makin' lists

In part of my saying goodbye process to Spain, I have compiled a couple of lists! They definitely contradict each other, but that's kind of what makes this experience so frustrating, amazing, and unforgettable.

50 things I will NOT be missing about Spain

1. Lettuce + oil + salt = a salad
2. Really slow people you can't pass on the sidewalk
3. 90% of stores closing between 2-5 pm
4. Bad reggaeton music
5. Over-aggressive Spanish men
6. Lack of costumer service, everywhere
7. Sharing a really tiny yellow room
8. Not having any privacy in my homestay
9. Boiled vegetables
10. Expensive peanut butter that tastes bad
11. Super boring classes
12. Ham, for dinner, always
13. Dinky Spanish phone
14. Running out of credit on my phone
15. Language barrier 
16. Feeling clueless
17. Creepy policemen
18. Spanish women
19. Converters for appliances
20. Conversion of dollar to euro
21. Ryanair staff
22. Really easy classes (did I already say that?)
23. My bed
24. Rita (my host-dog. Ugh)
25. Dog poop on sidewalks
26. Smoking cigarettes 
27. Being unemployed
28. Having to walk everywhere
29. Lunch at 3pm
30. Dinner at 9pm
31. Military time
32. 6 hour time difference between me and home
33. Feeling disconnected
34. Bad Mexican food 
35. The bugs on the bathroom floor in the wee hours of the morning
36.  Breakfast cookies
37.  Mini muffs
38.  The begging gypsies outside of Carrefour
39.  Dryers that do not exist
40.  Laundry machines in kitchens
41.  Men dressed as clowns with their faces popping out of a stroller, who squeal "guaapaaaa" when girls walk by
42.  Tile floors instead of carpet
43.  Bland, flavorless food
44.  Expensive deodorant  
45.  Hard white bread at mealtimes 
46.  Boxed milk
47.  San Boal
48.  Streaming TV shows online
49. My loud neighbors
50. The view out my bedroom window

100 things I will miss about Spain & Salamanca

1. 2 besos on the cheek to say hello
2. Jamon iberico (the good kind) 
3. The ability to walk everywhere 
4. Hearing little kids speak Spanish 
5. The Plaza Mayor 
6. Siesta time 
7. That leaving a tip is optional 
8. Train rides through the Spanish countryside 
9. Real Madrid vs Barcelona futbol games 
10. Don Simon 
11. That park by the library where I watch the sunset 
12. Boys in purple colored pants 
13. Shoe stores everywhere 
14. Zara 
15. Churros con chocolate at Valor 
16. The Duque 
17. Seeing the sunrise after staying out all night 
18. Overcoming a language barrier 
19. Learning new words 
20. Intercambios 
21. Old people hanging out all day in parks 
22. The rock I found that overlooks the river, where I go to think 
23. Old men on benches 
24. Pinzones 
25. Fancy Fridays 
26. Cobblestone streets 
27. The street cleaners 
28. Sitting in the middle of the Plaza Mayor to watch people 
29. Pandas 
30. Litros at Paniagua 
31. The euro (it's like Monopoly money) 
32. Old women in wool coats 
33. Art in the Prado 
34. Writing this blog 
35. Jamon flavored chips 
36. My friends (duh) 
37. Days by the river 
38. The Puente Romano 
39. 800 year old churches 
40. Tapas 
41. Simplicity 
42. The "No pasa nada" mentality 
43. My host dad, Felix 
44. The storks that live in the bell towers 
45. Las Conchas, my library 
46. The man who plays his violin while his old, beautiful dog is curled up at his feet 
47. Sounds of church bells 
48. A warm jamon y queso empanada for 1.10 euro, from La Taberna de La Abuela before my 1:30 class 
49. Blanco 
50. La Chupiteria 
51. Sonia, my mujeres profesora 
52. Kebobs 
53. The 16 hour store 
54. Hearing British accents 
55. Speaking in English and nobody around me can understand a word 
56. Being foreign 
57. Carrefour 
58. Snow in the Plaza Mayor 
59. Bull running 
60. Landing in a new city, seeing a new country 
61. Churros con chocolate 
62. Jamón bocadillos 
63. Seeing the lights turn on in the plaza 
64. Sunsets on my walk home 
65. Dancing and singing to "Ai se eu te pego," shamelessly 
66. The ducks on my walk home 
67. Spanish bachelor parties 
68. Cute Spanish boys 
69. Birds chirping out my window
70. The music collection at the library
71. The ISA office & staff
72. Spaniards in costumes for no reason
73. Dar-ing un paseo 
74. Paella
75. Having zero responsibilities 
76. Bombones 
77. Arasmus friends
78. Corte Ingles
79. Sonia, my mujeres professer
80. Lazy afternoons by the river
81. Bumming cigarettes from Spanish strangers
82. Random religious holidays 
83. Excursions around Spain
84. San Boal
85. 50  cent coffee machine
86. Dinner at 9 pm
87. Overwhelming amounts of free time
88. Spanish tortilla  
89.  Very clean streets 
90.  Babies in European hipster outfits
91. Hearing conversations in Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, English, German, and Dutch all in the same day 
92. Looking up and seeing the architecture   
93. Sipping wine and eating tapas in the Plaza Mayor
94. Being able to speak English with my friends and nobody around us can understand what we're saying
95. Parque de Jesuitas 
96. My host family
97. Calle Torro 
98. The view on my walk home, right before I turn down my street
99. This sense of adventure everyone seems to have
100. Moments like this with friends I'll never forget:

Photo courtesy of Sergius Colin

IT HAS FINALLY HAPPENED!!!

I woke up on Saturday morning from a weird dream I was having. I was talking to my dad, who was picking me up at the airport. In the dream, I was seriously confused, and slightly frustrated, because all I wanted was to be able to express myself to him, having not seen him for so long.  I understood what he was saying, but it wasn't normal.  I heard what he was saying, it made sense, but something wasn't right..

As I woke up and rolled over, a smily grew across my face as I slowly realized something: I had been dreaming in Spanish.  My dad was speaking to me, in my dream, IN SPANISH!

If it happens that one time, that's okay, because I never thought it would happen.  So after Saturday I can finally say: I have dreamed in a foreign language.

And that makes me happy.

Why the world *never ceases to amaze me

In February I wrote a blog post about poetry I was reading to help me learn Spanish.  About a week after I posted the poem, I received an email from a man named Chema.  Translated into English, he wrote:

Hi, I'm Chema Negron. I was pleasantly surprised that you published a poem written by my uncle, Angel Negron Colomer.   I think he would have liked very much be on the Internet (I guess like any poet). He was a very educated man, a chemist, a political scientist ... but above all, POET. Interestingly you have posted his poem on the day the first year anniversary of his death, which was the January 29, 2011.  Coincidence?  In any case, THANK YOU Kelsey!

This blew my mind.  I mean, how cool is that? And random, because I had no idea. I want to say THANK YOU, to Chema, for letting me know!

Unfortunately, when classes started up again and my schedule got busy in February, I stopped reading as much as I had been.  Then, this past weekend, on an afternoon it FINALLY stopped raining, my friends and I went to the park.  As we watched the world pass us by, we read a bit of Spanish poetry together and learned some new words, and Mark (sorry if you hate me for posting this!) wrote a few lines about Salamanca. It was day that was "super guay," if you ask me.  Days like this, completely average and unexpected, those will be the best memories.  

Photo taken by Miss Somer Stapleton

Stating the obvious, perhaps

This past month I discovered a tool that has "changed my life" here in Spain: Google voice.   If you don't have it, get it.  It is an app through google that allows me to call American phone numbers (cell phones, home phones, business phones)  from a computer, FOR FREE.

I mean, it's insanity. My European cell phone charges me a 50 cent connection fee, then its 30 cents a minute. And unlike skype where you have to arrange a time to call somebody and make sure you look decent enough since it's face-to-face communication, with google voice you're given the anonymity of being just a voice from the other end.  In trying to figure out my apartment lease for next year (UGH!!!), it has actually been quite helpful.  

But sometimes I wish, selfishly, that I could be living here 10, 15, or 30 years ago...or in a time where communication was less developed and the only way of talking to friends and family was by "snail mail." Hand written letters and postcards are the best, but let's be honest: they take time to write and to send.  How weird would it be to go home after having been abroad and see my family and talk to them after having been away for 9 months?!

I guess what I am trying to say is: with tools like Google voice, my world gets smaller and more connected. So that when I need to deal with my lease crisis for my apartment, I can call my mom or best friend at my convenience, and that's awesome.


PS Happy Spanish Labor Day! aka, another day of no school for me! I love this country.