Intecamibos, Excursions, and Surprises

March 17, 2010

2 months!! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written anything. Things have been pretty chaotic. I had finals this week for my seven classes: Culture, Literature, Oral Expression, Art, Geography, Grammar, and History. All in 3 days- I’ve been studying since last week, I was so focused I hadn’t swam since today. But now that finals are over, I can really relax, especially since a group of us are going away this weekend. We’re going to see Las Fallas in Valencia where basically all where people construct these gigantic figurines out of paper, wood, and carton in comic/ironic characters. On the 19th of March, they set it all on fire with fireworks except one. They save on doll/figurine called a “ninot” to put in a museum. I’m really excited-this is the only place where they do something as crazy as this in the world.

Our intercambios with Alejandro get to be a lot of fun. Once we got on the topic of scrubs because since he’s a vet, he wears them-but boring ones. Kaitlyn and I went to his work once to ask him a question and everyone had the same boring blue ones one, so I could understand where he was coming from. He had found a business on the internet that sells really fun scrubs in Michigan so once we spent a while looking at those. They had animals, cartoons-Alejandro loves cartoons so to him, there were “muy guay.” It was fun to look at and then we looked at the site of the business he works for -http://www.centroveterinariozorrilla.com/ and the white little dog that is on the shown on the menu is Alejandro’s dog, Hugo. He’s so cute and very hyper. I would want a dog like him.
One time for desert before he came, we had these green apples from a store-Mercadillo and Belen said they were horrible, but I said I liked them. The thing is I liked them because they had that artificial green apple taste like in candy-I mean they weren’t the best apples I’ve ever had and I would have liked to eat something more natural tasting but for that time, I didn’t mind them. So Belen just couldn’t believe that-often she can’t believe some of the things I say or do (they’re not bad-just different and American style) and she told Alejandro about my ridiculousness so that was a good laugh.
The last time we had an intercambio with him we were talking about areas in the US and the south because we were talking about alligators and crocodiles (he likes unique animals) and asked if people in the US had alligators for pets. We replied that rednecks probably did. Confused at our American slang, he asked about it and what areas people lived in the US to be called rednecks. As always, it was a good time.

A couple of Sundays ago, I got a surprise visit from my friend Jennifer who was in my Spanish Pronunciation and Phonetics class last semester. She is also studying abroad but in France because she’s a double major with the two languages. I knew she was coming to Valladolid that weekend but I really didn’t know why. All I kept thinking was, why Valladolid? It’s a neat city with a lot of history, but it’s only worth about a day’s visit.
We had talked on facebook about it, I told her my cell number but I still didn’t know what exactly was going on for that weekend. So come Sunday, Kaitlyn and I were watching a Spanish movie on TV and we were both really tired so we fell asleep watching it. At some point I was awoken from someone buzzing in from downstairs. And it’s such an obnoxious noise-just a loud buzz so being awoken all of a sudden wasn’t so nice and Gabbi will normally bark loud and a lot if he hears someone at the door. Being drowsy, Belen told me someone was there for me and I was just confused. Getting up in my sweats for the day, I walked sleepily towards the door. I looked through the peephole because I thought maybe it was Samantha from school since she lives the closet near by but it wasn’t. Instead it was Jennifer.
When I opened it I was already even more confused because she came with another student. All I could think of was how many were there and about how tired I was. The other student was Jeff who was also from Eau Claire and visiting another student at the school, Charlie. For Jennifer and Jeff, it was their spring break and both were staying with Charlie’s brother Michael who lives here in Valladolid. We spent the afternoon showing them a bit more of Valladolid. We went to this place near my house and the place where I workout called Parque Sol. He had to climb a hill that was somewhat equal to the hill we have to walk up to go to the dorms and McPhee in Eau Claire. I had never been to Parque Sol before so that was really neat for me to see it. It overlooked the city and the sun was starting to set. We also stopped for sweets at the newsstands and went to the sweet shop. The sweets were these gummy type sticks that were had a filling-they were the same ones we had in Cadiz. There were really good except for these black colored ones we tried that tasted like black licorice. They weren’t very good at all, but the filling inside helped the taste, a lot.
We showed them the Orchestra/ brand new arts center in Valladolid- I went there a while for a concert-it was really good and the acoustics were amazing though I was sitting in the ‘nosebleed’ section. And also the futbol stadium which is right next to the arts center. Jennifer and Jeff had never had churros con chocolate before so I suggested we get them. We went to a place that I like to go to-and actually the first place I had ever had churros con chocolate also in plaza mayor called Banque or Banoque…something like that. The food was good as always and it was a fun time hanging out. While we were there, Charlie’s brother Michael joined us and we all went to mass. It was the first time I had been to the church and I liked the service so much more compared to the one I had been going to. The church that I went to was dark and cold inside with hard wooden benches and high ceiling-almost a cathedral but not really but it was definitely ‘romantico’ style. And at this church there was no singing at all and everything had an echo-it would be hard to understand the mass in Spanish or in English.
But at the church we went to, I liked it so much better. There was light inside, stained glass windows, overall beautiful decoration, I really liked the service and the priest more. And there is singing! It reminded me somewhat of the songs we sing at Navigators-A Christian group on campus that I’m a part of so I really liked it. I told my friend Kristin about it and we’ve been going there on Sunday nights. After church, we went out for tapas or appetizers and they were really good.

The following Friday, there was an Intercambio at the school so that we could meet other Spanish students at the University. There we met a group of friends, Laura, Marta, and Danny. Turns out that Danny (who is originally from Malaga in the south) knows how to break dance, and he knows how to do it really well. So he invited us to go to his “work” the next day where he teaches kids how to break dance. So we went to watch and Danny even taught Adam S., Kristin, and I some dance moves. I joined later on but learned a little bit and it was really fun but so much harder than it looks which is good because for the couple of minutes, it was a good workout.

The following Saturday we went to Salamanca which is only about an hour a way from Valladolid. I really loved it there! We got to see the University and the famous church that has both the Gothic and Romantic style. There is a tradition with the school that if you are able to find a sculpture of a frog on top of a skull on the entrance, you will have good luck or something. I was able to find it right a way but that is because I cheated a little bit. Past students of Eau Claire had told me where it was but it still took me a while to find it.
That day for lunch my host mom had made me a sandwich with just cheese and cucumbers-she said it was very “English” as in Britain. Though it was different it was really very good.
When we go on excursions we, 2 to 3 teachers will go along and it is always my art teacher Ivan, my history teacher Agustin, and my geography/European Union teacher Alfredo. I like all of my teachers but Ivan can be really funny so we usually join his group. Once in a while Ivan and Agustin would joke around with each other to see who could move their group a long the further and what not. When we got to the church, they combined our two groups to talk and share the load of information. It was a good time.
In churches, they will have a bit of a person or their belonging for people to pray to because the person was someone important or considered a martyr. At the church in Salamanca the had the hand and a bit of the arm of someone who fought in the Spanish Civil War. It was interesting but a little weird to think that people would pray to a decayed hand.
At one point we were in a courtyard of the school and Ivan was talking to us all about the architecture around us when Adam S. walked on the grass. The thing is there was a sign on the ground that said , “no pisar.”-don’t step. It was just really funny but something Adam would do. To make it better Ivan joked that they would kill him for stepping on the grass. The group that I hang out with is a lot of fun and during our break from the city tour we went to go see the Roman bridge. On our way we came across a statue of this guy appearing as if he is concentrating on something very hard. We all stopped to take pictures with it-individual and group in different poses.
Eventually we go to the Roman bridge and took more pictures. We cam across some Americans and British who were there because they are teaching English at the schools to kids. Also near the bridge was a kids playing area so we took some really fun photos there of us on the teeter-totters and what not. All was going well until Adam acted up again. There are small holes on the sides of the bridge to drain the water when it rains and Adam was trying to throw a rock into it from a ways away. He ended up throwing it a bit too hard and over the wall. Next thing we knew an angry Spanish man and his girlfriend/wife was looking over the edge of the wall. Adam didn’t hit him but the man said that he almost did and instead of Adam explaining it, Ken started to so then the man thought that Ken had threw it. We weren’t sure what to do and we wanted to avoid conflict so we just waited below until they passed by. Meanwhile Kara and I started to take pictures of the trees around us simply because we didn’t know what else to do. The couple eventually walked by and all was well.
For my Literature class we had been learning about the story of Lazarillo de Tormes (de Tormes because he was born near theTormes river in Salamanca) and within the book, the author writes about realistic places and so near the Roman bridge there was a statue of Lazarillo with one of his owners, el Ciego or the blind-man.