One Month Later...

el 1 de octubre del 2008

One month. 31 days I've been here. Incredible. I really can't believe how this concept just does NOT seem strange to me. "Of course I've been living in Spain." Of course I go about my daily life, sliding in and out of two different languages as I please. Of course I come home to this apartment, and feel comfortable even though it is not the home I'm used to. Of course I'm surrounded by people I am just getting to know, and we act like family.

There are many things that contribute to this comfort, and I've mentioned some of them before: I know my roommates, they speak English, I'm used to living near the beach, the city is very mellow and easy to get along in, people are helpful etc. But I've been thinking lately more in terms of mental and metaphysical, for lack of a better word. One of the reasons I've been thinking on is that I am really coming into my own. I have matured a lot of the past 2 years, marking my "beginning" point as my trip to Costa Rica. Taking myself outside of my comfort zone, I learned a lot. Then I returned to the U.S. and learned even more. Though I am always learning and growing, I feel like here something has changeed. Instead of learning new things about the person I am becoming, I am noticing things about the person I am. Instead of trying to shape-shift myself into a person I think the people around me will like, I simple throw myself out there, knowing that I am strong enough and comfortable enough with myself to catch myself if I fall. And that makes me happy.

So what have I been up to lately? Well the last time I wrote was 2 weeks ago. A lot has happened since then, and I apologize for any/all details I forget. But let's see...

The 17th to the 20th was "Orientation." They told us about signing up for classes and a little bit about some student groups we might want to be involved in. There is one group, called AEGEE Santander, which is the local AEGEE group, that is essential a social group that tries to gets students together to party, travel, hang out, play sports, etc. It's a way to get ERASMUS students to actually talk to each other instead of hiding away with people from your same country. They've hosted a ton of parties and social events at local bars and also a couple soccer games. They're also planning a weekend trip to Leon and Oviedo, and I'm told they will organize several more in the coming months.

So after the morning session on the 17th, the rest of the afternoon was spent on a Bus tour of Santander. I wasn't too excited, considering I had been living here for 2.5 weeks beforehand, but it was really nice to see some places I hadn't gotten a chance to visit yet and to hear a little history as well. Thursday (18th) we went to Picos de Europa and then continued on to Comillas. The Picos was a little boring. We got there, went up the trolly to the top, spent 15 minutes up there, and came back down and left. We spent about 3.5 hours in transit on a bus to do this. I was, needless to say, very upset. Like many of you, I would have rather taken a day there to walk around and hike in the mountains, than to just take some "Yes, I'm a tourist and look where I went!" pictures. I guess I can't complain though, considering I did get some really nice pictures. And at least now I know it exists and can go back if I want to. Which I do. The second half of the day was Comillas, which was this tiny town where Atoni Gaudí build his famed "el Capricho". It was his only work in Cantabia, and was very interesting.

Friday was the final day, and we headed to Altamira. This is the location of an pre-historic cave dwelling that was dicovered in the 1880s. They closed the actual cave in 1977 due to the danger presented to the preservation of the drawings by humans (all the CO2 isn't good for them). They have since created an "exact" replica of the cave, complete with lights, holograms, pictures, and it sucked. I was really upset, haha. I understand completely, don't get me wrong, but the giant plastic (or whatever the material was) cave just wasn't very exciting. The museum, however, was very interesting. I found it interesting that all of the blurbs around the museum were in English as well as Spanish. I read most of them in Spanish, and used the English side more as a dictionary and reference for words I really didn't know. So that was fun anyways. The final excursion in the afternoon on Friday was to Santillano del Mar. Here was a Medival village that was left untouched. I got seperated from my tour group at the beginning and missed the historical bit, and feel kind of bad about that. However, there was a Inquisition Torture Museum there, which was... painful to walk through. Ooh man. These people were ruthless. Some of those torture tactics were just aweful. Words can't describe, but feel free to check out the pictures on facebook.

So that was the end of the excursions. That weekend their were a couple parties and such around the city. I spent Saturday morning (1am to 5am) outside this one bar with my new friend Edu, chatting away in Spanish. I was, again, surprised at my ability to speak Spanish even though much of the credit goes to the alcohol I had enjoyed. I remember running around the city at one point, chasing Edu with two other friends, in search for more beer at another bar, but he came rounding a corner towards us with 4 cans of beer instead. Where he got them, I couldn't begin to tell you. It was 4:30 in the morning. He could have stolen them for all I know. Anyways, good times and I got back around 5:15am.

Since then things have been a bit slower. The first couple weeks we would go out every night and on the weekends we'd get really silly out at the bars etc. We'd be at the beach everyday, surfing and whatnot. Last week was the onset of actual classes and the beginning of the semester. We have since taken a little step back to focus on getting our schedules all worked out and everything. Cory and I had one hell of an adventure at the Oficina de Extranjeros (Literally, "Office for Foriegners".) Imagine, if you can, a DMV where everyone is just as angry, just as miserable, but they don't speak the same language you do. Then try asking a quesion. It was hilarious actually. We went on a Tuesday at around 1:45, but they close at two. After being yelled at by Angry Lady (I think that's her name anyways) we left to return the next morning. At least we new what we needed. Upon arriving the next morning, promptly at 10 (they open at 9) we were delighted to see that Angry Lady at the front desk was replaced by Awesome Guy. Well Awesome Guy was very helpful, told us exactly what we needed and what we needed to do and even answered the questions we had. So we passed the front desk and headed through security to the waiting room. This was probably around 10:3oish. Well, around 1ish we finally got our number called, in true DMV fashion. So we walked into the room we were called into, only to see Angry Lady at the table we were assigned to. We were less than enthused. We said as little as possible and avoided eye contact. ThankGod, Awesome Guy came by and helped us through the process. We finally finished around 1:30ish and were told to return in about a month and a half to obtain our Residency cards, which will make it legal for us to live in Spain for the next year. Sweet!

Across the street was a coffee shop called "La Café Viña" which served "Café Blanco y Negro" which was a coffee with a scoop of ice cream in it. Needless to say, it was amazing. I can't wait to go back.

Since then we really haven't done much. I started feeling ill around Thursday, and still haven't made a full recovery. I think it was the flu, and I spent Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday morning in bed. I felt well enough to go to the beach Saturday afternoon, but still haven't ventured out to a bar in about a week. I'm starting to get angry. The other symptoms have stopped, by my stomach still seems out of order. I would say it's the water, but I've been drinking filtered water, and since I got here too, so it's not something new. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to fully recover before this weekend and can get back to my regular social habits.

I've also started to become a lot more comfortable with my camera. I really enjoy taking pictures, and hope that maybe with time I can turn this into something more than a hobby. For now, who knows, but all my friends here have noticed that I've gotten some good shots and keep telling me how impressed they are. If nothing else it's a confidence boost. Still, I can't wait to learn more and I do so every time I take it out.

Classes are good. Right now we're still all juggling classes to see which we really want to take. Right now I'm in "Meteorology and Oceanography", "Effects of Waste on the Marine Environment", "Water Chemistry", "International Social Law", and "Environmental Impact". I have dropped History of Art due to a conflict, and Social Anthropology because I don't like the presentation and I don't feel like I'm going to really learn anything that I want to learn. My Meteo/Oceo class is amazing. I love the professor, he's so nice! After the first class I went up and introduced myself to him and just said something like "Hi, I'm an American student and just wanted to let you know that I think I'll be able to get the concepts but the terminology is a little tough to translate." And his response was "...I have half an hour, would you like to go over what we talked about in class today?" And so we did. And then he took my to the library upstairs and showed my an "Into to Meteorology" book that I should read. I was blown away by how helpful he was. My Waste Effects class is also awesome. The professor is very laid back, and of the 4 students in the class only Dario and I showed up this week. It was really cool though, we just chatted and she told us what the class will be like etc. It's going to be very hands on as far as researching topics during class in the library and then coming back to the classroom to discuss them afterward. Sweet! The Water Chemistry and Int'l Social Law haven't started yet. I've missed one or two classes for the Environmental Impact class, but that was because it is a recent addition. Cory told me about it. Him and Amanda are in it, and he says it's pretty much everything I've ever wanted in a class. How's humans affect the environment, sustainable development, etc. I'm very excited to enroll. Plus he said the professor is really nice. All in all I'm very excited for classes, which is very unlike my normal experience at URI. Oh, URI. So silly.

Also, I've signed up for a couple sports classes. Squash and fencing. I'm very excited for both. Especially fencing. That one starts tonight, so we'll see how it goes.

That's it for now. I'm still alive, a bit sick, but still doing well and very excited for the coming semester. It will take some work, but I'm actually willing to put it in and learn. Mainly because it'll be so cool to have learned all of these amazing things in Spanish! Crazy!

Ode to Rhode Island: A Haiku
Fall leaves change colors,
Beaches, Friends, Camp Fires, Weekends,
Take me to the Mews.

Hope all is well back home. We think of you guys often, and miss you all.

Hasta la proxima,
Andrew
Santander, ESP