This the first time I've been sick in Spain and my body decided to compensate by getting really sick during a nasty period of changing weather patterns and high humidity. Needless to say, having a severe head cold in this weather is quite miserable and makes not want to do anything.
Everyone is sick. Especially the Americans. Once one of us catches something, pretty much all of us have it. But in my largest integrated class everyone was sick, not just the Americans.
I'm hoping yesterday was the worst of it. My friends told me that I looked like I was dying. I told them I was. It was really hot and I had so much pressure in my sinuses that I couldn't hear and I had a headache. I also couldn't talk because my throat hurt so much. Not a good day.
Today I can talk and the sinuses aren't as bad but I'm not out of the woods yet. I have developed a cough and runny nose to accompany my sinus problems, headache and sore throat. At least I can hear. That is a definite improvement.
It's oddly helping me learn Spanish as well. I used up all my tissues that I had brought with me so I went to the super today to buy pañuelos (tissues). People don't have tissue boxes here. They just have what we would consider pocket packs. So, being an economics student, did per unit price evaluations to pick my best deal on tissues. 15 packs for 1,37€. And I was pleasantly surprised that they do not feel like sandpaper on already irritated nose. I have a rather inelastic demand for Puffs right now (meaning I would be willing to pay just about any price for them) but Spain is apparently not even on the demand curve (meaning they are completely unavailable in this country).
Continuing with the educational theme, in castellano class today we were studying verb tenses when describing the function of an object. Fascinating I know, but useful when you don't know the word for something in Spanish and have to describe it instead. So our professor asked us to describe something we would like to know the word for in Spanish. I described cough drops. My classmates were mildly amused. That is definitely something I need the word for because I sound like, as a friend described once, like I kissed the wrong kind of frog prince. The past three days have been really bad. My castellano professor can't even hear me because of my terrible throat. Monday she called on me and no words came out. Tuesday I had the faintest of rasps for a voice. Today it's not quite normal sounding but she could kind of hear me today. Turns out cough drops are "caramelos de la garganta." Throat candies. Makes sense.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Sick...
So for the second time since I've been in Spain, I wish I knew more technical medical Spanish. I know enough to figure things out. Additionally, Spanish words for medical things are often close to formal medical names. Example: pulmonary disease is related to the lungs and pulmones is the word for lungs.
So when I woke up with a terrible sore throat I knew how to say "me duele la garganta" but I resorted to pointing to my tonsils and sinuses when my host mom and sister asked where else. My host mom keeps checking if I have a fever. At the moment, I don't have one. I have done a lot of sleeping. I estimate that thorough all of Friday-1pm Sunday, I've been awake a total of 10 hours this weekend.
My host family is quite amazing though. I got crazy lucky with them. My host mom dropped everything to take care of me. From the beginning she's made sure I've felt like one of her own children. Never has that felt more true than last night. There is nothing quite like a mother's worry over a sick child. My host mom checks on me every hour, making sure I don't have a fever. She told me that if I needed her in the middle of the night to come wake her up immediately. She gave me all the throat medicine they had and promised to take me to the farmacia today. She sent me back to bed with the entire water pitcher.
One of the more interesting things about this whole event is finding out about Spanish home remedies. Back home, it's tea, soup, orange juice and sleep. Home remedies here are slightly different. Nothing too hot or too cold. So my host mom made me warm milk with farm honey. That works so well. And it tastes really good. Then lots and lots of tap water. I've had four pitchers of tap water since last night. Helps keep my throat from getting nasty dry and painful. This morning my host mom made me a plain omelette and a concoction of fresh squeezed orange juice, lemon juice and cane sugar. Works crazy well. I added my own vitamin c supplement and I'm feeling significantly better today than last night. But home remedies here are amazing.
So when I woke up with a terrible sore throat I knew how to say "me duele la garganta" but I resorted to pointing to my tonsils and sinuses when my host mom and sister asked where else. My host mom keeps checking if I have a fever. At the moment, I don't have one. I have done a lot of sleeping. I estimate that thorough all of Friday-1pm Sunday, I've been awake a total of 10 hours this weekend.
My host family is quite amazing though. I got crazy lucky with them. My host mom dropped everything to take care of me. From the beginning she's made sure I've felt like one of her own children. Never has that felt more true than last night. There is nothing quite like a mother's worry over a sick child. My host mom checks on me every hour, making sure I don't have a fever. She told me that if I needed her in the middle of the night to come wake her up immediately. She gave me all the throat medicine they had and promised to take me to the farmacia today. She sent me back to bed with the entire water pitcher.
One of the more interesting things about this whole event is finding out about Spanish home remedies. Back home, it's tea, soup, orange juice and sleep. Home remedies here are slightly different. Nothing too hot or too cold. So my host mom made me warm milk with farm honey. That works so well. And it tastes really good. Then lots and lots of tap water. I've had four pitchers of tap water since last night. Helps keep my throat from getting nasty dry and painful. This morning my host mom made me a plain omelette and a concoction of fresh squeezed orange juice, lemon juice and cane sugar. Works crazy well. I added my own vitamin c supplement and I'm feeling significantly better today than last night. But home remedies here are amazing.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Fiesta?
So I learned that, big surprise, there is a big misconception about partying in the US and partying in Spain. There's even a vocabulary difference.
An American party is usually a bunch of people in a house having fun together. That will never ever happen in Spain. First, most people live in apartments so there isn't space for a party. Second, you are supposed to be quiet at home. In urban areas, population is incredibly dense so people just made it so you are quiet at home but you can party as loud as you want in the streets. And that's not called a fiesta. A fiesta is more a holiday than what Americans would call a party. And since the American type of parties don't happen, partying in the street is just called going out with your friends.
Another thing: Spaniards stay out so much later than Americans. For example, I came home at 2am and I was all ready to sneak in and such. Didn't need to. Everyone was up and all the lights were on. 2am is actually pretty early. Clubs don't open until 3am. And by the way, a fair number of clubs are free for females, sorry guys. It's a different lifestyle for sure.
Our castellano professor even told us the other days that it is very, very "ugly" to buy someone a drink here. You only do that to, uh, people you can buy. So yeah. Not a good way to chat up a local. Also, she told us that if you aren't interested in a guy, don't smile at him. Americans, we just smile a lot, especially when people are talking to us. She says that she likes to tell her foreign students these things because its just not something you will find in a guidebook. And Americans in particular tend to have trouble because we are much more comfortable with talking with strangers than Spaniards are and that can lead to problems.
She brought up and interesting point about that too. Spaniards stay in their groups with their same friends for most of their lives. They do the same things. They like to be safe. It's very hard to make friends outside of your group because you need an excuse to talk to people. You can't just go up to someone. It almost horrifies her that Americans are so trusting of strangers, as she put it, especially since she pointed out that it's very easy for people to get guns in the US and there are just so many around. How do you know the person you are talking with isn't crazy and has a gun, she had asked us. We just kind of looked at each other and thought, huh, never thought of it that way.
A huge cultural difference, no?
An American party is usually a bunch of people in a house having fun together. That will never ever happen in Spain. First, most people live in apartments so there isn't space for a party. Second, you are supposed to be quiet at home. In urban areas, population is incredibly dense so people just made it so you are quiet at home but you can party as loud as you want in the streets. And that's not called a fiesta. A fiesta is more a holiday than what Americans would call a party. And since the American type of parties don't happen, partying in the street is just called going out with your friends.
Another thing: Spaniards stay out so much later than Americans. For example, I came home at 2am and I was all ready to sneak in and such. Didn't need to. Everyone was up and all the lights were on. 2am is actually pretty early. Clubs don't open until 3am. And by the way, a fair number of clubs are free for females, sorry guys. It's a different lifestyle for sure.
Our castellano professor even told us the other days that it is very, very "ugly" to buy someone a drink here. You only do that to, uh, people you can buy. So yeah. Not a good way to chat up a local. Also, she told us that if you aren't interested in a guy, don't smile at him. Americans, we just smile a lot, especially when people are talking to us. She says that she likes to tell her foreign students these things because its just not something you will find in a guidebook. And Americans in particular tend to have trouble because we are much more comfortable with talking with strangers than Spaniards are and that can lead to problems.
She brought up and interesting point about that too. Spaniards stay in their groups with their same friends for most of their lives. They do the same things. They like to be safe. It's very hard to make friends outside of your group because you need an excuse to talk to people. You can't just go up to someone. It almost horrifies her that Americans are so trusting of strangers, as she put it, especially since she pointed out that it's very easy for people to get guns in the US and there are just so many around. How do you know the person you are talking with isn't crazy and has a gun, she had asked us. We just kind of looked at each other and thought, huh, never thought of it that way.
A huge cultural difference, no?
Friday, October 5, 2012
"Los vascos viven para comer, no comen para vivir"
That is, " The Basques live to eat, not eat to live."
My host family isn't Basque but they do love good food. I don't see how you couldn't, living here in the Basque Country.
A lot of my stressed out nights this week were made so much better by dinner with the family. My family here is full of warm, happy people and they just make a lot of things better. I got so lucky with my family.
My host mom is also a fantastic cook. Last night we had a healthier dish that's pretty standard fare here in this house: pasta salad with cheese, tomato and tuna, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The night before we had tortilla de patata. And the night before that we had anchoas. It's Friday so were having fish. My host mom knows I love seafood. Especially since its so fresh here.
An observation about shopping for food: supermarkets are where you buy packaged foods (such as cartons of gazpacho) and packaged milk (no fresh milk here, it's all TetraPak), your everyday wine/beer (liquor stores are only if you want something for a special occasion or a gift) and your household goods (toothpaste, shampoo, razors, etc). You buy bread everyday from the baker, meat from a butcher, fish from a fish market, cheese from a cheese shop and fruits and vegetables from a fruteria. There are several in every neighborhood so you don't have to go far to do your shopping. My host mom takes a pull cart basket thing with her and she goes to the bakery, butcher shop and fruteria in our plaza and the across the street to Super Amara and the fish market. And my host mom is like a celebrity, everyone knows her and her life story. But that's kind of all the customers. Everyone's neighbors and they've all been shopping at these stores for years.
A bit different from the US no?
People also have their regular bars where they have a drink before going home and it's often right by home. For pintxos my family goes to this place across the street. For just drinks there's a bar in our plaza with open air seating.
I'm really enjoying the different lifestyle. And the food.
I definitely liked Spanish food back in the US and I can even cook some Spanish dishes but its hard to compare to the real thing. The ingredients just aren't the same. Take chorizo for example. We have chorizo in the US but it's more likely to be Mexican than Spanish and Spanish chorizo is really different. It's flavorful but not spicy. It's very smoothe and easy to eat. It isn't full of fat and it smells so good. It can be eaten as a snack with red wine. In fact, that's often offered as a pintxo here.
Cheeses here are also fantastic. Here in Sanse we're 20km from the French border so we get Spanish, Basque and French cheeses. Also, Dutch and Swiss cheeses can be bought (in the supermarket) so we get a lot of variety. Since we have a package of membrillo (the apple jelly thing we've been having for dessert), we've been having it with cheese and wine for dessert every night.
Food lover's paradise right here. And the nice thing is that with a lot of walking, the good food doesn't go to your hips. America take note.
My host family isn't Basque but they do love good food. I don't see how you couldn't, living here in the Basque Country.
A lot of my stressed out nights this week were made so much better by dinner with the family. My family here is full of warm, happy people and they just make a lot of things better. I got so lucky with my family.
My host mom is also a fantastic cook. Last night we had a healthier dish that's pretty standard fare here in this house: pasta salad with cheese, tomato and tuna, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The night before we had tortilla de patata. And the night before that we had anchoas. It's Friday so were having fish. My host mom knows I love seafood. Especially since its so fresh here.
An observation about shopping for food: supermarkets are where you buy packaged foods (such as cartons of gazpacho) and packaged milk (no fresh milk here, it's all TetraPak), your everyday wine/beer (liquor stores are only if you want something for a special occasion or a gift) and your household goods (toothpaste, shampoo, razors, etc). You buy bread everyday from the baker, meat from a butcher, fish from a fish market, cheese from a cheese shop and fruits and vegetables from a fruteria. There are several in every neighborhood so you don't have to go far to do your shopping. My host mom takes a pull cart basket thing with her and she goes to the bakery, butcher shop and fruteria in our plaza and the across the street to Super Amara and the fish market. And my host mom is like a celebrity, everyone knows her and her life story. But that's kind of all the customers. Everyone's neighbors and they've all been shopping at these stores for years.
A bit different from the US no?
People also have their regular bars where they have a drink before going home and it's often right by home. For pintxos my family goes to this place across the street. For just drinks there's a bar in our plaza with open air seating.
I'm really enjoying the different lifestyle. And the food.
I definitely liked Spanish food back in the US and I can even cook some Spanish dishes but its hard to compare to the real thing. The ingredients just aren't the same. Take chorizo for example. We have chorizo in the US but it's more likely to be Mexican than Spanish and Spanish chorizo is really different. It's flavorful but not spicy. It's very smoothe and easy to eat. It isn't full of fat and it smells so good. It can be eaten as a snack with red wine. In fact, that's often offered as a pintxo here.
Cheeses here are also fantastic. Here in Sanse we're 20km from the French border so we get Spanish, Basque and French cheeses. Also, Dutch and Swiss cheeses can be bought (in the supermarket) so we get a lot of variety. Since we have a package of membrillo (the apple jelly thing we've been having for dessert), we've been having it with cheese and wine for dessert every night.
Food lover's paradise right here. And the nice thing is that with a lot of walking, the good food doesn't go to your hips. America take note.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Can't win them all
It was midterms week.
That alone should tell you what kind of week I've had. Stressful. Five tests in four days. Not fun. At least I now have a three day weekend to decompress. This is probably going to be a long post because a lot has happened since I last blogged.
The exams went well. Some better than others, naturally. But overall, I felt pretty good. Hopefully worth the lack of sleep.
But having a week long marathon of lacking sleep inevitable leads to problems. For example, I kind of broke a computer at work the other day. In my defense, the default language is Basque and I don't read enough Basque to decode the error message that flashes for two seconds before the computer dies. And naturally, the big boss was in the office that day. It was only the second time that he and I have been in the office at the same time. Great impression no?
Also today my Basque class finished late so I knew I was really late to my Mythology class. I got to the building and my teacher was in the hallway. Uh oh. I'd previously told him that my class before is far away and that makes it just about impossible to to be on time. He knows the teacher and the class so he kindly permits me five minutes of leeway. But today I was way more than five minutes late. But, being Basque himself, was very impressed I managed to say, "barkatu berandu iristeagatik. Nire klasea berandu bukatuda." Which in English is, "sorry for arriving late. My class finished late."
There's been a call for a student strike a week from today. We'll see how that turns out. Likely the program director will call for us to continue class but I'm not so sure the university will be accessible with a student strike. Today they had a press release and so we could barely get in the building and it's not even the day yet. More on that when I know more.
I got a huge cut on my leg walking home today. A small child on a bike ran over another small child who stopped for no apparent reason. I was distracted by this while a third small child holding a dog leash walked around me and the dog went the other way before coming back to the child, making a loop around my leg and then the dog tried to run after the crashing small children and the leash tighten around my leg and cut it. The parents were completely horrified. They made me sit down and drink water and have me a bandaid. They were really sorry about their kids and sorry about the dog and sorry about the bandaid not being big enough. I was four blocks from home and I was just like I want to go home but I smiled and reassured the parents it wasn't a big deal. Accidents happen and whatever.
This was maybe five minutes after I had extreme difficulties with the post office. The stamp vending machine ate my money and I was really frustrated. Then I completely fail at telling the postal workers what happened. But that got sorted so it was ok. Then a woman came in with a stack of postcards and made some weird gestures. I must have given her a pretty puzzled look because she reverted to English and was like "I need to send these. Can I use this machine?" I actually startled her when I told her in English the machine I was using just for selling stamps, not sending mail. Then I had to admit the somewhat embarrassing fact that I don't actually know where you mail stuff in the post office itself, despite being here for a month. I told her that I actually just use the post boxes in the street. There was an ad featuring one so I pointed to it and told her that's what they look like. My mom got the one postcard I have managed to mail so I'm going to assume that worked.
Also, there is absolutely no running water in the entire building and quite possibly the entire block. I got home and my host sister told me that if I wanted water for drinking or washing my hands or brushing my teeth to use the large bottled water in the kitchen because there wasn't any. She had asked some neighbors and none of them had water either. Naturally.
But it's just not been my week.
At least my host family is comprised of the coolest people ever. They make everything very bearable.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Mucho estres pero no te preocupes
I had two tests already this week and I'm going to have two more. My week is only four days long. One a day. Can't wait for this week to be over.
I just love how every time I have a moment of "oh my god, what am I doing? I'm doing to too much. I can't handle this," real life comes and tells me "tranquila, you live in Spain, c'mon."
Tonight my calming moment was dinner with my host family. We watched Barça win while we ate anchoas for dinner, accompanied by red wine and followed by cheese and apple puree cake (ok, bad description. It looks like a cake but its made of dehydrated apple puree and formed into blocks.) for dessert. Futbol, fish, vino, fruit and cheese. What's more Spanish than that?
It's kind of hard to be stressed out after such a pleasant dinner.
I also finally revealed that I'm a huge Barça fan to my host parents. My host mom was like, ok but you're a Reala (Real Sociedad, the local team) fan now right? And I'm like of course. You have to cheer for your local team. I even bought a Reala scarf. There are few better ways to blend in with the locals than to support the local sports team.
And to steal a line from one of my favorite athletes:
And that's what's up.
I just love how every time I have a moment of "oh my god, what am I doing? I'm doing to too much. I can't handle this," real life comes and tells me "tranquila, you live in Spain, c'mon."
Tonight my calming moment was dinner with my host family. We watched Barça win while we ate anchoas for dinner, accompanied by red wine and followed by cheese and apple puree cake (ok, bad description. It looks like a cake but its made of dehydrated apple puree and formed into blocks.) for dessert. Futbol, fish, vino, fruit and cheese. What's more Spanish than that?
It's kind of hard to be stressed out after such a pleasant dinner.
I also finally revealed that I'm a huge Barça fan to my host parents. My host mom was like, ok but you're a Reala (Real Sociedad, the local team) fan now right? And I'm like of course. You have to cheer for your local team. I even bought a Reala scarf. There are few better ways to blend in with the locals than to support the local sports team.
And to steal a line from one of my favorite athletes:
And that's what's up.
Monday, October 1, 2012
October already?
When did that happen? Unfortunately for me, my October begins with a ton of tests. One in every class. So I shouldn't really be blogging right now, but oh well. I'll be fine.
So now that I've been in Spain for over a month, I want to record more of my impressions and observations. My perspective on life in España as it were:
Yes and no are used the opposite as they would be in the US. I was warned about this by my cross cultural training teacher. Here if a Spaniard asks you for example, "you're not hungry, right?" And you aren't hungry so you as an American would say, "yes" meaning yes, that's right, I'm not hungry. But the Spaniard hears "yes" meaning, well yes I actually am hungry. So the correct answer would be "no" as in no, I'm not hungry. That took some getting used to.
Also, in España if it your birthday, you're the one expected to pay for drinks. People don't buy you drinks because it's your birthday here. So be cautious telling people it's your birthday here.
If I leave my door open when I'm doing homework, my host mom or sister will come in and see what I'm doing. This may include picking up notebooks/ books on my desk and going through them. This is weird to Americans but they just are interested and want to help. I am ok with this. For my test on myths and legends my host family lent me mythology books. Cool.
Apparently my host mom read the entire odious Baroja book for the last student who lived here. I would never inflict that on anyone. That's just evil. It's kind of like reading Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lots and lots of crazy syntax and description and not a lot of action. Actually, Hawthorne eventually has action. There is no action in Baroja. A lot of his short stories are nothing but description. Uff.
I wrote an essay on the relationship between poverty and development in Spanish today. Not sure if I should be please with myself for remembering enough from my classes in the US or if I should be horrified I attempted such a technical essay in a language I'm still learning.
I'm also beginning to assume that all bugs bite. I'm very glad I have organic bug repellant. There are nasty biting bugs other than mosquitos here.
Today my Spanish teacher taught our class all the bad words in Spanish. Not to use, she claims, but so we can understand better. Haha, sure. Our class could not stop laughing when she was using her teacher voice to tell us what these words meant in English. Interesting class today. Good topic for a Monday.
Also, my boss was actually in the office today. First time he and I have been there at the same time. He makes me nervous because I cannot speak castellano around him. He corrects me because I told him I need to learn. At least he says my pronunciation of Euskara is good. xD
I sang Rocky Horror and The Clash songs to my intercambio. A fairly decent Monday.
Ok, time to study.
Peace.
So now that I've been in Spain for over a month, I want to record more of my impressions and observations. My perspective on life in España as it were:
Yes and no are used the opposite as they would be in the US. I was warned about this by my cross cultural training teacher. Here if a Spaniard asks you for example, "you're not hungry, right?" And you aren't hungry so you as an American would say, "yes" meaning yes, that's right, I'm not hungry. But the Spaniard hears "yes" meaning, well yes I actually am hungry. So the correct answer would be "no" as in no, I'm not hungry. That took some getting used to.
Also, in España if it your birthday, you're the one expected to pay for drinks. People don't buy you drinks because it's your birthday here. So be cautious telling people it's your birthday here.
If I leave my door open when I'm doing homework, my host mom or sister will come in and see what I'm doing. This may include picking up notebooks/ books on my desk and going through them. This is weird to Americans but they just are interested and want to help. I am ok with this. For my test on myths and legends my host family lent me mythology books. Cool.
Apparently my host mom read the entire odious Baroja book for the last student who lived here. I would never inflict that on anyone. That's just evil. It's kind of like reading Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lots and lots of crazy syntax and description and not a lot of action. Actually, Hawthorne eventually has action. There is no action in Baroja. A lot of his short stories are nothing but description. Uff.
I wrote an essay on the relationship between poverty and development in Spanish today. Not sure if I should be please with myself for remembering enough from my classes in the US or if I should be horrified I attempted such a technical essay in a language I'm still learning.
I'm also beginning to assume that all bugs bite. I'm very glad I have organic bug repellant. There are nasty biting bugs other than mosquitos here.
Today my Spanish teacher taught our class all the bad words in Spanish. Not to use, she claims, but so we can understand better. Haha, sure. Our class could not stop laughing when she was using her teacher voice to tell us what these words meant in English. Interesting class today. Good topic for a Monday.
Also, my boss was actually in the office today. First time he and I have been there at the same time. He makes me nervous because I cannot speak castellano around him. He corrects me because I told him I need to learn. At least he says my pronunciation of Euskara is good. xD
I sang Rocky Horror and The Clash songs to my intercambio. A fairly decent Monday.
Ok, time to study.
Peace.
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