For My Fellow Huskers

I brought a Nebraska Cornhuskers shirt to Spain. It's a simple white t-shirt and it says "Huskers" with a red underline and beneath that it says University of Nebraska and has the Big Red "N" at the end of Huskers & University of Nebraska. I brought this shirt to Spain for two reasons. 1) It's one of my few long sleeve t-shirts that isn't navy blue, and isn't just a plain solid colored shirt and 2) I gotta represent worldwide. Today I wore this shirt to class and my teacher asked "Que es Huskers?". What is Huskers? I then proceeded to explain to him (all in Spanish, of course) that it's the college football team and this is the name and mascot of the team. But he still didn't understand what exactly a Husker is and thought it was like huskies, the dogs. I continued to explain that the full name is Cornhuskers and it's the green part of the corn that you don't use. He then understood and said "Ohh farfollas!" and he looked in the dictionary and checked to make sure that we were talking about the same thing and indeed, we were. He then began to laugh because ¨farfollas¨ is also used a slang for a person who constantly talks about nothing or someone who is just full of hot air, as an example my professor said, a politican is also usually a ¨farfolla¨. So we are the Nebraska Farfollas, pronounced far (like far and away), foy (like foyer), yas (like the beginning of ya'll and with and s). Far-foy-yas. We are the Cornhuskers and also the people who are full of hot air, but for now, we´ll just stick to the exact translation. So perhaps the next time one of my fellow Nebraskans is at, or watching, a Husker sporting event, you could yell "Go Farfollas!" in honor of Spain learning about "Las Farfollas" Nebraska.
Go Farfollas!
:)
Andrea

A Brief History of Spain. Very Brief.

I didn't really do much this weekend and so I don't have any stories to share. However, I did learn the history of La Tomatina. La Tomatina is the giant tomato food fight that they have every year in Bunol, Valencia. Although there are several theories of how it started they are all so simple that I thought I would share the most widely accepted one.

La Tomatina began in 1945 when there was a clash between the young middle-class and the local government. The only thing the middle class had to fight with were vegetables, in particular, tomatoes. Although it is unclear what they were exactly fighting about, it is clear that they had so much fun that they began to do it every year on the last Wednesday in August. It has now grown to a spectacle that attracts over 40,000 people and uses over 100 tons of tomatoes.

And that is your brief Spanish history lesson for the day.
"The more you know" .
:)

Soy de Los Estados Unidos.

Yesterday I got to watch the Inauguration in an "Irish Pub", in Granada, Spain, with a whole bunch of Americans. It was somewhat of a surreal experience and I think being abroad and being able to see the International has given me a completely different perspective of it all than if I had been in the States.

It's interesting to say "I'm from the US" because I never know what response I am going to get. Sometimes it's just kind of a nod and it seems that the person may be thinking "Oh no, not another American", other times it's admiration or surprise because they wonder why an American would come all the way to Spain learn Spanish instead of just go to Mexico. My class has people from Norway, China, Poland, England and New Zealand and it truly seems that the entire world is excited that we elected Obama.

My professor said that the Spanish are hoping that this means that Spain can renew their relationship with the US. When the current Spanish President removed the Spanish troops from Iraq, Bush would no longer communicate with him. When the King of Spain (who acts solely as a diplomat/political figure) tried to communicate with Bush he was always rejected. Spain sees this as an opportunity to begin a partnership with the US. I asked the three Chinese students in my class if the people of China like Obama and they said that they like him very much. They even said that the government of China also really likes him. One of the Englishmen here said that when Obama won, they threw a party in his office (but he does work for the U.N. so that's probably wasn't the norm). I can't imagine what the sentiment would have been had John McCain won.

I always knew that what goes on in the US is important to the world, but electing Obama seems to have taken things to a whole new level. President Obama has a lot of expectations to live up to, and we all know this, but I just hope that he continues to remember this in the next four years. For now though, I'm just glad that I can say with a little more pride that "Soy de Los Estados Unidos."

Picutres

I posted pictures on Facebook yesterday. I wanted to put the link in yesterday's blog but the internet was being fussy. So here is the link to the album for those of you not on Facebook. (Amy P!) :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=204203&l=4dbc5&id=685220612

Donde esta......?

I have now been in Granada for one week. I've already shared some things that I have learned, what I have NOT learned is where things are. I am seriously directionally challenged and Granda is like a maze! Even with a map it's hard to find places because there are some streets that aren't on the map and then street signs are on the buildings (if there at all). You would think that with the Sierra Nevada mountains it would be easier to nagivate which direction is North, South, etc, but the buildings are all so tall that you can never see the mountains. All of this pretty much equals me being lost and/or disoriented a large amount of the time. The good thing is that there are only about three main streets so eventually everything runs into one of those main streets and then I can always get back to my residence or my school (which are the important places). Good news though, I successfully went on a walking tour of the city today thanks to my Lonely Planet guidebook. By successful, I don't mean I never took a wrong turn, but I did see all the sights on the tour, successfully navigated a shortcut around a place I didn't want to see and I made it back to the school. I hope this is a sign that there is good navigating to come, but if it doesn't happen and I really get lost, hopefully the natives will atleast remember seeing a 5'9", curly-haired, redhead in white tennis shoes and they'll be able to find me.

I'm A Picky Eater.

As mentioned in my last post, I was going to try and find a grocery store. I ended up finding one but it was kind of far away from my school and dorm - however, I will probably go back. Why? Because they have peanut butter. Several people told me I wouldn't be able to find PB overseas which concerned me because I'm a picky eater and my fallback is usually PB&J. I have half board here so I get breakfast and dinner but I also knew I would need something for lunch and for those nights when dinner was yucky. So imagine how excited I was when I was coming up the escalator (yes, there's an escalator in the store) and out of the corner of my eye I caught what looked like a small jar of peanut butter. It really made my day. So now, I will not starve to death.

Now, I'm trying to conquer being a picky eater and I believe I have already made great strides. I ate about 3/4 a plank (I think that's what you call it) of fish the other night. It was really fishy and had nothing on it, but I was hungry. However, not hungry enough to finish it. Then, last night there was what I would like to call a "Yuck Salad". It had: peas, corn, little artichokes, tuna, eggs and pasta. I don't like peas, artichokes or tuna and with the rest of the stuff it just seemed odd. Then the woman who works here that was sitting with offered me some mayonaise, which I don't particularly care for either, but it did make it taste better and I actually ended up having seconds and with the fried whatever it was that they also had, it was a good dinner. See, great strides?

:)
Andrea

First Impressions

I've taken the plunge and decided to blog. After one round of e-mails telling everyone I made it, I decided it would be way easier just to blog than telling everyone what I was doing.

I would like to address that I know my Espana needs an tilde but I couldn't figure out how to get it in there. Sorry.

I got here on Sunday and of course was very tired. I flew on British Airways which was pretty nice. Somehow I didn't know that wine and liquors are free on BA (and probably all airlines outside the US) so I didn't get anything and the steward serving me pretty much looked at me like I was crazy. "No sir, not crazy, just a stupid American." I don't know how my international traveling friends failed to tell me about that, but oh well, I wouldn't have taken it anyway since I do a pretty good job of feeling ill on a plane on my own and don't need any red wine to help. Anyway, that flight wasn't too bad and I had an open seat next to me. Then from London to Malaga I had a whole row to myself. That was great. Once I got here I willed myself to stay awake in the 1 hr taxi ride to be able to take everything in.

My first impressions of Spain is that the countryside is very green. I was surprised at how green it is. The city of Granada is just that - a city. It doesn't have much green but it does have great architecture. What has surprised me is how much graffiti there is. Some of it is very odd graffiti and says stuff like "Fuma mata" (smoking kills). I have also been surprised at how cold it is. When I checked average temperatures it said around 44 degrees. Which I knew meant it could be warmer and colder but it has been quite chilly and it seems central heat hasn't really caught on. Rumor at the residence is that some rooms are really hot and others are really cold - however, I've yet to find someone in a "really hot" room and sleeping in a 55 degree room stinks.

I don't know what the first impressions of me have been, but it's day two and I've already decided I'm fine with being the stereotypical American. Before I came here someone told me they always know the Americans by their big, white tennis shoes. Well Spain, lucky for you I bought a brand new pair before I left. I was going to try and wear nice shoes and nicer clothes but now, no thanks, they can know I'm an American by my shoes. It's too cold for the nice clothes and I walk everywhere so I find my nice shoes aren't functional.

As for my Spanish, I definately understand much better than I can speak it. I haven't used my Spanish in the last four years and it's definately rusty but hey, that's why I'm here. I have classes every morning from 9-1 and then an optional class at night from 7-8. I don't know what I'll do with all the time in between but for the next few weeks it will be sightseeing and for tomorrow it's finding some sort of grocery store.

Hopefully, I'll have lots to blog about and they'll be good stories and not misadventures. We'll see.....
:)