Monthly checkup

I've already been in Alicante a month. Some days it feels like the time's crawling by, but then I look at what I've done in the past 30 days and I know the time's flying by.

Every day I miss my friends and family and my home and the familiarity it affords me, but the homesick isn't incapacitating. It's more like a dull ache I live with every day and often forget it's there. I had one really bad day last week where I was really close to changing my ticket to come home sooner. I missed fall weather. I missed my mom. I missed my own bed. I missed my friends. I missed my boyfriend so much it felt sick. I get really frustrated when I KNOW I'm excited to be somewhere but my body doesn't match up with how I think I should be feeling. Also, I have a lot of trouble being okay with the decision I make. Every decision. It doesn't matter if it's what restaurant I go to, or how I cut my hair, or where I decide to live for 4 months. I agonize over every decision I make. So on this awful day I was convinced that I had chosen the Complete Worst City Ever to live in. I don't feel that way any more. On that day I wasn't rational. I ate a whole package of cookies.

I think there are a lot of little things I like about Alicante that I don't recognize right away as being awesome. I think that I sometimes forget that not every day is vacation, so I feel like when I'm not hiking in the mountains or eating paella every day or going on cultural excursions I'm living in a boring city. But how could I possibly stretch vacation time into 4 months? I can't. Part of studying abroad is getting into the rhythm of living somewhere else. It's not like Alicantinos are constantly visiting castles. I'd say my rhythm's pretty okay by now.

I like lists a lot. I will give you a list of little things I really like about ALC/studying abroad:

• My host mom, Juani. She calls me "hija". Whenever I look even slightly depressed she makes me sundaes. She's conversational and motherly while still giving me a large degree of independence
• The fusion of Valencian/Spanish. Valencian is the other official language of Alicante. No one really speaks it conversationally, but a lot of posters and ads are written in Valencian, and there's even a news channel. It sounds like chewed-up Spanish, but it makes me feel kinda smug that I can essentially understand another language.
• The fact that I'm wearing summer dresses and it's almost October. 
• How I can walk to the Mediterranean coast. And swim. I am never, ever in a bad mood when I swim in the ocean. The water is so clear and cool and clean and it makes you feel weightless. I have no worries when I'm in the ocean. The waves never cease to calm me and amuse me.
• My four-year-old host nephew, Adrián. Last night we played fútbol in the house. He's endlessly amused by silly games, like hiding behind the table to make me think that he disappeared. 
• Practicing my Spanish
• How it is expected by an entire culture that I will take a nap every single day

Those are just some of the things I can think of right now. Other interesting things I did:

 

Went to a winery where they had a zoo! Well, kind of.  A patron bought a lot of wine and didn't have standard currency to pay the winery, so he gave them animals! There were these little reindeer (my favorites), ostriches, goats, pigs, sheep, and horses. I was going to upload more pictures but it's a pain to upload them here. I'll show you all when I get home

The world cup trophy came to Alicante! I touched that thing that tons of countries battled on those beautiful green pitches for. I waited 2 and a half hours in line to see it, but it was cool anyway

This is Adrián eating natilla, one of my new comfort foods (made by Juani, on the right). Natilla is custard with cinnamon and graham crackers. I hate, like, four bowls in two days. It was awesome.

There are still some things that make me really homesick, and frustrate me, but it's been a month and I'm still kicking! Except I think I have an ear infection from swimming yesterday. Oh well!

Hasta luego,

Maren

One of the things common in Spanish culture is the pirópo, or catcall. During our orientation weekend the female students were told that we could probably get hit on on the street and we would just have to ignore it.

I think the female reaction to such attention is equal parts interesting and infuriating. In the United States, usually if I am catcalled I'll whip out a comeback or, if the catcall is particularly lewd or I'm just having that kind of day, I'll give some vulgar hand signal I'd never, ever show my mother. So when it happens here it's strange that I just have to ignore it. "It's part of the culture," I've been told. "It's just how men try to get women's attention."

Correct me if I've overlooked something, but in what universe does a catcall EVER solicit positive attention from a female? If you can tell me of a happy couple who met because she was getting groceries and he made some comment about her shorts, I will give you a dollar. Maybe the pirópo is used to get attention from women, but it's not the kind of attention that I feel I should ignore.

One could make the argument that by me making some smart comment or flipping the bird I'm giving men a reaction, but it's a reaction that tells the catcaller that I don't appreciate the attention and inappropriate behavior is going to be met with an aggressive response. I think I feel that ignoring it is worse, because it reinforces negative behavior, much like letting a toddler throw a fit in a restaurant.

Also troubling is the dismissal of the pirópo as "just part of the culture". Call me a raging, bra-burning feminist, but I feel like the tolerance of something as seemingly innocent as catcalling is the gateway to other things like sexual discrimination in the workplace to rape apology. It's the same can of worms you open when you allow kids to call each other "gay" as an insult and are then surprised when raging homophobia complicates the road to equal rights.

So those are my thoughts on that.


And now a nice thing about Alicante

One thing that has really impressed me about Alicante is the use of public space. The plazas here are really beautiful. On every street connecting the plazas there are benches, sculptures, fountains, playgrounds, and lots of plants. Everywhere I walk I see people interacting with their space. It's really encouraging and smile-inducing to see people being a part of their community in such a lovely way. There are places like that in Minneapolis, but for the couple of fountains and sculptures there are at home there are myriad in Alicante. I think public space that invites interaction is one of the reasons that people become proud of their city. I think that's one of the things I like best about Alicante: the personality of the city, and how a trip downtown feels like a little art excursion.

Ok, that's all! I'm going to watch some anime before going downtown for dinner with some kids in the group for a girl's birthday. It'll be nice to have some Mexican food--I've been missing enchiladas. I'll bet you a dollar they won't be spicy, though.

Hasta pronto,
Maren

go to the market and sell it

As part of a homework assignment, on Tuesday our classes took a little field trip to the central market to explore and answer questions about what can be found at Alicante's mercado. The answer is primarily lots and lots of fish. I knew Mediterranean diet was really seafood-heavy, but I didn't realize how diverse the choices are. There were all sorts of squid, octopus, prawns, shrimp, crab, mussels, and of course your standard scaly fish with gills. I saw a tuna that was seriously as big as me.

 
It was really interesting to see how the market operates. On the bottom level, there's the fish stands. There are a lot of fish stands, but they all basically sell the same thing (some are more tuna-heavy, some have more octopus, etc). I wonder how people choose which one to patronize. It was kind of overwhelming.  Also interesting was the fact that everything was prepared right at the market. The fish were all whole, and almost all the stand owners were cutting up the fish, or weighing them out to put in packages for a customer, or de-scaling or de-boning, or something like that. It definitely seemed fresher than buying packaged, prepared, frozen fish from a supermarket. I have no idea what the fishing practices are like, and if they're sustainable or not, but the market sure seemed to offer fresh, local fare.

 

This man is taking the scales of some ichthyoid

After that I came home and Juani made me dinner. Usually during dinner we watch TV, which is really strange because I can count on one hand the times the TV was on during dinner growing up. Sometimes it's really hard to understand because when you're just listening to Spanish speech it can seem really overwhelming. If hand gestures and eye contact isn't directed at you you don't really know what's going on. We watch the same shows, usually, and I've gotten the general gist. They are as follows:

Que Tiempo Tan Feliz ("What a happy time"): A talk show where old actors or singers come on and have their life stories told, and there's usually some ex-lover or close relative that comes and gives the most emotional message ever. I really don't know what they talk about, mostly how many hits they had or how many people they dated. Periodically a pop group comes to sing, which still confuses me. If they sing songs that the singers made popular, that would make sense, but as I don't know anything about Spanish pop culture I remain in the dark.

Pasapalabra ("Password"): A game show that has to do with words, and sometimes a song. I like this show a lot because it teaches me vocabulary (which I usually make a mental note to use in daily conversation and yeah, that never happens). My favorite game is when they go around the alphabet and are given clues to a word and have to guess the word. They also play this game where they are given five seconds of a song and have to guess it, but I think they have to actually sing the song to get the points. 

Vuélvame Loca ("Drive Me Crazy"): A celebrity news show. Sometimes people yell. It's mostly shady paparazzi "journalism". 

Siete Vidas ("Seven Lives"): Kind of a Friends-ish style show. I don't fully understand it all the time, but I know who is generally the one who gets herself into mischief and who is there to tell her why she is wrong. I am very smug when I get the jokes. Humor is hard in other languages. 

Also SpongeBob Squarepants is HUGE here (under the name of "Bob Esponja"). I got a huge kick out of the character names, like Squidward is named "Calamardo". I am going to make a huge effort to watch this with my 7 and 4-year-old host nephews next week.

That's about all I have for now. Updates later, I'm sure

--Maren

and there was much gnashing of teeth at the preterite tense

Tomorrow is the last day of my intensive Spanish course, and not a day too soon. It's been a good review for basic mechanics of Spanish, but overall it's been a mildly frustrating course. I say mildly because I've had full-fledged frustrating classes before where I want to cry and poke my eyes out, but this has mostly been a course where I pout because it's not MY learning style, and everything should be tailored to MY needs. Hmph!

I learned Spanish the same way I learned English. People spoke it at me and I picked it up. I never had a formal Spanish grammar class until 7th or 8th grade, almost ten years after I had been babbling away en español. Formal grammar classes are awful. All of a sudden you are confronted with these weird rules that make you second-guess how you speak. I didn't really realize why it was hard for me until this class.

As an example to my English-speaking friends, say you had been speaking fluent English for a long while and then someone tried to teach you the appropriate way to make a prediction. For example:
"Where was Maren last night?"
Depending on your pattern of speech, you could answer this one of several ways:
"She was blogging"
"She blogged"
"Wasn't she blogging?"
"She had been blogging"
"I think she blogged"
"She would have been blogging/would have blogged"

Or when talking about a past action:
"I went to the café"
"I had gone to the café"
"I had been going to the café"
"I had been at the café"
"I go to the café"

While all of the aforementioned answers would get your point across, some are more correct than the others, depending on your level of doubt, how close the prediction is to the present, if the action had been anterior to another action, whether it was a continuing or closed action, if it was a descriptor, etc. Intelligent beings though you all are, I don't know if any native speaker who has not studied grammar extensively can answer how to form any given sentence or clause absolutely correctly every time.

So, because I was not taught these rules, remembering them off the cuff when I'm taking a test is difficult. It's like when people ask me the difference in English between "who" and "whom"--in the vernacular they are interchangeable but if my life depended on the correct answer I would just tell them what music I wanted at my memorial service. I know the rules when presented with them, but when writing I find myself ambivalent towards my immersion education--on the one hand, I am presented with no language barrier when I'm in real-world Spain, but I get my tests back with less than perfect grades because I just could not remember what constitutes as a continuing action in the past and what constitutes as a closed one (I know I sound stupid, but it's harder than you think).

Plus sides are: I am not failing the course, my speech is still good, and if I look pathetic enough while I study Juani makes me ice cream sundaes.

On Monday I start an advanced grammar course and an oral course. Both may make me growly, but I promise I will mostly post pictures of beautiful things and tell you all about how great Spain is (although I get more time to enjoy it when there are no tests)

Hasta luego,
Maren

The other day we took a day trip up into the mountains to see a 17th-century house, built by some of Spain's ruling class. The house was built in a colonial-meets-hacienda style. There were rooms for cooking, dining, and sleeping, obviously, but there were also rooms for honoring dead ancestors (complete with wax effigies!) and several sitting rooms. There was also a really old library, with some books published in the 1600s. Of course our grubby hands weren't allowed to touch them, but I would've loved to see what a geography or medicinal text looked like back then. The greatest thing was the mountains. Just a 45-minute drive out of dry, arid Alicante gives you lush, green, cooler climate. Observe:

After touring the little castle we went to a town called Altea to take in some more Mediterranean. The town was what you would usually think of if someone said "Mediterranean coastal town". Most of the streets were cobbled or mosaiced (I know that's not a word). We spent a lot of time on the beach, and I sat and laughed with some girls and took in the sun.

 

All in all it was a wonderful day. 

On Friday night I stayed in, but on Saturday Olivia and I went out to try and get some of that Spanish nightlife, which we have not experienced because we are old and peace out at 2 am, presumably to soak our dentures and play with our cats. So we decided that Saturday we should do it. We went out at about 1030 and, while wandering the barrio, ran into one of her friends from Oregon, who was living in England, and visiting Alicante. She was with a girl she met at her hostel, Sophie from Belgium. We had a drink with them (cherry-flavored beer, more a dessert or pool drink than what I like my beer to taste like) until about 12:30. At that point we got to our pseudo-crabby "I want to get into my pajamas" phase but egged each other into staying out later. After an hour of people-watching and playing "spot the drunk American who can't stand up straight" we finally found a dance club that seemed marginally clean and happenin. 

Long story short, we lost track of time busting various moves and I got to bed at 8 am. Now I am a real Spaniard. But I can't say I'll do that again. I am still feeling the pain of grooving that much and being out that late. It was loud in there and my ears hurt.

This week the group's going to the central market, a museum, and a winery, so more pictures soon!

Hasta luego,

Maren

Castles in the air

Yesterday my group visited the castle of Santa Bárbara, a 1000-year-old castle overlooking the coast. It was a castle inhabited by both Arab and Christian rulers, but the castle got its name from King Alfonso X, whose forces overtook the castle on December 4th, day of Santa Bárbara. Different levels of the castle were built at different times--the oldest dating back to the 9th century. It was used also as a fort and then as a prison, but was largely abandoned by the 19th century until 1963, when it was opened to the public. I took all that information from Wikipedia. Now for some pictures.

My new friend Olivia overlooking the Mediterranean

I don't know how old these cannons are but they sure were sweet.

the squares are for shooting out. The little round balls are bombs. 

(L to R) the flags of Alicante, Spain, Valencia, and the EU

 The castle from the bottom of the hill

It was really humbling to be there--those stones were the ones kings and princes and soldiers walked on, and people lived their lives in those halls hundreds of years ago. It made me feel small in comparison, but significant in that, in a small way, I'm part of Alicante's identity, too, and it's part of mine. 

I'm going to bed now. I have a test on grammar in the morning (which sounds about as fun as glass salad for dinner) which I should cram study for. 

Hasta luego,

Maren

Beaches and other things

Our intense language classes started on Thursday.  It's exceedingly simple--it's just a review of basic grammatical structures so we have a handle on the pragmatic application of Spanish speech. Sometimes grammar can be really difficult for me because I was never taught it. I learned Spanish the way I learned English--it was just spoken to me and I mimicked what was correct. I don't know what pluperfect tense is in Spanish or English. So sometimes my worksheets get really messy because I get confused on what exactly I'm supposed to say. I think my answers are mostly correct, but some answers are more correct than others. But it's like doing anything you've left alone for a long time in that a basic review and you're good to go. Now I finish my homework while I listen to The Black Keys and wait for my blog pages to load.

Friday was beach day! It was my first time seeing the Mediterranean coast. The water is so clear and the waves are gentle and the sand is soft. My friend Olivia and I spent hours just soaking up the evening sun and chatting. Today I visited again in the searing afternoon heat and I AM ACTUALLY GETTING TAN. Even with heaps of sunscreen. My arms are a little more caramely and I've got some big freckles on my nose. My tummy is not even offensively white.

One thing about the beaches: many women go topless. It's all kinds of women, young and old, big and small. It was a little distracting when I first got there ("that's an awfully light bikini top omigodthat'snotaswimsuit") but now it's just kind of normal. It's not like I've never seen any before, owning a pair myself, so more power to them for sunbathing and swimming and not caring.

Also on bodies: Americans tend to think that Europeans are slender and healthy and whatnot, and I've found that that's only partially true. People in Spain are overweight, but it's not the startlingly obese proportions that seem normal in the US. Also, I have yet to see a really heavy Spanish person under the age of 25. I thought it was the diet, but a lot of Spanish food is swimming in oil and butter and, contrary to popular opinion, they eat a lot of it. Restaurant portions are the same, and people still eat fast food. Maybe it's the culture and the attitudes towards food, and set mealtimes throughout the day (the concept of a huge dinner doesn't really exist), and the fact that Spanish kids in urban settings walk most everywhere, but whatever it is, there are no horrifyingly obese people that I have seen (yet).

I'm pretty over my homesickness today but I will miss Minnesota autumn. Autumn is my favorite time of the year and I love wearing my military coat, and suede boots, and scarves and mittens, and drinking soy lattes and feeling chilly air in my lungs. It'll be sad to not experience it, but I should also shut up because I get to enjoy four more months of summer.

Tonight Olivia and I are meeting up to go to the bar district downtown to hopefully see some Spanish students and enjoy the night air before it gets "cold" (while I'm here it might drop to the low, low temperature of 65F). I have to get ready in order to catch the last bus out of the barrio to meet her on the plaza. More soon.

Maren

Chicos, al barrio!

I moved in to my host house yesterday. Until mid-December, I'll be living with an older woman, Juana María (who I'm supposed to call Juani) in a really cute house in a barrio (neighborhood) of Alicante. The house is much smaller than typical American homes (it's also sandwiched between two other buildings and right on the street) but it's so lovely--it's got a charming kitchen and living room, and my favorite part is the courtyard and rooftop terrace out back. I usually read or do my homework outside. It's hot here, but not too unpleasant, especially if you wear light clothing.

Today we went to the University, which is in a suburb outside Alicante called San Vincente. I have to take a half-hour bus ride to get there, but I much prefer riding public transportation to driving. The bus system was a little confusing, at least compared to the metro, because you just have to know where you get off.

The University is really pretty. There are lots of plazas, and landscaping (we saw lime and hibiscus trees among other pretty plants), and fountains. It's great to be on an "outside" campus--the cold weather detested by Iowans 3/4 of the school year makes elaborate landscaping at Drake a huge waste of time.

I did get lost today. We went to buy books and the professor dropped us off at the bookstore and said "see you later". I don't think any of us really remembered the way to get back, considering we had another tour of the campus earlier that day, and all the landmarks ran together. So we wandered for about 45 minutes in the searing heat until I finally called the study abroad office and asked for someone to come get me at the building I was at, lest I get more lost and mugged and run over by a car. I was really frustrated because there are few things I hate more than not knowing exactly where I'm going when I have somewhere to be (like class).

Today I am a little homesick. A lot homesick. I miss my friends. I think of them often--that Tucker would love the terrace at my house, that Lydia would be a great addition to my afternoons at the cafe/bars, that Lisa would do so well chattering with me in Spanish on the way to la playa.  I am making friends here, even though the sheer volume of people is really overwhelming. As an introvert I tend to gravitate towards and prefer to be around one or two people at a time--any more and I tend to get tired out really easily.

Tomorrow's Friday, which means fiesta and hopefully the beach. I think everyone's still getting into the groove of living here. Tomorrow it will have been a week since leaving the country. I know the time's going to go by so quickly, and I think I'm doing a good job of making it count.

¡Hasta luego!
Maren