I just arrived in Madrid. My dig camera is out of juice (the battery sure doesn’t last long), so I’m catching up on blogging while charging the cam and airing out the room (which smells of wet dog). Unfortunately, I was slow on the draw when reserving my hostal in Madrid, so I ended up having to resort to an alternative travel site, Venere.com for reviews (Usually, I go with my travel guides + Tripadvisor). Needless to say, the location is very good (super close to Puerta del Sol) and who can resist free wifi, but well, its a tad dingy and I won’t even say what was on the bedspread. Cringe.

Last night, I didn’t get a good night’s rest in Salamanca. I dunno, my mind has just been so restless lately thinking about continuing my Spanish, traveling more, earning more, just doing more. I look back at my resolutions for 2009, and I think I’ve done fairly well considering in my mind, I assign the items different weights, but still, in the simplest evaluation, I’ve done maybe only 6/10 or so. I dunno, I’m just manic or something. On one hand, I’m super happy with this immersion program. I think I learned maybe 500 or so Spanish words, and my evaluation came out mostly positive. On the other hand, I met so many people who speak like 3-4 languages, and it makes me wonder what I’ve been doing with all my time? Where did it go? What new skills did I learn? Ugh.

Oh well, in the very least, I think this trip was a good self test. Honestly, I am amazed how much Shanghai taught me in terms of traveling and figuring out new systems. Like the other day, I was in Carrefour in Salamanca, and when I bought fruit, I knew that I had to remember the produce number, put the items on the scale, and print out a price ticket. Seriously, what consumer in the US has to do that much work? You just bag the produce and the cashier weighs/prices it out. And now I know all about skirting ATM withdrawal fees and international credit card fees… And I know about purchasing a prepaid local SIM card. And I can figure out taking public transportation… I’m not bragging, I’m just saying that past experience makes traveling so much easier now. Like I don’t have to be a full-blown tourist taking taxis everywhere and needing to be handheld, you know?

That said, I have committed some interesting faux pas in the last three weeks:
1. Even before I arrived in Spain, I had trouble keeping “want” and “have” straight in Spanish. In Spain, they charge extra at the supermarkets for plastic bags. Since I took my backpack with me everywhere, I never needed a bag. Well, early on in Salamanca, I went to the market and I kept telling the cashier, “No tengo una bolsa.” I had meant to say, “I don’t want/need a bag,” but I was saying the opposite: “I don’t have a bag.” She kept trying to offer me a bag, and I just kept firmly repeating my line. It wasn’t until I left that I just laughed. So retarded.
2. After that horseback riding escapade with my friend Inke, I thought I had a great story to tell my host family. So I said Inke’s horse kept misbehaving. After several attempts to throw her off, Inke got very scared. The word for fear is miedo. But I thought it was mierdo (with the r) and a verb instead of a noun, so I conjugated it for 3rd person singular. The result? “Inke shits.” Mierda is the word for shit. I should have used “Inke has (tiene) fear.” And of course, I only know present tense, so please bear with me… Anyway, I didn’t make any sense, but through my hand gestures, I suppose they got the picture.
3. On paper, I’m pretty good with verb conjugations. In regular conversation though, it takes a few more seconds and I sometimes still think “yo” means “you” instead of “I.” So the other day, the lady told me to ask her hubby if he wanted soup with dinner. Simple enough. So I go into the living room and say, “Quiero soupa?” He says no. I got back to the kitchen and realized I just asked him, “Do I want soup?” Fucking A, right? So then I go back and ask him properly, explaining that my earlier question was incorrect. Same answer, but god I felt dumb. Ah the joys of speaking a new language on the fly.
4. There was this Japanese dude at the school, who lived with the same family as one of my classmates. Ok, so both students are Japanese, and Yusuke only speaks Spanish and Japanese. Nevertheless, every time I ran into him at school or at the internet cafe, I started speaking to him in Chinese and then for some bizarro reason, I kept saying goodbye to him in English. And not just “bye” but like, “catch you later” and shit. Yeah, exactly. Muy confusa, I tell you.

Btw, did you hear? It’s supposed to SNOW on Sunday in Salamanca. Holy shit. I need to get out of this cold weather. And in Madrid, the forecast is calling for rain and temps in the 40s!! Eek. I hate the cold. I’m gonna have to pull out my second set of thermals and double up!

Ok, so what’s on tap my first night in Madrid? It’s only 2pm right now, but I’ll probably head out shortly to walk around and then tonight is the flamenco show. Hope it’s not too crazy.

Ugh, I’m so glad that tomorrow’s my last day… I mean, I wouldn’t mind staying at the school, but my classmates are really starting to irk my nerves. Yesterday, this daddy’s boy in class complained that one of our former teachers used to spend the whole class talking, like talking to ME… uh, excuse me, but I actually study and know my shit so sorry if I actually have real questions that can’t be answered just with the dictionary. It’s not my problem you don’t care about learning grammar… it’s not my problem you still can’t distinguish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person. And it’s not as if the professor and I were just chitchatting, we were actually talking about usage, like when to use muy vs. mucho. Pay attention, and maybe you’ll actually learn something. Ugh, so annoying. Seriously, fuck off.

As for the others, everyday the same group of kids skip out on the cultural class. Today, this one kid who had been absent the last few days returned with a monster black eye and the left side of his face all scraped up. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah sure, people do stupid things when they’re young. Still, is getting sloshed to the point of getting your face all fucked up really necessary for an authentic adolescent/young adult experience? Juveniles.

Thankfully, my new housemate is a serious language learner. The dude is only 19, but he really is quite precocious. Like he gets that he has to work to pay for his travels around the world. He gets that when he stays at a friend’s house when he travels, he has to pay for groceries and help with cleanup. I share the bathroom with him, and he’s so clean. Plus he helps with food prep, setting the table, cleanup… I’m amazed considering I know several people in their 30s who still don’t get this. And then of course, these other jokers in class are crybaby brats. Haha. Just one more day of class. I’ll try to get pics of my profs. They’re awesome.

I’m in the homestretch now… 2 more days of classes and then I’m off to Madrid. Although I’m a little bummed about leaving my little island of learning, I suppose it’s time. Time to get back to Bubbey, the pups, my homies, California, and all that jazz. Tomorrow is Thankgiving, and I’m missing out on my favorite holiday of the year. Originally, I had packed a box of Trader Joe’s corn bread mix to share a little something something with my host family, but yesterday, when I brought up using her oven, well, let’s just say, it’s not going to happen. So no delicious corn bread on November 26 for me.

Honestly, I cannot wait to get home to eat vegetables and fruit and cereal!! I’ve had so much bread and meat here… And I gotta get me some Mexican horchata too. They make it here with tigernut instead of almonds and ugh, not good!

So my plans for Madrid are mostly done. I’ve booked my bus ticket, my hostal, and my ticket for a flamenco show. And I’ve got it all down in the calendar when I need to check-in for my flight online so that I score a killer seat. Back in my room, I’m tempted to start packing the suitcase already… I know, I’m always just busting at the seams. Ah well, I will control myself.

This week in Salamanca is noticeably colder than last. They say this is what the late fall/early winter in Salamanca usually feels like… I still prefer the warmer temps, even if they are an anomaly and a sign of global warming. I don’t like having to wear a gabillion layers and dragging my gloves and coat with me everywhere.

Well I’m getting cold and tired here in the classroom. Think I will head home early today. Maybe do some studying in bed. Like a true nerd, I whip through my homework during class breaks, so I get those done and out of the way very quickly. Maybe tomorrow, we’ll have a test. Who knows. I’m not stressed. I’ve learned a lot, and I can finally say in full honesty that that really is all that matters. But my friends, I’m giving you heads up… start plotting where we’ll do the next Spanish immersion…

So after dinner last night, I headed to the nearby internet cafe. I ended up catching up on “work.” The eblast application we use has been bugging out lately… not sure what it’s about but it’s really thrown a monkey wrench into things. Anyway, there I was working away, and some dude suddenly ran into the cafe, shut the door, and asked the shopkeeper to lock it. Through the window, I saw another dude coming up and pounding on the door. I don’t know if this was thug activity or what, but the guy was breathing super hard, as if he were running for his life! Then the shopkeeper got on the phone and in a matter of minutes, two cop vans pulled up and tons of people poured into the streets. Across from the cafe, cops interrogated two men… I tried to ask the shopkeeper what happened, but I couldn’t really understand him, so I just asked short questions like, “maybe the guy (being interrogated) was drunk?” They had a “problem?” It was really kinda scary, because I had no idea what was happening.

Plus, the internet cafe was near closing time, so there was only one other guy using the computers– and he was totally engrossed. Anyway, it was a weird experience. When I left for home, the cops were still questioning the guys and canvasing the neighborhood streets. I just scurried home as fast as I could. Didn’t want to hang around and press my luck.

So far, today has turned out to be a real bust. I walked all over town searching for a cafe with wifi. I even went by the McDonald’s. In the end, I crashed at a cafe near the school, nursed a cup of thick hot chocolate, did some more work, and then headed off to meet my new Chinese friend Shu. Just my luck, I totally misunderstood her on the phone yesterday. I thought we were meeting to hang out/eat at a cafe. Nope, when we met at 4p, she had already eaten and she had planned to take me on a tour around town. Meanwhile, I’ve already been here two weeks, and I’ve seen plenty of places… I asked her where to buy good nougat, and she didn’t know so she took me to the Carrefour??! When we got out, it started raining and neither one of us had an umbrella, so she suggested meeting next Friday!!? I have no idea why we couldn’t just go sit in a cafe and talk, but she just didn’t seem interested. So I went home in the rain, and now I’m at the internet cafe again. Totally lame Saturday. I mean, at least I got some studying done earlier, and now I can update my blog, but still…

Well it’s been another busy week. I’m still ramping up my vocabulary, learning a shitload of new words. Since I started this immersion program in early November, I’ve been trying a new system to organize my notebook: I write word lists in the back and categorize them by parts of speech. So far, this has worked wonders for my memorization. I’m pretty psyched about it: my class is full of youngsters (whipper snappers in their late teens and early 20s), but the words aren’t sinking in for a lot of them. Maybe they’re out partying every night… who knows. I’m just happy to keep up.

Man, today the teacher went off on the Taiwanese student in our class who always says “Si” but never really understands what the teacher is saying. I always see her in the school after class, but I don’t know if she’s just surfing the web or what, because she doesn’t understand AT ALL. Whenever the teacher calls on her, it’s the most uncomfortable next few minutes. Poor girl. I tried to tell her yesterday in Chinese that the teacher doesn’t want her to say “Si” if she doesn’t really understand but today, it was the same thing all over again. So the teacher asked her, “Comprendas?” which means “Do you understand?” And the girl just kept throwing out words trying to guess what the teacher wanted. I think maybe she needs private lessons, because she’s already been here at least a week longer than me, AND she says she wants to major in Spanish!!

Anyway, in other news, I went horseback riding with Inke yesterday. My teacher helped me find an equestrian center online, then Inke and I spent like 30 minutes talking to the school coordinator, asking if he could call to get more information. Finally, we mapped it all out: taxi to bus station, bus to the small town on the outskirts of Salamanca. All was great. On the bus there, we met a Chinese lady who’s studying Spanish at the University of Salamanca. She’s about my age, and is from Shanghai! Isn’t that amazing? I go to Spain and meet someone from Shanghai! Of course, she speaks a gabillion languages: English, Chinese, German, Italian, and Spanish. So jealous! So the riding started off well… but then my horse started doing this sudden run/stop thing. One time, I squealed and in turn, I think that made Inke’s horse nervous. So then her horse kept trying to buck her off! It was crazy! And Inke’s riden for like 10 years. The first few times, no big deal, but then after like 8 times, she started getting scared. Inke and Shu (the Chinese girl) switched horses but the same thing happened. Unfortunately, the leader couldn’t switch his horse with anyone because it was only for advanced riders. Long story short, we ended up having to dismount and walk the rest of the way back. We were in the middle of a tree orchard (I think a place where they grow trees for logging?). It was beautiful but then it started getting dark and cold. By the time we got back to the ranch, we’d missed the bus back to town. Eventually, the next bus came (like 30 minutes later) and we made it back to Salamanca, but my god, we were cold, dirty, and hungry. And I had planned to get my picture taken after our ride– but because of our incidents, it ended up being way too dark and by then, the mood had soured. Bummer.

Thankfully, I made it back to my family’s house in time for paella. Delicious. I ate so much last night– and in record time. Tonight is spaghetti. I also spotted a Dominos down the street from school today… could be a dangerous discovery! I’m craving food from home big time!

Sorry for the long silence… internet connection at the school is super sketchy– at times the connection is so good I can do Skype video with Bubbey. Other times, the wifi just cuts out and uploading my photos takes ALL DAMN DAY.

So last weekend was quite busy. Stuart, my housemate (who I just learned today is 62 y/o—nearly as old as my father!) rented a car and was kind enough to shuttle a few of us out of town to Segovia and Madrid. I mention his age, because he’s amazingly mobile for a senior citizen (well, he is!!). I mean, every morning he books it to school so fucking fast, I’m practically running to keep up (and I’m a very fast walker as it is!). He used to lead safaris in Africa, and he mountaineers too— I think that’s the term for it. He’s been to Nepal eight times already. Definitely a Lewis and Clark type if you know what I mean. Anyhow, thank goodness I brought my Dramamine, because we rented this little Corsa car (similar to a Civic hatchback) and the winds were so strong, the vehicle flapped around the whole way there and back.

Overall, I’m enjoying Spain. One nice thing is that all the places I’ve visited feel very safe. And because of the siesta and late late dinner, people are out and about past midnight. I really love the architecture too— crazy old buildings and then in the same place, ultra modern public transportation options… it’s a cool mix. The only downside is that most of the old buildings are religious edifices. To me, that’s such a waste of brain power and manual labor… wouldn’t it be so much better if these buildings served more useful purposes for more people? People here tell me that, particularly after Franco, the role of religion has decreased dramatically. That makes sense, because all these beautiful places are nearly empty! Ah well, regardless, I must admit it’s quite amazing to stand inside something that was built in the 13th century. People back then must have been so damn brilliant!

Let’s see: what else. Oh, my host family asked me the other day to use less hot water. Mind you, I took a 10-minute shower, and the reason I was in there a few minutes longer than usual was because I was also laundering my underwear!! Anyhow, she explained that there a large tank of hot water that serves the 43 families in the building. She claims I used up all the hot water… Needless to say, I’m now down to a shower every other day and it’s 5 minutes tops PLUS I turn off the shower when I lather up. I told you I’m camping for three weeks!