Tuesday:
My flight passed slowly, but uneventfully. It took me forever to fall asleep (per usual) and when I finally had, not an hour had passed before the flight attendant came around with dinner. Dinner consisted of pasta and a small salad, which was perfectly mediocre and probably worth waking up for just to make sure I had some food in my system when I landed. I read for a bit before ultimately falling asleep again for the last hour of the flight, but managed to see some great views of the sun rising outside my window.
The health form I had to fill out and upload my vaccination card to before getting on the plane said to the follow the blue signs in the airport so I was grateful that I didn't have to navigate my way through a completely foreign airport. I called my parents as they were heading to bed—the time difference was already so strange; it was 8:30 or 9:00 AM for me—and quickly passed through customs.
I had my first minor snafu when I found one of my suitcases busted open on the baggage carousel (let's hope I was able to grab everything that had fallen out before managing to get it closed again.) By the time I had dealt with that and found the pick up area, I had missed the hotel shuttle. I used the 45 minute wait to exchange my remaining dollars for euros knowing that I would be cheated by the airport conversion rate, but worried I would need cash before I could get to a bank.
The shuttle picked me up with little incident and brought me to the hotel which was seemingly an entire exit on the freeway??
I rested in my room for a bit (careful not to fall asleep and ruin my sleep schedule already) and ventured out to the bus stop nearby to head into downtown Madrid. My first stop was a phone store that ultimately proved fruitless as they were out of the prepaid plans I would need to purchase. I instead walked over to the Parque de el Retiro, which reminded me of Central Park, and spent a couple hours just walking around and looking at the pretty views, statues, and lakes. I definitely did not get lost and spend a significant amount of time desperately trying to exit this beautiful park.
I planned to find a place to eat after walking around the city more, but by the time I tried to look for a restaurant my phone was rapidly dying and I decided to head back to the hotel—with my sense of direction, I cannot be left stranded in a big city without a phone.
Good thing I decided to head back since the first bus I was waiting for never came (the 5:10 bus was, of course, not going to come at 5:10 in the evening—I blame the jet lag for forgetting Europeans use military time.) I found a metro instead which brought me to the bus station where I could find a ride back to the hotel.
Feeling the effects of travel exhaustion and not having eaten all day, I looked for the first available food I could find—in this case, a pizza from the hotel lobby (so much for an authentic Spanish meal to start my trip!) But it was good and served with a bowl of nuts and the "agua sin gas" (water without gas) I had ordered—you have to clarify what kind of water lest you end up with the sparkling variety (water with gas.)
I managed to set my alarm for the morning when I would return to the airport to meet the rest of the arriving students who had not misread the arrival date (yet another thing I definitely did not do) and fell asleep faster than I can remember in a long time.
Wednesday:
I was able to grab a filling breakfast of eggs, fruit, and pastries (and churros!) before heading off to the airport.
I was greeted by the directors of the program here in Spain and led to the bus that drove us the 40 miles or so to Toledo, where we would be studying. It was a quiet bus ride, likely since everyone was tired, and the scenery seemed to be mostly farmland.
When we arrived at the walls of the city (Toledo was built on a mountain and surrounded by wall,) we had to move our luggage into a separate vehicle so the bus would be light enough to climb the steep streets.
We soon arrived at La Fundación José Ortega y Gasset—Gregório Marañon (La Fund or FOM for short) and were given maps so we could walk around our new city before lunch.
I previously only knew one other person, but a group of students decided to walk together so I quickly met more.
We explored the gorgeous city for a few hours, guided more by luck than any actual map reading and somehow made it back for 1:30 lunch—every meal is later here.
The next hours were filled with a tour of the school and an inundation of information, before those of us staying with host families were gathered at the top of a staircase to anxiously wait for our name to be called and meet the host mother picking us up. It was a quick introduction of a hug and some small talk before we took a taxi back to her house and I was promptly teased for having brought two large suitcases—I had probably brought more clothes than some of her previous female students she playfully chided. I was greeted by a laminated list of rules and began to unpack, getting all of my clothes into drawers and fitting the suitcases under my bed (both tasks that my host mother joked would be impossible.)
She gave me a tour of the cozy little apartment
and dinner was served at 8:30 (earlier than most Spanish households since she and her husband are both diabetic and take their insulin at a certain time.) Dinner was pasta with Spanish sausage and a fresh baguette—which accompanies all of her meals. It was just the two of us as her husband, Ricardo, is an EMT and works late. Marivi works in child services and dependencies and seems very nice, but definitely speaks fast like most Spaniards which can sometimes make it hard to understand. The news was on during dinner which gave us something to talk about and she told me more about how the war in Ukraine was causing an energy crisis in Europe and forcing Spaniards to be even more conservative with their energy—turning off lights and appliances unless necessary and taking very short showers. Feeling overwhelmed by how much had occurred in the past 48 hours and insecure in my Spanish, it was a rough night of missing home. I finished unpacking and went to sleep hoping to feel refreshed by morning and only slightly stressing about the next day's placement tests.
Thursday:
Upon waking up I met Ricardo and was served my first Spanish breakfast: an individually wrapped snack cake and a glass of chocolate milk (breakfast here is very light and evidently very sweet.) He kindly took me to the bus stop and showed me the route to La Fund, a path I doubted I would remember. I had arrived early for the placement tests, as I always do, so I could needlessly worry about the test in the classroom instead of needlessly worrying anywhere else with the additional fear that I would be late. The tests went better than I expected and I was surprised by some of the things I remembered when writing my essay (throwing in the use of the subjunctive tense is always an easy way to pick up extra points.) I don't think the multiple-choice grammar test went as well, but I did well enough to get the classes I had requested, which also came with a great schedule!
All five classes will fill requirements for my majors which is even better! There was a ton of downtime before lunch so I headed up to the school's tower which was quickly becoming my favorite spot—the views and the quiet atmosphere make it the perfect spot to relax.
After lunch, we attempted to visit the phone store, but it was closed for siesta time so we checked out a nearby library instead.
Walking on the steep and narrow streets (better press yourself up against the wall when a car comes) during the heat wave Europe is currently experiencing, quickly tired everyone out and we headed back. I made one more attempt to go finish this phone business but the bus station screen said the bus would arrive in 7 minutes for half an hour before I gave up. We had our last orientation session and celebrated with tapas out in the courtyard. I could not tell you what I ate as nothing was labeled but it was all pretty good!
(Side Note: During orientation, several people texted me about the Queen's death and I suggest you take some time to go read some of her obituaries. I've always admired her and there will never again be a reigning Queen of England in our lifetime. On a lighter note, the British Royal Family is referred to by Spanish names here: Queen Isabela II, King Carlos III, Princes Guillermo and Henrique) Leaving La Fund, the bus station I arrived at had no buses running so I found another one and waited for the next bus. It was an eventful ride: the driver was yelling at everyone, some people were yelling back, he asked me to re-scan my bus pass and as I did he started driving causing me to cut my leg. He then refused to stop at my stop and I had to walk 15 minutes back to the apartment—public transportation was not my friend today
Friday:
I woke up after both Ricardo and Marivi had left for work, so I found the same breakfast food from yesterday and started my journey to La Fund. I saw a bus about to leave and hurriedly hopped on before realizing it was the wrong bus. I got off at a stop I seemed to recognize and just walked the rest of the way, not wanting to be late for the tour. I arrived with plenty of time for our 10 AM guided tour of the city. We began on a bus, listening to the history of Toledo and the different influences of its rulers (Jewish, Muslim, and Christian.)
Eventually, we transitioned to walking, seeing great views of the city and the Tagus River (the longest river in Spain,)
some of the 80 churches and 30 convent within the city,
This cathedral clock only has an hour hand (apparently you just need to know the hour mass starts at and shouldn't be worrying about how many minutes you spend inside!)
and even a street named after Toledo, Ohio which appropriately houses both a Starbucks and a McDonald's
This door had two door knockers: a lower one for people on feet and a higher one for people on horseback:
I was pulled into a demonstration by the tour guide where we had to act out the inspiration for one of Adolfo Bécquer's poems, which occurred while he was living in Toledo.
There's also a statue of Miguel de Cervantes who was living in Toledo when he wrote Don Quijote (one of the most famous Spanish books of all time; if you don't recognize the name, you might recognize the song The Impossible Dream which is from the musical based on the book.)
For lunch, La Fund attempted an "integration activity" to mix up the students (there's 42 of us from a few different universities: Notre Dame University of Minnesota, University of Chicago, Clemson and even a few from Puerto Rico! I'm friendly with quite a few of the students, but the majority of us are from Notre Dame or the University of Minnesota.) We were assigned seating at tables to meet new students, and like almost all of these icebreakers, it was a little quiet and awkward. They then had us play a matching game where we each picked a card and had to find a match to our pair by asking questions (I drew Prince Harry and the person who drew Meghan Markle was also a Notre Dame student so so much for integration!)
That was our last scheduled event of the day so we spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing—the downtime was much needed! On the way home (having finally figured out the bus system and my route home!) I finally stopped and figured out my new Spanish SIM card. It looks like I'll continue using my current number for iMessage and FaceTime until it expires in a month and switches to the Spanish number? (I will update on this when it changes.)
Dinner was pisto, a famous Spanish dish in our region that consists of vegetables prepared in a tomato sauce—apparently close to ratatouille which makes sense as I've heard Spanish and French cuisine are similar. It was served with a fried egg and fresh bread, of course, and was quite good.
Marivi told me I was very "low cost" since I don't need that much food (Spanish portions are huge,) although quick to remember my suitcases, she added, "but high cost for travel." I also gave both Marivi and Ricardo the gift I had brought them from home: a picture book of nature in Arizona, which they seemed to really enjoy looking at! (I even heard her talking about it on the phone with a friend later.) Although they were certainly shocked to hear how high our temperatures get (I tried explaining that it's a dry heat to no avail.) The TV is always on during meals, usually the news, which gives us something to talk about. Later in the evening, she switched channels to some sort of Spanish singing game show where contestants have to guess whether a person is a singer or an imposter—it was the middle of the show so I couldn't tell you the rules, but it was certainly a fun way to end the evening.
Saturday:
I slept in this morning until 9:30 or so and finally decided to get out of bed around 10. To my surprise, Marivi asked if I was always such an early riser. I guess Spaniards and her previous students all must sleep later on the weekends. She was up because she was cleaning the house. I asked if I could help but she said it's the job of the Spanish mother (the father and the kids don't need to do anything) and told me I was the most organized student she's had. She took away her list of rules since I "don't need them anymore" and said I could shower in the morning I wanted since my classes are later and wouldn't interfere with her morning routine.
We walked over to a bakery to get bread, which was much more of a social event than I had anticipated. She bounced from neighbor to neighbor chatting about the latest news around the apartment complex. After we got bread, she had the bakery employee explain the different flavors of palmeras—a pastry in the shape of a palm leaves—and "explain them slowly because he's American." I selected the chocolate one top of Kitcat pieces which was unsurprisingly delicious.
Lunch was some sort of turkey (I was too scared to ask what part it was so as not to ruin the meal for myself) and salad. After meals Ricardo usually grabs a piece of chocolate from a bowl he has and often offers me one. I spent the rest of the afternoon resting and catching up on my journal and blog.
Notre Dame was playing a day game so kickoff was at 8:30 PM here, which meant I'd be able to watch the game with some friends. Their plan to find an Irish pub showing the game failed miserably (the place had no food and no football channels) so we ended up grabbing a small bite from a quick service taco shop—obviously nowhere near as good as the Mexican food back home—and watching the game on a laptop in a cafe.
The cafe then closed and we relocated to a seating area in front of a McDonald's where we watched Notre Dame lose terribly. To dull the pain, one of my friends invited us up to the rooftop seating area of his host family's apartment to look at the views.
The bus home took a while to arrive since it was so late, but I made it back without any problems—progress!
Sunday:
First and foremost, wishing the happiest of birthdays to my dad!! Coincidentally, my host mother's birthday is tomorrow so most of the day was spent preparing for her birthday celebration tonight. And breakfast was a different pastry this morning!
Ricardo and I walked to buy some balloons and he stopped at the smoke shop for cigarettes (he and Marivi both smoke—but only in the kitchen.) We chatted a little and he likes to talk about cars (not sure if I would know some of the things he was talking about in English) and apparently does have a car, which must be parked along the street somewhere since I don't think there's a garage at the apartment complex.
Lunch was gazpacho manchego, some sort of stew-pasta mix of vegetables and chicken. I was told we couldn't eat bread with it as the noodles were made from a type of bread and there is a Spanish saying: "pan con pan, comida de tontos" (bread with bread, the meal of fools.) The TV show on today seemed to be a Spanish version of a Judge Judy courtroom drama
Loving siesta time since it's quiet time for me to spend any way I want to! I reviewed my syllabi for class tomorrow and watch Come From Away (if you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend either watching the recording or seeing it live if you can! It's a great way to recognize 9/11 and remember the hope and humanity that can emerge from disaster.)
Ricardo and I were sent to pick up the desserts Marivi had ordered since it was 99* and I was "used to the heat." Marivi's family arrived at 7:30 and we had tapas that easily could've been served in America (cheese, crackers, veggies, chips, etc.) and the little tray of desserts we got earlier. Somethings are universal and clearly family events are one of those things: loud, chaotic, people teasing each other, complaining about the economy, a relative with interesting political opinions (like not believing Francisco Franco was a dictator,) and lots of love and laughter. I mostly just observed and listened to them all, and it was a decent substitution for the birthday celebration I'm missing back home.
And that closes out the week! Thank you all for following along! My Spanish speaking is definitely a little rusty, which is to expected since I ran out of classes to take my senior year of high school and all my classes last year were literature classes which don't exactly translate well to daily life! The speed of their Spanish along with their Castilian accents also make it harder to understand, but the people are all so nice and try to help us learn so we're gonna keep improving and it should be a good couple of months! Classes start tomorrow and so begins yet another adventure!
Los amo y los extraño a todos,
Bryce