24 febrero

This Wednesday Clem turned twenty years old. This was her first birthday away from home, but I think that it was a good one. Her three best friends here showed up at the flat at 12 am to bring in the birthday with cake and candles. Clem’s mom had sent a huge box of goodies for here birthday as well, with expensive champagne from France. The cake was two small cakes covered with melted chocolate and sugar cookies stuck over it and decorated with candies. It was supposed to be a house and the candies represented the four friends. We all ate together in the living room and watched as Clem opened the champagne, spilling it on the floor as it gushed forth from the bottle. I didn’t like the taste of the champagne, but it is exciting. Her friends are so good to her; I hope that by the end of my time here that I have friends like that as well.

This Saturday I toured the city by foot with Suyoun, an exchange student from South Korea. We walked and took lots of pictures. We also explored the other side of the river and the old walls of the city. I don’t like the neighborhoods as much on the other side of the river, but there are some old churches and the river is picturesque at the points where there is not litter. Part of our walk took us close to a mountain, and I could see a old stone building on the side of the mountain. A building means that there is a road. Sometime I want to walk up the mountain with my backpack and a lunch and explore what is there. We ate lunch in a bar on the other side of the river, some tapas and dessert. Tapas are like snacks to eat while drinking. However, I just had café con leche (coffee, milk, and for me three cubes of sugar). It’s a less expensive way to sample the food here and kind of fun too. Each bar has different tapas, though there are some more typical to the area. I also found a Protestant church, which I am going to attend tomorrow. I’m not sure how long the walk is though, perhaps more than 30 minutes, so I’m going to take the bus.

febrero 21

I was thinking the other day about how much is different here, things I didn’t think about before I got here, and what is the same. I bought Colgate toothpaste because I wasn’t sure what the other brands contained. The food in the supermarket is different, such as there is not cheddar cheese, only white cheese from Denmark or here. There is no spaghetti sauce here either that I’ve seen. And vanilla comes in a powder, which I haven’t found yet. Instead of peanut butter there is Nutella (a great invention, might I add). The cold medicine is not in pill form, instead it is dissolved in water and the efforts to make it taste nice failed. There is a phone in my apartment, but it isn’t used ever except to answer from below the building and let someone in the door. Instead, people have cell phones and we message each other important info with text messages and there are pay phones on many corners. There are lots of small food stores/pharmacies and everything is in walking distance. I don’t even have need to use the bus.

The first weeks have not been too hard, except communication. I am not used to hearing Spanish all around me, so I have to concentrate hard to understand. I mishear things that people say a lot. Asking questions is hard for me too, but not too bad. I try to look up words ahead of time…I delayed going to the bookstore to buy books because I didn’t know how to ask the bookstore if they could order the books from another store.
I am resigned to sounding like I do (well, like a foreigner who doesn’t speak very well). I know that I am improving, little by little. There is nothing else to do other than speak the way I do, and at times I may provide humor for others. Or at least they try hard to understand me. I called a basket a chestnut the other day on accident at the grocery store. Basket=canasta; chestnut=castaña.

I have not had to buy any books except two for my Spanish class…the professors have bibliographies and everything is in the library. I haven’t had any readings to do yet, but I read on my own to gain necessary vocabulary. I still need to finish signing up for classes. I am taking four classes, and attending five. I was going to take five classes, but I realized that it would be too much for me if I want to cook and see things and talk to people. I am taking a women’s studies class, “Mujer, Educación y Trabajo,” a class about the history of education, a Spanish class for foreigners, and a religious studies class, “El Hecho Religioso.” I talked to the professor of the fifth class, “Surrealismo en la literatura y el cine” (surrealism in literature and movies) and he said that it would not be a problem for me to attend and listen without signing up for the class. That’s two less papers and presentations for me! I am enjoying all of my classes so far. It is hard for me to understand everything, but I am told it gets better. I am understanding enough to get the gist of each lecture. The class on Surrealism is the hardest to understand, but I don’t have to worry about that now. My favorite class is the Spanish class. It is very relaxed, the teacher, Javier, is very personable, and the other students all want to learn as well, unlike in the university at home. It is a better format than the classes at home also, with conversation at the base and written exercises as well.

My campus is built in a rectangle, with a green in the center and the buildings around the periphery. All of the classes are in the first building, the Aulario. The main library is the next large building (I posted a picture of it earlier). The other smaller buildings are for each facultad, or school in the university. However, there are not classes in these buildings, just labs and offices and meeting halls.

It has been pointed out to me that my English is pathetic/awkward in these blogs. So, if it is, I am sorry. I am hardly ever speaking English, and perhaps the sentences are phrased more like Spanish grammar. Maybe. Or maybe I just can’t speak English.

Photos near apartment

I took these photos two Sundays ago with Ximena after mass (in the church that appears at the end). I need to take a photo of the church I attended this past Sunday and post it too. All of this is a 15 minute walk from the church, at our farthest point of the walk. The Tennis Club (Club de Tenis) is right by my building (across the street and up half a block).

febrero 19

¡Qué lío! What a mess. The hot water heating system has been malfunctioning for about a week now. In that time frame, I have taken one shower. For some reason, there was enough hot water Saturday for two showers at 5 pm in the afternoon. I’ve been heating water on the stove and filling the sink with hot water to wash my hair so I don’t look like a ragamuffin, but what I’d like to do is to turn on the faucet in the tub and feel warm water, not freezing water. Friday Ximena called the owner, José Antonio Calderón, of the apartment to advise him of the situation, and he called the repairman. This morning, I received the repairman into the apartment. He fiddled around, removed the outside panels of the heating unit, and made disapproving noises. Then, he told me that for the work to be done, he would need to be paid 100 and some euros. I had him call Calderón on my phone to talk about the price, but no one was there. No owner, no money, no work, no hot water. Hopefully the repairman gets a hold of the owner today, because all of us in the apartment want to take showers! I don’t have class until 5:30 today, so I am waiting around the apartment to receive the repairman, should he return.

I also went to the bookstore again today to try to find the two books I need to buy for my Spanish language class here. Luckily, this went a lot better, communication and everything. I am to call again this afternoon after the proprietor gets a shipment of the book, and then I will have it. Phew.
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The repairman came back at 12:30 and is working now. Clem, Ximena, and I are splitting the price (35 apiece) and Calderón will pay us back. After a week without hot water, it will be good to have it working again.
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I think that I have eaten the same thing for two weeks, but I haven’t tired of it yet. Toast with milk for breakfast; tuna with mushrooms and/or zucchini, and tomato sauce cooked together as a sauce, noodles or rice, and spices (garlic, cayenne pepper, pepper, oregano) for lunch, and fruit and bread and hot chocolate or tea for “supper”. Saturday Ximena cooked something that she eats in Chile, chicken cooked with a little oil, water, garlic, red pepper, and shaved carrots; and rice cooked with garlic and shaved carrots. Food is more important and present here than in the United States. We take an hour or more break in the afternoon to cook and then sit and eat at leisure. I suppose that most people do the same, since all the stores are closed between 1:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon.

Sunday morning I went to mass at a different church, this one just a block from my building. It was not as old as the other, and I went alone this time at 9 am in the morning. I was the only one awake, and wouldn’t have gone so early, but I received a newsletter in our mailbox from the church and learned that there would be a special group singing in the street before mass and then singing as part of mass at 9 am mass. I understood more of the mass this week than the last, and recognized when the congregation was praying the Lord’s Prayer so I could pray along, in English. I have pretty much given up finding a protestant church in this city. It makes me sad that I won’t be able to take communion until I return to the United States if I can’t find a protestant church. It is different living in a world where I don’t know anyone (personally) who actively seeks God and lives a life of faith.

I miss you all! I check my e-mail nearly every day, if you feel like sending a message. Also, if you know any “American” recipes that aren’t too expensive, and don’t require special dishes (I have something for the oven, frying pans, and pots), send them to me through e-mail if you could. I especially would like a tested recipe for pancakes. There is no syrup here either, so if anyone knows an alternative to maple syrup, I’d love to know!

College cancelled?

I just received an e-mail from President Gora saying that school is cancelled today due to the extreme weather. The locals here are complaining that it's cold, and I can't tell them for certain how cold it is in my state to compare (without doing ciphers in my head to convert the temperature scale). Having the university cancelled must mean it's pretty nasty out.

Around My Apartment

Views from my balcony of the city. The last picture is my apartment building. Count seven stories up on the left, and that is my apartment. My bedroom window looks out through the balcony.

Campus

Center de Idiomas/ Stadium/ Library

February 12

As you will see in the photos that I will be uploading, the city is positioned in a valley between different mountains. It’s not flat here either, but I’m not living on a mountain (at least I don’t think I am). The mountains appear green, or more usually blue, in the distance. I’m not sure how far away they are, but it seems like it would be very possible to bike to them and spend a weekend somewhere in a town and in the mountains. Ximena and I want to bike there if there is a bicycle shop in town that rents bicycles. I would do it if the bicycle shop would buy the bicycle back used at the end of the semester, but we’ll see. There are lots of bicycle shops to try, three within a five minute radius of the apartment building.

In the apartment, there are four of us: me, Ximena from Chile, Erika from Lithuania, and Clem from France. Clem studied here last semester and is leaving for France at the end of February. Taking her place will be another girl from France, Aline. Erika and Aline both arrived this semester, like Ximena and I. Ximena and I spend a lot of time together, sharing our food and meals. It’s good in a place where no one has roots to have someone with to be a little like a family, or to make the apartment more homelike. Erika is away a lot of the time at friends’ apartments and doesn’t talk to the rest of us a lot when she is here. Clem works a lot, so she is not here much either. The apartment is only a five-ten minute walk from campus, and I go between here and there for classes and to use the wi-fi internet on campus. The old part of town, where most people gather for the weekends, is only a fifteen minute walk from the apartment. Nothing is very far away if you are willing to walk.

The schedule here is different than in the US. I eat breakfast after waking, then I might eat a snack, or just wait until about 2:30 or so to eat a heavy lunch. At 8:30 or so we eat supper. Here, lunch is like supper, and supper is a light lunch. The stores here are open from 9-1:30 and 4:30-7:30 or later. The bars are open all day, because they make money with food and other drinks besides alcohol also.

Today I had a Spanish language class for foreigners. There are eight students in my class. It is conversation based, which is very good for me. There was not enough conversation and application of the language at Ball State, nor would the students have applied themselves to take the conversation class seriously had there been more application of the language. I will take this class twice a week for a total of three hours each week. With registration in this class I have access to many programs to practice vocabulary, movies to borrow, and books to read. I think that I will be spending a lot of time there in the library of the Centro de Idiomas.

It’s now about midnight, so I’m going to call it a night. I will post this tomorrow. Hope that everyone at home is doing well.

Apartment

Sink,Washing machine/ Heating Unit/ Our clothes hanging to dry

Stove, Oven/ Living Room/ Entrance

Pictures de family y girls from flat

Address

I have found my postal code online, so here is my mailing address here in Pamplona. Please, though, if you mail something to me, double check at the post office that I have included everything here necessary for the letter to get to Spain.

C/ Monte Lakartxela 4, 7 º C
Pamplona, Navarra 31006
España

Here is some more information about size of packages/cost of postage/restrictions on sending things. If you're feeling like sending me a deck of playing cards, don't. Apparently they're prohibited in the mail, though I'm not sure why.

February 4-11

Friday and Saturday I slept and ate at a family’s apartment paid for by the university. I was glad to not have to pay for a hotel, and I found the family to be very nice. The mother’s name is Mariana and the eight-year old son Aitor. I met the father, but he was not in the house very much except to sleep because he drives a taxi and works many hours. There was another girl sleeping there too, Susana from Czech Republic. Friday afternoon, after arriving at the flat, I went with Mariana to pick Aitor up from school, a block away, and to listen to the students, five years old and up, sing a traditional song in Euskera, the Basque language. Saturday, I spent the day inside going over information that I had received from the university and took a walk in the afternoon around the neighborhood and parks for an hour or so. I spent the evenings with Mariana and Aitor watching TV and playing card games with Aitor. I taught him how to play “Go Fish” and then we played a game like “War” that he taught me. Sunday morning I awoke in time to walk a half hour from the family’s apartment to mine on the other side of the city to pay rent to Wibke, a student who was leaving the apartment to return to Germany. Monday the Spanish class started after a placement quiz at 9:30 in the morning and lasted until 2:30. Every day has been the same, Monday-Friday. I come home, eat lunch with Ximena, and read some, then go out in the evening.

This first week and a half has flown by quickly. Being a foreign student is like being part of a colony of foreigners who create their own little community within another cultural system. It’s a mixture of people from all over the world, all struggling to communicate with one another in the common language: Spanish. Almost every night I have gone out with a group of girls to a bar of some sort for café con leche (coffee with milk) or something else to sip while talking. Last night I went out with the rest of the Erasmus students to a bar to talk and dance. It was different for me, but kind of fun. This week is different from the rest of the weeks because no one has “real” classes. A few students who were already here last semester have exams, and most of us were taking an intensive language class, but it isn’t as much work as the regular school semester will be.

This morning Ximena went with me to mass at the church for la Parroquia de Cristo Rey (parish of Christ King). It was good to be with other worshippers, but I couldn’t understand a lot of what was being said, since I’m not that familiar with the order of the sayings/don’t know them in Spanish. After the mass, we sat in the middle of the church to look at the building. Imagine space, taller than two stories, made all with enormous smooth slabs of stone. The columns support the arching stone that join in the ceiling. Smaller pieces of stone are organized like tiles crisscrossing in the ceiling. It’s quite plain, full of old wooden pews with kneelers, yet it is a feat of architecture and it’s enormity is awesome. I forgot to take a picture of the church, but there are some pictures of the building connected to the church building that is used now (it has a blue copula with a cross atop).

After mass Ximena and I took a walk outside the city a bit. I had no idea that the countryside was so close to my apartment building. Every day I discover new things! Tomorrow I have my meeting with my coordinator here to sign up for classes. It’s a little strange to me that I won’t be signed up for classes until after the classes start, but oh well. I’ll attend classes on Monday nevertheless. No one here has to have their matriculation finalized until March, but I do because everything has to be approved back at Ball State University.

First days

My brother wrote me to tell me that the Colts won the Super Bowl. I had forgotten that the Super Bowl was coming up! All of the things from home seem so far away; this really is another world. I am taking an intensive Spanish language course in the Center for Languages at the university. Things are different here. In Spain, people pay to learn languages. It's not like regular courses like in the US. For me, though, this course (5 hours a day, 5 days) is free, and there is another course (all semster, 45 hours total) that is free for me as an ISEP (the program through which I'm studying in Spain) student as well.

After the night in the hotel, there was a informational meeting at the university, and the people in the office for foreign students found me a family to stay with until Sunday, when a room in my flat would be available. I was happy that one of the girls, Zivle, from Lithuania, helped me find the family's flat and carry one of my little bags up also. I stayed there until Sunday morning, when I walked across the city to my flat. I haven't been able to find a protestant church here yet, but I'm sure that there is one....perhaps only one, but there probably is one. This next Sunday I hope to go to one of the big cathedrals. I can see one of them in the old part of the city from my bedroom window.

I want to write more, because there is so much to tell about the city, the family, my flat mates, and everything I have done so far. I have some pictures to share as well. However, I'm about to meet up with some friends, and I don't like to be late. Pues, I'm already late (15 minutes). So, I will try to write tomorrow.

I'm here!

After driving down to the Indy airport, flying to Atlanta, to Madrid, and then to Pamplona, I am finally here. There is a large time difference here (I'm sure everyone is in bed right now), so I lost hours of sleep crossing the Atlantic, but I think I caught up last night. Let me just say that it was really nice to have a bed. I think I will like it here. There are mountains all around the city, snowcapped and beautiful. It is easy to get around (walking/buses) and I'm sure that there is enough to do to keep me more than occupied. I met my flat mates and found out that I don't have a room there until the 4th of February (when one of the girls is moving out). But, I'm sure that the university will put me up until then (except today). The girls showed me to a hotel (how to walk there) and I checked myself in. Hotel Avenida is nice: small, but nice. There is free wi-fi internet here, so I am using it to talk to you. I met a girl from the US who is studying in Pamplona too on the plane, she seemed nice enough (I'm ashamed to say I don't know her name). I took a taxi to the apartment, and the driver was really nice, we talked about things (where I'm from, Pamplona). Then I walked from there to here, leaving my big suitcase at the flat. This morning I have an informational meeting at the university at 11 (it's now 9) and I will meet the owner of the flat this evening with the other girls who live there.
Well, hasta luego,
Erica