Exam and Fiesta

January 14, 2010

The next day..originally January 11, 2010…we had our placement tests for our classes. The placement test was at 10:30 so we got to sleep in a little bit which was nice. For breakfast we had this natural yogurt that tastes a lot like sour cream. To make it suitable, Kaitlyn and I both put a lot of granola with dried fruit as well as sugar into the yogurt. We also had melon and either cola cao or coffee…I had coffee with a lot of sugar and milk J. (while I am thinking of it, Belén’s name is pronounced more like Bay-lynn) There was also fruit…either melon or kiwi etc. Breakfast in Spain is normally small where as lunch is the biggest meal of the day and it is typical to have a lot of appetizers and go out for dinner and drinks. We’ve been going to some cafés for cola cao and coffee and even though a person can order something other than an alcoholic beverage, there are signs that say you have to be 16 to enter which I thought was interesting.

But anyways…after breakfast we left for the place to take our placement test (but not at the school). Since the weather right now is like spring in Wisconsin, I thought it would be okay if I didn’t have my hair dried by a hair dryer so I just left with somewhat wet hair. My host mom thought I was crazy because to her it was freezing it and was shocked that the temperature did not bother me…she kept telling Kaitlyn and I –“Estáis locas!”- “You all are crazy!” in a jokingly matter of course.

When we got there, the teachers had a brief speech on a welcome to Valladolid and then we had our placement test. It really wasn’t that bad…some things I knew for sure and some things I was a bit iffy about but found out later I got them right some things I was completely lost on. Mainly groups 1 and 2 are the same, 3 and 4 are the same, and then there is 5. I ended up being in 3 which I am really happy about because I was afraid that I would be in 1 or 2 or worse I came up with the idea that I did so bad that they would decide to simply send me back to the US…definitely glad that didn’t happen.

After the placement test we took a little historical tour around the city. We saw the building where Isabel and Fernando secretly got married, where there son (Philip?) was born, several beautiful churches and museums…but because it was Monday all the museums were closed…we’ll get to them eventually. The last place of the tour was the Plaza Mayor which still had it’s Christmas decorations up..there is a statue there of a historical figure and a really beautiful Carousel. There, Belen and Gabi met us to go home…it was a pretty decent walk but it took a while because Gabi was with us and he would stop and try to find a bathroom area for himself at every tree…he was quite picky. What was really amusing was that he brought with him one of the toys I brought as a gift…it’s a red, spiky ball that originally had blue and orange rope tied to it for a game of tug-of-war which he basically destroyed that night I gave it to him. So all the way from Belen’s place to the plaza mayor which is about 1.4 km and back, Gabi carried the red ball I gave him. Once in a while he would set it down, but would always remember it before leaving…he really is quite a smart dog.

It’s nice to give your host family a present as a way of saying thanks so I gave Gabi his ball/tug-of-war chew toy as wells three other balls in a set that are more like tennis balls but more colorful…purple/pink, blue/green and purple/green or something of the like. For Belen, I gave her tea from Infinitea in Eau Claire-it’s a really neat tea shop with over 150 different flavors of tea to try. I got a steel thing to make tea in a mug or tea pot…four fruity teas in a set…a sample of mint vanilla oolong tea and a tea scrub which is like a flavoring for food like meat, chicken, and fish. Kaitlyn brought toffee and Wisconsin cheese with fruit-blueberry, cherry, and cranberry in it. Belen was so surprised and gracious about it she decided to have us celebrate being there with some champagne and some of the toffee that Kaitlyn brought…it was really good! This happened Sunday night when I arrived at Belen’s house.

When we got back from our placement test, we took a two hour nap and around 7ish started to get ready for a dinner supplied by our tuition at a restaurant near the Plaza Mayor. The restaurant was another welcome to the students from the school and there were students from UW-Eau Claire, UW-Steven’s Point, Taiwan, South Korea, and even a student from Africa. For entertainment we had a mariachi band that was quite good and really entertaining. One of the band members knew English really well so he would talk to us all in English..after their performance they sat amongst the students and empty tables…our table was full and so when the guy who knew English came up he said, “Mujers guapas!….Y Hombres Fuerzas!!” and then left as kind of a joke because of the guys there he couldn’t sit there..also there was not an empty seat. The meals were really good..it started off with appetizers…bread with spices on top-kind of like pizza, meat that was kind of like jerky ( I didn’t have this), tortilla de patatas, batterfried shrimp with sauce inside, mini empanadas with sauce inside, and bread with water and cheap wine to drink. For dinner it was steak with peppers inside in a cylinder shape, French fries (!), and veggies-peppers, onions on the side. For desert we had flan with a side of raspberry syrup to dip the flan into and coffee. It was soooo good!!!

My table was a lot of fun too. At one point, the guy from the Mariachi Band came around and said something like, “You are all my friends..but at that table (pointing to a table across the room), they are my enemy…I would like you all to say “John Wayne, John Wayne, forever united and we drink” (in Spanish). I want you to say this and then raise your glasses in a toast and drink to it.” He then left to tell more tables about this idea…I suppose it was a friendly competition between him and a fellow band member at the ‘enemy’ table…30 or so minutes later, we had everyone but the enemies say those words and drink to it.

At random times the mariachi band would sing songs and sometimes in English…they sang: “(You are my) Sunshine,” “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah” and “La Bomba.” Just so much fun.