Portugal and since then... part one

Portugal-

Alright, sorry for the long delay in posts! I have been trying to get on track with school and I can’t ever seem to find time to do anything before its time to go to sleep again!

Anyway… Portugal-----AWESOME!! I recommend Lagos, Portugal to all of you for your next vacation! It is a tropical paradise! Clear, bright blue water, and gorgeous orange/red rocks that encircle the beaches. Plus, it’s not as unbearably hot as Spain but it’s still very warm.

We went through a program called Discover Sevilla that took us on a bus to Lagos and we stayed in an awesome hotel called AquaLuz with two huge pools! The website said “very close to the beach” so we figured…okay, maybe twenty minutes.. No! five minute walk!

The Nittany Lion came too! J

When we arrived in Lagos, we went straight to the beach for a few hours and then we met up with our Discover Sevilla tour guides who took us downtown to get dinner at a place called NahNahBah, which is supposed to be one of the most delicious restaurants in town.

Although they did have delicious cheeseburgers, we didn’t really experience any “authentic” Portuguese food while we were there. Through our program, we got discounts or specials on both food and drinks wherever we went! After NahNahBah, we went to Joe’s Garage for a party with people in the program and then out around the rest of the town. We met so many interesting and friendly people in Portugal. Unlike in Spain, the people in Portugal actually want to talk to you and meet you! They don’t stare or act rudely to foreigners, at least not in Lagos, since it is a tourist destination. Our tour guides told us NOT to speak Spanish in Portugal, because apparently they will get angry at you, since they do not speak Spanish. They do, however-and thankfully, speak English so it was easy to get around and ask for directions or whatever we needed. It was so nice to actually go through a program and have everything we needed available to us or at least someone to ask where to go or get advice from. For once, I actually didn’t feel lost.

Us and classmate Nicole JAnother fun bar we went to..

The second day in Portugal, we were taken to a different beach that was a little further away called Maia Praia- aka Maia Beach. It was more of the typical beaches we have on the East Coast- as in, long coast line, lots of people- but the water was still very clear and clean and the sand was very fine. It was a beautiful beach, but unfortunately it is where most of my sunburn came from.

When we returned from Maia Praia, we set off for our “sunset excursion” to Cabo San Vicente- aka, The End of The World. This is one of the most gorgeous and most WINDY places ever! It is called the end of the world because before Columbus discovered America, the people of Europe all believed that the world was flat and they thought that these cliffs were the end of the earth.

This was actually a really scary place due to the wind and the cliffs being so incredibly high. While just standing on the top of the cliffs we were getting blown off our feet! It was also freezing and we happened to be wearing skirts—lovely. However, there were some brave (aka crazy) people who were out to the very edges of the rocks and were fishing out over the cliffs! It would take a while to reel in a fish from there, and what if it was a shark that pulled you in!? Anyway, despite the intense wind and treacherous cliffs, it was a gorgeous sunsetJ.

Day in Moron!

border into the town of Moron



Today was an interesting day. Well, I take that back. Everyday is interesting. Everyday we constantly talk about how different the culture is here and why people do the things they do. At 8:45am we arrived at the bus station to go to Moron (Amelia's hometown) for the day to visit her parents. However, we didn't know that the bus schedule would be different for the Corpus Cristi holiday today, so we had to hang around town until 11:30! We went to a cafeteria (cafe) for cafe con leche (espresso and steamed milk + sugar) One of the employees there really liked us for some reason and ended up bringing us out some Kinder chocolate on a little plate for free! Delicioso! What better way to a girl's heart? haha

Moron is only 45 min from Sevilla and Amelia met us at the bus stop to walk with us to the Peluqueria (hairdresser). Natalie thought she desperately needed her haircut so Amelia made her an appointment and helped us translate the technical words. Bangs= "flequillo" Layers= "trasquilados" ...interesting. There was also a girl working there who is originally from Maryland! What a coincidence! After the haircut is when we started thinking about how different social norms are. To us, it seems like the people here are very rude, but for them, its normal. Example: We were done at the hairdresser and were standing in front of the door to leave when suddenly, I was about knocked over by the door opening right on me! Instead of saying "omg, I'm so sorry! are you okay???," The girl who smashed into me looked at Natalie and said... so do you like your haircut?

Also, in the US, if it is obvious that someone needs to get by you or pass through a crowd, it is polite to yield to them or let them go ahead and get out of their way. Not in Spain. The most important path is their path. And either, I'm invisible, or people just don't care about knocking me over. When I am in someone's way, they don't say excuse me, they just push through. Which is fine, but then they run into you....... and KEEP GOING!!! =me falling over. There also doesn't seem to be any rules about butting in line in front of people. Some lady was trying to squeeze her way past Natalie onto the bus and might as well have been laying on top of her... Geez people! Just chill out! Everyone will get on the bus! You won't miss it! Also, I actually might be invisible because everyone is constantly forgetting my name here. Mercedes introduced me to her boyfriend and said, this is Natalie and this is....uhhh... oh, melissa, right. Today, Amelias mom forgot my name too but remembered natalie's! what is going on here?

Apparently, we are really annoying to everyone here. Maybe our language sounds really ugly or something. I wish I knew how English sounds to them as a foreign language. Either we are really loud or people just hate us for talking. Every five minutes we would get a glare or catch someone staring at us while we were just casually chatting on the bus. Idk what we are doing wrong, but we seem to be bothering people. It makes me sympathize with foreigners travelling in the US. Okay, these Spaniards can't understand us, but we are two people lost in a sea of millions of people who speak a language with an accent we can barely understand. It is really interesting to just step outside the box of the US. Since the US is such a melting pot of different cultures, it's not strange for me to see asians, africans, hispanics, etc everyday. The people here act like they've never seen anything like us. It is interesting to witness their intense national pride which is, always has been, always will be- Spanish. In America, just because you see someone of a different heritage, you can't assume that they are not American. Here, they know before you even open your mouth that you're not Spanish. And they make a point of staring at you without trying to hide it for however long you are in their presence. Awk-ward.......

Lately we have been getting made fun of more and more while walking around Seville. When they hear us speaking english they will yell "nah-nah-nah-nah" which is basically an insult apparently. Also, they will say with their Andalucian accents- "He-Lo, How- Ar-U? Which is even kind of worse because they are mocking us. Here, English is a compulsory subject until middle school. Good job spaniards.....after all that, all you can say is hello, how are you?

Amelia's house and neighbors! (the first white one)

Steps leading up to Amelia's deck!

A large rooster in the town square?

the town council

The town of Moron is so adorable. The houses are basically like town houses because they are all connected and pretty much the same layout. Due to the intense summer heat, all the houses are painted either white, or another very light color. Though they don't have screens on the windows, they do have bars on them?? What is the thinking here I wonder? Because bars on a 10-story apartment building couldn't just be for a saftey precaution. Anyway, here are some pics of this cute little town.

To my pleasant surpise, Amelia's wonderful mother made us PAELLA!!! I have been waiting and waiting and WAITING for paella, a traditional dish of Spain! She also made Gazpacho and Amelia's dad prepared arroz con leche (rice pudding). Everything was absolutely delicious!!!! We told her that it was our best meal ever since coming to Spain and she invited us to come back whenever we want! I was so glad to not see ANY ham on the table! For dessert after every meal we have fruit, so there was also fresh watermelon on the table and a couple hours later, she offered us Merienda (snack) of popsicles, cookies, and sugar donuts. Man, these people eat a LOT! Her mom kept saying "come mas, come mas!!" (Eat more!!) We never even finish what Mercedes makes for us but this was a true feast!!

Through every conversation we learn something new that is different here than in the US. For example, in Spain, when people get married they do not change their names. The name you are born with is the name you keep. They don't have middle names, but instead have a first name and two last names. The first surname is the surname of the father, and the second is of the mother. The father's surname is most important and will get passed on to the children.

Example..

Amelia Martinez Jimenez marries "Diego Francisco Lopez"

Childs name= "Juan Francisco Martinez"

However, there is still really no way to carry on a true lineage of one name, nor is it possible to distinguish who is in the same family and who lives together...

Again, we passed out after eating. And not just us, her mom too.We were just watching some tv and suddenly I couldn't keep my eyes open! I just cannot wrap my head around this whole "nap" thing... I was never a napper. But here, they either put some strong sedatives in their food or the combination of the heat, hot food, and afternoon just force you to fall asleep and you can't fight it! The Spanish aren't lazy, they literally can't help but take a siesta!

*****---okay, I officially confirmed my suspicions, thanks to Google. In pretty much every meal, the espanoles use Saffron which makes all the food yellow....... and doubles as a sedative!!! I knew I was being drugged......

After siesta, we walked around town and visited La plaza de Toros (bull ring!), a soccer field/sports area, and a park..... WITH ACTUAL GRASS!!!

toro toro toro!!La Plaza del toros

I really liked this town because it was so nice to take a little break from the busy city. Amelia and her parents are apparently amazed by the fact that I have a pool in my backyard. Along our walk, she pointed out every house that had a pool. There are like 3. Since people have barely any yard space, pools are pretty rare. Ironic, since it's so hot there, I thought everyone would have them. Anyway, this town was more like what I actually pictured Spain to be like.

Adios for now,

Buenas Noches!

Last night we met Amelia in the city for tapas and to take more pics of the beautiful buildings. Along this journey, we stopped for food and I ordered a couple different kinds of bocadillos (mini sandwich). However, these bocadillos were not so "mini" and I ended up with four huge sandwiches. Apparently a "doggie bag" isn't avaliable in Spain so I was stuck trying to eat as much as possible. I ordered... bocadillo de gambas- which basically turned out to be shrimp and mayonaise...? bocadillo Manchego- Manchego is a type of spanish cheese and is muy, muy bien but this sandwich included ham and pate. Little did I know, pate was duck and pig livers pureed into paste...YUCK! I kept asking Amelia if it was cooked because it looked like raw hamburger and I finally ended up scraping it off because it tasted a little strange (thank god). I also ordered tortilla de patata, which has potatoes, eggs, and onions. This is a really typical Spanish food and I like it but its a little too dry for me. It can be eaten like this.. or in a sandwich.

While walking along the street, I saw a sign for vino de naranjas (orange wine). I really wanted to try it because it was featured in my little tour guide book on Sevilla. Thank god we only got this much bc it tasted like whiskey! It was very strong and very sickeningly sweet.

Okay, here are some more pictures that I couldn't upload earlier..

This is at the Plaza de Espana, where each province of Spain is honored with a mural, here is Salamanca's mural

Bridge leading to the center of the plaza, over where water should be

There are probably millions of tiles, and thousands of columns like the ones in this pictures. All of these ceramic elements of the Plaza de Espana were hand-painted and each column is different from the next.

The ceilings!

Maria Luisa Park

huge tree trunks above the ground!!

A museum in the park

The NO 8 DO signs are found all over Sevilla. It is the motto of Sevilla and the figure 8 represents a skein of yarn- which translates to the spanish word "madeja." When you read the phrase aloud.. No madeja Do, it sounds like "no me ha dejado"- which means... 'It [Sevilla] has not abandoned me."

School and the Mall

Second day of class.... I think I slept through the first hour... I literally could not keep my eyes open.. we were already assigned to read about 12 pages in spanish and to do a 10 min presentation! ugh, I'm not ready for school again....especially four straight hours of it. Who signed me up for this class thing?? haha

At our school, everyone stares at us wherever we go, there are no water fountains anywhere, they don't have the technology that we have in the classroom, and there are only 8 ppl in our class, and we are the big class. haha, very different than PSU. The campus seems to be in the middle of a desert and the buildings are arranged by numbers, not names. Floors (there are only two) and they are A and B (alta y baja/upper and lower).

Some current trends among university students in Sevilla:

-baggy, harem pants for girls

-RAT TAILS for boys and girls!

-greek sandals

-wedge high heels

-soccer jerseys or logos on all clothing

-rompers for girls, sometimes the long pants kind

Here is a pic of one of the buildings

Today we met ....the nameless man. (We think his name is either Juan or Juilian or Julio) and he also may either be the husband our house mother is separated from, or her new bf.... all this info was lost in translation. Man, is he a talker. haha We now have a full history of Spain and their futbol league, art history, and places to visit in Portugal. Luckily, he was easier to communicate with because he is currently studying english. Though half the time he couldn't understand us and would repeat his explanations because he thought we didn't know what he was talking about when we spoke English. What a mess this language barrier is... We now realize, that when you are hanging out in Capital City mall and there are Spanish/Asian/etc people around you speaking a different language........ they actually ARE talking about you!! All we do is comment on the things that people are doing or wearing that is different than in the US.

Our house mother loves the girl who stayed here before us, Natasha. She talks about her almost every day and says how pretty she was. She told us the girl lived near a big lake, and we commented that we lived near lots of lakes also. So yesterday she showed us a rock.. supposedly from the bottom of Lake Michigan. We were really confused until we realized that she thought that we lived near the same lake as Natasha, from Michigan.

Another thing that's weird in Spanish is how nicknames rarely every correspond to the original name. For example... the nickname for Francisco= Paco... nickname for Ignacio=Nacho Eduardo=Lalo Mercedes= Mentxu ... just plain nonsense.

After lunch, we took our daily siesta (you don't mean to take a nap here, but you eat lunch and then just pass out). We each woke up with about 1 million bug bites because there are no screens on anyone's windows here in Spain so the mosquitos come in and bite us while we're asleep.

After that, we went to the mall in La Plaza Nervion----without getting lost!!! Shopping in the stores at the mall is very stressful because people will just push you over, butt in front of you in line, and yell at you if you're doing something wrong while they are all running past you. All the sizes are downsized a lot. If you are a small in the US, you're like a large in Europe. Plus I don't know how these people get into thier clothes because none of the dresses or rompers have zippers, nor does the material stretch?? It's a mystery.. Also, if you want to try on shoes, they make you try them on in front of them by the check out counter.. as if I'm going to put them on and walk away in them. Maybe I just look suspicious.. Who knows? At least I know how to order coffee effectively- "grande frappuchino caramelo con cafe y nata por favor.." Unfortunately, my beloved starbucks is very expensive here in Spain.

The most exciting news of this week, is that we're going to Lagos, Portugal this weekend!!! This Thursday is Corpus Cristi- a religious holiday here in Spain, and since its on a Thursday they do a "puente" (bridge), so that every has off Friday also. This way, there isn't a random day off in the middle of the week. So, Thursday, we will be going to visit Amelia's hometown for the day (called Moron) and to meet her parents. Her dad is making us arroz con leche (rice pudding) which I am very excited for. :) On Friday, we are taking a bus to Portugal through a program called discover Sevilla!! It includes transportation, a two-night stay in a hotel right near the beach, breakfast on Saturday and Sunday morning, a sunset excursion to the End of the World--Cabo San Vicente (Google it- it's gorgeous!!), tour guides, and a kickoff welcome party with free drinks! We cannot wait to hit the beach!! And I cannot wait to take a little break from the stressful city life. I have re-evaluated my life plans to include-- never living in a busy city where I have to use public transportation and risk my life when crossing the street. These cars literally do NOT stop for pedestrians. Another great thing about this trip to Lagos is that some of my friends who are in the ciee travel program are going so we will be able to meet up with them too!!

Well, that's all the exciting news for today.. Adios! :)