Late Nights in Spain

I had a few late nights last weekend.

Last week Friday I returned to Santander. It was Luca’s, a friend from near Rome, last few days in Santander and I wanted to say goodbye. So after work I caught a bus to Santander.

Luca was out to dinner with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, so I met up with Giulia and Margherita first. Luca is usually the one to cook while Giu and Margherita are just there to look good, or something like that. Well, this time I was treated to a dinner made by the girls. Despite their being Italian, they are not like the Italian grandmother everyone wishes they had. Instead we had jarred pesto and pasta. We had some great homemade bruschetta though, so I will have to give them that one.

After dinner and some drinks we headed out for a night of dancing, drinking, and talking. Ten months into my stint in Spain and I am still not used to 6 am being the earliest you can go home, but I stuck it out.

Saturday we went to Somo Beach, the same one that I learned to surf at. Some of the group went surfing while the rest of us tried to relax on the beach. I say tried to relax because it was so windy out that sand kept on pelting us. It was difficult to look towards the direction the wind was coming and there was sand all up in our food.

Soon I had to meet up with my land lord so I said my goodbyes and bussed it back to Bilbao to move into my new apartment. My new apartment is… underwhelming. I like my room, it is decent sized and has a lot of space. Yet, it has a window that opens onto the balcony that we all share and my blind is hardly opaque. I feel like everybody can see me.

After moving into my new place I caught the metro to Erandio where a friend from class lives. The girls and I met David and had a drink before we headed to the fiesta Erandio was hosting up on the other side of the mountain. Apparently during the summer every pueblo has a fiesta. This one was kind of like a really small fair. It had cheap drinks, food, and like one carnival game. It also had live music and later, a DJ.

Since I am in Basque Country, this fiesta had a band playing traditional Euskara music. Euskara music is kind of like Celtic music. Everyone was dancing along to the music. It was quite incredible to see a really small town show off their pride of their culture. We tried to follow along in some of the dances, but apparently these people have been learning these dances since they were little, so they all knew what was going on.

I said I had a few late nights. Friday we stayed out until 6:30 the next morning. Saturday, we got to the fiesta at around midnight and the bus back wasn’t until 8:00 the next morning. I ended up getting home, exhausted, at around 9:00 a.m. I was so tired, but had to work on a paper I still have due for my Prehistoric Art class. Ah, well. Only five more weeks of living like this. It is going to be bittersweet.

Hasta Luego Santander

All the posters are off the walls. Each shirt is out of the dresser and packed away. Nothing still hangs on the hangers. I have just about packed up my room. It is my last day in Santander. 295 days have passed since I first arrived, bewildered, confused, foreign. Today I leave, still bewildered, confused and foreign.

I head off to Bilbao today for my internship. And although it is only an hour away, it feels like I am leaving a huge part of my life. Everything that I have known and grown accustomed to in the past ten months is staying here, and I have to venture into the unknown again. Scary, huh?

One of the scariest parts is that I still don’t exactly have a place to live. I mean, I have been in contact with this guy since… yesterday. I think the place will work out. But that apartment isn’t free for another week, so before that I am supposed to live in an alternative apartment. And that isn’t free until tomorrow. So tonight… I stay with David, a kid from my classes who lives near Bilbao. And thank God, because I really don’t want to start off in a hostel. Hopefully he can show me around a bit.

Anyways, I am procrastinating. Everything may have been emptied and cleared away, but now it just sits on the floor or on the table tops. I am putting off packing and writing about Norway. They just seem like daunting tasks. Instead I am writing about packing, kind of like two in one. I think that counts at least.

Well, I guess this is good bye Santander. It has been great. Don’t worry, I will come back to visit very soon.

Another Overdue Update

I have my last final tomorrow. My last final in Spain. My academic responsibilities in Santander are coming to an end. I don't know if I should be overjoyed or saddened or a little bit of both. I can't dwell on that now, though. I still have one test remaining: Foundation Engineering.

I read through all the chapters in the book. I went through all of our old homeworks. I looked over all the powerpoint slides. I reviewed my own notes. I feel like I have exhausted what I can do now. All I have left is to watch movies and write my blog.

Yes, long time no see, blogging world. I have been on hiatus, for no reason at all. I guess I should quickly recap my life from where I left off before I write my next blog about my adventures in Norway.

So I left you in Porto. Well, after Porto I visited Erica and Iona in Madrid where they both have been studying for the past semester. Finally, a little CCC love, I missed it, although have not been to any concerts still.

We explored Madrid, ate some long craved for (by Hillary) southern food at a restaurant called Gumbo, clubbed a little, went to a quiz night in an American haven and retired into the sun in Retiro. While I really enjoyed seeing my Cornell friends, I just wanted to be back in Santander. I wanted my own room with my own bed. I had been travelling for 3 weeks now and was just tired. I always seem to need a vacation from my vacations.

Back in Santander I had work to catch up on. More prelims and problem sets than I really wanted, but put my nose to the grind so we could host a Chili Fest of our own later that week for our Italian friends. I have gotten pretty good at corn bread and we have experimented a little with some chilis. We had our good old original beef recipe accompanied by a pork and beer chili and my personal favorite, a white bean chicken chili.

More Italian food and problem sets followed in the weeks to come. I eventually met with Ferrovial, my summer employer. The interview was really just a “What are you looking for?” type of deal, nothing to be too worried about. I will be working on the Historical Archive of Euskadi building in Bilbao for six weeks, although I still haven’t heard anything from them and am supposed to begin next Monday.

I then had finals. I took four tests in the week and a half leading up to my trip to Norway, notably two of them being for Coastal Engineering. Yes, I had my second prelim two days before my final. How are you supposed to know what you are doing incorrectly when you have barely just been tested. Oh well, turns out I passed that class.

What was really great was that before two of my afternoon finals I got to go see prehistoric art in the Cantabrian countryside for several hours in the morning. While my peers were studying, I was in a Land Rover sick to my stomach navigating steep hills and cow pies to see a few rock carvings. This happened two Fridays in a row. Great. Sad thing is, these carvings will be around longer than anything I will ever design. Ugh.

Probably one of the most interesting things I have done between Porto and Norway was that I tried surfing. A few of my Italian friends knew this place we could rent boards and suits for 10 euros for the day over at Somo Beach so the Sunday before I headed off to the fjords I caught the ferry and a few waves. While I wasn’t outstanding, I was pleased that I got up a few times, especially since the Italians gave me a five minute lesson before I entered the water. I was sore and felt like I ate a pound of salt afterwards, but it was amazing to think that I would start the week off hanging ten in the Atlantic and end it at the edge of Trolltunga jutting into the Norwegian fjords. But more on that later.

An Update on Life

So a bit has happened since my last series of posts, but I have been too lazy to write about them until now, and this isn't going to be a great post as it is.

About two weeks ago we didn't have class because there was a conference about construction (I believe) that all the Spanish kids in our class went to. Finding out about this, we decided to go to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum as we kind of got on this kick about visiting all 1000 Places to See Before You Die. Bilbao is only an hour and a half or so away by bus so we thought why not.

Bilbao is a pretty industrial city, but it has a nice old part of town and the Guggenheim is the main attraction anyways. We spent a few hours wandering the galleries of the museum. One of the most impressive pieces of art was this gigantic hangar sized room with equally gigantic steel structures winding around the room. Another piece that really struck me was this series of scrolling LED signs that extended probably 30 to 40 feet into the ceiling above. All in all, the museum was really interesting, full of modern art, but after a while we got hungry and left to eat lunch on the steps. We wandered la parte vieja a little bit before returning back to Santander.

The next day I met up with Kasia and Michal, two Polish kids I have class with. We sat through a little concert in a bar down in the centro. The singer was really good and I met a bunch of Italians and English from Kasia and Michal's Spanish class with whom I agreed to have dinner with. We are all going to cook a dish from home and bring it to share, a little International Potluck. One Italian, Marco, made Kasia promise to make "un monton de pierogies" or literally a mountain of pierogies.

Last weekend we met up with the Spanish kids from our class for a dinner at Pinocho, this pizza place that is Pinocchio themed. It actually had pretty good pizza (much better than Telepizza's) and was nice to finally hang out with the Spanish kids without being the ones to invite them. We all then proceeded to Peter Pan, this bar a lot of students go to for big cheap drinks, and played some dice games.

The following day we had our first excursion for our Prehistoric Art class. This has got to be one of the most dull classes I have taken. Sorry prof. The class is essentially our professor pointing out legs, backs, and horns of animals that were painted 12,000 years ago. Thrilling, truly. The tours of the caves we went on were pretty much the same thing. The caves themselves were really interesting though. The stalagmites, stalactites, and these formations that could be played like xylophones were really neat.

While all of this has been going on, I have been on another quest of sorts. I think I have been getting obsessed with completing lists of somewhat epic proportions. First the 1000 Places list (which isn't going to happen anytime soon, I am at around 50). More recently I have been watching movies from IMDb's top 250 list. In the past two weeks or so I have watched 10 of the movies and am up to a total of 76. Now, I am not going to watch all 250, because most movies made before 1970 just bore me to death (I am ignorant, I know). That leaves me with 163 total. I am almost halfway done and am kind of on a roll (but don't worry mom, homework comes first. Also, I am watching these in Spanish so that should count as productive).

On the cooking front, we have been getting creative lately (and partially cultural). We celebrate Falafel Fridays every Friday. I have to admit, our fried chickpea concoctions have been pretty mouth watering. Not so successful was our attempt at gnocchi. Some of them turned out like mashed potatoes while most of them just were too mushy. I think we have to figure out the cooking time and add more flour to be more successful. Last night we actually ate out. This is a rare occasion because I would rather save money for travelling. I have to admit though, the restaurant was delicious. We went to Dia Delsur and ordered a bunch of different raciones (large portions of tapas) to split. The food was excellent. I was particularly a fan of the patatas bravas we ordered. In Madrid the patatas bravas we got were like roasted potatoes drenched in this delicious red sauce. Here, it was home made potato chips with two different sauces, a red sauce resembling a salsa and this sour cream-ish sauce that reminded me of the Chives n Fries dip you get from Saz's (Wisconsin people know what I am talking about). The Tikka Masala chicken kebab and rice was really good too. The only thing we got that I probably wouldn't order again was a vegetable plate. It was super oily and salty making everything really soggy and heavy. Finally, today, in celebration of Mardi Gras, Hillary and I are going to fashion a King's Cake out of Cinnabon's Cinnamon Rolls. It should be delicious.

Back to classes

So I arrived safely home in Santander after a full two weeks of travelling. To be sure, there are plenty of stories to share, but as I have been up since 4.30 this morning, I will update you shortly. As for now, I need to get some sleep. Second semester classes started today and I need to rest up!

Concurso de Tortillas// Tortilla Competition

Las chicas de Cornell y yo participamos en el Concurso de Tortillas la semana pasada. Si no sabes, una tortilla española es una combinación de huevos, patatas y cebolla, como un omelet. Pues, entramos el concurso entre estudiantes de Erasmus con nuestra tortilla con bacón, queso y pimientos verdes añadidos. Caitlyn y Hillary se llama "The Texaconsin" por los ingredientes extras.

Aunque era un poquito quemado, después de votar y todo, al fin y al cabo ganamos el segundo premio! No es malo para un grupo de guiris.

The Cornell girls and I participated in a Tortilla Competition last week at a friends house. If you don't know, a Spanish tortilla is a combination of eggs, potatoes, and onion, like an omelet (it is sadly not like a Mexican tortilla). Well, we entered the competition between Erasmus students with our tortilla which we added bacon, cheese and green peppers to. Caitlyn and Hillary call it "The Texaconsin" due to the extra ingredients.

Even though it was a little burned on one side, after voting and everything, we ended up taking second place! Not too shabby for a group of foreigners. Sadly we will miss the next competition, the Pastry Competition. We know we would kill with our good ole American Apple Pie, but sadly (not too sadly) we will be visiting the south of Spain and the north of Italy, meaning we will also be missing the Super Bowl! Dang.

Our itinerary:

Leave Feb 1 (day after we finish exams)

Granada

Sierra Nevada

Cordoba

Feb 6 fly from Seville to Venice

Day trips from Venice

Bologna

Milan

Bergamo

Feb 14 fly back to Santander, sadly missing the first days of classes of second semester

Busy

Hay muchas cosas que tengo que hacer antes de escribir de mis vacaciones, pero quiero declarar que sí, estoy vivo y sano después de todo de lo que pasó. En las dos semanas siguientes tengo 3 examenes y una presentación (en castellano) sin mencionar una nueva pareja de tandem y las examenes finales que vienen después. Pues, debes echar un vistazo a mis fotos en Facebook. Saqué muchos, disfrútalos.

There are a lot of things I have to do before writing about my trip, but I want everyone to know that yes, I am alive and well after everything that has happened. In the next two weeks I have 3 tests and a presentation (in Spanish), not to mention a new tandem partner to meet and finals that are at the end of the month. So until then, check out all my photos on Facebook. I took a lot, so enjoy.

Turkey Day Pictures

Thanksgiving Update (Finally, I know)

So, I should probably update you guys on Thanksgiving first, seeing as I promised an update on the following day and it is now more than a week later.

Well, much to my surprise, Thanksgiving was a raging success. No, we didn’t actually rage, but we had a turkey (a $50 turkey I might add). We had pie, we had bread rolls, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, great stuffing, cranberry sauce. What more could we have asked for? Well internet wouldn’t hurt, and that was installed on Thanksgiving too! Which meant we got to slingbox the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and some good ole American football (thank you Mr. and Mrs. Richard). The four Spanish students that are coming to Cornell (Alberto, Borja, Deivid and Raquel) all came to celebrate with us, and even helped with the cooking. I don’t think our celebration through gluttony scared them too much either.

This isn’t to say that Thanksgiving was easy. The power probably cut out on us seven times. We burnt the tops of the two pumpkin pies (which we strategically just peeled away) while trying to figure out how my oven worked. We (apparently) cooked the turkey upside down. We had to DEFEATHER the turkey. The turkey leaked turkey juice everywhere.

But, I repeat, it was a success through all these problems.

PreThanksgiving

I just got the turkey. It is about 6.2 kilo, or according to google's converter, 13.67 pounds. Most places say that you need 1.5 pounds per person, which leads me to at best 9 people eating all the turkey they want. We have 11 to 12 coming, and half of them are Spanish, so probably will not stuff their faces like the Americans will, so I think we are alright in that department. Oh, and last night we made pies 3 and 4. We have stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, green beans and corn on deck so this looks like it should be a successful Thanksgiving ala Spain, as long as the turkey turns out. Fingers crossed, I will update you on the outcome tomorrow.

Overdue Update

Okay, this post is going to be in English (lo siento Diego), but it will be short and I will have a longer one in both languages soon.

To be honest, I haven't had too much to write about lately. All of my travel plans in October kind of fell apart. We weren't old enough to rent a car to go to Portugal. We didn't sign up early enough to go to Burgos. We weren't motivated enough to take advantage of our 3 day weekend over Halloween, so I have been in Santander ever since returning from Madrid 4 weeks ago. That doesn't mean I am staying here much longer, though.

This weekend Chloe, a good friend from high school, is coming all the way from Paris to visit. We are going to be staying in San Sebastian Friday and then will return Saturday, perhaps passing through Bilbao, to Santander. The Wednesday after I am headed off to Belgium with Alex and Josh, the land of waffles, beer, french fries and CHOCOLATE. That's right ladies, guys like their chocolate too. Two weeks after Belgium I will be going to AFRICA! Yes, I guess I will only be about 30 miles a way from Spain, but Morocco is in Africa and there are plenty of camels to be ridden. We were slightly disappointed that we didn't have time slash were too poor to do the 5 day trek through the Sahara, but a night in Tangier is almost as good, right? At least there will be an abundance of falafel. Mmm. Falafel.

And that isn't enough, Mac will be arriving about two weeks after that. Which reminds me, the past few weeks have been mainly me focusing on planning trips and studying for classes. Now, Mac and I have booked a few of our hostels and finalizing details. We have been researching attractions, but I wouldn't mind suggestions of what not to miss, be it museums, churches or food, I want to see it all. To remind you, we will be in Barcelona, Andorra, Geneva, Lyon, Paris, Marseilles, Nice, Monaco and Rome. If there is something I can't forget, even if it is obvious to you, just shout it out (through a comment I suppose).

Other than that, I guess we had Halloween here. Most Europeans it is purely an American thing, but they still do it, although in Europe, instead of slutty, everybody is scary. I'm not sure which tradition I appreciate more, but nonetheless, it was fun. We went a the Beagle Boys (google it, they are from Duck Tales I guess) which none of the Americans knew about, but this German girl was super pumped and a lot of Europeans recognized our costumes. It was a good time.

Oh, and speaking of American traditions and holidays, we order a turkey today for Thanksgiving. Yes, we ordered one. They don't have frozen whole turkeys for sale so we need it specially ordered. We went to a carnecería, a butcher shop essentially, and asked for them to get a turkey from their supplier. That is actually a lie. We asked them to get two. We wanted a 7 kilo turkey, about 15 pounds, which we thought wasn't too big, but the guy said the normal turkey they got was only about 4 kilo on the big side. Being that we want to invite the Spanish kids, some roommates, and friends will be visiting from the US, we need a lot of turkey. Hopefully they are here in time.

Finally, the weather in northern Spain sucks during the winter. I wish it got cold enough to snow, I wouldn't be as wet every day. It is like a hurricane here. The winds make it impossible to use an umbrella. The rain is falling horizontally into your face, adding insult to injury as it pelts you in the eyes. It is non stop too. It has been raining two days straight, and looks like it will continue for a good week. Ugh. Oh well. This leaves me more time to study (read: watch Phineas y Ferb, which I consider studying up on my Spanish) and sleep (thank God for siestas).

Okay, so that is all for now, but there will be more following my trips!

Confusión y comida china // Confusion and Chinese Food

Sí conoces a mi amiga Adrianne, ella puede decirte una cuenta de cuando fue a Wendy’s para pedir unas Frosties. No recuerdo los detalles exactamente, pero el punto de la cuenta es que pidió, decimos, dos Frosties chocolates medianos. El cajero era un hombre de India y tiene un acento como puedes imaginar. Pues, cuando Adrianne pidió dos Frosties, unos problemas seguían. Sigue una imitación de la conversación que tuvieron.

A: Dos Frosties chocolates medianos por favor.

H: Dos Frosties vainillas grandes.

A: No no no. Dos Frosties chocolates medianos.

H: Un Frosty chocolate mediano y un Frosty vainilla mediano.

A: ¿Qué? No. Dos Frosties chocolates medianos.

H: Vale vale. Un Frosty chocolate mediano y papas fritas.

A: No. Dije dos Frosties chocolates medianos.

H: ¡O! Lo siento. Dos Frosties chocolates, un grande y un pequeño.

A: ¿En serio? No. Dos Frosties chocolates medianos.

H: Sí sí sí. Tres Frosties chocolates medianos.

A: Casi. Pero solo quiero dos.

H: Vale. Entonces, dos Frosties chocolates pequeños.

No puedo recordar cómo termina la cuenta, pero consigues la idea. Pues, anoche traté de pedir comida china por teléfono y lo mismo ocurrió. Estaba diciendo el número de teléfono a una mujer y no podía entenderme.

Y: Seis tres cuatro.

M: Seis cuatro ocho.

Y: No. Seis tres cuatro.

M: Seis cuatro ocho.

Y: Erm… no. Seis tres cuatro

M: Seis seis cuatro

Y: No no no. Seis tres cuatro.

M: ¡O! Sí, seis seis ocho.

Y: No. Seis tres cuatro. Como, uno dos TRES.

M: Ah sí. Seis tres tres.

La conversación pasó como 5 minutos y finalmente lo dejé. No creo que tenía mi número correcto, pero la comida llegó sin problema y probaba muy bien. Pero una nota, ¡la comida no vino con galletas de fortuna sino pan china! Y pan china parece como styrofoam. Prueba bien pero todavía, no lo mismo.

Viajes planeados que vienen pronto

- Madrid, Segovia y Toledo

- Oviedo y Leon

- Burgos

- Brussels, Bruges y Ghent en Noviembre

If you know my friend Adrianne, she could tell you a story about when she went to Wendy’s to order some Frosties. I don’t remember the exact details, but the point of the story is that she ordered, let’s say, two medium chocolate Frosties. The cashier was an Indian man with a thick accent, like you can probably imagine. Well, when Adrianne ordered two Frosties, some problems ensued. What follows is an approximation of the conversation that they had.

A: Two medium chocolate Frosties, please.

H: Two large vanilla Frosties.

A: No no no. Two medium chocolate Frosties.

H: One medium chocolate Frosty and one medium vanilla Frosty.

A: What? No. Two medium chocolate Frosties.

H: Okay okay. One medium chocolate Frosty with French fries.

A: No. I said two medium chocolate Frosties.

H: Oh! I’m sorry. Two chocolate Frosties. One large and one small.

A Seriously? No. Two medium chocolate Frosties.

H: Yes yes yes. Three medium chocolate Frosties.

A: Almost, but I only want two.

H: Okay. Then, two small chocolate Frosties.

I can’t remember how the story ends, but you get the idea. Well, last night I tried to order Chinese food over the phone and the same thing happened. I was saying my phone number to a woman and she couldn’t understand me.

M: Six three four.

W: Six four eight.

M: No. Six three four.

W. Six four eight.

M: Um, no. Six three four.

W: Six six four.

M. No no no. Six three four.

W: Oh! Yes, six six eight.

M: No. Six three four. Like, one two THREE.

W: Ah okay. Six three three.

The conversation lasted probably 5 minutes and finally I let it go. I don’t think that she had the number right, but the food arrived without a problem and it tasted good. But one note, the food didn’t come with fortune cookies, but rather Chinese bread! And the bread looked like the stryofoam. It tasted good, but still, not the same.

Trips coming up soon

- Madrid, Segovia and Toledo

- Oviedo and Leon

- Burgos

- Brussels, Bruges and Ghent in November

Así que quieres estudiar en España // So you want to study abroad in Spain

Así que quieres estudiar en España

Bueno, quizás piensas que un día decidí, quiero ir a España, compré un billete de vuelo al Aeropuerto Madrid – Barajas y de repente estaba estudiando en Santander. Es una pena que no funcione como eso. He estado planeando, llenando solicitudes de pasaporte, visado, y apostillas, obteniendo papeles de mi doctor, y más por casi diez meses, y entre un mes, estaré terminado y oficial en España. Sí, hasta el martes pasado, todavía no podría quedarme en Santander más de 3 meses antes de tener que regresar a los EEUU. Ha sido una experiencia estresante, pero trataré de explicarte todo lo que es necesario para estudiar en España por un año.

1. Enero 2010. Solicita un pasaporte. Ya tenía un pasaporte, pero iba expirar durante mi estancia en Santander, que es malo. Tu pasaporte necesita estar valido hasta unos meses después de cuando planeas de salir de España.

2. Enero – Febrero 2010. Obtén reportes del buen comportamiento de policía. Necesitas reportes de cada ciudad en que vivías durante los cinco años pasados. Estos reportes necesitan ser notariada, y después el notario necesita ser notariada. El sistema es horrible, y no lo entiendo, pero es necesario, y quizás valdrá la pena. Necesitas aplicar a la Universidad de Cantabria. Necesitas recomendaciones de profesores, pues, planifica el futuro. Hice todo mi aplicación entre una semana antes de que se debía, pero no lo recomiendo que lo haces como eso también. Tenía tanto miedo que perdería el fin de plazo.

3. Febrero 2010. Envia tus reportes y los notarios al capital del estado en que los obtuviste. Por ejemplo, necesité reportes de Ithaca, Nueva York y Waukesha, Wisconsin. Tenía que enviar mis papeles de Ithaca a Albany y los de Waukesha a Madison con otras formas para obtener apostillas. Una apostilla confirma en otros países que los papeles son verdaderos, o algo así.

4. Marzo – Abril 2010. Ve a tu doctor y obtén papeles que dicen que estás sano físicamente y psicológicamente. También, tus padres necesitan escribir una carta que dice que pueden apoyarte financieramente y eso debe ser notariada.

5. Mayo o Junio 2010. Pide una cita al Consulado en Nueva York o lo más cerca de donde vives. Cada consulado tiene su propia región. Copia todo. Haz uno, dos, o tres copias para estar seguro.

6. Verano 2010. Reune todos los papeles, la carta de aceptación, tu pasaporte, información de tu seguro de sano, un sobre prepago de FedEx o UPS que puedes realizar un seguimiento, y un giro postal. Espera el mejor, y ve al consulado por la cita. Consigue tu visado en el correo después de tres semanas o más. Vuela a España.

7. Agosto o Septiembre 2010. Visita a la oficina de extranjeros. Eso es lo peor. Es peor que el DMV en los EEUU. Necesitas un número antes de entrar la oficina. Esperas hasta llaman tu número. Dile que necesitas una tarjeta de estudiante. Cuando fui para hacer eso, el programa no funcionó y no pudo darme un número, pero necesitas una forma con un número de NIE y una cita por la segunda visita a la oficina.

8. Agosto o Septiembre 2010. Otra vez visita a la oficina. Trae tu carta de aceptación, tu pasaporte, la forma con número de NIE, fotos de pasaporte, copias de pasaporte y visado, un libro para leer mientras esperar, todo. Prepaga la forma a un banco.

9. Tres semanas o más después de la segunda visita. Regresar a la oficina, recoger tu tarjeta y relájate. Eres legal ahora, ¡puedes quedarte hasta el próximo año!

So you want to study abroad in Spain

Well, you might think that one day I decided, I want to go to Spain, I bought a plane ticket to Madrid Airport – Bajaras and suddenly I was studying in Santander (not only was it a long, grueling process, but I flew into London Heathrow, not Madrid). It’s a shame that it doesn’t work like this. I have been planning, filling out applications for a passport, my visa, and apostilles, getting papers from my doctor, and more for almost ten months, and, within one month, I will be done with this and be official in Spain. Yes, up until last Tuesday, I still wasn’t able to stay in Santander longer than three months before having to return to the good ol’ US of A. It has been a stressful process, but I will try to guide you step by step through the process so you can study in Spain for a year (let me point out now, getting a 6 month visa is much easier).

1. January 2010. Apply for a Passport. I already had a passport, but it was going to expire during my stay in Santander, which is bad (unless I want to either get deported or have an interesting time at Customs). Your passport has to be valid at least a few months past when you plan on leaving Spain.

2. January – February 2010. Get police reports of good behavior. You need reports from each city that you lived in for at least 6 months within the past five years. These need to be notarized, and after that, the notarization has to be notarized. The system is horrible, I don’t understand it, but it is necessary, and hopefully will be worth the effort in the end. You also need to apply to the University of Cantabria. You need recommendations from professors, so plan ahead. I didn’t, and did my entire application within about a week. I felt terrible asking professors on such short notice, and was petrified I was going to miss deadlines (but I have a sneaking suspicion that the deadlines are pretty soft). I also needed to meet with my faculty advisor and a study abroad advisor, so schedule appointments well in advance to avoid extra stress.

3. February 2010. Send your police reports and notarizations to the capital of the state in which you got your report. For example, I needed reports from Ithaca, NY and Waukesha, WI. I had to send my papers from Ithaca to Albany and my papers from Waukesha to Madison along with papers asking for apostilles. An apostille is apparently a way of showing other countries that the papers are legal or something. I was pretty lost in all of this to be quite honest.

4. March – April 2010. Go to you doctor and get a letter that says you are physically and psychologically healthy. Also, your parents have to write a letter saying they can support you financially while you are in Spain, this too should be notarized (I believe).

5. May or June 2010. Schedule an appointment at the Spanish Consulate in New York or the consulate that is closest to where you live. Each consulate has its own region that it deals with. For example, as a resident of Wisconsin, I also could have went to the Spanish Consulate in Chicago. Copy everything. Make one, two or three copies just to be sure you have everything. You will need copies of everything, I am not lying.

6. Summer 2010. Gather all of your papers, copies, forms, your acceptance letter, your passport, information about your health insurance, an prepaid trackable envelope from FedEx or UPS, and a money order. Hope for the best and go to the consulate for your appointment (I was early, got done with appointment, despite having to run down like 40 stories to get a money order, which I also didn’t know how to do, and had some extra time to spend in New York). Get your visa in the mail (freak out at first seeing it’s good for only 3 months, realize that that is because you have more to do in Spain and calm down). Fly to Spain.

7. August or September 2010. Visit the Oficina de Extranjeros (the Foreign Affairs Office). This is probably the worst part. It is definitely worse than a DMV in the US (and that’s bad). You need a number before entering the office, get this from the computer to the right of the entrance. Wait for your number to be called. Tell them you need a student card. When I went to do this, the system on the computer didn’t work and they couldn’t give me a number. You NEED a number, you can’t prepay your form at the bank without a NIE number. Get this form and an appointment for your second visit.

8. August or September 2010. Again, go to the office. Bring your acceptance letter, your passport, your form with your NIE number that you already prepaid at a bank, and passport photos (you can get these in little photo booths, like the ones in movies, yet less romantic). Turn all of your papers in, sign and fingerprint forms that they give you.

9. Three weeks or more later. Return to the office and pick up your card and RELAX! You are legal now, and you can stay until the next year! (You can actually start to become a real person by opening a bank account in Spain and other exciting things.)

*A note about number 8. Because I didn’t get a form with a number, I didn’t really know which ticket to get, with an appointment, information, or what have you, so I ended up having 5 different numbers and took whichever was called first. I would recommend always getting the ticket you need and a ticket for information. It’s kind of cheating the system, but information usually gets called quickest, and if you go to the wrong desk they will either just bring you to the desk you need without waiting, or will call your number to the right desk within a short amount of time. It can really be a time saver if you don’t want to wait in the waiting room, and why would you? You are an American, goddamnit, and you don’t want to have to wait with other foreigners… they are downright… un-American!

Profesores y Compañeros de Clase \\ Professors and Classmates

24 Septiembre, 2010.

Terminé mi primera semana de clases entonces tengo unos pensamientos de mis profesores y mis compañeros de clases españoles.

Como en Cornell, aquí en la Universidad de Cantabria tengo profesores fantásticos y profesores aburridísimos. Creo que mi profesor de introducción a ingeniería geotécnica es uno de los profesores fantásticos. Sus clases son interesantes, aunque sean de grava, arena y todo de la tierra. Puedo entenderle cuando habla en inglés, y parece como un tío muy amable. Mi profesor de modelado estructural también es un buen profesor. La próxima semana va a estar en Canada y ofreció a traernos algo si querríamos. Probablemente era una broma, pero Caitlyn, Hillary y yo inmediatamente gritamos – MAPLE SYRUP - . No sé si nos tomó en serio, pero espero que sí. La jarabe aquí cuesta diez euros por un frasco de jarabe de arce. Pero, como en Cornell, hay unos profesores que van a ponerme dormido cada clase. Este semestre es mi profesor de computación de ingeniería. Habla demasiado lentamente, su acento es el peor, y nos enseñaría como no supiéramos nada. Es horrible, y a veces tenía ganas de salir la clase y tomarla en Cornell, pero voy a aguantar la clase.

Todos los estudiantes, por otro lado, son muy amables. Antes de venir, oía que es difícil para hacer amigos con los estudiantes españoles, especialmente el primero paso de conocerles un poco mejor. Pero, creo que no encontramos este problema. Mis compañeros de clase nos han invitados a fiestas y nos han presentado a otros estudiantes para conocer. Aun pretenden que podemos hablar español cuando tratamos de hablar. Espero que esto continúe, porque, como los otros de Cornell te dirán, necesitamos amigos. No ayuda que somos tan difíciles en situaciones sociales.

Además de nuevas experiencias con profesores y compañeros de clase, Caitlyn y yo salimos esta semana para un evento de Erasmus el miércoles. El evento sirvió para conocer a personas con quien puedes practicar un idioma. Otra vez, es una manera para hacer amigos con personas se Europa. Estamos tratando cada manera posible, pero sí estoy siendo honesto, es más difícil para hacer amigos con los estudiantes de Erasmus. Caitlyn y yo hemos encontrado que los estudiantes de Erasmus no quieren amigos de los Estados Unidos, o a menos de que siente como eso. Pero, todavía vamos a eventos cuando podemos. Mañana tenemos un descenso del río Sella en kayak con Erasmus. Quizás podemos conocer a algunas personas mañana y si no quieren ser nuestros amigos, podemos voltear sus kayaks.

September 24, 2010

I finished my first week of classes so I have a few thoughts about my professors and classmates.

Like at Cornell, here at the University of Cantabria I have great professors and some extremely boring professors. I think my professor for Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering is one of the great professors. His classes are interesting, even though they are about gravel, sand and soil. I can understand him when he talks English, and he seems like a really friendly guy. My Structures Modeling professor is also really good. Next week he is going to be in Canada and offered to bring us back stuff from Canada if we wanted, kind of as a joke, but Caitlyn, Hillary and I immediately shouted “MAPLE SYRUP”. I don’t know if he took us seriously, but I hope so. Syrup here costs 10 euro a bottle, and it’s a small bottle. But, like at Cornell, there are some professors that are going to put me to sleep in every lecture. This semester it’s my Computation Engineering professor. He talks so slowly, he has the worst accent, and he teaches us as if we knew nothing. It’s pretty terrible, and I have thought about dropping the class and taking it at Cornell, but I will try to stick it out.

All of the students, on the other hand, are really nice. Before coming, I heard it is really difficult to make friends with the Spanish students, especially taking the first step in getting to know them a little better. I was told they appear a little cold at first and stick to their own friend groups. But I don’t think we have run into this problem. My classmates have invited us to go out with them and have introduced us to a lot of people. They have been really easy to talk to, too. They even pretend we can speak Spanish when we try. I hope this continues, because like the other Cornellians will tell you, we need friends. And it doesn’t help that we are so awkward in social situations. (Also, Spanish needs a better word for awkward).

Besides our experiences with new professors and classmates, Caitlyn and I went out this past Wednesday to an Erasmus event. The event served to meet someone who you can practice whatever language you wanted to (obviously Spanish for me). Again, this was just a way in which to make friends. We are trying every way possible. But to be honest, it’s been harder to make friends with Erasmus students. Caitlyn and I have found that Erasmus students don’t really want to make American friends or at least it feels like that with a lot of the Europeans we have met. But, we still go to events when possible. Tomorrow we are kayaking down the Sella River with Erasmus. Maybe we can meet some people tomorrow, and if they don’t want to be our friends we will tip their kayaks over. Maybe this is the attitude that loses us European friends…

By the way, I will try to post twice a week. We will see if that actually happens, but that is the goal.

Clases y Mi Programa

Mis clases empiezan está semana, entonces, debo explicar un poco del programa de Cornell. El programa es un intercambio entre Cornell y Cantabria. Los estudiantes de Cornell estudian en la Universidad de Cantabria su tercer curso. Todas las clases son iguales a las clases que tomaríamos en Cornell y son enseñadas en inglés si quieres. Tomamos las clases con estudiantes de Cantabria. Estos estudiantes cantábricos vendrán a Cornell el próximo año. El programa funciona el mejor por estudiantes de ingeniería de caminos o el medio ambiente, pero ingenierías mecánicas han hecho este programa también y es posible que otras ingenierías hagan el programa también. Además a las clases de ingeniería, puedes escoger cualquiera clase que es ofrecida, porque somos estudiantes completos en Cantabria. La mayoría toman una clase de español el primer semestre y una clase de arte prehistórica el segundo semestre. Ambas son enseñadas en español.

Entonces, Santander será mi ciudad por el próximo año. Santander es una ciudad pequeño. Tiene 180.000 ciudadanos. Atrae a visitantes durante el verano cuando hace buen tiempo y se puede disfrutar las playas. Hay casi diez playas en Santander, la más famosa es Sardinero. También hay montañas cerca la ciudad, entonces todo que hay en la ciudad es en las afueras. Cuando hace sol y calor, hay mucha gente en la playa, jugando al volibol o palas, tomando el sol, o nadando en el Atlántico. Santander tiene su propio equipo de futbol, Racing Santander, en la primera liga de España. Está situada en la costa norte de España una hora al oeste de Bilbao y más o menos cinco horas al norte de Madrid. Está en la comunidad autónoma de Cantabria. Cantabria es una de la más pequeño en España en población (16º de 17) y medida (15º). Santander es el capital de Cantabria y la ciudad más grande de Cantabria. No hay muchos edificios antiguos porque había un incendio en 1941. Destruyó la puebla medieval de la ciudad.

La Universidad de Cantabria es una escuela bastante joven, especialmente en Europa. Se fundó en 1972. Más de 11.000 estudiantes asisten a la universidad. De veras, la universidad es bastante fea, probablemente se debe a su edad. El campus es una línea de edificios, sin parques y quads o nada de eso. Es famoso por su Escuela de Caminos y su Escuela de Economía y Impresas.

My classes start this week, so, I should explain a Little about the program that I am doing. The program is an exchange between Cornell and Cantabria. Students from Cornell study at the University of Cantabria during their junior year. All of the classes are the same as what we would take at Cornell and are taught in English if you want. We take classes with Cantabrian students. These Cantabrian students will come to Cornell the following year. The program works best for civil engineering or environmental engineering students, but MechEs have done this program too and it´s possible for other engineers to do this program too. In addition to the engineering classes, you can choose from any of the offered classes, because we are full students at Cantabria. Most take a Spanish class the first semester and a prehistoric art class second semester.

So, Santander will be my city for the next year. Santander is a small city with 180,000 people. It attracts visitors during the summer when the weather is nice and you can enjoy the beaches. There are about 10 beaches in Santander, the most famous being Sardinero. There are also mountains near the city, so really the city is all about the outdoors. When it´s sunny and warm out the beach is full of people, playing volleyball or palas, tanning, or swimming in the Atlantic. Santander has its own soccer team, Racing Santander, in the top league of Spain. The city is on the north coast of Spain, an hour to the west of Bilbao and about five hours north of Madrid. It is in the autonomous community of Cantabria. Cantabria is one of the smallest in Spain in both population (16^th of 17) and size (15^th). Santander is the capital and the largest city in Cantabria. There aren’t many old buildings because there was a fire in 1941. It destroyed the medieval part of the city.

The University of Cantabria is a pretty young school, especially in Europe. It was founded in 1972. More than 11,000 students attend the university. Truthfully, the university is pretty ugly, probably due to its age and the fact it was mostly built in the 60s and 70s. The campus is just one long line of buildings, without any parks or quads or anything of the sort. Cantabria is famous for its civil engineering school and its business school.

Fotos de Orientación

Vista del barco // View from the boat

Los Picos de Europa

Hillary y Caitlyn en Potes

El Capricho de Gaudí en Comillas

Seminary en Comillas

Iglesia en Santillana del Mar

Vista de Santander

Más Detalles de Orientación

18 Septiembre 2010

Pues, doy se cuenta que dejé mucho de lo que hice en orientación en actual. No describí mucho de que pasó, como sentí o nada de eso. Entonces, voy a explicar un poco más de orientación con más detalles.

Picos De Europa, Potes y Comillas

Como dije en la entrada antes, había mucha niebla a los Picos. Los fotos que saqué no hacen justo a los Picos y todos parecen como fotos de nubes donde no hay montañas. Pero os doy mi palabra, hay montañas. Fue una pena que el tiempo no fuera mejor. Porque había tanta niebla, Hillary y yo decidimos no subir las montañas en la góndola. Nos quedamos en la cafetería para comer tortillas de patata y beber café. Tratamos de ver las montañas en vena. No teníamos suerte. Y justamente cuando estábamos saliendo para Potes, las nieblas desaparecieron. ¡Qué suerte!

Estaba lloviendo cuando llegamos a Potes. Nos dieron almuerzo, pero el almuerzo chupó. Sí, era libre y lo comí, pero el almuerzo tenía un bocadillo de solo chorizo, una manzana, un pastel dulce y ésta ensalada de arroz y atún. Ahora, odio pescado y marisco, pero hice un prometido a mi mismo antes de venir a Europa que probaré todo que está presentado a mí. Probé un pequeño pescado cuando estaba quedándome con Lourdes, casi vomité. Probé sabores de helado como crema de pasiego y tutti frutti (no prueben tutti frutti, solo es vainilla con pequeñas piezas de dulces, pero los dulces son malos). Entonces, probé esa ensalada y justamente puse la ensalada en la basura. Quizás soy una persona mala, pero todavía no puedo comer pescado.

No había mucho hacer en Potes. Caitlyn, Hillary y yo andábamos por la ciudad, entrando tiendas que vendían “Productos Típicos” cuando Caitlyn finalmente tenía usar el baño o mojaría sus pantalones. Pero, como habíamos encontrado en España, no es tan fácil. Todos los baños estaban cerrados y no podíamos encontrar ningún baño. Caitlyn volvió un poco loca y enfadada y casi mojó sus pantalones antes de salir Potes.

Llegamos a Comillas una hora después y Hillary y Caitlyn corrieron al baño. Eso probablemente era la mejor parte de Comillas. El Capricho y el palacio eran bonitos y muy interesantes, pero estaba demasiado cansado para apreciarlos.

Museo de las Cuevas De Altamira y Santillana del Mar

Cuando me desperté, estaba lloviendo y hacía frío. No quería salir mi piso, pero necesitaba hacer amigos con estudiantes de Erasmus (y todavía necesito), entonces, fui un poco relictamente (este es probablemente la palabra equivocada, pero porque no tengo ni diccionario ni acceso a internet, tengo que adivinar). El museo era interesante, pero un poco aburrido. Solo era una recreación de las pinturas verdaderas y pasamos por el museo en una mitad del tiempo que teníamos. Pues, esperamos en la cafetería y la tienda por una hora hasta fue hora de salir.

Llegamos a Santillana del Mar y todavía estaba lloviendo. Santillana es un pueblo pequeño y viejo. Tenía más de un mil años. Se dice que Santillana es un pueblo de tres mentiras: no es santo, no es llano, y no hay un mar. Porque estaba lloviendo, Caitlyn, Hillary y yo fuimos a un restaurante para comer unas tapas y escapar la lluvia. Después de un rato, salimos, porque la única razón que vinimos era hacer amigos de Erasmus. Caminábamos por la ciudad, probé quesada, un queso dulce del pueblo y entramos una confitería. Hablamos con estudiantes de Alemania (hay miles de Alemania) por un rato y regresamos a Santander, mojados y cansados.

September 18, 2010

So, I realize that I actually left a lot out about what I did at Orientation. I didn´t describe much what happened, how I felt, or any of this. So, I am going to explain a little more about Orientation in a bit more detail.

Picos de Europa, Potes and Comillas

Like I said before in my previous entry, it was really foggy at the peaks. The photos that I took don´t do justice to the peaks and all look like pictures of clouds, and not mountains. But I give you my word, there are mountains. It was a shame that the weather wasn´t better. Because it was so foggy, Hillary and I decided not to go up the mountains in the gondola. We stayed at the café and ate potato tortillas (omelettes) and drank coffee. We tried to see the mountains in vain. We weren’t lucky. And just as we were leaving for Potes, the fog disappeared. How lucky!

It was raining when we got to Potes. They gave us lunch, but it sucked. Yes, it was free and I ate it, but the lunch was just a sandwich with only chorizo, an apple, a sweet little pastry kind of like pound cake, and this salad with rice and tuna. Now, I pretty much hate fish and seafood, but I made a promise to myself before I came to Europe that I would try everything that I was presented with. I tried a little fish, I think it was anchovies or sardines, when I was staying with Lourdes (my host mother) and almost had to spit it up. I tried ice cream flavors like pasiego cream and tutti frutti (don’t try the tutti frutti, it’s just vanilla with little pieces of candy, but the candy is bad). So, I tried the salad, and quickly put the salad in the garbage. Maybe I am a bad person, but I still can’t eat seafood.

There wasn’t much to do in Potes. Caitlyn, Hillary and I wandered through the city, entering stores that sold “Typical Products” when Caitly had to either find a bathroom pronto or pee her pants. But, as we had come to find in Spain, it’s never that easy. All the bathrooms were closed and we couldn’t find any open. Caitlyn went a little crazy and almost wet her pants before leaving Potes.

We arrived in Comillas an hour later and Hillary and Caitlyn booked it for the bathroom. This was probably the highlight of Comillas for them. The Capricho and the palace were pretty and interesting, but I was too tired to really appreciate them.

Museum of the Altamira Caves and Santillana del Mar

When I woke up, it was raining and cold. I didn’t want to leave my apartment, but I needed to make friends with Erasmus students (and still do), so, I went a little reluctantly. The museum was interesting, but a little boring. It was only a recreation of the real paintings, and we went through the museum in only have of the time that we had. So we just waited in the cafeteria or the store for an hour until it was time to leave.

We got to Santillana del Mar and it was still raining. Santillana is a really small and old town. It’s more than a 1000 years old. It is said that Santillana is the town of three lies: it isn’t holy (santo), it isn’t flat (llana) and it isn’t near the sea (mar). Because it was raining, Caitlyn, Hillary and I ducked into a restaurant for some tapas and to escape the rain. After a while, we left, because the only reason that we came was to make Erasmus friends. We walked through the city, I tried some Quesada, this sweet, floppy cheese (they likened it to cheesecake, but it doesn’t really compare) and we went into a candy shop. We talked with some German students for a while (there are like thousands of them) and went back to Santander, wet and tired.

Orientation and Class

17 Septiembre 2010

Lo siento, no escribí una entrada por mi blog unos días porque era ocupado con actividades de orientación y no tenía acceso a internet, pero finalmente Movistar vino al piso de Caitlyn y Hillary e instaló el internet. Entonces, tengo un descanso y acceso, pues puedo escribir de mi vida en España.

Desde mi última entrada, terminó mi clase de español y conocí a mucha gente de Europa porque todos los estudiantes de Erasmus han llegado.

Primero, probablemente debo describir mi clase de español. Por dos semanas asistí a clases desde las 9 por la mañana hasta las 6 por la tarde con una siesta a dentro. Por la mañana estudiaba la gramática con Ana Hermoso. Después tenía la clase de conversación con Ester. Finalmente mi día terminaba con la clase de escribir con Ana Maria. En mi clase había siete estudiantes más yo. Seis eran de Alemania y uno era de Italia. Sí, era el único chico de los EEUU en la clase. Los alemanes siempre hablaban en alemán mientras el italiano y yo nos sentábamos sin saber de que hablaban. Pero, todavía disfruté la clase, en particular la clase de conversación. Ester siempre quería causar un debate, pero la conversación era chistosa cada vez, especialmente cuando el italiano hablaba. Él hablaba el español exactamente como hablaba el italiano con los altos y bajos en su cadencia de hablar.

Después de mi clase de español terminó orientación empezó. El primer día de orientación fuimos en un barco por la bahía para ver la ciudad del océano. El segundo día visitamos los Picos de Europa y Comillas. Había mucha niebla y no pudimos ver mucho de los Picos, pero lo que pudimos ver era bellísimo. Paramos en Potes, un pequeño pueblo en las montañas, para almorzar. Era un viejo pueblo que parecía exactamente como imaginaba un pueblo de España parecería. En Comillas visitamos un palacio y vimos el Capricho de Gaudí. El Capricho estaba cubierto de azulejos de girasoles. El tercer día, hoy, fuimos al Museo de las Cuevas de Altamira. Las cuevas son unos de los mejores ejemplos de arte prehistórico, pero ahora están cerradas al público. El segundo semestre voy a tomar una clase del arte prehistórico, y quizás veré las pinturas verdaderas en la primavera.

Afuera de la orientación, compré un libro, El guardián a dentro del centeno. Puedo entender el mayor y me ayuda para practicar el español.

September 17, 2010-09-17

I’m sorry, I haven’t written a blog entry for a few days because I was busy with Orientation activities and haven’t had access to the internet, but finally Movistar came to Caitlyn and Hillary’s flat and installed internet. So, I have a break and access so I can write about my life in Spain.

Since my last entry, my Spanish class finished and I met a lot of Europeans because all of the Erasmus students have arrived.

First, I probably should describe my Spanish class. For two weeks I attended classes from 9 to 6 with a siesta in between. In the morning I studied grammar with Ana Hermoso. After, I had conversation class with Ester. Finally my day ended with writing class with Ana Maria. My class had seven students and me. Six were German and one was Italian. Yes, I was the only American in the class. The Germans always talked in German while the Italian and I would sit and have no idea what they were saying. I still enjoyed the class, especially conversation class. Ester always wanted to spur a debate, but the conversation was always hilarious, especially when the Italian talked. He talked Spanish exactly how he talked Italian with the ups and downs in his talking cadence.

After my Spanish class ended Orientation began. The first day of orientation we went on a boat through the bay to see the city from the ocean. The second day we saw the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) and Comillas. We stopped in Potes, a small town in the mountains, to eat lunch. It was an old town that looked exactly how I imagined a Spanish town would look. In Comillas we visited a palace and we saw the Capricho by Guadi. The Capricho was covered in sunflower tiles. The third day, today, we went to the Museum of the Altamira Caves. The caves are some of the best examples of prehistoric art, but now they are closed to the public. Second semester I am taking a class in prehistoric art, and maybe I will see the real paintings in the spring.

Outside of Orientation, I bought a book, The Catcher in the Rye (in Spanish). I can understand the majority and it’s helping me practice Spanish.