Unas listas / Some Lists

¿Qué tal amigos? I’m in a bit of a strange mood as I’m writing this, so hopefully it will all come out as intended (i.e. good experiences will still sound good). First, though, I’ve been meaning to make a list of things I’m missing from home (meaning the U.S., so this is Sammamish and UCLA):
-Let’s state the obvious first, my friends and family
-Availability of outlets and electricity
-Ability to just hang out at someone’s apartment whenever (Spanish custom is to meet friends outside the home, and so you pretty much have to spend money to see your friends)
-Ability to call or text whenever and not worry about how much it’s costing you
-Peanut butter (there might be somewhere I can get it here, but it’s just weird to me that they don’t eat it normally – my host mom says she doesn’t like it)
-Mexican food (I. Want. Refried. Beans. Now.)
-Root beer (they don’t have it here)
-Familiarity with technology (professors are often easily confused by computers – though I give them props for trying)
-Being busy (a lot of times at UCLA I feel too busy, but here I am not busy enough - I think this will get better once I’m traveling)
-Showering twice a day (here we can only do it once b/c hot water is expensive)
-Having to pay for taxis home after dark (at UCLA I can just walk with my friends and roommates, and even if we are far away and have to taxi I can share with my roommates)
-Affordable postage (never thought I’d say that)
-Space (another thing I didn’t think I’d say – it’s not that my apartment in LA is bigger, it’s not, but because I don’t live with a family there the space is shared differently)
-Knowing where to go to buy things I need (or at the very least knowing who to ask where I should go)
-Target/Costco/Express/Claire’s (I saw a Claire’s in Lisbon)
-Having a job (and making money – I miss my job and my co-workers as well as the regular paychecks, Essentials is a pretty nice setup)
-Having stores be open in the afternoon and on Sundays
-My clothes

Just to offset that list, here’s a list of things I think I’ll miss from Europe once I’m back in the U.S.:
-Metro (though I won’t miss paying for it)
-Flat land (UCLA is so hilly, everyone else complains about the walking here but I think I’m getting spoiled with how easy it is)
-Beautiful buildings everywhere (we need more balconies in the U.S.)
-Hearing Spanish spoken everywhere
-Seeing things like cereal and toothpaste that have everything written in Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek (I don’t know why those three but it always seems to be those three)
-Ability to travel (relatively) cheaply to amazing, exotic places (this is a big one that is going to be very hard to let go of)
-The sound the phone makes when you’re calling someone (it’s different from the U.S.)
-The slower-paced lifestyle
-J-walking without wondering if a cop is nearby (we accidentally did it in front of a police car today – because obviously we didn’t think about whether we should or not so long as the street was clear – and of course the cop saw us and didn’t care)
-Wearing sandals a lot (my job at UCLA requires closed-toed shoes so I often don’t bother with anything but flip-flops)
-Seeing men dressed nicely (in general, European men are much better dressers than American men)
-Every so often having an “Oh my goodness, I’m in Spain. I’m in Europe! ¡Ay Dios mío! Estoy en España…” moment. It’s like a little burst of happiness every time
-The appearance of light switches and outlets – they look less harsh somehow
-Bread at every meal
-Siestas

Anyway, onto other things. I might have to add to those lists as the semester goes on in any case. I’ve got some more cultural experiences and such to comment on. Last school week was very short (only 3 days since we had Monday off). On Wednesday ISA had a meeting to give us more details about our upcoming trip to Morocco – I’m getting really excited but I’m also nervous. I don’t want to get sick! They say it happens a lot. I’m excited to see Morocco though – I’ll be able to add one more continent to the list of continents I’ve been to (bringing the total to 3). And it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime trip so…yeah, I’m excited. :-) On Thursday ISA had a meeting where they surprised us with ice cream and asked us how classes were going. It sounded to me like a lot of people have harder classes than I do. Mine have been quite easy so far. Midterms are very soon though so maybe then they will be harder.

On Thursday night I went out with some friends to a couple bars. We even met up with some of my friends from my Spanish history class for awhile, which was a lot of fun. We ended the night sharing churros and chocolate (delicious). On Friday I went to ISA to pay for the rest of Morocco and give them money for dirhams (Morocco’s currency) for when I get to Morocco. Then I met up with Ryan and we wandered around the Alcázar for a couple hours, and ended up eating our bocadillos there. We wandered around Sevilla for awhile too. This is one of my favorite things to do because you never know what you’re going to see or find. I went home with just enough time to shower and change before meeting Lori, Sarah B., Sarah F., Meseret, Jessica, Lauren, and Lauren’s friend Graham to see a flamenco show. Sadly, the show we’d originally planned to see was sold out, and this other show they’d heard about turned out to be on a different night. But we were out already so we had drinks and tapas and ice cream. We also made it to the Feria de las Naciones for a little while, which was fun because the fair ended today.

Saturday morning was low-key; I slept late and watched some online TV. Later I went with Ryan, Lauren, Meseret, and Jessica to see a Spanish movie in Nervión. We saw “El secreto de sus ojos” (“The Secret of Her Eyes”), which was an interesting introduction to Spanish theater. First of all, the 5 of us had to buy our tickets together because seating was assigned. I don’t know if this is how it is in all Spanish theatres, but that’s how this one worked. We got popcorn, but they didn’t have butter for it! Only salt. It still tasted good, it was just different. There were only two previews before the movie started, and both of them seemed to involve threesomes where it was one woman with two men. The previews were very graphic too – nothing was left to the imagination. I don’t know if it was just because we were seeing a drama that those were the previews shown, but they looked…*ahem* interesting. I did like the title of the second one, “Castillas de cartón” (“Cardboard Castles”). But that’s where the liking ends.

As for the actual movie, it was a weird story. The protagonist, Benjamín, is writing a novel as a way of trying to solve a rape/murder case from 30 years ago. The movie repeatedly showed parts of the rape scene, and definitely showed how the woman’s body was left. It was really hard to watch. There were a lot of tense scenes in the movie, like where the rapist (who has been let out of prison) pulls a gun on Benjamín and Irene (another investigator) in an elevator. You think he’s going to shoot them but it’s actually just a threat. I was glad I saw this movie with 4 other people because we definitely had to conference at the end to make sure we all understood correctly what had happened. And it was sad because I know there was humor in the movie – there was this one character the audience laughed at every time he opened his mouth – but the words were always too fast for me to catch the joke. There was some cute stuff in the story too, like how Irene had told Benjamín she only would smile for her boyfriend (she literally doesn’t smile the entire movie) and then at the very end when they finally get together she smiles at him. Despite the disturbing images, I enjoyed a lot of the movie. I just wish I had been able to understand more of what was said. Sadly, you can’t tell a movie to “habla despacio” (speak slowly). The rest of Saturday was spent resting and working on some homework.

Today I went with Meseret, Jessica, Lauren, and Sarah F. to Carmona, a city an hour outside of Sevilla by bus. It’s an old city and there are TONS of churches. It was a cute town though. We went into the museum and walked around a bunch and then came back to Sevilla. I finally uploaded photos I’ve had on my camera since right after Lisbon, so there are lots of new photos up. Now I need to get to some more homework, then 4 days of class, then Córdoba and Granada next weekend with ISA!