Conversation, Week 1: Tuesday

Zou, Jon, & Bailey

It is absolutely amazing how much I've already learned.  I feel like my Spanish has improved greatly in just a few days.  I can't imagine what it'll be like in six weeks.

First, I'll answer a few questions people have asked and mention a few things that don't directly relate to what I did today:

The weather is chilly in the mornings, in the 50s or 60s and the perfect temperature after classes and for the rest of the day, in the 70s or 80s.  It hasn't been humid and it hasn't rained or been cloudy yet.

El Cocho

The drive from Madrid to Valladolid was a little over two hours, so not bad at all.

It is getting more and more difficult for me to write these posts in my journal in English.  I keep wanting to switch some of the words over to Spanish.

Las croquetas (YUM) and something Zou had

Spaniards have some local accents...(or changes, I can't think of the word) that are different from Latin America.  For example, sometimes they say z,c,&s like "th."  I won't explain the rules of when this happens though.  "Gracias," instead of saying "grah-th-ee-ahth."  I even caught myself saying it that way tonight when we got our food. Also, with “j”s, instead of saying “ha,” they say it with a more throaty sound, as if they are clearing their throat and saying “ha” at the same time. I can't see myself doing that anytime soon, it's a bit difficult. Last one: I've only noticed this with Mercedes so far but I know other Spaniards do it too. She sometimes omits the “d”s from words when they end in -ado. For example, “soldado” or “estado” would be “soldao” or “estao.” When I learned about these changes in my phoenetics class at UNK, I thought it would be terrible to adjust to them, but I'm already used to it. The words still sound similar so I can figure out what's being said.

Tuesday:

La Cantina

This morning we had peanut butter on toast with “café con leche” again. It looks like will be our normal breakfast. Then we went to school at 8:00 for our first conversation class. It is by far my favorite. A women named Ruth teaches it, and the class is great. We don't have much homework because the class is mainly about conversation in class. We just talk about certain topics, but she said we could go off topic and talk about anything we want as long as we're still talking. As a way to get to know each other, half of the class stood up and sat with someone who had remained sitting, and talked with them for three minutes in Spanish, then rotated around the room. She said it was like speed dating and we were supposed to find the person with whom we had the most in common. We would call that person our “media naranja,” which translates literally to “half orange” (fruit), but in Spain it is used to mean “soul mate.” When two people in the class called each other their “media naranja,” she would draw a whole orange on the board, write their names in it, and say we had found our “media naranja.” :) It was very fun.

Langostina en tempura and Bailey's bonito de piparras

Ruth also mentioned that there are certain spots in the city that we can rent bikes for free for four hours as long as we give them our ID information so they can track us down if we don't return the bike. Bailey and I agreed we should check that out sometime. There were ten people in that class. It was the biggest one.

In history, we got off topic at one point and Sergio talked about all the crazy things Spaniards will eat. He said they'll eat anything, but he did mention that in general they don't like shrimp, which I found surprising. He also drew a pig on the board and labeled what every part is called in terms of food. They eat EVERY part of the pig, including drinking bone marrow and putting the blood in soup. I was a little more hesitant to go home for lunch today :)

La Manduca

B,Z,J, and I are planning on going to Madrid this weekend and after class we asked Sergio advice about where to go, what to do, etc. We still don't have anything concrete planned yet, except that we want to go to El Prado (famous art museum) and we found out that students get in free.

Back at home, we had “sopa,” a soup that tasted like chicken noodle soup, and a heaping bowl full of garbanzo beans that had “pollo” (chicken), “chorizo” (sausage), and “ternura” (veal) in it.

I went back to the school and got caught up on my blog while Bailey took a nap. Bailey joined me later, then the guys, and we went to the Plaza Mayor to have “tapas” for supper. Tapas are little snacks of almost any type of food: fish, burgers, lamb, pig, tuna, potatoes, etc. The list goes on and on. Tapas cost 1-3 euro ($1.25-$3.75), depending on how fancy the restaurant/bar is, and many people just stand at tables, have their tapas, pay for them, and go to the next tapas place.

Los pinchos de cordero

We went to four places, three of which had tapas, so each of us could pay once. The first place, El Cocho (please see pics for places and food) was one Mercedes recommended and we had “croquetas,” which she also recommended. It was one of the best things I've ever tasted! It looks like a jalapeño popper on the outside, but has a creamy mix of cheese and ham on the inside. It was amazing. The second place we went was called “La Cantina,” which was a little fancier than the others. There I had “langostina (prawn) en tempura.” That was also very good. At the next place, La Manduca, I had “pinchos de cordero,” lamb on a stick. It was fine, but it just tasted like beef to me. The last place we went wasn't for Tapas. It was a frozen yogurt place called Smöoy, and it was also very good.

Smöoy (frozen yogurt)

While we were walking around, two strangers approached us and talked to us. I was wearing a UNK shirt and one of them asked if we were from Kentucky, I guess because of the “K” and the colors. We told them where we were from, they talked to us in English, and asked if we needed any help finding anything. The people here are really nice and the girl in the yogurt place told me my total in English. Shortly after that, we ran into Alberto, the guy that picked us up at the airport. He also recommended a tapas place to us. Bailey and I thought it was crazy that we ran into him because it was the third time we had seen him in the city since Sunday, but Bailey saw his grocery bag, and we figured out he gets groceries every day at a place on our street.

After we went back home, Bailey and I went for a run in the park on the beach. It was only fifteen minutes and pretty pitiful, but we're going to try to go more often and improve.

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July!