Gachas, Gatas, y Granada

Hola a todos!

To say I am loving Spain would be an understatement...there are not enough words to describe how much I am enjoying my experiences here!

Over the past couple weeks I have been further adjusting to my home here and the Spanish culture. A few observations:

1. The schedule here is very different. We eat lunch at 2:30 and dinner at 9:00. Every day, most businesses close mid-day for lunch and "siesta" time.

2. Drivers here are NOT pedestrian friendly. In Madison, if there are a couple seconds left on the crosswalk, people walk. Here you do not want to risk that; the drivers are ruthless and own the road!

3. Classes here are different in the sense that professors do not seem to have much regard for the syllabus; the schedule is more laid back and we complete things taking as much time as needed. This also is a characteristic of the more laid-back culture here. Everything is the US has to be done as quickly as possible and the sense of hurriedness here is not as prominent.

The title of this blog, "Gachas, Gatas y Granada", is basically  a summary of what I've been up to! Gachas are a traditional Spanish dish from the Andalucía region of Spain, which is south of Madrid. Mainly composed of flour, gachas can be served with a stew consistency or more like a paste. It is commonly eaten with bread. My host parents invited me to their neighbor's home last weekend for a lunch of gachas and other Spanish food. It was all delicious and I had a wonderful time experiencing more of Spanish culture!

"Gata" is the Spanish word for cat. There are TONS of stray cats here! I want to play with all of them, but unfortunately many are infected and have fleas, so it is safer to just look. But I love kittens!

This weekend my CIEE group and I took a trip to Granada and Cordoba! Both are beautiful cities in the Andalucía region of Spain. Granada is home to the famous "La Alhambra". The Alhambra's architecture is like nothing I have ever seen. The intricate details are remarkable. We also spent some time hiking to a waterfall and to different viewpoints in Granada, which is surrounded by mountains. Between the many tapas bars, white houses and Arabic influence, I cannot decide what I love most about Granada!

A view of Granada from inside The Alhambra

The bridge we walked over while hiking to the waterfall; can you say adrenaline rush?!

Granada from the hills at the top of the city 

We also spent two days in Cordoba, which is the most precious city I've been to yet! The narrow, cobblestone streets lined with cute restaurants and Roman architecture is charming. There happened to be a Roman festival this weekend, so we were able to experience even more culture than expected! We visited the famous "La Mezquita" which is a Catholic/Muslim mosque. Again, the architecture is amazingly intricate and beautiful. We were able to attend a Catholic mass there during the day, which was pretty neat. While I wasn't able to understand the entire mass, I was able to follow along and identify where we were in the mass. It is amazing that Catholicism is spread so widely across the globe and that we all are welcome in the House of the Lord no matter what country the church is in or what language the mass in performed in.

Cordoba at sunset 

Other than that, not too much is new with me! I am enjoying my classes for the semester and am making a ton of friends through my program and at the Institute! For now, the next big adventure on the calendar is Seville towards the end of February, but I may have to book something before then; I've got the travel bug!

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me!

XO
Victoria

¡Bienvenido a España!

Hola a todos! (Hi everyone!)

Welcome to my blog! Here I will be documenting my experiences as I travel abroad in Alcalá de Henares, Spain for the spring 2014 semester. I am very excited, as I have never traveled to Europe before and am looking forward to enhancing my Spanish speaking skills while learning about Spanish culture. I will also be taking classes here to continue my majors of International Studies and Spanish and my Certificate in Business. I am here through the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a program called CIEE. There are 3 others students from Madison here and 11 total from the United States in my program. I will try to blog at least once a week, but I cannot make any promises. Please let me know if you ever have any questions, I would love to answer them! So here we go:


After several hours of travel, I have finally arrived in Spain and settled in to my host family's home.

Day 1 &2:
I left Minneapolis at 7:00am on January 7th and flew to Boston, where my 9-hour layover turned into a 10 hour, which then caused me to miss my connecting flight in Paris to Madrid. Once I arrived in Madrid, I had missed the group shuttle to the hotel, so I had to navigate the metro and train on my own. Air France also managed to lose my luggage, so it was getting to be a very long trip to Alcalá. Luckily, I met a very nice woman who works in Madrid and had studied abroad in Alcalá during college as well. She helped me make sense of the maze that is the metro and I arrived safely to my hotel. After relaxing a bit, I had dinner with my group from CIEE in the hotel and then got some rest.

My mother and I at the airport very early in the morning!

My bag weighed exactly 50 pounds; I was quite impressed. Packing for 4 months is one of the most challenging things I've ever done; I am a notorious over-packer. 

Day 3:
Today we had an orientation session for most of the day where we covered some general rules and guidelines and received information about our classes and the culture in Spain. Fun fact: It is illegal to talk on the phone and drive at the same time in Spain! After orientation we took a trip to "El corte ingles" which is a store that I can best describe as a cross between Macy's and Target. They have EVERYTHING. We arrived back to our hotel, Hotel Campanile, and our host families came to pick us up and bring "home" for the next four months.

My host family is wonderful. There four members: Santiago, the father, Antonia, the mother, and Laura and Cristina, who are their daughters. They are all so sweet and welcoming, I could not have asked for a better family. I have my own room in their beautiful home, which is in Alcalá de Henares. The language barrier is a challenge and I am constantly asking my family to repeat phrases or to explain what they are trying to say. Of course, this is the objective of studying abroad and I know my Spanish to going to improve my leaps and bounds before May.

This is my room in Alcalá; I love it! 

Over the past three days I have discovered that traveling is wonderful...when everything goes as planned. A one hour flight delayed turned my trip upside-down, but it was a great learning experience! I am looking forward to sharing more and sharing my study abroad experience!

If you would like to contact me, please either messaged me on Facebook or email me at haler@wisc.edu. I am available via iMessage, whatsapp, or text free so please let me know if you would like one of those numbers.

All my best,
Victoria