One of my favorite parts about being in Spain so far, has been the classes I’ve been taking. I take a Spanish Language class every day with a hilarious, bright blue skinny pants wearing, part time theater-professor, part time literature professor and full time philosopher. I have been learning more Spanish in these past four weeks than I have in one full year of high school spanish. I’ve realized that I love learning new languages, and there comes a time when you are learning a new language where you have learned enough to understand the quirks and have become familiar enough to recognize the way it deviates from the language you speak fluently - I love this part. I love recognizing the way it’s similar, yet so different from English, and Korean. I love seeing the way each word can be translated into so many different meanings (it is frustrating at times, I admit. Like when enseñar means “to show” and not just “to teach” and our teacher gets extremely frustrated with us for it) I love learning new phrases to describe certain feelings, situations and emotions that are somewhat difficult to phrase with English.
Aside from class and from speaking with Pilar, my homestay señora, I have been watching a few films and listening to them in English while reading Spanish subtitles. It’s been really helpful to learn new phrases and get used to reading different tenses. I watched Everything is Illuminated today because it is one of my favorite books and Elijah Wood is great, in his own very Elijah Wood way. Given that the book takes place in Ukraine and about 40% of it is spoken in Russian, it was a good chance for me to test whether I really knew my Spanish. And words I didn’t know, of course, required a pause and a quick search in my yellow dictionary which is already starting to fray on the edges from overuse. Languages are beautiful, words are heavy…so, so heavy.
I have reflected many times upon our rigid search
It has shown me
that everything is illuminated, in the light of the past
it is always along the side of us
on the inside, looking out
like you say ”inside out”
Madrileña yet?
Being here for two months makes me feel a tad “in the loop” about being a visitor/tourist vs. being a somewhat settled Madrileña (Madrid citizen)
Times I feel like a true Madrileña:
- whenever I see the same adorable grandpa with the missing front teeth playing his violin at the bottom of the metro station smile at me as I walk past
- using my red monthly metro pass that shows “i’m here for at least a month, cool”
- when other people ask me for directions in spanish. that must at least mean i look less lost than them…right?
- when google chrome automatically translating my web pages stopped being annoying because i can actually start to understand what i’m reading
- when the street performers can’t frighten me anymore because i’ve already been fooled by them or one of their kind once before, ha suckas.
Times I still very much feel like a turista:
- when i have to steal glances from museum nazis to make sure i’m not getting caught for snapping illegal photos in the museums
- when i bust out my gigantic life size map of madrid in public spaces
The days are already getting shorter here, and I have already been here for almost a month now! I am learning so much, enjoying so much, and spending so much time soaking it all in.
Picnics on the grass and sangria through bendy sippy straws while strolling through the park.
Cause we classy like that.
Siestas!
I had my first truly Spanish siesta yesterday, and it was glorious. After a long walk through the El Rastro flea market con mis amigas nuevas (El Rastro is the biggest flea market in all of Europe!), and a rather disappointing failed attempt at Mexican food, I came home exhausted. My exhaustion was met with much support from these window shutters (postigos). The idea of window shutters always remind me of that one scene in The Holiday when a depressed Kate Winslet sleeps her love torn sorrows away in her newly borrowed Los Angeles home. Though most homes in the U.S. don’t have these, I propose that my next home have these. They are built in outside of your window, so as to block out the sun and heat at all hours of the day. After two hours of napping, it was still completely dark in my room at 5:00pm with the small crack of sunlight peeping through the bottom, letting me know there was still much of the day to be had. I could get used to this real fast.
Today is July fourth! My apartment is pretty close to the U.S. Embassy so I am hoping that they will be playing music and fireworks soon as I hear they do every year…This is my july fourth dinner! It isn’t bbq’d steak and corn on the cob but I got me my meat and my corn, so I’m not complaining :)
And, the second!
When I first started this blog I didn’t imagine to be updating it so sporadically - I thought it would be more of a daily thing but somehow the days here manage to be longer and shorter all at the same time! Longer, because the Spanish sleep later and the sun doesn’t set until 10 but shorter because of my classes and all the things to do here that fill up my days.
Just a few things I’ve noticed since the last post:
Spain Air
Roughest landing I’ve ever had. This blows any life threatening Southwest flight out of the water. I really thought I was going to die as I flew back into Madrid from Barcelona…and scenes from the LOST pilot would not stop flashing through my mind. I almost felt my stomach coming up my throat but alas, I am still in one piece. (For those who know I have tendencies akin to those of a drama queen and think I am exaggerating this one, I promise…NOT this one) Afterwards, we landed in the middle of nowhere and a shuttle brought us to baggage claim. Oddest airplane/airport experience ever. On the other hand, the (relatively) new AVE train experience to Barcelona was luxury at its finest. It also helped that a Spanish dubbed Despicable Me was playing the whole time, and an Agnes-look-alike British/Spanish niña was sitting right across from us. So cute! Though I don’t have that normal “awwww” reflex whenever I see a crawling toddler, I know a cute baby when I see one.
Watches
I love watches. They are my favorite accessory, and I think it tells a lot about the woman/man wearing them, except as cellphones started looking cooler and cooler watches got hopelessly abandoned. Not here! The Spanish all wear watches and it’s been a refreshing, albeit subtle change. I secretly glance at everyone’s watches when I’m on the Metro or am bored in any other crowded spaces (I’ve been in a few since I got here…not very fun)
Tapatio, how I miss thee. Sriracha, how I miss thee more
Tabasco, Tapatio, Sriracha (not in that order) cost a fortune here and I’m pretty sure Tapatio and Sriracha don’t even exist. My taste buds long to be stimulated with something other than salt and oil! I will not complain though, my homestay mom is quite ze chef and I try to eat dinner at home as often as possible not only b/c it saves me $, but because it’s muy delicioso! We’ve finally found a Korean restaurant in the area. Even now, the promise of kimchijjigae in the near future makes me salivate. YES, I will gladly pay that outrageous price for something even remotely close to spicy. And yes, I am that desperate.
Vale (pronounced vah-leh)
One of the words I first learned once I got here because I don’t remember learning it in high school. Meaning: okay? Okay. The Spanish love saying it, and I’ve sort of fallen in love with its many uses and the way it feels when you say it and the way it sounds when it’s said out loud. Vale. And of course, the Spanish way means saying it three to four times in a row. The Spanish love repetition.
Books, recommendations?
I didn’t expect to be reading so much out here, but perhaps because it comforts me as a part of home, I find myself reading as often as I can. Finished Bossypants by Tina Fey and am thinking about what to read next….David Sedaris is in the mix, does anyone have recommendations?
Alrighty, hopefully will be back with more in less than a week! Vale? Vale =)
The first week
Has it already been a week?
Because so much has happened, it’s taken a lot of soaking in and not feeling so overwhelmed by the foreign-ness of it all that I can only now sift through my thoughts to put this first post-arrival post together.
First of all, Madrid is old. Thus, it is dirty. Parts of it at least. People smoke and toss cigarette butts like old Korean grandpas pick and flick their boogers. (TMI? Lo siento.) By the next morning, orange and white litter the streets until the street cleaners come and dutifully sweep them all away…only to have them re-littered all over again. They also don’t seem to have much understanding of second hand fumar here.
My homestay family is one adorable sixty year old Spanish grandma, which is all I could have asked for. She speaks to me only in Spanish, and I’m proud to say that after a week, the amount of charades, dumbfounded looks and multiple alternative explanations to describe vocabulary words have slowly but surely been decreasing. She also calls me her cariña which, I love.
I love the way the Spanish talk. At first, I thought they spoke with such passion and hand motions because I am a foreigner, but after multiple people-watching excursions and observations, I’ve come to learn that that is simply the way they talk. They use the hands, their eyes get big, their voices escalate, they repeat the same words and oh, the facial expressions are priceless.
They dress really well. Sigh Sigh Sigh. So many of them. And there are Zaras EVERYWHERE. Muy malo para mi cartera (wallet).
Korean, Spanish, and English are all getting jumbled in my head. Ayy. When I try to come up with a word in Spanish, I catch myself spewing Korean and I’m even reading English words in Spanish accents now.
More to come! Tomorrow is a national holiday (Corpus Christi) which means no classes! A weekend in Barcelona coming right up….
This is really happening…
I’ve always wanted to study abroad. In high school, it was one of the reasons I wanted to go to college at all. Nothing sounded better than using studying as an excuse to spend months at a time immersed in a foreign country. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, I fell in love with the city I lived in during college and for one reason or another, I couldn’t find the perfect time to fit it in before graduation. Finally, I had to make a choice and I made my mind about going the summer of 2011. And, here we are.
A couple months ago, my friend and I were leaving a used bookstore when we saw this sign posted above the door frame. It was the perfect way to describe the gem that I had found in that bookstore, complete with the smell of time-worn pages and adorable reading chairs that somehow fit despite the utter lack of space surrendered completely to boxes of unpacked books.
It was one of those moments that confirm and affirm you. I loved the way the word “siempre” rolled off my tongue, and the way that the Spanish phrase described the mix of emotions in my heart so much better than its English counterpart. This often happens with Korean, too. I am going to Spain to learn, to soak, to be. And I share this with you, porque esto es para siempre.
