¡Viva España!: A Little Taste of Spanish Culture

It has been awhile since my last post, and I am very excited to fill you all in on my adventures!! First and foremost, I think it is really interesting because immediately when I tell Spaniards what my name is they translate it to Maria. And for many of them, including my host Mom, it is very hard for them to pronounce "Meg"so a lot of them just say "Megan." This took awhile for me to get used to. They like to shorten names here too. In fact, no one really uses their full name. It is the same as using "Meg" for "Megan" or "Bob" for "Robert." Also, everyone asks what my LIVESTRONG band is for. Since cycling is very popular in Europe they luckily understand pretty quickly as I have a difficult time explaining it in Spanish. To my surprise, many people do not know Lance Armstrong too well over here. It's not like he won the Tour de France 7 times or anything! One of my patients at the hospital that I just started talking to this week goes to the Tour de France every year with his brother. How cool is that? I was telling him how jealous I was of that, and he just wasn't really getting it, because it is just so "everyday'' to him.

Last Thursday, as promised, my host Mom went with me to the track and introduced me to some of her runner friends! They were both very nice to me and everyone else with the little running club was too! Sometimes I get a laugh out of how blunt Spaniards can be! Before our run we were all stretching and everyone was talking and I was just kind of standing there minding my own business and all of a sudden a younger guy walks up to our group. He is part of the club as well, but him and I kind of stuck out like sore thumbs because we were so much younger than everyone in the group. They proceed to ask him if he knows English (for me). A lot of the younger people know English here because they begin taking English classes when they are 6 years old. But, anyway, he says that he doesn't know any English and one of my Mom's friends turn to me and says, "Oh, dang it! He is much cuter and much younger for you!" haha I got a nice long run in with them--we ran for 56 minutes at a pretty good clip too! Needless to say, I was very glad I brought my bus pass and could just take the bus back to my house rather than running back from the track. Pretty sure at that point I didn't even want to be walking! It was so nice to be able to run with other people though!! They run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays so I think I will try to run with them at least once a week, and I can count that as my long run for the week.

Also last week, Laura and I went and did some shopping in the little stores in the heart of Toledo. They were so cute, and I bought some great gifts at them. I, also, had to buy a belt because I neglected to bring one :( And I am sick of pulling up my pants every 10 minutes! We also found this really great candy store that is just like Seroogy's! It is AWESOME! And we even got free samples when we walked in! We got a cookie that was filled with something that kind of tasted like apple, and then we also got a chocolate covered almond! Pretty sure I am going to have to do everything in my power to not return back to that store everyday that I am here!! It is a little too near my house!

On Friday night a few of my friends and I went to Enebro's and got drinks and tapas! There are two Enebro's in the Casco area of Toledo. One is right outside my school and the other is near the library. The one near the library is much nicer and has a flat screen TV outside! However, the one by my school does have signs in English which I kind of get a kick out of. They have signs of many American colleges and universities as well as signs having to do with sororities and fraternities. It actually kind of reminds me of an Applebee's with a bunch of just random stuff hanging up on the walls. But, it is all in English! Friday night we went to both and got tapas at both! The tapa that we received at the one near the library was absolutely huge...it was more like a dinner than a little appetizer! It was 2 ham and cheese sliders with french fries! Very American as well.

On Saturday a bunch of us from my school woke up bright and early (and by "bright and early" I mean by 8am) and took a bus from Toledo to Olias del Rey which is a small town about 10 minutes from Toledo. They were having their annual city fiesta or festival (which mind you, lasts for about 2 weeks, with something new going on everyday). On Saturday they were having a bull run and what we thought was also going to be a bull fight at night, but it actually just turned out to be just the bull run. There were three bulls that ran and obviously lots of brave people! One of the guys from my school actually ended up running and said it was one of the best experiences of his life!! (and probably one of the scariest too!) It was very exciting to watch, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to see it at least once while I am here because it is such a big part of their culture. After the run, everyone went into the plaza (the bull ring) and we watched people taunt the bulls and get them mad. It was interesting and exhilarating to watch as people would taunt a bull and then it would come chasing after them and they would have to jump over a 6 foot fence to escape the danger!! Some of our other friends saw someone break their ankle, and my host Mom said that someone was seriously injured because she saw it on the news. In fact, right now there is a lot of controversy in Spain regarding this and the debate of whether or not it is ethically right to do what they do to the bulls. My host Mom was telling me there have been a lot of riots and protests regarding this subject recently.

Since the bull run was at 10am and after knowing there wasn't a bull fight at night, we were kind of undecided as to what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. Of course we went and explored the town a little bit, but with it being so small that didn't take up much time. Some of us went and explored the best place to eat and we ended up eating at a small bar. I got a bocadillo (which is like a sub sandwich) with ham and cheese, but I remembered I don't like their ham here and just had a cheese bocadillo. It was really good, but a little expensive. For dessert, I had my first ice cream cone in Spain! It wasn't gelato, but it was still soooo good!! It was raspberry flavored with little raspberry seeds inside. I had other people try it, and they ran and got some too. So delicious :) Other than that we just sat in the sun near this gorgeous water fountain they had, and when people got hot they ran through it! We also met a lot of great locals!! And some not so great locals that pushed me into the water fountain! haha I am just kidding! I didn't mind it at all since it was SO HOT! Around 5pm four of us girls took the bus back to Toledo, while some other people stayed a little longer.

On Sunday, Alyssa, Laura, Anny and I went to La Casa and El Museo del Greco because it is free admission on Sunday! It was very interesting!! A lot of state of the art and famous monuments/buildings here in Toledo are free on Sundays so I am thinking I will probably take advantage of that every week! Then, on Sunday, too I had to do my homework and lots of it! I have a presentation on Thursday for my cultural heritage class that I started to prepare for and, mind you, am still freaking out a little bit about! Wish me luck :)

On Monday I had another day at the hospital! This was probably the best and most fun I have had in all the days that I have been going! I am really starting to open up, and it is becoming easier to converse with the patients in Spanish! It was a little sad, though, because one of my patients was able to go back to her house last weekend. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that she got to leave the hospital because she was always so sad, but I was a little upset I didn't get to say goodbye or anything. Or get a picture with her! I didn't find out that she left until I went to her room and she wasn't in there so I just talked with her roommate who is a lot of fun also :) She always seems happy to just be able to talk to someone. I also learned a lot of Spanish bromas (jokes) from another patient. He actually isn't one of my patients that I usually talk to, but many patients will just come up to me when I am talking in the hallway and join in on the conversation which I love! I met a new patient this week that speaks really good English so I hate to admit we talked in English the whole time! I still did learn a lot though, and it was actually kind of helpful to ask him some things in English about Spanish just for clarification. I told him next time though we need to speak in Spanish! Every week I am there it is such an eye opening experience. That sounds so cliche but there really is no other way to describe it. My professor who is in charge of this internship class told us that we would not be the same people at the beginning and at the end. When he said this I just kind of pushed it out the window and thought, "yea right! he probably just has to say that..." But, honestly, even after 3 weeks of being there, I am not the same person that I was on day 1. I can tell already that it is going to be very hard to say goodbye to them all!

One thing here that is very interesting to me is all of the stray cats and dogs! It is unbelievable. There is a pregnant stray cat that is always roaming around by our school and a few of the girls have named her Mohita. It is really sad to see them picking through the garbage at night.

Another thing that is different is when my host Mom and I use cloth napkins she doesn't wash them after we use them. I think we have been using them for over a week now and they still have yet to be washed. It is just so weird to me because Spanish women are very very clean...they are just very conservative with their resources. Like my host Mom takes the quickest showers ever! Today she woke up at like 8:50 and was out the door by 9:15 and that is with showering, blow drying her hair and eating breakfast! Now that is impressive!!

One of the things I miss most about back home is going to church with my family. Although I really do want to go to mass here, I haven't yet. It will be a little difficult to go on Sundays with traveling over the weekends, but I do know that they hold mass here everyday. I want to ask my host Mom about this and see if she maybe would like to go with me too. It is interesting here because Spanish people are very religious but very few practice religion or go to mass on Sundays. This is another thing that surprised me a lot in coming here!

I tried a new fruit this week with my host Mom! It is called Granada (different from the city.) It is so good! The next time we eat it I will have to take a picture of it because it really can't be compared to anything we have in the states, the look or the taste.

Also, I have come to the realization that Spanish kids are the cutest things ever! The other day, after my workout at the track, I was waiting at the bus stop and so was this Mom, her son and her daughter. The boy was so cute and was playing the license plate game where the first and last number on the license plate have to be the same. He was having so much fun and was so entertained by this it was crazy!! It was kind of funny because on my run the other day I found myself playing this game by myself! Kids here are very different from kids in the states. It seems like they have more fun here! They are always making their own fun and entertaining themselves rather than having to always watch the TV or play video games in order to be entertained.

I am very excited, too, because I am going to be getting an intercambio! I will meet with her probably once a week and she will help me practice my Spanish, and I will help her practice her English. I have not met her yet, but the professor in charge of the intercambio program told me that she is my age so I am very excited :)

Oh and I am going to be running in a 5k road race here in a few weeks! It is on a Saturday night and is through the streets of Toledo! I am so stoked for this! I think my running buddy from my school is going to do it too as well as two other guys that work at my school. I believe some of my Mom's friends are running it too! They were telling me that this is the season for road races with one almost every weekend. Right now, in fall, it is the perfect temperature here with it starting to cool off a bit...FINALLY!!

My Mom sent me a package this past week and it was awesome!! She sent me some American snacks and I have never been happier to eat almonds and trail mix! Spaniards don't do much snacking, and it is even rather difficult to find them in markets here so I was very happy to receive some food from her :) She also sent me a card with a great quote from Mark Twain, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." How awesome is that quote? And definitely can be applied to the way everyone should live their life!! I am so thankful for the memories that I have already created, and cannot wait for the many more that I will create!

This weekend I am going to Granada and could not be more excited for it! Whenever I tell people that is where I am traveling this weekend they have the same reaction! They tell me how lucky I am, how great of a place it is, and that I am going to love it! Can't get much better than that.

This is all for now! Can't wait to write next week about my adventures in Granada! So proud to say I am from Wisconsin with a Badger win, a Packer win, AND a Brewer win!!

Much love from España :)