Never a dull moment in Espana

After siesta yesterday, Nicole and I went to the Plaza to walk around and check it out some more. We just kind of walked around, no specific destination in mind. We found a church at the other end of Calle Libreros, I’m guessing it is one of the main local ones. It was really pretty from the outside. We also found the Tourism Office, which was right across the street from the church, and got a few maps of Alcalá, Madrid, and a list of cultural events. After walking back around the Plaza for awhile taking a few pictures of different buildings and things, we decided to go home since it would be time for dinner soon. We came home and had fried eggplant and fish for dinner. Anyone that knows me (and my sister for that matter) know that we always said we had a “fish allergy” because the few times we actually had tried fish we didn’t like it, and therefore never had tried it since. I tasted it and it actually wasn’t bad, it didn’t have a fishy flavor or anything. I was really surprised because Nicole had never had eggplant before. On Monday she also had kiwi for the first time ever, which I was somewhat shocked to find out. Sometimes she says things that crack me up. The other day she asked Juani where the stairs were in case of fire/emergency. A valid question, but kind of random and funny. Juani showed us where the stairs were, and also assured her that the firemen are only 3 seconds away, so not to worry, and there shouldn’t be any fires. There was also another time when there was a loud crack-like sound outside. Nicole freaked out and asked if it was a pistol shot, but Juani once again reassured her that Alcalá is a safe city, and that it wasn’t. During dinner, and after, we talked with Juani about a couple different things. She can be a very intense woman, and opinionated, which is good but sometimes she starts going off and it is hard to understand everything that she is saying. The Spanish eat a pretty balanced diet, lots of meat, vegetables, lots of fruit, for example. She was saying how she didn’t really understand how people eat pizza for dinner as a meal, and that she will never have pizza in her house. (I think we were talking about fast food at this point). Another thing we were talking about was how Nicole and I are both education majors. She was saying how in her opinion, it is important to learn not only the language, but the culture of the people, and teach it to the students, which I agree. It is pointless to teach a language, but not know what the people actually eat, do for fun, how they live, the geography, etc. We have also talked to her about the school system. Spanish children (and Europe in general) start school much earlier, at about 3 years old, whereas in the United States we start around 6. She was showing me things that one of her grandsons had done at school. At 4 years old, he was coloring within the lines and making shapes, and stuff like that. I know my brother can’t do that, and if you give him a crayon you don’t expect much more than scribbles. It is just a different philosophy. Home life is also very different here. The home is considered a “sacred” place, kind of like a sanctuary for the family. Other people aren’t allowed to come to our piso (like our apartment), and we aren’t allowed to go to other people’s pisos. It is seen like an invasion of privacy, and only very intimate friends go over to each other’s houses.
Today we had school early, and Juani went to work. On the way to the busstop, I saw a rat on the street-can you say gross. I was thoroughly disgusted, not to mention how fat and furry it was, and it’s tail was long and skinny, eww. Another thing I forgot was that at all of the crosswalks, there is the sound of birds chirping when it is ok to cross. It is like the ticking that we have in the States for blind people to cross, but here it is a bird sound instead. People are crazy drivers here, and I can’t tell you how many people are this close to getting hit. I saw a man walk out into the street with a car coming full force, but it screeched to a stop for him. One girl told us how her mamá almost got hit, but when the car came up to her, she put her hand out and said “!Calláte!”, basically telling the car to shut up. We had 3 classes in a row, the lit class where we talked more about poetry, ugh, then civilization and culture, where we learned geography of Spain and watched a movie, then finally composition and conversation. A bunch of people finally got their cell phones today, so that was exciting for them. We came home for la comida and had pasta with meat sauce, and then siesta time of course! That is probably the thing we love the most about the Spanish schedule. As for them changing the schedule, I think it would be difficult because the day is pretty divided. We have school in the morning, and everything is open around 9 or 10, then closes down for lunch around 2:30ish and reopens around 5 or 5:30 until 8, or depending on what kind of store it is, a little later. The bank, for example, is only open in the morning during the week, but then reopens on Thursday afternoons for a few hours, so we are going to head to the Plaza in a little bit to change some money. Then we may go out tonight, apparently a lot of people go to the Can Can on Thursday nights. It’s nice because we don’t have class on Fridays, so we are done for the week. Tomorrow we are going into Madrid so we can learn how to get there and touring and stuff, and then we are taking a cultural tour of Alcalá on Saturday. It should be a fun weekend, there is definitely more to do here than Oxford, Ohio!