Home Sweet Home

Well, everyone, my trip has come to an end. I'm writing this post from my house in Nebraska. I meant to post earlier in the week, but my internet connection got cut off at the apartment and I couldn't find a network that I could "borrow" from for a few days.

My last weeks in Spain were wonderful. I was lucky enough to have more family visit and got to see more of the cities Valencia and Madrid. However, when the time came to leave, I was ready and gladly boarded my flight home. I've had a truly amazing semester, full of ups and downs (mostly ups, thankfully) and I know that it has shaped me as a person. I'm thankful for every opportunity that came my way, and I can honestly say that I have no regrets.

I'm not sure what will happen to with this blog. For the time being, it will likely remain on this website, and maybe in the future I'll start writing on it again. This isn't the end of my uncharted life.

Thanks for reading.

As always, love. xoxo

Marrakech, Marruecos

Hi, everyone. I'd like to tell you about my trip to Morocco, if you have time. (If you don't have time, what are you doing surfing the internet?)

My roommate Keyla and I booked our plane tickets to Marrakech wayyy back in April... and I remember when I told Keely of our plans she said, "Wow, Morocco! That's Africa, dude." Yes, dude. I went to Africa. And it was awesome.

This trip was the first time that I´ve left Spain since being here, and it was so weird to be experiencing culture shock all over again. Seeing all the signs and everything written in French and Arabic took some getting used to, but I did find that the local people spoke more Spanish than they did English, so I actually didn´t speak much English while I was there. Which is fine by me. :)

The first thing on our list to do was to go to the currency exchange booth in the airport to exchange our euros for dirham. The exchange rate is actually pretty simple - 1 euro is approximately 10 dirham, so that made the converting easier on us during our trip. While we were in line to exchange our money, we started chatting with 2 other women from Alicante who were on their way to Marrakech as well, and we actually ran into them a few times in the city, which was fun.

Once we were on the ground in Morocco, we had to go through customs and passport control, which was basically a lot of standing in long lines. Some guys (who were from Morocco originally, but living in Spain) gave us some advice and offered to help us get a taxi into the city, which was really nice because he could explain the directions and such to the cab driver in Arabic, which left things alot simpler than if we had tried to explain things in a mix of English and Spanish.

The cab driver dropped us off right next to the city square, where there is a huge open air market. While crossing the square on the way to the hostel, we saw snake charmers, monkeys, and various other things that are essentially a money trap. Which leads me to explain one thing that Keyla and I quickly learned in Marrakech - there is no such thing as "free." If anyone offers you anything, they expect money from you. Which is fair, in some aspects. I mean, if you walk up to a guy selling bread, it's only polite to buy something if you want to ask him directions. The problem was that people would see us looking at our map and then approach us and offer to guide us to our destination, but they're going to ask you for compensation, which can really drain your cash quickly. So Keyla and I quickly had to learn to say no to people, which can be tricky, because some of them were really persistent and adament about helping us.
While at our hostel we met 2 other guys from Mexico, Rúben and Luis, and we ended up going to see some of the sights with them. On the first night we were there, we just wandered around the central square.

The next morning, we went to the Jardín Marjorelle, which is a beautiful botanical garden. There's also a memorial there for the designer Yves Saint Laurent, who lived in Marrakech for most of his life.

After the gardens, we went wandered through the streets and went into some of the little shops. I found after a while that most of the shops were selling really similar goods - leather purses/backpacks, antiques, tea pots, or clothing. Since I´m not really in the market for any of that stuff, I wasn´t really tempted to buy anything. I did want some sort of souvenir, but so far I hadn´t seen it.

The next day, we went to see one of the palaces. We were looking at it on our map while eating breakfast, but when we compared our map to Luis´, we found that they didn´t really look at all similar. The city is a network of incredibly narrow streets that kind of start and stop out of nowhere, so none of the maps are similar, nor are they very accurate. Luckily, Luis had been to the palace yesterday, so he showed us how to get there on our map. It turned out to be really simple actually. So here are a few pictures of the palace:

While walking back from the palace, this store window caught my eye. It was filled with these glass teacups, handpainted and in every color imaginable. The shop owner saw us looking at the glasses and he invited us in to look around. His name is Selman (not sure on the spelling there) and he told us that his father owned the shop before him and his family makes and paints all of the glasses by hand, and the shop is known throughout Marrakech for the quality of the products there. His shop has even been featured in France´s edition of ELLE magazine - that´s something. However, despite all that good publicity, the shop is struggling to make it. Selman told us that we were his first clients in 2 whole days. We each bought a few teacups - I chose these lovely little blue ones that are hand-blown. I can´t wait to have them in my kitchen at home!

 

Here we are with Selman. He showed us how to wear the scarves like the women here. :)

We visited other sites around the city, such as the Museum of Marrakech and other buildings. Mostly the trip was a lot of wandering around and finding little shops and outdoor gardens. It was a really fun 3 days. :)

The full album of photos is posted on Facebook. Thanks for reading!

I´ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few days... not serious, studious, or academic thinking, but more along the lines of daydreaming. I wonder what things will be like when I get back. I wonder in what ways I´ll be different that I won´t become aware of until I´m in a (somewhat) new environment. Well, all this daydreaming has brought about a list of reverse culture shock that I´m expecting to notice once I´m home:

1. I will inevitably forget where I am and kiss someone hello on the cheeks. It´s bound to happen. Surely it will be awkward.

2. I´ll have to get used to smiling again. - That isn´t to say that I don´t smile or laugh here! Oh, boy, do I smile and laugh. I just don´t do those things while I´m walking down the sidewalk. In America, especially the Midwest, everyone is always smiling at passers-by on the streets, but here no one does that.

3. I´ll have to start remembering that in the U.S. when people say, "Let´s meet up at ten," they really mean ten. Not like here where "Let´s meet up at ten" translates roughly to, "Let´s meet up sometime around ten but I´ll probably be a good 15 to 20 minutes late depending on what I´m doing before...so I´ll see you sometime."

Other things don´t have to do with culture, but more with the amenities that I´m not used to having here, like a car to drive, or an electric stove and shower heater that doesn´t require me to light a gas burner to have hot water, or A/C.

Yeah... I´ll have some adjusting to do when I get home. :)

Thanks for reading!
I love you! xoxo

P.S. - There´s a post coming about my trip to Morocco, it´s just taking a long time to get it put together because our internet is running rrrreeeeeaaaaaallllllllyyyyyy slowly and the pictures are taking forever to upload... but I hope to have it up by Sunday. Or Monday. Promise.

"Don´t worry, it´s just a test."

My landlord, Carlos, came to the apartment last night to get the rent for June and to talk to us about last minute house-keeping things, like where we leave our keys when we all go and all that stuff. Anyway, he and I were chatting and he was asking me how my exams were going. I told him that I´ve taken 2 of the 3 that I have and that I´m nervous that I didn´t pass the first one. The school system here is structured so, so differently than in the U.S. First of all, there´s very little homework throughout the semester; I´ve had a few papers here and there and a couple of translation projects, but in other classes, such as my Music class, I haven´t had any coursework as of yet. So the final exam of a class ends up counting as 60% (or sometimes higher) of the final grade. That´s pressure, people.

So anyway, my first exam (in my Syntax class, which has been the biggest pain of this entire semester) didn´t go so well. I was telling my dad about it a few days ago on Skype. The layout of the test was really bizarre and the questions were incredibly ambiguous. I was glad to see a few multiple choice questions on there... until I realized that instead of giving us four options (A - D) to choose from, she gave us 15 choices (A - O). So yeah, at the end of the 3 hours I turned in my test and there were still some Spanish students working on theirs - and they were the kids that were always in class and took really copious notes. So that made me nervous as well... I´m not sure when we´ll know the grades, but I hope it´s soon.

At least the weather has been kind of cloudy and rainy... nothing is worse than having to stay inside and study on a nice, sunny day.

What!? I have to leave? Didn't I just get here?

This whole experience has really warped my sense of time. When I got here in January, it felt like I had a millenium of time before my departure date. It took about 3 weeks for me to feel like I really lived here rather than being on vacation, even after getting my Foreign ID number and opening a bank account. Once classes started I really fell into a rhythm of being here and I fell farther into the fantasy that I would never have to leave.

But the weeks on the hand-written calendar on my wall are slowly getting crossed off. There are only 4 left. At times I feel really excited about the idea of going home and seeing all of the faces that I´ve been missing, but a part of me is still in denial of leaving because I don´t want to have to say goodbye to all of the people I´ve grown so close to here.

I´m trying not to think about that and focusing on crossing things off my To-Do list. My agenda includes, study for my 2 remaining finals, go to Granada, write 5 music essays, go to Marrakech, Morroco with my roommates, finish my translation project, plan for when my family is here, and go to Segovia.

I guess I better get busy. :)

"Toma la calle" - Campings and protests throughout Spain

I'm not sure if any of you all have read about it, but there is some real political unrest happening all over Spain right now. Since 15 May, in almost every city, Murcia included, there have been campsites set up where people have literally been sleeping in the streets to demonstrate their discontent with the state of the government, the economy, high enemployment, and a handful of other grievances. Below is a posting that a friend shared with me from a website she found:

The day has come,
We have taken the streets for a true democracy now
The day, when the citizens have decided to meet and join their voices
The day, when we have covered the streets with a clear message
WE ARE NOT SAFE IN POLITICIANS AND BANKERS HANDS
And the message took the streets across the whole country
And the streets celebrated that day as the first day that we have taken a true change.

A change depends on YOU, on ME, on ALL OF US:

young people, elderly people, workers, unemployed people.

The Media won’t silence our voices any more because we have seen we are REAL people,

just as the DEMOCRACY we are demanding.

There is no excuse
HISTORY is looking at us and it is our turn to make a movement

We are ready to CHANGE:
Change Injustice into justice
Change Corruption into responsability and dignity
Change Outrage into action

Today, May the 15th, 2011 has been of something unstoppable
The true Democracy of people who consciously choose their path
True democracy who chose consciously the way
We are demanding a true democracy, now
Are you thinking that you can´t do anything?
To accept your responsibility is to take the challenge
Be a part of the necessary change for a world which will be as you want it to be.
Democracy is your choice. Use it.

There are Twitter feeds coming from the camp in the Plaza del Sol in Madrid and the Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona, where things have sadly gotten a little out of control this past week. Up until Monday, all of the protests had been very peaceful and there were no problems with local authorities; that changed when the police (dressed in riot uniforms with barricades and nightsticks) in Barcelona cleared the Plaça Catalunya, using force when the seated protestors refused to move. Here's a link to a Youtube video to see what's happening there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqXHOe7FrL8

I hope things remain peaceful here. I wanna go talk to people and get more opinions on what's happening and how people are feeling. When I was in Zaragoza and Barcelona last week (that I'm just realizing I forgot to blog about - damn.) my roommate Keyla and I went to the camping that was going on there with Rubén, the guy we CouchSurfed with.

The whole plaza went silent as people held up their hands.

People chanting and singing

I find the whole thing fascinating. It´s really cool how people of all ages --I´ve literally seen families with young children, elderly couples and everyone in between-- are simply trying to make their voices and their concerns heard. I´m thinking of doing interviews and turning this into my senior research project for my Spanish degree.

They´re calling it a Spanish Revolution. They´re saying that they´re making history - and they just might be.



If you can't sleep.

So...I'm becoming nocturnal. It's because I siesta. Err'y day. :)

So, while I can't sleep I do random things to pass the time.

Like clean and rearrange my room...

...or cut my bangs...

...or create a Twitter account that I'll probably forget the password to and never use again.

Yeah, I have Twitter; I don't wanna talk about it.

Anyway, it's daytime and I'm tired. I'll probably go take a nap, thus digging myself deeper into this bad sleep cycle.

xoxo -

¡Feliz Cumple!

A special birthday wish to the best brother!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztoSUhbNntQ

All these birthdays are making me want cake... with lotssss of frosting. :)

I hope you have a wonderful day, Rhett! Love you so much!



Blessed

Last week I took a study break and read the senior charge that my advisor delivered to the graduating class at Wesleyan on the 15th. While the whole speech focused on the topic of overcoming struggle, I was struck by one quote in particular:

"You have nothing to offer until you have been broken."

- Joan Chittister

As I'm working through the sadness that has come into my life these past few days, I try to remember that struggle, pain, and suffering cultivate compassion and the ability to empathize. It is only by experiencing sadness and grief that we know how to comfort others.

I'm sending comforting thoughts and prayers to all who are suffering...

Matthew 5:4 - "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

¡Cumpleaños Feliz! (aunque sea tarde)

Happy birthday, Dad! Sorry this is a day late. I hope yesterday was wonderful for you. Thanks for being great, and for liking good music, and  for always checking the tire pressure and oil in my car when I leave home, and for inspiring me and supporting me.
A group just started singing "Happy Birthday" at the restaurant across the street - I think they´re singing for you.

Love you! Can´t wait to see you!

"Many origens, one purpose."

Yet another heartwarming, fun-filled day of Phraseology class.

We´re talking about slogans, mottos, and such, and for the first hour of class we just talked about different symbols from the Spain, the United States, and China. A few examples of what we talked about are, "E pluribus unum," the flag of Spain, and a national seal from China. Then, when we were talking about mottos, the professor asked if each state in the US really has it´s own motto or slogan. We said yes, yes they do. So he asked us to write each of ours on the board. I jumped up, went to the board and wrote: "Nebraska, the good life"...

And then I sat down and realized that isn´t the state motto... it´s what the welcome sign on the interstate says. Oops. Anyone could make that mistake, right?

(The actual state motto for Nebraska is, "Equality before the law"... a fun trivia fact for ya.)

At the end of class, the professor thought it would be fun to come up with a motto for our class in groups and then vote on our favorite. There were some good ones in the mix, but we finally chose, "Muchos origenes, un propósito," which translates to the title of this post.

I think I´m gonna miss that class...

Syntactical nonsense

Makenzie and I have literally been working on homework for our Syntax class allllllll dayyyyyyy. We started out being really productive - we finished the corrections to an old assignment (on which we got a B+, I might add) and then we each got started writing summaries of these ridiculously long (ridiculously boring) articles that we have to read to help us prepare for the final.

But for the past 20 minutes we've been telling stories, quoting Modern Family, giggling and singing "Hey Ya."

...this class is driving us crazy.

"Excuse me, could I draw on your face?"

So, I got drawn on yesterday while I was sitting in the plaza waiting for Makenzie. I could tell something weird was going on because I saw all these people running around in costumes; there was a pirate, a demon, Scream, a clown, and a witch. They kept running up to passers-by and asking them questions or having them do something (like play Hopscotch.) Then, the clown approached me on the bench where I was sitting and asked if she could draw something on my face. It turns out they were doing a scavenger hunt and had a whole list of funny little tasks like that. Well, anyway, she drew a heart on my cheek.

Oh, Spain, you're always full of surprises...

Earthquake

Today around 5:00pm there was a 4.4 earthquake in the Region of Murcia. Another happened about 2 hours later which was a 5.3. Most of the damage is in a city called Lorca, which is about an hour away. Our apartment shook for about 30 seconds and my roommate and I were really scared for a few minutes. We're all fine, though, so I thought I'd let everyone know.

Here's a link to a news article that I found about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13368599

"It's pronounced Ibitha"

That title made me laugh, so I thought I'd use it twice. If you don't get it, go start watching Modern Family. Seriously - watch it now, thank me later. :)

Anywho, this past Thursday my friend Sarah and I jetted off to the Balearic Island of Ibiza for a little bit of vacation. And you know what, it was the first trip I've taken that actually felt like a vacation. As much as I love map-reading, navigating, site-seeing, and city-trekking, it was really nice to just go to the beach and read a magazine and swim in the ocean. Which is what we did for 2 of the 4 days we were there.

The third day we went walking around in Eivissa (the biggest city on the island) and climbed up to the castle to see the Medieval Fair that was up there.

Medieval Fair

Olives

A man making bread in a wood-fire oven.

Then the fourth day, Valery, the guy we were couch-surfing with, showed us around the island by car, which is the only way to really see Ibiza because the buses only run certain routes and the rest of the island is a network of tiny roads.

The last day with the car was by far my favorite day. All of the little coves and cliffs that we saw were so amazing. We drove out to see Es Vedrà, which is a rock formation a little ways off the coast.

What was weird is that as we were driving, you could see the top of it behind the hills in the distance, and it looked HUGE. Then as we kept getting closer to it, it kept getting smaller. I´m not sure how that works...



The view from straight down the cliff.

After taking in the scenery and snapping some photos (while perched on a pretty steep cliff, I might add) we went for a little hike. And by "little hike" I mean a trek through the wildnerness. We climbed down the ledges toward the coast. Part of the way was sand so you could literally just run down the mountain and roll to slow yourself down or stop. It was really exhilirating. At the bottom, we shook the sand out of our shoes and climbed around on the rocks and took more photos.

The sandy stretch of the hike

The water is such a stunning color. It´s so clear that you can see straight down to the bottom where it´s shallow. We tried to climb down to go swimming, but when we got there, we saw that the water was full of pink, iridescent jellyfish. They looked so peaceful suspended in the water, not really caring where the waves were carrying them. They were in a pretty sweet spot if you ask me.

Next came the difficult part - the climb back up. It was about a 40 minute hike, but it takes so long because the gravel was loose so you had to take baby steps. There were also some prickly shrubs and brush along the trails, and I got a nice scratch on my thigh - a souvenir, I guess??

After that we just kept driving around the island (which is about 45 km [27 miles] at its widest) and saw some more beaches and coves.

Sadly, our vacation had come to an end. Valery dropped us off and the airport where we caught our flights back to Alicante - then came the really fun part... sleeping in the airport. The thing is, our flight got into Alicante (which is about an hour from Murcia) after the buses stop running for the night. So we were left with 2 options: take a cab all the way to Murcia (which comes to like 90 euro) OR take a cab into Alicante and get a hostel (which would come to about 60 euro.) So, we chose the secret 3rd option and slept on the airport benches, with my head on my backpack, my money/passport tucked in my bra strap under my arm and my purse clutched to my chest. However, there were really no people around, so I actually slept for a few hours. I checked in the morning and still had all my belongings, so all's well that end's well, I suppose. Not sure I want to that again anytime soon, though.

And thus ended one of the funnest trips I've had as of yet in Spain.

Hope all is well with everyone. I've been thinking this week of all my friends who are finished with/finishing their finals for the semester. I'm sure you all did well on the exams ;)

Much love to all from Spain, xoxo

Semana Santa 2011

While my dad and aunt were here we had the opportunity to see the Holy Week processions through the cities here in Spain. During the processions, groups of people from churches walk through the streets in cloaks carrying candles, lanterns, and sculptures that depict the final days of Jesus' life.


We saw 2 or 3 in Murcia, and 1 or 2 in both Córdoba and Sevilla. We actually only sought one out to watch (the one we saw in Murcia on the night of Palm Sunday) - all of the others we just kind of came upon while walking around. It's hard to find your way out of the crowds of people once you come up on a procession. It's kind of rude to walk through it, but some of the pathways are several kilometers long, so it can take a while to find your way around it. An added wrinkle is when you're in a foreign city navigating through tiny, narrow streets that start and stop like in "Alice in Wonderland."

The first procession we saw in Murcia brought a lot of questions to our minds. Luckily, we were on our way to dinner with my friend Agustín, who was kind enough to explain things to us, even though he probably felt like he was being interviewed after a while. Here´s a recap of some of what we asked:

"Why the hoods?" The hoods are worn to cover the person´s face and to keep their identity a secret.

"How is it decided who walks in the processions?" The people walk in the procession as a way to ask forgiveness for their sins or to thank God for His blessings. The people who feel they have the most to ask forgiveness for/be thankful for are the ones who carry the statue, some of which weigh over a metric ton! There´s usually an average of 40 people carrying the figure. In Murcia, the statues were carried one the shoulder, but in Sevilla, the people are actually underneath the statue carrying it on the nape of their neck! There, there´s a curtain around the base of the statue to cover the legs of the carriers, which makes it appear to be floating. Other people choose to walk with the procession, which we playfully described as the "10 Sins or Less" group. Some walk barefoot; some carry stones in their robes so as to make the walk more strenuous and therefore more meaningful. It´s all a matter of choice and how much gratitude and/or repentance you want to show.

"Are all of the processions the same throughout the week?" No, the processions on Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are typically louder and the crowd claps with the passing of each figure. The processions on Holy Thursday and Good Friday are silent and often lit by only candlelight. Unfortunately, the Holy Thursday procession in Sevilla was rained out, so we didn´t get a chance to see it.

Okay, I know the post is already really long, but hang in there, dear reader. :) I´m almost done, I promise.

Córdoba, 19-20 abril

Although we were only there for one night, Córdoba was a great stop on our mini-tour of Andalucía. We took a tour through the Alcázar, which is an old fortress. From there we took a walk through the botanical gardens, which was beautiful. After that, it was back to the hostel for a quick nap then out for dinner and a flamenco show.

La Alcázar

Fuente en los Jardínes Botánicos (A fountain in the Botanical Gardens)

La Mezquita - which was closed due to a procession.

Sevilla, 20-22 abril

The next day it was on to Sevilla, where we had a wonderful 2 days of exploring. Here we went to the Cathedral, the Plaza de España, and the Plaza de Toros, among other things. The Cathedral in Sevilla has a few points to brag about - it is the highest and largest cathedral in Spain, the largest Gothic building in the world, and the third-largest church in the world (behind St. Peter´s in Rome and St. Paul´s in London.) I´ve already posted the full album on Facebook, but here are a few pictures.

Plaza de Toros - Bullfighting ring

La Catedral - main entrance to the Cathedral

A view from La Giralda, the Cathedral tower

A fountain in El Naranjo (The Orange Grove.) The Grove was
part of the Mosque which originally stood where the Cathedral
stands now. La Giralda (the tower) was also part of the original structure.

Plaza de España

Madrid, 22-23 abril

For their final day in Spain, we travelled to the capital city. There, we had seafood paella for lunch with Poli and Susana, who were our hosts for the day. From there we went to the Reina Sofia art museum, where Picasso´s famous painting Guernica is housed. We also saw a photography exhibit while there. The rest of the day entailed a tour of the city in the car. The next day, after taking Dad and Jean to the airport, I met up with my friend, Bre, and her family. We had coffee and then went to the Prado art museum, where we saw more amazing art. It was so mind-blowing to see all of those famous painting by El Greco, Goya, Velásquez, etc. that I´ve read about. My only complaint, however, would be that there was too much noise in there. I like a nice quiet museum where you can really think about and appreciate the art you´re viewing, but it´s hard to get to that level when there´s a constant buzz of talking, laughing, babies crying, bored teenagers whining, blah, blah. I saw a kid with his iPod and I thought, "Now, he´s got it figured out. Listening to some music, looking at some art. Off in his own world." I´ll have to remember that for next time.

The next day I took the train back home to Murcia, where I was greeted by the local celebration of Bando de la Huerta. It´s a festival that celebrates farming and agriculture and all that good stuff. These Spaniards love a party! :)

It was a great two weeks, but seeing my dad was definitely the best part. I´m so grateful for everything my parents have done, and continue to do, for me each and every day. I can´t sufficiently express my gratitude, but I try to show it through how I live my life. Love you, Mom and Dad. Miss you everyday.

More blogs to come, including one from Ibiza (in case anyone wanted to vacation vicariously through me, haha.)

Love to all, xoxo