olá, portugal!

i've been inspired to keep you all updated on this thing. two weekends ago, a couple of friends and i took advantage of our long weekend and made a trip over to portugal. i've been eager to visit since i set foot on the peninsula ibérica and this extended weekend presented itself as the perfect opportunity.

we flew from madrid to porto, the second largest city in portugal. it's much smaller and less hustly/bustly than madrid, but i was overwhelmed by it's simple elegance and tradition.

the fachadas of the buildings are almost always covered with azulejos, beautifully decorated tiles of all different colors. when we stepped out of the confusing metro, the first thing i saw was a church covered with traditional blue azulejos. awesome!

the weather was blah: overcast, rainy, cold. not my favorite... but it was fun exploring, nonetheless. i enjoyed wandering through the city, snapping pictures of cute signs and quirky graffiti. for some reason, i was extremely excited to see grammatically correct written portuguese... accents and everything! i think only i enjoyed this, being the language/grammar freak that i am.

my favorite part of porto was definitely the rio douro. the river splits the city in half and looks positively majestic after sundown. the coastline opposite us was sprinkled with various illuminated signs advertising the numerous wineries known for their famous varieites of vinho do porto. my friends and i were excited to participate in some wine tasting, but after a failed two-hour excursion along the river, up countless hills and down poorly lit streets, we were less than enthused to find out the famous solar do vinho do porto was absurdly difficult to find, nearly empty, and a little too swanky for our taste. not to mention the fact that they didn't serve the cheesecake our guidebook had promised.

the trip also presented a great opportunity for me to practice meu português falado. the first couple instances in which i opened my mouth, the responses were in english. not the best feeling in the world... but after a few more tries, i realized the portuguese are much more friendly than the spaniards when it comes to foreigners attempting to speak their language. my first few experiences en español within the first month en españa were more than unsettling, complete with plenty of snooty facial expressions.

one portuguese man was a little too nice: on our train ride from porto to lisboa, he came out of nowhere (from behind me) and began asking us where we were from and if we spoke portuguese. at first, i thought he was just being friendly, then he began joking at one of my friends had stolen his seat? he continued to pester me with questions about obama and awkward stories about his children all over the world, two of which are less than two years old? i found it particularly disturbing because he was definitely around sixty years old himself. further into the train ride, it was obvious he didn't have a ticket, since he was avoiding the train officials like the plague and chillin' in the compartment between cars. i was glad to see him leave...

once in lisboa, we were thrilled to see busy streets, people out at night and that our hostel was one of the top-ranked hostels on hostelworld.com... and rightfully so. it was cozy, comfortable and crazy colorful. the owner was an adorable portuguese woman, eager to practice her english and spoil her guests. the free breakfast, wifi, milkshakes on mondays and occasional chicken soup for dinner definitely tickled my fancy.

our adventures in lisboa were much more exciting than wandering the streets of porto. we ventured to the castelo do são jorge, a medieval castle that overlooks the entire city of lisboa, and the world famous pastry shop pastéis de belém that sells the devilishly delicious pastéis de nata, cream pastries topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon. i ate five in one sitting. we eventually made it out to sintra to visit the palácio da pena, a colorful 19th century castle reminiscent of disneyland. we picked possibly the worst day to go, leaving us with a view of the fog instead of the countryside and lisboa in the distance. i randomly saw one of my classmates from portuguese class at ucsb, who happens to be studying in lisboa for the semester and also picked the worst day to visit sintra. the next day, we visited the oceanário de lisboa (the second largest in europe!) and enjoyed the company of the fish, penguins, sea otters and tropical birds.

last but not least, we visited a brasileira, the first of the now chain cafés in which 20th century poets would congregate and compose. the most famous portuguese poet, fernando pessoa, was one of the regulars and has a statue situated in his customary seat. i was thrilled to finally pay a visit to the very place where he conjured up countless poems and the life stories of his brilliant heterônimos.

sorry for the length of my entries. i always end up telling vivid stories instead of jotting down brief blurbs... thanks to those of you who made it to the end.

vou voltar com a minha irmã durante as férias da natal... mal posso esperar a voltar a porto e lisboa para ver o resto da cidade, comer mais pastéis de nata e melhorar meu português.

high five me?

wow, i officially fail at life when it comes to updating this thing.

so much has happened since i last updated: finished ilp with flying colors, mini vacay to mallorca with friends, wild nights out in madrid, two trips to the santiago bernabéu for real madrid games (both champions league, it was awesome!), adjustment to the spanish school system, successful tryouts and games with both the ucm (complutense university) and facultad de farmacia (farmacy department) fútbol sala teams, nerve-wracking group presentation in my latin american short story class, fiesta de halloween with roomies and friends, broken appliances (toilet, shower, and fridge?!) in the apartment... up next: 6 day trip to portugal!

now, where to elaborate... the biggest change for me, by far, has been getting used to the spanish school system of higher education. classes start 10-15 minutes late, as everyone arrives casually and fashionably late, even professors (if they decide to show up?) the cafeterias serve food to be eaten with a fork and knife, beer and martinis, and an insane amount of café con leche. color photocopies are a new fad, readers are non-existent (you must buy readings separately), and no homework is given... ie, you're expected to read and look up information on your own time, which obviously means i won't do anything semester long? also: students take notes on either blank printer paper or graph paper. in my mind, that's just a big WTF?!

initially, i was taking five courses: three in spanish literature (hello major requirements), one in elementary portuguese (to keep meu português fresh my mind), and one in spanish grammar (it's always necessary). the subject matter of the literature classes are just what i expected, but teaching methods... not so much. por ejemplo:

el cuento hispanoamericano: 20th century latin american short stories, we're reading some really good shit. too bad the professor doesn't actually teach; i think she has two days of lecture the entire semester? the rest of the class periods are divided up into group presentations (interpretation of the story + explanation, analysis, etc.)... my group presented on rubén darío, a nicaraguan cuentista, sometimes considered el príncipe de las letras castellanas. my american friend and i presented on El pájaro azul, in which a young poet characterizes his (in)sanity as a blue bird that fights for its freedom from the cage of his brain... in the end, he commits suicide and we had to portray it front of the class and give a 20 minute presentation of themes, analysis, etc. i was ridiculously nervous to be speaking in front of a large group of people, but it turned out ok. we had a future professor in our group who picked up our slack and shaved his head in front of the class for the last part of our presentation... pure dedication. extra credit?

next, literatura española desde 1975: post-franco literature, evidently with anti-fascist, liberal undertones... sounds interesting, right? our professor is without a doubt incredibly intelligent, talks for an hour and half off the top of her head, throwing out dates, statistics, names, facts about anything imaginable. she just can't teach. no structure, no organization, extremely difficult to follow, doesn't go over any particular readings? literally everyone is confused in the class, even native speakers. we'll see how the final exam goes.

literatura y cine: in other words, a deeper look into the cinematic portrayals of don quijote de la mancha throughout the years. the first couple films were in black and white from the 1930's and 40's... in addition, the class starts at 16:30 (4:30 pm) and the classroom is always warm... aka nap time for miss allie browne. the fourth film we watched was a musical adaptation starring sophia loren... purely ridiculous. i stayed awake for the majority of the film, since there were some humorous lines and hilariously cheesy songs.

gramática avanzada: advanced grammar class through our education abroad program, ie solely made up of students from the UC system. it's by far my favorite class, our professor, nieves, is so sweet, enthusiastic, adorable and undoubtedly helpful. we actually get homework, discuss pertinent information and LEARN (unlike the rest?)...

finally, portugués 1 (nivel elemental): by far, the biggest waste of time of my life. class was in a computer lab, with the imminent distraction of having the internet at our disposal. our teacher wouldn't speak portuguese, assigned us no homework, and only paid attention to the front row and/or native speakers of portuguese? she would play slow, monotonous recordings meant for foreign students, but in actuality i think i've learned more from listening to a brazilian samba song with a dictionary in hand. needless to say, i abandoned ship and have set up an intercambio with a french girl who wants to learn english; she has studied portuguese for 6 years and knows her stuff. we'll meet for coffee once a week or so, talk 45 mins in english and 45 mins in portuguese. can't wait!

what else... fútbol sala. who knew it would be so different from full field fútbol 11? the coach makes fun of me because i don't understand the different runs and am completely lost when we try to attack in a unique formation... but somehow when i stop thinking and play the way i always play, i manage to create opportunities and score goals. good enough for me.

i'm sorry this entry is so long, i've been putting it off and i just had to get it all out there. i'm sorry i went into such great detail about classes, it's not that interesting but it's pretty much what's on my mind these days... in addition to the fact that i miss california weather, mexican food, and retail stores (trader joe's, target!)...

more to come. portugal on wednesday! a great opportunity for me to practice my third language, enjoy some cheap eats (pasteis de nata, bacalhau), medieval castles, take some awesome jumping pictures, and enjoy the cultural diversity of the iberian peninsula.

i'll update again soon, i promise.

cloudy day.

so i realized in order for the majority of my loved ones to read this, i have to write in english :)

today we took our ILP placement exam; it was four hours long and didn't seem too difficult. i ended up in the middle group, which wasn't exactly what i was hoping for. i'm not comparing myself to those who made it into the most advanced group (that doesn't do anyone any good), but a spot in grupo III would have been an affirmation that i'm on the right track and actually succeeding at what i want to do. looks like a bit of a reality check: this is going to be much more difficult for me than i had expected.

at least the books for grupo II are the cheapest! i save 15 euros... and the way i look at it, that goes to more churros and sangría.

aside from the less than perfect events of the morning, i had a shitty siesta. there was a strong breeze that kept slamming my bathroom door yet somehow my room still felt like a toaster oven.

i can't wait to get a fan... which doesn't seem too difficult, except that nothing is easy in this city. gone are the one stop shopping trips to target and albertsons. everything is very spread out, only accessible by metro, bus, and eventual trek by foot. i've been doing my best to enjoy myself throughout madrid, but i've realized that 4-6 hour walking excursions are doing more harm than good for my knee. i'm desperately hoping that my knee gets by the better by the end of the week so i can begin to explore more easily and painlessly.

it also doesn't help that the food in our "comedor" is very uninspired: i don't know how much more fried, colorless, oily mush i can take. who knew fresh vegetables were such a delicacy. the closest thing is the sorry excuse for a salad bar... sad looking iceberg lettuce, tomatoes that have a slightly dirty after taste, canned and pickled carrots, onions, and the occasional strange pasta salad. all this is topped off with olive oil as dressing? andi and i are making a list of dishes we plan to make once we get out of the colegio mayor; it mainly consists of elaborate salads, steamed vegetable dishes, and anything involving fresh fruit.

the change in my diet and my inability to exercise have me feeling under the weather. i know this is just temporary, seeing as i am in one of the most amazing cities in the world, but this is going to be a long first month. i have a feeling life won't start until i have readily available delicious food and i'm playing fútbol on a regular basis again.

i promise the next entry will be more uplifting.

¡hola!

¡HOLA, MADRID! ha sido casi tres días que llegamos en madrid pero todavía tengo problemas con descanse de horario. es normal, obviamente, pero quiero vivir un día madrileño normal.

es la primera noche en el colegio mayor; hace tanto calor! el fiasco más destacado de hoy fue cuando tenía que subir tres tramos de escaleras con las maletas tan pesadas porque el edificio no tiene acensor! que difícil. el cuarto es muy pequeño pero tiene mucho espacio para quedar las cosas. así tengo que dejar las ventanas abiertas pero estoy paranoica que alguien puede entrar el cuarto aunque estoy en el tercer andar? he conocido mucha gente de california, sobre todo tanta de ucsb. creo que casi mitad del programa son gauchos? somos verdaderos vacilones, no? jaja. conocí una mujercita de ucla que conoce una enemiga de la escuela secundaria en ventura y la disgusta también; fue algo muy raro pero muy chistoso.

seis amigos y yo (seis mujeres, un hombre... que suerte! jaja) cogemos el metro (sí, uso la definición castellana, coger ≠ joder) y fuimos a Sol para churros con chocolate y sangría. compramos demasiado chocolate y tuvimos que pedir más churros... que delicioso.

la rodilla todavía está inflamada y me dolía mucho cuando caminamos por la ciudad. espero que se mejore pronto porque tengo que hacer un tipo de ejercico! y también tengo que ponerme en forma para tratar a jugar en el equipo universitario de fútbol.

ya no he hablado mucho español. paramí es un problema, pero estoy seguro que cuando empeiza el curso intensivo, todos vamos hablamos mejor :)

para los que no entienden español, me preguntan y escribiré en inglés. creo que es buena práctica para pensar en español... buenas noches a todos!