Sorry, forgot your Spanish lesson:

Here's a couple expressions I like that I've been hearing:

1. Anda mirando el ombligo (lit. = Walk around looking at your belly button) = be conceited/self absorbed

2. Cielos ( lit. = skies) = a mild oath (along the lines of the Shakespearean expression "zounds"). Interjection that can be used in basically any context.

e.g. Cielos hace calor hoy = Skies, it's hot today.

3. Joder = a versatile cuss word. I'm pretty sure it would translate to something pretty inappropriate, but you hear this all over the place in Spain. e.g. at dinner to express surprise or frustration, in a taxi when the driver gets lost, in class when the professor is angry that no one is talking, etc. So I'm not sure if they swear more or we are more prudish about it

Brent

Lisboa

Buenos,

Just got back from Lisbon last night. I was very happy to return to Spanish after almost being able to understand everyone in Portuguese, but not quite. I'm going to narrate these pictures which should give you the gist of Lisbon.

1. The statue of Discovery. Monument to all of the explorer's that came were commissioned by Portugal. This monument is in an area of town called Belem which is right on the water and a little ways out of the center of the city. There's also a Giant monastery with the remains of Vasco de Gama (Portuguese explorer) inside, and also ....

2. Pastéis de Belem. Amazing "custard pastries" that are apparently a Portuguese specialty. They taste kind of like popovers (if anyone has ever been to Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park) but a little bit sweeter.

3. Oceanario. After Belem we went to the Aquarium of Lisbon (which is also outside of the city center), and apparently the biggest in Europe This picture is of the skyline around it, significantly more modern looking than the rest of the city. The aquarium was exciting, but noticeably smaller than most American aquariums. They did have a sunfish though, which is a prehistoric type fish, which was very oddly shaped and fascinated us.

4. Sintra. The next day we went to a very picturesque town outside of Lisbon called Sintra and walked around a little then took a bus up to the ...

5. Moorish Castle. Cool ruins up at the top of the surrounding hills.

6. Lisboa. This picture is of nighttime in Lisbon, when we finally got to explore the main city. We were here right after we walked into a free classic organ performance of pieces by Handel.

7. Dia de Corzonada. Back in Madrid, the last scheduled event to try to receive the Olympics in 2016. Everyone stood in the Plaza de Cibeles and held up pieces of colored paper, which from the air looked like the Madrid symbol for the olympics. http://blogs.lainformacion.com/megafotos is a website where you can try to find me in the crowd. I'm in the yellow section.

Hasta

Brent

Noche en Blanco

Hello everyone,

So this week was my first real week in class. All or the "programmas" (syllabi) were handed out and we got into an actual schedule, which differs completely from our previous two weeks of travel. This week was a great week to be in Madrid. Nonetheless, many of the Spainards decided otherwise. Borja left for Austurias on Monday and Juan went to Cadiz on Tuesday. And on the first day of class with actual Spanish students (which wasn't until Thursday, because Monday was a celebration of the first day of classes and thus no class was held), no one showed up. There was one other "Erasmus" (international) student from Panama, but other than that it was six Americans. I guess all these of the Spainairds had better things to do then receive a syllabus.

As the weekend approached things turned around. Seeing as no one has classes on Friday, we decided to stay out all night on Thursday in order to catch the Metro. (It is closed from 1:30 AM to 6:00 AM). After this long night, and getting being taunted by an empty Metro that wouldn't pick us up, we decided this was a poor idea and in the future will look into other forms of transportation

Saturday was far more successful due to the Noche en Blanco. Once a year cities all over the European union (Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Riga, etc.) put on one night of city wide celebration where is open until the wee hours of the night. The official schedule in for this night has events starting no earlier then 9:00 pm and all ending any time between 2:00 am and 6:00 am. You can get into the museums for free to see the permanent collections and also special exhibits only shown for this one night. All of the restaurants (from McDonalds to the famous Café that sells churros) are open all night, so an energy crash is not a problem. The entire city was decorated: there was a giant donkey looming over the plaza by Atocha, and all of the lamps on Paseo del Prado had green lap shades covering them. (picture 5) The major roads (Paseo del prado, Gran Via, etc.) were closed to car traffic so that mob of people out in Madrid could get around easier, and everywhere you walked there was some sort of dance workshop/lesson ("taller" in spanish) taking place on the big screen, along with light decorations all over the streets (see pictures 3 and 4). There were bands on every street corner playing. I saw everything from a hip hop battle (called The Red Bull Batalla de los gallos - which translates to "Battle of the Roosters"– the National hip hop championship) in Plaza de Espana to an exclusively Brass Jazz band next to Caixaforum, to an electronic-type band with accordions that played on top of a double decker bus in Puerta del Sol, to an Saharaui African band next to Templo del Debod. I forgot to bring my camera, but I stole the pictures above from my friend Kim. I did take two of these pictures the next day to show the aftermath of the night. One of the lampshades at day time (picture 5), the other of a public works employee who was walking down Paseo del Prado picking up every single cigarrette but left there the night before. (picture 2) I did not envy his job.

Sunday also proved a to be a good day to be in Madrid. While waiting to get into the Prado (open free to the public at 5:00 on Sunday), I just happened to catch the Vuelta a Espana (an international bike race), as they went around the Paseo twice. (Picture 9) To top off the weekend, that night Spain beat Serbia in the European championship.

Spanish Lesson:

No real relation to what I've been talking, just what my host family says to me before I leave the house or go to bed.

"Que los pases bien" or "que duermas" = Have fun / sleep well

I like this expression because it uses subjunctive, so basically instead of commanding you to sleep well, they are expressing hope that you will sleep well, without saying the who long phrase. I guess Spanish is a more polite language then English.

I'm heading to Lisbon this weekend so I'll make sure to bring my camera.

Buenos,

Since I last talked about Madrid there have been a couple of changes. Everyone is back from vacation. At around 8:30 pm the Parque Retiro is literally packed with people. Also, the weather has gotten a lot colder this week due to storms all around Spain. Fall has arrived, but apparently out weather will be nicer next week.

Since I've been in Spain for a few weeks now, I have compiled a brief list of general general obeservations Madrid and Spain that differentiate them from America. Hope you enjoy:

1. Stores: All of the stores, especially the smaller grocery or clothing stores, look like they were just opened. Merchandise sits on top of boxs and next to random pieces of furniture so it is unclear what you can buy and whether they will be there tomorrow. This transence is only increased when due to the fact that everthing is closed midday for lunch, so one can never be sure if they will ever be able to go back to a cool book store or whatever else they found. (Picture 2)

Also as an aside: do not forget atheltic shorts if you want to wear them here. Literally no stores (Corte Ingles, Nike store, etc.) carry any shorts that are less than 25 euros.

2. No one follows the signs. For example ... in the Parque Retiro there are clear signs that say do not walk on the grass; nonetheless, the acts of picnicing, napping and snogging (think Harry Potter) are frequently preformed next to this signs. See picture 3 for evidence.

3. Melodramatic: Everyone enjoys exaggeration. Whether it be in movies or artwork or just everyday speach. This one is harder to document, but take picture 4, a painting of Los Reyes Catolicos as proof. If you saw the whole painting you would agree with me that it's a little over the top.

4. St. Christopher is better than St. Catherine. Duh, but Spain agrees. The amount of art work I've seen representing these two saints is definitely favoring Christopher, in probably a 3:1 ratio. (Picture 5)

5. Lines. The Spanish like to stand in line almost as much as their Duke counterparts. Simple tasks, like getting student IDs take a least 45 minutes due this predliction. The fact that cutting these lines is a common practice does not help the situation.

6. Speedy. Spainairds run very fast. In the park they will sprint past you only to stop twenty yard later. Also Spainards eat very fast. My host family always finishes their plates before me, and I considered myself a fast eater in the states. (No fotographic evidence)

Spanish Lesson

Estoy bueno ≠ I'm fine ... but rather "I'm hot"

Context: When at dinner and your host mother asks if you would like more food say "Estoy bien", not "Estoy bueno" unless you are very concieted and want to prove you don't understand what she is saying. I know this from experience.

Hasta Luego

Brent

Galicia

Hola todos,

Just got back from Galicia, the Northwest corner of Spain (right above Portugal). This area is beautiful and many Spaniards and Europeans get to see it but not many Americans, so I went in not exactly knowing what to expect. You can think of this area like Spain's equivalent to Maine or somewhere along those lines, but with it's own language and with pulpo (octopus) instead of lobster (although I was told the lobster in Galicia is better. I'll have to disagree for now because I never found a place to try it.)

Duke in Madrid explored together in this area from Wednesday to Friday, starting in A Coruna, exploring some of the small coastal towns, and ending up in Santiago. Some of the highlights:

1. Taking a bus to the highest cliff in Europe (right outside of San Andres). There was almost no view of the ocean from this cliff because we were completely covered by a cloud, but the wind was blowing very intensely. If you jumped straight up in the air you would land a foot or so from where you had started from the sheer force of it. (picture 4)

2. Climbing to the top of the Catedral in Santiago. Santiago = St. James. His remains were found here a Cathedral was constructed above them. It's the third largest Catholic pilgrimage location in the world. Even now there are hundreds of "peregrinos" = pilgrims that come in daily to the city on the Camino de Santiago, a trail starting in France. This massive cathedral (picture 6) is very impressive and you can walk on the roof with a tour and see the whole city and country side (a la Duomo in Florence). (Picture 7)

Sigue

Over the weekend half to group stayed in Santiago (well worth it). Galicia is know for its great food. We went to the same restaurant to nights in a row ( O Diezasies) and had amazing pulpo and other great seafood. On Saturday we hiked through on the extension of the Camino de Santiago (pilgrim's road to Santiago), but didn't make it very far. The route is very because it goes along roads, through villages, and through woods. Sadly my camera died so I couldn't take pictures, but the scenery was beautiful and we picked grapes and figs as we were walking.

Santiago also has other attractions like a very cool permanent farmer's market and the best candy store in the world ("Pecados" = sins) (Picture 8). Also in the church at 12:00 mass the have the biggest incense dispenser (don't know the technical word), which swings at a good five miles per hour (maybe) in the rafters. Also the is a inclination towards fine art in the streets. We saw a mini orchestra (picture 9) performing today and my friends say two Opera singer outside the other day.

Spanish Lesson:

Callajear = meandar around streets getting lost in a city.

The perfect tourist word. Calle = street, so this word is basically just street in a verb form. Very cool the way Spanish can do this I think.

Gallego ( Language they speak in Galicia) - for you spanish speaker to alleviate some confusion if you ever go to Galicia.

A = La ("the" feminine)

O = El ("the" masculine)

All in all a very cool trip ... stay tuned for more about Madrid soon

Andalucia

I'm just going to post some pictures from this trip and desribe them. Basically Andalucia is southern Spain: home of flamenco, bull fights, tapas, and arabic architecture.

In Andalucia we went to Granada, Sevilla, and Cadiz. The pictures above show some of the cooler buildings there. The Alhambra (the bottom picture) is an old arabic palace that looks over the city of Granda. Southern Spain is relatively hot (39 degrees celsius which is about 102 degrees farenheit), so it was kind of brutal to tour around, but we did plenty of things inside like learing how to dance flamenco at the Flamenco Museum. Look at facebook if you'd like to see more pictures.

I'm off to Galicia tommorow, but I'll write again after that.

(Sorry this post is kind of choppy. I've been on the internet to long trying to figure out travel plans.)

As far as my family goes I have two host brothers Juan and Borja (21 and 19) and a host sister Miriam (14), and then their parents María and Juanjo (sp?). Juan and I were in the house alone for a couple days when the family was still on vacation. When I first got there I accidently was calling him usted (a formal way of addressing someone that is completely not the right way to address someone who is your same age.) Juan and Borja and I went to see American Playboy an (I’m assuming) unsuccessful movie in the States called Stretch (starring Ashton Kutcher). While I could understand this dubbed movie, the conversations that Juan and Borja were having with their friends were muy rápidos. I think I’m getting better than the usted snafu, but it may take a bit to feel completely fluent.

Spanish Lesson:

molar: to be cool

Sentence: Esta película mola. = This movie is cool.

Two reasons I like this word:

1. It can’t really be translated to English. Basically you’re using cool as a verb, as if the subject is achieving this quality, not that it simply possesses it like we say in English.

2. This word is never taught in Spanish classes so if you want to get seem very cool to the Spaniards you can drop this into conversation. We’ll see how this works out for me.

Vale

Adios.

(Sorry for the formatting by the way, I think you can only really post on picture in a post, so read from bottom to top on this one. The rest should be in order.)

Everyone leaves Madrid in August and the city is vying for the 2016 summer Olympics (against Chicago), so there have been a lot of works projects this summer. The upper picutre is a sign for the Olympics on the out side of the Banco de Espana. It translates roughly to "I feel it in my bones." The bottom picture is what all of the city looked like when we arrive. Everything is closed even the news stands and as you can tell from the date on the picture (August 30th) the venders do not arrive back punctually.

Hello everyone,

Two things I’m going to try to do in this blog:

1. Keep you up to date. I’m going to write about what I’m doing in Spain and the rest of Europe. I’ll also post pictures when I get them uploaded to my computer. If anyone feels like commenting or responding feel free. I just thought this would be easier than sending out a group email.

2. Spanish Lessons. I like figuring out different ways things are expressed in Spanish versus English. If I come across something that I think y’all would find interesting I’ll write it in here.

I won’t promise to be the most punctual blogger, but I’ll try to put something new up every week or so or as the spirit moves me.

I live right near the Parque Retiro (upper picture above) in the lower right hand corner (south west) of the city. Right next to Retiro are the Prado and Reina Sophia museums, so I am relatively centrally located. Nonetheless, the university is in the top left hand (north east I guess) corner of the city so I am getting very familiar with the metro on my forty-five minute commute to school in the morning. This time to get there should be significantly shortened when my metro station opens.