Día de la Hispanidad

Heh heh

October 12 is a national holiday in Spain, known officially as “Fiesta nacional de España” but often called “Día de la Hispanidad.” It celebrates Columbus (October 12 was the day the famous explorer first laid eyes on America) and Spain’s contributions to the world, etc. Yes, I realize this holiday was now two weeks ago. Blogging without a computer is hard, ok.

In light of this holiday, I used my various English classes last week to talk about Hispanic identity (i.e., is there such a thing/how would one go about defining it/etc.) and Día de la Hispanidad’s sister holiday in the U.S., a.k.a. Columbus Day (in the greater context of Hispanic National Heritage Month in the U.S.). 

I always started the class by asking what the students already knew about Columbus. The first answer was usually the classic: “He discovered America!” which served as a great launching pad to talk about how Columbus didn’t really discover America—he only ever landed in the Bahamas and those islands were def already inhabited—and how maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t such a cool guy to celebrate... By the end, when I asked students if they thought the U.S. should still celebrate Columbus Day, most of them said “no.” (Well, many of them still said “yes," initially. But then I told them that they had to pretend that the holiday no longer included a vacation day from school or work. How about then? And only then was the answer “well, no.” Ohhhh, kids haha.)

Anyway, October 12 here in Spain does mean no school or work, yippy skippy hip hip hooray. My roommate was going to Sevilla and Córdoba for the long weekend with a big group of people, and they had one seat left in one of the rental cars. So she invited me to go along WOOT, road trips are my fave. There were nine of us total: 3 Italians, 2 Swedes, 1 Belgian, 2 Frenchwomen, and 1 American (me). It was basically the United Nations haha. And with the exception of one poor Swede, our common language was Spanish, but we all spoke it to varying degrees of intelligibility, making communicating hilarious. Now that two weeks have past, I'm having a hard time remembering specific instances, but I do remember that there were a lot of facial expressions, gesturing, and sometimes quality charades needed to get any given point across…

The whole crazy gang

Sevilla was amazing! So much history, holy cats. I think that’s what impresses me most about everywhere I visit in Spain: the buildings and the streets, etc. are just so. dang. old. And for that same reason, Córdoba was probably my favorite part of the trip. We were only there for an afternoon, but we got to visit this giant, 1200ish-year-old mosque. The architecture was absolutely incredible.

La Mezquita de Córdoba

It's technically not a mosque anymore, however, because during the Reconquista, the central part of the building was converted into a Catholic place of worship, and the building was renamed "La Catedral de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora." But the original mosque remains intact around the little central cathedral part. Now there are discussions about it reverting back into a mosque, which it is clearly more suited for, but only time and many more roundtable discussions will tell about that.

My sister arrives in a week yayyy! And she'll bring me all the American goodies I've requested, plus my NEW COMPUTER, DOUBLE YAYY!!! And then I'll blog once/week, dedos cruzados. :)

Love,
E.

Weekends FTW.

It's Wednesday, which means I'm more than half done with my work week (!!), classes are going well, the weather is beautiful, I'm loving life, etc. Nothing too interesting there haha. My weekend, however, proved to be very interesting, so if it's alright with you, I'd rather talk about that instead.

View of Toledo from the top
of la Iglesia de San Ildefonso

On Friday, I wanted to go to Toledo, which is just a short bus ride away from Madrid (50 minutes-ish, if you succeed in getting a direct bus, which I did). I was going to go with a friend and then she couldn't go, but I decided to go anyway. The man at the bus ticket window gave me a hard time about that. “One ticket? Are you going alone? No one should go to Toledo alone! Look, here is a nice gentleman; you should go with him!” etc. (at which point his co-worker, a.k.a. the “nice gentleman” in question, looked over with “WAT” written all over his face). And I was like mira, no pasa nada, en serio, could I just have my ticket now, pretty please?

Toledo is beautiful. It is jam-packed with history and a crazy mix of art and architectural styles that stem from said history. Not going to lie, I ate so much marzipan that I felt a little ill, but other than that, it was a stellar day. For more information about Toledo, see the picture on the left or go visit for yourself.

Saturday, my laptop (who, as many of you know, was brought through a grave illness this May thanks to a super tech-savvy co-worker of mine) finally and forever died, may he rest in peace. I will never forget how the lil' guy froze every single day at 4:48PM on the dot, without fail, or how he stuck it out with me through the entirety of an exhausting college career, including through weeks of non-stop use leading up to my senior thesis deadline. What a trooper! He will be missed. I thought about writing him an ode, but I don't really know how to write odes.

I now know that this place is within walking
distance of my house. Oh no., please help.

Saturday night, I took part in the time-honored Spanish tradition of staying out with friends until the wee hours of the morning and then stopping at Chocolatería San Ginés for some dangerously delicious hot chocolate (literally just melted chocolate—think Burdick's) and churros before heading home to bed. According to my Spanish roommate, however, a true madrileño/a would have stayed out til the sun rose (which takes place around 8:00AM here), stopped by a café for breakfast (and/or chocolate con churros), and only then gone home to bed. So I guess I´m not a true madrileña yet. But it´s good to have something to aspire to haha. ;) 

Much love,

E.

Time flies, OH MAN.

I can't believe I've been in Spain for a month, WAT. I also can't believe I've so rapidly become a blogging delinquent haha, oops. It's hard to sum up the last two weeks because there were just so many new things every day, so I'll stick to one subject: SCHOOL!

I've been on a temporary schedule at my school for the last two weeks, which was frustrating because they knew which day we were starting but had nothing ready for us to do and no classes ready for us to help in (BUT I DID MY BEST TO BE PATIENT, OKAY). We—the other auxiliar de conversación and I—ended up asking if, instead of sitting in the teacher's lounge cutting out labels, we could sit in on classes to see how they were run, get to know some students and teachers, etc. So they split us up and sent us 'round, and I was a much happier camper.

Strikin' timez on my first day of work.
There were two or three more rows of
people waiting behind me!

First three questions out of students' mouths, without fail: 
1. Where are you from? 
2. How old are you? 
3. Do you have a boyfriend? 

Las respuestas: 
1. The United States, specifically the great state of Wisconsin!! GO AND VISIT, EAT SOME CHEESE, DRINK SOME BEER. (But only if you are 21, obvi.) 
2. Never ask a woman how old she is, but I'm still young, so I'll tell you I'm 22. 
3. None of your business.

Thankfully, as of yesterday, I finally have a set schedule! And it is the best schedule EVER. I will be helping in various English, music, and natural science classes, all of which are being taught in English this year as part of my school's bilingual initiative. (Yes, I said science... contrary to popular belief, I actually loved science classes pre-Harvard and am stoked to help teach them!) The best part is, I have progressively fewer classes as the week goes on. By Thursday, I'm down to just two classes, and on Friday, I have zero, zilch, not a one, I LOVE MY LIFE, WHY DID THAT NEVER HAPPEN TO ME AT HARVARD, SHE WHINES. This means I can start planning some weekend getaways to other parts of Spain, whee!

Getting to work has actually been tricky some days because there have been public transport strikes in response to the government's plan to privatize Renfe and their failure to negotiate with unions, as far as I understand. There have been three already, and at least four more are scheduled for October. I actually don't mind, though, because I'm learning a lot about Spanish politics and culture through the different strikes and protests/I'm beginning to discover why Spaniards are so disgruntled with the current state of affairs. And when it comes to the crazy-crowded Metro in the morning, well, it provides a good opportunity to teach my students the English idiom "packed like sardines"... :)

Un abrazo a todos,
E.

Fulbright Orientation. It happened.

This week was CRAZYTOWN. I opened a Spanish bank account. I moved into an apartment. I developed a smoker's cough even though I don't smoke because the rest of Madrid does. But I spent the majority of this week in a hotel/conference center, meeting members of the Fulbright Commission in Spain, getting to know my fellow grantees, and attending various sessions about:

- how to become a legal resident in Spain (Empadronamiento and Residency Cards, led by a staff member from the Association of American Programs in Spain)
... An alternative title for this session could've been "You told me I could enter Spain before my visa's start date, now you're saying I have to go to Portugal and come back, whaaaat??" Luckily, I entered Spain after my visa's start date because I'm a hedge-my-bets kind of girl, but a lot of people didn't. And because of a very recent change in the law, a lot of people will, in fact, have to leave the country and come back in order for their visas to be valid. OOPS.

I took this photo at Madrid Fashion Night Out! Has
nothing to do with this post, but it's much cooler
than any photo I could've taken at Orientation, so.

- living [it up] in Spain (How to Adjust to Life in Spain, led by former Fulbright grantees)

- living (literally living, as in not dying) in Spain (Briefing on Security, led by a staff member at the US Embassy; Health Care/ASPE Insurance, led by members of the Fulbright Commission)

And there were a million more. It was exhausting, actually, to be focused on sessions from 9 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. and to be meeting all sorts of new people before, after, and in between. But the other grantees seem great, and a ton of them are living in Madrid this year. That is exciting for many reasons, one of which is that I now have more contacts in my mobile than just every emergency number imaginable. (Seriously, you name it, I've probs got it. Ambulancias? Check. Bomberos? Check. US Embassy? Yep, that too.)

And now, before I go, I will share with you my most defining moment at Orientation...

An hour and a half was set aside for icebreakers the first night. AN HOUR AND A HALF. After the first hour, the ice was sooo broken, blown-to-smithereens broken, and people were way past ready to be done. The last game was a round of "Would You Rather" led by former grantees; you had to move to a certain side of the room based on your response. After they asked a few (i.e. "Would you rather have no mouth or no ears?"), anyone who thought of one could take the mic, introduce him/herself, and ask the group a question.

It went ON and ON. Finally, a girl next to me muttered the perfect Would You Rather and I told her she should go up and say it, but she didn't want to. So I raised my hand instead, like a total eager beaver, and went up to the mic all chipper and stuff. I could actually see people rolling their eyes, "great, not another one," you get the picture. I said, "Hey, I'm Elle, and I just wanna know: would y'all rather eat dinner NOW?... Or just keep playing this endless game?" People died. The group literally cheered, the former grantees were like, "Right-i-o, dinner it is!" and for the rest of the conference I was that girl, a.k.a the girl who got the hungry fed. And let me tell you, that's not a bad rep to have haha. ;)

xoxo!
E.

An excerpt from The Spanish Hunger Games

EATING ALONE IS NO FUN. That's what I thought after lunch today, anyway. So the solution is to just not eat very much, obviously. (Just kidding, Mom!!!)

My first morning was a lil rough – went to an ATM to withdraw most of the money I had left in my American account, and the machine kindly spit out a receipt but failed to spit out any of what I really wanted, i.e. cash, HELLO. And apparently that's an issue that can only be dealt with right when the bank opens because when I went inside to complain I mean explain, the teller told me he couldn't do anything about it but that I should keep my receipt and come back tomorrow at 8:30 a.m when someone else could. I was like whaaat. (But I didn't cry cuz I remembered I had a credit card + a few U.S. buck-a-roos, HUZZAH.) -->

At that point, I realized I hadn't eaten since the plane ride oops. So I ate lunch in a little café, where I permitted myself a moment of holy cow loneliness. I thought: "These waiters probably think I have no friends..." And then I thought: "Wait, I actually don't have any friends here yet, OH MAN." 

The afternoon shaped up to be much better, however:
- I bought my very first smartphone! I-i-i-i love technology.
- I took a nap (this is key, considering mad jetlag) and procured snacks to stash in my purse, pockets, hotel room, etc.
- I wandered about and saw a lot of the beautiful city that is Madrid. Hey, is there a word that implies aimlessness like "wandered" but includes an added element of swiftness? Because whatever that word is, that's what I actually did. (J-Man, help me out here.)
 

Pan y jamón ibérico nom

And then, somehow, it was already 7:30, a.k.a. TAPAS TIME. But I kept walking past places where no one, I mean no one, was eating alone. I almost chickened out and ate a bowl of cereal for dinner. But then I gave myself a pep talk ("Girl, you GOT this") and went into a chill/slow restaurant and took a seat at a table near the bar. By that time it was quarter to 9 – I had both literally and figuratively been dragging my feet (hehe, sorryyy). The result? Not only were the food & drink DELISH, but the waiter was also super nice and chatted with me from behind the bar for most of the time I was there.*

Un rollito de salmón con gulas
(salmon-wrapped imitation eel)

And the best part is: as a result of manning up and just walking into a restaurant already, I found a solution to the hunger problem!! Until I am settled in an apartment, I will just eat tapas AS MY DINNER, why did I not think of that before duhhh. A few tapas make the PERFECT-sized meal for me, plus they are super economical, and they are served starting at like 7 or 8 p.m. That is what I call a WIN, WIN, WIN, my friends.

May your dinners be as tasty as mine!

❤ ,
E.

*I forgot to take photos of the food! (Sorry, Soph!) But the photos in this post are Google images that look exactly like what I ate tonight. And the beer, well, beer just looks like beer, so. :)

In the words of John Denver: I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

Hi, everybody! 

I've decided that a blog will be the easiest way to keep in touch during my year-long fellowship in Spain (I leave on Saturday, WOOT) because it allows people to read or not read as they so choose. You can access it because you've been given the link-- it's just not public because I don't exactly relish the idea of writing for the world to read. I hope to update it somewhat regularly, although if my blogging record is anything like my college calling-home record, I can't promise too much heh heh, sorryy...

The blog title comes from a free association exercise á la What About Bob. ("Some free associations from my infancy: A beach ball... a dog... a log... a poodle... a noodle... a doodle...") Anyway, when I considered titles & Spain, the following took place in my head:

"Title, Spain, Spanish title... I know, King of Spain!" Now there's a fun song, but making it the name of this blog seemed just a little narcissistic. And also imperialist. Not to mention unrealistic because I'm a girl and all. King of Spain.

Some sweet street art in Madrid. Also

how I looked while pondering a blog title.

"Boots of Spanish Leather!" which is a line from "King of Spain" and is also one of my fave Bob Dylan songs ever. But I already associate that song with a different travel experience, plus it's much too sad to be the title of this blog. (Just listen to it for yourself. Geez, rip my heart out already. The poor guy.) Boots of Spanish Leather.

"Counting Crows' Holiday in Spain! Perfect." And that would've been the title had it not already been taken by some other loser, oops I mean blogger. So "Holiday en España" it is, which means the same thing plus I like it better anyway. So there.

Now technically, I'm not going to be on holiday in Spain since I'll be working part-time at a public high school in Madrid, supporting the work of English instructors as a teaching assistant. But I am traveling on a student visa, which means my part-time employment is capped at 20 hours/week. So let's be real, basically I'm on holiday. And I couldn't be more pumped about it because, in my free time, I plan to join a choir/volunteer/explore ALL OF THE THINGS. :)

Alright, that's all for a while. Check back in the future for important updates, including, but not limited to:

- Will She or Won't She? (Find an Apartment)

- Kids Say the Darndest Things: Spanish Edition

- "Seven More Hours 'Til Dinner?? SRSLY?!" (an excerpt from The Spanish Hunger Games)

xo,
E.