San Sebastian, Santander, Sandwiches.

A week ago, I was very excited to hear of the upcoming 4-day weekend due to spanish holidays. I assumed everyone in our group would travel somewhere together in southern Spain and speak english, be tourists, and have fun.

Backstory: a weekend ago, my group went on a bus excursion into the mountains north of León along with around 50 other students of the Centro de Idiomas. The first place we went was an ancient monastery where we were given a tour. We learned all sorts of fun facts about the history of the area. Right after we learned about voting rights in the old days I met a girl named Marielle. Marielle, I learned as we conversed throughout the tour, was a foreign language major here from Oregon improving her spanish fluency and learning as much french as possible. It was wonderful being able to ask questions about spanish, it’s usage, and the details of what the guide was saying.

The next day in the Centro, we were talking about weekend plans and she invited me and Stephanie with her and her spanish friends to San Sebastian and Santander for the weekend. It seems that on long weekends here a lot of Spaniards travel away from the city to pueblos (little towns).

I met her friends the next day and sat down for a quick pizza/nuts/beer combo. There are 4 of them: Yolanda, Adriana, Miriam and Juan. Yolanda I had met on the bus the first day. A very kind, somewhat quiet goofball who speaks spanish faster than anyone I have ever heard. Dispacio is our favorite word. She didn’t come on the trip. I still don’t know much about Miriam because about an hour before we departed for San Sebastian she lost her wallet and stayed in León. Adriana is a friendly, talkative party animal with a VERY spanish disposition. She was a lot of fun to talk to. Juan is 28 and a very successful police administrator. He was really fun to hang out with because he was the only other guy on the trip. It was to Juan I told my first joke in spanish at the expense of another spanish speaker. The girls were all talking about Ronaldo (FC Barcelona) and Juan and I made fun of them in spanish for about a block. Mujeres...

Left to right: Stephanie, Juan, Adriana, Marielle

I forgot my camera’s battery charger for this trip. It REALLY killed me to go to all these places with such wonderful people and have nothing but slowly fading memories to show for it.

San Sebastian was an absolutely beautiful city which was situated on the north coast with a river splitting it in half. The bridges connecting the 2 halves were stunning. I’ve decided basque country is the most beautiful place in the world. I went on one of the best walks I’ve ever had on the waterfront there. At night the bar/club scene was really fun. We ended up going to the same bar 2 nights in a row because it was so fun. A note on spanish men in general: I’ve never seen so many butts get pinched in my life.

After 2 wonderful days in San Sebastian we decided to go to Santander. Santander was equally as, if not more, beautiful than San Sebastian. Both cities were situated beautifully on the water. Each had an extensive port, a tourist-y area, and a more suburbian sprawl. Fruit stands, geladerías, and other small shops were strewn about the alleyway-esque streets which wound through the city. These streets aren’t like streets inAmerica. These are old. Mostly single lane cobblestone which connect larger streets. The cities I’ve seen revolve around these large avenues connected by Plazas containing fountains, benches, gardens, and statues. It’s a network which has grown through the ages upon itself in ever more complicated and dysfunctional routes.

We spent our days walking the city and stopping wherever we wanted. When we were hungry it was pincho time. Pinchos remind me of sushi. Most bars had an assortment of pinchos along the counter which you could mix and match to make the perfect meal. My favorite place was Casa Lita; a recommendation I received from the hostel owner. Casa Lita filled each of us for about 6€. It was great. We went back there twice more.

The last day in Santander was the best. The rest of the group went home to León for some much needed rest after going out too much. Marielle and I stayed in the city for one more day. After a 2 hour walk around the city looking for sunglasses during siesta time (everything's closed), we rented bikes for the day for 1€ each. Those were invaluable because we were able to see much more of the city. We found a nice little bike path along the waterfront and followed it to a peninsula with a park on it. The park was a stunning recreational area. Partly sandy beach, partly cliffside lookout complete with a lighthouse on a rocky island, it was breathtaking. We even managed to climb down the cliffs a little and find a really cool seaside cave that was exposed from the low tide. Venturing through the low overhand, a small climb and a smaller plunge knee deep into water found us on the other side of the huge cliff with a view of the sunset and a nice sea breeze. Quite picturesque, the image was completed with talks of history, spanish, poetry and Star Wars. I had never thought about the details of Luke’s triumph over Darth Vader before.

After another short dinner at Casa Lita and a siesta we headed out into the city again. Unfortunately at midnight on a Sunday it becomes very difficult to find any food. After looking around for 20 minutes, we were directed back to the same place we had first skipped for food quality. Oh well. After 2 tortillas de patatas smothered with ketchup and a short bike ride back, the day was done.

The next day when we attempted to board the early(cheaper) bus the driver informed us we had purchased tickets for the next day. The problem was Spanish calendars start the week on monday which threw us to Tuesday accidentally. Oh good. The next bus was not only twice as expensive but an hour and a half later. That time was spent in a cafe where the waitress was not keen (and very loud about it) on letting us stay without buying something. Spanish people can be so loud and abrasive it’s not even funny. The cheapest thing on the menu happened to be a beer so at 9:30am I found myself drinking a 1.6€ beer.

Us on the bus!

Overall, and incredible weekend complete with everything needed for a great vacation and my bank account was only frozen for about a day. Now back to school!

Monkey habits, zapatillos, Hang mau and a mountain downpour.

Day 6. Location: Leónsian Rainforest. A.k.a. calle lancia.

It’s day 6, and I’ve developed quite a relationship with the herd. They seem to like me, and know I enjoy their company. We’ve settled into something of a routine. Every morning I wake up to shower and clothe myself. I enter the kitchen afterwards where I always find a bowl full of milk, frosted flakes, and a tin box full of cookies and breaded treats. I think the mother is trying to fatten me up but I won’t let my fears get the best of me. She is somewhat of a ninja: sometimes my clothes mysteriously disappear from where I left them She might be saving them up to present them clean at some point or she might have already sold them. In the mornings I have watched her from afar. It’s like clockwork. She can clean the entire house (and does every day) in about an hour. Incredible. Although I don’t speak there language very well, they seem to have accepted me as one of their own. It reminds me of Tarzan.

Last night the grandfather and I sat watching TV for a while and I discovered game shows are the best thing to watch to learn a language because the subjects are very simple and repeated. He also explained to me the spanish lottery. If I knew spanish, and him, a little better I’d probably tell him the chances of him winning are so slim that it’s really not worth it. He’d get more enjoyment on spending that money on nice clothes, or another pair of awesome slippers

-PICTURE OF MANOLO’S SWEET ZAPATILLOS-

The son and I have a nice relationship even after I schooled him at darts in the first hour I knew him. A quick note there: I really tried to lose to him more than once. It’s hard to fake a score that low though. We have had few conversations fewer than I’d like to see. I think I might try to play futbol with him in the near future. Time to grab to dictionary.

The best time I’ve had with the family in the last couple days has been with their cousin Alba. At 10 years old, she’s very friendly and has a great knack for explaining things. Yesterday she invited me into the computer room and we played a soccer game where Will Ferrel was the goalie. She required me to translate the english directions into spanish which was very difficult. After that we played “hang mau”. Hang man in spanish was pretty tough for two reasons. One, spanish vocab is not my strong suit. Two, instead of a man they used a kitten suspended above a pool full of sharks, octupi, crocs, and piranhas. Phrases such as “NO! gatito!” were constantly uttered.

I’ve figured out after one week that confidence is a large part of learning a language. There’s no way to learn if I don’t speak it, and these people are really nice. So. It’s game time.

I must now introduce all 10 readers to Santos Rodriguez. Santos is our program coordinator here. He’s awesome. An english teacher at the “Centro de Idiomas” where I take my classes, he speaks english, spanish, and straight baller. He’s really funny and very helpful. He teaches english from ~4-7 on fridays and I jokingly asked him if he wanted a guest speaker. He was more than happy to have me. As we walked to the classroom he told me I should introduce myself and talk in slow, enunciated english for about 2 minutes. After I had finished talking about Vashon and my life in León, he then told me I had to say everything again in spanish. That tricky devil. He said I was here to learn spanish and he was going to help me do it. All said and done, with difficulty, it was a nice 5 minutes. I had a question and answer session with the class and the first question they asked was: “do you know Barrio Humedo?” That’s the bar/club district. Fitting. I told them I was going there tonight and they told me they’d see me there. So I’m kind of a celebrity.

Spanish people definitely have strange habits when it comes to parties. The most crowded I’ve seen the streets has been at 3am.

fun fact of the day: a smoky bar can clear up a runny nose but leaves you with lung cancer.

Update as I am posting this in the morning:

Yesterday we spent the day riding in a bus and stopping at various locations in the mountains of León. Talk about beautiful. We could literally see for miles and miles all around us. The best part was a 5-7km hike to a lookout point. As we neared the point it began to rain a little bit and by the time we got back to the bus it was pouring. Really cool day. Walking in the cool mountain rain in warm clothes with nothing to do but enjoy the surroundings was the coolest thing I've done in a long time. Met some really awesome people too on the trip! Pics on Facebook as always.

It's tuesday!

Hola mis leer-ers!

This is Tanner, your friendly blog post host.

The last three days have passed in a fury. Sunday was all about getting to León. I was super pumped. Everyone was super pumped. We pulled off the freeway and rode into León with confidence because we’re American and we can do anything. The problem, as we realized while pulling up to the school, was that our protective barrier of americans was soon going to dissipate all across the city. We pulled up to an expectant bunch of people (I’m talking about 50 spaniards here) who we knew spoke english on the same level as any household pet. Our confidence from here was a little better than shattered. One of our group was either cold, scared, or some combination of both because they were shaking like a chihuahua in the arctic. There’s American confidence for you.

I decided to sound the charge and jumped off the bus right after Tony (our leader). Similar to a polar plunge, I felt like I had walked straight into a trap. I thought: “Wait. Why did I do that? This isn’t going to be fun! This was a terrible idea!” Those thoughts lasted for about 10 seconds until everyone else was out of the bus and my shield was back up. 2 minutes later my shields had been destroyed again and My host mom (Puri), her Sister (Bea), Bea’s daughter and I were all walking across a lovely little park towards their house. As we crossed the park I learned their names and their relations and realized none of them spoke a word of english besides “no” (which I’ve heard is fairly universal and didn’t help much).

We arrived at their house and took a small(3 person) elevator up 3 flights to their apartment where I was able to enjoy being completely at a loss of all spanish with an expectant Spanish mother looking at me. I still have no idea what was said in those incredibly long 5 minutes. Their apartment is a long ‘L’ shape and after she literally had to poke my backpack while saying something about a mochillo I took it off and we embarked on a tour. A picture is worth a thousand words they say. That is true. I really have no idea what she said 100% of the time but still managed to decipher which room the baño and cocina were. Did you know that spanish kitchens and bathrooms look exactly like American ones? Who would have thought…

At the end of the ‘L’ was a stylish looking dude playing Age of Empires on his computer. And while he was losing badly he tried his best to introduce himself. His name is Jorge and he was the family’s 20 year old male. That’s so cool! My family has one too! I quickly found out Jorge was really nice but he too talked faster than an auctioneer.

Jorge asked me if I wanted to have a tour of the city. It was the first bit of mutually understood spoken word that passed between us. I was thrilled and naturally I obliged. León is quite a city. Much smaller than Madrid but the people here are also content to live in a state of confusion and possible panic although none of them seem like they’re really lost. I finally realized why everyone has motorcycles. It’s mobile, like walking, and you can cover the same amount of ground you need to to become ‘unlost’ faster. Perhaps they all have GPS. Fun fact. Most acronyms in english are backwards in spanish. Por ejemplo: NATO -> OTAN.

Outside the house we met Jorge’s friend Oscar. Oscar can only be described as Han Solo: good looking and a rascal. Oscar would literally comment on almost every single attractive girl that we passed (which is a lot in León). We made our way using collective GPS power to a bar and proceeded to play darts. Oscar and Jorge explained the games to me as we went along and it turns out Oscar is a pro at darts. He won every game but one (which I one. Bueno). Jorge didn’t look too pleased at the results of the games and I thought he might be mad/jealous of my sick darts skills. I was a little worried it would strain our relationship a little but it was all ok.

We headed back to the house smelling VERY strongly of smoke from the bar and my shirt is just beginning to smell better. I’ve never really been exposed to cigarette smoke before and my throat is still raw from breathing in Madrid. The bars are about 25% breathable air and 75% smoke. The food Puri made was (and has continued to be) incredible. I need to figure out how to tell them that Americans don’t eat THAT much food though.

--NEW SUBJECT--

School is great. Teachers are wonderful. It’s awesome learning in an immersion environment because we are forced to think in spanish. Some of the teachers literally speak less english than we speak spanish.

Tonight is Tuesday. A lean night for León partygoers. But they’ll still be out there until 5am. I don’t get it. I need sleep. I’ll provide some sick pics to accompany this sick text sometime in the future. Or check my Facebook to get pics from the Facebook obsessed in my party. A quote from one of them: “Ugh. I need to put these pictures up now or I might not do it for two days!” There’s all the hard work done for me. Check Facebook.

--Edit from wednesday morning--

Soooooo…. it turns out that if you want, tuesday can be a party night. Never again on tuesday. I’m soooo tired. I really don’t understand how people can stay out til 3am and be functional in class. I think I might have to ask my host brother how he maintains control of his smoke-levels because I have two entire sets of clothing now that smell like a tobacco blaze. necesito limpiar mi ropa.

If you guys have questions please comment.

hombre araña, mariachi, calles y mucho humo...

The second day in Madrid was more eventful than the first.

pre-post-side-note: As it turns out, some spaniards are not content with being lost on their own city and actually give realyl great directions if asked. They must spend hours pouring over maps and staring at google street view.

post:

A beautiful day in Madrid, very warm and sunny. Seattle seems like a black hole full of sadness compared to this. Sorry America. I might just stay here. The rule of the day was be bold. I struck up conversations with random people and tried to look like I knew what was going on.

Me and the group spent most of the day walking around madrid and stopping in random shops. A very wonderful Italian named Leo ('ley-oh' as he corrected me. not lee-oh haha) who we met at the hostel has been a wonderful companion for the last two days. He's travelling around Europe having fun which made us very compatible. He speaks English, Spanish and Italian so he was also a very useful translator. Our group and Leo headed to the stadium for the Barcelona vs Madrid game but unfortunately half our group didn't bring ID so we split up at the stadium and they went to a smaller pub to watch the game while Leo, Erin, Sarah and I went to a really cool venue with more tv screens than people. It was quite exciting.

At halftime we decided to head back to the hostel area because some of our party members were nodding off while talking to us. Unfortunately separated, we were not able to spend the last night in madrid altogether but Leo and I headed off to find entertainment because the night was still very young. Young in spain has a different meeting. At 12:30 in Seattle, anyone on the streets would be considered homeless but the city was more alive than it was that afternoon.

It turns out that smoking is quite popular in spain (who would have thought...) and I still haven't seen a "no fumar" sign. The bars and clubs were absolutely packed and there were suited men all over the streets who would bring you in and give you a free drink if you would tay at their club. It was a great deal! The rule was once you were in, you could only leave for 5 minutes before you had to pay to get in again. I thought that might be for smokers but more people were smoking inside than out. The bars were a great place to practice my spanish. I'm still amazed at what came out of my mouth last night. It was almost surreal. I started thinking in spanish a little and actually had a 2 minute conversation with a more than a few people (it was pretty much the same conversation though...). Leo was incredibly helpful because he knew what the hell was going on and he could also throw vocab in where it was needed. Spanish dancing is much different than frat grinding. I admit I was at a loss at first but figured out what was safe pretty quick. All in all a really good night.

After leaving the bars I walked into the hostel with Leo. We had a bit of a struggle with the desk attendants because I was given a keycard by Erin (who was at another hostel) so I could wake them up this morning because they didn't have an alarm. As it turns out, having a key to another hostel (especially one owned by the same people as mine) is illegal. I was kind of afraid they were going to call the cops and another Amanda Knox incident was imminent but that was not the case. Leo was able to not-so-calmly explain that we were friends and I didn't have in my possession a key to a room full of 4 girls at another hostel randomly. Muchas gracias a ti Leo.

A good day and a good night's sleep although everything I wore last night smells distinctly of cigarettes!

My only regret from the day was I didn't dance with the old lady who was dancing solo in front of the mariachi group en la plaza del sol.

el primer día

What a day.

I arrived in Madrid at 7:10am after a night of 3 movies on the plane and a 9 year old who had a habit of falling asleep on my shoulder and twitching. I figured out 2 things on that flight: one, the dragonball z movie is possibly the worst thing to ever come out of hollywood and two, my spanish was not as good as I thought it was. This became immediately apparent when I attempted to ask the money changer where the bus to downtown was. After walking around for a while asking anyone who looked official, I jumped on bus 200. Heading towards downtown was easy enough but the bus driver and I had to agree to disagree on two things: language and what ‘downtown’ actually was. Where I was told to disembark was (as I found out later) actually about 2 miles away from downtown. We’ll call this ‘Point A’. no cell service is really annoying because my phone couldn’t figure out what time it was. It was like the phone new I had just jumped across a couple time zones but it didn’t want to give me faulty information so it didn’t give me any time information. That said, I was a boy scout so I used the sun to discern that it was not yet nighttime so I had some time to look around and find a place for the night.

Mission 1: find la Plaza de Colón. This is where the group was meeting in two days so I figured I’d use it as my guideline. Knowing I had lots of time, I left in a random direction from Point A. This was an unfortunate use of the concept random because I ended up going the exact wrong direction. After crossing half the city I turned around after asking a dog walking lady for directions. She suggested the metro but I had no desire to spend money. I walked more and eventually ended up a block south of Point A. I could see the bus stop.

The first thing I noticed about the city was how many two-wheeled vehicles there were. It was about a 1:5 ratio between motorcycles/scooters and cars. And they didn’t utilize the “defensive driving” habits I’ve learned to accept, they used any part of the road or sidewalk to gain an advantage. The road was a huge race where they would zip between cars and even into oncoming traffic at a red light to jump to the front of the line.

The second thing I noticed about the city was the lack of street lamps, hanging wires, traffic lights, and especially street signs. I don’t understand how you can have a city be so complicated when you don’t have any useful way of navigation. I’d rather send the swiss family robinson into the Brazilian jungle than be lost in Madrid again. Famous last words.

Finally I made it to Colón and decided to take a breather. After sitting down at the café cafe and ordering a smoothie from a strung out waitress who didn’t like my accent, I jumped online and tried to figure out where the rest of the group was staying. The Cat’s Hostel looked like a simple walk on google maps but it turned out to be another adventure. After two turns I was lost again and decided that spaniards must live their lives perpetually lost in their own city. By luck I turned onto the right street.

Cat’s hostel used to be a palace which is pretty sweet now for hostel goers. The only thing you pay for is the bed. Free water, shower, bathroom, breakfast (which I missed while writing this), etc. It’s a really nice set up. I had 4 really friendly guys from Hungary in my room. I met up with the rest of the group in the courtyard in the middle of the hostel and we made our way through the winding streets to an art museum. It was pretty sweet for 8€. Post museum we went to eat at a little place where you got 2 courses, wine, bread and a dessert for 9.5€. That was awesome but the waitress was trying to cheat us out of money by bringing us sprite instead of water and bottled water instead of a pitcher. We finally got our way and had a lovely meal. The drink tinto-bubbly was invented. It’s a combination of diluted sprite and really good cheap vino tinto.

Having not slept for about 30 hours at this point I separated from the group and went back to the hostel to go to sleep. Again it took me about 20 minutes to find the stupid side street but it was well worth it. I woke up the next day around 4:30am and had to go to the bathroom really badly. On my way I found a washer and dryer and I can honestly say I’ve never been so happy to see an appliance before. 3€ for a wash and 3 for a dry seemed steep but it’s a big washer. Life is good.

I have no idea what the plan is today but it should be a good one. The spanish must be learned faster.