Mailbag

Before I begin, be sure to ask me any questions you wish. Either you can try commenting on a blog entry or email me at jpries@csbsju.edu. I'll be checking my mail.

So from the questions I have recieved, I will address them here:

1. When I referenced drinking, the Spanish are not fans of being drunk. In the United States I feel that it's more acceptable or more common. Here, it's frowned upon. They like drinking, but in a casual manner, NOT to simply get drunk. Maybe it's just a college thing.

2. I have walked everywhere around town and have yet to take a bus or a train; except for the bus to Salamanca. I'm getting a lot of walking in which is good preperation for the Camino coming up in a few weeks. (Parents: I even have worn my walking boots.) School is about a 15-20 minute walk away.

3. I have a Spanish professor for a teacher. She is from Spain. My classmates include a girl from St. Ben's, who I have had a class with before, and José's son, Daniel, who is 12 and has spoken Spanish and English quite equally throughout his life. But his age does show a bit in class.

4. All of the other students on this trip are taking classes here at the same University. There's only about 5 classes to choose from. But I still see them around where I take my classes.

5. We have an "excursion" each Saturday. Salamanca was the first week, this week we go to La Granja (sort of like the grand canyon), and I can't remember what the last one is.

Things I brought that I wish I didn't bring:
-A bunch of $1 bills that have absolutely no use. I have not seen any other American money exchanged at all here.
-Two flannel long sleeve shirts. They may seem in style in the land of 10,000 lakes, but they really have no place here and don't pass for a "nice" dress shirt here.

Things I brought that I'm so glad I brought:
-Mom, that raincoat we bought is working out tremendously. It rains spontaneously here and, in my opinion, it looks very classy.
-The watch I bought at Target the day before the trip.

Things I wish I could have brought but didn't:
-More nice looking shirts. Everyone dresses nice here. And I don't have too many shirts to wear around the town at night that would help me fit in. Maybe I need to buy some. It may cost me a pretty penny though.

Everyone will be in a pub somewhere tonight (myself included) to watch the ultimate soccer (fútbol) match. The UEFA Champions League Final: Manchester United vs. Barcelona.


Barcelona's best vs England's best. The fact that a Spanish team is in this championship out of all the teams in Europe is pretty important to them. (Spain is divded between their two best teams; Barcelona and Real Madrid. So many will be rooting AGAINST Barcelona tonight I'm sure)

Today, we're also going to take a tour of el Museo de Toros. (The Bull Museum) I'm looking forward to it.

Cheers,

Jack

Settling In

Apologies for not having updated this in awhile (to those of you who are still reading, that is). The past week, like I said, went by pretty quick as I started doing more routine things and knowing what my schedule is like. This past Thursday a group of about 25 of us took a tour of the San Pablo church here in town, Friday we lounged out on the beach for most of the day, then went to the University around 7:30 because we had a meeting about how to drink in Spain; it's a bit different in the United States. They drink casually and more professional. It's about beign social with the people around you rather than seeing who can drink the most or the fastest. During siesta around 2:00, many adults meet at a bar for an afternoon drink to converse with their friends or whoever is there. It'd be nice to see that more in the USA. We're very competitive and many workaholics would think it crazy to leave in the middle of the for a couple hours. They'd say, "Think of how much work you would be missing!"

Anyway, during that "how to drink" meeting, they served sangria, wine mixed with sugar and juice. Good stuff. I found a bite to eat with a few others and then started our Friday night.

BUT, the next morning we had to get up at 8:00 to catch a bus to Salamanca, about a 2 hour busride west. We took some tours and were able to wander around for a bit. A few things really stuck out to me: They have insanely huge, detailed, ancient cathedrals. Three of them. They're HUGE with a billion different rooms/chapels that are connected. All of them have statues and all of them have anceint paintings. There are just so many priceless items in each of the cathedrals.

We returned from Salamanca tired as can be. I went home and showered, ate, and left for the night. But, needless to say, it was my least fun night in Spain. We all meet at the same bar to begin the night. Then when people are ready, almost everyone leaves to go the same spot, which I do not like. We're American, so we're going to stick out. But this night, we walked around town in a huge pack with 4 different leaders who want to go to 4 different places and we were loud and stood around and people who were leading didn't know to get to where they were going. It was awful. We finally made our way to a couple places, but my night was ruined. I just went home.

Sunday was much better, however. Woke up early, went to an English mass nearby with my host-sister Mónica. It was small and there were about 15 people there. After that, I returned back and took a quick nap then decided to go with Móni to a Spanish mass nearby. There were a lot of older people there, partially because they're more dedicated than the youth but also, it was a noon mass, and not a lot of the youth were up yet. I was able to comprehend more than I thought I would, but I still have a lot of Spanish to learn if I ever wish to have a simple conversation with a man in the street. The most surprising thing to me was that the mass ended in less than 40 minutes, which they told me was typical.

After, we ate, I did my homework, then we left to visit my host-mother Carmen's parents to live nearby. Carmen has 5 sisters and 3 brothers. There were 3 sisters and 1 brother there so I was able to meet some more family. There were even a few cousins there. One of them, the oldest of their cousins who is 17, was a girl who spent 3 years in Boston and New York so she could speak a lot of English. I played cards with the cousins and we walked around a bit and then went out to eat before heading home. It was a good day.

Today, we figured out our plans for the long weekend in about 3 weeks: A bunch of us are going to Valencia. I don't know many details yet, but that's what I do know.

Chao.

Pictures finally

I don't like to take many pictures, I like not having to rush to get my camera everytime I see something pleasing. I have plenty of time to capture pictures. Other people are already taking a lot of pictures too that I could use. But here are some that I've taken:





Just some pictures of the scenery on the bus ride to Valladolid from Madrid.




And my good friend, Cohen. Named after the old singer Leonard Cohen.

I'm having some trouble putting pictures up on here and getting them off of my camera so I'll have to figure that out.

Hope you all enjoy these for now.

Living the Dream

Monday and Tuesday began school. The days usually go as follows:

-Wake up around 10:30
-Eat breakfast
-Walk to class, which goes from noon to 1:45
-Return home for lunch
-Meet at the beach with the rest of the group and lay out for awhile in the best weather ever (There has not been one bad second of weather yet. *Knock on wood*). OR if I don't go to the beach, I'll take a siesta.
-Dinner
-Meet up with friends in town
-Sleep

I have really lucked out. But at the same time, I'm learning so much at the same time. My family here doesn't speak much English and I've progressed enough to have constant dialogue with them now. I think we've both realized what types of phrases and words I know and can udnerstand, and at the same time I'm asking a lot of questions that they understand also. Very fulfilling.

Class is just myself and two other students with a professor. Our class is on the culture of Spain. It's pretty basic thus far but of course I'm learning alot.

These last few days have been much more relaxing than the first few. I think time is going to start to go by much faster now with more repetition.

Domingo (Sunday)

I woke up around 9:20 and Carmen walked me to my orientation at the University about a 15 minute walk away. (I'm sure doing a lot of walking; good preparation for el Camino in about a month) We were split into two groups and went over the guidelines of this trip. It was reassuring to hear a professor talk in Spanish and understand almost 95% of it. After, we all met up and walked around town with José. The weather was great again (of course). We then split up into smaller groups of friends and recollected our evenings while walking around town. Man that was fun. We asked locals to take our pictures and we walked into a park where it was basically a zoo but they didn't need cages to keep the animals in, they just seemed to want to stay. We all kept walking around town until one at a time we left for our houses to eat. I went back and had another meal (which was much better for me) and then had my midday siesta again.

I woke up and we had to go to their cousins' first communion celebration (Clara and Emilio). It was at a 5-star hotel nearby. It was a great experience. The adults dined and drank in the hotel and the kids had their own reception area until they all met up later at the dance. The little kids all wore either their shirt and ties or their big white dresses. So Mónica, Eduardo and I walked around outside for a bit and talked about life in our countries. I was starting to understand and pick up on more of their Spanish-speaking. We went back inside the hotel and entered the dance portion of the party, complete with lasers and a DJ. I mustered up the courage to dance for a bit. Good times. It was mostly women dancing and they all tried to get the men to dance with them, but the men were all in corners sipping their drinks and talking fútbol (soccer) from young to old. The men all dressed so dapper and neat and sharp. Even the oldest men there were probably some of the most modern and sharply dressed. And if they weren't old enough to talk fútbol, they went outside and played it, regardless of how nice the kids were dressed.

We returned home around 8:00 and had our dinner (which is a typical time). Again, each meal seems to be much better than the last, which is great. After that I met up again with the group for some winding down at La Negra Flor, a bar which is kind of like our headquarters. I returned home at 1:00AM this time, which made sense. No one is as out and about as they are on Fridays and Saturdays. The next day was also a school day for us.

¡Hasta luego! More to come. I need to get caught up.

The Three Longest Days of My Life ... so far

¡Hola a todos!

All I can say is wow. I have learned so much in the past few days. It's going to be tough to smush it all into one entry, but I'll try. Let's do it in chronological order.

On our first plane to Dallas, we were a bit delayed because a women went unconcious 2 rows behind me right before takeoff. She came back real quick and just needed some oxygen. I sat next to this man on the plane from Austin, Texas who was probably in his 60s. He was what I would call a "straight shooter". We talked a bit about life in Texas and Minnesota and talked a bit about Minnesota hockey compared to Texas football. He works in the insurance business and dressed quite dapper. Good guy.

We connected in Dallas to our next flight to Madrid, Spain. We arrived in Dallas around 4:40 and needed to hustle to get to the next gate since we were delayed. And so began the 8 hour flight. I sat next to a woman probably in her 50s named Fiorenza who was on her way to Italy. (I think she was from there) Our 767 departed and there were TVs along the top of the plane for us to watch; An episode of Parks and Recreation, 2 episodes of The Office, and the movies Horton Hears a Who! and Yes Man. I probably only got a couple hours of sleep. Fiorenza couldn't sleep much either so I lent her my iPod and after that was when we started talking a bit more and she started calling me "babe" because I don't think she knew my name. But she wasn't hitting on my or anything.

And so we arrived in Spain. The only problem was it was 2AM Minnesota time and 9AM in Spain. So those 2 hours of sleep had to do for a night's sleep. The two hour bus ride from Madrid to Valladolid was quite scenic; lots of hills and mountains all around. We passed through some small towns and I even took some pictures that I'll probably put up later. We arrived in Valladolid and our host families were waiting near the bus stop in La Plaza de San Pablo. It was a 10-15 minute walk to our house from there. My host family is very nice and quite funny. There is the mother, Carmen, the father, Louis - a taxi driver at night, the sister, Mónica - 16 years old, and the brother, Eduardo - 13. They also have a little dog (a Dachsund I think) named Cohen. He is a real treat to have around. Very friendly.

I unpacked and was a little tired and actually a little homesick right away. I thought I would be able to converse with them a bit more fluently but, they speak very very fast. We had a meal while watching television (they love American television, we watched Family Guy in Spanish - sorry Mom). I've been able to eat all of the meals here thusfar. The first dish I kind of had to stuff down with some effort. It was creamy and had peas in it and I think tuna (I hate tuna) but I didn't want to be disrespectful. Needless to say, I finished it, but didn't go back for seconds.

I finally was able to take my long-awaited siesta. After that long nap, everything got a bit better. Eduardo woke me up around 6:30. No one sleeps past then because I think they don't want people to be too awake later on when they have to go to bed. We dinner later around 8, which was a bit better, and then I met up in La Plaza Mayor with the other students on this trip. Our coordinator who teaches at St. John's, José, showed us around a few bars. We broke off and wandered around town to enjoy the nightlife. There are lots of bars, but they're all quite small so it's very easy to jump from place to place. My night ended up at a dance club, a discoteca, where it was me and about 6 other guys dancing in the middle of the dance floor trying to get others to dance with us. No one really wanted to join us. It was 3:00AM. I went home after that. It was a great way to spend my first night in Spain.
[time to eat lunch, more to come soon]