On Salamanca, Zamora, & Ávila

Hey! Sup y’all. I cannot get the font size to be consistent on this post and it is driving me crazy. It's beyond my abilities hahaha... Be forgiving. I went for the legible size.

So this week we are in and around the town of Salamanca, Zamora, and Ávila. Map below.  I’m grouping them together because it was more or less a two-day trip and they kind of blend together in my mind. I have to apologize in advance because there is no timeline to this post.

I guess to start the trip we have to acknowledge la semana cervantina; in Alcalá right now there’s a festival that I’ve heard (and cannot verify beyond a Google search which I have no internet to do right now) that it’s the largest medieval festival in Europe. Having been to none prior to Spain, I’d have to agree haha. But anyhow it’s so cool! There are banners hanging everywhere and little booths for the artisans to sell things, we’re going to visit it when we come home. Anyhow the reason I mention it is because it happens at the Plaza de Cervantes (claro) annnnd that’s where we meet the bus. So again: big time festival: big time inconvenience haha. We had to take all our little suitcases and backpacks at 8 am and migrate a street down or so and it felt soooo silly. I hate feeling like a tourist.  Derp derp derp don’t mind us and our backpacks, pillows, and rolling suitcases on this ancient cobblestone while you’re just trying to catch the bus for work…

So these three cities are pretty small in my mind. I know they’re bigger than my tiny-tourist brain can fathom but they definitely weren’t big bustling cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

In Ávila we went to see and walk the giant murallas (walls) of the city. You know when you have days in class where you sit for 50 minutes and walk out not sure if you processed a single thing? That’s kind of how I’m feeling now writing about this weekend. Because I’ve got nothin’. Well shoot I definitely processed it, I just can’t remember it. For shame.

In Salamanca we walked the centro of the city, including (wait for it) the cathedral!! Haha. But there are some interesting things I remember about Salamanca that I can present in no particular order:

This is a staircase. Obviously. But it was just a funny little part of a palace we went to. The guide had said “notice how it’s not closed off to the city… there are two doors. So if an enemy were to come, the guards would point them to this staircase. And it’s tall enough it would give the royal family to prepare themselves but also it’s small enough that you can’t fight within it. “ I actually don’t know if I’m quoting that as accurately as I could, but like I said… it was a harder day for listening haha.

Salamanca is a university town, that’s why it’s so big. I think there are about 17,000 students or so in the town, a lot of them extranjeros learning Spanish. There are tourist shops (like all cities) every 50 feet or so, but instead with sweatshirts and tshirts for la Universidad de Salamanca haha. And there aren’t shoe stores at every corner. Salamanca is cool but I actually think Madrid is a lot cooler, although I know I’ve only seen a few hours of the city. Somehow I have skipped over our stop in Zamora. I think the issue is that Zamora and Salamanca are too similar with the S-sounds. Also it’s because I legitimately can’t separate them in my mind. So from this point on the specifics of these stories are all just heading south haha…

Salamanca has this thing for frogs. It was tough for me to put this together at first because when the guide started talking about the history/story she would say una rana (frog) and I heard arana (araña = spider) haha. But then we would walk down the street and see a bajillion frogs at the tourist shops. So anyhow, it’s all based off this story that I am also going to link you to so my sparknotes does not destroy it:  http://spanishinspain.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/the-frog-of-salamanca.html OR journals.worldnomads.com/colleen_finn/story/.../The-Salamanca-frog

Basically, Salamanca loves frogs. Skim the articles.

After our tour of the city, Rachel, Sarah, Alyssa, and I decided to sit down and grab dinner after a day of walking. And it was phenomenal. It’s such a European thing to sit and just enjoy a meal and your company and it’s so relaxing! When you make the time for it anyways. Otherwise it’s way stressful because you just want “american service” (quick, to the point, bend-over-backwards-to-please–the-customer). I had a seasoned hamburger with tomatoes and fries. I know that doesn’t sound exotic, but it was so stinking good. And I know if I haven’t mentioned it here, I at least made in my mind a goal to order different things to eat but I will talk about this in a sec.

Probably one of the most fun things we did in Zamora (?) was going out to eat as a group. Eating as friends is so stressful figuring out the check. But sometimes our director pays for us to get a snack together that the guide recommends to us when we finish, and we actually had a meal and it was so good. I made a goal in my mind at the beginning of the study abroad to step out of my comfort zone and order things on the menu that I either 1. Have never had 2. If I’ve had nothing on the menu at all, order something I can’t pronounce and so far this has worked flawlessly with the exception of when people ask what I ate I also can’t remember it haha. Sometimes though, you gotta be real… I am in Europe and paying for food, just because I’m having a cultural experience does not mean I should hate my life (or in other words.. my meal) because sometimes it’s anyone’s best guess when we’ll have time to sit down and eat again. SO IN CONCLUSION oh man I just love hamburgers

Other things we did:

SAW SOME CATHEDRALZ

WENT TO SUM MOOSUMS

TALK WIF DA ESPAÑOLAS

Alyssa and I went to this cool Art Nouveau art museum and it was really great. It wasn’t the type I was hoping for (Alfonse Mucha: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfons_Mucha) but I had time to sketch some really fun things. Maybe someday I’ll post those here, too. It was fun going to a loser museum. Of course it was professional and with important pieces, it also had these beautiful stained glass pieces and was just a smaller museum (aka: not the Prado) so it was just a little bit more home-y. Oh and in regards to “talkn wif sum españolas”, that’s not a cool story. We just walked across this ancient roman bridge to the other side of town looking for a famous statue. Apparently it was at the beginning of the bridge and we didn’t see it, so we had a fun chit chat with a local while she walked us back to show us. I love these people!

So remember that link about the frog I just gave? You really should read it. It has this great bit about Ávila that I will straight up copy/paste and not at all claim to have written:

Ávila is a fortress town, with a medieval stone wall that surrounds the city. The town is probably most known for St. Teresa of Ávila, a nun who founded a more primitive order of Carmelites known as the decalced, or “barefoot” Carmelites. After she died, her body was exhumed and found to be in pristine condition—so much so that the Catholics regarded it as a miracle and declared her a saint. As a reward for sainthood (okay, I am writing this part with a touch of sarcasm), a few fingers were cut from her right hand. Allegedly, Franco himself (Spain´s dictator until 1975) kept these fingers next to his bed.

Gruesome little anecdote, isn´t it? But then again, many religious stories are.

We saw this. And I was still gathering my bearings after temporarily losing the group (yes: I’m that kid on the field trip... basically always) and I remember having the 13 of us plus the tour guide huddled around this glass case that said NO TOCAR, NO FOTOS.

Because there was a finger behind the glass.

This stinking ancient, rotting, once-fleshy thing!!!!

Honestly………………………………ew.

So if that is not an exciting way to end this post, I don’t know what is haha. A pointless and funny bit about this trip is also this little tangent I have about the “spain accent” … because I love it. And I feel like among extranjeros it’s hit-or-miss and especially in our group it’s definitely more of a miss. But here’s the thing: IT’S SO USEFUL.

For those reading who don’t speak Spanish or are unaware of the specifics of the “lisp-y Spain accent”, in short, in Spain they use the sound / θ/  or “theta” (but say it like you’re Spanish… so th-ay-tah. Actually I can’t really break that down better unless it was in person). It’s the “really gross lispy Spanish” that I’ve basically heard every in the states say they can’t stand. And I agreed with them up until I had heard it and had to experience it. For example, and my explanations are limited over text, but for example:

Zapato (LA: zah-pah-toe)

Zapato (ES: th-uh-pah-toe)

Luz (LA: loo-z, almost exactly the same as “lose” like “you lose the game”)

Luz (ES: loo-th, like “mama my tooth is looth!!” haha)

Decir (LA: day-seer)

Decir (ES: day-th-ear)

but the “lispy” theta sound is not used for every s- sound or every time you see a “c”

Casa (LA: cah-sah)

Casa (ES: cah-sah)

Considerado (LA: con-see-d-air-ah-doh)

Considerado (ES: con-see-d-air-ah-doh)

*LA: Latin America ES: España

Dang I am so good at this phonetics game. #jokes

ANYWAYS the reason why I mention it:

Once upon a time back at BYU I was having a discussion about different dialects in Spanish, as Spanish students usually do pretty much at least once a week. Someone had told me that the Spain accent is actually ‘super useful in regards to spelling’ or something like that, but… I pretty much forgot it almost immediately after.

But now it has come back in vivid HD color: because I spelled “Zamora” wrong for this entire post when I first started writing I haha This happened since 1. I hadn’t seen any signs that said “Zamora” all day and didn’t think anything of it until the little red squiggle popped up on Microsoft Word but also 2. I spent the day with our BYU group which includes a general majority of Spanish speakers who have learned south-american Spanish. This includes mexico, Costa Rica, or our director and his wife who are from the Domincan Republic. SO when Profesor Alba is saying “Zamora” it sounds exactly exactly the same if he were to say “Samora” and so thus we see my plight.

That took way longer to explain than it should have, but cheers to you for reading this far!!

Peace swag blessinz and frozen yogurt,

Lotsa love

Jessie

Also: we walked around a fountain six times to help us find true love. Oh Spain.

Also also: Alyssa and I went to a 15 minute theatre production for 3 euros and it was hilarious. Not for the faint of heart. Read: not a G-rated performance, not for an LDS audience. Lessons learned… oh Spain.

On Quirks & Little Things

Spain is different.

Actually America is different.

Actually they are apples to oranges some days haha.

I started writing a little list that I thought was funny of little quirks that made me laugh, I don’t really have any better introduction.

Water isn’t free: You have to pay for water unless you specifically ask for “un vaso de agua” (like a glass of water) because otherwise they assume you want una botella de agua fria (a literal glass bottle of water). This has been learned via a few miscommunications and nights out to eat where we ordered twelve waters hahahahaaha.

There aren’t any toilet handles : I think this is a water efficiency thing, and I actually think it’s smart. The toilets are all super low-rise (water level?) and there’s a button you push on top instead. “Jessie why do you care” well peanut gallery, it may have or may not have taken me three weeks in the country to not habitually reach behind me to flush the toilet hahaha

“Vale” The ultimate filler word!!! You can’t miss it in Spain. It means “okay”.

I’m going, vale?

Vale, are you going too?

Okay okay okay vale vale vale.

Right? Vale?

It's worth it. Vale.

You're welcome. Vale.

Sounds good. Vale.

Oh well. Vale.

That's right. Vale.

Are you paying attention? Vale?

Do you understand? Vale?

I agree. Vale.

I'm listening. Vale.

I thought it was the most ridiculous thing at first  because it can be used after all of those things, but we speak the same way in English using okay/alright/got it? No pasa nada

People walk in the streets. Everywhere. A lot of the streets are more pedestrian than otherwise, but cars can still pass for businesses and whatnot. Basically people run the streets, especially in Alcalá,

Eating times are weird. My first week I thought I was going to wither away waiting for time to crawl until lunch. I’m used to it now and actually really like it, but to an American it’s weird; we eat breakfast around 8 or 9, lunch at 2 or 3, and dinner somewhere between 8 and 10.

There are not plugs every 5 feet in every building. I don’t know anything is charged or cleaned around here haha. It’s also very hard to just make the assumption I can charge my phone any place we visit. So I don’t bank on that anymore.

“¿Qué tal? They don’t really use ¿Cómo está? As much as every Spanish book ever has you believe. The most common greeting I’ve heard is que tal, which through me for a loop for the first week. It’s like “how are you?” but with the same casual approach as “what’s up”, so I always wanted to say “nada” when a better answer is “bien”.

Tapa bars are the bomb I feel like I’ve explained this a few dozen times, but I will do it officially and on the record right now. Basically, since there's so much time in between meals (or alternatively: if you are out with friends) and need something to eat, it's common and totally possible to get a small amount of food for only a few euros and they call it a "tapa". It's referencing more so the size than the type of food, since that will vary slightly depending on where you are and the kind of restaurant.

Men shave their legs. I don’t know why, and I really don’t know how often. I just have spent a lot of time on the metro and am stating what I’ve seen. Oh Europe.

“…Suerte.” this is something our host dad says literally every meal. Literally….every meal. “Do you like the food?” “yeah of course!” “suerte…. If you don’t like the food……mala suerte.” Every meal. Suerte means luck. Also every meal he says “ayayayayyyy Gloria… jefa…. muy mal muy mal…” (ahhhh Gloria the boss… just awful) and plops on the couch haha.

“No pasa nada” this is my favorite expression, it basically means no big deal. It litrerally translates to something around ‘nothing passes’ or ‘nothing happens’ but it’s just a funny little thing.

Asians are everywhere. This is not an intentionally racist comment, just a factual statement; sometimes I’m taken aback by how many Asians are in Spain. And I guess it’s probably the same in the states, you just don’t think of it... It’s funny because there are a lot of little Asian stores (think:  convenience/snack store) every couple of blocks, guaranteed. But also that it’s PC to collectively call them “los chinos” (“the chinese”)- honest, it’s fine. To my English brain it doesn’t feel right, but… when in Rome…

Eggs are never for breakfast, only for lunch or dinner. We have “tortilla” all the time (hot or cold, doesn’t matter) which is like… think half-inch pancake but of egg and potato. That’s a terrible description but that’s what it is haha. But it’s so good!!

It's rude to take your shoes off inside learned this one the hard way... in America we take our shoes off so as to not get the carpet dirty. Carpet doesn't really exist here. And "feet are gross". So you're supposed to leave your shoes on unless you're essentially so close you're family. So.... note to Jessie Dean... keep your shoes on in class. And for those with sassy comments I had sandals on haha it's not like I whipped off boots and socks and slopped around.

They watch endless re-runs of The Simpsons. We've told them that the Simpsons aren't really that popular in the states (not nearly as popular as they are in Spain) and this is like the most absurd thought to them haha

People have different ideas about “hot” and “cold”- I’m from Wisconsin, I like the cold. It’s high 60’s outside right now and with no context of what day of the year it was, if you looked outside at the people on the street you would think they’re about to go be a part of the Iditarod. Likewise, when it was almost 100 degrees when I got to Spain and I felt like I was basically on fire, that was like a perfect day to them. Also I get scolded for walking the 10 feet (in between our apartments) barefoot outside after it rains or if it’s cold haha.

Bread everywhere. Everywhere. Every meal. Every store. Unavoidable. So delicious. Hello bread cheeks.

No one is really moving to get anywhere… unless it’s in the metro.

People have this pace… it’s real tranquilo, but as an American sometimes I feel like they are walking backwards it’s so slow. Unless they’re getting on or off a bus/train. Those people are sprinting and you best be too unless you want to be clotheslined by a rolling suitcase or guitar case.

Everything and everyone is late… except the train. Time is relative with 5 minute cushions, probably to account for the people who are still just trying to walk to meet you (joke), but seriously train waits fo no one haha

Flies I have not really seen any bugs here in Spain (comparatively to the Midwest) Except there are MOSCAS stinking EVERYWHERE.

People are people, but they're pretty great every big city has the big city mentality but generally speaking a lot of the people we've talked to/met are so kind and patient with us. But yes absolutely the stereotype of spanish people liking to talk is accurate. Yes.

Besitos (little kisses) I feel like this is just one of those things that everyone already knows about Spain. In America, you greet people you’re meeting for the first time with a handshake or hug (typically) but the Spain thing is a big on/next to on each cheek.

If you’re hanging out with friends, you do it at the plaza.  Or just "out". I was thinking about this the other day because we (the americans) were trying to plan a get-together but we were having the hardest time figuring out where because we can’t do it at our host-homes… people just meet up and hang out outside haha. There's just not enough space in these little spanish apartments to have a throw down aka more than 4 people comfortably.

You can buy everything at it's own store this sounds inconvenient, but it's actually so fun. Like go to the bakery for bread, the fruit shop for fruit, the meat shop for ... you get it. Also I know these have real names or something close in english but it's late and I need your patience haha.

The streets come alive at night it's impossible to find anyone midday, probs because they're sleeping or prepping lunch. But after seven? Everyone and their grandma is out on the prowl. I don't know what they're doing, but they're definitely out and about.

That’s about it. Just some fun bits for everyone.

Love you all! Also I am so so sad peaches are out of season.
SO SAD.

Jessie

*disclaimer: this last picture is in no-way mine, it's called "Barcelona" and is from deviantart by geert1845

On Aranjuez & Ballet

Sup friends n’ fam! Les quiero!

So this past week we had a “free” weekend, which means a full week of school and we make our own weekend plans. I think I’ve already said a few times what an average school day looks like, so I won’t keep circling over that. Let me think on what we did… shoot.  We do various things through the week. Like on Mondays we have our religion class (Los Mormones en España/History of the Church in Spain) and FHE afterwards. Which can be hit or miss, and is effectively group bonding time after class. You know, incase seeing each other every day is not enough haha.

Oh yeah! We started this… intercambio of sorts. On Tuesday nights we, the Americans, in pairs are given one Spaniard who is learning English. And we just give them an hour to interact with us. I would have done this anyway for fun but it was so funny because our director explains it to us and of course has to call it not “volunteer work” but “service”. And he’s right, it is service, but that is such a BYU way to sell volunteer work haha. Our Spaniard Javier was really sweet. Really nervous, too. He doesn’t have a lot of opportunies to speak English (or obviously, to hear English) so he is most comfortable reading and writing. Which made for an interesting hour haha. It also gave me a bit of perspective on where I’m at language-wise. I’m doing just fine. Also so is Javi haha, it just was weird being the fluent one trying to find simpler ways to explain myself! My life thus far has been on the recieivng end of that.

On Thursday, we all went to the Prado museum, which was incredible. I’m not an art snob, but the light of understanding now hath dawned upon mine eyes and I understand why you would want to pay money to go see the real deal over google. Except we didn’t pay money because we’re students and life is better when you get the poor discount- what am I going to do with my life after I graduate until I get the raisin/senior citizen discount?? We’re going to return with our group and one of our professors later, so I saw a few paintings I wanted to see and used the time to draw a statue that caught my eye.

On Fridays we don’t have class. Which I think is normal for some people back at BYU but I’ve always had Spanish and a lab (or something like that) on Fridays, so it’s really weird to me. But we decided as a group to take the train to the neighboring town Aranjuez. And you know what?? We did not even go to a cathedral. HOW CAN THAT BE??

Aranjuez was a funny little town, the little we saw of it. We had a bit of a mix-up with buses and missed trains getting there, but it was really beautiful once we arrived! Had kind of an east-coast charm, a lot of big green trees and leaves on the ground everywhere… “my home town doesn’t look anything like this nor have I been to a place like this before, but… this makes me miss my parents. Is that weird? Like I feel like we should be walking together talking about Halloween plans and my new classes for the school year and stuff.” –Me

We went to the palacio in Aranjuez. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but that’s alright. I got this sweet picture of a bust, but it wasn’t labeled so it’s literally just a bust that I thought was cool.  If nothing more, going to cathedrals and palaces really helps me get an idea of what it means to have money and want to spend money. Haha. It’s just an interesting part of culture everywhere. I would actually really love to go see the White House or some modern buildings in the US to see what we have that is considered luxurious. Not one corner of these places goes unnoticed. It’s all decorated. Also I think carpet on the walls is a terrible idea haha. Which is different from a tapestry, don’t misunderstand me. (I still don’t really think a tapestry on the wall is really a functioning necessity in a home)

Just a ways a way from the palace we visited a garden- I think it was the palace gardens, but I’m not 100% on it. The larger part was closed off for maintenance because they had a big storm they were cleaning up after. But it was quaint! Also I’m not going to say Alyssa and Megan blatantly ignored the sign (that was in both Spanish and English) to go see the garden anyways, but I definitely was left to hold things outside the fence  as they may or may not have snuck past. Very opportune moment to take pictures of flowers for 20 minutes.

So highlight of my week (beyond conference: but conference gets a separate post) was THE BALLET. We went to a ballet!!! And I can safely say with 100% confidance that I have no flexibility at all.

We went to see Don Quijote in Madrid later that night. Also couldn't take pictures here during the show. It was interesting since I’m not really familiar with Don Quijote as much as I should be, but also because there obviously isn’t any dialogue in a ballet. Not that dialogue would have necessarily helped my understanding haha, you should Wikipedia Don Quijote, it’s one of the most famous works both of Spain and in the world. It was definitely worth it, and reminded me of a group date I was on to see Living Legends at BYU last semester. Preforming Arts are definitely worth your time! Plus I had a fun little conversation with Paula, the woman I was sitting next to.

Also I’m glad our plans to go to an opera fell through and we chose the ballet instead.

Like…

Really really glad.

Can you imagine going to an opera?? Okay… now imagine it in spanish…

Another random bit: there is this insane store in Madrid that we went to, called El Corte Ingles. It has literally everything. EVERYTHING. It’s 9 floors high!! If you can imagine Ikea, Best Buy, Michaels, A Massage Place, Sephora, and Trader Joe’s all in one place… pretty much what it felt like. God bless escalators.

So yeah, pretty chill week! AND IT’S GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND!! YAY.

That’s it, nothing crazy. We went running yesterday and it was so fun, except afterwards we played soccer with some people from the ward and now my roommate in a bit injured and I’m really worried about her. So if you need something to add to your prayers, Kat has a rodilla lesionada, which is the worst news. But my knees are still functioning despite their glowstick nature, so count your blessings!

With love como siempre,

Jessie