Meet My Good Friend, Culture Shock

                When I told the story about meeting Ana Maria and getting to her apartment, I left out a very important detail.  Ana Maria lives on the second floor, which is actually the third as they start with zero when they count the floors in a building.  Olivia and I were carrying our luggage, filled with clothes and shoes to last us four months.  We walked into the building and began to climb the stairs.  Why climb the stairs with 60 pounds of luggage? Because our building does not have an elevator; they are not very common here in Spain.  So we dragged our luggage up forty stairs (I counted the next time we went down) and arrived at the apartment sweating and panting for breath.  I know there are many apartment buildings in the US that do not have elevators.  However, literally everything in my life has changed in one week, and I am having trouble distinguishing what is normal.  Everything feels weird and different right now.   

                A true difference between here and the US (unlike the elevator thing) is the food and the schedule.  This was something I mentally prepared myself for, and therefore am actually handling pretty well.  The food that Ana Maria makes is, for the most part, absolutely delicious.  She makes one kind of soup from vegetables and oatmeal that has changed my life.  Okay, maybe it wasn’t that drastic.  It definitely changed my opinion on vegetables and oatmeal.  The one thing I could not stomach was the pickled beets and hardboiled egg salad.  Enough said on that, yes?  I don’t think I have to explain my distaste.  As for the meal schedule, I have not had much trouble adjusting.  It is nice to have your big meal in the middle of the day, and then a light meal for dinner.  Plus, I have learned to take advantage of siesta.  Who doesn’t love a nap in the middle of the day?

                The lock on the door to the apartment is impossible to figure out.  The key is shaped weirdly and works differently than the keys I have ever used.  Every time Olivia and I leave the apartment and then try and get back in, disaster ensues.  Ana Maria always ends up having to let us in, and then starts to explain that it is very easy to use the key.  Then she says “Dos veces chicas, dos veces” because you are supposed to turn the key twice, which by the way we know.  I have no idea why we can’t make the stupid key work, but if I don’t figure it out soon, I may end up having a mental breakdown. 

                In Spain, everybody wears slippers when they are in the house.  Basically any other option (shoes, barefoot) is considered rude.  So Olivia and I spent two days searching for inexpensive slippers to wear when we are in the house.  As for regular shoes, and everything else that falls into fashion category, Europe is way ahead.  All of the women here dress to kill, and my wardrobe could not scream “American” any louder.  I have never been so self conscience about my clothes in my life.  Yesterday a few of the girls in the program and I went out shopping.  For some reason, I decided to try and buy another pair of jeans.  I will be in therapy for twenty years after that.  Sizes run very differently here. 

                The biggest and most obvious difference: the language.  I understand almost everything that is said to me in Spanish.  The ability to respond is the problem.  I feel like an absolutely moron, and I honestly sound like one.  I cannot remember a time when I was unable to communicate what I was thinking.  It is honestly the most frustrating feeling in the world.  Many times while trying to talk to Ana Maria, I have felt the overwhelming urge to just cry. 

                Although literally everything feels different and weird, these are the things that are currently really frustrating me.  To you they may seem small, but when you combine them with everything else, you end up with a permanent feeling of “out of placeness”.  It is hard to explain culture shock; I didn’t even believe it existed until I got here.  Even the changes I am enjoying, such as siesta, contribute the out of placeness feeling.  I feel disconnected from home and everything that is familiar to me.  But it is impossible to feel connected to life here because I haven’t even been here a week.  The apartment I am staying in isn’t mine, the traditions and habits of the people here aren’t mine, and the language isn’t mine.  I know it will pass.  Everybody who has been through this before me insists that this feeling passes.  As for right now, I suppose I am some sort of limbo.  I am caught between my old, familiar life, and the life I have chosen to be thrown into.  

From the Blogger Formerly Known As Meaghan

Thursday morning we packed up and left Hotel Moderno in Madrid.  We set of for Toledo, known as the Imperial City.  After an hour long bus ride, we entered Toledo, but then drove outside of the city to a viewing point in the mountains surrounding the city.  We took some pictures and admired the city as whole, and then got back on the bus to explore the different parts of the city.  Toledo is very hilly, because of its location in the mountains.  A few years ago, escalators were built into the hillside so that people wouldn’t have to climb so many stairs.  It is very funny to be driving through a city admiring its old world feel, and then come across an escalator.  We got off the bus for a walking tour; it was cold and drizzly, and our tour guide started our tour telling us that she was really excited because we had great weather for exploring the city. 

The city was once the location of three distinct religious groups: Christians, Jews, and Muslims.  It was always a peaceful city, even throughout the periods were any of the religious groups were being persecuted in the rest of the country.  My favorite building was a synagogue that had been built by Moorish architects and later turned into a Catholic church.  It was so amazing to see all three groups of people represented in one building.  The cathedral in the city is the second biggest in Spain, to the cathedral in Sevilla.  It was commissioned by King Ferdinand and Isabella in 1477, as they wished to be buried in Toledo.  However, in 1492 when the reconquista finally took back Granada from the Moors, Ferdinand and Isabella decided to be buried there instead of the Toledo cathedral.  Along the tour we saw many shops selling swords and knives, and the guide explained that the city was known for its steel work.  All of the swords used in the Lord of the Rings movies were from Toledo.  For lunch we went to a restaurant called “Café and Té” and I tried paella verduras, which is paella and different kinds of vegetables.  It was very good, and I successfully managed to avoid the vegetables in which was even better.

After we finished our tour and lunch in Toledo we got back on the bus for a five hour ride to Granada.  It was long, but the scenery was beautiful, and it was nice to rest.  Driving into Granada was a bit confusing.  I was sure the driver had taken us to the wrong place.  The first thing I saw was a Toys R’ Us, and then a Ford motors.  This was not the Granada I had pictured.  As we drove I realized that Granada is a much busier city then I was expecting it to be.  We finally got to the place where our host families would pick us up around 9 pm.  It was very overwhelming trying to get everybody’s luggage organized and then to match them up with their families.  My roommate Olivia and I live with a host mom, Ana Maria.  When I first met her, she did the kiss on each cheek, which I had been expecting, but I was surprised by it all the same.  We walked to her apartment, and it didn’t take long to realize that she spoke no English. 

We reintroduced ourselves in the less chaotic setting of the apartment.  Ana Maria loved Olivia’s name and it sounds beautiful when she says it.  Meaghan, however, is far too Irish a name for the Spanish people to say.  Therefore, Meaghan no longer exists.  When Ana Maria first told me she was changing my name, she said she was going to call me Maggie, but she actually calls me Margarita which I think is very pretty.  Ana Maria made us a frozen pizza that had ham on it (they love ham here), and explained that she was a vegetarian and did not eat meat.  She seemed to enjoy the pizza though, so I’m thinking ham doesn’t count.  Maybe she took the ham off when I was paying attention?  The apartment is freezing, because they do not use central heat.  I always thought my house was freezing in the winter, but I don’t think I will ever complain again.  At least it is heated.  It is very strange staying with somebody I don’t know.  Ana Maria is very nice, and extremely welcoming, but I feel out of place. 

There is definitely a language barrier between us and our host mom.   She has so much patience with us, and encourages us to talk to her by asking questions and telling us about Granada.  Ana Maria has lived in Spain for five years, and each year has taken in students.  She told us that each one has come in at about the same level we are at, and by the time they leave they are fluent.  I almost always understand what she is saying, but responding is difficult.  She told me I do well with the language, but I know there is a lot of room for improvement. 

Yesterday we were able to tour the city with API.  They showed us where we will be taking classes, at the Universidad de Granada, in the CLM building.  The building has a beautiful indoor patio, and is very nice.  We also saw the cathedral in Granada, and other parts of the city.  I still have yet to see the Alhambra.  This morning Olivia and I went for a walk to look for it, but with no luck.  I think we are going out again this afternoon to try and get a good view.  Granada is beautiful, even if it is not what I expected.  I know that soon I will feel very comfortable here, both when going into the city, and in the apartment with Ana Maria.  

¡Madrid!

I am in Spain!  As of right now it feels more like vacation then a semester of school, but once classes start I am sure that will change.  I got here on Monday morning, after a long day of flying, waiting, and then more flying.  We got to Logan airport in Boston around 11:00 a.m., and my plane was scheduled to leave at 1:30.  However, the women checking me in informed us that my flight was going to land at LaGuardia Airport in NY, and my plane to Madrid was leaving from JFK airport, which posed a bit of a problem.  The women switched my flight to a 12:30 flight from Boston to JFK, so after checking my luggage, going through security, and finding my gate, I barely had to wait at all.  The flight was easy, and once at JFK I was not too worried about quickly finding the right terminal and gate, since I now had a six hour layover so I grabbed lunch and explored a little.  I didn’t get really anxious until around 7:00, about five hours into my layover.  I called home multiple times, and started to think that studying abroad wasn’t really for me.

I just wanted to get on the plane so that I no longer had the option of changing my mind, and then they posted that the flight had been delayed an hour.  Up to this point I had not cried, which was something I was very proud of and also very determined to not ruin, so I stayed calm and called home once more.  After about 45 minutes they started boarding the plane.  I grabbed my boarding pass, and went into my folder to grab my passport.  I did not see my passport in the folder, so I started to go through my backpack, but it wasn’t there either.  Then I panicked and started to cry, and called home yet again.  It took me about 20 seconds to get completely hysterical talking to my parents, as we tried to remember where I had put my passport.  By this point I was making a spectacle of myself, standing at the gate as I sobbed and screamed into the phone, “I need to find my passport, I have to go to Spain, I have to go to Spain.”  A couple of nice women working with Delta and told me I really needed to calm down.  Then they asked me where my passport was supposed to be and I handed them my folder.  While one of the women went through it, Annette (the other Delta lady) told me I was far too young to cry like this.  It didn’t even take them a minute to find my passport, which was exactly where I had left it, in my folder.  Annette decided she should walk me down to the plane, grabbed my duffel bag and my boarding pass and led the way.  As we walked she said in broken English, “Come now lady, we going to meditate.  Ready? Take deep breath, like this.”  I had stopped crying by the time I found my seat, but started again when I didn’t think I would be able to fit my duffel in.  A very nice passenger helped me, and I feel asleep pretty shortly after the plane took off. 

I woke up about an hour before the plane was scheduled to land, and once we were flying over Spain, I got very excited.  We landed around 11:30 Monday morning, and there was a big group of API students already waiting to be picked up by the time I got there.  Everybody seemed very nice, and we talked until we were picked up.  After checking into the hotel, I walked around with my roommate and grabbed something to eat at a little café in the Puerta del Sol, which is referred to as the heart of the city.  We had a quick meeting, and then the whole group went out for dinner around 8.  Dinner was… interesting.  They served us a lot of traditional Spanish dishes, and I actually tried most of them.  The dishes included tortilla Espanola, cured ham, calamari, potatoes in a spicy red sauce, and a tuna empanada.  There were other things but those are the only ones I could force myself to try.  I’m sure I will get used to the food here.  It just may take some time.

The next day we all battled jet lag, and woke up for a tour of the Prado Museum at 9;30.  The Prado was amazing.  We were there for over two hours, and the tour guide showed us some of the works they had from Velazquez, De Goya, and El Greco.   It was amazing to experience paintings and artwork I have studied during Spanish classes.  Our tour guide was very enthusiastic about the paintings and was able to give us a lot of information about each, which made the paintings even more interesting and dynamic.  After the Prado, I grabbed lunch with a group of people  and then headed over to the Parque del Buen Retiro.  The park is huge.  We were there for over an hour and didn’t see half of it.  When you walk in there is a path lined with statues, and on each side trees and other paths go on for what looks like forever.  When you walk down the path, it brings you to a pond.  Across the pond, there are stairs and more statues.  I’m not explaining this well at all, I will try and put a photo up.  You can rent a rowboat and row around the pond and yesterday they were filming a movie.  We tried to use our cameras to zoom in on the boat they were filming and see who was in it, but it was too far away.  Later in the afternoon the whole group came back together, and took a tour of the Royal Palace.  The Royal Palace was impressive, what with it being a palace and all. 

Today, Wednesday, we loaded onto buses for an hour long drive out to the Escorial.  King Phillip II ordered the Escorial to be built, as a monastery and a palace.  I was not too excited about going to a monastery, mostly because a monastery does not really sound like fun.  The Escorial is located in San Lorenzo del Escorial, a city named after a Christian martyr who was grilled to death.  Our guide explained that when the Escorial was being planned, the architect designed in the shape of a grill in remembrance of Lorenzo being “roasted toasted” to death.  The Escorial was absolutely amazing.  It probably is my favorite thing we have seen so far.  The basilica in it was breathtaking.  They refer to it as the Sistene chapel of Spain because of the frescoes on the ceiling.  The frescoes were painted by an artist who would paint with both hands at once, and was therefore known for getting jobs done quickly.  Underneath the basilica is a Pantheon, where all but two of the kings of Spain since 1500 have been buried.  It was built there because Phillip II wished to be buried directly under the alter of the basilica.  There is a second Pantheon in the Escorial, where family of royalty, were buried.  My favorite part of the Escorial was the garden.  The Escorial was in the mountains and the garden set between the mountains the Escorial combined for an indescribably beautiful scene.

So there are my first few days in Spain!  I have met some great people, and can already tell that I am going to make some great friends through this experience.  Tomorrow we leave Madrid, stop in Toledo, and then head down to Granada.  I am so excited to see Granada, and get settled in.  I can’t wait to meet my host mom, and really start to experience not just the tourist attractions but the culture of Spain.  Right now I am feeling so many things: excitement, amazement, jet lag, and of course a touch of homesickness.  Each emotion and feeling takes its turn, and sometimes I get all of them at once.  I have to admit though, so far this experience is off to a much better start then I had imagined.  I have no idea what the rest of the semester will bring if all this has happened in just three days, but I am so excited for whatever the next experience will be.

I Guess I Should Start Packing Now

This Sunday, January 23, 2011, I will be leaving to study in Spain for four months.   As you may have gathered from the title of this blog, I have not begun packing yet.  There are two main reasons for this.  The first is that I am a procrastinator by nature;  procrastination is something I have battled my whole life and will continue to battle, probably forever.  So I have put off packing.  The other reason that I haven’t started packing is because I really don’t feel like the whole trip is actually going to happen.  I can’t believe that I am going to live in a foreign country for four whole months.  I have talked to numerous people about what I am planning on doing, where I am planning on going, but I cannot actually fathom that it will really happen.

There are many reasons I should be frantically packing while having a minor panic attack.  Signs that I am really not going back to Emmanuel College this semester and instead will be studying at the University of Granada include:

1.  Classes at Emmanuel started today, and I was not there

      2.   A round trip plane ticket to Spain has been purchased.

      3.  I applied for, was approved, and have picked up a student visa.

      4.   I know my host mom’s name, address, and pet cat’s name.

The conclusion most people would come to after reviewing the facts presented is that they are in fact studying abroad for four months, and should probably begin to truly prepare for this adventure.  I’m sure I will get to it.

At the beginning of each semester, one of my friends makes me tell her my top five goals for the upcoming semester.  So, in yet another attempt to confirm my upcoming experience and also provide myself with concrete goals, I have decided to share my goals with anybody who is reading this.  Writing them down makes them real, and holds me accountable to them.  Here goes nothing, my five biggest goals for my semester abroad:

1.  To not be afraid of meeting new people.  I had a really rough adjustment to college life last year because I was painfully shy.  I hope to shed a little bit of this, and really put myself out there.  I feel as though I would not taking full advantage of this opportunity if I did not meet as many people from as many different cultures I could throughout the next four months.

      2. To not stress.  I tend to get very stressed, very fast.  I do not want to spend four months completely stressed out because I am homesick, or feel my classes are too difficult.  I want to be able to always remember why I am in Spain, and enjoy the opportunity I have been presented with.  When I look back on this experience, I want to smile and be able to say that I genuinely had a fantastic time.

     3.  To try new foods.  Even if they look really, really gross.  I am unbelievably picky, and my biggest problem is that I tend to judge a food by the way it looks.  I would love to use this experience to break this awful habit of mine.  Although this may not seem like it should be one of my top five goals to some of you, trust me, this is going to take  A LOT of work. 

      4. To see as many places as possible.  I guess this isn’t a concrete goal.  I am not going to make a list of all the places I have to see or set a goal number of places I have to visit.  I just want to remember that in all likelihood this is a once in a lifetime experience, and if I am presented with the opportunity to see somewhere new, I should embrace it.     

            5. To embrace and immerse myself in the Spanish culture.  It seems like an obvious goal, but that is my biggest hope.  I have been taking Spanish since I was 12 years old, but there is only so much you can learn in a classroom.  I want to have the courage to leave behind the traditions and habits that I know and adapt a completely new and foreign lifestyle. 

I know that as with any other set of goals, I will surely falter during my experience.  I am bound to cave in and look for that McDonalds so I can just enjoy a comforting cheeseburger and fries, or desperately try and find somebody who speaks English, or hide in my room and skype with every friend or acquaintance who is willing.  But I hope that those are obstacles that I will overcome, obstacles that I will not let define or overtake my experience.  I would like to thank everybody who is reading this.  It means that I can go through this journey with the support of friends and family who are willing to experience it with me.  That alone provides me with the comfort and courage to do this.  My next post will be from Spain! Adios for now...