness!), and she also told us to take as long as we want in the shower. As some of you know, that is very exciting news for me. I usually try to keep it short anyway just out of respect for the high energy costs and the water shortage in Spain.

Charo has hosted many students before, and she told Annie and me that we have the best level of Spanish skills of any of the students that have lived here. An exact translation of her words is, “I thought, were these girls sent from heaven?!” So, I think she likes us well enough. The three of us chat and watch the news while we eat dinner together, and so far Annie and I have discovered two of Charo’s loves: Rafael Nadal and one of the news anchors on Channel 3. “Ay, mi Rafael!” is her response to news of Nadal, and pertaining to the anchor she tells us, “All day I wait for him, and he never fails me. He is always there. And he is always looking straight at me! Only eyes for me!” I have to believe that she is in love with at least one footballer, too. I’ll have to stick around after dinner for the nightly news sports segment to figure it out.

Charo has made it clear to Annie and me that speaking anything but Spanish to each other is strictly forbidden. Our punishment would be missing a meal, and for a second offense we would have to clean the house. (Mom, don’t freak out; the lady is joking! She just really wants us to stick to the program and learn the language!) That’s all the better to Annie and me, though, because we didn’t come all the way to Spain just to hang out like we could in Madison. And let me tell you, it is extremely difficult to keep your eyes on studying and learning Spanish when you get into a big group of Americans. Some people here could care less about how much they learn, and it is tempting to go down that path of vacation mentality. I am so thankful to have Annie here with me for a multitude of reasons, and the fact that we can feed off of each other’s discipline and strength is the best benefit of all.

By the way, if you ever happen to run into Charo, I am an FC Sevilla fan. Got that? FC SEVILLA.

Have you seen me without sleep? Not pretty.

On the plane from Madrid to Sevilla

I have lost track of how long I have been awake and travelling. It is 9:24 in the morning here, so that would put me at about 16 hours so far with around 30 minutes of sleep between Chicago and Madrid. My sister and brothers will be exasperated because the in-flight movie was one that I have already seen. In fact, Donna, you took me to it this fall: Wall Street 2. So, once I again, I failed to expand my movie knowledge base. Lo siento, hermanos.

We arrived to a night-covered Madrid about an hour and a half ago, which puzzled me because I am used to having daylight by 8:00. By the time we set off on this plane to Sevilla, the sun was finally rising, and that made for some beautiful mountain views before we rose above the clouds. Right now the clouds are clearing, and I can see uniformly white villages nestled in between the mountains below me. ¡Hola, Andalucía! I am loving this! In a few more hours, I hope to pass out in my hotel room with teeth thoroughly brushed—that whole finger-brushing thing doesn’t cut it for too long even though I have toothpaste with me.

9 hours later

The program staff advise us not to sleep. My body advises me otherwise.  The program staff win, though, as I have managed to somehow to distract myself with menial organization tasks in order to stay awake until after our info sessions and dinner tonight. I need a big sleep for the next two days. Today would have been a great opportunity to kick off a coffee addiction.

Next day

After a good night’s sleep, I finally got to enjoy the city a little! After some information sessions, I went with my small group and our guides to a tapas bar for lunch (for those who don’t know, tapas are like appetizers). Everyone ordered something different so that we could all try a bunch of different things, and every single on of them were delicious.  My favorite were hashbrown-like circles topped with ibérico (cured meat from a pig’s leg, much better than the ham I’m used to), canalones con espinacas y gambas (cannelloni filled with spinach and shrimp), and a fish lasagna. I also drank coffee this morning--yes, coffee! (okay, with lots of cream and sugar, but still)--and I liked it. And so it begins...I really do not think I will have trouble with the food here. Like I’ve said many times, “Necesito correr sobre el parque muchas veces”—I need to run around the park many times!

I found out my home stay yesterday, and I will be living with a señora along with my friend Annie who also goes to Madison but is on a slightly different program here. I also toured the building in which some of my classes will be in the equivalent of the business school at the university. I do not think the buildings are too far from where I will live. To get around in Sevilla, people often walk, use public transportation, or rent bikes, but I think I will enjoy the walks because the weather is gorgeous.

For now, I am off to an interview to determine how good (or bad) my Spanish is, and then tonight is more tapas and a flamenco show. After having a good time in the city today, I can’t wait to see Sevilla at night!

Target run prediction: 2+

Hello! If you feel like you haven't seen me around recently, it is probably because I have been holed up in my living room watching videos on Spain like Rick Steves and Globe Trekker. (Seriously, how can I land a gig like Rick Steves' job? He's kind of the man.) If you are wondering why I'm so all-about Spain and have somehow also missed the blog title, I will enlighten you: I am spending my spring semester in Sevilla, Spain, studying and generally enjoying my good fortune. 

My hope is to improve my Spanish language skills, especially in conversation--I need it. I am also looking forward to living in a different culture. Spain will not be my first trip outside of the United States, but vacationing twice in the Bahamas did not exactly expose me an authentic Bahamian lifestyle. I will be living with a host family, though I do not know who they are yet. Although my classes will be with other American students at the study center for my program, all will be taught in Spanish.

As I went through the study abroad process this fall, I thought about all of the places I wanted to visit in Europe outside of Spain. Now that I have researched Spain more, I am not so convinced that I even want to visit anywhere else with the little time I have in Europe. Spain has amazingly diverse natural landscapes and cultures within itself, and like the rest of Europe it is steeped in centuries of art and history. Every day I become more excited to start exploring.


On the geeky side of things, I want to take you back to the Globe Trekker videos. If you have never seen a Globe Trekker video, you should go watch one straight away. I was slightly obsessed with watching them all throughout high school. I can remember watching the one on Spain in multiple Spanish classes (apparently my school's video collection on Spain was rather limited), and I still cannot believe that I will actually stand in the streets with the Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions in Sevilla, learn flamenco,  and paraglide over las Sierras de Cazorla just like I have seen in the video. Oh yeah, paragliding for thirty minutes over Spain's largest national park is definitely near the top of my list of things to do! I rented the Spain Globe Trekker video from the local library just to make sure I was remembering it correctly. 

Hopefully I will be committed enough to keep you updated on paragliding and other adventures, but I am known for having started several journals that never made it past the one- or two-month mark. If I start to ignore the blog for a few weeks, feel free to call me out on it! 

I fly out in two days, and the packing process is rolling along today. I expect to make at least two more trips to Target between now and Tuesday. For what? Your guess is as good as mine at this point, but trust me, there is always something.