Wrapping up Segovia!

Helllo all!!!
Yet again I've been slightly negligent with my writing here but I do have SO much to fill you all in on. My life in Madrid has only just begun and I have zillions of stories already.

BUT FIRST! I wouldn't be right if I didn't write a little bit more about my experiences in Segovia. I only lived in Segovia for two weeks but it felt like I had lived there for months. I learned so much about the Spanish culture and language in those two weeks, probably more than I've ever learned in a classroom. While the first few days were much more challenging that I had anticipated the rest of my two weeks was far more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. In such a short time I became so close to this family that I had essentially just met and I even teared up when I boarded my bus to leave them for my new family in Madrid.

Mercedes, the mother, is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She always went out of her way to make sure that I felt included and at home. Almost every other day my laundry was done, folded and ironed. Yes, ironed. Almost EVERYTHING is ironed. I'm pretty sure that no one's host family used or even had a dryer. Clothes are washed and then hung out to dry and then ironed before being put away. There's a boy in my group who even had his socks and boxers ironed for him every day.

Nerea, my 22 year old host sister was unbelievably nice and patient with me. She spent some time studying abroad in the US near Albany, New York and so she could relate to the struggles that I went through, especially in the beginning. I have to say that studying abroad really gives me a whole new appreciation for international students and anyone who is ESL in the US. There is no possible way I could have ever been as patient with anyone as anyone, especially Nerea was with me. There were times  when I would ask about the same word at least three times in the same day but every single time they spoke to me slowly and would find a way to explain it to me that I could understand.

My host father, Antonio quickly became one of my favorites. He is just such a character. He appreciated my sense of humor and valued the opportunity to ask me questions about the US. At first he seemed rather anti-american citing Michael Moore films as realistic representations of the United States and asking me, "If the USA is supposed to be the most free country in the world why did you kill all of the Indians and make them live in reservations now?" I sat back and listened to how and why he had the opinions that he did about the US and grew frustrated with the complaints. I found that I came upon these frustrations a lot, especially in the beginning when I would hear Spainairds criticizing the US but at night 90% of the songs in the bars are American pop music, during the day 80% of the television programs are American shows dubbed in English and every night on the news almost half of the broadcast is dedicated to something pertaining to the US. This paradox between how central US culture is in their lives (especially in comparison to the almost non-existent presence of Spanish culture in our US lives) and how useless they would simultaneously claim the US to be left me frustrated, sometimes angry and always confused. I have yet to hear the same anti-american sentiments since I've been out of the pueblo but it was an interesting frustration to encounter nonetheless.

I've digressed. I meant to discuss how well I got along with Antonio despite our social and political differences. Antonio turned out to be my pal, cracking jokes all the time about all sorts of things. One thing he was fascinated with was how early American's eat dinner. When I told him dinner is usually around 6pm in the US he was absolutely shocked... convinced that I must be exaggerating. I remember hours after we had the conversation he would knock on my door every few minutes with a follow up question usually involving a circumstance in which it would be impossible to have dinner at that time. "What if, for example, your father's car broke down and he couldn't make it home before 9...." haha you get the point. Here in Spain the eating schedule goes as follows.... Desayuna (breakfast) is at around 9am or whenever you wake up and is usually just a coffee and cookie or toast at most. (More on the coffee here later) Comida (literally translates to food but is what we know as lunch) is eaten at home, with the entire family present at between 2:30 and 3:30 and it is more food than you could possibly imagine. There is almost always at least two courses if not more, almost always meat and always dessert. Anytime you eat between lunch and dinner is called Merienda although this doesn't necessarily happen each day. Cena (dinner) is served no earlier than 9:00 but usually closer to 10 and even later on weekends. Dinner is always smaller than lunch and breakfast is always the smallest of all. I've at this point become accustomed to it but for the first week or so it was actually pretty difficult to adjust to. Okay I've got so much more to say but I'll wrap up with things that I learned in Segovia about Spain that are different from in the US.

THE COFFEE! Okay, so this is one of my favorite things here. The coffee in Spain is way better than you'll ever have at starbucks. Antonio calls American coffee, "agua sucia" meaning dirty water. Water is never used in coffee here. Only milk and actual coffee. ¡Muy rico!

WATER here is unbelievable. It's a weird thing to note but the tap water in Spain is so good. I would choose it over the bottled water any day. It is something I know I'll dearly miss when I leave Spain, I'm sure.

SHOWER CURTAINS are nonexistent. This may not sound quite as weird as it actually is but imagine showering with no shower curtain!? Now imagine how much water is all over the bathroom after your shower  and how awkward it is to clean it up because there is no chance that you will be risking your slim supply of toilet paper. Which leads me to my next point...

TOILET PAPER is one of those things that you never appreciate when you have but always notice when you don't have it. I was one of the lucky people in Segovia who had toilet paper as an option but it was rarely in the bathroom when I needed it. I had to get awkwardly creative many a time. Some of the people in my group who shall remain nameless didn't have such a luxury and were left with only one option... to learn to use the bidet. I refuse to go into greater detail. While I never used it, there was indeed a bidet in my bathroom.

TRASHCANS were even more scarce than toilet paper. I'm pretty sure that everyone in my group was in the same boat as far as this went. There is only one trashcan in the entire house and its located in the kitchen and is reserved specifically for kitchen scraps. This may not sound quite as bad as it was but take my word for it, please. There was not even a trashcan in the bathroom. I really wanted to make an effort to abide by the customs of my family and not seem quite as unapologetically american as I'm beginning to believe I am and so I naturally created a secret garbage bag in my room. You laugh, but it got me through the two weeks in Segovia. Imagine not having anywhere to throw out your kleenex, q-tips, tags, scrap paper etc. I kept it (my secret stash) behind my suitcase and beneath the dresser in the corner of my room so that my family wouldn't see that I was hoarding trash in my room. Even harder than keeping it hidden was transporting it on my 45 min bus trip to school to throw out. Seems silly in retrospect but fitting a bag of garbage into my school bag was at one point a serious concern in my life.  (update... I now have my own trashcan in my room in Madrid!)

BREAD is served with every meal and you WILL be judged if you don't eat all of it. Spaniards say that you can tell who is an American because they only eat with one hand and barely eat all of their bread. All you have to do to spot one is look for the left hand sitting on the sidelines and there you go, you've found an American. I've made a conscious effort to not fall into this category since I already have the blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin working against me and believe me... easier said than done but this is what I've learned. Bread is the secret weapon to always using both hands. If you're not using your left hand to cut the meat then you should have bread in it at all times. Bread is kind of a utility player if we're talking baseball. It serves many purposes and can thus always be in your left hand ready for action. You can just eat it, use it as a shoveling device to get food onto the fork or everyone's favorite, use it as sponge to wipe the plate clean before you then resort to option one and eat it. Just to clarify when I say bread I'm not talking wonder bread I'm talking baguettes. Every family goes through about one full baguette a day. If you come to Spain and want your family to like you just ask for more bread. I swear the first time I asked my host mom here in Madrid for more bread there were tears in her eyes. She later even called her friend to tell her about it she was so proud. I truly wish I were kidding/exaggerating on anything in the bread section but I'm not. Bread is life here.

SIESTA! Boy do I love siesta-ing. Siesta is a special time in the Spanish day reserved just for a little post lunch nap. Trust me, the amount of food that you get at lunch is enough to exhaust you right into a siesta but the key is to not sleep too long. At first it was hard to maintain this balance but I now consider myself on the way to being a professional.

In the two weeks that I was in Segovia I did so many things and really got a huge taste of Spanish culture. I couldn't possibly do them justice with this list but I've at least tried. I went to an Atletico de Madrid game, I tried an unreal amount of new food, I experienced so many customs and even got to experience the small town summer fiestas. While I may have only been there for a little over two weeks, I will forever cherish the time I spent in Segovia and all I learned from my incredible host family there.

I'd write more about Madrid now but I can't imagine that if you're reading this you'd be wanting to hear any more for just yet and so I'll let these thoughts linger and soon post more on what my life in Madrid is like. Get excited! More pictures to come soon too!

xxxx
Muchos besos de España,
Kathleen