My First Post

¡Hola todos!

Sorry for taking so long to start this blog, but I have been pretty busy doing various things. For those who don't know, I am in Avila, Spain. Avila is about an hour or so Northwest of Madrid (the capital of this fine country). I am attending the University of Salamanca, but a small off campus location called the school of Education and Tourism in Avila, similar to the University of Michigan at Dearborn or Flint. I have four classes a day, five days a week. I have a Spanish culture class, a dance class, and two back to back grammar and language classes. I just finished my first week of classes and I am very happy with the outcome. All of my professors are really intelligent and are great resources because I believe they all have lived in Spain for their whole lives and have all also worked with many American students. I am also taking a supplementary Spanish class for people who are going into the medical field and will need to communicate with patients who only speak Spanish. Although I have no inclination of going into the medical field, what can some extra practice and vocabulary hurt, right?

I am staying in Avila with a host family. They are extremely nice and I can identify well with them as they are a family of a mother, father and seven year old son. The father is a high school teacher of music and history and the mother is going to the same university as I, studying to become an English teacher. Usually our conversations consist of the mother speaking to me in English (for her to practice) and me speaking to her in Spanish (to practice, respectively). The boy and I get along really well; he has taught me several magic tricks and has attempted to teach me some card games, but it is difficult to learn as I don't know the Spanish card playing jargon. The food here is wonderful, thanks to the ever cooking and cleaning mother. I have eaten many new foods like Paella. Paella is made up of many different ingredients, and can be made many ways. I ate the dish with Spanish rice, green and red peppers, muscles, clams, shrimp, chicken and some other ingredients for which I don't know the English name. I have also eaten Spanish steak, lamb, seasoned chicken, fresh green beans, lots and lots of baked and fried fish, and bread. The meals in Spain are very different from those in the United States. Lunch, which is typcially called comida here (not almuerzo for some reason), is the biggest meal of the day contrary to our dinner or breakfast. Lunch is eaten around 14:00 (2pm), and consists of salad or pasta or vegetables, some sort of meat or main dish and fruits or yogurt for dessert. Since lunch is the most important meal of the day, almost everyone, regardless of occupation or school schedule goes home and eats with their family. The father comes home from teaching at about 13:30 (1:30pm) to eat and spend time with his family before going back to school at 15:30 (3:30pm). If you walk around the city around this time, the streets are pretty sparse and almost all establishments are closed for lunch for about 2 hours. The Spanish have a cultural ideology that after lunch, it is good to take a short siesta (nap) to rejuvenate the body and give you energy for the coming hours of the day. I think this is a really cool concept, even if I may be the only person in the house taking a siesta. Although I don't drink it, coffee with milk or tea is served after lunch to compliment the big meal. Breakfast is similar to that of the US's in that it is eaten at around 9:00. I usually eat cereal every morning but I don't think my family would have it in the house if it wasn't for me. The cereal that I eat every morning has little chocolate straws in it, which I like. They typically eat little breakfast wafer biscuit things with apricot jelly and butter, bananas, and yogurt. Dinner is served around 21:00 (9:00pm) and is similar to their lunch. Usually dinner consists of two or three courses with fruit with nata (cream) for dessert. Qué delicioso, ¿no?

On to the much anticipated nightlife. Although I have not yet experienced it, I've heard that the nightlife in Spain is a blast. We've seen pictures in our culture class of the jampacked discotecas (clubs) here that are full of young people dancing, drinking and having a good time. In the U.S. people usually go to the clubs or bars at around 10 or 11pm and head home around 2-230am. Here, most clubs don't even open until 2:00 (2am)! They stay open until about 5:00 or 6:00. Since I have class at 9am everyday, I haven't made it out to the discotecas yet. I have however made it out to a few different bars for drinks and tapas (appetizers that are almost always served with drinks at bars and restaurants). The first night in Spain a few friends and I went to a bar in a hotel for drinks and tapas. I had my first legal beer and tried some delicious tapas of fried shrimp. We had a great time reflecting on our travels to Europe, and what the coming weeks would hold. A few nights later, our study abroad group was invited to see an orchestra show put on but University of Salamanca students at a cool old church/theatre. After seeing the show, a few of us went to a restaurant for dinner, drinks, and afterwards, some tapas. Most nights out consist of friendly conversation (some in English, some in Spanish), drinks and tapas, and a feeling of freedom being in a new country and a new world.

Everyday since we have been here, we have seen some new sights. Avila is a very old town with a lot of history. There are great big walls that encompass much of the city, these walls are called murallas. We ventured to the top of the walls and looked out to see the beautiful city in one direction, a great big mansion in another, and some farmland and mountains in another. Avila is a very pretty city with much to see and much to do. We have seen many old churches and cathedrals here that have a vast amount of history and are sights for sore eyes.

This weekend many of us are taking two day excursions. On Saturday we are going to Segovia to see some churches, some art, and an ancient Roman aqueduct. On Sunday, we are traveling to Salamanca to see the full University of Salamanca and some more churches and other random sights. The next few weekends are going to be full of new experiences and new sights, for which I am very excited. We have a four day weekend where we can travel where ever we please. Some students in our group are going to Ireland, some to Italy, some to Madrid, but I am pretty sure I am going to travel to Barcelona, which is a big city in the North of Spain. I hope all is well in the United States, and I can't wait to come home and share my experiences with everyone.

Hasta luego (Until later)