I’m currently on a train on my way to visit one of my dearest friends from St. Lawrence, Ariel Lash in Vermont. My planned 3 ½ hour car ride has somehow turned into a 9 hour train ride (I truly wish I was exaggerating). As my luck goes the train that I’m riding actually got struck by lightning, which interrupted the electric communication system. I have no idea what that means but that is how they announced it. Anyway, it is now almost 10:00 pm and I am one of four people left in this entire car of the train and the creepy guy two rows in front of me who is wearing a kilt just turned around and winked at me. Needless to say today will be marked forever as a day of many firsts for me, getting struck by lightning and all.
On to what this blog is all about in the first place –Spain! So as promised in my last entry I’ll give you an idea of what, at least the first few weeks of my time in Spain will be like. I’m saving writing about my families for the trip back since I already watched all of the movies I brought (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Notebook, Wedding Crasher’s and Roman Holiday. Quite the potpourri I know).
I leave the states from Boston and fly directly to Madrid on the evening of August 26th (Pop Kirby's birthday!) and arrive at Barajas Airport on the morning of August 27th. Once we arrive we separate our baggage and take only one bag while the rest of our luggage is sent to storage until we arrive in Madrid. We leave the airport with our one bag and go to Salamanca which is northwest of Madrid touching Portugal and we have three days of orientation.
On the 30th of August after our last orientation session we are transported to our Segovia village homes. Segovia is in central Spain and is just north of Madrid. The purpose of the Segovia village phase is to be immersed in the Spanish culture particularly in regards to language. Everyone in the program lives with a family and because Segovia is much more rural than Madrid these families are usually more traditionally Spanish. These two weeks are designed to be extremely language intensive and will probably be the most challenging time of the whole experience but I’m so looking forward to it as I think it will be the most rewarding two weeks of my experience as well.
After these two weeks the program then moves one last time to Madrid on the 15th of September. We have a few days of orientation and lectures on Madrid and time to adapt to our new living situation and then classes begin on Tuesday the 21st.
Here is a visual aid of these first few weeks in Spain for me.
Throughout the semester we go on several scheduled excursions throughout Spain as a group and there is also ample time for personal travel. Unfortunately this will be the first year ever that I will not be home for Thanksgiving and I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do for Christmas. Christmas in Spain is celebrated on January 6th which is the day of the Epiphany and so I could go home for Christmas without missing Spanish Christmas which would be really nice but at the same time I’ve heard from lots of people not to go home because it will make a lot of things more difficult for me and set me back several months as far as the language goes. Just last weekend I had a long conversation with my Dad’s cousin Christy about the predicament. Christy went to Hamilton and also spent a year abroad but in France and the programs sounded relatively similar. Christy felt very strongly that it was important to stay for the year and brought up a lot of other great advice for me. I’m so lucky to have so many people that can give great advice that I can trust. I think mama Lynne would be on board to celebrate Christmas in Europe but I think that Dad is going to be a harder egg to crack. I do see and feel the other side of the argument too and I know that I’m really going to be aching for home and my family if I don’t go back to visit at all so I guess we will see. As of now I still have a plane ticket home for Christmas but I suppose it is still somewhat of a pending matter. Please feel free to vote in the poll on the left side of the blog and give me your opinion and definitely leave a comment if you want to share more about what you think I should do about Christmas.
Even if I did go home for Christmas I would only be home for about five days before I returned to Spain because I’m planning on definitely spending New Years there. Can’t wait!! On January 10th, the internships for the year students begin. This is one of a few main reasons that I chose to stay for the year as opposed to only a semester. To me, the opportunity to have an internship in Spain was too good to pass up and it is a component only of the year program. I’m still not sure what my internship will be and I won’t find out for at least a little while but I’m SO looking forward to having this opportunity. I will definitely keep you all posted on this! As the other year students and I continue to work at our internships the Spring semester students will be arriving for the first time and beginning their village stay like the one I will have already done earlier in the year. Their village stay is in Salamanca rather than Segovia though. Second semester classes begin on February 14th and will be similar to the first semester in setup. There will also be several scheduled excursions throughout Spain but the places will be different than the first semester which will be nice.
I have a spring vacation in April for Easter (Pascua) and am SO looking forward to hopefully spending Easter and at least part of Holy Week (Semana Santa) in Seville where their Holy Week traditions attract Catholics from all over the world. Look here to read about this and see pictures. You can even just google “Semana Santa Seville” and look at the images to get an idea of the festivities. If you can get past the fact that much of the dress resembles the Klu Klux Klan you’ll see that it is truly one of the wonderfully preserved traditions of Catholic Spain. Monks from all over Seville and Spain process through the streets on each day of celebrations leading up to Easter. It really is worth reading more about. Very cool stuff. This would be a great time for any Catholics planning to visit to come. Or non-Catholics for that matter. I don’t discriminate if you have an appreciation for this type of thing. Either way I’m really hoping to be there and I hope that you are excited to read about it eventually!
Our classes end on April 29th and we then return to the states on May 8th. Wow. So crazy that all of this will be happening so soon! I’m scared because I know that much of my time in Spain will fly by but I hope that between keeping a blog and keeping a personal journal I will be able to appreciate and savor my time in España maybe a little bit more as it happens.
In my next post I will write about my Spanish host families and what I know about them so far!! Thank you for reading and please leave comments if you have any questions and continue to take the polls!! Love you all!!!
Besos (kisses!)
Kathleen
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