Wrapping Up Spain (Just the Facts, Man) Wednesday, Jul 1 2009

As if I could ever wrap up Spain, put it in a box and under my sub-leased bunk bed.  I can confidently say that I gave Salamanca everything I had and that I brought back with me more joy and self growth than I could have ever imagined.  Maybe first I can tell you what happened, and then I can tell you how it felt.  Is that fair?

Something interesting about Bull Ranches, they say that bulls are the only animals bred for their intelligence.

Well that was the first topic I wanted to discuss, and the next was Tight and Bright.  My friends and I decided one day while we were having a picnic by the rio (river) that we needed one last hoorah before finals and going home.  Ours was called “Tight and Bright.”  We dressed up in our most ridiculous outfits and divided up into teams and ran around the city performing tasks for the ultimate photo scavenger hunt.  In reality, it was haphazard at best and had little to no structure, but we were running around with our friends and were all going to end up together at a discotheque.  It was a grand time, I just don’t know if I can ever wear my outfit again.

Then, on Saturday, I went to a concert.  It was great, and really good framing.  Bree and I heard the band’s most famous song on one of our first nights out, and we listened to them religiously ever since.  Then, while I was walking from class to the AIFS office, I saw a poster emblazened with the band’s signature symbol and discovered that they had a concert coming up.  So, on our last Saturday, Bree and I went to a Maldita Nerea concert.  It was a great time, I loved the band, they were good performers and they were energetic.  Bree and I worked our way to the front by saying we had to get to the bathrooms (at the front) and so we were only a few feet away from the stage.  It would be like the equivalent of going to a Maroon 5 concert.  The band gets about that much radio time with songs that catchy and draws in that type of audience.  It was cool, everyone there was dressed up and letting loose.  It’s something I’m for sure happy about doing in my life.

Robyn Hanna, I really don’t have the words to describe how close I am to her or how good of a friend she is.  I think it will suffice to demonstrate it by the fact that we spent two weeks together in Europe, and that it was something we had been dreaming about doing since Junior year of high school.  She came to Spain for 4 days and we won a beer pong tournament.  Now, Robyn brought me back a shirt last summer when she got back from Rome, so all semester I was looking for a shirt to get her.  I found that one of the local bars has a weekly beer pong tournament and one of the prizes is a t-shirt.  I dreamed all semester that maybe Robyn would come up and visit me and in the one Monday she was in town, we’d participate in the tournament and win the shirts.  Some how, we did win, but they had just happened to run out of shirts that week.  Bummer!

On Wednesday, Robyn and I had lunch at my Spanish friend Monica’s house.  I plan on having two more posts before finishing my study abroad blog, and in one of them, I will discuss how improtant Monica is and was to me.  She’s a big deal, and I’ll get to that later.  Anyway, it was still really great to go to her apartment though, because that’s the real moment that I felt intigrated.  I had a Spanish friend, and we hung out together, introduced each other to our friends, and had each other over.  She wasn’t my friend by convenience or proximity, she was an actual friend that I joked with and enjoyed getting to know.  Monica was probably the hardest thing to leave.

And when I say two more posts on study abroad, I mean that more than anything, in two more posts, I am concerned with getting everything out, and then after that I intend to go back and revisit how things felt and came to be.  So far, I feel like my blog is a rough draft, outlining events, and later I want to present it again.

Very truly yours,

Virginia

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Epic Weekend Sunday, May 3 2009

For now, I am going to skip over spring break because it is an intimidating topic to cover.  I am just going to tell you about my epic weekend.

Since weekends here start on a Thursday, I’ll tell you about the end of semester party that my residencia threw.  The residencia hosted a picnic by the river for whoever wanted to go.  The United States girls did not want to go, so we told the residencia cooks to have meals for us in the Res.  However, the weather was in-climate and so they moved the picnic into the cafeteria.  It was very middle-school dance with everyone awkwardly standing around these large pans of meat in them.  First of all, all the meat had bones in it, so you couldn’t make a sandwich out of it.  To add class, the beverage choices were water and sangria.

So later was the end of year dinner.  Andrea are heading downstairs in the elevator in our t-shirts and jeans and a boy gets in in a suit and I say “Que elegante!”   When we reached the bottom floor, the elevator opened to several people standing around in their suits and dresses.  Without even getting off the elevator, Andrea and I pressed the button to go back upstairs.  I came up and threw on a dress, tights and flip-flops and later, my Spanish friend Simone made fun of me for being informal and wearing flip-flops.  FML.  Then, we had an after party at this bar, “Fresas,” and I brought my intercambio friend Monica.  She got along well with the people in my residencia and with my US friends.  It was a good time.  It gave me an excuse to wear the cocktail dress I brought and I felt like I got to celebrate Kappa Formal in my own special way.

SO, Let’s talk about Pub Golf:
  

Okay, that is 1) My tribute to Sam, who leaves tomorrow and 2) My favorite pictures of the night.

How Pub Golf goes:
-There are 9 holes so there are 9 locations (I am going to write down the bars so that I can remember this after I go home)
-Each team has 9 players and they are paired up based on drinking ability.  You are always competing soley against your partner.
-Each bar has a specific drink and each drink has a par (chugs are strokes).
-Argyle is a must.

The Holes, Drinks and Pars:
1. O’Hara’s – 1 beer – Par 1
2. St. Patrick’s Museum – 1 beer – Par 1
3. Holy Cross – 1 beer – Par 1
4. Irish Rover – cider – Par 2
5. Wine Bar – cup of wine – Par 2
6. Jacko’s – 1ltr of a mix drink – Par 3
7. Chupeteria – shot of absinthe – Par 1
8. Gatsby – 2 mixed drinks – Par 2
9. Camelot – sangria – Par 1

Rules:
-3rd and 7th holes are “water hazards” (no peeing), it is a one stroke penalty
-vomiting is a 1 stroke penalty
-In case of a tie, the tie breaker is that the team that threw up less is the team that wins 

How the night went:
So, everyone downed every single drink in one chug.   That’s right, all 18 boys finished their 1ltr mixed drink at Jacko’s in one chug.  Impressive.  Oh, and it was America vs. Europe:

So, one of the Europeans, Ali, threw up on the 4th hole, so that put America in the lead by one stroke (because when both you and your partner finish the drink in the same number of strokes, that counts as half a stroke each.  If you finish your drink in more strokes than your partner [no matter how many more strokes] you get one stroke and they get none).  So, America was up by one and then one of the members was drinking water between holes and so the Europeans counted that as a stroke.  So then the Americans, being inherently competitive, got really upset because they thought the Europeans were just making stuff up, and then the Europeans felt bad and were all like “Guys, this is just about being together and having a fun night together, if it means that much to you, we forfeit and want to keep drinking.”  To which, the Americans felt bad and stopped being upset.  But then, Zain, one of the “Americans” (totally doesn’t have American citizenship but, whatever) couldn’t get into the 9th hole and his partner was the kid who had thrown up earlier.  The best irony was when Ali was like, (imagine this in a British accent) “Whatever, if I’m the one that’s sober enough to get in, Game. Set. Match. One stroke against him.  End of story.”  Anyway, when my friend Courtney asked the American team coach this morning who won he said that it didn’t matter and he didn’t really know.  

I hope most of that made sense.  

And as for today, Courtney and I went to St. Patrick’s Museum to watch the Madrid vs. Barcelona game.  As Ian Stewart said earlier, Madrid got spanked by Barca (2-6).  I was upset but I’ll live.

I hope that was a good update.
Very truly yours,
Virginia

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The World is Strange and Simple Thursday, Apr 2 2009

My dear friends,

I am writing you three times in one week because 1) I hadn’t written in this blog for quite some time and 2) Because I won’t be writing in this blog for quite some time. You see, I am going on spring break. This entails a tour of Italy and then a beach vacation on the Greek island of Santorini. I feel that the rest of my life will have a hard time comparing itself to the next 17 days of it. Also, if you are my friend or family member, you know that my birthday was yesterday, so, I figured I’d let you know how it went.

I woke up yesterday morning and my friend Kari was the first to wish me a happy birthday, that felt very nice. Then, at breakfast, my favorite Spanish friend, Simone, tugged on my pony tail and said to me “Feliz Cumplianos!” Later when I was walking upstairs he saw me and excitedly said, “Virgeenya, Happy Burfday!!” It made me very very happy. And then when I got to school Bree gave me a loud and happy “Happy Birthday, Woo! It’s your Birthday! Woo!” These are the things in Spain that particularly cheered me up. Then, I got a facebook video from my dearest friend Tom playing the guitar and singing me Happy Birthday, AND THEN, the warm and fuzzies don’t stop there, Roger sent me an awesome post card that I got today. And because I feel like I can’t give these shout outs without mentioning Norah, I miss her and wish she and I were celebrating my birthday like we did last year. Good times. So big love goes out to everyone that took a part in making my day. Really, every single message I got meant a lot to me, but those were just some highlights.

So then, last night, Bree got me out of the residencia and we went to El Patio Chico for some ice cream and café con baileys. Yum. After, we walked around for a long time and talked about a lot of things, my favorite topic being God and other such things. I have a lot of free time here to think about God things but I don’t have many people to discuss God things with. If you didn’t know, I’m a pretty religious person. I don’t consider myself a particularly “good” Catholic or whatever, at this point in my life, I kind of think it’s pompous of someone to say they’re good at a religion. I have a lot of work to do, just like anyone else, but I do believe in the things I believe in, and from a non-Southern viewpoint, I am fairly knowledgeable on the few facts there are in Christianity. But I digress (I like that phrase, if you hadn’t noticed), at times Bree and I talked in generalities and at points I quoted specific passages of the Bible, so it was a good range, and the talk reminded me of the places that my knowledge (and faith) are most weak. Interestingly enough, I’ve recently been struggling with really believing in a personal relationship with God, when last night I was very upset about a problem very specific to my life and I prayed about it and I woke up this morning to a phone call with a specific answer to my prayer. So, not that it’s pure fact or logic, as I know most people like to work (and I do as well), it restored some of the things I was struggling with, as selfish as that is. I don’t know if that was too vague to impact anyone or if that was too personal and about too touchy of a topic for it to be enjoyable, but it’s something that has really affected my mood today and it’s something that will make the rest of my experience in Spain a significantly more relaxed and happier one.

So then, the Spanish kids were going out last night and Simone called me to see where I was so he could hang out with me for a little bit on my birthday. So, he’s a psychology major and he’s the number one student in his class and he’s funny and nice and is totally in love with me, but I feel bad because it’s Simone. Earlier yesterday I saw him at dinner and he had things painted in different colors all over his face. Apparently when he was high, he painted his friend’s face and so then she could paint his too. Ridiculous. Anyway, so when he met up with Bree and I we talked about psychology and sociology and he said that if you look at the first 7 years of anyone’s life, you can predict every action they’ll make from that point on. His words were, “people are strange and predictable.” He also said that “the world is strange and simple.” Both phrases made us laugh. Anyway, I disagree with the statement, but I felt like sharing it.

Okay, and the last thing on my mind is that I saw Cruel Intentions yesterday and I really enjoyed it. The first half was very witty and I loved that it acknowledged double standards, and then it used them against the audience for effect. Maybe it’s just me. I like social rhetoric. Well then, I really should get on this whole, packing 17 days into a carry-on business.

Very truly yours,
Virginia

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Family, it’s what matters most. Tuesday, Mar 31 2009

I blame my busyness on my family having been here for the past 10 days. It was magnificent. They flew into Madrid last Friday (and Candice did too). Friday was mostly just a relaxing day; they had just flown about 7 hours across the ocean to a different time zone after all. Then, on Saturday morning, I gave Candice and my mom a tour of the Prado. I think I did a decent job having been there once before. We saw all the important and famous things. Later that day we went to a rookie bull fight. It was fun to go with my family. Then, on Sunday, we went to the Museum Reyna Sophia. I liked it a lot because it had Gurnica and three films by Buñuel.

My family was in Salamanca for 4 days. I felt bad because Salamanca doesn’t have too much to see and I had class. However, I think my family was completely satisfied with living like a Spaniard for a few days. They woke up late, relaxed in the Plaza, ate tapas and walked around. Then, we spent this weekend in Seville visiting our distant relatives. It was weird and funny hanging out with them. We have the strangest things in common, like the whole family loves Opera and all the men in the family like Westerns.

Another cool thing about having family in Seville is that they know where all the good places are. For instance, they took us to a really great Flamenco show. It was a little touristy, but we avoided the very touristy places. We also went to a Bullfight museum. Apparently bullfighting originated as medieval training. Nobles would be on horses and learn to fight bulls from there and only when the bull posed as a threat would the servants come out and distract the bull with the colorful capes. Interesante.

That was my weekend, and now I would like to digress into a pseudo deeper topic. I have an actual journal where I write more stuff like this, usually better and more intellectual, but I figured I’d give a light topic a try before posting other things. Let me know how you like it and what kind of posts you like more (aka, reply with something like “Virginia, I like hearing about your travel experiences” or “Virginia, I like hearing about your mental experiences” or “Virginia, nothing you write grabs me yet, keep trying new things”) hokay: My parents are fluent in Spanish, which is something I just recently recognized as a huge blessing. But, I’ve been in Spain for 3 months now and this weekend we were with my relatives speaking only Spanish. So, my family went to this Flamenco show on Saturday and I heard the guy in front of me talking in English. I was a huge creep and overheard him talking about having graduated with a degree in engineering and he said something about work and coming to Spain. I have a good friend who recently graduated from college with a degree in engineering and who is very interested in traveling. Therefore, I was intrigued. It ends up the guy at the Flamenco show in Seville is from Washington and is switching engineering jobs and has two weeks of vacation, so that’s what he’s doing in Spain. All this background leads me to a rhetorical question, sorry journalism majors:

Do you know those people that you’re never really talking to, both of you are just sort of talking at each other? Both of you are too busy thinking about the next thing you’re going to say. How does that happen? Is it because you’re worried about the conversation flow? Is it because you want to try to impress them? Or is it just because you really want to talk about yourself? Or is it just them? So I started to think about people that it’s kind of awkward to talk to. Maybe sometimes it’s hard to talk to someone because you’re really talking with them. Like, maybe the awkward people that aren’t worrying about what to say next are the only people really listening. Maybe not, probably not, but I kind of wanted to open up a dialog about awkward conversations.

Very truly yours,
Virginia

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Barcelona Monday, Mar 30 2009

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated. I have been traveling a lot, and I will be traveling significantly more pretty soon. I was in Barcelona three weekends ago. It is my favorite city. To play off a Postal Service song, there was so much beauty in every inch that it was almost absurd.
Before arriving in the city of Barcelona, my cousin Candice and I spent a night in Madrid with my friend Michelle. There, we went to Park Retiro. We saw the only statue in the world of the devil. It’s called “The Fallen Angel.” I learned later in one of my film classes that there is a lot of folklore surrounding it, like that it weighs exactly 666 kilograms and that below it is a passage straight to hell.

Then, the next day Candice and I flew to Girona, a small beach city about two hours outside of Barcelona. It was really pretty and nice and we had fun and ate good food.

And finally, on Friday night, we arrived in Barcelona. Our hotel was just off of Law Ramblas, which is the main street in Barcelona. On that street, we found some nice places to get tapas, a cozy pub to have a drink and then the next morning there was a market that sold everything from flowers to ice cream to live fish and dead fish and pet turtles.
We saw the Cathedral of Barcelona, which had a beautiful cloister and a nice chapel for Saint Lucia. Then, we went to Park Güell. Barcelona has this huge hill on one end of it where, apparently, back in the day, some nobility wanted all of the nobility and rich families to live on. To entice people to move there, the most famous architect and designer at the time, Gaudi, was hired to design a park. The development of sorts ended up being a failure but the Park is absolutely beautiful. Gaudi was also the architect for Barcelona’s other “must-see” spot, the temple of Segrada Familia. The temple that was originally designed decades ago, is still one of the most cutting edge buildings of today and is still under construction.

Later on Saturday, Candice and I met up with my friend from school, Austin. We went half-way up a mountain called Tibidabo to get some comida (lunch) and have a breathtaking view of Barcelona. Candice and I didn’t go all the way up Tibidabo, but apparently there’s a beautiful church and two small amusement park rides and a Ferris wheel at the top. Then, we had cenar (dinner) at a tapas bar called Inopia. Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow was spotted there recently. It was good eats.

Then, Candice and I ended our night at an Irish Pub on the ocean. There, we met up with some girl’s I’m studying abroad with. It was a lot of fun, Candice really enjoyed listening to her favorite 90’s songs sung in English with a Spanish accent. We also spotted some Jonas Brothers look-alikes. I do say, it was a successful trip. I was really happy to see my cousin and really happy to see another part of Spain. In that order.

Very truly yours,
Virginia

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Irony. Wednesday, Mar 18 2009

Today I played a card game with my new Spanish friends.  The game was called “Capitalism.”  I won.

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Alcazar Tuesday, Mar 10 2009

I thought a picture of the Alcazar would be worthwhile.

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Segovia: To bring water to the city. Tuesday, Mar 10 2009

This past weekend I went to the beautiful city of Segovia (3 pictures can be seen to the left of this post, if you’re reading it before I upload more pictures).  I posted most of the stories I heard as captions to pictures in my facebook album which can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019146&id=1023210219&l=ddd7a

The highlights:
-Old Roman Aqueduct built without any cement that is still in perfect condition.
-Alcazar, one of the castles that the Disney Magic Kingdom castle is framed off of.
-Granja, some really beautiful grounds, about 15 minutes outside of Segovia.  It had a labyrinth.  I enjoyed it.

Well, I hope those three updates were enough for now.  I’m going to Barcelona this weekend and I’m sure I’ll have much more to tell you!
Very truly yours,
Virginia

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Spanish Folklore: Galicia Tuesday, Mar 10 2009

So I’ve been really intrigued lately by Galician culture. Galicia is the most north western region of Spain. Before the Americas were discovered, the most western tip of Galicia was considered “the end of the world,” so there are many tales about all sorts of monsters and sea creatures living just off the shore of Galicia. Also, Galicia is home to the Tower of Hercules, according to the myth, the hero Hercules killed the giant Geryon after three days and three nights of continuous battle. Hercules then buried the head of Geryon with his weapons and ordered that a city be built on the site. The lighthouse is built on top of a skull and crossbones representing the buried head of Hercules’ enemy. Que guay.

I’ve also seen two Galician films recently, “La Lengua de Las Mariposas” and “El Bosque Animado.” Both of them were really enjoyable. “Mariposas” was about a boy growing up in the time of the Guerra Civil (Spanish civil war). It’s about the different points of view. Why people were on which side of the war and how the Church and Schools affected the war. “El Bosque Animado” was about a bunch of the folklore and traditions in Galicia. Some things:
-The 7^th son in a family is thought to be werewolf
-Pueblos have witches to cure ailments when modern medicine can’t. My professor has been to a witch 3 times after trying everything doctors told him to do, and the witch cured him every time.
-If you see the Santa Comnana (the dead souls of the pueblo walking through the woods) then that means you’ll die in one year.
-If you make a promise to God and don’t carry it out, when you die, your spirit roams the earth until you find someone to fulfill the promise for you. Usually the exact promise is to walk to the Cathedral of St. James barefoot on the holy walk.

Also, in a small pueblo near the city I’m staying in, they have a woman who walks the streets every night ringing a bell and saying “Memento Morir” (Remember you will die).  This is inherently supposed to be paired with “Carpe Diem” to be a little less morbid.  So every night people are told to live life to it’s fullest because they may die tomorrow.  Hmm.

Very truly yours,
Virginia

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Society Tuesday, Mar 10 2009

It’s been a while, so I’m going to break the past week and a half down into three updates.  This one is about my interaction with the Spanish Society:

Intercambio:
On Wednesdays at 6:00pm I meet with two girls to have an intercambio. This means we hang out for about an hour and speak half an hour in English, where I correct them, and half an hour in Spanish, where they correct me. I swear I have the coolest girls for my intercambio partners. First, Monica has a really dry sense of humor and is really smart and so she and I can actually talk about things. I told her that in the United States every student has to take Math, Science, Social Studies and English basically every year. I asked her what they are required to take in Spain, apparently they take Philosophy classes every year. The basic philosophers they learn about are; Marx, Nietzsche, Descartes and a Spanish philosopher, Ortega y Gasset. And there’s also Natalie, the girl who likes the same kind of music as me. Weird! I just got done making her a mix CD. So yeah, I’ll see them tomorrow. I’m quite excited.

Penthouse:
So last Thursday, my friends and I were invited to this Spanish kid’s apartment. His name is Eduardo and he hangs out with students in the residencia, so he seems pretty legit. We figured that since he’s Spanish, he’d have a bunch of Spanish friends over; we’d all get to hang out and meet new people. So Eduardo is walking about 6 of us to his apartment from the Plaza, and we get in the elevator with him, and he stuck his key in the elevator. Apparently he lived in the penthouse of the apartment building. Wow. It was a SUPER nice apartment. However, when we got there we were met with 7 other girls from the United States and, maybe, 3 guys. Two of which were from the United States. Lame. I mean, it was fun enough, my friends and I stayed a while and talked, because the other girls were in most of our classes and so they were cool to talk to, but after a while we left and met up with some other friends of ours, ones that didn’t creepily invite 15 American girls to their apartment.

Spanish Kids:
So, Zain, my link in the residencia, moved into an apartment this week. Now, I have to be friends with the Spanish kids on my own. It’s going well. Yesterday Simon played for me his favorite song, it was some Electro House song with a bad 80’s song as the primary beat. They’re good guys. Simon is from Galicia, so his nickname is Gallego. Then there’s Samuel who spends his summers in the UK so he speaks English really well. And the one who’s room they’re all always in is Javi. He’s nice, level headed, listens to good music and likes good movies.

So that’s my experience with the Spanish Society this past week.

Very truly yours,
Virginia

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