Update

Hello everyone!  Since this week is going to be pretty busy for me, I unfortunately will not have time to update my blog on my usual Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule.  Our classes are almost over, so we've been getting quite a bit of work before the end of the program.  Where did the time go?

For my blog this week, I will be writing about my amazing trip to Barcelona!  A group of 11 of us spent Thursday through Sunday in the beautiful city.  I have so many incredible pictures to post!  I'm planning on writing one entry for every day I was there.  I hope to write one entry during the week (depending on how effecient I am with homework), but my entries will definitely be done after this coming weekend.  Be sure to check back later!

Delicious Desserts

I've tried some pretty amazing desserts while living in Santander.  Here's a collection of the desserts I've eaten on this trip so far:

Churros con chocolate

This dessert is a must-have if you ever visit Spain.  A churro is basically a doughnut that you dip into a thick cup of chocolate.  Unlike churros in the United States, Spanish churros are not sweet at all.  You are given a pack of sugar on the side to pour on top of the churros.  The cup of chocolate is a combination between hot chocolate and chocolate pudding.  It is impossible to eat the chocolate by itself because it's so rich.  But it makes an excellent combination and dessert.  Because the flavors of the churros were so rich, I actually felt sick after eating them.

  

Canónigos

This is a very traditional dessert from the Cantabria region.  We ate this at a restaurant in Picos de Europa.  The dish consists of an egg meringue (the brown blobs) floating in a cream sauce.  It looks a little strange, but I promise you that the dish is really good.  The egg meringue is light and fluffy, while the cream sauce tastes just like melted ice cream.

Fruit with chocolate fondue

We got this at the same cafe where we ate our churros.  You really can't go wrong with delicious, fresh fruit dipped in amazingly smooth milk chocolate.  This chocolate was much thinner than the chocolate that was used for the churros.  It was a great, refreshing snack.

Mango/Blackberry Gelato

While visiting San Sebastián, we stopped for some gelato for a quick snack.  Even though every flavor looked amazing, I decided to go with fruit flavors.  I couldn't decide between the blackberry and the mango gelato, so I got a half scoop of each.  Definitely a great choice and hit the spot on a warm day!

Flan (unfortunately, no picture)

My madre occasionally makes me flan after dinner.  It's a custardy dessert that has the same texture as jello.  It doesn't really have a particular flavor.  The Spanish flan is very similar to Mexican flan or flan that you would order in the United States.

Current Events

As I've been in Spain, many interesting current events have occurred.  Sometimes during dinner, my madre and I will watch the 9:00 news.  I can comprehend a good amount of the news, but it helps to have my madre clarify everything.  I've noticed that many Spanish college students use newspapers as their primary source of news.  When we work in the dorm study lounges, the students flip through all the newspapers at the table.

15M Protests
This is probably the biggest event going on in Spain right now.  Due to the incredibly high unemployment rate, students who just graduated from college cannot find jobs.  As a result, they have begun to protest the lack of jobs and demand that the Spanish government help solve the unemployment problem.  These students have no place to live, so they camp out in the streets of major cities, like the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.  Some of the students on our study abroad program recently went to Madrid and witnessed the campsites.  They said that the streets are filled with tents that are occupied by people of all ages.  The surrounding area is incredibly dirty and smelly.  15M gets its name from the first day of protests- the 15th of May.

Several problems have risen due to the 15M protests.  The protestors do not have a leader, so it's hard for them to get any goals accomplished.  The Spanish government has counteracted with a demand that the students leave the streets or face consequences.  On the news, I've seen many videos of the police violently beating up protesters.  Unfortunately, the students have not made progress, and it seems like the protests are at a standstill.

Although I didn't view the original 15M protests, I have seen similar student protests in Santander and San Sebastián.  Like the protests in Madrid, the students here have taken up residence in major plazas of the city.  During the day, the students hang out and converse in the plazas, while they sleep in tents at night.  However, the protests in the smaller cities have significantly less participants.  In Madrid, the entire street is packed with people, while in Santander and San Sebastián, there's a much smaller number.

Here's some pictures of the 15M protests in Santander.  I took these at 8:30am which explains why there is little activity going on:

Protest signs that the students have hung up.

More signs.  You can also see some of the belongings of the protesters.

I'm so mad that this picture turned out blurry!  This is a group of couches in the plaza where people are actually sleeping!  No tent or anything.  I would have tried to take a better picture, but I thought it would be a little strange if someone woke up and saw me taking pictures of them sleeping.

We also saw 15M protests in San Sebastián:

This is a good view of the tents where the protesters live.

Local Elections

Local government elections took place during one of the first weekends we were here.  It was interesting because the citizens vote on a Sunday, compared to voting on a Tuesday in the US.  I enjoyed seeing the campaigning that the politicians did.  For example, many posters of the candidates are hung up throughout the city.  Someone decided to put large red dots on the candidate's noses to symbolize that politicians are clowns.  In Cantabria, Partido Popular (PP), a right-winged party, won the election.  This will clash with the political party of the president of Spain, Zapatero, who is Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE).

E coli Outbreaks

As you probably heard, Europe was hit with a wave of e coli outbreaks.  The disease was really prevalent in Germany, but cases were found throughout Europe.  When news of the outbreak was first heard, all of our parents either sent us emails regarding the outbreaks or told us to be careful.  At first, the German government stated that Spanish peppers were the cause of the outbreak.  This later proved to be false, so Germany was forced to pay millions of dollars to Spain to make up for the loss in profits.  I was initially concerned with the e coli outbreak because my madre makes me a salad with every dinner and puts red and green peppers in a lot of my food.  But as I learned that the origins of the e coli bacteria were from Germany, I felt better about eating vegetables.  Fortunately, no one in our group got sick.

At the UIMP

Every day, you can find me either in class or hanging out at the UIMP (pronounced weee-mp).  The UIMP is a special language institution that teaches Spanish to foreigners and teaches English to native Spanish speakers.  This is not a "true" university because they only offer language classes, rather than a variety of subjects.  For many native students, they take English classes at a variety of language institutions (such as the UIMP) and go to college at a university, like the near-by University of Cantabria.

There are a bunch of students from all over the world at the UIMP.  The majority of kids that live on campus and take English classes are from Spain.  We've also met a lot of students from the US who are taking Spanish classes such as college students from Florida and Texas.  Last week, high school students from California arrived to take classes.  I can't imagine participating in a study abroad program at 15 years old!  Many of the English teachers are from England and Ireland, so it is interesting to talk to them as well.

My three classes here are way different than in the US.  We only have students in our program in our classes, so our class sizes are incredibly small.  I'm used to classes from anywhere between 25 students to 300 students.  At the UIMP, my biggest class has about 14 people!  Next, the structure of the class is a bit different.  I feel that the classes here are more casual and interactive.  In the US, the teacher usually lectures about the topic.  We can ask questions and sometimes the teacher plans a little activity to complete.  In Spain, the professors don't even start on time!  They usually begin anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes late.  In my culture class, we often ask questions regarding our experiences in Spain that serves as the basis for the day's lesson.  In my other two classes, the classes are more lecture-based.  However, the professors take the necessary time to go over the lesson, rather than strictly sticking to the syllabus.  Finally, the biggest difference is the grading scale.  My school in the US does the 4 point scale, while in Spain, the students are graded on a 0-10 scale.  A 7 and above is considered a really good grade.  When our grades are transferred over to the US scale, a 10-9 is considered a 4.0, 8 is a 3.5, 7 is a 3.0, etc.  It's a pretty tough scale!

Here's a little tour of the UIMP:

This is the entrance to the UIMP.  The campus consists of the UIMP building and four dorm buildings.  The little hut in the middle is the reception area.

Welcome to the UIMP!

This is the building where we have classes.  Although there are four stories, I just have classes on the first floor.

Another angle of the classroom building of the UIMP.  That pink blob on the right side is my finger nail.

Walking into the main entrance of the building.

Going through the hallway to the computer labs and classroom.

Here's the door way to the classroom.  I actually have the majority of my classes in this room.

Here's the classroom!  We put all of our desks into a horseshoe shape since there's a pretty small number of us.  We don't have traditional desks- just a little writing surface connected to the chair.  

This is the computer lab where we spend the majority of our non-class time.

Another view of the computer lab.

This is the other end of the UIMP building.  Straight ahead is the cafe where I usually buy a café con leche to keep me awake for art history.

Here's the dorm area of the UIMP campus.  Each building has three floors of dorms as well as a study lounge.

There are four dorm buildings at the UIMP, and there's a little pool in the middle, but it's too shallow to swim in.

And to wrap up the tour, this is the view of Santander located right behind the UIMP.

Thanks for joining me!

*In other non-school related news, I wrote about my experiences eating morcilla last Friday.  Guess what I had for dinner tonight?  Morcilla.  My madre put ground up morcilla, red and green peppers, and cheese in a soft taco.  It was pretty difficult to eat.

I Can't Believe I Ate That!

I really do like the food in Spain, but recently I ate some stuff that made me cringe when I found out what it was.  

This is the picture of the cocido montañés that I ate at a restaurant during our trip to Picos de Europa.  Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this dish!  It was a delicious stew filled with white beans and various meats such as the rib (at the top of the picture) and the chorizo (red meat in the middle of the picture).  My madre makes me variations of this type of dish, and I love it.

However, I had two very unpleasant bites while eating this stew.  The first came when trying to eat the white blob located on the right side of the picture.  I just assumed that it was a potato because of the color.  My madre also puts potatoes in the cocidos she makes for me.  I tried to cut the potato with my spoon, but it was pretty difficult to cut into a smaller bite.  I then attempted to eat the bite of the potato.  It was too rubbery and impossible to chew.  I just thought that they put a piece of an uncooked potato in the stew, so that's why I couldn't eat it.  I asked the other girls at the table if their potatoes were uncooked.  Our program director who was eating with us informed me that it was not a potato, but a piece of fat.  So yeah, I tried to eat a blob of fat, and I do not recommend the experience.

The next questionable food I ate was the brown sausage located at the bottom of the picture.  I've actually eaten this food before in a stew that my madre made for me.  Whenever I don't know the name of the food I'm eating, I always ask her what the Spanish name for the food item is.  When I asked her about this particular item, the name didn't ring a bell, so I forgot what it was called.  Based on its shape and taste, I assumed it was a type of sausage.  However, I was surprised at how easily it fell apart.  Usually I need a knife to cut a piece of chorizo, but this sausage could be easily cut with a fork.  I thought that the sausage was fine- it wasn't the greatest food in the world, yet I didn't struggle to eat it.  Flash forward to the cocido stew at Picos where the same sausage was in my food.  I was informed that what I thought was a sausage was actually morcilla.

What is morcilla?  Well, in English, it is referred to as "black pudding." What is black pudding?  It's a meatless sausage that is made by cooking animal blood with rice.  It's an incredibly popular dish here in Spain, especially in the northern/central regions.  But now that I know what morcilla is made with, I don't think I'll be trying it again.  

Has it Really Been One Month?

It seriously seems like yesterday when I wrote my two week anniversary post, and now I've been here for one month?  Crazy!  Time is just flying by.  The remaining month will go so quickly with more schoolwork and trips planned.  Here's just a little reflection half-way into my study abroad.

When I planned on arriving in Spain, my major goal was to become really good at speaking Spanish.  I'm a pretty decent writer and reader, but I always felt that my speaking skills couldn't compare.  Now that I've been here a month, I'm starting to see many improvements in my Spanish!  My pronunciation is becoming more authentic, and I'm able to speak a bit more fluidly.  My vocabulary has grown exponentially since we seriously learn at least 15 new words a day in classes.  I also feel that I'm learning words that native speakers actually say, compared to textbook Spanish.

I'm most proud of how much I'm participating in class.  Back in high school and still in college, I often hesitate to raise my hand and answer questions.  I'm a totally new, talkative person here!  I try to speak at least once per class everyday.  I'm sure this is one of the reasons why my Spanish is improving.  Even if I'm not completely right, I offer my opinion anyway.  I really hope I can transfer this new attitude on participation back to the United States.

During these past few weeks, our group overall has gotten pretty homesick.  Surprisingly, it hasn't hit me yet.  It is hard being so far away from my family and friends, but I feel so connected to them despite our distance.  I talk to my mom multiple times a day (through Facebook, email, texting, and Skype), and it's easy to keep in touch with friends through Facebook.  I do wish it was easier with Skype since my internet connection isn't always working effectively.

I also wanted to thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  I really do enjoy writing about my trip, so thank you for reading about my Spanish adventures.  If you ever have any questions about Spain/studying abroad, please feel free to ask!  If there's a specific topic you would like me to write about, I'd love to know, too!

San Sebastián!

On Saturday, I took a day trip to San Sebastián!  This was not organized by our program, so it was my first experience organizing a trip on our own here.  Prior to living in Santander, I had never heard of San Sebastián.  I learned that it's a major city located in País Vasco (Basque Country).  It rivals Santander in its beach tourism.  Other students as well as professors said that a visit to the beautiful city would be worthwhile.  So this weekend, five other students and I decided to travel to San Sebastián.

We woke up bright and early to board the bus at 9:30.  We decided to meet at a plaza at 8:45-9:00 so that we could walk to the bus station together and buy our tickets.  The bus was very nice (it wasn't a school bus), but we were surprised how full it was.  I fell asleep for most of the ride which made the time pass faster.  The bus made a few stops before arriving in San Sebastián at 12:30.  We were pretty hungry, so we stopped for a quick lunch at a cafe located close to the bus station.  After that, we were on our way to tour the city!

Our first goal was to walk to the tourism office so that we could get a map.  On the way, we walked through an adorable downtown seeing many cute stores, impressive cathedrals, and cool architecture.  Once we got the map, we just started walking to the sites that the map recommended.

On our way to downtown San Sebastián.

I love the beautiful apartments and how you can see the cathedral through the middle of the street.

Front view of the Catedral Buen Pastor

Side view of the Catedral Buen Pastor

Iglesia San Vicente

Iglesia Santa María

Another view down the apartments.  These streets are pedestrian only, so no cars can pass through.  There are usually shops or restaurants on street-level and then apartments above.

The Aquarium

An awesome tunnel where you can walk through the tank, and fish, turtles, and sharks swim all around you.

Playa de la Concha

Plaza de la Constitución

Another view of Plaza de la Constitución.  It's basically an open area filled with lots of restaurants and people.

El Ayuntamiento.  These consist of the city hall building (above) as well as the surrounding plaza.  Many cities, including Santander, have their own Ayuntamiento.  It may be hard to see, but the blue sign on the building says "2016."  Apparently San Sebastián is one of the cities nominated to be the cultural capital of Europe in 2016.

The beautiful gardens found in el Ayuntamiento

After walking around, we hit the beach for a while.  Most of us accidentally fell asleep, so we ended up spending more time at the beach than we would have liked.  Oops!

Around 6:00, we walked around the downtown area to find a restaurant.  Unfortunately, Spanish bars/restaurants do not serve actual meals until 9:00pm (crazy!), so we ended up eating tapas.  This was my first experience eating authentic Spanish tapas!  The bar counter of the restaurant was completely covered in tapas.  The waiter gave you a plate, and you could choose whatever tapas you wanted and how many you wanted.  When you were done, you just told the man how many you ate and then paid.  I got three tapas.  My favorite was one with a piece of bread topped with bacalao (cod fish), a sauce, fried onions, and possibly a potato.  It was amazing!  I also got one with mushrooms and a tortilla española that had fish in it.

Once we were done, we started to walk back to the bus station and hit some shops along the way.  Our bus left promptly at 9:10pm, and we arrived back in Santander around 11:50pm.  I had such a great time exploring a new city in Spain!

My biggest regret in taking this trip was not researching a little about the city before visiting it.  Although everything was amazing to see, I felt that my trip would have been enhanced by learning some information about the cathedrals or other buildings we were seeing.  Well, now I'll know for next time!  

La tortilla española

I've noticed that on the past two Fridays that I have been posting entries on food.  Continuing with this trend, today I will be discussing the best Spanish food ever- La tortilla española.

Typically just referred to as la tortilla, this dish is not to be confused with the Mexican food item of the same name.  La tortilla is basically an egg omelet filled with potatoes!  It's pretty much served everywhere in Spain.  Our madres make us this for dinner, and you can order it at any bar/restaurant that you go to.

La tortilla can either be served warm or cold.  Personally, I prefer to eat it warm, but it's still amazing at any temperature.  A true tortilla only is made with eggs and potatoes.  However, people do make la tortilla filled with a variety of other ingredients.  At a cafe, you can usually order the standard tortilla, a vegetable tortilla, a meat (usually ham or chorizo) tortilla, or a tuna tortilla.

Maybe I'm a little biased, but my madre seriously makes the best tortilla.  She usually makes me it for dinner on Saturdays.  The first time she made it, I just ate the standard egg and potato tortilla.  Since then, she's made me two different variations.  One was made with eggs, potatoes, onions, and cheese, while the other was made with eggs, potatoes, onions, and green peppers.  Yum!  My madre knows that I love la tortilla so much that she makes me my own personal tortilla.  It's about the size of a dinner plate and about an inch thick, too.

As my knife cuts into the tortilla, my mouth begins to drool.  The delicious potato smell floats up to my nose while I bring a bight to my mouth.  Fireworks explode as I chew the spongy, soft food until my plate is empty.

I'm really hoping that one of these days I can ask my madre if she could teach me how to make la tortilla.  I would love to know how to make it and serve it to my family!

Here it is!  La tortilla española in all its glory!  This particular tortilla was made with green peppers.  Amazing!

Gooooooool!- Fútbol Game

In the United States, we enjoy watching a variety of sports including football, baseball, basketball, hockey, softball, golf, tennis, and many more.  In Spain (as well as all of Europe), they live and breath one sport- fútbol (soccer in English).  Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of fútbol, but I'm really starting to enjoy the sport now.  The Spanish have such enthusiasm and passion for their teams, so it's incredibly easy to get caught up in the excitement of the fútbol games.

During the first weekend I was here, I went to a local fútbol game.  Santander has it's own fútbol team that is in the same league as Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.  This is a source of great pride for the residents of Santander.  

We watched a match between Real Racing Club (pronounced ra-SING, not racing like horse racing) of Santander and the Athletics of Bilbao.  This match was the last of the season and described as a local rivalry because Santander and Bilbao are two cities located near each other.  Unfortunately Santander lost 1-2, but I still had a really great time at the game!

Here are some pictures of my time at the fútbol game:

The outside of Real Racing's stadium.  It is located really close to our university!

My ticket!  We had "preferencia este," which translates into east preference.  We had great seats- only five rows back from the field!

Here's a shot of the field.  It's not a spectacular or incredibly large stadium.

These particular fans were leading several cheers with their drum.  The environment at the stadium was very interesting.  People of all ages come to watch the game.  We sat by four year-olds, 14 year-olds, and adults.  During the entire game, the fans were cheering for their team and shouting vulgar insults at the opposing team/players/refs.  When Bilbao scored a goal, a person sitting in front of us yelled something about the Bilbao fan's "b**** grandmother."  It seemed like everyone in the stadium was smoking a variety of substances which gets annoying.  Despite this, nothing compares to the electricity in the stadium when the home team scores a goal!  As the announcer shouts "Goooooooooool," the entire stadium begins cheering, jumping up and down, standing on the bleachers, singing songs, making fun of the opposing team/fans, waving their scarves, and high-fiving each other.

We lost 1-2.  Our professor explained to us that Santander didn't exactly have their hearts in this game.  Apparently the worst two or three teams in the league get dropped down to a lower level.  Though it's not the same, it would be like the worst major league baseball teams dropping down to Triple A minor league for the next season.  Santander had already won enough games to ensure their continuation in the more advanced league, so they didn't have anything to play for and lost their competitive edge.

The Santander team (and their cow mascot) thanking the fans at the end of the game.

In other fútbol news, FC Barcelona recently won the league championship 3-1 against Manchester United, a major English fútbol powerhouse.  It was a very exciting, well-played game!  Every time that Barcelona got a goal, someone set off fireworks.  The point of origin was located very close to my casa, and it was so loud that I thought someone was firing a gun or cannon.

Last Saturday, the US team played the Spanish team that recently won the FIFA World Cup.  Talk about pathetic- the US lost 0-4.  At least we can play the other version of footbal.

Picos de Europa

On Saturday, our group took the second of our three excursions to visit the Picos de Europa mountain range and Potes, a neighboring town.  I had such an amazing time hiking up the mountains, eating in an authentic restaurant, touring Potes, and of course, taking lots of pictures!

Our day began early as we were asked to arrive at the university at 8:45 in the morning.  The program directors told us that it would probably be chilly on the top of the mountain, so I wore lots of layers and brought a backpack with some snacks and sun lotion.  We took a nice bus and a tour guide came along to explain us the history and importance of the sites we were seeing.

The bus ride was about 2 hours long, but I'm not entirely sure.  It felt really long though because we were all pretty tired.  However, the bus ride was very scenic!  Unlike my family's incredibly dull 4 hour drive to take me to school, this ride was filled with cute houses and towns, beautiful green fields, and towering mountains.  Despite being tired, I enjoyed listening to our guide's information about the area as well as talking to friends.

Our bus ride was slowed down when we approached a cattle crossing!  There were actually men trying to keep the cows on one side of the street so that the cars could pass the cows from the other side!

Approaching the Picos!  View from the bus.

Finally, we arrived to the Picos de Europa.  This literally translates into "the Peaks of Europe."  It is a group of mountains that cover three regions in Spain and is Europe's oldest national park.  We were then told that in order to get to the top of the mountains, we had to squeeze in to take the teleférico (a cable car).  Although it looked slow, the teleférico actually traveled very fast and took us to the top in only a couple of minutes.  It was initially scary as the car started to move, but the ride was very smooth.

The teleférico or "cable car."  That little car held about 15 people and carried us quickly to the top .

View from the area on the top of the Picos where you take the teleférico to return to ground level.  Don't look down!

Once we arrived to the top, we had about an hour to walk around and take pictures.  We had great weather with plenty of sun.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

View from the top of the Picos de Europa

Looking down

Probably my favorite picture I took at Picos.  It doesn't even look real!

Me getting all pensive on top of the Picos de Europa.

After Picos, we drove about 30 minutes to Potes, a neighboring town.  It was absolutely adorable!  We spent most of our free time eating lunch in an authentic Spanish restaurant.  The meal consisted of a drink, first course, second course, and dessert.  I started with cocido montañés, which is a stew made with beans and a variety of meats/sausages.  I think that my madre has made me her versions of this dish, and I like it very much.  I played it safe for the second course by having chicken.  For dessert, we ate this delicious dish called cononigos.  It is an egg meringue with a cream sauce that tasted like melted ice cream.  Amazing!

We toured around the city visiting:

Qué mono! (How cute!)  Potes is such a pretty town!

Beautiful scenic view on a hill above Potes                               

A church on top of the same hill

Another church we visited and toured inside.  All of us in the Art History class were commenting on the different architectural features of the church.  I don't remember its exact name, so I'll look that up and update this later.

Museum where we saw an exhibit on old books- how they were made, what they looked liked, etc.  Unfortunately, we only saw replicas of the original, ancient books.

The torre (tower) that has a beautiful, panoramic view of the town of Potes.  Inside, there is a historical exhibit/museum.

View of Potes from the torre

We finished all of our sightseeing around 5:00pm.  It was such a long day filled with lots of walking, so we were all exhausted at the end.  Once the bus began its 1 hour 30 minute ride back to the university, everyone took a nice siesta.

I had such a fun day and our excursion exceeded all of my expectations.  If you are ever in the Cantabria region of Spain, I totally recommend visiting the Picos de Europa and the neighboring town, Potes.  I promise you'll have a great time!