Hi Folks!

I have arrived in Spain, and the worst part so far is my failure to find the damn @ on the keyboard. Er, I found it, but it's the third thing that a key does and I can't figure out how to make it. I had to cut and paste that one. Advice on how to type that would be greatly appreciated! In other words, things are going well. Especially because it cost me only .60 euros (about $.50) to use the computer for 30 minutes.

My trip had some inauspicious moments: I got on the plane and my nose started to bleed; I forgot to mail letters and forgot that JFK is paranoia-central when it comes to mail. But everything got sorted out (yes dad, you don«t have to fake my signature on those documents. I got the airline staff to mail the letters).

My family is nice and I'm already thinking some in Spanish. It's amazing how quickly it comes back. But I have a list of things I want to look up and gramatical constructions that keep bugging me. I have a journal, and I keep slipping into Spanish and realizing it when I get to a construction that I don«t know or to vocabulary that stumps me. It's overwhelming, but also quite exciting.

Tomorrow classes start and we'll see how I am placed. I think this is going to be fun!

Gotta go. My time is up and I'm totally exhausted. Write back!

Hey again!

1. Where am I? And for how long?

I am in Salamanca, Spain. About 2.5 hours from Madrid, and half-way to Portugal. It is the capital of the province of...Salamanca! It was also the location of a huge Napoleonic-era war and the location of one of the greatest (both in size and prestige) universities in europe around the time of Christopher Columbus. Now it's a university known for itsÊfirst-rate spanish language program for foreigners, but for locals it is known for being a socially, but not academically prestigious place to study. I'll be here until May 18th, and then I'll be heading back to California to start "work" on May 28th.

2. @@@@@!!!!!

Thanks to trusty reader, John Dolan, I now know how to type that stupid @ symbol! You hit "ALT GR" with "2" and, voila!

3. Que Pasa?

While you were all asleep I had my first classes this morning. I was placed in a class with Pontus and Karin, both Swedes. Just three people in the class! Not bad! There are lots and lots of Swedish folk at the school and only a handful of Americans. Apparently the Swedish government offers huge subsidies for study abroad type things (but you don't need to be a student) if you stay in one location for more than 13 weeks. Cool, huh?

But getting to class was a bit of a trip. I arrived at 9 am, and was immediately flustered by people asking simple questions in Spanish. Amazing how the mind goes blank. I took a written test, and agonized over not remembering how to formulate the proper tense for some irregular verbs. AGH! Bad verbs! Bad memory! Then I went for the oral interview. It was the strangest thing. For some reason they thought I was ukranian (Ukrana). They kept asking me about having family in Europe. I couldn't understand why they kept insisting I did. I mean, look at my address and citizenship! I had even just told them that my name was native american (or, "indian" here) and that I lived in California! Well, anyway, apparently you get Ukranian when you add Indian and German names.

After class I went to the Plaza Mayor for tapas with a bunch of people (Pontus, Katerina, Sana from Sweden; Stacy from the USA; and Carmen from Switzerland--the German part). And now I'm in an internet cafe with Katerina, Sana, and Stacy. After dinner (which I keep trying to pronounce the latin way [kay-nah] instead of the spanish way [say-nah]), I'm meeting Pontus and Karin and Carmen in the Plaza Mayor to hang out. The drawback of these social activities? For some reason, English seems to be the language of choice, with Spanish as secondary, terciary languages are Norweigian and Swedish.

Hey Folks!

It took me four days to give up on the idea of looking spanish. Now I have decided just to look NOT like a tourist. Looking spanish would mean a face lift, a smoking habit, and an entirely new wardrobe involving 4 inch heels at all times. Not being a tourist means no shorts or hawaiian shirts or sandals with socks or hats. I think I might even give in on the tourist front, too. At close to 30 degress, pants are unreasonable and skirts are a pain in the butt.

Some quick observations, and then I am off to the park with some Swiss and Swedes...

1. What if there's a fire?

* Safe at School: Part of the orientation involved the professor going into each of the 14 classrooms, and saying (in Spanish--absolutely no English spoken at the school) 'if you are in this classroom, and there is a fire, go [to the right or left or whatever]'. Lordy. I mean, as if the signs weren't obvious enough. And the place is really small.

* Not-so-safe at Home: I realized the other day that you need a key not only to let yourself in, but to let yourself out. What if there's a fire? Bad news if you don't have a key. Creepy.

2. Ir de compras (to go shopping)

It took until Wednesday before I knew for certain that the stores actually do open for business in Spain. I was beginning to think that the spanish just did an awful lot of window shopping, which didn't really make sense given the 4-inch heels and highly fashionable wardrobe of your typical spaniard. Why is this? Siestas! Yes, stores close at the drop of the hat. Closed Sundays, closed midday, closed in the morning, etc. Store hours are typically from 10-1 and then 5-9 or so.

3. Decision Final!

Spanish game shows are very strange. Decision Final combines The Weakest Link, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Las Vegas. The game begins with six contestants placed in a circle, each standing on his own trap door. The host asks a person a trivia question and the contestant can pass it to another contestant of his choice or answer it himself. Whoever answers the question will get to pick from three options, Millionaire style, except that he has only 10 seconds or so to answer. If a question is answered correctly, the contestant gets points (something like 200-400 euros) and all of the money of the person who passed the question to that contestant. If the question is wrong, then the constestant gets no money andÊmust pull a vegas slot style lever. One by one,Êa trap door beneath each contestant lights up. Eventually, like a slot machine, the light stops on a particular contestant. If that contestant has no money, then that contestant is eliminated, but not with a cruel quip from the host, but by falling though the floor dramatically. One by one, conestants are eliminated. The final contestant has 150 seconds (or so) to answer 10 rapid-fire questions correctly before getting 6 wrong. If the contestant runs out of time, or gets 6 wrong, he also falls through the floor. Very, very strange.

4. Who am I hanging out with?

I am having such a wonderful time here. Going out lots. Talking with people until all hours of the night in the plaza mayor. Drinking beer (yes, me drinking beer!). Drinking some coffee too (yes, an even bigger shock!). I am spending lots of time with Sweedes, Swiss-Germans, a Netherlander and a Belgian (french-speaking). We try to speak as much spanish as possible, but its more difficult in a larger group where there are students who have been learning spanish for only a few weeks. But I don't feel so bad about speaking in english sometimes because I am learning so much about these other countries. It's so exciting and I feel so provincial coming from the United States! I hope to spend next semester abroad too. I think that it would be wonderful to spend time in the Netherlands, Belgium, or Austria, and learn the language spoken there. I would love to get a job in one of these countries--an international organization (NGO or UN or whatever)--but I need to first develop some better language skills. Oh well, seize the day! No time like now. I just wish the US educational system were a bit more vigilant about teaching foreign languageS (yes, empahsis on the plural!).

Hasta luego!

Queridos--

I wore shorts last week. Not just any shorts, but lacrosse shorts, emblazoned with "VIRGINIA" in bright orange. With the shorts, I wore a shirt. It said, "We Put the Realist Back into Liberal Arts!" on the back and "Swarthmore College Department of Economics" on the front. I guess the shirt makes absolutely no sense, but the shorts were probably a dead giveaway. I am a tourist.

1. More on drinking...

As if I hadn't regaled you all with enough of my drinking information, I now have more on the Aguardientes de Hierbas, the neon-yellow digestive I mentioned earlier. I think I also mentioned that the waiter said it wasn't that strong. Yeah right! After talking to the teachers at school to find out exactly what that yellow hierbas stuff was, I went to a grocery store and checked the alcohol content. It was 37.5%, compared to 40% in Jameson's whiskey, my relatively-inexpensive hard liquor of choice. Not strong?! Ha! No wonder three shots put me into a tizzy.

2. Time Changes

I already mentioned that stores close mid-day for a siesta and that the Spanish pace of life is very different, but I don't think I talked about the night life. Looking back on the last two weeks, I am not certain why I tried so hard to make the 9 hour time change from California to Spain when a 3 hour one would have sufficed. Thursday night/Friday morning I stumbled home around 5:30 am (just in time for 2.5 hours of sleep before class at 9 am!) and didn't fare much better Saturday night. But I'm an early bird. My family tells me I'm foing it all wrong--that I need to come home around 7 am, have a churro and hot chocolate, and then go to sleep. Oh well.

3. Shopping for Champions

The big grocery store chain is called Champion.Ê When they're not blasting specials for the store over the music to Queen's We Are the Champions, they're playing country western (a la Garth Brooks) in Spanish. Shopping is quite an experience.

1. Holy Toledo! Crash and Burn!

After two weeks of partying, I decided that I'd had enough. The wanderlust bug bit me and I was sick of staying in Salamanca. That made week number three a difficult one. I also started worrying too much about the future--a BAD thing. For a change of pace, I went on my own to Toledo on Saturday. The trip was all the more adventurous because I was operating on only 1.5 hours of sleep, and there were periodic showers throughout the day. The trip was informative, frustrating, and amusing.

Informative: On the trip I ticked off every sightÊsuggested by Rick Steves (and several others) and spent some time annotating his text (for instance, the diagramming the location of all of the hanging hats in the great cathedral. Why hats? Apparently when cardinals in Toledo die they get to pick where their hat will hang in the church until it rots. I overheard a tourguide explain that their hats cannot follow them to heaven so they hang in the church. Go figure.).

Frustrating: Perhaps it was just the 1.5 hours of sleep, or perhaps it was the people in Toledo...or perhaps it was both...but I couldn't seem to articulate myself in a way that people in Toledo could understand. The tourguide understood my questions (in spanish) without difficulty, but the Toledo-folk were very impatient with me.

Humorous: The music on the bus was unlike anything I've ever heard. Think seventies disco syncopation. Then add Peruvian pipe music. Then think of that combination's rendering of Celine Dion's Titanic ballad (I forget the name), Unchained Melody, Hey Jude, etc. I swear there was even a version of "Oops!Ê IÊDid it Again". Then think of that looping for the entire 7 hours of bus travel (3.5 each way). Think of trying to sleep while listening to that. Yeah.

2.ÊWhere are all the fat people?

One of the first things I noticed here is that there are very few fat people. I don't mean chubby, but obese. I remarked on this to Carmen, a Swiss-Miss, she replied that of course there are fat people, but they're kept inside. I wonder why this is. Is it because they are ashamed? Because they just don't like going out (and hence they are fat for lack of exercise)? I think it's because they cannot find clothes that fit them. I went shopping here about two weeks ago and discovered that spanish clothing is for the long-legged and super skinny (ie. not me). Apparently plastic surgery is quite popular here. I didn't buy anything, but I did get to practice my spanish clothing vocabulary, especially the word "estrecho(a)". For example, Esta falda es estrecha! (This skirt is tight!).

3. European Folks

I keep telling people how wonderful I find the Europeans, and finally a french guy asked me whether I knew (m)any europeans before this trip. I thought about it, and the shocking answer was no. I've travelled to many places, but until this trip I didn't have any friends (of my own, not the family's) in Europe. Amazing, eh?

One thing I find wonderful about Europeans is that they seem less "cookie-cutter" than Americans. They have taken time to do things that we just don't do. There are different paths in life, beyond going to university immediately after high school. Experiencing other things makes for more well-rounded and interesting people, right? For example, the reason there are so many Swedes here is because their government provides some funding (and favorable loans to cover the rest) to study foreign languages in other countries. Is that amazing, or what? I don't think the US has such a program (sure, we have fullbrights, etc., but they're different), but it should. The "but everyone speaks English" attitude is a bad one.

Yikes! I am out of time now, but another dispatch is forthcoming from the United States (regrettably I head home tomorrow).

Besos y Abrazos.

More forthcoming...when I'm not so jetlagged...