Mi Vida Española

After being in 3 cities this week throughout Spain, my love for this country grows daily, hourly, minutely..if that's even a word. I have visited Madrid, Toledo, and finally VALENCIA! I have seen paintings by El Greco, Velazquez, Dali, and Picasso's "Guernica". I have devoured tapas, soups, olives, ice creams, wines, churrizo (a type of sausage and my favorite :)) and have become completely engrossed in the culture. One of my favorite places was El Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) outside of Madrid near El Escorial. This is high up in the Sierras and was built after the Spanish Civil War. Franco forced the prisoners of war to build a memorial in the mountains to the fallen Spaniards from 1936-1939. It also doubles as his tomb. I am a little crazy about Spanish history and especially the Spanish Civil War, so, to me, this place was an absolute gold mine. However, Spaniards hate it. They despise Franco and all he stood for, which makes sense to me. He was a symbol of oppression and was the main reason for the 3 years of turmoil that ripped their country apart. Only tourists visit El Valle de los Caidos. Hearing this, I thought my program leaders were completely lying and expected to see lots of Spaniards wandering around the place. I was 100% wrong. I saw 3 people while we were there, and they were most likely tourists. It still strikes me as strange. My house mom showed such disgust when we told her we visited it. In the states, we love memorials; just think of Washington D.C.! We make them for wars, deaths, accomplishments, leaders, and records, but, then again, America definitely hasn't had a Fascist dictator like Franco take over our country, so it is very understandable that Spaniards would feel this way.

Spain is an interesting place that I thought would be very similar to America, but it seems that this country is proud of their history and nationality and choose to remain simply Spain. Barely anyone speaks English, most have never been to America, and EVERYONE loves Obama. I swear, Obama is going to be a god in Europe soon. In Poland, people would constantly tell me to vote for Obama after a heated debate because he isn't that "horrible man George Bush" and he will turn the US economy around and, in fact, solve all of Europe's problems. In Spain, I have already encountered this fanaticism for Obama. Everyone watched the inauguration yesterday. I had class from 5, 15 to 7 but my professor actually stopped class to watch it with us. After the inaguration, the Spanish news channel played that movie made about George Bush called "W.", and all the while my house mother tsk-tsked at his drinking and apparent lack of qualification for the office of president. It's scary how much they hate him here. I mean he has been the face of American and our relationship with Spain for the passed 8 years and they couldn't be happier to send him off.

Some of you have asked about the different areas of Spain and whether or not they differ from each other. So far, I have been in 3 different Comunidades autonomas(Spain is divided into 18 different areas kind of like our New England, Midwest, or Eas Coast, etc.). I visited Madrid, which is in the Madrid comunidad, and it was very busy. I was jet-lagged and rushed through the city, but it was very similar to most any city you go to, only full of priceless masterpieces and history. In Toledo, one of the most beautiful and historical cities in the world, I was in Castilla y Leon of the largest comunidades. It was very old and the Muslim and Jewish influence in the region was obvious. In Valencia (located in the Valencia comunidad) life is slow and everyone walks everywhere. I walk to and from school everyday, which is 30 minutes each way maybe 2-3 times per day. Not the usual walk to class for Marietta! The difference between the comunidades isn't very obvious, but the coast is always different from life in the mountains simply because of geography. People in Madrid will still eat lunch at 2 and dinner at 9pm, as well as the people in Valencia. From what I noticed, the comunidades divide Spain like the U.S. is divided into geographic regions, but really all that is different between them are some special types of food or dishes, historical languages, and accents.

I have not had to sacrifice hot water for wireless or anything like that. I use someone else's internet in my apartment building, and there is hot water, but I can only take 5 minute showers and have to turn the water off during my shower. Spain has been experiencing a huge drought because apparently it only rains at the most 50 days out of the year and they need to conserve as much water as possible. My classes are really interesting and it is surprisingly easy to understand the fast Spanish that my professors are speaking. I don't get nervous to speak Spanish anymore like I was the first few days. It is crazy that after only one week I can can completely understand Spanish songs, converse better with my house mom, and understand conversations on the street. It won't be long until I feel completely at home with the language :)