"All's well that ends better"

"All's well that ends better."

I know these are becoming too frequent for some of you to keep up with, but so many exciting things have been happening and, in all honesty, these are as much for you as they are for me.  When I have a revelation, I like to write it all down so I won't forget it. (This rapid writing to get all my thoughts out and make sure I don't miss anything is also the cause of many spelling errors so if you could just ignore those that would be great and to all of you who were wondering since my last post: I eat frozen PIZZA for dinner often, not frozen people)

Returning from an amazing weekend in Madrid, I realize my view of Spain has evolved into something far more extensive then what is was on Thursday. Which started with me going to school like always. Not quite a monotonous task quite yet, but it' getting repetitive as expected. I knew we were going to a dance performance in Murcia that night with all 6 exchange students in my province so that helped.  When I came home from school my host dad told me I would be going to Madrid this weekend with Kalob (pasty white North Carolinaian who lives in Murcia), Curtis (tall skinny Canadian who lives in San Javier) and Charo (Curtis's amazing host mom). I was instantly giddy which was only increased with him telling me we would be leaving from the dance to spend the night at Curtis' then leave super early in the morning for Madrid.  That meant no school on Friday. Good news coming one after another. So I ran upstairs and packed for the weekend then headed out to the dance thing in Murcia.  It was very cool and a mixture of contemporary dance with dances from all over the world.

Us after the performance with a man named Antonio who arranged for us to go there.

 

Cool story: the girl in the black dress, Madeline, is not an exchange student. She is 20 something and is from Massachusetts. She spent the last 3 years in Texas teaching for Teach for America and saving up to travel. She spent a month and a half this summer road tripping across the U.S. and now she is making her way around Europe.  She started in Norway then Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France and now a month in Cartagena. She hopes to make her way to Italy and she'll be in New Zealand by December.  She's staying at friends houses and using couch surfing (a website where people make a profile and offer up room in their homes for travelers like Madeline).  Anyway she was awesome to talk to. Her plans seemed a little more trustworthy than backpacking, but she was still just exploring which is awesome. Mom and Dad, you'll be happy to hear I've decided I'm not up for anything of that caliber just yet, but it seems like an awesome way to explore our great big world.

 

 

After the dance performance, Kalob, Curtis, Charo and I went to Curtis' house ate, got 2 hours of sleep then woke up at 7 the next day to go to Madrid.  A little background: Charo works in advertising and travels to Madrid about once a month, but also goes to Granada, Valencia, Seville, etc. for her work and has offered to bring Curtis with her so he can see Spain. This time around he invited Kalob and I to go too which I am so grateful for. Charo used to live in Madrid before she decided she'd rather see the sea everyday so she moved to San Javier. She also worked for National Geographic for 2 years and traveled all around the world.  Needless to say, she has ton of friends and tons of stories.  She's just awesome.

 

Anyway, once we got to Madrid, Charo dropped us off outside of el Museo de Prada which is crazy famous and has work from Goya and Velasquez and is supposed to be amazing. However, we didn't actually go in the Museum.  Miscommunication and something lost in translation led us to believe we were waiting for Charo to visit the museum so we were going to wait for her to be finish her meeting then go.  Yeah... not the case, but instead we spent 4 hours roaming around an awesome neighborhood in Madrid, which none of us minded. I took a gazillion pictures because this was the first time I encountered streets and buildings that looked like my preconceived idea of Europe. Here are some:

 

 

 After roaming around just the 3 of us for 4 hours, Charo and her brother who lives in Madrid and is a World renowned movie director showed us around another cool neighborhood. In Madrid they have Plazas everywhere which are kind of like little town squares lined with shops and just for foot traffic. They are always packed with people starting at 8 a.m. and then late into the night like 6 a.m. I love this system because everyone is there, out and about. One thing I had noticed about Spain that became even more evident this weekend was the sense of community and overall friendliness.  Everyone is so family oriented and always eager to meet new people. People are literally always in the streets and out of their houses to do so. You'll see families with their new born baby or 2 year old sitting at a café at 12:30 at night. It's awesome. Everyone is very eager to meet new people and form long lasting relationships. And cities like Madrid were even built for this type of interaction. They have Plazas! they're built for exactly that.  Anyway I just think it's very cool and I'm a bit jealous. Anytime you don't have someone to hang out with you could just go to the Plaza and likely find someone you knew, if not someone new to talk to.

Sidewalk lined with shops that encircles the plaza



After having coffee in the plaza (an afternoon custom I could totally get used to) we went and saw the Royal Palace and Cathedral. Some of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. My pictures likely don't do them justice.

Cathedral from across the street

Royal Palace

not where the royals actually live anymore but where Obama and his sort stay when they visit

Cathedral up close and literally across the pavement from the palace so when royals get married, they just lay down a red carpet from the door of the cathedral to the royal palace so they walk home

 

After walking around, Charo took the 3 of us to the house of a friend of hers for dinner.  Ana, her friend, lives with her husband and 2 boys in the middle of Madrid and has been best friends with Charo since they were little. They were super nice and dinner was great. I can now participate in conversations fairly regularly and I always love surprising people by laughing at their jokes or adding something in.   After dinner we went to Maria's (another friend of Charo's) house to spend the night.  She lives in the center of Madrid in a penthouse perfect for one person.  She is an opera singer and loves cats.  She is quite the lady and an all around awesome person. This is her apartment:

(if you've every talked to me extensively about houses, I've likely mentioned my love of massive windows and floor to ceiling bookshelves...just saying)

The view from the balcony of the street below

Rooftops of Madrid from her balcony

Her adorable balcony. Just an amazing spot.  I probably would've slept out there if it weren't so cold

 

 

The next morning me, Kalob, Curtis, Charo, Maria and Ana piled in Ana's car and traveled an hour to Segovia. I can't even begin to describe Segovia. Exactly what I picture when I think of small old streets and towns in Europe is Segovia.  I almost wanted to cry when I saw it. I definitely had a preconceived idea of what Spain would look like before I came and Cartagena definitely did not fit that picture. Segovia definitely did. It is a very old city with cobblestone streets, a castle, a cathedral and aqueducts! We had coffee sitting beneath the aqueducts and talked about Rotary and exchange. I loved being able to talk to Charo and her friends with no problem. We were also in fall clothing sipping coffee and sitting in the sun. I could've stay there all day, but instead we walked around the city which was a better choice because it was beautiful. I took a million pictures and the guys kept getting mad at me for taking a picture of every alley way. But honestly, the city looked like a fairytale. We toured the castle which was amazing, had a huge lunch (like always) and then toured the cathedral.  Here are some pictures:

The city of Segovia

 Cathedral
sadly you can't see the detail on the turrets but if you could you'd be amazeS

 

 

Aqueducts

Constructed with no cement, just rocks

Castle (supposedly Walt Disney's inspiration for the Disney Castle...I don't really see the resemblance) But it had a moat, tower, throne room, courtyard and everything 

 

Charo left, Maria right

Maria on the left, Charo on the right

 

 From on top of the Castle. 120 some steps which the 3 of us climbed, but Charo, Maria and Ana opted out of. They missed out, the view was amazing. You could see all of Segovia.

 

After Segovia we went to this adorable medieval town called Pedraza. It was also picturesque "medieval" as in exactly what comes to mind when you think adorable, old, Spanish village.  I tired to take as many pictures as I could, but the sun was going down so it was hard.  We just roamed the streets for an hour or so as Maria belted out some Opera.  It was hilarious and the town was gorgeous.

 

We then drove back to Madrid and to Maria's house where we made dinner. I had salad for the first time in Spain for dinner. It tasted so good I had forgotten how much I missed it. Curtis and Kalob said they have salad at every lunch which is definitely different from my house. We also made brownies from a box that Kalob was sent for his birthday. They didn't turn out like normal brownies because we completely messed up the measurements trying to convert them to grams. They still tasted really good though. 

 

The next morning we got up and had breakfast then Charo sat me down and showed me the route we should take to do some more touristy things. Because I actually understand Spanish, I was in charge. So after we had a route, a map and, for me a borrowed jacket from Maria, we left.  (we had planned for a cold weekend in Madrid, but not that cold. The weather changes so much during the day it's hard, but when we left Maria's in the morning it was 50 degrees so a borrowed jacket was fine with me)  The three of us took the Metro to el Parque de el Retiro. It's a huge park in the middle of Madrid very much like Central Park in New York. There were street performers, artists and lots of different booths throughout the park. There is also a lake in the middle where they have row boats which you can rent to go around in. We of course did that and thank goodness I had two very cocky teenage boys with me who were overly eager to row the thing, so I never did. We also found el Palacio de Cristal which is a huge conservatory also in this park.

 

We then left the park and strolled past some other monuments in Madrid and walked down Calle Gran Via which is really famous and has lots of shops.  We ate lunch then made our way back to Maria's where we hung around on her balcony for awhile.  It was finally warm enough to be out there in the afternoon sun and it felt amazing just so sit and look out over Madrid.  It's moments like that where I realize how lucky I am.  I was looking out over the capital of a Spanish speaking country in Europe as I talk to people I know I'm going to have a lifelong friendship with even though I've barely known them a month. Exchange takes you crazy places and I couldn't be happier just to sit back and enjoy them. 

 

 

Not that I had any doubts about this weekend excursion, but "all's well that ends better" and I'd say I ended better than I started and only after 3 days. Before this weekend I feel like my view of Spain just consisted of Cartagena, Murcia and San Javier. And to be completely honest, I was a little disappointed. I hate to admit it, but I love the history, old buildings, small town with cobble stone streets of Europe and when I arrived here and that's not what greeted me, I was sad. But this weekend I realized that those places do exist like I imagined. It's crazy to think a country the size of Texas could be as diverse in climate and terrain as the U.S., but it's true. My view of Spain has already broadened so much just by visiting 3 extra cities. Now I can't wait to see the rest of Spain just to see what else there is. 

 

It was so awesome to be exposed to other ways of living too. I experienced life from the perspective of 3 different families this weekend and it was phenomenal. I love knowing that the life I'm living right now may be "typical" of Spain, but then there are a hundred different "typical"s.  It does make it hard knowing there are people living what I think to be a more appealing lifestyle than the one I am right now, but I remind myself there is adjustment to be done everywhere. I'm sure if I were living with Maria, Charo or Ana there would still be many times that I'm uncomfortable and do things wrong within their home.

 

The point now is that I can walk away and say that in just 3 days I broadened my view of the world and gained an immense appreciation for the country I'm living in and the opportunity I have to be living here. One month here as of Saturday and I've come to this conclusion: Stop worrying and get out there and live. There is so much to be seen and heard that you won't help yourself by being hesitant. Sure you'll have ups and downs and no, you won't have an "experience of  lifetime" everyday. But it's the fact that just by getting up in the morning and living everyday, you're trying something new which will always make you a wiser person than you were the day before. 

 
 

 



"What about second breakfast?"

Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop 'til nightfall.

Pippin: But what about breakfast?

Aragorn: You've already had it.

Pippin: We've had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?

Merry: Don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.

Pippin: What about elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?

Merry: I wouldn't count on it

 

  Alright this quote deserves some explanation, but so does my life right now so it works!

 

I am falling into my schedule nicely and it is a crazy schedule.  Who knew a year without having to do homework or work would be so busy.  So my weekly schedule looks something like this:

 

School 8-2 Monday- Friday (fairly normal)

Monday: Free Night

Tuesday: Band Practice 7:30-9

Wednesday: Oboe lessons 6:30-7:30, Soccer practice 8-9:30

Thursday: Free Night

Friday: Soccer Practice 8-9:30

Saturday: Free

Sunday: Soccer Game any time between 10-5

 

Soccer, Band, School and eating seem to define my life right now.  Kind of like my life in the U.S. was just transported to Spain with completely new people. I'm sure you're wondering what the Spanish version of these look like to explanation time:

 

Eating:  Meal times here in Spain are very different than the U.S. and there are 5 of them!  Hence the quote including a massive list of different meals.  I feel like every time I finish eating I sit for five minutes then think okay, now I just have to wait around for the next meal. So they go like this:

 

Breakfast at 7:15 in the morning for me. By myself so I normally have peanut butter toast or cereal with Nesquik to drink.  My host mom buys various pastries and chocolate everything intended to have for breakfast, but often too much sweet stuff in the morning makes me want to throw up so I stick with peanut butter.  Also, my host mom just recently bought multigrain bread for me! I almost wanted to cry at her kindness and I was very happy to see something other than wonder bread with the crust cut off. Now I have multigrain toast with peanut butter which lasts way longer than a chocolate filled croissant.  

 

Lunch (which is not your idea of lunch) is at about 10:30 is during the school day. I'll get to my school schedule later, but basically there are two breaks one at 10:30 and one at 12. Everyone eats a sandwich at the 10:30 break then a few people eat at the 12 o'clock break. What I normally do it make a Nutella sandwich and have an apple at the 10:30 break then noting at 12. The point is you have something small in between Breakfast and the big meal of the day. No idea why they think half of a baguette with ham is small, but whatever.

 

La Comida (which literally means the food) is between 2:30 and 4. This is the big meal of the day, like dinner in the U.S. It's called comida because honestly if you think about it, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are only 3 meals and here we have 5 so you need more names for them.  If you go to a formal meal at this time (like my Rotary meetings) it's a huge 3 course meal.  In my house we always have a cup of gazpacho, which is like cold tomato soup, with croutons and cucumber in it. (We'll stop having this once it gets cold because it's meant to be something refreshing to cool you down from the hot day) We then have the main dish with ranges from pork chops and potatoes to pasta to clams and muscles. My host mom is a great cook and she's very formal about plating stuff and particular silverware, all that stuff.  She also always gives me, my host dad and Santiago (my 20 year old host brother) the same size portions and if not, I get more.  It's crazy cause hers is always less. It's some serve the other before me type thing it's just that she wants less. I want less, but my portion is always massive.  Anyway after the main dish we have some type of fruit. I normally have a peach because I prefer it over melon. Side note but interesting fact: they peel all of their fruit. I eat my peach with the skin on and apparently that's really weird.  They peel pears, apples, peaches, grapes... everything, yes even grapes.

 

Merienda (which means snack) is generally between 5:30-8. We don't always have this. If anything my host mom will offer me ice cream or something small.  Many Spanish people go out to coffee bars and have espresso and a pastry or beer and small appetizers. Depends on what you feel like. This also just meant to be something small to hold you over, not that I'm ever really hungry after these massive meals in the middle of the afternoon. 

 

Dinner between 9:30-11. You may have noticed all of my activities seem to start really late. That's because they're after merienda and for sure before dinner.  Dinner is meant to be something small like a sandwich, frozen people, a variety of small appetizers, French tortilla (a omelet with just cheese, don't know how that resembles a tortilla or how it's French) Dinner is generally when I talk to my family the most so it generally ends around 12.

 

Now soccer, which I'm clearly always well fueled for, is great!  I'm so thankful I had a willing host family who set up all of these activities before I even got here. Soccer is so great. So soccer is Spain's sports. Well it's really the world's sport (everywhere but the U.S. cause we'd rather pay for a ton  of expensive equipment to less people can play because they can't afford it). Anyway soccer is huge here, but for boys.  Kinda like football or wrestling but not so drastic. The girls that do play are generally the ones who played with their bothers or the neighborhood guys all the time when they were growing up.  Lots of tom boys as well and lots of lesbians in turn.  Anyway, because of the lack of girls that broke the barrier, feminine leagues are hard to find.  I am lucky to be a part of league that has 17 teams in in and is for all of the providence of Murcia.  This seems like a lot of teams, but it's for any girl who wants to play age 13-? I heard my coach joking if some 60 year old lady wants to come and play with us she can, right along with the 13 year olds.  This age factor definitely makes it interesting.  I am one of two 18 year olds on my team and we're the youngest. Everyone else is in their 20's and a few of them are married. HOWEVER, it's impossible to tell. The other American girls and I were conversing about how crazy hard it is to tell what age people are.  Pretty much everyone looks way younger than they actually are. But anyway, my team is awesome!  They are all such nice people and have been nothing, but inviting. We played a friendly game on Wednesday and by the end they all thought I was amazing and were already upset I'm leaving in 8 months.  Oh right! and the league goes from October to June! First off, crazy long season compared to what I'm used to but I guess if you can play outside why not? and Second, it's exactly the duration of my exchange! So awesome.  We had our first game on Sunday and I wasn't able to late because I'm still wait for foreigner approval from Madrid to play in the league. Anyway, they lost and now they're all convinced I am the key to success.  We'll see. I am really excited to talk soccer with them though. Most of them don't know a ton about tactics and strategies because they've never played on a team.  My coach says he can tell that I know soccer because of my instruction to the other girls and my actions on the field.  Finally 14 years of standing in the back of the field telling everyone else what to do is appreciated... Just kidding but I do have a better idea of the big picture because of that and I think it will help here!  So excited to get to spend a year with these girls.  Also one last not one the soccer sense: our field is dirt, completely dirt which makes everything a little faster, dirtier and interesting.

 

Band: I am playing in a community style band ranging from 8 years olds to 60 year olds.  Oh! Side bar: music and sports are not through the school system  The schools have no programs or activities so everything is through the community.  Furthermore, the band I play in is made up of people from all over Cartagena that just wanted to pick up an instrument for fun or go to the music conservatory everyday after school and are looking at careers in music. It's pretty cool. I am currently playing with the beginner band of about 15 people. We are really bad and we don't have every part represented so the pieces generally don't sound that great. But, it's fun and they're all really nice.  That said, their is a larger band, the actual band, which is about 35 people.  For performances we all play together and that makes things much more fun because they're really good. I never would've guessed I would have to travel to Spain to march in another parade, but since I've been here I've marched in 3 parades!  During the cities festival (Cartagineses y Romanos) they have 2 parades.  One for all of the people dressed as Romans and the other for all the people dressed at Cartagineses (naturally). We marched in both playing a gladiatorish song and dressed up. 

 

 Me in my marching outfit with my host mom

 

We also had another parade yesterday. I found out about in on Tuesday. This seems to be happening a lot. I've never played the music before and then my host parents are like "you have a parade to march in this Saturday, don't forget you music"  The one we marched in yesterday was f\celebrating 150 of Santa Maria catholic church. It started at 9 and went till 10:30 winding through the small ancient streets of downtown Cartagena. 

All of us outside the church waiting to march

(normally a red tie and blue blazer accompany this lover get-up)

 

Alrighty now school. Shouldn't have left this for last. Alright here goes.  My school is a 7 minute walk from my house and is right in the city.  When you think of a classic "city school" that's what it is.

Inside the first fence but not the second which is locked during the school day so no one can get in or out with out the secretary in the office pressing a button.

Outside both sets of fence and across the street. The 8ft. fence you see goes all around the school. So no escaping allowed, or even possible.

 

I walk there in the morning and school starts at 8. I then have 2 classes, a break, 2 classes, a break, 2 classes then I walk home. For those of you that don't know, my grades this year don't count because I am already graduated. So basically I am enrolled, but it doesn't really matter how I do. This is definitely comforting because the level of classes I'm taking is hard for Spanish kids to pass. If I really try I can understand everything the teacher is saying, but it's quite exhausting and not worth it. Not in a bad way, but its subjects like Philosophy and Economics and Geography so there is a ton of vocabulary I don't know and the teachers talk really, really fast. The teachers mainly just sit at their desks and lecture for a whole hour which makes it even more difficult for me.  So this past week I made the brilliant discovery of reading in class.  I finished the Hunger Games in Spanish and now I'm reading Game of Thrones. So reading gets me through the day. I pay attention in Math and English because those are easier. Math is universal and, well, I speak English so it's easy! Also I really like Gym. It's a great break in my day, a chance to actually move around.  Plus I have played sports before an like trying so it's sets me apart from all the other girls. It's also a chance to meet new people who aren't in my class. We walk from class to class between 4 different buildings. The thing is the teachers don't have their own classrooms. Because of this, the classroom in which we actually have a particular class often change if a different class is using that classroom. Normally it's fine, but when it's the first class in the morning and you can't find the people from your class, you end up in a lower level philosophy class with people you don't know... the people in my class are nice, but I haven't really connected with anyone too well.  I just keep telling myself that everything takes time.  So here are some pictures:

 

Also here are some pictures from my walk home as well.

 

 

Also, When I do this walk in the morning its about 76 degrees and when I come home its a solid 82 degrees and I'm very hungry.

Best thing about this walk home is knowing I'll have a bug meal waiting and my host family to talk to

 

So that should fill some of the gaps left by my other blogs.  It's strange how bored I felt writing this.

But, that explains so much. It means this is becoming my new life and my routine. No one likes giving a detailed description of their day at work because they know it to well and don't want to rehash it after they've just lived it for 8 hours. You'd think that would make me sad, but really it gives me hope that I am fitting in here and making this my life no someone else's I just watching from the outside. I always up for a little abnormality, but now I know my place, or at least I'm slowly arriving at it while still stumbling on the small things. 

 

What more can I say besides I'm doing well!  Also, my week was made incredibly better last week when I got a package from my mom.

This beer box wrapped in Ecano Foods bags didn't have any amazing surprises or expensive gifts, but it was perfect an brought tears to my eyes. It's the little things like colorful socks I'm sure reminded my mom of me as she walked through Target or the Newspaper article on motion sickness that she thought I should definitely read. The small things that remind me of the great home I have waiting for me in Minnesota.

 



It's the little pangs of homesickness that remind me of my purpose here.  I'm not on vacation or renting a room for a month or two.  I am here to feel uncomfortable, out of place, a minority and awkward at times. There are days when I miss everything about Minnesota: cozy coffee shops, passive drivers, clean sidewalks, fall color, my bike, interactive teachers, cool October weather, big sweatshirts, my family and all I want to do is be able to enjoy those things. Each time I get a wave of this I realize no matter how much I want to experience those things just one more time, I don't want to right now.  I've got the rest of my life to enjoy them starting in July when I get home. I miss things, but there is nothing that makes me want to return an sooner. I know my place is here to learn the language, the culture, the people and to start a new life; another life. 

 

 

*If you'd ever like to ask me any specific questions or contact me about anything feel free to at jamieherman13@gmail.com and thanks for reading*