October 30, 2003

Hi! My name is Amber Schaefer and I am a fifth year here at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities majoring in psychology and minoring in Spanish! Last summer I met with my advisor Peggy McCalla to straighten out a few things for the upcoming semester. It was during that time that Peggy suggested an idea to me. You see, I am currently studying abroad in Toledo, Spain for a semester. Peggy suggested, and I agreed, that it would be interesting for me to keep a journal of sorts and share it with anyone interested in reading it! Unfortunately, I got a bit swept up in things upon my departure from the United States and my arrival in Spain that it wasn't until now, halfway through our semester, that I am beginning this journal. This first instalment may seem a bit lengthy... but I assure you that it is full of interesting details of my studies thus far! So, sit back and relax, as I take you through the beginning of my semester long Spain adventure...

Well, I left the states on September 5, a sunny Friday. As I had been living with my parents in WI for the summer they drove me down to the airport in Chicago. After a teary good-bye I was on my way! It is nearly impossible to describe the range of emotions that I felt from this point well into the next week... sad, excited, scared, nervous, lonely, and so many more. Anyhow, it should be known that I am not the most comfortable person on airplanes, my nerves often seem to get the best of me. For the most part, the first half of the flight was going along just great ... UNTIL... directly half way over the Atlantic (we all had little TV screens to watch the progress of our plane) we hit some pretty nasty turbulence. Well, I was handling this just fine, I put on my headphones and watched Ice Age. This was fine, though my knuckles had gone white from clutching the arm rests, I was still holding up. I notice that the lady next to me had woken up and out of curiosity I let my eyes wander upon her hands... and what do you think she was doing? She is holding her rosary and muttering prayers... to me, not a good sign. Well, I did my best to ignore her, though I thought a few prayers myself, and after a while we made it through! Whew!

The rest of my travels there were pretty uneventful, I had to stop in London... where it turns out the computer system had crashed so I was a bit delayed. In the London airport I began talking to a Spanish woman that was going to be on the same flight as me. She spoke English and helped me get through the Madrid airport and then shared a cab with me in Madrid. I was planning on meeting up with another girl that I had been in contact with via email, though I was unsure if she would be there because my plane had been late... luckily she was there!

That night we stayed in Madrid where I met up with a few other people that were participating in the same program. We went to a live flamenco show and enjoyed some tapas and sangria! I was completely overwhelmed at this point and the thought kept occurring to me that maybe I was in the Epcot center in Disney World! Everything seemed completely surreal to me! My Spanish abilities seemed non-existent as a struggled through ordering my dinner (which we ate around 10pm... completely normal) and my drinks, in the end resorting to pointing things out on the menu!

The next day we met up with a few other students and boarded a bus where we met one of our directors. The trip would be about an hour... we were headed south of Madrid... on our way to our new home... Toledo!! Toledo is a walled city in Spain and is extremely historical... if that is your thing I strongly recommend that you check into it. Once in Toledo, we loaded our baggage onto a pickup truck and got back on the bus. The roads in Toledo are far to narrow for buses to fit through, so we would be dropped off a bit away and our luggage would be waiting for us when we got there. When I say the roads are narrow did I mention that they are also brick and cobblestone and always hilly? Also, by narrow, I mean that when a car comes speeding down one of these roads you better find yourself a doorway to jump into, and fast! We finally made it to our new home, the Fundacion. I had chosen to live in the dorm while many other students chose to live with families. I met my roommate immediately and went up to my room. I knew immediately that my roommate and I would get along, and that was very comforting to me. The next week involved attending meetings, and meeting new people. It was a very confusing and emotional time... not necessarily emotional in a bad way, but emotional nonetheless. We did some placement testing and began our classes. Nobody has classes on Fridays, and I was lucky enough not to have them on Tuesday or Thursday either! Though, keep in mind, I am still taking 15 credits, so my Mondays and Wednesdays are full! Anyhow, all of the professors here are wonderful and extremely helpful! In the beginning it was nearly impossible for me to understand what was going on in my classes, but after a week or two passed it was amazing how much more I was understanding.

A little more about where I live, I live in the Fundacion Ortega y Gasset, this is the name of my school. All of my classes are in the same building as me, in fact they are only two doors away from my room. We live in an old converted convent, besides classrooms and dorm rooms our building also houses the cafeteria, computer rooms, a laundry room, a TV room, and a tower with amazing views of the city! The fundacion is located right next to a gigantic and very popular cathedral!

Toledo itself is a very popular place for daytrips. Meaning that during the days it filled with tourists and then at night becomes very silent. Though the nightlife may not be that of other big cities in Spain, we still have a good time. The nightlife of Spain is very different than that of the United States. We go out around 10 or 11 here. We begin usually by going to a bar. There are numerous bars about a twenty-minute walk from where we live. At around 1am we may begin to look for a club to go to. Often we will go to a few clubs in the night. I would say on average we stay out until 4.30 - 5am. Though sometimes it is much later than that. For example, one night we met some kids from Toledo. They took us to a bull run the next day. It began at 9... we never made it to bed until 11am!

I have also been fortunate enough to travel a bit around Spain since arriving here. On the first weekend I went to visit one of my very good friends who is lucky enough to be studying on the Mediterranean in a city called Alicante. It was a very beautiful city and lots of fun. Swimming in the Mediterranean was fantastic, the beach was white sand and the water was crystal blue! That same weekend I went to Valencia, which is a bit up the coast and then to a small beach city named Gandia.

The next weekend our program hosted a trip to a Madrid. On this trip we went to The Reina Sofia, which houses some work of Dali, Picasso, and Miro among many others. We ate some authentic Spanish food, and then got some free time to check out the city a bit on our own. Of course, we went to check out the stores! I forgot to mention that for the most part things here as far as food, drinks, and some clothes are pretty cheap! We were only there for the day, so we spent the rest of the weekend in Toledo getting to know Toledo and one another a bit better.

Salamanca was the following weekend. I went there with my roommate and another friend. Salamanca is a very popular University town. There was a lot to see... we took a tour of the University, which is one of the oldest in Europe. We also saw the cathedral and an old Roman bridge. That night we were all feeling a bit under the weather and really didn't go out for too long. Though, we did go to a salsa bar. Some of the dancers were amazing, even though salsa is not from Spain, and it was always fun to jump in and give it a try!

The next week my mom and a friend of mine, Kelly, came to visit! Yeah! It was so nice to see them again. We went to Granada, which is home to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a beautiful old Moorish castle. The history and stories behind it absolutely amazing... it is surely a must see!! Granada itself was a very cool city! We stayed at a really great hostel where the staff took us out and showed us around the city! We met people from all over the world that were staying in the hostel! It was really great! One day we took a day trip to a small beach city. It was a very nice laid-back city! We hung out on the beach and then walked up this huge hill to check out the castle, unfortunately it was closed for siesta! Oh yeah, siesta is between the hours of 2 and 4pm when pretty much everything in Spain closes so that people can go home and eat lunch and relax before returning to school or work! So, anyhow, my mom and friend came back to Toledo with me and spent a few nights there. In the meantime, my friend from Alicante came up to Toledo, because the following weekend we were leaving for Ireland!

So, my mom and Kelly left on Wednesday and Sara and I left on Thursday morning. I regret to say that we had stayed out a bit late the night before, and paid dearly on the way to and in the airport the next day! Anyhow, we made it safely to Dublin. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to hear and see English everywhere! I really hadn't noticed how much I missed it until I got to Ireland! Sara and I rented a car, what a treat!! So, if you don't know, everything in Ireland is completely opposite of what it is in the US! I must say it was very interesting and at times quite frightening driving and being a passenger in that car! I must say that Ireland was absolutely amazing! The people were wonderful and the cities were amazing! We spent our first night in Dublin. We went to a real Irish sing along! What fun! The next day we drove west to Cork. On the way we stopped at this gorgeous castle, the Rock of Cashel. Cork was a good time, and we ended up meeting two guys from WI there. It was very strange; we actually knew them through other people! What a small world! The next day we drove north to Gallway, and on the way stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. This was the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life! 700-foot cliffs dropping straight into the Atlantic! Beautiful!! Gallway was a wonderful city, small cobblestone streets full of people. The next day we got up early and drove back to Dublin... back to Spain we go!!

The following weekend was the weekend before midterms, so we all chilled out and did some studying. We did go out Thursday night, but after that spent our time being responsible students! Midterms passed pretty well! I think that I did fairly well; the professors really did a great job preparing us! It was still a pretty stressful week, and so again this weekend I relaxed.

Well, I know that I have left a lot out, and for that reason I regret not having started this sooner! From here on out I will be writing on a much more regular basis and promise that things will be much shorter and a bit more personal and detailed. I also realize that I have left a lot of things out, as far as food and people go in Spain, but I will get to those things in the next letter! If you have any questions about anything, I would gladly answer them, so feel free to send me an email scha0807@umn.edu . I hope that everyone's semester is going as well as mine is... keep watching for some more stories... believe I have some good ones!!