School, Cultural Differences, and My Existential Crisis

The Boring Logistical-Type Stuff:



School! I just finished my first week, and man, am I pooped. I´m doing the required Conferencias right now-the additional mandatory classes that advanced speakers take, and it takes a lot out of me. My regular spanish classes are from 3 to 6 every day, and the Conferencias are Tuesday through Friday from 6 to 8. PLUS Tuesday and Thursday I have my art history class from 10:30 to 12:30, and on Thursdays we go to actual museums. (we´re studying Greek sculpture right now. We went to the Prado and I saw looked at so many marble balls I felt like a urologist for petrified men). I´m not used to being in school this much, especially when it´s all in Spanish, so needless to say, I´m pretty wiped out. Thank God the Conferencias are over on January 28th. Then I´ll be done at 6 every day.



Anyway, my classes are at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, which is MASSIVE (over 120.000 students-yikes!), and apparently one of the oldest universities in the world. It´s a pretty ugly campus though, all brick, and since it´s winter there´s like, no landscaping, and the plaster is falling off the walls in the classrooms. Pretty shabby. But- I´d rather have good teachers and ugly classrooms, which appears to be the case. And they´re all familiar with foreign language students, so they´re pretty understanding, considering the barage of blank stares they must get on a daily basis.

One of my teachers seems like she gets annoyed easily- she doesn´t seem to get it that if people aren´t doing what she asked, it´s because they didn´t understand her, not because they´re ignoring her. Just because I don´t know the language, it doesn´t mean I´m stupid, which some Spaniards don´t seem to understand. As my art teacher(who, for the record, is Spanish) accurately put it, the Spaniards that are nice are incredibly nice, and the ones that are mean are horrid. Like the poem about the little girl with the little curl (right in the middle of her forhead. . . ).



I´m disappointed with the level I got placed in after taking the placement test-4.2, which is advanced intermediate. I don´t feel challenged at all, and even though I know I shouldn´t compare myself to the other students in my level, me being me, I did it anyway, and I speak way better than almost all of them. However, I talked to my grammar teacher about moving up a level and he basically said if I´m okay with it, he´s okay with it, so I´m looking forward to that. I´d rather learn more and be challenged and get a B than be in a cake class and get an A, you know?



On a fun side note, the Complutense food is incredibly cheap, very much UNlike City College. A bocadillo (sandwich), is about 2 Euro, which is about $2.50 (that´s like, how much bottled water is at City). Awesome. And you order it from this crazy machine-you put in your money, select your item, and then a ticket prints out that you bring up to the counter and hand to a guy. Then, magically, he will bring you what is on said ticket. The machine looks like a 1950´s jukebox, except you´re picking food instead of songs. Ha,ha.



As long as I´m on a food thread, allow me to gripe about my Asian food withdrawl. I NEED SUSHI. I garuntee that will be the first thing I want when I come home. the have a couple restaurants here, but they´re all rediculously expensive, like $8 for a California Roll. Ouch. They just don´t really have a high Asian population here, so there´s no demend for it. I´m very spoiled by the food in Northern California.



Weird foods I have eaten since I have been here include, but are not limited to, the following:

Orejas (pig ears)- They were gross. Pure, sticky, fat. And crunchy cartilage.

Caracoles (snails)- Also gross. They were grainy, and kind of reminiscent of mussels. But I´ve always wanted to try them, so I can scratch that off my ¨List of Things to do Before I Die¨.

Bocadillo Calamari (squid sandwich)-tasty

Cerveza and Coke(beer and Coke)-Not too bad. Better than it sounds. Like rum and Coke, but not.

Morcillo(blood sausage)-Haven´t actually tried it yet, but it´s on the list. I´ll let you know.



Moving on to Fun Cultural Facts About Spain:



The music! It´s very odd, not many people here speak english, and if they do it´s generally limited, so it´s very surprising that everywhere they play American music-pop or classic rock. Molly and I went to this charming old fashioned tea and desserts place, and while we were there we listened to. . . . Guns ´n Roses! Who can forget such a classic from Madrid.



Commercials! They have far fewer commercial breaks, but the ones they have are loooooong, hence more times to make sandwiches. Brilliant. And I would say about 85% of them are for perfume. They have far fewer emabarrassing personal hygiene ads too. I think I´ve seen only one tampon commercial and two for erectile dysfunction.

Also, Sitcoms are not popular in Madrid. Lots of news, dubbed American movies, variety shows, and Dancing With the Stars type shows dominate. TV shows such as House, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Desperate Housewives are all dubbed and popular (Homer´s voice is WAY off. It´s just not the same).



Night Life! Night clubs generally open at around midnight and people usually start showing up around 1 or 2 AM and clubs are open until 6 AM. Crazy! When do they sleep? Also Spaniards go out to have fun- people don´t party in their homes, and it´s very common for people in their 20´s and even 30´s to still be living at home with their parents. And, since we have all been teenagers, everyone knows what a drag it is when you have nowhere to be alone with anyone, so Spaniards just got over it and make out EVERYWHERE in public. The Metro (subway), is a hot makeout spot, so are bars and clubs. It´s a little odd, but they manage to keep it PG rated, from what I´ve seen.



Eating Hours! people don´t eat dinner in Spain until about 10PM. If you go to a restaurant at 9PM, you would be considered old or a tourist. Most places don´t even open until like 7PM, but I´m enjoying that places stay open later. Lots of smaller Mom and Pop type places close for siesta as well, from about 4 to 7, and, like the States, many places are closed on Sunday.



Customer Service! In America, when it comes to customer service, to put it bluntly, we´re used to having our asses kissed. Not so in Spain! People aren´t like ¨Hi! I´m Pablo and I will be your server today!¨ or ¨Please let me know what I can do to make your stay more pleasurable.¨ Customer service, if you can call it that, is very serious-not rude, but definitely not friendly. And don´t try substituting tomatoes for avocadoes-Spaniards are not into customizing orders. They make it how they make it, and that´s how you get it.

Teenagers and Young People! They look pretty much like kids here- lots of t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. generally I would say they dress a notch nicer, but they pretty much could pass for being American. my look, as usual, tends to stand out, but I don´t feel I´m quite as conspicuous, what with the people dressing nice and all. However, one night we went to this tapas bar called El Tigre where there were lots of people our age- I got a lot of stares. One group of guys kept saying ¨Que moda, que moda!¨ (what style!) to me, and one of them poked my vintage and hat and giggled. Needless to say, vintage clothes aren´t super popular here. The ¨counter culture¨ look here leans heavily toward very unkept dreadlocks, often styled in the mullet fashion. It´s pretty atrocious. I´ve seen some Hot Topic looking gothic kids, too. Oh, yes, and the facial piercings.

My Existential Crisis! As you can probably imagine, all this newness has left me in an ¨I Don´t think we´re in San Francisco anymore, Toto¨ like state. I´ve gotten lost, taken the wrong bus, said the wrong thing, walked around with my nose buried in a map and still not been able to figure out where I´m going, I feel I´ve been judged, been weirded out by foods, times, customs, and just about everything. It´s very tiring, and sometimes I feel my brain is about to explode. Sometimes I miss California and San Francisco and all the beautiful people and things I´ve left behind desperately. I´ve had some hard days, and some hard moments. I cried once on the Metro already because I saw this kid that looked strikingly like Andrew Jones and it caused a massive wave of homesickness. Anyway, long story long, I love and miss everyone very much. To quote the great and lovely Joni Mitchell ¨Don´t it always seem to go, you don´t know what you got til it´s gone.¨
I am coming back, I know, but 3 months seems a loooong ways away. Oh well. In the meantime I´ll choke down some more ham, pull up my bootstraps, wipe the snot from my nose, and take it one day at a time.

PS- Barcelona in two weeks! stay tuned!