The “Miss” List

So you may be asking yourselves, “Jamie, you’ve been in Granada for over 2 weeks and have only talked about what happened 3 weeks ago in Morocco.  Where have you been!?!?”  Well friends and family, calm your horses….I am back and blogging about everyday life here in Granada.  What’s crazy is that I have 2 more weeks in Granada, less, actually.  The time has flown by so quickly, to the point where I really don’t believe it’s December.  That may be due to the fact that there isn’t snow/ice on the ground and there is no Christmas music on the radio.  We do however have these shimmery/light-up things all over the city, and I was actually surprised by how secular they were (not that there’s a need to be secular in this country, but it’s an interesting point to make).  We’ve got some orniments and a few christmas tree looking things, but the rest are gift boxes with bows or stars or other not-so religious objects.  Plus, the nativity scene is actually inside the Cathedral (I went there today for art history, hence my knowledge of this)….not sitting in the middle of town in the most prominent location.

But sadly, with holiday cheer every December comes academic depression, and this year is no different.  To put it simply, I should not have taken 3 of 4 academic classes in Spanish, for the sheer fact that researching and writing papers becomes a million times more difficult when they’re in a foreign language you’ve been studying for 5 semesters.  The stress levels of my program-mates and me  have skyrocketed to rediculous levels, where no one cares about what they’re writing in Spanish (or English for that matter), they just want to crank out pages and be done.  Kinda sad, no?  We’re all supposed to go home for lunch everyday, but I was only home for lunch 1 day this week because I’ve either had class, group meetings, or else absurd amounts of work to do during the lunch break.  I would post my schedule for the upcoming week and a half here, but it’s too depressing when I look at it, and you all don’t deserve that depression….

After endless hours of studying and attempting to gain a mastery of the Spanish langauge to conquer academic research papers, the last thing I want to do is pay attention in class.  And with back to back to back classes between 1230-615 (1230-210, 230-430, 445-615….see, I tried to spare you the depression), you hit a wall of being able to focus.  So I wrote out a list of the things that I really miss about home/America.  There are no people on this list…not because I don’t miss any of you (oh, i do, trust me), but because these things are all kind of random.  Most need no explanation….

The “Miss” List

1. Jewish Food (duh)
2. Lined paper (the Spanish say that lines are for elementary school kids- when you hit the age of 10 you get graph paper.  Graph paper was for Calculus, which I no longer no, care about, or understand.  To take notes, i need my lines….)
3. 24 hour libraries (Club-G!)
4. Pandora, Hulu, and other websites that make life easy and promote procrastination
5. American-style outlets (eff the 2 prongs and the need for converters)
6. Political Pundants
7. Yiddish phrases being considered common
8. Text messaging
9. Having a kitchen I am free to cook/bake in as I please
10. Central heating (don’t get me started- i almost developed hypothermia this weekend/early this week)
11. My hairdryer
12. Long showers where you don’t have to turn the water off ever 2 minutes
13. Sweet potatoes
14. The English Language and its intricacies (that I wish I knew how to use in Spanish but don’t)
15. Midwestern apples, esp. honey crisps and pink ladies
16. Printers, scanners, and photocopiers in a public location, open whenever I need to print/scan/copy something
17. Coffee to-go.
18. American style shopping…I swear I cannot find ANYTHING in this country. I really miss CVS because that’s just a one stop shop for awesomeness
19. Target and Costco
20. Salad dressing that is more than just olive oil
21. String Cheese
22. Family Guy in English (here, we get this funny dubbed over version that’s just depressing…)
23. Trader Joes, TJ shopping trips, cabinets filled with yummy TJ products, namely their chocolate chip merangues and their tofu
24. Dryers (the big, industrial ones that make my towels all nice and fluffy)
25. Professors who can communicate with students….
26. Professors who don’t have 5 minutes between classes that are at least a 20 minute walk from one another….and then force you to make up each 15 minute period they’ve missed in the month of november.  BOO
27. The weekly delivery of The Economist
28. Sunday coupons
29. Cupcakes and all their prettiness + Cupcakeries
30. An actual winter (there are still green leaves on the trees here)

Coming up next, the things I will miss about Granada….but I don’t think I’ll write that one until next week.

And now, mis amigos, I am off to Lisbon.  PORTUGAL.  How cool is that?!  I’ll be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then I’ll be back very, very early Monday morning, only to turn around and begin the 10 day paper writing/studying/”last” marathon.

Hasta Pronto!

–J–

Morocco, Day 4

So, here’s a funny story.  Not so funny, really….

Morocco Day 4 can be best described as “sickly”.  I ended up with at 30 hour bug (litterally from the moment it hit me on Monday morning to the moment it went away on Tuesday morning back in Granada) so thankfully it wasn’t anything too horrible, but the downside is that the last morning in Morocco and our visit to Gibralter was less than enjoyable for me.  Here’s more or less a rundown of what we did, though all of these events are one big blur….

• Breakfast on the bus on the way to Ceuta: 3 hours on the dwarf-bus crammed next to people eating an assortment of Moroccan pastries.  This (the 3 hours on the bus and the smell of pastries) did not aid the sickly-ness.
• Crossing the border at Ceuta: Spain has two cities in Africa (colonialism at its finest!) and both are on the coast….Ceuta and Mellia (or something like that- on my poli sci exam I referred to them as C&M and got credit…haha).  These two cities are hot beds for immigration issues.  If you think the US/Mexican border is bad, just think if the Tijuana was actually an American city.  Lots of people try to cross illegally, and so as you can imagine, the border crossing was a clusterfuck.  Major, major clusterfuck.
• Ferry ride to Spain (er, the mainland): I drank a sprite and then passed out.  Maybe it was fun?
• Gibralter: Seriously, it was a giant rock.  There were some monkeys.  There was a cool lighthouse and you could see Africa.  I didn’t get my passport stamped with a Gibralter stamp becuase you had to cross by foot and we didn’t have time to do that.  Boo.  Really, all I wanted to do was pass out the whole time, but our bus driver was a creeper and tried to make all these jokes.  Odd.
• Bus ride to Granada: 4 hours.  NOT a dwarf-bus.  It was the best thing, ever.  I passed out, woke up feeling a little better….

So yeah, day 4 was spent on a wide variety of transportation devices, most of which were bus-like.  Not the most thrilling day of my life, but it was cool to say that I’ve been to Gibralter.  Not a lot of people can say that.  Plus, being sickly was a downer…major, major downer.

On a side note, I bought some really pretty postcards in Morocco.  I also thought it would be really fun to actually send them from Morocco.  Then I got sickly and was not in the mental state to ask our guide in the morning where the mailbox was….and so it completely slipped my mind until Tuesday night when I was feeling better.  So some of the postcards have two sets of stamps on them.  Silly, silly me……

In sum: Morocco = amazing.  Completely justified my choosing of Granada.

Morocco, Day 3

Sunday, November 16

I think the best word to describe today is “contrast”.  This morning we left Rabat, a city that has plenty of modern elements and is quickly becoming westernized, and traveled to a small village in the Rif Mountains.  After an afternoon in the mountains with a wonderful family, we traveled to Chefchauen, which was toursity to the max.  Morning, afternoon, and evening provided extremely diverse contrasts to each other, which, have no fear, I will elaborate on.

Before we begin, I should mention the dwarf bus we traveled in during our trip.  I use the word dwarf because I’m pretty sure it was built for dwarfs and not for humans.  My group consisted of 16 students, 2 IES staff members, our guide, and the bus driver.  19 people, 19 1/2 seats.  Not so bad if this was a normal bus, but alas, our many hours on the bus today just made the bus feel like it was made for 8 dwarfs.  I pretty much sat either with my knees in my chest or overlapping shoulders with the people sitting next to me.  The day’s bus rides win as two of the longest bus rides of my life….

So anyway, we said goodbye to our host families and Rabat early in the morning so that we could get an early start towards the Rif Mountains.  As we drove out of Rabat, we passed some of the shanty towns (or perhaps “marginal settlements” if we’re being PC…) and that was quite a site.  There were a few things I just couldn’t stop thinking about, mainly though how there is no easy solution to the problem.  Or any problem for that matter.  Those living in the shanty towns are living in conditions that should not be accepted by the developed world, but it isn’t as if anyone in the developed world has a magic wand to make the situation better.  It’s something that’s going to take time, effort, and mostly interest.  Post-Morocco addition: I was curious if GW offered any classes about North Africa, because it’s a region I’ve becoming interested in this semester.  I really wasn’t surprised when I didn’t come up with any classes.  Sure, GW has classes that talk about North Africa, but any classes about Africa focused on sub-Saharan Africa, and any classes about the Middle East focused on, well, the Middle East.  I did take a class last spring about authoritarian Arab regimes and North Africa was mentioned once in awhile, but in reality, my profressor was not an expert in North African regimes (rather, he knew a lot about places like Jordan and the UAE), and no one in my class really had any interest in countries that are never in the American news/never talked about.  While I’m not sure GW has the resources (or student interest) to offer a class on North Africa, I’m curious to why it’s completely overlooked in the international affairs curriculum.

Our entire afternoon and early evening was spent in the Rif Mountains with another kind and welcoming Moroccan family.  Unlike our host families, no one in this home spoke English, so there was a major communication barrier.  Our guide for the day was the younger brother of the mom, so he did quite a bit of translating for us.  For about an hour, we sat outside in this adorable pavillion and had a Q&A session with the family- not only did we ask them questions, they asked us questions.  We talked about everything from the family’s harvest and the recent rainfall to (of course) the American election and the prospect of peace in the world.  After, we all ate lunch together (more couscous…yummmm) and then played with the children and chatted some more with the family.  And was had more tea- always a plus.

As I mentioned earlier, the word of the day was contrast, and mostly that was because of the vast contrast between the Moroccans we met during our first few days and the Moroccans we spent the afternoon with on our third day.  The family on day 3 had electricity (a recent addition) and some form of water, but no indoor plumbing and definitely no Western style toilets.  They lived in a small house that, although was adorable and on an expansive amount of land, was quite isolated from other families let alone things like hospitals.  The school the children attend was about a mile walk from home, but that school only takes students up until age 12 or 13.  After, if a student wants to continue their education, they have to go to a “nearby” (read: at least an hour by car) school where they live in dorms and spend the majority of their time.  If a 14 year old is at one of these schools, he or she is very, very fortunate.  Even then, resources are limited, and while in big cities students may have access to new textbooks and french language instructors, those students in rural villages do not.  Despite all of this, the children sat in front of the satellite tv for the entire 4 hours we were there.  Every time I walked by the door, there was something different on, but it was mostly American programming…except for Pokemon, though at this point I consider that American.  Whether it was contrasting the lifestyle of this famiy with the one I stayed with in Rabat or Mr. Baghdadi and family or my homestay in Granada or even life in Northbrook, the contrast in terms of have vs. have not was large, but everything else was still there.  The family was so generous and so welcoming and above all wanted to make sure we were comfortable and well fed- not unlike certain families I may know in Northbrook (especially the well fed part…really, no contrast there).

We then got back into the dwarf-bus and drove to Chefchaouen (Chef-scho-wen), which we unfourtunately didn’t get to see while it was still light outside.  Speaking of contrast Chefchaouen is one of the most touristy cities in Morocco.  While walking around, we saw signs and menus in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic.  The shop owners all spoke three of the four aformentioned languages, and many times all four.  The city has an interesting Jewish history, which is apparently why the whole city is blue and white….we didn’t really chat too much about the city, so check out the wikipedia link for some fun facts.  After settling into our hostel, we wandered around the Medina (old city) and shopped.  And by shopping, I really mean barganing.  Our guide Allen told us to do all of our barganing in Spanish, as shop keepers were more receptive to Spaniards than Americans and would probably give us better deals.  I took that as a challenge (both the barganing and the Spanish) and sought to get the best deal.  The best I did?  I wanted an over the shoulder, messanger-like bag (if it makes it home, I’ll be surprised, as it’s not of such amazing quality) and finally found one I liked.  We started at 100 Dirhem (Moroccan currency) and in the end, I paid 50.  Pretty good, no?  The guy was really pushing for 60 but I was relentless.  So 50 it was….

Later in the evening we had dinner as a group and then did some reflections.  Nothing too interesting to speak of, but the general concensus was that cous cous is amazing, Morocco is a facinating place with such generous people, and we were all glad we got the chance to have a non-touristy trip to experience that.  I knew that going back to Spain would be hard, as after 3 days, I had aptly come to adore everything about Morocco, and I can’t imagine going back to the states where most people probably think of “Monaco” when someone says “Morocco”……

Morocco, Day 2

Saturday, November 15th

Well if I thought day 1 was rediculously long (or perhaps if you all did reading this) then day two was even more exhausting.  Exhausting in a good way…the way where you sit and think back on what you did for a day and realize that the day’s activities could have easily spanned 2 or 3 days.  I like that our schedules are kept jam packed with activities….

More interesting than what we did are the reactions/reflections to the day’s experience(s), so here’s a quick rundown of what happened (sin commentary) and then afterwards, the reflection….it’s more fun like that.

• Rabat Mosque + Mausoleum of King Mohammad V and Hasam II: The mosque never was completed so it’s more or less a giant fort with low walls and these pillars everywhere that were knocked down in an earthquake.  The Minaert (the tower from which the call to prayer is said) was only built to 2/3 of its planned height, and stands awkwardly, looming over these non-existant pillar/columns.  The mausoleum was cool, mostly just because I knew a lot about the two former kings (we talk about them at length in my poli sci class)

• Tea with Mohammad Baghdadi and family, future director of IES Rabat:  A fun addition to the day- apparently most of the other groups meet with a professor at one of the universities to talk about the “class of civilizations” between the Arabs and the West, but our group got the chance to meet the director of the new IES program in Rabat.  Basically, this guy, his wife, and their family were SO kind to us.  They invited all of us into their home and made us traditional Moroccan tea and a traditional Moroccan bread/pancake called meloui.  After reading the recipe form Meloui (because I will make it and you all will get to taste a little bit of Morocco!), it’s mad hard and takes awhile.  So either there was some pre=making and freezing involved or else Mrs. Baghdadi spent a great deal of time in the kitchen that morning.  Regardless, it was cool to learn about the new program and to get to speak to a family that was on a different side of the spectrum from our host families (more on that in the reflections).

• Roman ruins, Chellah:  To be honest, they kinda resembled a lot of other roman ruins.  In fact, all ruins are starting to look very similar, minus certain archetechural differences (the romans have lots of stairs, the Muslims have a lot of mosques, etc)…..there was also a pool with eels.  Thrilling.

• Lunch with our host famlies: We ate a traditional chicken dish cooked in a tangine (not my picture) which is what almost everything in Morocco is cooked in.  Also, here’s a fun math problem: the family style tangine + no utensils + lunch with a hungry 4-year old = ….well, you can only imagine what occured.  Sharaf-din (my host brother) was SO adorable just grabbing at pieces of chicken and potatoes.  Also, he was a mess, but an adorable mess, nonetheless.

• Afternoon with Moroccan students:  We split up into small groups (I was with 2 other girls from my program) and were paired up with a few Moroccan students from a university program that teaches students English.  It was a really fun afternoon just chatting with the students and learning about their lives in Morocco.  My little group hung out for awhile at a cafe and then walked through the market in the older part of town for a bit.

• Hamam:  So in my last post, I talked about the bathroom situation and mentioned the interesting shower conundrum.  Well, it was night 2 in Morocco and we were feeling a little gross.  Not overly gross, just gross enough to desire a cleanse.  Morocco’s answer to this (and really, the whole Arab world’s answer to this) is the Hamam, the Arab bath.  The Arab baths are like the Roman baths….three rooms, one hot, one warm, and one temperate, that function as, well, public bath houses.  There are separate male and female hamams, and for the majority of people, the Hamam is probably their only true “clean time” each week.  Anyway, the Hamam was the coolest cultural experience ever, just because we were doing something that is part of everyday life.  There was nothing touristy about it.  One of the host moms took a group of six of us and just laughed at us because we were so awkward.  Also, the communication in the rooms was funny too, because you’d have these old women trying to tell you that you were behaving incorrectly.  Apparently, standing up is bad….but still, the experience was fun and the whole being clean thing was quite nice, too.

• Evening-ness:  After the hamam we were all in this zen-like mood and all we wanted to do was lounge.  Alan, our guide, set up Henna for those who wanted.  I’m not a henna fan, so I just watched while all my friends got it/chilled with those who also weren’t getting henna.  After henna-time, we went back to our homes to have dinner.  While not traditional Moroccan by any means, our spagetti dish was yummy and very home-y.  Plus, we watched a 4 year old eat spagetti (with a fork…sorta) which was just hysterical.  We spent more time with our host parents just relaxing and watching American TV shows, which seemed kind of ironic.  After a little while, the three of us realize how exhausted we were and went back to our couches and passed out.

Long day, no?

If I had to give the day a theme, I think I would call it something like “The Moroccan Spectrum”.  Or at least “The Rabat Spectrum”.  On one hand, I saw parts of Rabat that were modern, new, and looked like they could have been in any European town, maybe even the states, too.  But then there were other parts of Rabat that were the complete opposite.  Essentially, I talked with three different types of people today- the Baghdadi family, the Moroccan students in the afternoon, and my host family.  Each painted a different picture of life in Rabat.  Mr. Baghdadi showed us the relatonship between the Arab world and the West in everyday life.  He met us wearing a Western style business suit but then changed (once at home) into a traditional Moroccan outfit.  His son and daughter we wearing western clothes as was his wife.  We were sitting in their living room on traditional Moroccan couches/beds/benches while staring at the ipod stereo system and flat screen TV at the head of the room.  They were obviously in an upper eschelon of society, though nothing close to what would be considered upper class in Europe or the states.

The Moroccan students are a little harder to place on the spectrum, but their lives were different from the Baghdadis we met in the morning.  While they dressed very Western and spoke at length about American movies and music, they had their struggles.  Both guys we were with expressed a desire to travel away from Rabat but were slightly disheartened at the prospect of that happening.  They were both very fortunate individuals to be in higher education program, but I can only imagine that the resources they have don’t even compare to what I have at GW.

My host family, though, provided the best contrast to the students and to the Baghdadi family.  The apartment had three rooms, a small kitchen, and a bathroom.  My host mom teaches Arabic during the week, and her husband is a musician at night, plus, they host students whenever they can as an extra source of income.  When asked if she wanted to have more children, my host mom responded by saying “no, it’s just so expensive!”  Everything was treated as a precious commodity, especially water and electricity.  At one point on the first night, the lightbulb in the main eating/living room went out.  Had this occured in Chicago/DC/Spain, appropriate actions would have been taken to change the lightbulb without a second thought.  My Moroccan host parents spent a bit of time seeing if they could get it to go back on, but then just started dealing with life sans-light in their main room.  It was a very “well, this happens, we have to deal” attitude.  At the same time, the center of life in the house was the satelite tv….

So television in Morocco is a big thing.  I would say that if “futbol” (aka soccer) is the national pastime of Spain and Baseball or American football (depending on the time of the year) is the national pastime of America, satelite television could be the equivelent in Morocco.  Apparently, it is fairly cheap to have a satelite put in, and once that occurs, you get infinite channels.  But television has a dual purpose- lots of people use it to learn English.  Unlike in Spain where everything is dubbed over in Spainsh (annoying as all hell, personally), every American show was in English with Arabic subtitles.  My host mom had only been learing English through an official program for a month, but she knew WAY more than you could learn in a classroom in a month, and she credited this knowledge to watching American shows, with Oprah and Dr. Phil being among her favorites.  It was just crazy to see how many apartments had satelites hanging off the balconies!

But anyway, we got a nice view of different types of people and different lifestyles in Morocco today.  All very urban, but that’s because we were in one of the largest urban centers of the country.  Tomorrow we are visiting a family in rural Morocco and that should add a whole other element to the spectrum.  Granted, Rabat-style urban life is nothing like Chicago-style urban life.  While big, it was still small.  While hectic, it was still quite calm.  idk, it was just a cool contrast and nothing like I had ever experienced before.

The last thing I want to comment about is gender roles in Morocco.  I talked about meeting with the students yesterday and talking about the hijab and the female role in society, but after spending two nights with a family, I’ve got more to say (shocking, no?).  So I thought that Morocco would adhear to strict gender roles, as that’s the image that is portrayed in Western media quite a bit.  While I knew that every family would be different and that some might break the mold, I figured that thing were pretty traditional and that “breaking the mold” wouldn’t occur too often or be too drastic.  We learned on our first day that Morocco is really big on public vs. private space: the men exist in the public space while the women exist in the private space.  There are places women never go (cafes, epsecially) and there are places where some men never go (roof tops where laundry is drying….odd, I know).  So imagine my surprise then when I found out on the first night that my host dad prepared dinner.  And then imagine my surprise when my host dad went to buy bread and warm it up for breakfast that first morning, in addition to making the tea.  And then imagine my continued surprise to find out that my host mom wouldn’t even be home for lunch because she had a class and that my host dad would be preparing another meal for us.  So yeah, that stereotype got broken down really quickly.  I ended up with a host family that broke down traditional gender roles, and honestly, it was facinating.  My host mom and dad seemed to share lots of roles- both worked, both cared for their son, and both spent time in the kitchen.  While it is impossible to know anything beyond that (did dad spend a lot of time at cafes hanging out with other men?  did mom do all the laundry and cleaning?) it was cool to see that in a society that often holds onto the specific gender roles, there are people who are moving past that, even if it is out of necesity.  I would be interested to know what my host parents’ friends thought about their crossing of traditional gender roles.  Was it weird to my host mom’s best friend (who lived upstairs) that while she (the BFF) was doing the childrearing and cooking in her family, her friend’s husband was doing lots of cooking and also helping to look after the kids?  Just something to think about, because I found it a very interesting element to my time spent in Rabat….

seems like this all is enough for one day….tomorrow = time with a family in rural Morocco and then time in Chefchaouen, a much more toursity town.

xoxo

Morocco, Part 1

I’m a gal of many words (and this blog tends to prove that), but really, there are few words that I can use to describe my experience in Morocco.  Amazing. Incredible. Eye-Opening…..these are the sentiments that come to mind.  I’m still reflecting on my time spent in the country, but I wanted to start sharing with all of you some of the experiences and thoughts I had during the trip.  Most of this I wrote while I was in Morocco, but upon rereading certain parts, I’ve done a bit of editing, plus, I’ve added bits and pieces….fun times.

A quick word on the trip itself before I get started witht the reflections.  Morocco is a new hotbed for tourism.  The Moroccan government, like many countries in the developing world…especially the Arab world, is putting a lot of money into tourism.  Morocco right now has 1.5 million tourists and their goal is to have upwards of 10 million in the next 10 years…or something like that.  Anyway, this trip was not really a tourists trip.  In fact, not at all…maybe for an hour here and there we did actual touristy stuff, but beyond that, not so much.  My study abroad program has had a partnership with a program called Morocco Exchange which runs programs for American students studying in Spain (for the most part).  The trips are all based on the idea of cultural exploration.  The idea is basically to show Americans the spectrum of life in Morocco by allowing students to speak with all different types of people who come from different backgrounds.  My trip absoultely filled this promise- every person we spoke with taught our group something different about Morocco, living life in the developed world, stereotypes of Muslims, and more.

November 14: The Strait, Tangier, Rabat

There’s fortunate….and then there’s fortunate.  Today, I have been the latter.  IES Granada has been taking students to Morocco for som years and today was finally my turn.  The Morocco trip was definitely one of the things that drew me to the Granada program in the first place- everyone knows I would have liked to study in the Middle East but the language barrier (specifically, my need to be proficient in Spanish) prevented that from occuring.  So I’ve been in Granada itching to hit up the Middle East since September, and today it happend.  I couldn’t be happier or more thankful that I’ve been afforded the opportunity to travel on such a unique program to visit amazing places and meet incredible people.  This isn’t a touristy trip and that was made very clear from the beginning.  But really, I don’t need touristy to fall in love with a country- I fell in love with Israel and maybe saw one or two touristy sites.  Afterall, my first time in Israel was so untouristy that it took until round two to hit some of the big sites….and I still haven’t climbed Masada.  ANYWAY.

We spent the morning crossing the Strait of Gibralter, and after, we hung out for awhile in Tangier at a women’s center called DARNA.  They help women by teaching them skills (sewing, cooking, computers, language, etc) so that they can get jobs.  Really cool place that has already helped tons of women.

• The Market: Dead animals everywhere.  I mean, we’re talking, the head was just cut off and the dude behind the counter is plucking feathers.  But lots of pretty produce/grain stands.  Makes me wish we still did that in the US.  Grocery stores, though so much fun, are boring in comparison to markets.

• Chatting with Moroccans, #1:  We’re apparently spending a majority of this trip talking to Moroccans about the ins and outs of their life.  I’m really excited for that because I really think the best way to understand a country is to talk to the people.  So the first group we spoke with were three 20-somethings who are all studying English at the university.  We spent a lot of time talking about the Hijab, the headcovering the Muslim women wear.  The two women who were there gave different reasons for wearing the Hijab, but both stressed that it was a personal decision.  I found it interesting that one explicitly talked about religious reasons, while the other steered clear and said things like, “I saw my female friends not being discriminated against when they looked for jobs”.  The latter was not what I expected.  The guy who we talked with, though, said one of the main things he looked for in a suitable wife was that she wore a Hijab.  Interesting.  Also, thoughout our conversation, it was crazy to see how much they all knew about American pop culture (the reasons for which we later discovered: Satelite TV…no joke).  We’re talking, the guy was wearing a Nike track suit and the girl could not stop talking about Chris Brown and Kelly Clarkson.

• Lunch: Yum!! I happen to have had multiple couscous experiences, but for a lot of my friends in my group, this was their virginal experience.  We had traditional Moroccan style chicken couscous which included roasted chicken sitting on a bed of couscous cooked with some delicious spices and covered in steamed vegetables.  So good.  Not so out of the ordinary for me, but oh so yummy…plus a nice change in pace to the mass amounts of garbanzo beans I eat in Granada.

• The Bathroom: There are two types of toilets in Morocco, Western and Turkish.  We all huddled together as we walked to the bathroom to the first time, praying it was Western…and it was, sorta.  When I say Western (and this goes for the folling posts unless otherwise noted), I mean, sans TP and often times sans soap.  I thus, need to mention that Moroccans only eat with their right hands.  Sucks to be a lefty….a lot.  Think hard and you’ll get the picture.  Anyway, the bathroom situation was a little nerve wracking for the whole trip.  You just never could be sure….

I asked an interesting question to the girls who were were chatting with- “would you like to travel to the US”- which I didn’t think would be as interesting as a question as it turned out to be.  Their answer was, “yes, well, of course…but it really won’t happen.”  Alan, our guide from Morocco Exchange then started explaining to me the reason behind their answer.  Basically, travel outside Morocco is impossible.  If you are Moroccan, you have to have a sponsor in the country you are traveling to with a guaruntee that said sponsor has enough money to provide for you and that you will not need gov’t assitance at any point.  They also want to know that you’ll come back to Morocco (aka they don’t want to lose their entire population to a better life in Spain or the US).  So it’s tough…really, really tough.  Traveling is such a luxury that you have to be very wealthy to do so even outside your own city.  It was a moment where it hit me that no longer was I in the developed world, rather, I was in the developing world, where things that seem so common to me are above and beyond what others can imagine/dream of.

We then did drive #1…and stopped along the way to ride camels.  Fun, I guess?  It was up and down the beach…and the surprise was ruined by the other 60 people in my program having FB profile pictures of camels.  Oh well, no biggie.  We rode the camels up and down the shore line for maybe 3 minutes each.  It was kinda like a ride at Disney World only, no singing anamated characters.

In he afternoon, we hit up Ashila, a resort town, more or less, on the Med coast.  We walked through the old town a bit and then hunt out on this lookout point over the med.  Pretty.  The town itself was blue and white and there were these really pretty murals everywhere.  Apparently, the town whitewashes the walls during an annual festival and they bring in mural painters from around the globe.  It was neat to see international artists on such a local stage.

Then came drive #2 to Rabat.  MAD LONG in our TINY BUS.  Seriously uncomfortable.  Our bus seats 20, though very uncomfortably.  There are 18 of us from IES plus Alan, our guide, so that leaves one tiny seat between Alan and the driver up front open.  It’s considered a big bus b/c it holds a lot of people, but we were all convinced it was made for gnomes or something.  However, with the African sun beating through the window, we all passed out for the beginning of the ride.  I woke up because i was cramped in this little tiny seat and watched the sun set over the Med.  Strangely, it became very obvious how Europeans thought the world was flat, because seriously, there was nothing beyond the horizon.  Kinda crazy to think about.  Anyway, I tried taking a picture of the end of the world, but my camera just isn’t good enough for that….plus I was in a moving vehicle and moving vehicle + photography never equals anything pretty.

Easily the most amazing part of my day was meeting my host family and being welcomed into their home.  Our host mom met our whole group at this one house and then took us back to her apartment which was maybe 10 minutes towards the center of the Medina, the old city of Rabat.  As we walked back, everyone was watching us.  It’s a big thing to have visitors, and we were obviously a group of American students, so that made the visit even more special.  My host family (the Ben-Adin family) lives in a small apartment building.  Their apartment had three rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom area-ish.  Moroccan homes are beautiful with lots of geometric designs traditional to Isamic art.  Instead of traditional beds, the familes have what can best be described as couches lining the walls of each room where people sleep.  Each room, this means, is multi-functional and can quickly transform from bedroom to social room to eating room in a matter of moments.  I’m thinking this is a briliant way to save on space and may or may not consider implimenting this style in a future house.  How cool would that be?  Anyway, I’m staying with two other girls from my program, and there are 3 other girls from my program in the apartment a floor above us.  Our host mom (whose name I’m not quite sure of….Ashina, perhaps…Alan didn’t know it, which was kinda frustrating, and she said it quickly and none of us caught it) was the “English speaker” in our house.  I put the term in quotes, because she’s been learning English through a British program for about a month.  A MONTH.  But really, her English was quite good for only a month of learning.  (Again, the television was a big reason why, but more on that in another post.)  She is also fluent in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic, possibly Modern Standard Arabic, and French.  Her husband did not know English, so that was a bit of a barrier.  Also in the house was my host mom’s brother-in-law….which would make this guy our host dad’s brother, but the two look nothing alike.  Oh well.  Also, my host family has a 4 year old son named Sharaf-Din…but he likes to call himself Omar.  He was at his aunt’s house when we first “came home” and so we ate dinner without him.  Dinner was good- lots of (what I guess are) traditional Moroccan pastries and a yummy soup.  Oh, and of course we had tea!  Moroccan tea is amazing.  It’s green tea with lots of sugar and mint added at the end, which was seriously so good.

My two friends and I chatted with our host mom for awhile before going to bed.  Between her knowledge of English and some broken French (oh hey! remember those four years I took french- quite helpful!  One of the other girls I stayed with also had high school french under her belt so that was helpful, too), we had a really nice conversation.  We talked about learning languages, studying in America and Spain, different Americna influecnes in Morocco, and of course, the election and Obama.  I was actually surprised it came up as late as it did, seeing as everyone around the world wants to hear about Obama.  But still, it was interesting hearing my host mom’s thoughts about the election.  She made comments about wanting peace in the world and no more wars.  Obama’s rhetoric really made it aorund the world…she kept using phrases like, “the change we need” or “change we can belive in”…plus the word hope.  Nice job, team Obama, on that one.  So yeah, it was so wonderful to be welcomed into a home where a true cultural exchange was taking place.  I quickly realized how similar the US and Spain are, despite their awkward differences (that 3pm lunch, wtf) and of course the language barrier.  We learned in my int’l affairs class that the “border” beween Spain and Morocco is that of the greatest difference in GDP (yes, even than between the US and Mexico, which I found interesting).  While Spain has a GDP of 30+k/year, Morocco is something just below 3k/year.  That could be totally wrong, but, well, the sentiment is there.  Life is SO different in Morocco than anywhere else I’ve been, but at the same time, the warmth and hospitality was just amazing and so very little felt different.

Oh, and the bathroom situation at the apartment:  Western, baby!  We were really concerned….but thankfully all was ok.  I should note that “showering” isn’t really a big thing in Morocco, as the water is expensive.  The shower was more or less a showerhead attached to a faucet with a drain on the floor.  We opted not to shower, in part to respect the family, but in part because it would just be SO difficult.

That’s all for now– back tomorrow with details about my day in Rabat!  xoxo

Running Late!

So I’m off to Morocco today and I’m running late…

BUT….

I’ve posted some new pictures!  To see them, just click the box on the right side of the page.  Nothing is notated yet, so be patient and next week there will be a running commentary.

Seriously, I’m going to Africa.  How cool!?

J

Como Se Llama? Obama.

So, I kinda like politics. And by kinda, I mean obsessed. When I decided to go abroad, everyone said to me, “but the election! How can you be half way around the world when the election is going on?!” Well strangely enough, the election was going to occur no matter where I would be in the world. My decision to study abroad in the fall was based, in the end, on my desire to be in DC in January for fun things like Inauguration. I knew back in February when I made this decision that Election Day would be tough for me. Not only would it be the middle of the night in Europe when they called the election, but I wouldn’t be in DC where election night is always crazy.

As I mentioned, I had written some stuff about the election and it never got posted. Here is that post:

–

For once, it seems, Europe has agreed on something.  Based on my very non-scientific research, if every European had a vote in the US presidential race, Senator Obama would win.  We’re not talking a US-style win, where a single state or a few percentage points means landslide, we’re talking legit landslide.  A “everyone likes me and no one likes you” landslide.  A landslide to the point that I have yet to find someone in Europe who likes Senator McCain. Interesting, no?

My poli sci professor stopped class for a solid 10 minutes a week or two ago to talk about the US election.  She got very excited when she realized that there were nine American students sitting in her classroom, all of whom followed politics and had strong opinions on the upcoming election.  (My question was why she only realized this and started asking us questions four or five weeks into the semester…..regardless….)  She went on for a few minutes about how she really likes Obama and how she thinks he’ll do great things for the world.  She then said that she would love to hear from us as to whom we are voting for.  She did that “you don’t have to tell me but I’d really like to know but I know that voting is a private thing and you don’t have to tell me but I’d really, really, really like to know if you also are Obama supporters…” thing, which I just thought was funny.  Knowing the eight other students in my class, I could have predicted the outcome of our little in-class poll…..8/9 of us were Obama supporters and didn’t even pause to think about it.  The other individual was not a fan of either candidate and was not planning to vote.  (Another editorial moment: I hate this argument.  Seriously, you’re American and you get to cast a vote for president every 4 years.  Pick someone.  If he/she is not a major party candidate, that’s cool.  But seriously, you’re lack of voting pisses me off.  You’re an intelligent, well educated individual who lives in a country that prides itself on democratic principles.  Cast a ballot for the person you think should be the next leader of our country.  And don’t you dare say “well because I’m from a red/blue state it doesn’t matter!” because it does.  Ok, I’m done…)  So our professor pressed the eight of us for reasons we loved Obama and just got more and more excited as we gave her validation of her choice for US president.  She then told us all the reasons she wanted Obama to win- he’s a great guy who is going to bring changes to the world, he’s going to fix the international mess left by Bush, he’s someone she thinks can be trusted- mostly general reasons.  It was also strange as she transitioned back into our class topic (Moroccan political development) because she seemed almost upset that she needed to stop talking about American politics.

But I’d expect a professor of political science to pay some attention to American politics, just as I’d expect an American professor of political science to pay attention to politics of other countries, especially those with such an international presence.  What I didn’t expect, however, was to find that average Spaniards also know a lot about the US election.  At lunch everyday, we watch the news, and the American election always gets 2 minutes of coverage.  Usually it’s campaign trail news from both sides and then big “are you serious?!” story of the day (Palin’s $150,000 clothing bill, for example, was the wtf story last week), which doesn’t seem like too much coverage of anything to me.  But apparently, it’s enough coverage to have everyone talking about the election and what’s going to happen.  I think I mentioned this before, but when I meet people for the first time, we get to talking about the presidential election within 5 minutes.  Seriously, the other day I was waiting for the bus (it was raining) and the older man sitting next to me asked where I was from, why I was in Granada….and who I was voting for in the presidential race.  Could you imagine if that happened in the states?  Beyond the talking to random people thing, I can’t imagine a situation where you would immediatley ask someone who they were voting for.  In fact, I can’t imagine talking politics with a total stranger.  Oh wait, that’s what I did all summer….

So Spain is voting for Obama. They love him and they really want him to be President. It’s not that they don’t like McCain, it’s that they pretend he doesn’t exist because they love Obama so much.

–

As you can see, there was a lot of excitement leading up to the election.  Spain was on edge as was the whole world, so it seemed.  IES decided to throw an election night slumber party so that we all could watch the returns together.  This also meant, however, that we were going to be up all night even though we had class first thing the next morning.  As I explained to someone, Election Day is kind of like Christmas to me, with the excitement and the energy and the anticipation.  Most people thought I was crazy.  In fact, most think I still am.  Anyway…

So here was the set up: 50 or 60 Americans (all except 1 or 2 were Obama supporters) in a room meant to hold 30, one large projection screen, inconsistent internet connection, a white board with a red and a blue marker, and snacks.  I had my computer on NBC’s interactive map, while another girl’s computer was streaming NBC and CNN live.  I was also in charge of the whiteboard a la Josh Lyman in the West Wing.  And don’t forget, it was the middle of the night.

What was oddest for me was being with a crowd of people who weren’t as rediculously obsessed with politics as I am/as GW is.  There were a handful of us who were really, really into the election, but the vast majority were just kinda ehhhh.  They were excited for the election to be happening and they wanted their chosen candidate to win, but they weren’t into the sillyness….hours of political pundints, checking to see which counties we were still waiting on in the swing states, etc.  But at least we were all together watching, because it would have been far less exciting to be sitting alone in my room.

So the election was called.  Obama won.   You all probably know that by now.  We were yelling and cheering and hugging and celebrating…and all of us were happy.  It was 5am in Spain by the time the election was called, so I was so tired, but so happy.  What was not cool was the fact that the internet cut out about 10 minutes before Obama gave his acceptance speech.  I tried watching for a bit in Spanish on this other TV we had, but it just wasn’t the same.  They should have done subtitles, but they instead dubbed it over.  The oratorical element was just lost and really, that’s one of the best parts of Obamas’ speeches.  At 7am, I was so happy for Obama….I passed out on a couch with 3 friends.  For an hour, the building was silent as everyone found a couch, a desk, or a corner and passed out.  Class on Wednesday was a joke because none of us slept the night before and no one wanted to talk about anything but the election.

When I went online in the morning and looked at pictures from Grant Park and the White House, it hit me that I had just spent election day in Spain and that although I was in an environment with other excited Americans, the energy of the two rallies could not be matched.  It was one of the first times this semester that I felt like I missed out on something by being in Spain.  Had I been in the states for the election, I would have been at that White House rally, and it would have been so incredible.

But seriously, President (elect) Obama.  Saying it outloud is crazy because it doesn’t sound real.  For the majority of my college years, Obama has been running for president, and so the fact that he will be inaugurated in January is so exciting.  What’s odd to think is that CNN isn’t talking about campaign manuevers and new ads these days, rather, they’re speculating about cabinet members and predicting what Obama’s next move will be.  I’m glad, in a sense, that the campain is over, because I feel like this country might actually accomplish something in the upcoming months.  But to be honest, campaigns are fun.  They’re entertaining, and personally, I find them facinating.  There’s a funny Onion video about Obama supporters not knowing what to do now, and although satire, it’s so true.  I go to visit blogs and political websites, and they’re just not the same.  Kinda sad….I’m going to need to find a new hobby, lol.

Channeling Josh Lyman; Yes We Can.

Here’s to looking towards January 20th: No school, a parade that (basically) runs on the north end of campus, the biggest rally EVER happening across town, and an inaugural ball.  Amazing.

46 Italian Hours

Bienvenido!  This is slowly becoming a multi-lingual blog, with all my fun, non-English phrases!  So as I mentioned, my post-midterms fun time was a trip to Venice, Italy with my new friend.  The only downer on the trip was that my poli sci midterm got moved (though I think I mentioned that), so in addition to my backpack filled with clothes and granola bars, I had to shove in my poli sci notes and readings, plus my $2 Spanish pocket dictionary from Target.  Seriously, that was the best $2 I spent this summer.  That little guy knows everything!  Anyway….

LONG POST: VENICE RECAP: GET PSYCHED
•    Traveling from Granada to Venice = headache
•    Pizza, Bridges, CANALS, oh my.
•    The Biggest Clusterfuck in the World = Venice during high tide
•    Glassblowing, souvenir shopping, I <3 Italian food
•    Jew Town

Traveling out of Granada, while it sounds easy, is a pain.  You say to yourself things like, “I’m going to Italy tomorrow!” only to realize there are 13 hours, a bus, a metro, and an airplane in your way.  That’s right- three forms of public transportation to country hop.  Our flight left Madrid at noon-ish, so we had to take a 1:30am bus from Granada to Madrid, brave the Madrid metro during morning rush hour on a Friday, and then wait in the airport forever and a day until it was time for our flight.  It was this awkward time-space continuum because it was the middle of the night, but I was wide awake, praying that the bus driver could see through the fog and rain because I couldn’t see more than 2 feet outside my window.  The mad long travel day rivaled other long travel days: the 20 hour trip from Chicago to Malaga in September and the 36 hour Chicago to Israel trip with the 11 hour layover in JFK’s international terminal’s food court.  But we eventually made it and then we realized we were in Italy and then life was good.

Most people when they visit a city have a plan and a nice chunk of time.  We had neither.  We had our hostel booked and we were set on eating pizza and gelato that evening, but beyond that we were open to whatever.  The funny thing is, we pretty much saw the whole city in 46 hours.  We may have skipped a museum or two and we didn’t go into St. Mark’s Basillica (or any church for that matter), but Venice is tiny enough to see in only a short time.

After an early dinner on Friday (AMAZING pizza!) we wandered around and saw the Rialto Bridge, which is the oldest and most famous in the city.  Oh and of course the whole time we were walking next to/over the many canals that Venice is famous for.  It was a little rainy so there weren’t too many boats out (it was also night-ish), but lots of cute little boats docked!  We got lost….very lost…I would say at least half the streets and plazas in Venice aren’t on the maps because it would get too complicated.  Nothing had names either, so basically we just wandered around only half knowing where we were and where we were going.  We made it out alive and passed out from a lonnnggg day.

Saturday was our only full day in Venice so we were sure to get up early and capitalize on our time.  At some point while we were getting ready, we heard these four blaring sirens and had no idea what was going on.  No one was running out of the building and nothing smelled like fire, so we figured we were good to go.  Turns out, said four sirens indicated that it was high tide.  And by high tide, I mean seriously high tide.  At the high point of high tide, there was at least a foot and a half of water probably 100 meters in from the canal.  The city puts up these walking platforms for people to use as to avoid being soaking wet, but as the city is mostly populated by idiot tourists who can’t walk, it was the biggest clusterfuck I’ve ever dealt with.  Yes, Daddy, worse than the GBN drop off cluster-fuck.  I should have taken a video of it because it was that ridiculous.  After surviving the clusterfuck, we traveled by WATER TAXI (how cool!?!?!) to the island of Murano, which is famous for glass blowing.  We saw a demonstration, ate lunch, and went shopping.  Good times.  In the afternoon and evening, we hung out for a bit in St. Mark’s Square and enjoyed low-tide’s lower waters.  We also visited two museums, one of which was a Guggenheim and had some cool modern art stuff, which I really liked.  We did more souvenir shopping, went back to the hostel to chill for a bit and chage, and then went out for more pizza.  Seriously, after nearly 2 months in Spain living on garbanzo beans, tortilla Espanola, and cheese sandwiches, Italian pizza and pasta was such a nice change in pace.  It was a “hey, I can actually eat the majority of what’s on this menu!” moment for me which was quite fun.

On Sunday, we only had a few hours to do stuff before we needed to head to the airport for our flight back to Espana, and so we decided to go visit the Jewish quarter.  So Venice is a city with a ton of Jewish history, and to be honest, I wasn’t aware of most of it before I went.  The word “ghetto” originated in Venice because the German immigrants couldn’t say “getto” (pronounced jeh-toe, meaning foundry) properly.  Hence, the word “ghetto” with the G sound was born. Venice was home to the first Jewish Ghetto.  The oldest and most central part of the ghetto is actually it’s own island surrounded by canals and bridges on all sides.  Very cool stuff.  We went on the synagogue/museum tour where I met some traveling Jews.  Turns out, they were Canadian…from Toronto…and knew parts of my family.  Mark that one in the books, folks….I played Jewish Geography in Italy.  Anyway, the tour included 3 of the 5 synagogues in Venice (all within oh, 30 seconds of each other); all were very different but equally beautiful.  It was a really fun morning and a great way to say goodbye to Venice.  Well actually, gelato was a great way to say goodbye to Venice.  Yum.

After craziness at Marco Polo (yes, seriously) Airport, a plane ride, a race against the clock to get to the bus, a 5 hour bus ride, and a cold walk…I was back in my homestay in Granada.  If it sounds exhausting, it was.  And so was staying up for a majority of the night to study for my poli sci exam.  But it was all worth it.  It was SUCH a fun weekend.  Venice is a beautiful little city that’s tucked away in Northern Italy.  Yeah, it was really touristy with menus in 4+ languages.  And yeah, almost everyone spoke English, but to think that those canals have been used in the same way for 500+ years is just mind blowing.

And seeing as it is post-election, here’s my personal shout out to Obama.  Jamie’s Blog’s Election Edition is coming soon.  Let’s just say I was in charge of the whiteboard all night.

Much love from Espana!

J

Los Padres Estan (pues, Estaban) en Espana!

Yeah, this should have been posted almost a month ago.  Oh well, enjoy it now! -JBB

Hi all!  So I just wanted to give everyone a quick recap of the week that was.  We’re doing extended bullet points this time around, so do enjoy this format.

•    Yom Kippur: Alone.  In Spain.  Where there are maybe 10 Jews in a 100 mile radius of me.  Plus, I was sick.  Not my favorite day here thus far.  And really, breaking fast without bagels, schmeer, kugel, and tuna salad is just not the same.  Next year, you all try breaking fast with vegetable cream soup and lentils.  It’s just not the same. Not even close.

•    However, the following day I found The West Wing online.  This completely made up for the sickly YK and lack of bagels in this country.

•    Madrid w/Mom and Dad:  So I met the padres in Madrid for a weekend of playing tourist.  I didn’t have class on Monday (who knew it, Spain celebrates Columbus Day, too….that whole, “Columbus was OURS!” thing merits a national holiday!) so we had a whole weekend to enjoy the city.  On Saturday we visited some art museums including the Prado which is home to the super old Spanish art, including Goya and friends.  Sunday we “visited” the palace but it was closed for the Columbus celebration.  We also wandered around this gigantic park and attempted to visit lots of museums that were closed because of the holiday.  That evening we went to the Viva America! Parade which was the furthest from an American 4th of July Parade you could have gotten….and I know this because I marched in 3 this summer.  More details about this below.  Monday was quiet and included a visit to the Reina Sofia (modern art museum) and Madrid’s Botanical Gardens.  We saw A LOT in just a few days, but it was really fun to hang out with the parentals.  Seriously, mom, I mean that…..

•    Viva America:  So parades in America.  Good times.  You get little kids waving flags, a marching band or two, the old guys in the itsy cars, and of course, random folk handing you candy, stickers, and political literature.  Being good Americans, the parentals and I figured this parade would be the same.  Well, we were wrong.  Very wrong.  The parade celebrated Latin and Southern American culture.  Each country got their own slot in the parade and performed traditional (or not so traditional) dances wearing traditional costumes.  Also, many countries brought their biggest pop stars to perform in the parade.  Think of the Disney Christmas Parade.  They put Miley and the Jonas Brothers on floats with cool characters and little children to match.  They lip-sinc a song or two and that’s it.  Lots of smiling and waving.  On a float with Disney characters.  Now what if Miley was on a SEMI TRUCK with flashing lights and 1000 screaming adults dancing around the truck?  Nope, we’re not in Disney World, we’re in Madrid.  It was nuts.  But lots of fun.  Here are some videos to prove it:

Did I mention the parentals got in on the action?

•    El Visite a Granada: Monday night the three of us made the treck to Granada where we all spent the next few days hanging out.  One night we went to a really fun Flamenco show in the Sacramonte (the cave neighborhood), which was fun because I’m studying Flamenco and I could pick out some of the music and steps.  Later in the week, Mom and Dad came to visit Carmen.  She’s adorable and had tea and postres waiting for us.  It was also really funny to hear her talk in English….and I’m pretty sure she thought it was funny to hear me speaking English, probably because I’m coherent when I speak in English (most of the time).  Anyway, it was fun to introduce my real parents to my surrogate mom for the semester and everyone got along really well.  We ended the Granada trip with a very nice dinner, which was a change in pace from tapas and tintos.  Overall, it was really, really, really fun having the padres in Spain with me for the week(ish).  Good times, good times.

•    Cordoba:  Mom and Dad jetted off to Barcelona on Friday while I went with my art history class to Cordoba, a city 3 hours from Granada with a very large mosque turned cathedral.  The also are one of two cities in Spain with a Jewish history museum.  Cordoba is the birthplace of Rambam, a very famous Jew to say the least, and so I was excited to go.  Mom and Dad had been there earlier in the week and raved about the cute little synagogue and museum.  Well, of course, my program screwed something up and we didn’t get to visit the synagogue .  I did, however, spend 2 hours staring at red and white arches not understanding a word of Jose Miguel’s lecture.

So on tap for the next two weeks: MIDTERMS.  Can you say, fun?  I can’t, so I don’t recommend you try.  I strongly dislike fall midterms because you realize it has been five months since your last long academic test.  But, my “congrats you’ve survived midterms in a foreign language!” gift is a trip to Venice, Italy.  Can you say, pizza?  Can you say, GONDOLA?  Should be lots of fun!

Hasta Pronto!

J

Super Quick Update!

For real- super quick!

So everyone has been harping on me for not posting and I don’t blame you, I haven’t posted anything since 3 weeks ago.  I’ve been busy.  Shoot me, ok?  I have 3 or 4 different posts started but I haven’t had time to finish any of them….yet! I’ve got one about grocery shopping and buying fruit, one about the parentals’ visit to Espana (and an awesome video of them dancing….get excited!), another about the election, and a fourth about my progress (or perhaps lack there of) with the Spanish language in the first 8 weeks.  And before you start saying things like “but why didn’t you finish the first before starting the second?!” know that I have had a midterm every other class day for the past 2 weeks.  Art History last Tuesday (with a question about stuff we never talked about nor visted), Spanish last Thursday (which involved changing song lyrics into different tenses….without telling us which ones neede to be switched…..and then points were taken off for switching the wrong ones.  WTF is right), Flamenco history/theory (plus a mini-exam next Monday on the dance stuff), and International Affairs today (which was fun….legit, good times, fun….really, I’m not kidding or being sarcastic here).  Poly Sci is on Monday, though it was supposed to have been this past Wednesday.  Not sure yet if that was a curse or a blessing, but what I can tell you is, I enjoy political science a lot when it’s in English…but FAR less when it’s in Spanish.  Not really looking forward to that.  Obviously, I’ve been a little preoccupied with things above and beyond this blog.  Deal with it, I’ll be back to posting soon enough.

Tonight, however, is not going to be the night to sit down and finish posts because I’m off to Venice for the weekend.  Well, 48 when you subtract all the travel time, but still, it’s going to be a blast.  Next weekend is a little IES visit to another Andalucian town (Cadiz), and then the weekend after I’ll be in Morocco.  Amazing.  I love being on this side of the world, it’s just so much more exciting.  Just think about this, when was the last time you said, “ok, we’re off to [insert random American city 300+ miles from your hometown/school] for the weekend!” Probably not too recently.

Ciao!  Hasta Luego!