Alcalá Adventures

It has been about two and a half weeks since I arrived in Spain.  Some days it seems as if we've been here much longer, while other days I feel like it was just yesterday that I left the Pensacola airport. A lot has happened here, and I am settled in to life in Alcalá, so much so that I'm uncertain what life in Auburn would even look like right now. 

It's a crazy, beautiful experience that I am so thankful for- I am thankful that the Lord first put the desire to learn Spanish in my heart over 7 years ago, thankful that He provides everything I need financially through scholarships and my parents, thankful that my parents are willing to let go and trust him with my life and support my dreams and goals all the while, and thankful for my friends who push me to pursue this experience- because they care more about me than hanging out with me. 

So, what am I doing? Well, I could write about 20 pages this morning but I don't have time for that and neither do you, so here are some highlights of Spain thus far:

Weel 1: Tour of Alcalá, the Institute that houses our program, and tour of Madrid on Friday.  On Saturday I went exploring with my roommate, Kelsey, to the big national park here called Los Cerros. I'm pretty sure it will be my private get-away place for the semester, but it's a great place to walk and run with friends, too! Sunday, I went to Catholic mass for the first time in my life at a beautiful Cathedral here in Alcalá. We went to the family-friendly service at 11:30, which ended up perfect because the homily was much easier for non-native speakers to understand!  That evening we went to the mall, and I got a haircut because I fried my hair with my straightener.  Good thing I'm not incredibly attached to my hair...and getting it cut here was really a great opportunity to practice Spanish for an hour with the hairdresser!  Also bought a Spanish Bible at the mall, which is so cool to read because some of the words have a very different connotation for me in Spanish than they do in English. 

Week 2: Regular classes began! I am taking four classes: Service-Learning in bilingual context; Spain: Relations with Latin America; International Business: Communication and Culture; and Globalization of the Modern Economy. Whew! It's a mouthful, but I am enjoying them all! Aside from service-learning, all of the classes have 2 outside excursions included as part of the course.  All of the classes are taught in all Spanish (of course), so I am not taking a grammar or civilization class, per say, but I am most definitely still learning about grammar, writing, and civ & culture. I have a great mix of professors: one young woman who is lively and very approachable, a young man who loves the "drama" of history and always helps students navigate Alcalá and the university extracurriculums outside of the classroom, a woman who is more serious than most but has already taught me so much more and incorporates activities for different styles of learning, and of course the typical "he's a hoot," crazy, wild, energetic economist. He will rant and rant and rant in Spanish about PIB (GDP), standard of livings in different countries, politics, and whether or not the UK is going to separate from the EU27, and then bust out of nowhere with, "but I LOVE your country!" in English.  Whoever said economics is boring was wrong, very wrong.

Over the weekend, a group of us went to Barcelona! (See facebook for pictures- yes, I reactivated!)  We took an overnight bus there on Thursday, and an overnight bus back on Saturday. Friday night we stayed in a very inexpensive but very nice hostel. The whole weekend was a blast, with the right combination of sight seeing and one night out and an awesome tour of FC Barcelona stadium.  We all stayed together on Friday and toured various museums and Cathedrals, and made our way over to the port and the beach as well. On Saturday, most of the group went to the market but two of the guys and I went to Camp Nou to see if they gave tours, and we got a deal and saw a really cool museum of all the history and trophies of the club and then tour the stadium as well. Money very, very, very well spent as I got my "sports fix"! 

This week was our second full week of classes, and yes, I do have homework that I do in the afternoons! But a "typical day" includes going to class, walking around during the break between classes and shopping some, reading some or practicing talking Spanish with different people, class again...walk home for lunch around 2:30, and most afternoons I get to RUN! woohoo! Alcalá is a great place to run and I'm still learning my way around the city, but it is not difficult. People just give me weird looks for wearing 5-fingered shoes, but hey, they do that at home, too. Some afternoons we go out for tapas and wine, or hang out with friends, or hang out here at the house. I will be volunteering at elementary schools soon, some for the service-learning class and some for volunteering's sake, but they are still setting up all of that so for now I have a little more free time.  Tuesday of this week, I set in motion the rule for myself that I am not going to speak English anymore. The exceptions are when I am talking to someone from back home (cough cough mom and dad), or when another student who doesn't speak much Spanish asks an urgent question about homework or traveling or something like that. So far, so good! Although writing this entire blog post in English this morning has me a little bit confused...I feel like I'm breaking the law. Conversationally, I understand almost everything I'm hearing (at least at home and at school)  but it's frustrating at times because I can't listen and think and respond all at the same time, yet.  So far all the students in my program still speak a lot of English to each other, but I stopped participating in that on Tuesday! I would be so angry if at the end of semester I'm not fluent and I could have done more. 

That's it for now- headed to Granada this afternoon for the weekend! Please feel free to stalk my pictures, ask questions, or send me an email! 

Hasta luego,
EG