Castle Biddies

So I was without internet for our whole stay in Cordoba, so the blogging thing was not going on, but Cordoba was really nice. It is a really sleepy, quiet city, but we still had fun and made the most of it. I roomed with Jade in our hotel, which was really nice and we got along great living together, which is a good sign. I also got to use my beer ordering skills, which is one of the four phrases I had before coming to Spain, and shortly after got to use another when I ordered a coffee to go (para llevar).

Going out in Cordoba was actually hilarious. Yesterday, we (Jade, Charity, Rayna, Lyvia, and I) went out after it had been raining all day, and ended up getting pretty lost trying to find the club where the whole group was planning on going later. Instead, we found a group of four girls smoking and hiding from the increasingly intense rain. They told us they were headed to the club and we decided we could just follow them there. This became all nine of us darting through the pouring rain, ducking under awnings for cover, and running while crouching down like spies, all while laughing hysterically. It was outrageous and spectacular. A truly great moment. When we got there it was the wrong club and the girls had some sort of trouble getting in because they were apparently much younger than we had gathered.

Bar selfie with my roommate.

That club was fun for a bit, but Jade and I had higher hopes for the other place. Lyvia, Rayna, and Charity chose to stay at that club and dance, Jade and I left. We found the other club, and went in. It was much more fun, and the crowd was a better demographic (a.k.a. not borderline too-young-to-be-there). We had fun, saw the rest of the group, and danced. We also got to see some shirtless male dancers. I think it was Ladies Night at the club. There was a screen that said something about Friday being ladies night, and there were roses, fruit skewers, and a chocolate fountain. We did not partake of these goodies, but we did watch some hilariously choreographed dancers in a sort of Magic Mike/One Direction combo-shot. Here's a pic of the more chiseled one.

Black pants, suspenders, white collar and cuffs, and a black bow tie. Hilarious.

After that we went to one of the only food places open because Jade was starving. On the way, we ran into Peter from Macalester, who tagged along. I ordered something called a tortilla because it was only one euro. What I got was basically potato on bread with ketchup. Yes, potato, on a roll. That's starch on carbs. It was awesome.

Turns out in Spain "tortilla" is a really common dish that is made from potato, onion, and egg, fried together. It was so good. I am salivating just thinking about it. Too bad I don't have a sweet Instagram food pick for accompaniment.

Me and Freud in the Square in Cordoba, with my café para llevar.

Today we left Cordoba for Seville, and on the was stopped at a freaking AWESOME CASTLE!!! YEAH! A CASTLE!!! It was sweet. Everyone agreed it was by far the best stop of the trip thus far.

Castillo de Almodóvar, so cool!!
[I recommend googling it for higher quality images]

At one point I was taking a picture of one of the towers when Carter, one of the other students, walked by. I thought he might like a picture, so I offered, and he consented. However, one girl decided to photo-bomb, and then an entire group came walking by. I therefore decided they could be in the picture and yelled "line up Castle Biddies!" so that they would stop and smile at the camera. Hence the title of this blog post.

The resulting photograph.

It was spectacular, and now we are in Seville, a bigger city, full of life. Jade and I went to find some lunch, and stumbled upon a tiny cervezas and tapas café. The man who ran it operated the whole thing by himself out of a tiny closet next to the bar. He cooked on two pans, one over a single gas burner, the other sitting on the flat surface of a George Foreman Grill, turned hotplate. He told us what to get, which we later learned is the same thing he recommended to everyone else, I said okay, not sure of quite what I was going to get. I ended up with a pork cutlet sandwich on a roll, dripping in oil, and doused in salt. It was so delicious. It was not, however, the most filling, and Jade, not satiated by her plate of eggs and beans, suggested we go to the supermarket and pick up some food.

We ended up eating picnic style in our hotel room, devouring baby greens, grape tomatoes, bread, cheese, and I also had some turkey. It made for a fun and very satisfying lunch.

Afterwards we had a meeting where we were assigned to our "host mom" Palomar, who is a single, young professional woman. She is apparently an amazing cook, and we each get our own bedroom. Her apartment is a 10-15 minute metro ride from the school, which does not sound too bad. Jade and I are stoked. She seems like exactly what we wanted in a host family.

Me and Hemingway at the castle!

It is now Saturday night, and we are in our biggest city yet. I am too achy and exhausted to go out, but not too concerned about it. I'm rooming with Jade and Charity here. It is a little cramped, and another one of the SU Madrid seminars (Imperium) is in the same hotel with us. Jade is already asleep, because she is sick, and Charity was dying to dance, so I'm not sure where she ran off to.

This hotel is the nicest one so far, it is completely great, and the wifi is free. We have a quiz tomorrow on Toledo and Cordoba, so I am not lacking for things to do, including catch up on some much needed sleep. Plus a week from today, I will be in Madrid. A bigger and better city, with very promising night life.

Buenas noches!

Yo Tango Hombre

I try not to make it a habit to swear on the internet, but I think this story is too funny not to tell, and it won't work censored. Parental discretion is advised. So Monday night at dinner I was sitting with a group of girls, and one of them had an interesting catch-phrase. They were talking about how hungry they were, and then someone asked about how dinner would be served. I piped up that they said that dinner would be a set meal served to us but usually we would get a buffet, and be able to pick and chose what we want to eat. The girl responded hungrily, "I could fuck with a buffet, right now." When someone said they heard we were having chicken for dinner, the same girl nodded approvingly and said, "I could fuck with some chicken, right now." It was hilarious, and she was so serious. I was silently dying across the table from her.

Tuesday,  we had a long lecture about the rise of Islam, which was actually really interesting, and saw a Visigoth church in Toledo. Then we walked around, and I joined a group of new acquaintances for lunch, where we ogled our waiter, while the only boy in our group laughed and abstained from the conversation. Stuff's been fun. Here's a church pic, it promises to be the first of many.

My apologies to the girl whose face ended up in this photo.

We ate a surprisingly terrible dinner of what we think was veal... Then we went out to an Irish pub, and met a group of University of Minnesota students who will be studying in Toledo for the semester.

Today, we went to see the Cathedral of Toledo and to a Synagogue, I walked around with Jade, a girl I met yesterday, and agreed I would be roommates with in Madrid, though we both strongly emphasized our desire for our own bedrooms. We also went to a museum devoted to El Greco, and the Torture Museum, which was really intense. At one point we came across a cool looking club which we are going to try and go to tonight... though we may not be able to find it again. Tomorrow we leave Toledo for Cordoba.

My favorite El Greco painting of the ones we saw. 

Today was rainy and cold, but I am meeting people and having fun, and this city is really cool. Plus I have been attempting to speak all of the Spanish that I can, and keep talking to people, and asking questions. It is great, and I think I am actually doing decently well.

Final note: The title is from when a woman in a shop came out to talk to us, and Jade was trying to indicate that we were going to get lunch. Instead of correctly saying "yo tengo hambre," "I am hungry," she said "yo tango hombre" meaning "I have a man." The woman was quite amused by us, and we talked to her for a bit as she commented on our various Spanish phrases, attempting to improve our pronunciation.

Holy Toledo! I have arrived in Spain

Okay- so I guess it's day one, though technically I departed from JFK yesterday thus marking the beginning of my abroad adventure. However, upon arrival in the Madrid Barajas airport, I learned that the Spanish like to have elevators that go to negative numbers. Baggage claim and my Toledo Hotel room were both on floor -2. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Welcome to Spain, hopefully once I calm down a little the blog posts will shorten. Till then:

Day -1: Saturday Jan 12.
Saturday was packing HELL. I spent all day loading stuff into my two suitcases and compulsively weighing it. I also, under the stress of packing, kept snubbing my mother. She responded by continuing to give me my space, while periodically offering me food and assistance. Finally, we ate a lovely family dinner before I went back and continued removing things from my suitcases until past ten o'clock. There was crying, and my father was kind and sympathetic, a recurring theme, it seems.

Also, when I went to print my boarding pass, I decided to look over the list of people who would be on the Azahar 2-week seminar class/tour around Spain with me. This was not a published list, but the "to" section of an email, with the list of recipient addresses. Syracuse email addresses appeared as names but since there several students from other schools were joining us, a few of the email addresses were written out. One was a Macalester College address, which I got excited about because that is where my brother, Malcolm, goes to school. I called Malcolm to see if he knew the person, he did not.

Day 0: Sunday the 13th
I woke up, relatively late (10:30 am) and immediately went to make biscuits. I thought I needed to take full advantage of my last chance to cook before departing. We ate breakfast, and my parents convinced me to email the Mac student. I did so, and received a nice response from the boy, Peter. I finished shoving things into my various carry-ons, and we were out the door by 1:30 pm, only half an hour later than our set goal.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and found the SU Abroad group easily in the small terminal. There was an altercation in the baggage check line, as a woman and her family cut the line, and my mother along with an angry Columbian father yelled at both the line attendant and the woman, who went into angry suburban mom mode and retaliated by claiming she would have moved if addressed nicely. Unlikely, lady.

In line directly in front of me was a girl with SU Abroad, Benewaa, who would be on my seminar. As I checked in I met a boy named Jason, whose name had been incorrectly printed onto his boarding pass.

I chose to go through security right then to allow maximum reading and meeting people time, and my mother immediately began to cry, wish me well, and assure me they were tears of joy. I then proceeded through the security line, only to be surprise attacked by my father and his mobile phone camera as I handed my passport to the TSA agent. Needless to say, the man was not amused, and declared that you may not take pictures of TSA agents. Nice one, dad, good start to the trip.

While sitting at the gate waiting, I met two girls, Juliana [who would be on my seminar] and Flouri (I think I botched that spelling). I also met two girls whose names I cannot remember. There was also a silent boy sitting across from me, who did not join the introduction conversation at all, and did not make a peep except to ask someone to watch his bag, and later to offer his seat to a woman who was assisting her mother. As I boarded the flight, I ran into Peter from Macalester and we chatted while waiting on the jet-bridge.

On the flight I sat next to a girl named Julia. She was setting out for a program in Seville. I don't expect our paths to cross again, but you never know. The flight was pretty uneventful, I read and attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to sleep. I also thought extensively about how I did not yet know anyone, and had no idea what to expect upon arrival. I know all that will change quickly, but it is interesting to look around, and realize that these people will not be strangers for much longer.

Additionally, I think it is worth noting that while serving dinner, one of the flight attendants walked through the aisles of the plane shouting, with an inflection of urgency, "más pan" while carrying a very full tray of rolls. I don't know why, but something in her voice made it hilarious. Maybe you had to be there.

Day 1: TODAY!
We landed, and didn't have to do anything complicated with customs. We simply showed our passports and were on our way. The group of 55 (or so) students shuttled from passport-check to baggage claim, all wrestled to get our bags on a truck to the madrid center, and then loaded onto busses to our respective seminars. My seminar, Azahar, was set to Toledo [hence the ingenious facebook status, turned blog post title].

While in the airport, I met up with Peter, and we followed quiet guy from JFK, who I finally learned was named Sage. Juliana also caught up with us. On the bus, I met Mike, Molly, and Natalie, periodically joining their conversation and then zoning out for the duration of the hour drive to Toledo. I also chose to room with the girls seated behind me, Benewaa [the girl from the JFK Iberia line] and Rayna.

The roommates in our Alfonzo-VI room, with the lovely painting, and my scarf hand-knit by Mel P.

We were given no parameters for our day, and none of the other students knew what the plan was, this was at 11 am, when we arrived at the hotel. After checking into our room, and a slight hiccup attempting to turn on the lights, we settled in and showered, and hoped to not have to function as humans while so severely sleep-deprived.

We ventured up to the front desk for a wifi code and figured out how to make a call home for free using the Magic Jack app on the iPhone. We eventually heard a knock on our door at 5:30 pm, and a rumor of a 6 pm meeting. Then, as we tried to unlock the door to leave the hotel room, we were unable to get the key to turn in the lock. It was scary, and when we called the front desk for help the yelled through the door, not understanding. Finally two men from the front desk used the extra key to open the door from the outside, and showed us how the deadbolt worked. Thanks señiors, we know how locks work, it was legit stuck.

The past 24 hours have been so intense, and JFK seems a lifetime away. However, someone on the bus was reflecting on how quickly this semester will past, and I am sure that it is true. I may have no friends, and speak next to no Spanish, but hopefully in four months I will be enjoying myself, and finishing up an amazing abroad experience. Benwaa, Rayna and I walked through our little corner of Toledo, and looked in a few shops. The people seem nice, and the city is lovely and covered in cobblestone. Even the McDonald's looked European.

The final note I'll end on is that I think everything will be okay. This seems like a "well, duh" kind of sentiment, but really. I am not the only one who speaks no Spanish, and while people are forming clicks, everyone seems friendly enough, and willing to allow me to awkwardly insert myself into their conversations. I may not be comfortable, but I seem to lack the completely-confused feeling which other students have expressed.

I may not be going out with the group at midnight, but I don't feel the need to. I will read, and sleep, and everything will be okay... like, duh.

Oh what a week

WARNING: This post is SUPER EXTRA LONG, and not that cheerful... to be honest it may come off as a little whiny, though it ends on a positive note. I started writing this from the waiting room in CVS... on Tuesday. It is now just past 12 am on Saturday, I decided to sum up my week with the daily updates I was to distracted to post.

Tuesday: 
After waiting in line at the pharmacy for ten minutes, I finally got to the front. The woman there told me one of my prescriptions was ready and the other just went through and would be ten minutes. Half an hour later, after witnessing a small miserable boy wait for his mother to bring him medicine, and a grown man take off both of his shirts to get a flu shot, I was still waiting.

But aside from the madness that is trying to get six months of prescription medicine one week before leaving the country, I also did try to enjoy my last week home. I spent the day kicking it with my friend, Kaitlin, who convinced me to make an Instagram** at lunch, and then we wondered the Aldrich museum for a bit.

I also cooked dinner, read, and sat in a bed reading some more while my two friends played Call of Duty with some random men on the Xbox network. The evening later transitioned to all of us on Omegle, which ended with a four hour video chat with a Canadian boy from midnight until 4am.

Wednesday:
I had an appointment half an hour from my house at 8am. I am not a morning person and had only gotten to bed around 4:30 am. So at 7:30 I hauled ass out of bed, and went to an appointment that seemed a thorough waste of time, and more importantly a waste of $30.

I proceeded to drop off the prescription at the same pharmacy from Tuesday, but was able to escape unscathed, with the promise that all would be ready in a few hours. With that, I left, and thought I would pick up my six months worth of pills, along with the 90 I was owed from my Tuesday prescription that evening.

I decided that I would get some breakfast, and coffee, and then go visit the lovely people at the pet store where I have worked since high school. However, as I was leaving the Dunkin Donuts, I had an awkward interaction with an old woman for whom I held both doors, and as we walked out she said "Oh no, whoever has that red car, they have a flat tire." To which I responded mournfully, "That's my red car."

Yes, four days before my flight to Madrid, I popped a flat tire. Fantastic.

I thought perhaps I could put more air in it, or maybe just wasn't fully processing the situation, and decided there was little I could do at that precise moment. So I rolled down the hill to the pet shop, parked, and went in. As I walked in, I expressed my misery to Kevin, one of the managers (who I had not seen in maybe six months). I, always eloquesnt, responded to his smiling hello with a sorrowful "everything sucks." He, in what I consider to be a noble and heroic act, followed me outside, and offered to plug my tire. Kevin plugged my tire, jacked up my car, put the spare on loosely so that if the car fell off the jack it would not damage the rotor and lent me his car so I could go put air in my freshly repaired tire.

When I returned from filling my tire, I decided not to bother him until it was time to triumphantly return his tools and car keys. BIG MISTAKE. I had to jack the car up a little more to get the newly inflated tire to fit and was perhaps a bit overzealous. The car rolled back, the rotor crashed into the asphalt, and I was horrified. I ran inside in a panic and Kevin came to the rescue... again. He lifted the body of the car enough for me to slide the jack back under, ran to get his jack as back up, and got blocks to put behind the tires. Finally we got the car up enough to get the spare on, lowered it, learned the spare tire was flat, and rolled the car onto flatter ground... I failed to mention that the car was parked on a slope for the entire preceding part of this story. Not smart. Finally Kevin switched the spare for the repaired tire, noticed a scrape in the rubber, and recommended I look into getting new tires. We test drove the car and all seemed to be okay.

I picked up all of my prescriptions, and prayed as she swiped the credit card for the nearly $350 charge. It was approved, and I finally got to go home, about two and a half hours later than I had hoped. I went home and sobbed to my father about my anxieties, lack of money, my car and my prescription woes. He recommended I get some sleep. Very wise. I slept from about one until five, and got nothing done. Then my ever-sympathetic father took me and my mom out to the Cheesecake Factory, clearly in an attempt to comfort me, though we wrote it off as a belated birthday dinner for my mother.

Thursday: I am wracking my brain to remember what I did Thursday, I think the answer is almost nothing. I read some of Mindy Kaling's book, I stewed about an annoying text, I watched some episodes of The Office, I made dinner for myself and my mother, I went to coffee with some friends. I think that's about it. Clearly I am the busiest.

On Friday I went to the pet store and cuddled this adorable grey bunny. He reminds me of my cat, Hunter.

Friday:
My mother took the day off from work to help me pack. We got Euros and coffee, and sorted through my things until they had been reasonably paired down. Then we went out for Indian food and watched Spirited Away, which is a FANTASTIC movie, by the way. Independent of whether or not you have seen it already, I recommend watching it. I enjoy it every time.

Perhaps more importantly, however, is my increasing sense of calm and excitement. The two are contradictory, I know, but I really have calmed down a lot from my panic about going to a foreign country where I know no one and don't speak the language. Plus I am beginning to really look forward to what promises to be an amazing experience.

So, I am into my last full day home. I will have breakfast with my friends, I will pack with my mom, and then I will have a last family dinner and a lovely evening with my parents. I plan to enjoy my last 36 hours here, though I am not sure how relaxed I will be.

Sunday Funday, Stuff Edition

I have spent all day going through my various bins of stuff. These bins are full of random trinkets, toys, office supplies and papers that I have gathered over the years. Some of the stuff holds sentimental value, some of it is trash, some of it I will be donating, and then there is the fun stuff that I will play with for the next week while I prepare for my trip, and try to avoid becoming a terrified stress monster. One such item is the light-up yo-yo which I found while trying to consolidate my bins.

I paused, mid-productivity, to play with said yo-yo and have not looked back. This development has led me to wonder: Why are yo-yos so fun? I can't do any tricks with it. I frequently must rewind it by hand because my skills are just that bad. Yet, I continue to let it fall, and pull itself back up. This seems to be the epitome of my procrastination. It is late. I am tired, despite having slept for nearly twelve hours last night, and there is still a mess all over my floor. A mess that I had said I would clear before going to sleep. But then, I think, actually this blog is my ultimate procrastination. I went from productive, to entertaining myself with an old-school toy, to writing about entertaining myself with an old-school toy. Oh well.

On an entirely separate note, I really do feel that today has been an important step towards preparing for my trip to Madrid. It is the first day I have spent actually working towards getting organized. Plus, I spoke with my lovely roommate, Marissa, who is preparing to go to London for the semester. We discussed what we would be bringing along for the 5-months, and it was just nice to see her face. Plus I got to spend about an hour with my oldest friend, Melissa, and we decorated my Blimpus while I offered her many items from my enormous stuff collection.

Me and my Blimpus, looking good

I also managed to get myself so worked up into a nervous nausea that I actually messaged my friend, Evan, who just came back from a semester abroad in Madrid. The result was a very reassuring and kind message which turned into me asking some random questions, and him clarifying the few things that were really unclear in my mind.

So today was good. Things are looking up, I am feeling good, and maybe tonight when I finally go to sleep I will actually be able to have a restful night. Perhaps tomorrow when I wake up this awful pain in my back will be gone, and I can finish working with all my stuff and perhaps even get organized to pack.

Here's hoping for a productive and stress-free Monday.

It's 4 am in Madrid

I leave for Madrid one week for tomorrow. I will be studying abroad there for five months and would be lying if I claimed to be unconcerned.

As it stands now I can say four things in Spanish:
1) Where is the bathroom?
2) A cold beer, please.
3) A coffee, to go.
4) Enough!

Part of me thinks this may be enough to get by until I can learn more. The other part of me realizes that I am going to be going to Europe for the first time ever, with a group of total strangers, to live in a country where I don't know the language.

But it will be fine, right? I mean, it occurs to me that people less worldly, confident, articulate and scrappy than myself have studied abroad and not only lived to tell about it, but had an amazing time.

So here goes nothing, I guess, and maybe this ridiculous blog, which I half-heartidly started over a year ago, will be along for the ride. Here's hoping for great times and short sentences with fewer commas than that last one.

Oh, and also along for the ride will be Freud, Hemingway and Nietzsche , who will hopefully appear in many pictures with me around Europe.

Thanks to my Aunt Noka, for both the idea, and the finger puppets. 

So I guess that's it for tonight. With one week left to prepare and about $200 left between my bank accounts, here goes nothing. Hopefully the next post is less than 13 months away.

Typical Tuesday

       So, my first blog... As someone who does not read blogs, I don't know how these things are supposed to go. All I know is that I have been unable to keep any steady log of my life for more than a few months at a time, so maybe the solution to this problem is to post my journals publicly on the internet. After all, the internet is the solution to all problems.
      The final push for me to start this ridiculous blog was a very flattering comment from my lovely friend on this charming Facebook status:
"Dear man walking past Shaffer art building, I like your cowboy hat. You look mad fly. Keep on keepin' on. Sincerely, Mandy Kane"
   So now, here I am. Welcome to the blogosphere.
   Today was a good day. I spent my college biology class playing games and coloring, so I am right on track to pass kindergarten. I also read the words "Jesus Christ--Superstar" in transliterated Russian.
    An always thrilling life.
So maybe that's it for this introductory blog. Hopefully the next one will be more interesting... But probably not.