Classes in Alcalá de Henares

So I figured the best time to talk about the classes I'd been taking while in Spain would be a post positioned right  at the end of my class time and right before I went to London for post-school travelling!

We had two different sets of class types.  The first was for 9 transfer credits with the international portion of the Universidad de Alcalá called Alcalingua.  This is where we got our Grammar and Conversation education.  It was in this cute little building about a 15 minute walk from my homestay, and lasted from 10am-1:30pm, Monday-Friday from January 12th until March 18th.  We of course got a half an hour break in between classes so it totalled 3 hours of class a day.

Our classes were split up by experience level and we tested into said levels.  The class we tested into was our class for the semester so we had class with the same wonderful 18 people every day.  In my class there were 6 people from our Maryland program, 2 Australian girls, 1 Norwegian girl,  1 Frenchman, 1 Japanese girl, 1 Korean girl, and 6 Chinese students (2 boys, 4 girls).  Our class was wonderful.  They were so nice and lively and it was so cool to talk to them all in Spanish.  The Chinese students knew some English, but we were usually guilted into Spanish by our teachers.  My instructor for grammar was named Alicia and she was unbelievable.  She was the best Spanish professor I've ever had.  Because she was teaching students with all different native languages, she couldn't explain grammar in the same way that English speaking Spanish professors would.  It was MUCH clearer when it wasn't always being equated to English grammar.

My Wonderful Grammar Class

This is my class!  There are only a few people missing from this picture.  It was a really wonderful group.  Everyone was so nice and chatty!

The Maryland Crew with Alicia!

Me and the Chinese Crew with Alicia!

After grammar we had Conversation class with Cristina.  She was a fantastic teacher as well because she chose topics that we could have long discussions about and topics that actually interested us.

Me with Alicia and Cristina at Graduation.

Our other set of classes were Maryland classes with our Resident Director Dr. Regina Harrison and the Maryland Associated professor Mercedes Rivas.  From January 12th to March 18th we had each class once a week for three hours on either Tuesday or Thursday.  Our class with Professor Harrison (who insisted we be on a first name basis since she was our Resident Director) was a culture and literature class so we learned about Spanish history and read various short stories and textbook chapters on anything from Franco to the state of the poverty stricken.  Our class with Professor Rivas was a Spanish Cinema and Theater class.  We got 6 Maryland credits for the two classes.

After March 27thth (the end of spring break) we had class only three times a week.  Reggies class was Tuesday and Wednesday for 1.25 hours and Prof. Rivas' class on Thursdays for three hours.  We needed three hours for her class to watch movies or go see plays.  The shows and movies we saw with the class were very good, but usually very confusing as well.  The plays were old so it was practically like reading/watching Shakespeare....in  Spanish!  It was also difficult because she spoke very quickly and used vocabulary we weren't familiar with.  It also didn't help that she was from Southern Spain while we were used to the Madrid accent.  The Andalucian accent has more of a lisp and they jumble the words together more.  Madrileños (people from Madrid) speak with more separation and clarity.

Overall I enjoyed the Alcalingua classes more because I felt I learned more from them.  I really enjoyed grammar and conversation class each day, and I'll be sad not to have an experience like that again.  It was a wonderful educational environment!

Madrid Meandering Part 3....WITH FAMILY

My last weekend in Spain before classes ended was spent with my Uncle Bill and my Aunt Andria.  They came up for Easter weekend to visit and I got to show them all around Madrid!

The weekend started with an early morning pick up at the Madrid airport and then we went to get settled into the hotel.  From there we grabbed coffee then headed to the train station to take a Renfe train up to Alcalá de  Henares to show them my town.

We walked all the way through town to my home stay which, as I've told many people, we call Siberia since it is a pretty long walk to get there from the center of town.

Andria, Exuperancia, and I!

We had coffee with my home stay Mom and she chatted up the group.  I translated, of course.  Once Uncle Bill looked like he was getting a little too comfortable in the chair (napping), we decided we should get back into Madrid and keep moving.  Beat the jet-lag!

The first bits in Madrid just consisted of walking around the center of the city like Puerta del Sol.  This is where the "strawberry tree" fight came in.  One of the symbols of Spain is the bear and the strawberry tree as shown with Uncle Bill below.

Now Uncle Bill could not get over the fact that "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A STRAWBERRY TREE!".  This became a constant joke.  Luckily for me when I was back in the states and this conversation came up, my cousin Emily whips out her smart phone and Googles "strawberry tree".  What logic right?  What she found was a wonderful Wikipedia article stating that the strawberry tree is native to northern Europe and BAM: Argument nullified!

The next day we hit up La Reina Sophia to check out Guernica by Picasso and some strange Dali.

That afternoon we toured the palace an stumbled upon Semana Santa processions around the city. They were   strangely quite and oddly unsettling for religious processions.

After some yummy Churros y Chocolate we wandered Plaza Mayor, the oldest Plaza in Madrid.  It was SO full of people that day which was great because it is the best experience when they square is packed with people entertaining, observing, and generally enjoying the weather.

The last day of family weekend was Easter so we attended Easter mass at the Royal Cathedral next to the Palace.  It was the most beautiful mass I couldn't understand!

The cathedral was beautiful and very different from other cathedrals I'd seen.  This was because the cathedral was planned in the 1500s, construction was started in the 1800s, and the cathedral was finished in 1992 so it has a much more modern feel than other cathedrals!

We had some time in the afternoon and my Uncle remembered a statue of a famous Neuroanatomist that he'd found the last time he was in Madrid: Ramon y Cajal, and this gentleman happened to be located in the great Parque del Buen Retiro.

It was a beautiful day and the park was full of people out and about.  Finally we found the man himself.  Can't you see how happy we were?

We're not sure why Cajal was posed like that, but what the hell!  Why can't the scientist look like a Greek god?

The final part of the weekend was the bull fight!  We went to La Plaza de Ventas where the bull fights are held in Madrid.

The experience was...........interesting to say the least.  The way a bull fight works is there are four portions.  In the first portion there are many Toreros (bull fighters) who use their pink capas (capes) to tire the bull out.

The second portion involves Picadors on horseback who stab the bull in the back to slow him down even more.

The third portion involves Toreros sticking banderillas, or little spiked sticks, into the bull.  There are three Toreros each with a set of two and each Torero tries to get both into the bull.

Finally the main Torero with the red cape and a sword comes out to tire the bull and eventually attempt to stab the sword all the way into the bull.  Sadly this meas the bull does die at the end..

Not only does this occur once....but six times.  There are three main Toreros and each one fights 2 bulls.  QUITE a lot.

The horrifying portion came at the beginning.  Our first bull was a difficult experience. It was MUCH more blood than I anticipated AND the bull knocked the Picador and horse over and they could not get the horse up for a long time.  I just sat there with a very shocked look on my face for a looooonnnnnggg time.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Andria made it through two bulls before throwing in the towel and I made it to three.  We  all left there thinking we'd better volunteer at an animal shelter or SOMETHING to improve our karma.....

It may have horrified us, but it is a tradition in Spain.  During La Feria (a holiday in May) there is a bullfight every day.  The bulls are bred for bull fighting and the meat from the bull is not wasted, but put up for sale and used in restaurants.  There are still many people who disapprove of bull fighting and more and more fights are being ended for good in other parts of the world.  I wonder if it will survive in Spain.

After all was said and done, I am glad we went.  I can now say I've been to an official bullfight in the largest bull ring in the world!

It was a wonderful end to a wonderful family filled weekend!  I was so happy to get to show them around Madrid and Alcalá.

Bouncing Around Barcelona

My last four day weekend outside of Madrid was spent in Barcelona.  The city had received so much hype and such good reviews that I wasn't sure what to expect!  I was a very interesting experience and I felt as if I was not in Spain the entire time.

Barcelona is part of a region of Spain known as Catalunya.  Catalunya was orginially a French protected region and France gave them a certain autonomy.  They were allowed to govern themselves.  When the Spanish unified Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, Catalunya continued to govern itself.  It wasn't until 1936 when Franco took over that all autonomous regions in Spain were stripped of that privileged and made part of the unified Spanish state.  That made the region more nationalistic than ever.

Today Catalunya and other autonomous regions of Spain have a split governing of their "state".  They have autonomous government which handle some responsibilities and then the national government handles others.  They participate in both autonomous and national elections, and they elect their own president.  Catalunya has it's own language as well: Catalan.  It is a mix between Spanish and French and all schools in Barcelona teach it with Castellano (Spanish) to their students.

My experience in Barcelona was very interesting because they first speak to you in Catalan and then if you choose another language to speak back in (such as Spanish), but they can tell you aren't a native speaker, they speak to you in English.  I now understand the obsession with visiting Barcelona.  It is a party city in which you can speak English and have NO PROBLEMS getting around.  To me though this just made the city feel like it was not in Spain, but a country of it's own.

We began by wandering the city finding various palaces and plazas.

This was Plaza Real which is filled with these luscious palm trees.  Fun fact: The trees are not native to Barcelona.  They are actually RENTED from Hawaii.  They were brought here in 1991 in preparation for the 1992 Olympics that were held here and they have a two year renewable lease to the city.  Insane right?  Just wait.  It gets weirder later on.

We visited the Olympic Complex up on Mont Jüic in the afternoon and got a beautiful view of the coast.

Weird fact #2: Barcelona doesn't actually have beaches.  Their beaches are artificially made using sand that was brought over from Egypt.  Every winter large tankers pump sand from the ocean back onto the beach as it is washed away during the summer.  See that's what happens with fake beaches.  They ERODE.

We wandered over to the Olympic stadium too and I was surprised to see just how small it was.  I think my college football stadium is about the same size.  I guess I just expected the Olympics to be a bit more popular...

After Mont Jüic we watched the fountain show that goes on in the evenings in front of the palace on the mountain.

Gaudí is a famous Catalunyan architect known most for Sagrada Familia, the great unfinished church in Barcelona.  We decided to take a walking tour that would lead us to his works around the city.  It started with Gaudí's first and only publicly commissioned work, a lamp post.

 It's a very strange lamp post with Hermes' helmet on top and the Catalunyan flag on other parts.  It was his only publicly commissioned work because he took so long to design it, demanded so much money, and was so difficult to work with that the city decided never to hire him again!  Talk about Prima Donna Architects!

 Palau Güell with it's VERY strange, but very typical chimneys was next.  Güell was the name of a wealthy man who liked Gaudí and was the main source of Gaudí's income during his life.  He had Gaudí build several things for him during his lifetime.  Gaudí was still difficult to work with though, and it is said that when Güell died, he died bankrupt by Gaudí.  This is because Gaudí was very particular about his work.  If he had build a façade and didn't like the look of it he would tear the whole thing down and do it again.  This got to be very expensive...

From there we walked to Casa Batlló, a house commissioned by a Sr. Batlló.  He gave Gaudí artistic freedom to do what he would with the house.  This is what he came up with.

The house is very colorful and looks as if it belongs in Alice in Wonderland!  There are many theories about the theme of the house.  One is Carnaval (Mardi Gras in Europe).  The balconies look like masks, the roof looks like the traditional Venetian hat worn during Carnaval, and the house is flecked with festival colors.  Another theory is that of death due to the bone like parst covering the windows, and yet another is a tribute to one of their Patron Saints, Wilfred the Hairy (yes I mean HAIRY).  The cross on the top of the house, and the roof which could be the back of a dragon (because Wilfred allegedly slew a dragon) would give evidence to that theory.

After seeing this house another man by the name of Sr. Milá wanted a house designed just like it.  He liked the style and the color and so he had Gaudí make him a plan.  This is what Gaudí gave him and Milá hired him on the spot.

It looks very similar in style to the Casa Batlló.  Sadly Sr. Milá probably should have asked for a bit more detail on what the house would look like because this is what he got.

No color.  Strange abstract mental balconies, and even stranger rooftop chimneys.  The Catalunyans hate it, as did Sr. Milá.  It is nicknamed "La Pedrera" or "The Quarry" because they think it so dull and ugly.  Many here think that Gaudí had a sea theme in mind with the wavy façade and seaweed balconies.  No matter what he was thinking, this house was not at all what Milá wanted and there was much fighting, mostly with Milá's wife who hated the building even more.

Another Gaudí work was Park Güell.  It was an idea between Sr. Güell and Gaudí that they would design this hill and rich people could buy a plot of land and have their house built on it.  It was a failure as only Gaudí, Güell, and one other man chose to have houses there.  Today it is a lovely park!

The most comfortable ceramic benches in the world!

Guardhouse

Guardhouse

Park Entrance

Park Guardian

After a nice relaxing walk around the park we went to Gaudí's most famous and unfinished work, Sagrada Familia.

 Each façade has a different theme to it and Gaudí was only alive to finish the Nativity façade.  Right now construction is being funded by public donation and it is going slowly because of this method of funding and also because of what happened to Gaudí's original plans.  All original plans were destroyed during the civil war when anarchists came a ransacked his office.  They were going around and destroying churches all over Spain, but Sagrada Familia was saved because someone pointed out that a bridge between the two middle towers was a good watch out spot that was safe from fire.  Unfortunately the models and drawings Gaudí made were not considered so important so design right now is going off of what little drawings are left and personal accounts from others who knew him and what he was doing.

I ended my visit to Barcelona with a trip to Camp Nou the football stadium for F.C. Barcelona.  It is a club of 169,000 people with a stadium that holds 100,000.  This makes it the largest club and stadium in the world.  It is also pronounced Camp "Now" as I learned later in the tour.  My guy friends had always called it Camp "New" based on what they'd heard.

I went with my friend Bethany and we took a self guided audio tour that was SO cool.  First we went through the trophy room and got to see all kinds of awards for the team and their best current player (and best player in the world) Lionel Messi.

Pelota d'Or or Ball of Gold, give to the best player in the league that year.  Messi has won it twice.

The Golden Boot given other player with the most goals in the World Cup.

The Six Cups of Barcelona from the year Barca won every title possible for a team to win in a single season.

Then we got to go out into the stadium up high.

 Putting my Panorama function to good use again!

For those who don't read Spanish or Catalan the seats say, "More than a Club".

From there we were shown the press room, the visiting team's locker room, and then we got to go out onto the pitch!

I left from there to pick up my things and hop on a plane back to Madrid.  It was a great weekend trip to Barcelona!