Tag Archives: Culture

Semester’s Rollin’!

Both of the above are from a chic little antique/interior decoration shot near CIEE.

I may have mentioned it before, but breakfast is not a very big deal here – toast and coffee are enough, but I will certainly appreciate adding a nice omelette, or some cereal to this mix once I’m back in the States. Also notice: my se�ora has the most oldschool, but also fastest and coolest toaster I think I’ve ever seen. Hands down. Also, the coffee maker is juuust big enough for one cup 🙂

Me, Pat and Randa heading home after an afternoon in the sunshine by the river.

Brace yourself.

Okay, this is just about the most gigantic blog entry imaginable, as it’s been quite a while since I wrote anything, but it’s pretty much split into two sections: classes, and miscellaneous topics, in that order, so feel free to ignore the irrelevant and read what ever interests you!

Regular Semester Classes.

To the left is a screen shot from my iPhone of my “horario finalisisimo,” so named by Jorge, one of the people who works in CIEE, and changed my schedule about five times x) Good thing though, because it’s finally perfect 🙂

I start the week pretty relaxed, I don’t have my first class until 7pm on Monday afternoons. I usually spend the earlier part of the day getting work done and/or going for a run by the Guadalquivir (that’s the name of our river, I can never remember it, and have a feeling a lot of other people can’t either – explaining why it’s normally just referred to as “el r�o”), and now that it’s starting to get nicer out, the latter of the two will likely become more common.

Below is a screen shot of the GoogleMap of the area (Paseo Rey Juan Carlos) that I usually run in. I don’t normally go the entire way down and back (10km, about 6 miles) – I usually cut off a kilometer or a few – but when I do it feels great, and I get to see the entire north side of the river 🙂

Psych

Anyways, after my laid-back Monday afternoons, my first class is “Psicholog�a de la Aprendizaje de una Segunda Lengua” (Psychology of Apprehension of a Second Language), which is totally right up my ally. The second week of class, I volunteered to do the presentation for the week with Randa and my friend Patrick, from Spanish 410 at Penn State last semester (holler!). It was on popular ideas about learning a second language and we totally killed it, if you ask me 😉 I like this class a lot, but so far we’ve just covered basics that I know most of from taking so many similar classes at PSU. It’s nice to be well versed in the subject, and be able to ask the professor things I want to explore deeper, but being that he knows this is my area of focus in university, I’m assuming he’ll be harder on me when it comes to grading. Also, though it’s one of my favorite subjects, there have been some readings and points in this class I’m not as fond of. One of the first articles we read ran pretty contrary to a lot of my personal beliefs about language systems and acquisition, which are many, varied and heatedly debated in the world of linguistics, because we’re always searching for the best ways to teach language. At any rate, there are also many new and different ideas from what I’ve heard and seen in the past, and I’m enjoying the fresh wave of information that brings.

Islam.

On Tuesdays, I start class at 11, “El Islam en La Espa�a Musulmana (Al-Andalus): Arte y Cultura” (Islam in Muslim Spain: Art and Culture). It isn’t so bad that it’s in the morning, because I like the subject a lot, but the timing makes for an awfully long day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I absolutely love this class, yet another where I’m “THAT GIRL” who’s always answering questions and asking the professor for details, but hopefully that’s a good thing and shows that I’m interested, not just a pain in the neck or showoff to the other students! x) Anyways, the professor is wonderful, and the readings (written by her, in Spanish, also how my psychology and three cultures classes are) are really interesting. So far, we’ve reviewed Islam as a whole, and are now getting into the “Medieval Arabic World and Historical Notions”, and then architecture. I have to write at least 3 pages, (1,5 spaced/11pt font – not 2,0/12 pt like in the States!!) in Spanish about each for next week, and that’s a normal amount for a few-week unit in this class. I have that, directly followed by another at 1 o’clock, and as you’ll see, they overlap a LOT. I’m glad to say though, that is definitely facilitating my absorption of the subject matter – so far it’s a lot of review, but I’m definitely also learning a lot!

Three Cultures.

That next class is “Tres Culturas en Espa�a: Crisitianos, Muselmanes y Jud�os” (Three Cultures in Spain: Christians, Muslims and Jews) which I also enjoy a lot. Again, most of what we’ve covered so far is basics and review (for me, at least – this is a topic I’ve always been really interested in), but learning the details and cultural aspects that are unique to Spain is really fascinating. The professor talks really fast, but very clearly, so we cover a lot of subject matter in each class in a way that manageable as long as you do the readings, which again, are great.

Bocadillo

After that, I usually go find a spot in the sun to read and do homework at a square or a caf� while I eat my lunch. Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t go home for lunch, so my se�ora packs me a “bocadillo” (pronounced BOHKA-DEEYO – a sandwich) to eat. This is the norm for all the exchange students, and usually consists of a loaf of fresh bread the size of a small slipper, with a slice of meat and some cheese or lettuce and tomato. Sometimes she throws in a drink, orange, and other “postre” (dessert), but when there’s no drink, I like to go enjoy my meal with a “cerveza” (beer, which I don’t usually drink, but is generally MUCH better here than anything I’ve tried in the States).

By the way, this is an example of what I sit in front of while I eat my lunch 🙂

^ This is the Cathedral of Sevilla, it’s kind of a big deal. And just plain big.

And La Giralda, at its side ^

Linguistics.

After my two-and-a-half hour siesta, I have another class at 5PM, “Lexicolog�a y Sem�ntica Espa�ola,” (Spanish Lexicology and Semantics). What on earth does that mean? It means another class I’m obsessed with!! Though it’s moving a little slow because it’s still pretty close to the start, we’ve covered some interesting topics. After we got through some of the basics of linguistics (none of the other students in the class have ever taken a ling class – understandable, as it’s not a very common subject, but I was a little surprised I’m the only linguist in my whole program!), we got on to talking about pr�stamos (borrowed words), origins of Spanish words, and sefard�, or judeoespa�ol (Jewish Spanish!)

Seminar.

Then there’s my extra class, which is only 2 credits, but will be good for my resum�, and will earn me the CAIE (Certificate of Achievement in International Education): Seminario sobre vivir y aprender en Sevilla (Seminar on Living and Learning in Seville). For that, I have to have a “compa�ero cultural,” a cultural partner, which is someone Spanish who I spend time with setting goals and doing specific assignments to get to know Sevilla and Spain better. My partner is H�ctor, someone from Chefchaouen, the teter�a that Randa and I go to all the time and have friends at. Our most recent assignment was to ask our cultural partners the meaning of their names and then discuss how it’s different from ours. Though I know people here take their mother and father’s last names, it was still interesting to see Olga’s (our professor, and head of the program I’m in) list of influences that can have a role in naming someone. There were religious, family, cultural, historical, all sorts of reasons people name their kids. Turns out H�ctor was just named that by his parents because they thought it was nice and his dad didn’t want to give him his name because he didn’t like it. I learned though, that H�ctor is a Greek name which I never knew before and wouldn’t have guessed! Ironically, around the same time that I got that assignment, a Jordanian teter�a owner I met told me that my arabic name (al-hana) means “relaxation,” or “happiness.” 🙂

Finally done for the week a little before 7pm on Thursdays (we “extranjeros” – foreign students – don’t have class on Fridays), I trudge home with all my books, have dinner, and muster up the energy to go out and spend some time with Randa and kids from our program or, more often, go find some of our local friends to hang out with. Overall, it’s a manageable week, but if I want to be sufficiently prepared for my classes and be able to participate at all (which we’ve discovered, I very much do), it’s a pretty heavy time and energy investment to get all the reading done. And let’s be real – I’m not usually big on reading. I’m glad though, that I like all my classes and professors so much. I was originally going to take an art history class through direct enrollment at the university, but after sitting in on one lesson, I found it to be WAY too much

information to take in, especially being that I’m not accustomed to organizing facts about artist, styles, and dates in the way or rate the professor went about presenting them. In place of that though, I’ve found myself quite happy in the Islam Art and Culture class. Thankfully, no matter how tough classes get, at the end of the week the last thing I see walking home are views of Triana like these form my bridge.

Desarrollo de una Identidad Espa�ola: (Development of a Spanish [and Global] Identity)

Aside from the discussions we have about linguistic identity in our psych class, it’s pretty neat keeping track of my development of a Spanish (linguistic) identity. There are certainly things that I only think of in Spanish now – especially things having to do with classes, because there’s no English there – and at times it’s actually hard to translate or think about them in English. I even think and talk to myself in Spanish a lot now, it’s kind of weird! It’s also still strange having certain people who I code switch with A LOT (like H�ctor, Vincent, and other friends at the teter�a), and others who hardly speak any English with me, like a lot of me and Randa’s Spanish friends who are older or have stayed in Spain all their lives. Especially when I’ve been speaking a lot of Spanish, and someone like H�ctor wants to know a word in English – if it’s not a common, everyday word that I use a lot, it can take me hours to suddenly realize what it is. The other day he had sores on his hands from rock climbing, and I could not for the life of me come up with the word callus, which happens to be a cognate of the Spanish, “calico.” What are the chances? Pretty good actually, things like that are often cognates…A little unrelated, but even crazier is the amount of code-switching that goes on when Randa and I meet other Moroccans. The owner of “Al-Salam” (The Peace) Teter�a, a new favorite spot of ours for great tea and hookah in Triana, is from Jordan, and his wife from Marrakech, so Randa enjoys practicing some Arabic with them. That sometimes includes some Spanish, English and when Muhammad talks to me about Israel, he shows off his bit of knowledge of Hebrew! It’s pretty wild, and really neat at the same time.

On the note of identity, “De donde eres?” (Where are you from?) has become a question that sparks some of the most interesting conversations I’ve had since I’ve been here. Most “estudiantes extranjeros” (foreign students) are found out to be American about two words into their first encounters with Spaniards (if they haven’t already figured it out from looks), but no one can ever seem to figure out where I’m from. It’s actually become somewhat of a funny game to make people guess what ethnicit(ies) I might be. Until more than a few sentences in, a lot of people think I’m Sevillana, and don’t believe I’ve only been here a little over a month, which is pretty awesome. Not only because it’s “trendy” to be European, but because people take me more seriously – or so I’d like to think. It would be cool if I could sustain that belief through a whole conversation by the end of the semester! Among the different nationalities that people guess, so far I’ve gotten M�xicana (mostly when I’m with Randa and she speaks first, as she has a more Spanish-American accent, being from the West Coast) a couple times, but I really don’t think either of us looks the least bit Mexican. She strikes me as really obviously Moroccan, and it surprises me that people here don’t guess that first, as I’d imagine they’re more accustomed to meeting Moroccans than Mexicans, they only live a few hours away! It’s interesting to see that much of the time people judge more based on accent than on looks.

Anyways, when I went to C�diz I met a lot of people and one guessed about 7 countries in Europe I might be from, but not Russia, Israel, OR America! The closest anyone got was Bulgarian, which I’m not even sure how right or wrong that might have been, being that I only have a few friends from Bulgaria to compare with. I also had someone I met the other day convinced I was Argentinian (tried to tell him I was most definitely not, haven’t ever even been to South America), until he went home and added me on FaceBook! Apparently the fact that I have light eyes really throws people off (refer to above photo, haha – taken just after I arrived in Spain – which now feels ages ago!). Ironically, Mohammad, just after telling me the arabic meaning of my name, also said I have a middle-eastern face, which is believable enough. I think what it comes down to is that people are biased based on what they know and have seen, because apparently I could be from pretty much anywhere except the majority of Africa. In the end, I always tell people that I’m Russian/Israeli but have lived most of my life in America, speaking English and practicing Spanish, (among the mish-mosh of other languages I’ve dabbled in). People are always asking me to talk to them in Hebrew or Russian, and because I haven’t practiced either in a classroom in over a year, so it’s REALLY hard.

The neatest thing about revealing my identity though, is that most people are really interested and surprised by the “Hebrea” part. When I went to Granada, I had some really interesting conversations with two staff members from CIEE who have studied Judaism and the Jews’ role in Spain, which they both agreed had a huge impact on economic development before they were kicked out along with the Muslims in 1492. They also both listen to and love Israeli music, so I showed them some of mine, and told them about Israel. One of them even told me that I was the first Jewish person he’d ever met! Well, I imagine I’m just the first that he knew was Jewish – there are a TON of Jewish kids here just this semester, and I’m sure without a doubt he’s met a lot of others in past semesters, without realizing it. The picture above is of a building that’s currently something else, but I think used to be a synagogue. It’s neat to see that here, but a little sad knowing there are only about 30 Jewish families left in the city since their expulsion in 1492.

Estrellas y Famosos (Stars and Celebrities!)

I sat down one night to watch TV with my se�ora and her mom after dinner, we were watching a Spanish awards show, and I just had to write something about it, because they all look FABULOUS. The clothes are so classy and beautiful! I actually think they’re nicer than what celebs wear in the States, and further interesting are the roles they play on stage. One woman, reminiscent of a straight, European Ellen Degeneres, came out and started dancing around and singing (just like Ellen, not like a professional), and was then accompanied by a group of other people singing and dancing – slightly off-beat, and slightly out of pitch. ‘Hmm..’ I thought to myself ‘I wonder if they’re just actors performing for the opening?’ So I asked Loly. Indeed, they were all hosts and nominees of the awards show, none of whom regularly sing or dance, but unafraid of looking foolish or sounding out of tune, they opened with a show-tuney number! I thought that was pretty cool. Maybe people do that in other places too – I mean, I wouldn’t know, I don’t really watch TV unless someone turns it on in front of me – but I thought that was an interesting reflection of peoples’ willingness to perform the way they do in this country. And that doesn’t just go for celebrities. Everywhere we go, there are different people telling us about their flamenco endeavours, and singing – even if they’ve never had a single lesson – it’s just part of the culture, which I find really cool.

Also, sometimes you’ll just randomly see a group of people filming a scene for a Spanish TV show or film (like above). Outside StarBucks a few weeks ago, there were some women sitting at a table with a microphone hanging over their heads, and a cameraman working hard to catch all the right angles. Then Randa and I saw some people filming under our bridge the other day when we were walking home. Had no idea who they were, but everyone was looking over the edge, trying to figure out what was going on.

Teter�a.

I think I must have mentioned the word teter�a at least 20 times since I started blogging, so here’s a picture of some tea and hookah Randa and I had the other day at the new place, Al-Salam 🙂

This particular place, by the way, has DELICIOUS tea, and really nice sheesha. We tried limonana (arabic for lemon-mint), which is my all time fave.

Location: Triana. Sevilla, Spain.

It has begun!

     Here I am, in Vienna! It is hard to believe that it has already been two full weeks. So much has happened and yet somehow, it seems like I have done so little. It is quite a strange sensation. I just know that I have a LOT more to do and see and experience here.
   Okay, so what have I been up to these last two weeks? Well, firstly, I spent my initial weekend in Vienna in a tiny little town nestled up in the mountains, known as Mariazelle. There we (the IES group) received our several orientations, met with most of the head individuals in the program here in Vienna, became introduced to each other and managed to simultaneously extract a little sampling of Austrian culture from the town. It snowed the entire duration of our stay, adding a certain eerie or gothic feeling to the scene. The main attraction of this city, the founding of which has been traced back to approximately 1150 AD, is the Basilica in the town center. Nearly a million pilgrims per year are recorded visiting the site, making this one of the most visited holy sites in all of Europe.
   Aside from the Basilica, the town was very low key, locals going to the town ski spot a few minutes out, but otherwise, it was a very sleepy sort of town. I have not experiences quite this atmosphere before.
   After our weekend excursion and break in, we drove into Vienna and dispersed, by way of taxi, to our assigned housing. If you are ever in Vienna and can avoid it, do not use taxi. They are quite expensive (as I suspect is the case in most of the world, but have you ever paid in Euro?) This is a fact that I constantly overlook when buying anything here. The simple fact that the Euro –> US dollar is not equal. The items with low price tags are not necessarily good deals. The matter becomes further complicated by the measuring method here. Have you ever bought meat in grams? Or dekagrams? Or drinks in terms of Euro per liter?
     I digress. My first week consisted mainly of trying to figure out the public transportation system, which is heavily relied upon. It takes me 35 minutes (on a good day) to get to school. I walk 5 minutes to hop onto the Stra�enbahn 43. Ride that about 15 minutes then hop onto the U2 which is about a 5 minute walk to and another 5 minute ride. Then I walk another 5 minutes or so to get to the school in the first district (or ‘Bezirk’ as it is called here). The transportation system is quite extensive, as you can imagine, I have gotten lost several times. Many of those times resulting in very extended (originally short) trips across Vienna. 🙂 Good times.
     The most interesting event so far has been the Austrian ball (TU Ball) that I attended just this past Thursday night. It was unlike anything I have yet experienced. I will write more about this and post some videos (if I can figure out how) on here soon!

Closing thought: I have only been here two weeks, but already I feel that I am being stretched as an individual. I have begun broadening horizons in ways I had not imagined. I am excited, but also nervous anticipating how I may continue to grow personally and in what ways I may come to better understand of myself and the world I live in. (and yes, I realize how cliche this sounds, but it is the real McCoy. Ask me sometime where this saying came from if interested)

Location: Vienna, Austria

A Million Minutes in a Day

Arrival and Start of Orientation!

So once everyone arrived on Monday, we all realized that our rooms were organized by first name, so I was in a room with two girls named Hannah! At first we thought it was a coincidence but then the room of Emilys and the room of Ashleys, and the room of Amandas assured us otherwise.

Dinner was great, there were lots of fresh veggies and fruit, and some meat, which looked good – for those who would eat it.

After eating, everyone took some time to primp and then split up and go out for drinks and to walk around. I ended up with girls from the room of Ashleys and a bunch of kids from Penn State, so it was fun to sit around and talk Happy Valley with some new and some familiar faces. A few of us that had Spanish 3 together freshman year are planning to go to Ronda, where our professor for that class was from, at some point in the semester. Ronda is unique for its beautiful landscape of cliffs and mountains, many peoples’ homes are carved right into caves and the sides of cliffs! Worth the trip, and in your case, checking out some photos 😉

I’ve spoken to some of the other kids from PSU who have both been here for a a few days and still arriving. I hope I have the opportunity to spend some time with them, this will be such a great experience for all of us to have together and go back to State with memories! Funny enough, the bar we went to tonight was Irish. So much for acquainting with the Spanish culture!! I’m sure though, that we’ll get plenty of that over the course of the semester 🙂

Pretty much everyone got back the the hotel by about 1am, which is very early for a normal night out here. We had to get up pretty early the next morning and most people were very jet-lagged from just having arrived, so that was a good thing.

Another Long and Busy Day

Breakfast yesterday, which I’d missed the day before, was great! There were cheeses and prunes, olives, tomatoes with mozzarella and pesto, and a variety of hot dishes that I decided against when I saw all the fresh fruit! Our “guia,” or guide, Carmen, told us that this was not very traditional breakfast food, and more typical of a hotel than a morning spread at home.

After breakfast, we left for 4-5 hour tours of town. We walked around the area where O’Neil’s was to see part of the university, and try to get bus (which is really just a giant rail car that shares the street with regular street cars) tickets, but as Carmen said, sometimes they’re just not available at the nearest kiosk. So we walked a little further, and then took it all the way through the part of town where I’d had dinner on the first night, and into el Centro, where the Cathedral, tons of shops, the main bank, and university buildings are located. We saw so many things on the tour that day, it would be hard to recount. I’m sure we’ll see them all again and I’ll write about and have photos of them in due time.

During orientation they reiterated a lot of things that we’d read or heard about prior, but some things were new. Things like warnings about the fact that everyone wears slippers in the house because most homes (apartments, in our cases) have tile floors that get very cold in the winter. We finally found out about our homestays, most of which were with families. Mine was with a woman and her elderly mother in an area called Triana, where I would live within blocks of all of the girls from my orientation group, and walking distance across the bridge from the university. We also had some information sessions about our classes and homestays, between which (and through the start of the latter of the two) I slept because I was soo exhausted from the constant activity. The same was true today between breakfast and our check out at noon, probably because we had such a late night last night. We left the hotel after a short “descanso” (break), and headed for a flamenco show in town. The area we went to is called Barrio (neighborhood) de Santa Cruz, and used to be inhabited by the Jewish population of Sevilla. Now, there are some remnants of their presence, but mostly in the form of galleries and small pieces of Judaica in little glass cases. I saw one such case in La Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus (clearly more recently Moroccan-influenced), which was neat because everything else here is of very intensely Catholic, and/or Moorish roots – like the Catedral, which is a breathtaking mix of the two.

The flamenco itself was incredible. About 90 of us sat squeezed into a high-ceilinged room with a wide banner of ornate tile all the way around. There were old deep red brick-tile floors where the concrete underneath was partially exposed in one small spot from the continuous stomping of heels to a traditionally Spanish beat. After a routine, but comical advisory not to use cameras until the end, and that smoking and videos were prohibited, the show began. First, two men entered the room and sat in two chairs on the small stage. One played guitar while the other clapped, tapped his feet, and sang. Next they moved off to sit behind the stage, and were joined by a dancer, who wowed the crowd with his sharp but flowing spins, stomps and turns. A woman eventually joined them to clap, and occasionally called out various phrases and words in time with the music. Later she danced while the male dancer did the same for her. It was when she was dancing that I remembered the profundity of the emotion behind this art. I was overcome with awe by the reality that flamenco begged of the dancer what I would expect to be a very deep emotional commitment, as well as a physical one. The man and woman then danced together, and made an abrupt exit before coming back in for a short encore and bows. That was when I started to truly feel like we were in Spain, when we saw this example of the dedication to the culture that has been so valued and well-preserved by its people.

After that, our half of the program (groups 1-9, 85 people + 9 guias), made our way down the street for tapas. We ate so much, I didn’t know how I would walk home afterwards. Piles of potatoes with ketchup and mayonnaise, various roasted veggie, meat, and seafood dishes, and some interesting things I’d never seen before. For example, fried salsa balls, which were bite-sized spheres of pink salsa that tasted like gespacho, bread battered and deep fried. We didn’t get home until almost 1am, at which point some people were ready to (and some did) go out, while others hung around the bar until the lights went out and we figured it would be best to get some sleep.

Moving into the Homestay.

This morning, we had to be up by 9 am for breakfast, and downstairs at 10:30 for orientation activities and Spanish “entrevistas” (interviews), to confirm our language placement. Between the two I took a much needed nap, and afterwards brought down my bags to prepare to leave the hotel and move into my homestay at 11:30. Upon meeting my se�ora, or host mother, we exchanged a kiss on each cheek (always starting with the left), made fun of how much stuff I had (along with the other 20 se�oras standing around us), and caught a taxi to Triana. When we first got there, my host mom introduced me to her daughter and talked with some friends, and then helped me schlep those two deadweight bags up the 3 flights of steps to the 3rd floor. This is another thing about Spain that continually confuses me, despite the fact that I was educated about it in high school: the numbering of the stories in a building. The ground floor is considered Planta 0 (referred to as the “Planta baja”); the one above that, the primera (“1a”) Planta; and what we would call the third floor is la segunda (“2a”) Planta, and so on. In North American counting, we live on the 4th floor, which I prefer, mostly because 4 is my lucky number 🙂

When we finally got all of my stuff in, my host mom asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her daughter and grandson. I wanted to see some of town, so this was a perfect opportunity to do so. We walked around with her new born baby, Ivan, in a stroller, talked about Spain, where she lives now (outside the city in a place called Alcal�), and soaked up the warm afternoon sun. Another thing we learned from Carmen – which I witnessed again on this walk – was that it is perfectly normal for people to take a break in the middle of the day for tapas and a beer. The streets are always full of people sitting or walking around, enjoying the company of one another and the day. I love this aspect of the culture, and think it’s a healthy way to interact, get exercise, and some fresh air.

We had our first meal at about 2:30. It was a plate of potatoes, garbanzos, spinach, and pinto beans that had been cooked with pork (my fears of misunderstanding “red meat” became as real as i’d anticipated they might). I had a little and simply explained that I include “cerdo” in the list of animals I don’t eat.

I had a quick Skype chat with my dad to update him on how things were going – it was nice to see him and hear his voice 🙂 My host mom then took me to meet up with my group at 4:15 in a plaza nearby. We walked from there to the university for more orientation meetings and info sessions. On the way, i realized that the main road between our neighborhood and the other side if the river, where we were headed, was Calle Betis! It’s one of the most popular strips of shops and tapas bars in town, which I’d heard about before I got here, and mentioned in a pre-trip post. Anyways, this time we walked into a large building where hundreds of students were studying for final exams, which are taking place in the next few weeks. After a grueling two hours of trying to keep our eyes open, and then waiting for who knows what, we found the guides that had been holding us up and made our way into town near the Catedral for tapas.

I went with two girls that I’ve been spending a lot of time with, Ronda and Hannah (Childs – who was my roommate at the hotel), to have some desert while everyone else had drinks at an outdoor bar with our guides afterwards. Ronda and I split a “postre” (dessert) de chocolate y galletas (chocolate and cookies – really more like “rich, soft, cream and choco-layer slice”) and each had coffee. This was delicious.

Finally, we made our way back towards our end of town with 3 other girls. Hannah and I were looking for my apartment after dropping Ronda off at hers, which actually happens to be part of the same building that I live in, and got a little lost. We walked into the wrong number apartment section simply because it was opened, and locked ourselves in by closing it behind us. Hannah was afraid we’d be there all night, but I assured her we’d find a way out in the next 5 minutes. Without hesitation, I knocked on a door in the third floor, where I could hear loud voices, and a friendly looking man answered. I asked him in Spanish how we could get out, and if he would come down and unlock the door. He responded in English, and of course, it was much simpler than we’d realized. We just had to buzz ourselves out with a button that looks like the light switches on the way up the steps.

At last, Hannah and I made it into my apartment, when I realized that I had my address on my homestay assignment paper. She came in and I introduced her to everyone and then said goodnight. I just took my first shower in the apartment, which was great, considering the small quarters, relative to what I’m used to. I’ve already grown accustomed to asking to use anything that belongs to my host family, and using Spanish to communicate everything. I love Spain, and can’t wait to become better acquainted with my family and the area we live in 🙂

When do we eat? A cultural lesson.

Adjusting to the eating schedule has been a bit of the challenge, but I like that we have a lot of time between meals, it means we’re hungry when we eat and we really appreciate the food! Breakfast is what ever time you get up, lunch is some time between 1pm and 3pm (or even later some times), and dinner usually consists of tapas any time from 8:30pm to 10ish. Eating late has never really worked well for me, but it helps that we walk around so much and have the opportunity to digest that way.

PS: Because the photo situation here totally sucks, and I’m going to be posting most things on my FaceBook anyways, I’d suggest checking that out. I have an album called Instagram Photos, which has edited versions of all my favorite photography, and will soon upload an album of all of my Spain photos 🙂

Location: Triana. Sevilla, Spain.

明けましておめでとうございます

A little late, but Happy New Year everyone! My postcards have started reaching the west, so I should probably update the internet as well on the opening of 2012 in Japan.
Although Christmas can almost be considered a normal day for Japanese folk, New Years is a complete 180 degree turn. It is the biggest holiday and a time for family and tradition, not partying and midnight smooches.
The holiday starts with December 30th. Many families and shrines do a big clean (direct translation from 大掃除)a which is kind of like spring cleaning. It makes a lot of sense, actually, to bring in the New Year with a clean home. Cleansing is a big part of Shinto, one of Japan’s principle religions and where a lot of traditions originate.
December 31st, New Years Eve, we watched a four hour long concert special hosted by popular boy band Arashi. During the later half, we had 年越しそば or End-of-the-Year Soba. Soba symbolizes longevity~!
Strangely, the concert ended at around 11:45. For the next fifteen minutes, we watched the news’ live converage from the biggest shrine in town. People were cleansing themselves by standing under freezing waterfalls, queuing in front to be the first to pray and there were only gongs ringing through the night. It was rather bleak and needless to say, there was no countdown. As I watched the second hand tick past the 12, I couldn’t help but think “America does it better.” Though I understand and admire the ceremonial aspects, it was too anticlimactic for me. Apparently other channels had a more exciting feel, but we only had basic cable to work with, so…
January 1st, New Years day, Lera came over. With my host family, we went to the shrine down the street to pray. Since we opted out of the extreme water fall option, we cleansed only our hands (so cold!) and then prayed at the front after waiting in line.

We had a beautiful traditional lunch made by my host mother. This includes the mochi soup (bottom) which is a must-have celebratory food item. This was all a bit much for most of us, but we did ask for seconds on the soup because mochi is just gooey and yummy.

My host parents also gave us otoshidama (お年玉) which is a cute little envelope with money in it. 1,000¥ each (almost $13). That’s a tradition I could get used to!

All in all, I would say New Years is definitely one of those things you have to experience in Japan. It is just really peaceful and delicious.

And now the sad realization has settled in that I have reached the halfway mark and time is decreasing. For those who noticed my location is different than usual, I will explain why soon!

Location: kuwana-shi, mie-ken, Japan

Thoughts, Hopes and Expectations for Seville 2012

Hi all! I’m a junior majoring in psychology and minoring in Spanish and applied linguistics. I hail from The Steel City – Pittsburgh PA – which is a wonderful place to grow up and live, but I have always loved to travel and learn about other cultures, so I’m really looking forward to this long awaited semester abroad!

I love all things natural, artistic, creative, and genuine, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing the artwork, museums and architecture in Andalusia. However, there’s still a lot I have to think about and organize before I take off:

With 3 weeks of term papers, classes, and finals left in the semester, and an entire month of traveling to see family over winter break before I leave, it hardly feels like my trip to Spain is the next thing on my list of plans, but it’s sure getting close! I haven’t booked my flights yet, but I plan to get there a day or so before our orientation in Seville, so that I can get acquainted with the city and make sure I’m in all the right places at the right times!

I’ve been getting lots of advice and safety tips from past and present Spanish professors, teachers and friends, so hopefully I’ll at least be somewhat prepared. I was adopted from Russia when I was 3 years old, and have always had an knack for languages and people of other cultures, so though I’ve lived in America most of my life, I like to think I have a pretty diverse worldview. I’ve taken courses in Spanish, Russian, and Hebrew, and learned bits of French, Arabic, and Portuguese from friends who live in the countries where they’re spoken. I’ve traveled quite a bit (mostly to Caribbean Islands and Central American countries on family vacations, Israel a few times, and to Europe on vacation and a volunteer trip), and have a lot of friends from other countries who I met in college and high school, working at sleep away camp, and elsewhere. I’ve also taught English as a Second Language (my minor), and connected to a lot of international students through that. My experiences with all these people and places have made me as much a “global citizen” as I probably could be at this point, and I hope to expand on and change my definition of this concept throughout my time in Europe.

I don’t know what exactly is in store, but I’m getting excited for the change of pace and culture that Spain will be. What I expect to see when I get to Spain is traditional Moorish and Spanish architecture, people of all different European and North African descent, a lot of cute, classy little bars, caf�s, and restaurants, and clubs 🙂 I’m really looking forward to experiencing all of the different aspects of culture – from food and going out, to casual discourse, class schedules and academic expectations. I think people will be friendly, but am aware I have to watch my back, because as in many places, security can be a concern -especially in times of economic unrest like there have been in the past couple of years. I know to take advantage of resources and opportunities (including people!), but not to be overly trusting. I love meeting new people, traveling with, and learning from them, so if all goes well I’ll have a lot of locals and friends to rely on and show me around. These are all things I got a lot of practice with last summer when I spent two months traveling in Israel, but expect to be different everywhere I go.

I’m hoping that in Europe people are accommodating to the frugal an conservationist lifestyle that I’d like to live. I recently saw a special about all of the cyclists in Copenhagen, it seemed like such a great example to be setting for the world!! I hope I have the opportunity to rent or buy a cheap bike to use if my commutes to and from classes and elsewhere necessitate it. I also hope I’ll be able to maintain a pretty healthy lifestyle – aside from not eating red meat, I tend to avoid fried foods and keep a pretty low-fat diet, and apparently the temptation of tapas (little Spanish snacks that are often fried – according to my sister, who has also traveled a lot and been to Spain) will challenge that effort.

That’s all I can think of for now, there’s lots to come – even before I set off for Europe – but I’ll save it for when I have more information about my trip! I’ll post links, photos and videos of everything about my travels as I go, there will be a lot to keep up with, but I’ll do my best to keep it up to date!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy following my studies and adventures abroad 🙂

Location: State College, PA

Traditions

This is a show about the traditional life in Hungary. Enjoy it with wine and local music. It is so fun, just look at those people!!

Location: Hungary

Start of term and random things of note

Fesher’s week is over! Thank goodness! As fun as it was not having to do anything and just partying, I’m EXHAUSTED. Even so, there are still loud parties going on in our building, and I’m hoping everyone will chill out soon!

I had my first day of lectures today, Monday. Which was more like lecture (singular) because one I have every other Monday (not this week), and the other has slated the intro lecture for Thursday instead. It was a pretty standard as far as lectures go. The typical warnings: “all the information will not be on the lecture slides, you have to come to lectures,” and “keep up with the material.” Aside from the fact that it was in a building called Roger Stevens a picture of which is below.

And the inside (as shown by one of my flatmates):

This building is lovely in that it has 28 (I think?) lecture halls, and the hall numbers tend not to resemble a logical, sequential order. It’s wonderful.

I’ve found that the lecture halls in the US tend to have individual chairs with their own little attached/fold out desk top. Here, all the lecture theaters I’ve been in have individual chairs, but just one long bench-desk in front of the whole row.

Few other interesting points I’ve picked up on over the past week…

Here, the grades they get in first year don’t count toward their final grade for their degree. They just have to pass. Talk about unfair!

A language thing I’ve noticed is that in casual greeting, instead of saying “hey” or “what’s up?” as in the US, they say “you all right?” The first few times (okay, multiple times) people have said “you all right?” to me, I’ve been a bit taken aback, as I hear it as more of a concerned statement than a casual greeting. This has really been throwing me for a while, and I’m just getting used to it.

At PSU, it’s rare to see someone walking around campus who’s not either talking, texting, or listening to their iPod. Here, it’s very rare to see that. I’ve put audio books on my iPod for the 30 minute walk to/from campus, and honestly I feel sort of self conscious listening to it.

In terms of nightlife, people actually seem to go out more on the weeknights than the weekends. I’ve gathered that’s because the good offers are during week, and they jack up all the prices on the weekends.

One last weird note before I head to bed…In the US we drive on the right side of the road, and if you think about it, when you walk on the sidewalk, you generally have a natural inclination to walk on the right side as well. Strangely enough, here I’ve noticed that it matches up with their driving patterns too. People generally walk on the left side of the sidewalk. Strange huh? And for that matter, I’m getting better with which way to look when crossing streets, but I think it’s still going to be a while before it’s natural.

Location: Leeds, UK

In England!

I arrived in England yesterday at around lunch time. The trip was a bit tiresome, and we had a little problem because the airline lost our luggage. But once we left the airport, I must say that I truly enjoyed my time. I’m here in England a little earlier than school, and I am staying with my roommate from Penn State at her aunt’s. We are about half an hour from London in a town called Orpington.

Yesterday evening one of Anita’s cousins took us on a walk around town. The town is so lovely and adorable! The homes are the cutest things in the world! And everyone seems to really like gardening lol I knew that England would definitely have a McDonald’s (bc honestly where doesn’t?), but i was very surprised to see a KFC, and a Burger King! haha While we were walking around we went into this store called Tresco’s, which is owned by Wal Mart. It was pretty nice, I saw a few things in there that isn’t sold in the States.

Today was spent mostly indoors. We had a small barbecue which I found interesting because the bacon and the burger was surprisingly different from any other that I’ve had. The burgers are small, like super small. lol and the bacon was circular, which actually worked out well because it fit the burger perfectly. Anita’s aunt has been to the United States quite a few times and noticed how surprised Anita and I was. She said when she visited she was surprised as to how big our burgers were, and she talked about how full it made her after eating just one.

We haven’t had the chance to visit London yet bc of our luggage situation. Fortunately we received our luggage a little earlier this evening and so we plan on visiting London tomorrow to get a few things, and go sightseeing of course. On Tuesday Anita and I are leaving Orpington and going to Rome for about 4 days. I am very excited because obviously i have never been to Rome! I am so excited to interact with the people, visit the sights, and of course eat the food!

Thankfully we chose this time to go to London. Anita’s aunt said that visiting London in the month of August sucks. Because for 1 month almost everyone in Rome (aside from politicians, and government workers) leave and go to their home villages. It’s like a city wide holiday, that literally lasts a month. So during that time the people there are mostly other tourists and those who HAD to stay to keep a store open or something.

Anyways that’s all for now. My next post should have pictures from Rome and London!

Location: Orpington, England, UK

Es Cultura!

That saying above (translated: It’s culture!) has pretty much been our group’s mantra the entire time we’ve been here. Even though Mexico is right below the U.S., there are so many differences. It’s been really interesting to learn and adjust to them, so prepare for a long entry!

Transportation. Let’s just say that all Mexican drivers are city drivers at their worst. It’s pretty much lanes/ turn signals optional, with no visible speed limits. My Mexican mother is a pretty safe driver, but some taxi rides have been terrifying. The public buses are really convenient and cheap, but there are no schedules, so you just have to hope a bus with your route on it passes soon. Believe it or not, I miiight just miss the Blue Loop a little. They tend to not come to complete stops when it’s time to get off, so you just have to hop and hope for the best. We’ve been successful so far and pretty much have the routine down!

Food. It is GOOD. I have tried so many new foods– REAL (delicious, amazing) Mexican foods (far from Taco Bell style). The mealtimes are fairly different, though, and it took a little while to adjust. Breakfast (desayuno) is pretty much the same, with the sole exception being that, in place of my typical granola bar, my mom here feeds me to the point of immobility. But that goes for every meal; Imy stomach has expanded significantly since my arrival. The next meal isn’t until around 3 or so, and it’s “comida”–the main meal. It’s pretty much to Mexicans what dinner is to us; my father and brother come home from work, my sister’s home from school, and we all eat my mom’s delicious cooking together. The last meal is sort-of-dinner, or “cena,” and with my family it consistently consists of sandwiches or quesadillas and maybe some fruit or sweet bread. Cena is usually around 9 or 10, and it’s the time of “platicando,” or chatting.

Other things about food that I love here: every kind of “pan dulce,” or sweet bread/ pastries, has its own name. There are also tons of delicious fresh fruits, and a home-made hot salsa or peppers are placed out with almost every meal. They also adore salt here, but normal pepper cannot be found. Oh- and, as my father said, [translated] “Coca-Cola is the drink of the gods.” They LOVE it here, and, when it comes straight out of a cold glass bottle, who are we to disagree?

Interacting with people. It’s been hard to switch between Ud. and tu forms of addressing people (the first being formal and the other informal). When you meet people, it’s with a handshake and kiss on the cheek. I will not, however, miss “propinos,” which are essentially call-outs to (mostly) women and very common here; since we’re noticeably from the US, our group has received a fair share of these. Bartering and negotiating is also the norm here; from markets, where it’s expected, even to taxi cabs, it’s an art I haven’t yet mastered.

Other little things. Many people keep dogs on their roofs to keep watch for robbers. The public computer keyboards are set up completely different–it took me like 10 minutes to figure out how to access the “@” sign. Public bathrooms here can be a nuisance; there is a 50% chance that you will either have to pay a few pesos or there won’t be available toiler paper (or both). Museums and historic sites can sometimes have as much security as airports, but to enter and see what they have to offer is almost always worth it.

And the weather! It can get very cool in the mornings/ evenings (especially after rain), but it is pretty toasty most of the time. I’ve been loving it! However, almost all locals wear jeans and/or sweaters; we’ve even seen people running in sweatshirts, which seems crazy to me. We definitely stick out as foreigners in our shorts and t-shirts. I keep adding, but lastly, I love how close my family is here. When they’re not at work or school they’re essentially together. Whether we sit and chat for hours at mealtimes, play games (like dominoes below), or watch television, it’s just the norm to spend time together. All members of my host family- mom, dad, sister, and brother- are so witty, funny, and wonderful. I’m going to miss them so much when I leave next week!

All in all, there are lots of things I’m looking forward to when I head back home, but there are so many things I’m going to miss about here. I feel like I’m finally just getting really used to it all, and it’s about time to go…

Location: Puebla, Mexico

My Girona

I apologize for the gap between blog posts. The past few weeks I have been extremely busy with schoolwork and exploring Barcelona.

It was another exciting weekend in Barcelona. The thing I like most about this city is that there are so many different things that you can do here. I haven’t even explored the beach yet now that the weather is getting better. I guess that is my goal in the upcoming weeks. Unfortunately the school work is starting to pile up, and it seems that every day I lose more and more of my free time.

Thursday, February 24, I went to RCD Espanyol’s stadium with my Sport and Society in Spain class. Espanyol is the other, less known soccer team in Barcelona. If you didn’t know, the term “soccer” is never said here in Spain, or even in Europe. Europeans always refer to soccer as football. The stadium was very, very nice, having been constructed in 2009. The tour started off with a 3-D movie about the club’s history. After the movie, we got to see the home team’s locker room, which was very nice and clean. The highlight of the visit was when we were allowed to go on the pitch (the field) and sit on the team’s bench. We weren’t supposed to step on the grass, but some rules were meant to be broken…

Friday the 25th was an interesting day for me. I made a last minute decision to go on a free field trip sponsored by my Sustainability class. The field trip was to Can Masdeu, a former leper hospital that became a squatted settlement and is now home to ecologists and activists who live off of the land. They build things completely from recycled materials. For example, they use a bicycle to run a washing machine instead of using electricity. They built a dry bathroom from used materials that they gathered around the community and in Barcelona. It was a very interesting trip and I learned a lot. The hospital that the 20 members of the settlement live in is very dilapidated, but they make the best of it. I found the whole place to be very cool. It was an old hospital surrounded by gardens, in the middle of a mountain, with a great view of the city of Barcelona. It is truly amazing what people can do with so little materials. Unfortunately, it was a little awkward because I was the only student from the class who showed up, so it was just my professor and me on a 4 hour field trip together. I hope he gives me some extra credit for that!

Saturday, the 26^th of February, was another long day. My friend Molly and I set out in the morning to catch a train to the nearby city of Girona. I had heard it was very easy to purchase a ticket at the train station, but naturally nothing is ever as easy as people say it is. It took so long to figure out how to buy a ticket that we missed our train. Once we finally found an employee who spoke a little bit of English, we discovered that we had an hour to kill until the next train. We explored the area near the train station and found a really cool city park. It was really pretty even though the water was a nauseating color of green. This park even had a giant metal dragon that doubled as a slide. Because I still have the mind of a twelve year old, I was enthralled with this dragon. I couldn’t believe how fast you went down the slides! It was a lot of fun, even though the whole thing smelled like urine and I’m pretty sure homeless people slept in the dragon.

The train ride lasted about an hour and a half, and showed us some of the countryside of Spain. When we got off the bus, we ran into two other kids who are studying with us at IES and the 4 of us joined forces for the adventure. Girona is a very interesting city. It has residential buildings that tower over a canal-like river.

The buildings are very colorful and the river is nearly still, which allows for a unique reflection of the buildings in the river. Throughout the history of the city, it was home to Romans, Moors, and Jews. Influences from each of these inhabitants are present in the city to this day, which makes for interesting multi-cultural sightseeing. There is an Arab bathhouse, which was really just some ruins. Since I like archaeology, I was intrigued by the old architecture of the bathhouse and the artifacts that remained. There was a beautiful iglesia, or church, which had many shrines and a cloister. We also walked through the Jewish Quarter. The streets were so tiny and beautiful with flowers and vines hanging from the balconies above. The streets and walkways seemed to disappear into the buildings as they wound through the city. We then walked to the top of the fort structure that overlooked all of the city. It was so beautiful with the mountains in the background. After that we walked along the “Great Wall of Girona”. It is a fortified wall that surrounds the old city of Girona. I don’t know the real name of the wall, but it reminded me of the great wall of China, only not as great. After walking along the wall, we finally found our way to the Catedral de Girona, which was a truly impressive Cathedral. Unfortunately, I got scolded for taking a picture and disrupting the sanctity of the cathedral. I’m Catholic, so I was offended that I couldn’t take pictures of how ornate everything looked. There were about 25 shrines surrounding the altar. Each shrine either contained a sarcophagus or a gold altar piece from another church. After exploring the cathedral for a little bit, and being denied entrance to the bell tower, we decided to head home. On the way home, we made a pit stop at the Cinema Museum. This museum charted the first hundred years or so of film. It was fascinating to see the way film progressed. Being somewhat of a film and cinema geek, I really enjoyed looking at all of the antique cameras and recorders and video boxes. After spending a long time in the film museum, we hopped on a train back to Barcelona.

On Sunday, I went to my first Spanish movie theater. My “Contemporary Spanish Film” teacher challenged us with viewing a movie in Spanish, in a Spanish cinema, and writing a review about it. I had never watched a foreign movie without subtitles before, so I knew it was going to be an experience. I bought my ticket and the guy at the ticket booth mumbled something in Spanish to me. I just replied “Si,” and headed into the theater. Well, apparently in Spain they give you an assigned seat in the theater. I should have realized this when I saw people getting kicked out of the seats by others. I was sitting in a nearly empty row in the middle of the theater. About two minutes after the movie starts, I see two older ladies walk into my row and I just rolled my eyes. Of course, I was sitting in their seats. They refused to sit anywhere else in a nearly empty theater. They insisted on sitting in the seat I was sitting in. So I had to crawl over people to find a new seat somewhere in the theater that would not be occupied. It was very annoying and the language barrier was frustrating. The movie was Tamien La Lluvia which in English is “Even The Rain.” It was an excellent movie, from what I understood. I enjoyed going to the theater, but I would appreciate subtitles.

This weekend also marked the end of the time of “Rebaixes” or sales period. For two months, nearly every retail store in BCN offered great deals on clothes. So on the last day of the sales, I took advantage of it and made some interesting purchases (including a V-neck). Still not so sure how I feel about that one…

I’m a little bit behind on my blogging, so I am going to write three one-week installments to catch up instead of writing an incredibly long and ponderous post.

Hasta Luego!

~Sean

Location: Girona, Spain

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