Córdoba y Granada

This past weekend our group went on a trip to Granada and Córdoba, historic cities in southern Spain. We left early Friday morning and arrived in Granada that afternoon. We went to the el capilla real (the royal chapel), where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. It was small and relatively unadorned because when Ferdinand and Isabel designed it they wanted to appear humble before their God. We also wentto the cathedral attached to it, which was built by their grandson Carlos V and was large and beautiful. Afterwards we made our way to one of the highest points in Granada, where we watched the sunset over the Alhambra, with the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas in the background. It was an indescribably beautiful view.
The next day was dedicated to visiting La Alhambra. We were there for hours, but easily could've spent days there. It's an unbelievably huge, and is ornate down to every last detail. Again, something you have to experience, because my words aren't sufficient to describe it. After la Alhambra, we had some free time for lunch in town, where Abby, Lauren, and I ate authentic kebabs. So delicious! We also go to walk around Granada a little bit. It's a beautiful city and it's clearly been shaped by a combination of both Spanish and Arabic culture.
Next up was Córdoba. We got there Saturday evening and enjoyed shopping, sangria, tapas, and free time. I roomed with Cassi that night, which was a lot of fun, and I also blew my first fuse (literally) in our hotel room. Oops!
Sunday morning we went to Medina, ruins of an ancient city that was built by Arabs hundreds of years ago. It was an impressive city, and interestingly enough only stood for 80 years before being sacked by another band of Arabs who thought that the opulence of the city was sacrilegious. We had a fantastic lunch back in Córdoba (pisto!!! and some of the best bread I've ever eaten, steaming hot) before visiting the meszquita, our last stop of the day. La meszquita is one of the oldest remaining mosques, and also houses a cathedral inside. Gorgeous.
It's good to be back in Cáceres-- it felt like coming home last night when we came back. Busy busy week this week full of homework and internship stuff before heading to Budapest on Thursday. I also start volunteering at Sisters of the Poor tonight, feeding supper to elderly people who can't feed themselves. Should be interesting!

I was going to dedicate a blog to last weekend in Cádiz, but I think it's easiest to sum the weekend up with a simple equation. Carnaval in Cádiz = Halloween down Welch + VEISHEA x infinity. It was a lot of fun to see everyone dressed up and to experience all of the celebrations, to hear the chirigotas (satirical singing groups), and to be down on the Mediterranean again.
I had a great experience Monday at my internship, and got to help evaluate residents individually and administer psychometric exams to measure cognitive functioning and levels of depression. I also got thrown into a spur of the moment emergency therapy session with a family, which made for a really interesting day.
Tuesday evening a group of us got together and bought plane tickets for Budapest the first weekend in March. Yup... I'll be turning 21 in Budapest! Exciting stuff :)
And today... uff da. As much as I love my internship, it's been a struggle to get it organized (not on my end of things), and it still lacks structure and sufficient hours. I spent most of today stressing about it and about getting a roll on my independent study. If the director of my program here in Spain doesn't throw things together soon, I will be cramming tons of hours into every week until I leave and essentially have no free time because of my independent study and my internship. These are things that should've been together by the time I got here, four weeks ago. As I always do when I get overwhelmed, I decided it would be best to take full advantage of siesta, which was probably my best decision of the day. After waking up I realized that today is Ash Wednesday, and went to mass with some of the other ISU students. The Catholic church we went to was PACKED full of people, which is a strange site here in Spain, or anywhere in Europe for that matter. It was a good service, but I really miss singing hymns at church... something they don't do in any formal church I've been to here. Also, I found it interesting that when I went up to be marked with ashes, the priest scattered them across my head (like, in my hair) instead of making the sign of the cross on my forehead. Strange.
This week has flown by even faster than last week. Just my internship and one class tomorrow, and then we take off for a weekend in Cordoba and Granada. :)

Call me Puentes... or Marisol... or whatever

Last week flew by SO quickly that there was hardly time to do anything, let alone blog. So here's a quick recap:

Spring break plans-- I finally made some! There are seven of us that will be going to Madrid, Paris, Brussels (or maybe Brugge, we haven't decided yet), Amsterdam, Cologne and some other German cities, Vienna, and Barcelona. I'm so excited to have travel plans and to hit up so many cities during our break! I feel like I take a lot of things in my life for granted, but when I stop and think about everything I'm doing and everywhere I'm going this semester, it really makes me thankful/amazed at the opportunities that I have.

Internship-- After a lot of frustration and many cancelled interviews, I finally met with Chiti, the psychologist I'll be following at Residencia Care, one of the nursing homes here in Cáceres. She's a very sweet (and very short) woman, and I think I'll really enjoy working with her. She showed me around the facility and introduced me to the residents, none of whom understood the name Madison, so I eventually just became Marisol, a very Spanish name and similar sounding to the way Madison is pronounced in Spanish. The nursing home is divided into three floors; one is a typical nursing home, one is a dementia unit, and another is for hospice and/or vegetative patients. It's interesting, because in the hospice rooms spouses have the option of moving in to be with their loved ones round the clock, and there's a communal kitchen and living room for them to use while they're there. There are over 100 residents living in Residencia Care, and in a lot of ways it reminds me of Bethany Manor. It seems as though my job will be doing activities with residents to help maintain mental functioning, talking to residents and making sure they're emotionally well, and sitting through individual and family therapy sessions with Chiti. I won't be able to get enough hours at Care, so I'm waiting for more information on a 2nd internship I'll be doing as well.

Independent Study-- finally got news on this front, too! I'll be doing an in depth study of Don Quijote through Julia, one of my professors at Iowa State. 

Ultimate Frisbee-- I took part in my first ultimate frisbee game on Wednesday. A group of Spanish players invited us to join them to play every week. It's so much fun, and it's funny to hear us all communicate in Spanglish. The Spaniards call me Puentes... apparently they've of seen Los puentes de Madison (aka: Bridges of Madison County), and puentes is easier to say than Madison, I guess. Haha. I have a lot of practice to do before I'm even a decent frisbee player, but everyone is gracious and it's a good time :)

What more?? Finally met our program director, Toñi, over tapas and drinks. Broke my bed. Broke the shower. Those are two funny stories if anyone ever wants to hear them... Finished reading Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and highly recommend it. Went to Cádiz for Carnaval over the weekend, which will have its own post, soon to follow. 

I overslept church yesterday and, consequently, had time to spend the morning reading and drinking tea on the terraza, yet again. It was wonderful. I'm reading Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and now that I've started it, it's hard to put down.
After siesta yesterday I had a meeting with Maria Angeles, whose mother lives in Residencia C.A.R.E., the nursing home I'll be doing my internship at. Maria Angeles is acting as my guide, and treated me to coffee yesterday to answer any questions I may have had. I still know very little about what I'll be doing, but she was able to tell me that I'll be working under the geriatric psychologist at the facility. I got the impression that I'll be doing lots of one-on-one time with the residents, which I really look forward to. I have a formal interview at the facility tomorrow and should hopefully start my internship next week. Honestly, the sooner I get started the better, or else I'll never get all of my hours in before I leave.
After coffee with Maria Angeles, I went and sat in the park to wait for some friends. I was early and had about 20 minutes to wait, so I decided to pull out my book and read a bit. I kept my eyes glued on my book and purposely ignored any man that walked by alone. But wouldn't ya know, it happened again. A man in his 60s walked by very slowly, eying me, and then turned around and came down to sit by me. At least this guy was sober. He was interesting, in a kind of strange way, and went on to talk to me about Semana Santa for the next 20 minutes. And, coincidentally, Jess walked by again and saw me sitting alone with a strange man. And yet again, he thought it was hilarious and left me there. Uff da. But eventually Cassidy showed up with Jess in tow, and we met Clara, Marta, Ima, and eventually Tiffani and Angélica for churros at the famous churrería (the name of which I still do not know). Needless to say, it was a delicious experience. We sat there enjoying our churros for quite awhile, and I taught Tiffani, Cassidy, and Angélica how to play Garbage, one of my favorite card games.
Today, nothing new. I had an hour of class from 9-10 and have the rest of the day to do as I wish... I'm thinking a nice balance of napping and reading is in order.

It's another beautiful Saturday in Cáceres. It's hard to believe it's already my third weekend here; I have a feeling this semester is going to fly by, and I know I won't be ready to go back home. Anyways, I spent the morning cleaning my room and then sitting on the enclosed porch, reading and drinking tea in the sunshine. For me, I can't think of a better way to pass time.
Yesterday we went on an excursión to Mérida, a city about an hour away that is home to many ancient Roman ruins. For those of you who don't know, Spain was part of the Roman empire, which played a large role in shaping the country, and also left behind architecture similar to that found in Rome. While in Mérida we explored the theater, where the culture's hunger for blood was satisfied in intense dueling; the ampitheater, where many a political satire was performed; the forum in the town center; the Roman museum, which was full of ancient, yet just recently uncovered mosaics and sculptures; and the Circulo Romano (I don't know what we call it in English, but it translates literally as the Roman Circle), where chariot races took place. It was an interesting trip, and reminded me a lot of what I saw while I was in Rome. Angélica remarked on how advanced the Romans were, especially given their limited resources, and then brought up a good point: why don't we utilize more of the Romans' ideas to improve our own society? One simple example: the Romans set up a very basic yet incredibly sanitary sewage system within Mérida, and it helped the city to avoid the Black Plague. How easy would it be in modern times to implement such a system in places like Port-au-Prince Haiti, where sewage runs through the streets and diseases like cholera are still rampant? For advanced as our society is, sometimes we overlook some of the most basic solutions. Anyways... it was a good trip, and on the bus ride home I took great joy in continually beating Cassidy in both Fruit Ninja and checkers.
In other news, last Cassidy, Tiffani, Angélica bought our tickets for Cádiz next weekend! It's THE city to be in to celebrate Carnival, and should be an awesome thing to experience in person. Afterwards Tiff, Cassi, and I went to a bar and enjoyed some drinks before going home. It was just a hole in the wall place, but it was another one of those experiences in which I couldn't get over HOW NICE everyone is to us. I get that feeling a lot in this country, and it is a very, very good thing :)
Oh! I almost forgot... it's looking like I'll be spending my birthday in Switzerland! What a lucky lady I am!

(*later*)
Cassidy and I were invited to a girls night/karaoke night with a big group of Spanish students from the university. We had an AWESOME time! Clara, Alba, and the other girls are so laid back and so much fun. They've been so welcoming and it's been great to get to know them and spend time with them. It was kind of funny, because all of the karaoke songs were in English and the Spanish girls knew them better than we did! A lot of them were from the Disney channel artists, so I was totally lost and epic failed. It was tons of fun though anyways. And, just like home, no party is complete without pizza, chips, and pop. Apparently that's the same here in Spain too :)

(*and one more update...*)
Sometimes the most comforting thing in the world is knowing that I have such awesome friends and family back home. Starting with Rachel bright and early this morning and clear up through my Skype call with Courtney, Larry, and Aliyah a few minutes ago and everyone I talked to in between, I'm feeling all my Iowa love thousands of miles away.

Don't Talk to Strangers, Kids

Regardless of where I am, I always seem to get myself into the most peculiar situations. This evening, for example, we went to one of the bakeries for coffee. Afterwards, the other girls were going to a movie and I decided to go back home because it was definitely not one I wanted to see/thought I could sit still through. On the way home I noticed what a nice evening it was and though to myself it would be nice to sit in the central park for awhile and enjoy the night. Plus the park is on the way to my apartment. Perfect. So I find a quiet place to sit and begin people-watching in the dark, quiet park. Poor choice. Next thing I know, a very, very drunk man is on the bench next to me. I have no idea where he came from, because there was no one around when I sat down. I think I smelled the alcohol before I actually saw him. He was red in the face from drinking so much and had an open beer can in hand (drinking public= not legal in Spain either, btw). He skipped the introductions and went right into talking about how beautiful I am and how lovely my accent is and what a nice figure I have... blah, blah, blah.... Then after about 10 minutes of that flattery, he told me the sob story of his life and how he's 31, single, and lives with his parents (which is actually not uncommon here) and about how people talk about the economic crisis, but that the real crisis is that no one has morals any more (the drunken bastard may have had a point there, though I would have included him in the amoral group, too). And he was pause about every 30 seconds in his story sobbing/pity partying to remind me, yet again, of how 'guapa' I am. Dios mío. And then, like an angel of God, I saw Jess, a guy from our ISU group, walking through the park. Thinking Jess could get me out of the situation, I shouted to him and called him over. At which point the drunk decided to rope Jess into the conversation too. Jess wasn't having any of it and wanted out, so he interjected and hurriedly walked away, leaving me alone yet again with this strange, inebriated Spaniard. Finally, when I could no longer stomach the smell of alcohol or the creepiness that permeated the air, I gave him a nice "I have to go home, nice to meet you, have a good night" spiel and booked it out of the park. So lesson learned, no more walking alone in the park in the dark. Although, I feel like where ever I go, I tend to be a magnet for drunk foreigners (no, this was not the first time this has happened, or the only country in which something like this has gone down... *sigh*).
On a nicer note, Christina and Kristine both had birthdays this week, so we went out to celebrate last night as a group with a lot of the Spanish students. Beer and pizza. Perfect combination. Everywhere in the world.
And this morning I woke up and opened my windows right in time to see the sunrise over the mountain and la parte antigua. It was beautiful. And as I look out my window tonight I can see the the lights that illumine the pathway up the mountain. It's so gorgeous, and one of the many things that make me so thankful to be here. Also, the past few days, I've grown more and more appreciative of the group of friends I have here. Couldn't ask for a more wonderful group of girls to spend my time with :)

This is how I spent my siestas: 

Viendo los Aristogatos.

I have so much free time here, I don't even know what to do with myself. It's a lazy, yet simultaneously wonderful feeling.
This past weekend was a three day weekend, and only 5 of us stuck around Cáceres. We spent the weekend finding new pastelerías, eating pizza, going to youth group at El Puente, perusing the Chinos stores, sleeping, reading (after checking out books with our news library cards!), going to the movies with some Spanish friends, churching, eating churros, and sleeping. I also spent some quality time with Guillermo, our host mom's two month old grandson. I love babies. There's just something about them that gets me every time.
A little more on the movie we went to (Promoción Fantasma)... it was SO good! Definitely one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time, and it was exciting to be able to hear and understand it all in Spanish; it helps me realize how far I've come with the language. At the end of the movie I found myself sad, temporarily, because I realized that my friends at home are missing out on such a good movie. So I definitely plan to buy it and make them all watch it with subtitles. Also, fun fact about Spanish movie theaters: you get assigned seats! Still not sure how I feel about that...
The rest of my week is looking pretty easy. I had one hour of class today, and have five hours left spread out over the next three days. I still know nothing about my internship, except that I have an interview at some undecided point in time this week, and I know even less about my independent study. I'll be happy to get it figured out because I really need to have less free time on my hands. Seriously. Also, we have another three day weekend coming up with a trip to Mérida planned on Friday and no plans otherwise :)

Cactus and Cowboys

Every country, every nationality, has a stereotype for others. I am amused to find that, in Spain, one of the most common stereotypes for Americans is that we're all cowboys, farmers, or rancheros who ride around all day on our horses. I've heard many people say this, both in Valencia and Cáceres, and as I sat reading a Spanish book today, it came up again... "What kind of dreams are you having over there, among the cactus and cowboys?"

Some Things I Love About Spain

I feel like this deserves it's own post. I am in love with Spain for many reasons, but there are some things in particular that really stand out to me every time.
1) The pace of life. Back home I often find myself wondering if life ever slows down or if I'll ever be able to take a break and actually be able to enjoy myself without thinking about what still needs to be done. Here, I can do just that. People are so kind and easygoing, and take their time going about life. Everyday from about 2:00-5:00 is siesta time. It's a time to go home to your families, eat lunch together, and take a nap or enjoy a quiet activity. Everything closes during this time, so there is literally nothing to do except leisure activities. It is so refreshing to have that time to do what I want to do and to relax. If I took that time for myself at home, I'd feel guilty and lazy. Here, enjoying yourself is more willingly embraced, and even expected.
2) The way they treat their women. Spain is in the process of moving from a machista (male dominated) society to one with equal rights for women. Men still act like gentlemen, something that I feel often doesn't occur at home, and women are treated with respect rather than as objects of sexual objectification. Yesterday we were watching Tú sí que vales, their version of America's Got Talent, with our host mom. One of the acts was a Columbian salsa dancing group, consisting of two men and one woman. To spice things up during the dance, the men banged on the woman's butt cheeks. They got voted out because the judges considered it to be objectification of the woman, and they let it be known that such behavior was not acceptable, as it was overtly sexist. I hadn't thought twice about it; for me, it's not uncommon that a woman's body is treated like that. And the judges who were most adamently against it? The men. It's encouraging to know that some cultures value women for something outside of their physical beauty and sexual worth.

More on this later, but for now, churros.

3) The food culture. Food is homemade and ingredients are fresh. People take pride in what they put on the table. More than that, food is meant to be enjoyed and is a strong part of social life. When you sit down to eat, you sit to enjoy not only your food, but your friends and family. For this reason, you see very, very few fast food restaurants; thus far, I have seen two in the entire city. Even coffee is something to be enjoyed slowly, sitting down. You don't see people here running around town with coffees in hand; they take the extra few minutes to sit in a cafe and sip their drinks. Maybe that's why everything seems so much more delicious here?

Tour of the Old City

This week and next week are finals weeks for students in Spain. Everyone is busy day and night studying away. We didn't have class today (maybe because of their finals schedule? I'm not really sure why...). Instead, we went on a guided tour of el parte antiqua, the old part of the city. Audra had already given us most of the tour on Saturday, but it was still fun to get out and learn more about it all. We went to the museum of Cáceres, to holy week museum (museo de la semana santa), to the old Jewish neighborhood (el barrio júdio) and to a palace, among other places. El museo de la semana santa was particularly interesting. Holy week is such a huge deal in Spain and has so much history behind it. They still celebrate in the ancient ways, including ancient costumes, which are a little bit eerie, as this is where the Ku Klux Klan got their costumes from, cone hats included. During our tour we also saw two aljibes, one underneath el museo de la semana santa, and one underneath el museo de Cáceres. Aljibes (derived from an Arabic word, if any of you are language freaks like me) are massive cisterns where rain water collects. In ancient times they provided water for the entire city, as Extramadura is a dry region and Cáceres itself has no rivers.

After our tour we were all freezing (it's been colder than normal here lately, with lows in the low 30s and highs in the upper 50s), so Angélica, Tiffani, Cassidy and I went to the Chocolate Cafe for coffee and pastries. I had a napolitana de chocolate. I'm not sure how this translates to English, but it's a croissant-type pastry stuff with chocolate, cream, or nutella. I had a lot of these in Valencia, too, and they're definitely a favorite. While we were in the cafe the Offspring came on over the radio. It was one of my favorite songs, too, and I thought it was strange to hear it over here. We had a heck of a time paying our bill before we left-- it took us two attempts. First time we came up short, and the 2nd time the waiter realized that Tiffani had accidentally given him Peruvian money instead of euros. He definitely wasn't impressed with us by the time we left. 

We came home for lunch and siesta time, which is one of my favorite times of the day. A few of us are meeting in an hour to go to the Gran Cafe for coffee, churros, and card playing again. Tonight after supper I think Angélica and I are going to the bar to watch the Barcelona/Valencia soccer game. More updates later :)