Spanish word of the day: Membrillo

It's been a busy few days over here with class and homework and every day things! I'm learning a lot already and trying lots of new foods so that's exciting. That also means I haven't blogged in while because I get too sleepy at night and just push it off until the next day. I'll try to do short recaps because I need a nap today before heading out to do more things. 

Tuesday: After class, I came home for lunch and had a delicious lintel bean soup, I think, with chorizo and then some fresh fish! With my group we went out to the Palacio de Magdalena. It used to be a summer home for King Alfonso XIII and his family for many years and then housed an international university and now is simply a historical monument. Below the palace is a mini zoo with penguins and sea lions and at one time, polar bears. Then you hike up to the top of the hill where the palace is located and simply walk around and look at the beautiful view of the city from all sides. It is not opened to the public to tour unfortunately. On the way back, I rode the bus for the first time and at one point was the only person on the bus when the driver decided to take a 15 minute break so that was an adventure. We had hamburgers that night for dinner except it was just the meat and cheese and then french fries, no bun. Also an adventure. 

sea lion friends 

Palacio de Magdalena 

Bikini Beach- when Spain was under dictatorship, the women covered up at the beach, but the private beach of the palace housed international students and female students wore bikinis. Hence the name.

Wednesday: we learned a ton in school yesterday. It was crazy. I won't bore you with it now though. It also rained a lot. Our whole walk to school it rained. For lunch, Ana fed me way too much food, but I ate it all (we had a very yummy carrot and pumpkin soup!) and then had a cup of coffee and then watched the news with her. I then met up with people to do a bit of shopping and by that I mean we went to Zara. If you haven't heard of that store, maybe you've been living under a rock or maybe you just don't like shopping, but take a minute and look it up, quite interesting. I spent too much and I don't have room for it, but I'll feel very Euro when I wear the clothes so that's what matters right? It rained on us again when we left so that was fun... For dinner we had sandwiches with tuna, ham, lettuce, cheese, and tomato on them. It was actually really good, and I ate two. Then came time for me to try dessert. Ana had to explain it to me in detail because it was very strange. It was a gelatinous looking substance, but it was in solid blocks around the plate with cheese in the middle. Fruit they make the dessert with is called el Membrillo, which in English is called Quince (ironic). I have never heard of the fruit quince but apparently it's a thing. Here they take the meat of the fruit and make it into almost like a stick of applesauce. That's the best way to describe it and is called Dulce del Membrillo. 

this is the dessert form of membrillo, que interesante no?

Today: had my first quiz in school and we finally started learning about civilization things in my spanish civ class instead of modern day Spain so we are going places now. For lunch, we had some salad and then some kind of chicken-like meat with vegetables and mashed potatoes and then an unbelievably delicious and sweet white chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate pieces on top. I then showed them what mango is hahaha Ana bought two at the store the other day, but they were a little too hard to eat until today. So Ana, Ana, and Javier sat at the table and watched as I peeled it, and struggled to cut off pieces, and then ate around the pit so they could see it. Mom Ana didn't really like it at all, and daughter Ana thought it was pretty good, but sweet. I then proceeded to eat the rest of it! Then Javier, daughter Ana and I watched a lot of stuff about fútbol so that was fun sibling time. 

Now on to the rest of the day. I chose to update y'all on my life and not take a nap and am going to meet a friend to run at a park. We shall see how this goes. Gotta burn off all the food I've been given! Tomorrow I leave for Seville and Granada and maybe Córdoba so you'll have to check back Monday for an update on that trip. I have never been more excited to go to a place that's 90 degrees and sunny. I miss the sun and sweating. 

So, hasta luego! 

me on top of the world 

CHURROS

Well, I had my first day of school day. Got up with enough time, had my two pieces of toast with butter and jam (I think this may be a regular) my two cups of coffee (also a regular) **disclaimer- the coffee here I think is straight up espresso so by the time I get home, the coffee in the States will have no more effect on me. Ay.** Anyways, my fellow walking buddies were running a little late, but we thought we would be fine due to the fact our host moms all told us "Oh you only need about 15-20 minutes to walk to school." Not true. It was also way warmer than predicted so when we realized the time, we booked it to our rooms (one of my walking buddies and myself went to the wrong room first) so by the time we made it to class it was almost 10 minutes after start time. To recap: I was late to my first class of the summer and I forgot to put on deodorant this morning so you know just another day in the life of me.

To get it out of the way, I'll answer the question of how my classes are. No matter where in the world you are, summer school is summer school. I have never done summer school before so this is a small struggle already because it's summer in Spain and I would much rather be outside somewhere. Needless to say, I am excited for the material covered in the classes because I'm a nerd like that.

By the time we made the trek back home, I was hungry beyond belief. Breakfast at 830 and lunch at 230 is rough. Today I had a huge plate of spaghetti with meat and then some pineapple for lunch and it was delicious. I meant to take a nap, but I read instead then worked on homework, and started buying plane tickets for my weekend excursions! Before I knew it, I was off to probably my favorite thing so far: churros.

I mean just look at it

We met as a group in the city center with Paula and Gabriel and went to a Chocolatería and had churros and chocolate. You may be used to churros at Six Flags, but these were fresh and you poured the sugar on them yourself. And also, they dip them in freshly melted chocolate here so take your pick.

pure joy 

I really should have taken a nap today because while stuffing my face with doughy, sugary, chocolately goodness, my friends at the table made me laugh until I was crying and couldn't stop. So yeah. Churro adventure was a success.

When I got home, my host mom didn't understand when I said that the churros "fueron muy deliciosos." She thought I said graciosos (which means funny) and we were both really confused for a minute until Ana came to our rescue. Another good laugh occurred. We ate dinner and I'm still not sure what it was. Appearance of a tiny hot pocket, taste of a creamy fish stick. Then I watched TV with the Ana's and oh wow. Funniest talk show of my life. All three of us were laughing at the things the hosts were making the two Spanish actors do, and then the show that the two star in came on after so naturally we stayed up until 12:30 am to watch the season finale. ¡Que interesante! 

Spanish word of the day: CHURRO=doughy, sugary, chocolately goodness 

Hasta luego! 

Fin de Semana numero uno

It's hard to believe that it has already been one weekend here in Spain! At the same time, I feel weird typing this out in English since I have really only been here for a few days yet I am already fully immersed in the language. This weekend was definitely one I'll remember for years to come, but both days were polar opposites of each other.

Saturday, I didn't know what the custom was on sleeping in yet, so I got up at about 1030 and went out for breakfast only to have my host mom say "Oh wow, I thought you would have slept longer!" Needless to say, I now know that if I'm given the opportunity to sleep in while here, I'll take it. After lunch, I met up with some amigas so that we could go explore the city.

This is the Ayuntamiento (city hall) and is pretty much our unofficial meeting spot because we all live in different places across the city and we all know where this is! Anyways, we just wondered around the city until we saw a little boat dock and hopped on a ferry that took us around the perimeter of the bay, across to the neighboring bay city and then back. The waters got a little dicy out there, but I loved every second of it, laughing every time Heather, unas de mis amigas, made a face as the boat dipped down with the waves! Here are a few pictures of our maritime adventure 

Palacio de Magdalena 

Lighthouse at Cabo Mayor 

After getting off the boat, we continued to wonder por las calles and discovered a little French themed cafe offering a deal on tapas so we took advantage of that. To add further to irony of a French cafe in Spain, they were playing American music like Creedance Clearwater Revival among others. It was a great life decision to go there basically. Again we found ourselves wandering and ran into another small group of students from our group so we joined up with them, met more at the ayuntamiento, and then found a bar to watch the Champions League final in. With 10 Americans filling the small room, not many locals ventured in, but the bar was split about 50/50 over who they wanted to win the match. My favorite rivalry had to be the two brother bartenders. Eduardo is a Real Madrid fan and Nacho is a Atletico Madrid fan so that was a good time watching them throughout the match. Unfortunately, and for those that don't know, Real won. Despite the outcome, I had a lot of fun and we met 3 other locals and chatted with them for a long time before leaving. To give you an idea of what fútbol is like in Spain vs America, take a quick look at these:

ESPN fail

OLE OLE OLE

As you can imagine, all the excitement of yesterday sort of took it out of me today and I didn't wake up and get moving until about 1230 today so breakfast was simply coffee. My host sister also went out to watch the game last night and was tired like me today as well. Lunch was muy delicioso! We had some pork chop like things with peppers and french fries and then some fresh strawberries. The rest of the day, I had my cultural intake by watching lots of movies and TV programs. I really enjoy watching Criminal Minds because I've seen most of them and can follow along rather easily, however, by the end of today, I was tired of translating the TV. It's not the easiest thing to do you know? Dinner tonight was PIZZA!!!!!! My house sister is the pizza expert in the family and she prepared it for us and I scarfed it down and then topped it off with a nice little serving of flan!

Now I'm just sitting here in my room, writing this blog for y'alls (wow I miss saying y'all on a regular basis) enjoyment, and preparing for my first day of class tomorrow! 

my room 

Spanish word of the day: Que sueño! A way of saying, I'm sleepy. Ana and I said this all day today.

Ciao! 

Ana(s)

Oops. Looks like I'm not off to a good start with updating my blog. I guess I should anyone who doesn't know, that I indeed made it to Santander! My flights over here were actually not too bad, shout out to mi madre for putting me in the bulk head seat (extra leg room) for my flight from DFW to Madrid. That was fantastic. However, I did not sleep as much as I would have liked, only about an hour and 45 minutes, but I'm functioning so that's a good sign. Upon arriving in Madrid, several other UT students were on a flight leaving in 2 hours while myself and a new friend I made were not leaving until 4 hours later. That time passed quickly though because after exiting the plane, we had to walk all the way down the airport to go through passport control, then security again, then take a train across to the other terminal, and then our gate was of course at the very end. Who knew and airport could be that long though? It was insane. Most importantly, we sat next to an outlet and used our 15 minutes of free wifi to chat with some folks (so Texan I know) back home. Eventually it was time to move towards the gate to board. I learned very quickly what Spanish time means. Usually boarding is about 40 minutes prior to scheduled take-off, but we boarded at the scheduled time for take-off because the plan was late. Then we adventured down the jetway to the plane. Plot twist, we left the jetway and walked on the tarmac to board our little plane. It was very 1950's style boarding and exiting that plane as we walked up the steps onto the plane. Anyways, I passed out on that short 45 minute flight and was ready to go upon arriving in Santander!

Enough about flying, after I arrived at the Hotel for our first night in Santander, I relaxed  with the window open listening to the waves crash right outside my room, took a small nap, and then enjoyed a great dinner (already starting off the trip with 9pm dinner) with the rest of my group. It was so exciting to meet everyone and then we were given our to-go flip phones from 2007 and I think I almost lost my mind I was so happy to have a flip-phone again. I mean come on, you have to agree that flip phones were awesome right? Not too long after, I went to sleep only to wake up an hour later and not fall asleep again until an hour after that so that was fun. The hotel provided us with a fantastic breakfast, I was most excited for the huge assortment of fruits (Rebecca Teng would have been jealous of that). We then had an orientation and then were introduced to our host families! My Spanish mom is Ana and she lives with her two children, Ana is 21 and Javier is 24 or 25 I think. Not going to lie, I'm confused as to if mom and daughter have the same name or not, but I think that's right. Javier also doesn't really speak to me or anyone for that matter, but that's ago because host mom chats with me a lot. I was even complemented on my Spanish so we are going places. Lunch was a big meal, but was very rich and I felt bad I couldn't eat it all but my body is still adjusting to the differences. Then my Spanish mom and I met up with two other mom/students pairs to walk to the university. Yay for having morning walking buddies! I thought the hills in Austin were bad, but the hills here in Santander are so big that they installed outdoor elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks in the city! Our two college guides, Gabriel and Paula, gave us a tour of campus and then of the city. We were then turned loose and a group of us bought bus cards, then walked around a bit and discovered an orchestra playing live music in the plaza. Before I knew it, it was time to head back for dinner, so my two walking buddies and I made our way back to our homes.

When I arrived home, my mom and sister were watching a Spanish gameshow that I was intrigued by. Then Family Guy came on. Fun fact, they really like Family Guy and the Simpsons over here. For dinner we had Spanish tortilla which is a thick tortilla thing with potatoes inside. We had fun dinner conversation, yes it's all in Spanish, ALL, about how Americans don't use the metric system and me explaining how inches and feet and yards compare, and then explaining that "no, Texans don't all have horses and wear the cowboy getup everyday." That seemed to make them laugh. After dinner, I watched the Mel Gibson movie, Get the Gringo, with my family. Kind of ironic. It was a weird movie, but hey it's just one more way to learn Spanish. I realized how tired I was again, and got ready for bed. The shower however doesn't have a curtain or glass. It's just a tub and it has a hand-held shower thing so that will be an interesting adventure for 6 weeks. This morning, I slept in a bit and then had typical breakfast that you might enjoy of toast and coffee, and FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE. I chatted with my Spanish mom about what travels I've done, how my real mom uses lots of spices in her food unlike in Spain (something I'm still getting used to), and how the United States really is a mixture of so many cultures in one place.

Sorry that was so many words, but as you can see I'm already gaining a lot out of this experience! As weird as it sounds, I 'm looking forward to class starting up on Monday because then I will be able to have a daily routine and I think that will help me adjust a little better to eating and sleeping. Check back tomorrow because for anyone that cares about soccer, or understands how big a deal it is in the rest of the world besides the US, the Champions League final is today (Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid) so basically all of Spain is pumped for that and I hope to watch it today with the rest of Santander!

Spanish word of the day: Vale--okay. Almost every other word used is vale. It is usually thrown in at the end of a phrase as "vale?" to make sure you understand what they are trying to say.

Hola todos! (hello all)

As most of y'all may know,  I am traveling to Spain for study abroad this summer with other students from UT! I actually fly out tomorrow so you're reading this as I am scrambling at the last minute to run to Target one more time and make sure I have everything packed--I may have packed too much because a zipper already broke. Fingers crossed my suitcase lasts on this exciting journey!
I've contemplated over the years about writing a blog and I never have because I didn't think I had anything worth writing about. Well, I think 7 weeks in España will give me plenty to say! I will do my best to keep this updated throughout the summer with stories from my travels and maybe even some pictures here and there. 
While abroad I will be living with a host family in Santander and taking two classes at the University of Cantabria. To give you an idea of where Santander is, it's located up on the northern coast of Spain, and to give you an idea of what the city looks like, I did my best to select a picture of where I think I'll be spending most of my time.

I don't really have too much else to say before I head out other than I'm extremely excited and thankful for this opportunity and I can't wait to see what this aventura has in store for me! 

If you want to contact me while I'm gone, my home stay does have wifi and I will spend time at cafes I'm sure so feel free to email me at emilyreding11@gmail.com, my email is linked to the side also, or I have Skype and Viber so you can contact me that way as well!

Gracias y hasta pronto!