Alien Robot

The busy schedule of our cultural orientation continued through this week, with us seeing the Catedral and Giralda (the view from the top is to the left, as promised), a historically relevant hospital/church, the Reales Alcázares (a royal palace that was originally a Moorish fort), yet another museum, a classical music concert, and Cádiz. The hospital was pretty interesting, though I didn't take any photos so there's not much to report there. I don't have any photos of the Reales Alcázares either because, while beautiful, the weather wasn't the greatest, and we can get in to see them with our student ID cards for free, so I plan to return in the spring and take pictures then. Apparently that's when the orange blossoms on the trees bloom, and I'm sure it will provide some quality photo ops. But it was still very cool to see the architecture and the gardens. It was originally built by the Moors, and later Christians built on top of it, so there's a blending of two different architectural styles that's pretty interesting. The museum we went to was the Museo de Bellas Artes (fine arts), which mostly exhibited baroque art from Sevilla. It was cool and all, but honestly I think it was a little foolish for them to show us the bigger, grander museums of Madrid before taking us to the smaller-but-still-very-important-and-respectable Bellas Artes here. Few museums in the world could stand up to the Prado, so seeing this one after made it a little less appealing. Plus I'm feeling museum overload. Today some of the girls from the program went to another museum in Sevilla, but I clearly did not accompany them, because the only way you could get me to go to another museum right now would be through some form of bribery.

One of my favorite excursions we've had so far was the classical music concert. The symphony orchestra played three pieces, one by each Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky. The Saint-Saëns was a very cool cello concerto, and the other two were symphonies. As a lover of classical music, it was a real treat to get to go to this concert. I love going to classical concerts back home, and honestly for a while I forgot I was in Spain because it reminded me so much of the concerts I go to back in the States. It reminded me of home. This is where a cliché about music being the universal language belongs, but I don't really want to write one, so fill in your own. I was really, really happy at the concert, so it's great that they include this in our program, and I'm definitely going to go back there for another concert someday.

The day following the concert (Friday), we went to Cádiz, a coastal town surrounded by ocean. You may be wondering why we went to a beach city in January, in which case I would be wondering the same thing. Or maybe you just assume that no matter what, we must be having wonderful weather, because it's 30 degrees and snowing in Michigan, which wouldn't be completely unreasonable. Anyway, at first I was justified in my skepticism when we arrived in Cádiz, because it was chilly, windy, and rainy, and nobody understood why we were there. There was a chorus of "is this a joke?" floating around our bus as we pulled across the bridge into town. Naturally we started things off with a walking tour, so we had to huddle under umbrellas and avoid puddles while we were lectured about Cádiz's history. Then came another cathedral, where we at least were able to sit down inside. Afterward, we went to look at the "cámara oscura"--literally translated as "dark camera" but I think referred to as "camera obscura" in English--which involves a large white plate-like object and some fancy mirror reflection to provide a live view of what's going on outside. It works kind of like a real camera, and the light reflects off the mirror onto the plate, I think. It's hard to explain, and we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I promise it's really awesome. And apparently there's one in San Francisco.

Luckily, after the cámara oscura, the day improved greatly. We went to lunch and had seafood paella (if you don't know, it's a traditional Spanish dish of rice and either vegetables, meat, and/or seafood and it's delicious). Our meal also involved a bit of performance: my friend Leann and I both love to sing, and several of my friends have discovered my memory bank full of songs, therefore referring to me as the "human jukebox" since they can pretty much tell me any song and I'll sing it for them. So Leann and I ended up singing in the restaurant, which was fine because we had a whole room to ourselves except for an old Spanish couple eating a few tables behind us. They didn't seem too enthused by our performance, but I can't possibly understand why. So I was demonstrating my human jukebox properties as well as consuming a lot of food considering I had already eaten a sandwich and an apple before lunch, leading to a discussion of my properties as a human garbage disposal, which brought to attention the fact that I am actually a robot. And not only that, but I've also been called an alien for reasons such as not having pierced ears and not owning a single pair of leggings. If I ever write a memoir, I'm calling it Alien Robot.

The rest of our day in Cádiz turned out really well. Once the weather improved it was so beautiful, we just walked along the seaside and took pictures. I definitely want to go back when it's warmer. Since I forgot to bring my camera with me (but thankfully remembered my umbrella), the pictures of Cádiz are my friend Natalie's that I "borrowed" from Facebook. The first one is of five of the six of us who traveled together from Michigan, and the second is the view of the city from the tower of the cámara oscura. Bonito, no?

Is This Real Life?

This past weekend, we took a trip to Madrid, and the best word I can come up with to describe it would be unbelievable. Honestly, I kept having to figuratively pinch myself to figure out if it was really happening. The city itself is very cool, much like a Spanish New York City. There's so much to do, and we did so much. I have never been on my feet for so long in my life, but it was worth it. On Friday I didn't do much of cultural importance and instead went shopping with some of my friends, which was of course a lot of fun, but involved plenty of walking. After shopping we went for some delicious tapas, most of which contained seafood. I ate octopus for the first time! It was actually quite good. They make pulpo a la gallega (Galician-style octopus) which has olive oil and paprika on it, and it's rather tasty. The octopus itself doesn't have a terribly distinct flavor, but I liked it! We also ate calamari, mussels, and my new favorite thing in the world: jamón ibérico (Iberian ham) with manchego cheese. Jamón ibérico is very thinly sliced ham indicative of Spain, particularly the south, and it is delicioso. And manchego cheese is, of course, Spanish, so naturally here it's sublime. The dish tends to be a bit pricier (our plate on Friday was 15 euros), but that makes sense considering it's one of the most delicious things ever to grace my mouth. Later that night we went out to check out the Madrid night life, and of course had a ton of fun. I got to talk to some Madrileños (people from Madrid) in Spanish! At one point, I would say something to someone in Spanish and he would respond in English. We both wanted to practice our language skills, so that was the perfect way to do it!

My friends and I were very tired the next day, but we had a full day of cultural enrichment that I loved. First, we went to the Museo del Prado, the really awesome art museum in Madrid, where we got to see some amazing paintings. I've studied Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya in a few of my Spanish classes, most recently in our culture class here at the center, so being able to see their works in real life was indescribable. The Prado definitely had me questioning if this is really my life right now. It's still hard for me to believe that I was actually standing in front of the original Las Meninas. While I don't know that much about art, I've always liked and appreciated it as an artist of another sort (although it feels like a bit of a stretch to call myself an "artist"). All types of art can have a profound emotional effect, and I've always felt strongly about Goya's Pinturas Negras (Black Paintings), which he painted toward the end of his life. Deaf, old, and widowed, he began to paint works much darker in nature--hence, the name of the group--reflecting various themes. I've always been both fascinated and a little afraid of the paintings, and seeing them in person impacted me pretty strongly. After the Prado, we went to another museum, the Reina Sofia, where there are a lot of Picasso, Miró, and Dalí pieces. Seeing Picasso's Guernica in living color (or lack thereof, rather) was another experience that left me speechless. Considering everything that went into the painting and seeing its size was for sure a singular experience. There was a really cool progression of photos showing all the changes that the piece underwent before it was finished. It changed almost completely from the original, and it was really interesting to see his thought process. And although my favorite Dalí wasn't there (Cisnes que se reflejan como elefantes, or Swans Reflecting Elephants), I could've stared at his works for hours if my feet didn't feel like they were going to rebel from my body and self-amputate out of pain. Despite this fact, I agreed to go to the Parque Retiro with some friends, a gargantuan park of which we saw a small part. It was lovely, but the consensus was that it would probably be even nicer during any season except winter. Still, I'm glad we went, even if I could barely get myself up the hill leading to the entrance.

That night, I was clearly too exhausted to go anywhere, so I watched Desperate Housewives in Spanish (Mujeres Desesperadas) and went to bed early. The next day, we went to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), which was also breathtaking. It may sound like I'm using a lot of hyperbolic adjectives, but the things we saw on this trip were really wonderful and thus difficult to explain. The palace is where the king once lived, but now it's only used for public ceremonies. The rooms were so ornate, it was kind of hard to take it all in. It reminded me a bit of seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but my favorite room was probably the throne room. There were chandeliers in every room, and it seemed like each time we went into a new room, they got bigger. Even though the king doesn't live in the Palacio Real anymore, it was still one of those times I wish I could marry into the Spanish royal family. (Another time would be when we learned in my culture class that the king gets paid something like 8 million euros a year to pretty much travel around and own a bunch of beautiful houses and tell Hugo Chávez to shut up. Yeah.) Too bad Prince Felipe is 42 and married.

So obviously Madrid was wonderful, but funnily enough I actually found myself missing Sevilla at some points. It has more charm than Madrid, and I prefer its size and atmosphere to the huge city. We've been doing some really cool cultural sight-seeing right here, as well. Last week, we went to the Baños Árabes (Arab Baths, similar to Turkish Baths to my understanding), which was pretty neat. It was a little bit too relaxing for me at some points in the sense that I had kind of a hard time taking it all seriously so I just laughed. But there's a room where you go into hot water for a while and then get into really cold water afterward, which sounds awful and I almost didn't do it because I hate cold water, but it was actually incredibly refreshing and made my skin tingle. There was also an aromatherapy room, good for helping me get over the cold that refuses to leave me alone. Later that day, we saw a flamenco concert, and I loved it. Sevilla is pretty much the best city to be in for flamenco, so of course we had to go see some. The dancing was so cool to see. The foot movements are very intricate and staccato; it reminded me of Irish step dancing. But the upper body movement is so fluid that it's crazy that they do both at the same time. And although the dancing blew me away, the singing is really what to focus on (or so I was told by my professor). The intricacy of the music takes so much skill to perform, it's almost operatic in some ways. The whole concert was a great experience.

Today, we saw the Catedral (Cathedral) and Giralda (the tower of the cathedral), which was beautiful. We climbed up the Giralda--it took a LONG time and a lot of leg power that I do not have--and the view was breathtaking. I'll post photos of the view later; this post has gone on long enough. If you made it this far, congratulations. There's a lot here, but there was a lot to tell. As always, much more to come!

Pictures (from top): Front of the Prado, Guernica, Parque Retiro, front of the Palacio, me with the view from the Palacio overlooking Madrid, blurry flamenco dancers.

"Que no te caiga," or La Suerte de Betis

It has long since been proven that I am a good luck charm at sporting events. Well...sort of. By "long since" I mean "in the past two years," and by "good luck charm," I mean "sometimes the team wins when I'm there." I believe I have a winning record in overall games attended despite being a student at the University of Michigan during the Rich Rod years, and it's become something of a joke--but really, a solemn truth--with my parents and I that I have some sort of magical Kendra dust (in the words of my father) that I spread, either at games I actually attend or that I leave at the stadium to be activated later on, because that makes sense. Often times teams will win games they are not favored to win while I'm there, so we joke--but really, have a divine understanding that--I am the reason for the win. Well, now Real Betis Balompié has felt the suerte (luck) and the power.

To give a little more background on the Betis/Barcelona match-up, the last time the two played one another, Barca won 5-0. Some guy on the radio in the taxi on the way to the game predicted a 6-0 score in favor of Barcelona. Betis was just not supposed to win this game. But win they did. And not even just by one goal, they won 3-1! That's good in soccer, probably! It was a very exciting time to be at Estadio Benito Villamarín (where Betis plays), to say the least.

The game itself was a tremendous experience. Seeing how passionate everyone is about the sport is really a treat, and being able to take part is even better. For the first half, I sat with some friends at the very very top of the stadium and watched the action. Betis scored their first two goals toward the beginning of the game, so the excitement and positivity was there from the outset. It seemed like Barcelona just wasn't trying very hard, as though they had underestimated Betis and gotten too sure of themselves, something that we've all certainly seen happen in other sports with other teams in games where they are very heavily favored. So soccer isn't all that foreign after all. After the first half, a friend and I went to sit with another section of friends (more than 15 of us bought tickets but we got to the stadium in separate groups so we couldn't all sit together) where we were in front of some rowdy-in-a-good-way locals. They were singing cheers almost every other minute and obviously were very pleased because their team was doing so well. At one point, they draped a Spanish flag over us and told us we were "españolas" for the evening, which was pretty great. Flags, though, are slippery, so it kept falling from our shoulders, and every time it did the guy who gave it to us--the Spanish dopplegänger of Carson Daly--would replace it and tell us, "que no te caiga," meaning "so that it doesn't fall off of you" (roughly).

Other interesting discoveries:

• When a goal was scored, "GOOOOAAAAAAL" was mostly yelled by the announcer, not as much by the fans, at least as far as I heard. They mostly just cheered normally or yelled the name of their team when they scored. I yelled "goal" because a) I thought that's what you're supposed to do, b) I'm American and don't know anything about soccer, and c) my mom told me to.
  
• Unlike the States, they do not sell alcohol in the stadiums. I know what you're thinking: "But why wouldn't you want to sell booze to ravenous screaming fans?" Just one of the many enigmas of Spain.
• Scarves are the thing to have at a soccer game. We have our jerseys and shirseys (t-shirt jerseys), and there are plenty of such articles of clothing at a fútbol game, but you've gotta have the scarf if you're going to be cool. I bought a commemorative one afterward to use as a decoration, because I am not cool and wore an argyle sweater to the game.
  
• I have way more appreciation for the sport after seeing it in person.

I tried to learn the cheers, but the only one I got was "Olé olé olé Betis," or something to that effect, and a cheer to the tune of "Oh My Darlin' Clementine." I don't get it either. So there are some parts of soccer that remain mysterious.

Pictures (from top to bottom): the field, the main Betis cheering section, happy Betis fans after a goal, the view of Sevilla from the top of the stadium.

Sickness and Soccer in Spain

I've been pretty lucky when it comes to illnesses this winter, so naturally now that I'm in Spain where it's above 50 degrees Fahrenheit every day, I get a cold. It's probably just because I'm in a new environment and my body isn't used to it, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. I'm not terribly sick, just a runny nose and a cough, but it makes it pretty hard to concentrate in class when all you want to do is sleep. So the natural choice is to then come home from class and sleep for an hour and a half, which I did. I'm hoping I can just sleep it off and won't need actual medicine, but this may entail an exciting first trip to the farmacía (exactly what you probably think it is).

Over the weekend, my friends and I went out on the town to celebrate the birthday of a girl in our program. We had a lot of fun; Sevilla has great night life and we've met some cool people. Quite a few have actually been from the States, which is never as exciting, but some of my friends have had encounters with native Sevillanos. Saturday, we met some promoters from Discover Seville, which allowed us to get into some places where we otherwise would've had to wait in Cedar-Point-length lines. We're starting to learn where to go in the city and getting around on our own. We do, however, have a long way to go in that regard. On Saturday, we walked around literally all afternoon, most of that time taken to find the soccer stadium of Real Betis, one of the two soccer (football? fútbol?) teams in Sevilla. The other is Sevilla (of course). They're in different divisions, so it's a tiny bit like the White Sox and Cubs in Chicago: they're in different leagues, but the same city. It's different in that I'm pretty sure Betis is a worse team because they're Second Division while Sevilla is in La Liga, which is the First Division. My roommate is a huge soccer fan, I'll have her explain it to me sometime. The important part of this story is that we're going to see them play Barcelona, which I just heard her say is "probably the best club football team in the world," so there you go. Usually the tickets are really expensive, and we got ours for 40 euros. That may not seem like a great price, but considering we get to see Barcelona, it's a big deal. Plus, as my dad said, American football games are expensive too, so sometimes you have to make sacrifices. I'm sure it will be a ton of fun and really exciting, especially considering Spain is still coming down from the high of their World Cup win over the summer. Here's hoping I learn a thing or two about fútbol and perhaps find a new sports interest! And despite getting lost, Sevilla is a beautiful city (as you can see above), and the weather has been wonderful--from what I hear, unseasonably so. Whenever my feet are killing me from walking, I just remember that it could be a lot worse. (Looking at you and your 23 degrees, Ann Arbor.)

This week is going to be really busy, with the game, going to the Baños Árabes (Arab Baths), which to my understanding are spa-like and similar to the Turkish Baths, going to see some flamenco, and culminating in a weekend in Madrid. Stay tuned for more about those excursions!

¡Hola, Señora!

Today was the day of truth for the students of the Michigan-Cornell-Penn Seville Program: the day we were put with our host families--or more often, our señoras, who are usually widows or single older women. Everybody was nervous, both for their roommate assignments (at least I was) and for their host families. We had to sit through a meeting in which we went over all of the rules by which we must abide as students in the homestays before we could find out our situations. There was much anticipation and nervousness amongst us, believe me. A bit of it was alleviated when we found out all of the houses/apartments have internet, an area of grave concern for college students. Finally, we were given little tiny slips of paper that would decide the next five months of our lives and the wait was over. It was really funny when we met our señora, because she didn't know how to pronounce our names and decided to change them. She wasn't sure what to re-name Sabriye, but I am now Sandra. It's easier for Spaniards to say than Kendra, apparently. As far as I can tell, everyone is pretty happy with their situation, and I am ecstatic with where I am. My lovely roommate is Sabriye, and our señora, Ana, is an adorable grandma who is so nice and funny. The apartment is really pretty, and our room is great! I'll post pictures of it soon, meaning I'm too lazy to do it right now but they are to come.

I must say, it's looking like we're going to get spoiled here. The host families are required to provide 3 meals a day for us as well as wash our laundry once a week for us (we're actually not supposed to do laundry). Today Ana even cut up an orange for me because I was seriously struggling in my attempts. Oranges are really difficult, and it didn't help that Ana was able to cut the entire peel off the orange in one strip, Sleepless in Seattle-style, causing me to look even more foolish as I fought my way through peel and juice to try and get at something edible. But I digress. The orange is not important; what is important is that the anxious wait is over and I have a great living situation and I get to eat delicious Spanish home-cooked meals every day. It's also important that writing this post in English was harder than usual, because that means Spanish is taking over in my brain--¡muy buena cosa! (a very good thing, indeed).

This is also the first time I've ever posted two days in a row. I'm pretty proud.

La Vida Sevillana

After four days in España, I'm just beginning to get used to living here. Speaking is becoming easier little by little, making me feel pretty confident that my goal of improving my speaking abilities will definitely be met. That being said, most of us get laughed at for clearly being American on a regular basis, but that's all part of the experience, and I try to take it in stride. (Today at lunch we had a waiter who laughed at us pretty much the entire time we were there.) Most of the time I'm laughing at myself anyway, so it's not a big deal. Once I've been speaking in Spanish for a while, it's harder to switch back into English, which I take as a great thing but makes it somewhat difficult to communicate at times. I find myself slipping into Spanish when I want to be speaking (or more often typing) in English and vice versa. It's an interesting experience, and one I anticipate will continue throughout my time in Sevilla.

I went with a group of friends to buy móviles (cell phones) a few days ago, and it was certainly an ordeal. It took about two hours and much use of both our less-than-perfect Spanish and the less-than-perfect English of the very kind man who was helping us in the store for us to get things set. I think in comparison with some other companies and plans that are out there we could've gotten a better deal, but most of us have phones from the same service, so it's relatively cheap to call each other. The phones are comically old and dated, but I kind of like them for that reason. And there's a Bejeweled game on it, so that's really all that matters to me.

We started our classes at the program center for our cultural seminar yesterday. There's a culture/history class and a language class, and they're both somewhat intensive. We have class three hours a day, four days a week for the next three weeks. Strangely, the language class seems to be what will be more fun. We'll be learning language skills that will actually be useful in everyday conversation, which is clearly where we need the most help. The culture and history are pretty basic and therefore un poco aburrido (a bit boring), but necessary. I'm sure these weeks are going to fly by and before we know it we'll be taking classes at the Universidad de Sevilla.

It's still strange for me to think about the time difference between here and home. It's hard to imagine that when it's 11 PM here my dad is just coming home from work. I'm pretty much over my (much lamented) jet lag now, although I seem to still be on the US eating schedule. I get hungry at around 6 PM but our dinner here isn't until 8:30. The adjustment to la vida española is strange, but going well. Tomorrow we get put with our families, so it's going to be a big day! Wish me luck!

Avoiding Jet Lag: Mission Impossible

Despite my best efforts, which include consulting everyone I know who has ever traveled to Europe and soliciting advice from the athletes of the ESPN the Magazine advice squad, I have fallen victim to jet lag. I have determined that although one may have the best intentions and try all techniques known to man to combat it, it is quite impossible to do so when your legs do not fit in any remotely comfortable way behind an airplane seat in coach. I kept myself hydrated (okay...that might be a bit of a stretch), I made sure to get up and walk around a couple of times during the flight, but the bottom line in my eyes is this: if you can't sleep on the plane, you are GOING to have jet lag.

I don't do well sleeping places that are not naturally conducive to sleeping, i.e. planes, trains, and automobiles. I have disproportionally long gangly legs, and they do not appreciate being cramped up in various forms of transportation, particularly when trying to sleep. No matter what position was tried, no comfort was to be found on Iberia Airlines Flight 4367. (I just made that number up; I like the specificity of using the flight number but I'm too lazy to get up and look on my boarding pass. It might be kind of close to the real one, but no one knows for sure.) If you can't get comfortable, you can't sleep, period. At least I can't. I dozed for about 2 hours, and by dozed, I mean started to feel like maybe I would fall asleep but of course never actually would. And if you can't sleep, you can't adjust to the time difference properly. It's like pulling an extended all-nighter, and I can't do all-nighters. I tried to sleep during what were normal sleeping hours by Spanish time, but the fact that my surroundings prevented me from falling asleep meant my attempts to fight jet lag were futile.

I suppose this is pretty much just a warning for anyone who thinks they can actually beat jet lag. If you can sleep on a plane, great news for you. You'll feel a lot better for it. I, on the other hand, am exhausted, and jet lag is just about all I can handle as subject matter right now. I will say that Sevilla is a beautiful city with beautiful weather (57 degrees and sunny--Michigan residents, your jealousy is fully warranted) and my first few hours here have been sublime. The flight was long and cramped and my shoulders are awfully sore from carrying my backpack from terminal to as-far-away-as-physically-possible terminal, but I could not be more tickled to be here.

It is now time for a siesta. Any country that specifically builds nap time into its day is my kind of place. And if you count up all the multisyllabic words that were correctly used in this post despite having been awake for the past 26 straight hours, I think it's safe to say I deserve a nap. ¡Saludos!

63 Hours and Counting

That's about how long there is from the time I'm writing this until I board a flight in Detroit that will mark the start of my five-ish-month-long stay in Seville. I suppose I've been preparing for this since I started taking Spanish in 7th grade. I've studied Spain and its language for years, and now I'll finally be able to not just visit, but live there and immerse myself in the culture, to use the favorite phrase of study abroad programs everywhere. I am beyond excited and mildly terrified, and I will miss my dear friends and family while I'm gone, but above all I feel ready. I've been preparing for this long enough, and now I'm ready.

There have certainly been some snags along the way. The visa application process was irritating, arduous, and involved the briefest trip to Chicago I'll ever take. Just today I received my new credit card reading "Kenda" instead of Kendra. And packing everything into one suitcase, one carry-on, and one "personal item" (read: my backpack) is proving a daunting task. I know, though, that after all is said and done it will be an amazing experience. I could go on with any number of cliches about how these next few months will change my life, but frankly I'm sick of doling them out to people, and if you're reading this you probably know all of them already. It's going to be awesome, and that's that.

Blogs are almost imperative for study abroad students, and with good reason. This is where I'll share my experience with the homeland, where I'll write about all my glorious Spanish adventures and post lovely pictures of the Spanish land and maybe even say things in actual Spanish. (But not too much because the majority of my readership will be English-speaking. And by "the majority of my readership," I mean my mom.)

In a few days, I'll be gone. In a few months, I'll be back. Check back here to find out what happens in between. Hasta luego, Estados Unidos. España, vengo ya.

(Note: While it looks like it says "Kendra dotes," the URL is supposed to be Kendra dot es, or Kendra.es, because .es is the internet country code for Spain. It would be more clever if I could use a period in the URL, but alas, I'm left with Kendra dotes. At least it doesn't say Kenda.)