My traumatic experience with the postal service.

Actually The Postal Service is one of my favorite bands and I had a great time singing along to "Such Great Heights" with a bunch of friends this weekend. That is not the postal service that I am talking about in this post (and I'm sure most of you probably didn't think it was--I just wanted to give props to great music).

No, this week I was traumatized with my dealings with the Correos, Spain's postal service. It all started out with me having to send my camera back to the U.S. so it can get fixed. I decided to look into doing this on Monday and I thought I'd just go to the Correos office on my street. Well for some reason that office is not open to the public. It's only a sorting center or something like that. Because I was already on that end of the street I decided to go to the Corte Inglés to find some packing materials, but after walking around for 15 or so minutes with a packing tape dispenser in my hands, but no actual packing tape, I finally asked where it was and was told that they do not carry packing tape (they just carry dispensers--dumb. I really have a love/hate relationship with Corte Inglés that I will have to post about some time). That night I got home and put my postal code in the finder on the Correos website and it told me the next closest office and I decided to go there after school on Tuesday.

On Tuesday I studied my metro map carefully and took it to where I needed to go to find the Correos ofice. I walked up and down the street and rechecked the address. Apparently there is no office at that location anymore or something. Foiled again.

So today I decided that I knew there was a Correos office in the Corte Inglés near Puerta del Sol. I went there after school and had to go down into the basement and then walk through this creepy parking garage just to find the office. I had read on the Correos website that I could buy a box there to ship my camera, so I waited in line and then asked the man (in Spanish) if they sold shipping boxes. He told me that yes, they do sell boxes there, but they didn't have any today. Oh. Okay. I wandered around that Corte Inglés for a little while trying to come up with innovative packing materials, and could not find anything that would work. Then I decided to go to the ISA office nearby because I figured the directors might have an idea where I could find a box. David was the only one there and told me the post office in Corte Inglés. Ha.

After that I decided to do what I should have just done all along--go to the Palacio de Comunicaciones. Really, that sounds a lot more special than it actually is. It's a beautiful building on the outside, but just a huge post office on the inside. (I think I have a picture of the building in one of my previous Facebook albums--I just didn't know what it was called at the time.) I went inside, stood around, and finally figured out that you had to take a number even though there were like 10+ stations open and only five customers there. I had to pick what kind of number I wanted to take and I picked the one that said I needed to buy something because I needed to buy a box. Well, I chose correctly and when I got up there the guy asked me what I wanted and I said in Spanish "I need a box big enough to send my camera to the United States." Well, he got pissy when he heard that and left me for a minute and came back with this really nice woman who got me my box, but told me that they did not accept credit cards. I only had 20 euros on me and had to spend 3 to buy the box (and I had figured it would probably cost around 25 to send the package), so I decided to just get the box and come back later with more cash. Like I said, the woman was very nice, so she weighed my package before I left and told me it would only cost 4,80 to send. I couldn't believe it would be so cheap, but was happy that I could just stay there and mail it. Unfortunately I had to take another number to get in "send" line (because I had been in the "buy" line). I got up there and handed the guy all of my information and he weighed my package and told me it would cost 18 euros to send. Oh. Apparently the nice worker had put in the wrong postal code. I was a euro short, so I took the box and walked outside. However, I scrounged around in my pocket and found two more euros in change, so I went back in, took another number, waited around, got up there, waited while the worker guy flirted with a worker girl and finally sent the box. I was so relieved just to be done with that experience. Although now we have to wait and see if the box actually gets to Wisconsin.

Of course when I got to the metro, I found that with all my digging in my pockets for various things at the post office I had lost my metro pass that still had 7 trips left on it. It's a good thing I found that last euro in my pocket because it bought me my trip home.

So the moral of this story is that you should just go to the big post office to begin with. And don't trust the Correos website for anything. I really love Spain, but sometimes I just feel that people aren't really on top of things and they kind of like to give you the run-around.

P.S. Just to let you all know I don't have classes on Thursdays ever and there's some holiday on Friday so I have an extra long weekend. My friends and I are going to Zaragoza on Friday, so I probably won't update this again until Sunday.

El Escorial and Valle de los Caídos

Good news! I was looking through my messenger bag and found my old camera in it. It doesn't take nearly as nice of pictures of my new camera, but at least I have something. I really don't even remember packing it, but I did. I also packed the cord; who knew I'd be so prepared?

Yesterday ISA took us on an excursion to El Escorial and Valle de los Caídos. It took a little less than an hour by bus to get there. El Escorial was built by Felipe II as a monestary/place of residence/college in the 1500s. The library inside was beautiful. Also quite stunning, but creepy as well, was the royal pantheon. Underneath the basilica almost all of the kings and queens since Carlos V (Felipe II's father) are laid to rest and we got to see the mausoleum. The creepiest thing our guide showed us were, a few steps above the pantheon, the doors to the "rotting rooms." Bodies of deceased monarchs are kept in these rooms for around 40 years to fully decompose before finally being laid to rest in the pantheon. Our guide told us that there were three bodies in the rotting rooms right now. Overall I liked El Escorial. It's very strange for a royal residence because Felipe II was really religious and wanted the focus to be on God (and he was a Hapsburg from Germany/Austria), so the architectural style is considered "unadorned." Yet the whole building is very impressive. I also liked the little town surrounding El Escorial. It was just so quaint and really quite beautiful with the mountains in the background.

After eating lunch we hopped back on the bus and went to the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen). Here there is a giagantic cross that can be seen for miles and a basilica that was carved into the surrounding rock. The basilica and cross were built by prisoners of war after the Spanish Civil War. Franco claimed that he wanted it built to memorialize those who had died in the war, but my personal opinion is that he just wanted an imposing place to be buried as his tombstone is located right by the high altar in the basilica. It was a very strange place and I felt a lot of conflicting emotions while I was there. The scenery all around is absolutely stunning and the architecture is roughly, strangely beautiful as well. However, it is also very haunting and chilling due to the idea that it was constructed by/for a dictator.

Overall, as much as I love the city, it was nice to get away for a day and see some of the beautiful landscapes that surround Madrid. Here are the pictures from the day: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124964&l=59b1d&id=71208608

Too fast.

Wow. This week has just flown by. I can't believe it's already Thursday night. It was really nice not having school today, but because of that it is really hard for me to be motivated to go to school tomorrow. Oh well, at least I don't have to go until noon.

And in other news I just turned on my camera to find that the screen is completely messed up/broken. So I'm kind of freaking out right now.

Well, I was going to write about my fun night out last night, but I'll just gloss over it because I am really frustrated right now. Sonya, Julie, Rachel (my new friend who is just such a fun person to be around), Rachel's friend Kate, and I went to this place where everything (food and drinks) is a euro on Wednesday nights. We had a really good time.

Also, today I finally went to the Prado. Las Meninas (the painting at the top of this post) was just stunning to actually see in person. It's so huge and it just has a vacuum-like power that completely draws the viewer in to explore all of its depth and details. I saw so many other paintings that I had been really excited to see as well and really became a huge fan of Goya. His work was amazing. I'll probably go back again because there was just too much to see in a too short amount of time.

Now I'm going to try to see what I can do about my camera. Ugh. Of course this had to happen...

P.S. I'm going to El Escorial on Saturday, so my next post my not be until Sunday. I hope to have some pictures for you somehow.

School

Hi all,

Well, I started school yesterday. I know, I don't sound very excited about it, but that's just because yesterday was strange. We were supposed to have an orientation yesterday and then start classes today. Then we got to school and they told us that we would be starting classes on Monday. Oh. So yes, I had to sit through all four of my classes yesterday even though I was totally unprepared and technically not registered for any of them.

Everything actually turned out all right. I met a lot of new people yesterday and found a few that I think I'm going to get along with very well. I have all four of my classes on Monday (from 10-2), three on Tuesday and Wednesday (from 10-1), NONE on Thursday, and one on Friday (12-2). It's a rather bizarre schedule seeing as how I have my language class for an hour on Monday and then two hours on Friday, but things in Spain are just kind of like that--just a bit different. I really like my literature and art history professors. At first I thought my history professor might be a bit boring, but he is really passionate about history, so I'm warming up to him. I have to make up my mind yet about my language professor. All of the girls love him, but I just don't know...it's probably not so much him, but just that I'm the least confident about that class.

University classes in Spain are very different than what I'm used to in the U.S. Pretty much almost all of my grades are determined by one final exam (like about 95% of the grade is the final, maybe 5% is attendance) except in my language class where we have a midterm and a final. My classes are almost 100% lecture as well. There's very little student participation. For me that's a bit difficult as 1) I usually have an opinion (especially about literature) and I want to voice it and 2) it's really easy for me to let my mind start wandering and then get off track...and it's just so hard to get back on track in a foreign language. I thought it would be difficult having all my classes in Spanish in a row, but it's actually a bit easier. That's because the longer I sit there listening, the more the language embeds itself in my head.

It was my birthday yesterday. I had an ISA meeting at night and the ISA directors made me a card. After that Julie, Sonya and I went out for dessert and found this cute little plaza with a statue of Federico Garcia Lorca (one of my favorite Spanish poets/playwrights) in it. The picture accompanying this post is one of Julie (right) and Sonya (left) with Lorca.

Weekend!

Hi everyone,

I can't believe it's Sunday night already and I have to go to school tomorrow. Yes, that's my birthday present--school orientation.

I did have a very good weekend. Saturday I wandered around like usual. Then at night I met the rest of the people in my Winter 4 program and it turns out there are only two more! Julie and Sonya both go to Ohio State but didn't know each other before the program and they're really nice. So far we the three of us get along pretty well. And I'm guessing that I'll probably meet even more people from other study abroad programs tomorrow at the school orientation. Anyway, after the little introductory meeting we went on a tour of the area of Madrid near the Puerta del Sol, but we couldn't actually go through Sol because there was a huge demonstration about the Gaza conflict. Madrid is absolutely stunning at night though.

Today I went to the Parque del Retiro and it was beautiful. Even though it was cloudy there were a lot of people there. Yet in spite of all the people, it was just a calm and relaxing place. I think that I'm going to go back there many, many more times. However, I did have one very weird experience. I had to use the restroom and it was underground. This was strange but not a big deal. Then I walked in and just saw some toilet paper hanging there in the entry-way, but I figured it was just for drying your hands or something so I blew past it. I got in the stall and looked (I always look before doing anything else!)...and there was no toilet paper. So I went out to the entry-way to get some and realized there was a guy in a glass booth that was guarding the toilet paper. So yeah, I don't know if they have a problem with toilet paper theft or toilet paper abuse, but apparently someone gets paid to make sure you don't take too much toilet paper. It was pretty much the weirdest bathroom experience I think I've ever had.

Then I was wandering around the park some more and thinking about going to the Prado (finally!) when Julie and Sonya called. I met up with them instead, so we wandered around Sol until my feet felt like they were going to fall off.

Oh! I should probably explain the picture that goes with this post. Well, remember how Oshkosh had the lions around the city? Well just overnight Madrid got cows. They are everywhere!

Here are the pictures from this weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124264&l=b2ab0&id=71208608

School and Real Madrid

Hi everyone,

Today was a good day. The sky was blue again and the temperatures hovered around 40. (Sorry to all of you in Wisconsin with temperatures that are like -40.)

In the morning I decided to take the bus to school to see how long it would take. Once I got to campus I just walked around for a while. Even though the buildings aren't the prettiest ones I've ever seen in my life (they aren't the ugliest either), I really liked the atmosphere on campus. Because I was off of the busy streets, everything seemed to be a bit more relaxed and I just felt really comfortable there. I think it's probably because school is familiar thing for me and I pretty much know what to expect with it (even if it will be a little different than what I've done before). One thing I especially liked about campus, other than the view of the mountains, was all of the graffiti. I think it's funny that the UWO administration freaks out about sidewalk chalk; they would have a fit if they saw all the graffiti here. The graffiti is so political in nature...and I guess I just have a different view of it since I read Julio Cortázar's short story "Graffiti."

I had planned on going to two museums after going to campus, but it was just such a nice day out that I didn't want to be stuck indoors. Instead I took the metro down to a part of town I hadn't been before. It was a more commercial area than the other parts of the city that I've seen.

After wandering for a while, I finally stumbled on what I was really looking for--El Estadio Santiago Bernabéu: Home of the Real Madrid fútbol team. Quick side note: I had never really followed soccer until last year and the reason I became so interested in Spanish soccer was because I did this project on the social and political history of Soccer in Spain for my Spanish Civilization class. Anyway, I decided I should take the tour because I wasn't going to the museums and it was a great decision. That stadium just had so much energy. This Italian guy became my tour buddy and we had a blast. A lot of people will probably hate me for saying this, but this stadium was 100x more interesting than Lambeau.

After that I took the metro home and was starving because it was after 4 and I hadn't eaten since 10, so I did something I'm a bit ashamed of--I ate at McDonalds. But I only did it because it was practically right outside of the metro station! It's good to know though that half-way across the world french fries and McNuggets taste the same.

Here are my pictures from today: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124089&l=cf13b&id=71208608

Oh! And I'm very excited for tomorrow because I get to meet the rest of the kids from my program. Hooray!

¡Mis maletas están aquí! (Finalmente)

Hi everyone,

Sorry to disappoint you but I kind of took the day off today. I slept in, went to El Corte Inglés to buy hangers (which took about an hour because I could not find them and rode the escalator up and down 50 billion times...they ended up being like right next to the pet supplies), and then waited for the call that my luggage had arrived. It finally came. Seriously, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I went over to the ISA office to go pick it up and ended up taking my first ride in a taxi (I wasn't about to haul my huge suitcases on the metro). The driver was really nice and we had a good conversation. Then I unpacked, which took about as long as it took me to pack and ended up falling asleep for a while. Then I decided I was too lazy to go anywhere and read instead. It was actually a really nice, quiet day. But I have a busy-ish day planned for tomorrow to make up for being lazy today.

Based on my conversation with the taxi driver today and the conversations I've been having with the ISA directors I've come to the conclusion that my Spanish is a lot better when I stop thinking about it. When I start to think too hard I begin constructing these elaborate sentences in my head that are hard enough to spit out in English. While sometimes I feel like I'm talking like a child, I've started to become satisfied with simple, effective sentences to get my ideas across when I'm speaking in Spanish. That's not to say that I'm not going to challenge myself to speak better, but I'm starting to realize that speaking Spanish here isn't about being perfect, but instead it's about being understood. And when I let go and just focus on being understood, the grammatical elements seem to just fall into place (and even if they don't, it's not the end of the world).

On a completely different note, does anyone have any cheap, easy meal ideas? After this weekend I'm going to need to go grocery shopping again.