La acción de gracias

As of today I have reached the point where I have been in Spain almost three months and have just one month to go! As December 22nd gets closer, I am becoming more and more ready and anxious to return home. But don't get me wrong--Spain has definitely been a catalyst for growth and a lot of learning. 

I have learned that Spain is a country with a history of a lot of suffering. It is embedded in Spanish culture. It is deep in the personality of every Spaniard because every Spaniard has experienced it for centuries and centuries. This has been the biggest shock for me as a (generally) happy and introverted American! For Spaniards--at least madrileños (people from Madrid), suffering is daily. It's something they feel no embarrassment about discussing. In my limited experience here I've found that madrileños have no problem answering the question "How are you?" with a less-than-perfectly-happy response. That has been shocking. (What are you supposed to say when someone answers that they're actually sad, mad, upset, etc...?) Suffering isn't just felt in Madrid, it is dished out: I mean that in the sense that having a waitress/cashier/professor/host mother/fill in the blank literally yell at you for whatever reason is actually a normal thing. That has been shocking, for someone who has only ever been yelled at by her parents--and even then, rarely. I definitely appreciate my parents' patience with me growing up so much more after being here! Also, madrileños deal with suffering much differently than what I'm used to. I've learned that humility isn't such a big trait here and that praising oneself or asking for compliments can be a form of coping with suffering. I'm not going to judge. But it has definitely been shocking. All this and more to say that finally--3 months late--I think I've been significantly hit with "culture shock." Suffering here in Spain might actually be an odd but true way of experiencing Spanish culture. 

Well, the best form of getting over culture shock and homesickness is to think about what you're thankful for! It is pretty weird having class this week when all of my friends in the States are going home for Thanksgiving, but I am thankful that God has shown me the things I can be thankful for, here, this holiday! 

AUTUMN LEAVES. I have lived in Texas for the past 9 years. It has been too long since I've seen leaves this beautiful! 

Also, I am thankful for good friends! Spending three months abroad with friends can create some very fast and close friendships. I have been so blessed to meet such incredible and very different people in my time here. I'm glad that I get to continue those friendships at Baylor with some of them, but with others it may be hard to say goodbye next month! 

Other things I am thankful for this season are my wonderfully loving family, my supportive friends at home, Baylor, good books, coffee, my violin, and my graciously ever-present Jesus. I have never realized how perfect it is to have a Friend who is with you literally at all times. 

I hope everyone has a relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! 

Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias! Hasta pronto!!! 

An "I officially have less than 40 days left in Spain!" reflection

Hola! As of today I am officially in Spain for 39 more days! I do have some mixed feelings, but mostly, I just can't wait to go home. It's going to be a VERY special holiday season this year!

Things I'm looking forward to in coming back to the US:

1. Normal/large coffee servings. For real.

2. Fresh air (everyone smokes here in Spain!)

3. Hearing my name pronounced the way it's supposed to! (Although I'm starting to respond to "Hah-lay"... I hope this doesn't become a problem!)

4. Cooking my own food

5. Also, baking!!!

6. Sticking with the food topic... I'm looking forward to regular (refrigerated) milk! Spanish milk just isn't the same, and I haven't had a glass since the first week I got here. (Which is saying something!)

7. Reuniting with my amazing friends and family. Os he echado mucho de menos. Being away from everyone makes me realize how important you all are in my life.

8. Being a part of orchestra again!

9. Playing with my cats

10. Luis :)

Things I will miss:

1. The shopping

2. Just the street atmosphere in general. Walking around. It's so fun to window shop/explore on my way to class!

3. The metro system (So, so, so easy to use and so convenient!)

4. The abundance of cute cafes

5. Hearing and speaking Spanish everywhere

6. Príncipe cookies... yum.

7. My Spanish classes: I have some wonderful professors here and I have learned so much more than I ever expected.

8. Being able to hop on a bus and go visit a city with a completely different culture, landscape and atmosphere. Spain truly is a mosaic of cultures, and traveling here has been an awesome experience!

That's it for now! I'm currently trying to fight sleep and get through a very long and complicated Colombian novel for class discussion tomorrow!! Miss you all! Ciao ~

Málaga

We only spent the night and half of the next day in Malaga, but it was nice to walk along the beach and picture Africa on the other side!

9 reasons why I love Sevilla

Next stop this past weekend: Sevilla, also known as Seville. Why is it my new favorite place in Spain?

1. It houses the only flamenco museum in the world. There, I was able to see my very first flamenco show (and as it exceeded all expectations, it will definitely not be my last). I debated writing a whole post about flamenco, but decided against it this time--maybe another one will pop up in the future. For now I just have to say: flamenco is AWESOME. 

2. A scene from Star Wars (Episode 2) was filmed at Sevilla's Plaza de España. Do I have to continue? I watched the clip. It was great. 

3. It has an above-ground trolley system! That, with the picturesque buildings and streets, made it feel like a Disney movie. 

4. The aforementioned picturesque buildings and streets. I could have spent an entire weekend just weaving my way through the tiny streets for the fun of it. There is something so comfortable and humane about having to walk through streets that are too small for cars to fit through.

5. Historically significant! The cathedral is the 3rd largest in the world and is home to both the tomb of Christopher Columbus and that of his son. 

6. This weekend they had a cultural market there spanning the length of an entire park, which featured food from Brazil, France, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Germany, India, and many many more countries. I had the most amazing crepes there of my life: a mushroom, cheese and pepper crepe and a dulce de leche flavored one. My mouth is still watering. 

7. It's the first place I have visited in Spain that balances old and modern architecture almost seamlessly. As we drove into the city, we passed some modern and interestingly designed bridges across the river, and as we entered the center of the city we saw the 800-900 year old cathedral...and it didn't feel out of place. 

8. It doesn't feel touristy! Even though the cathedral is a huge tourist hot spot, and even though I heard a lot of English spoken on the streets, overall, I really felt like it was a city where real people actually live. Other cities we have visited in the South such as Granada and Córdoba are so small and the tourist industry is so big that it really seems like the whole city is based on its tourism. Sevilla is not like that however: we only saw two tourist shops the whole time, and one was part of the university. 

9. This is the first place I left feeling truly sorry that I wasn't able to spend more time there. I know there were whole sections of the city I didn't have time to explore, and I would have loved to spend more time walking around! 

Sevilla, you are one of the things about Spain that I will definitely miss when I leave. Much love ~!

Córdoba, lejana y sola

This past weekend was a long weekend because it was a holiday on Thursday in Spain! Three friends and I took advantage of the extra day and traveled to Andalucía, the southern region of Spain. We visited three cities: Córdoba, Sevilla and Málaga. I'll just start with Córdoba because there was so much in each place we visited!

with Erika in the orange grove in front of the mezquita!

Our day in Córdoba was filled with exploring, admiring and gift shopping. We saw the mosque/cathedral first and it was even more impressive in person than in pictures! I really enjoyed the cathedral part especially; it somehow made the detail and ornamentation look less gaudy and more beautiful than most Gothic cathedrals I have seen so far.

Then we saw the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos, an old castle and gardens that were very peaceful and gorgeous to walk through!

 Overall, it was a great day exploring a small town in Spain that I had been curious to see ever since I had to memorize the poem "Canción del jinete" by Federico García Lorca last year (the first lines of which is the title to this blog, just in case anyone was curious!)

Just for kicks, I'll post the rest of the poem here! Reading it again, I realized it is a little more depressing than I remember. However, I still feel pretty proud knowing that I have traveled a long route to Cordoba and it definitely does feel "distant and alone"!

That's all for now, folks!

Amer'ca

One thing I've accomplished in being here in Madrid is becoming very patriotic. I don't mean it in the sense that I've acquired a newfound pride for my country (although there are definitely many things and people there that I miss terribly). I have just found what it feels like to be a minority in a different country, and I constantly feel very conscious of the fact that I am American!

Before I continue, I have to warn you that I am going to be very honest and vulnerable with you so please don't judge too harshly. 

My confession: Yes, I have (at times) surrendered to my American instincts instead of exploring Spanish culture. (Eep!) I have indeed eaten at McDonalds more than once in the past two months. I do speak English almost exclusively with my friends here. And believe it or not, I have a jar of peanut butter in my backpack that I bought a few hours ago. 

Now that I've come clean, I just have to say that it is surprising how prevalent American culture is here.  Considering that Spain is a whole ocean away, I assumed that all things American would be pretty foreign to Spaniards, but that is really not the case. Everywhere you go, at every store and restaurant, American (or sometimes British) music is playing. It's to the point where when a Spanish song comes on, it's surprising. Also, American news gets pretty high coverage on the Spanish news channels. I watched a 10 or 15 minute news story on Hurricane Sandy last night, and on 9/11, they devoted a good ten minutes to remembering what happened eleven years ago. My host mother always seems to be caught up on American news. I asked her once what Spaniards thought of Obama, and she said that in general people are disappointed with him because they had hoped for more. (I'm not trying to get political--just wanted to be a thorough witness!)

Also, there are a lot of American shops and restaurants around Madrid! I've already mentioned the "fancy" McDonalds (all of them are very nice actually; the one near my apartment has comfortable leather chairs to sit on and windows all around with a nice view of the city!). There are also chain restaurants called "Hollywood" and "Nebraska" that I've seen around. The most exciting find: Tierra, which is basically the Spanish version of Chipotle! (A burrito bar with Tex-Mex food). It is definitely "authentic" American-Mexican food, and the easiest way to tell: 95% of the people eating there are Americans! 

There are also several American grocery stores, and my friend Erika and I ran into one today! It felt like Christmas: there was a shelf full of Betty Crocker cake mixes, all kinds of Reese's candy and Starbucks bottled frapuccinos. Clearly I got a little excited and couldn't wait before taking a picture!



Anyway, the point of all this is to realize how powerful America's influence is, even though we don't always realize it. I know America doesn't have the best reputation throughout the world, and sometimes I can see why: Americans, especially a lot of those who are here studying abroad, can come off as being very spoiled and ignorant. (I heard a conversation just earlier today between some Americans about how "America is the best!" and how nowhere else in the world can compare with America. For real.) Many of the Americans I have met or seen here don't even know how to speak Spanish. Of course, the view that other countries (in this case, Spain) get from America is definitely not the most accurate representation. Who actually sits around and eats hamburgers every day, watches America football, and parties every night? Regardless, it is important to remember that what we have in America is a treasure and we really need to take care of it! My prayer is that I can use the rest of this time in Spain to show people that America really isn't as materialistic as it seems in the media, and that the innate values of our culture are still strong and vibrant in our lives.

Much love, amigos. I miss you all!

Cold weather and lots of Fun.

It has now reached the "point of no return" as far as weather goes in Madrid. Mother Nature made up her mind finally and decided it's going to be freezing from here on out! (Well, not quite freezing...more like 40's and 50's. But it's a big deal for me!) It has been entertaining finding ways to make the most of the weather and finding different ways to wear the same few cold-weather outfits I have. I'm definitely not used to having to dress warm: in Texas, there may be a few cold days in December/January but usually I can get by because it always warms up after a few days! As the temperature has been slowly dropping, I've passed the time cuddled in my bed reading, skipping instead of walking to class (gets the blood pumping!), stopping for cafés con leche, assimilating to Madrid fashion and wearing shorts with tights (It can actually look pretty cute and it stretches my wardrobe a bit!), and attempting to run at Retiro Park (getting a minor cold as a result; oh well).

My favorite part: the leaves are changing colors!!!!! I'm so excited! Once they change a little more, I'm planning on going out and taking a million pictures. This is a big deal for me since the leaves barely turn in Texas. 

Yesterday, Erika and I went shopping and attempted to go to a library/cafe place recommended by a friend (It was closed, but I'm definitely going back this week so I'll talk about it later). We were able to do some shopping in the Gran Via/Chueca part of town where I had never been before. I didn't buy very much but it was pretty great anyway. There were literally two H&M's on the same street! We also found the fanciest McDonalds EVER. It was extremely nice on the inside and even had a "cafe" section with little cakes and macaroons. 

Another way to avoid the cold: go to a Fun. concert!!! Last Sunday night I went with a few friends to see a concert by "Fun." which, for those who don't know, is an amazing American band that plays indie/pop music. It was surprising how big their fan base is here in Madrid: the concert was sold out and there was barely any room to stand and watch. I had a blast! They actually sound better live than on a CD, which was pretty awesome to me. I tried to take some pictures but I was towards the back so they didn't come out very clear. Here they are anyway: 

Also, in case you didn't catch it, I made a big effort not to use the word "fun" to describe anything in this post! (It may or may not have involved searching synonyms for "fun" on an online thesaurus...) My friends and I realized as we were standing in line for the Fun. concert that it's actually harder to avoid that word than you would think!

One more thing: for some reason, we turned our clocks back today in Madrid (a week before everyone in the U.S. if my research is correct). I'm not sure why we are a week ahead of you guys! Anyway, for the next week it looks like I'll be only 6 hours ahead instead of 7!

Until next time! Ciao!!!