Finde en Salamanca

Hola Todos!

I hope everyone's semester is going swell! It's hard to believe March is just around the corner. El tiempo vuela (time flies), as they say.

Classes are now in full swing, with midterms coming up in about two weeks. I have been learning un montón de español, especially in my direct enrollment class with Spaniards. I thought I'd comment a bit on how my Spanish university experience differs from my experience back home at UW-Madison:

In general, lecture in Spain is just like lecture in the States. The professor talks while the students take notes and ask questions. Here however, the professor makes very little use of aids such as powerpoints or outlines; he will simply talk and expect you to write down what he is saying. While this can be frustrating at times, especially when you miss a key point, overall it's really great in terms of developing listening skills. It also forces student collaboration. Students will meet up outside of class to go over notes and concepts the professor has talked about.

The workload is a lot less rigorous than what I'm used to at UW. There are no homework assignments and no quizzes or essays throughout the whole term. That is not to say that there is no work, however. The professor expects you to work independently outside of class, reading works from an extensive bibliography given at the beginning of the semester. My grade is based solely on one final exam (85% of my grade) and one final paper (the remaining 15%). Both grades are based on my understanding of material presented in class, as well as my demonstration of having read works from the bibliography. I'm used to having more exams and homeworks factor into my grade, so this grading system is definitely intimidating, but I think I will do just fine.

In other news, last weekend I traveled with other kids on the yearlong program to the city of Salamanca, about 6 hours north of Sevilla. Salamanca is a city with a really rich history. Its university was founded in 1218, making it the oldest university in Spain, and the 3rd oldest in Western Europe. To this day, Salamanca continues to be a popping college town, attracting students from across the globe.

Friday on our way to Salamanca, we stopped in the town of Mérida, which is famous for its Roman ruins. We toured the old amphitheater and theatre, both very impressive.

While the amphitheater was not as big as the Colosseum in Rome, or the amphitheater in Itálica, it is still amazing to think that it has remained standing for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The Roman theater was jaw-droppingly astounding. It wasn't discovered until 1910, and the excavation and restoration continued up until the mid 70's. The theater has been put back to use for outdoor summer performances.

After our stop in Mérida, we continued on to Salamanca where we arrived in time for dinner. Our hotel was perfectly located, about 15 minutes walking distance from the center of the city where all the good restaurants and bars were located.

Saturday we woke up bright and early to do a walking tour of the city. Salamanca has a much different feel than Sevilla. All the buildings are made of stone, and you definitely felt that college town vibe. Among some of the sites we saw were:

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor is the central plaza of Salamanca. It's quite charming, with various shops and restaurants all around the square.

Door of the University

This main door of the University has beautifully detailed engravings all over it. Legend has it that if you can find the engraving of the frog hidden within that ornate picture, you will pass your exams.

Casa de las Conchas/ House of Shells

Salamanca is an important stop on the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostela. If you are a loyal reader of this blog (which I know you all are :P), you'll remember I mentioned in my Santiago post that the symbol of this pilgrimage is the seashell, which would explain why this building is covered in them.

                         
Catedral de Salamanca

Old Cathedral

New Cathedral

Technically, Salamanca has 2 Cathedrals which are conjoined. The old cathedral was built in the 12th Century and has a very romanesque, slightly gothic style. The "new" one was built in the 16th century and has a slightly gothic, very baroque style. Both are stunning. Despite the large number of cathedrals and churches I have seen during my travels, I am still always dumbfounded by the overwhelming beauty of each and every one.

Casa Lis

Saturday, we also toured Casa Lis, an Art Nouveau museum. Art Nouveau is a style that became popular in the 1890's and early 1900's. It is characterized by dynamic, moving figures, the use of curves, and elements from nature. While this style can be seen in painting and sculpture, it really made a big impact in interior design and decorative arts. On display in Casa Lis were a variety of furniture, jewelry, ceramics and decorative household items. It was unlike any other art museum I had been in, and was a delight to tour. 

Ceiling of Casa Lis

View of Salamanca from Casa Lis

hot chocolate with toffee!

Not to mention I had the best hot chocolate of my life in the museum café.

As you can see from the hot chocolate, I ate really well in Salamanca. Our Saturday night pinchos (tapas) dinner was PHENOMENAL. I am so sad that I forgot my camera to take pics, but here are some descriptions of a few of the tapas that I ate:

Lomo con Queso Roquefort - A pork tenderloin sandwich with blue cheese. I ate two of these. 

Morcilla con Queso y Chocolate - So Morcilla is blood sausage. Which is gross. Normally I can't stand to take even a bite of blood sausage. However the combination of cheese and chocolate somehow made this dish DELICIOUS.

Setas- Mushrooms. Another thing I generally don't like. They were doused in olive oil and salt and had a great taste. 

The best part about all these tapas: They were only one euro each! Ah the beauty of a college town. Eating well at a great price.

Saturday evening we hit up the bar scene and found a place that was having a 50's night, and we proceeded to dance the night away to some oldies. It was a quality ending to a quality day.

Sunday we woke up early to hit up one final tourist attraction before heading to Sevilla. We toured the Convent of St. Esteban, a Dominican convent that has been around since the 13th century. We got to tour the church and the cloisters, a perfect activity for a peaceful Sunday morning. 

And that about wraps up Salamanca! It was a great weekend. In other news, I'm looking forward to the arrival of my friend Jenny, who is studying in France! Jenny and I were roommates back at UW, and I am looking forward to seeing a familiar face as well as playing tour guide. It should be a rather fun weekend! 

The Carnaval Experience

Hello All!

The school week has finally come to a close, so I finally have time to catch up on the blogging. It is now two weeks into the regular semester, and I have only just finalized my schedule..whew! Here's a little info about my classes; it's shaping up to be pretty great semester!

1) Translation-Theory and Practice:
This will probably be the most useful class I take this semester. Transferring the same meaning and emotion from one language to another is no easy task, and I'm excited to develop this skill.

2) Methods of Teaching Spanish as a Second Language:
While I don't plan on being a Spanish teacher, I do work at UW as a Spanish tutor. In this class we are going to learn a bunch of different strategies and methods for teaching Spanish, which will most definitely be useful when I get back to Wisconsin.

3) 20th Century European Art History
This class is purely for enjoyment. I loved my Art History class so much last semester, I figured why not take another one? This is probably the last time in my academic career that I have room for a non-major related elective, so I am going to savor it!

4) Spanish of the Americas

I am really jazzed about this class for a variety of reasons. Firstly, this is a direct enrollment class at the University of Sevilla! That means I am in class with Spaniards, which will be a great way to meet students my age. Secondly, this is a super duper cool linguistics class! We learn about how the Spanish language evolved in Central and South America after Columbus arrived in 1492.

In other news, last weekend I went to the Canary Islands to experience Carnaval, a two week long pre-Lenten celebration. In my view, it was like Mardi Gras and Halloween combined. People dress in masked costumes, and there are parades and large street parties. Needless to say, it was quite an interesting weekend. It was also quite a learning experience. Not everything went as planned, but we learned to go with the flow and accept that things aren't always how you imagined.

We arrived really late on Friday night on the Island of Gran Canaria. We headed straight to bed to catch an early morning ferry to the island of Tenerife, where we were told the biggest Carnaval celebrations were taking place. We had bought tickets for just a daylong trip from 9am-8pm figuring that that would be plenty of time to experience Carnaval and explore the island.

We thought the ferry ride was only an hour long. It was not until halfway through the ride, when we asked someone on the ship, that we found out it was in fact 3 hours. No pasa nada, we thought. 9 hours is still plenty of time to view the island and see Carnaval.

We got to the island and, fell in love right away. Tenerife is quite charming. It's a mountainous island with beautiful views. The town was fun to walk around and explore, and the weather, while not hot, was better than the 60 degree weather in Sevilla. After walking around for a bit, we asked around for information about Carnaval activities happening that day. Upon finding a program, we realized with disappointment that the majority of activities would not start until 5 that evening. We were more than a little upset about missing the biggest part of Carnaval, but there was nothing we could do. We spent a beautiful day on a beautiful island. In the great scheme of things, how bad is that? Not bad at all.

The one Carnaval activity during the day were children's choir concerts in the park. Each school choir dressed in costume, and sang a few songs about Carnaval. While this was obviously geared towards the locals, and not the tourists, it was quite fun to watch.

We headed back on our 3 hour journey to Gran Canaria around 8pm. We were a little bummed out because we could hear the festivities starting, but we figured we would find something to do on Gran Canaria that evening. Carnaval was still going on on Gran Canaria (just not as big of a celebration) and we ended up finding a free concert where we danced the night away. Pop star Henri Mendez made an appearance. This song of his is really popular on Spanish radio right now:

Sunday we spent the day at the beach. While it wasn't quite warm enough to swim in the ocean, it was hot enough to sit out on the sand and soak up the sun. The beach front was so tranquil. We spent the day listening to the ocean, eating at different cafés, and relaxing.











Overall, the Canaries was quite a nice trip. We did not get to see as much of Carnaval as anticipated, but we still had a great time. We learned our lesson about trip planning. Had we been a bit more diligent in planning we would have seen more of the Carnaval that we wanted. However, we also learned to roll with the punches and savored our weekend on the islands.

Back in the Swing of Things

Well, I have been back in Spain for a little over two weeks and have gotten back into the Spanish routine. This adjustment was definitely a lot easier than the first. I'm staying with my same host family, I already know my way around, and I know more or less what classes I want to take.

These past two weeks I have been taking an intensive literature course on short stories from Latin America and Spain. A semester's worth of lit in two weeks was a little gross, but after reading Don Quixote, I was able to whip through all the short stories like nothing. While I did not enjoy the high quantity of papers I had to write, I did really enjoy the class. We had several projects, which lead me to various corners of Sevilla that I probably would never have discovered if I hadn't taken the course. I figured I'd share some of them with you!

El Real Monasterio de Santa Ines

This church was featured in one of the short stories we read, called Maese Pérez, el organista. This short story was written by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, a famous romantic Sevillano author. The story takes place in this church and is about the ghost of Maese Pérez, the organist, who haunts his beloved organ after he passes away. Today, the church is the home to Franciscan nuns who have chosen to be cloistered. This means that they do not step out of the convent, and have no contact with the world outside. One of our class projects was to visit the church, and listen to the nuns sing/ see the organ.

courtyard

entrance

My classmates had to wait outside in the courtyard for a bit before services began. It was super quiet, and so completely different from the noisy city sounds of Sevilla. The service was quite beautiful. The sound of the organs and the nuns singing filled up the church. Apart from the Cathedral, I haven't visited that many churches in Sevilla, which is a shame. They are all beautiful and filled with history. Goal Number 1 this semester: visit more churches.

Altar of Santa Inés Church

Becquer's Tomb
Another one of our projects was to go visit Becquer's tomb, which is located beneath the School of Fine Arts. Legend has it that if you write a wish or desire to Becquer, and put it in the statue of his grave, it will come true. Becquer is quite a beloved figure in Sevilla, and after reading one of his works, I understand why. His writing is elegant and beautifully descriptive. Maese Pérez was in my top 3 of short stories that we read during this course. Goal Number 2 this semester: Read more Becquer.

Becquer and my wish before I hid it
in the statue

El Hombre de Piedra

This was the most perhaps interesting/frustrating project of the class. At the beginning of the course we were put into pairs, and each given clues about a certain legend in Sevilla. Most people had clues leading them to a specific building or neighborhood. My clue was this picture, with the following caption:

"Algún Calle en Sevilla"
"Some Street in Seville"

Great. We have to go find the most nondescript statue that could be on any street in a giant city, with no other information. I asked Macarena, my host mom. She had no idea. I asked random people on the street in my neighborhood. No clue. Luckily Macarena's sister studied art history, and was able to tell me about the statue and the legend behind it. It's the legend of "El Hombre de Piedra," or "The Man of Stone."

This legend takes place way way back in the day, during the reign of King Juan II of Spain in the 1400's. The King made it law that whenever a religious procession of the holy sacrament passed by, all citizens must kneel before it. This was all fine and dandy, until one day the procession passed by a particular tavern where Mateo el Rubio was drinking with his friends. He decided to go against the king and the heavens, and declared that he would never kneel before the sacrament. Suddenly, a lightening bolt struck Mateo, converting him into a kneeling statue, and he has remained in the same spot since. 

Although we knew generally where the statue was, it still took my partner and I about 40 minutes to find it. It is such a tiny thing, and easily missed if you are not looking for it. Although it was frustrating, it was quite rewarding to find the statue and know the story behind it. Lots of Sevillanos don't even know the story about this statue, which makes me feel pretty darn cool. 

Success!

And that about wraps it up! Tomorrow, my regular semester classes begin. I am taking two through my program, and direct enrolling in two courses at the University of Sevilla. I'm a little nervous about the whole direct enrolling thing, but it will be a great way to meet Spaniards and will definitely improve my Spanish. Goal Number 3 this semester: Learn more Spanish! I'm also looking forward to going to the Canary Islands this coming  weekend for their celebration of Carnival. Stay tuned!