Noah el Nuevo Gaditano

Who would ever want to leave Cadiz?

So glad I chose to come here, because it’s awesome, and I really could stay the whole time. But, as awesome as it is, one of my goals is to travel a bit around greater Europe.

Trips in the works, thus far:

Paris
Huelva
Granada
Italy (Pisa, Cinque Terre, Florence)
Malaga
Cordoba
Costa de Luz (Various towns along the coast south of Cadiz)
Croatia?
England (London, Blackpool and surroundings [for the British Open])

Now that seems like a lot, but the only “big trips” during while I have school are to Paris next weekend to meet up with some Iotas and old French friends, which I still have a lot to plan for, and to Italy for Semana Santa which is basically Spring Break.

Huelva is a town and province between us and Portugal, and our professor for my History of Contemporary Latin American History class told us we are going to go there for a day for some exhibit they have about something Latin American related. Really don’t know, but hey, it’s a college field trip! Should be a fun trip, and I don’t think there is a ton to do in Huelva so a day should be fine. Not really a trip per se, but I figured I’d add it to the list.

ESN, or the Erasmus student network, is a group at UCA for all the Erasmus kids, which I won’t explain here ad nauseum what that means, but basically they plan trips and parties for the study abroad kids. Kind of like the programs providers a lot of my friends are one, but I only sign up for the trips I want to go one. With them, I plan on going on the trips they have to Granada, Malaga, Cordoba, and the Costa de Luz. They are priced at 50, 40, 20, and 15 Euros respectively! Granada and Malaga are both 2 nights, and Cordoba and the Costa de Luz are day trips. I’m most excited for Cordoba; I have never been and really want to see the Mezquita. The trips are a really good deal and a nice chance to hang out with other Erasmus kids. There is also a trip to Salamanca and to Ibiza, but they are a little too pricey for me, even though they are really a good deal. (I might decide to go on the Ibiza trip still… 275€ for six days on Ibiza… tempting!)

After my time in Cadiz comes to an end, (which it won’t because the end of June is so far away… Let me read this post in June, and my landlord has to drag me kicking and screaming), I have two weeks until the British Open, which is going to be awesome because my Dad and Cindy are coming, and maybe more family, and as of now, I think I will try and WWOOF in Croatia. Google it - it’s really a cool thing! Anyways, I have an intro Croatian course, and am thinking of learning a little while I’m in Cadiz, then spending two weeks on a farm on the Dalmatian Coast practicing my Croatian, and working and living on a farm. This could change as opportunities arise, but for now this is my plan. (The picture below is all you really need to see why I want to go.)

Off to the UK for the Open Championship for the last hurrah before going back home to the states. My cousin Ben won it in 2003, and this year my Dad was able to get off of work and make a vacation of it. This should be a really cool experience that not many people get. I’m excited to see a little bit of England, and one of the greatest sporting events ever. Not to mention the fact that I’ll get to experience it with family. Should be a great culmination to my first long estancia outside of the US!

I want to take a trip in May and in June, but to where I don’t know. That’ll make 4 big trips, one per month more or less, 2 trips after schools out, and 4 trips with ESN around Andalucía. I’m thinking definitely a weekend to Morocco most likely in May. The trip for June is totally to be decided.

For some reason, Auntie Anne is all over the Middle East and East Asia, but only can be found in Europe in the UK and Ireland for some reason. I know they are only “mall pretzels” but I have a love affair with them. One of the locations in the UK is right next to a tube stop in centralish London. Marking that on my British to-do list after the semester is over and I travel to London on my way to the Open Championship in the Northwest of the country. Dead serious about this. Besides curry and fish and chips, there’s not much to British food, so I don’t have to feel guilty about planning on eating such a banal US food. Right?

I hate when you try to make plans and it seems everyone is busy.

I’m like to be with people, but when it’s too hard to make plans, or when nobody answers for sporadic rendezvouses, I’ve just started to do things on my own. I hope this trip doesn’t turn me into a loner.

Yes, they dress more or less like this. It’s been nice weather since the start of Carnaval week, and being the most visited season not during summer, there are a lot of tourists. They come from all over, as it evident of the languages and accents they have, I can even tell the non-native Spaniards in from out of town. But the Brits…

It really is that easy to identify them. Yesterday and today when I went to the store and beach, I noticed they were out in droves. I think there must have been a cruise ship docked at port. They all wear shorts, which granted I reckon compared to the freezing English February, the weather here is paradise. But they all have shorts (cargo shorts to boot), pasty skin, hats, cameras dangling on their necks, always have a map in hand even when not looking at it, and sport sandles, as well as Tshirts. The weather is like it can be in SC in early December - warm enough for shorts for a few hours, but the evenings and mornings are still quite crisp. Even though I went to the beach, I wore a coat with my bathing suit, as the shade is still freezing, same as in South Carolina. All the people that live here have scarves and pants on.

I was playing a game with myself today and yesterday. I would scope out the people in front of me where I was walking and made a point to get close enough to hear the language they were using. Sure enough, when I thought I would here BBC-esque English I did. At one point I was literally laughing as I walked through the Plaza de la Catedral because of course it’s a point of great touristic interest, and they were all over.

Living in a tourism-heavy state (SC) and since Dad now lives in Florida, I am now pretty good at telling out-of-towners when I’m in Ft. Myers on break or down in Charleston or at Folly. Even not living in Charleston, you’re still at least kind of a local being from in-state, at least compared to a lot of other people wandering about. There are just certain things that tip you off. It makes me think of how obvious and foreign I used to look on vacations to warmer places during my formative years living in the Midwest. When asked, I tell people I’m from SC but that I grew up in Ohio. You can’t forget where you came from, but the place you live or have lived for a while eventually becomes as much as force on you as the original place. Regionalism aside, I feel like as Americans we have this cool ability to move around and attach and remove ourselves from different places, that other countries really don’t have.

¿Dónde está el Correo?

The other day, an older couple stopped me on the street and asked me in Spanish for the directions to the post office. I told them, but tried not to laugh: 1. I have only been here for 2 weeks 2. I look Spanish, for real? 3. I actually knew where it was. I’m not naïve enough to think “Oh, I am so good at adjusting, I bet no one thinks I’m not from around here.” Of course I don’t look like I’m from here 100%, but for an old Spanish couple think I looked Spanish or local enough to ask me (in Spanish) where something was, literally made my day.

Been in Spain for two weeks (really?), but I am already pining for some American food.

Sweet Tea
Any type of Southern Fried Chicken
Real Bacon - not what they have here
Pancakes
Mexican (Mexican food is just as American as a hamburger is)
Auntie Anne’s Pretzel w/ Sweet Mustard Dip
Pizza
Cuban Food - ie Maduros

Now I know why immigrants always open up food shops from their native cuisines. I like the food here, but there is definitely something to be said for having food you grew up with. There is a chain with a location nearby called Foster’s Hollywood. I reckon that it is overpriced and not as good as what we could get at home, but I am very tempted to go soon.

There are literally like 10 Americans here and I know 4 of them.

I just tell people I´m Erasmus, which is the EU exchange program. They ask “Where from?” and I say, the States, and get a weird look, because no one is American here. They even gave us t-shirts with ERASMUS on them and “I am” translated in a bunch of languages, which I’m wearing right now because it’s clean and not dirty like all my other clothes.

Success.

This is exactly what I wanted to happen.

I am so tired.

Not to complain, it’s just that kind of tired that you feel when you are absolutely drained, even though you don’t want to be. Kinda like an iPod that is so out of battery it can’t even turn on until it charges a little.

Tonight is the start (well, sort of) to Carnaval. I still don’t get the whole process, but people were out all over town when I leaving class at 715. I bought a Carnaval Mask pastry on the way home, and it was made out of croissant dough in the face of the eye masks and filled with chocolate cream. I ate it so quickly and didn’t even think about taking a picture of it. I’d take more pics of food, but I’m usually so hungry/don’t want to look like a total tourist.

Had to move hostels today, which was a chore. Walked a lot with ALL of my stuff for five months. Trying to figure out where I’m living as of tomorrow night. Homeless in a foreign country? It’s always an adventure. I’ve met a group of Americans (4 of them) from SUNY Geneseo, who are nice people, definitely from NY though. Being so few of us, I reckon we’ll be fast friends. I might be crashing on one of their floors tomorrow.

Anyways, it feels like the whole world is here in Cadiz now, and I suspect it only to be more crazy. I’m still trying to figure out my financial stuff, and living arrangements, but as long as I have a temp. place for sure, all will be well. I wish I felt like going out, but it’s still early by Spain standards. (11:30pm) Still dinner time! I think I’ll go to the terrace of my new one-night residence and have a glass of cheap white Spanish wine I got for 1.50 eur. (It’s not bad, even for a cheap white) I still can’t get over the price of wine.

The American and European education systems are waaaay different.
(This is going to be short b/c I have a lot to do)

There is no hand holding here. You either ask for help, or you don’t get it. And by ask I mean ask a thousand people where you should go, who you should talk to, and how in the hell do you figure out your classes.

I finally found them on the school website. Sounds easy? Jajajaja, os tío… I’ve been very adept at navigating uca.es since I decided on coming here. Only a minotaur could tell you around it. There’s no one place to find the schedule, oh no. The schedule, as far as I know hasn’t been up that long. But now that I have the times and dates of the classes I want to take, I just show up and start attending them. Then I have to get in contact with this guy, so I can officially be in them. Cut off day being March 2. And if I want to take business classes, he has to get permission from a person in that faculty. What? I’m not even going to fight it. Then hopefully they will all fit for USC. I did the inicial thing back in the fall, but I’m not sure how they’ll transfer. But they should completely after reading the course descriptions. The studying part; the actual going to school part of this whole deal, is only going to be about 20% of the learning I do. Learning to live here on my own and adapt to how things are done has and I believe will take up a lot more of my learning capacity.

That being said, I am looking at the learning outcomes and sylabi of some of my courses, and dios mío, they sound intense. Mostly my Spanish courses. There is a seperate language organization under the university umbrella for Spanish as a second language, but I am taking classes under the Filología Hispánica major, such as Spanish Literature of the XX and XXI Centuries, and Historical Morphology and Syntax. Whoa. The scheduling is so that I won’t be able to take the 3 SPAN classes here to finish my minor, but I’ll be fine with these. Plus, taking CInema of Spain will be an absolute breeze and a nice easy class next year. I’m also going to take Art History, which should be cool here. There is a musuem here, and I wonder if we might have to go for class. That would be awesome; and hence why I left my art credit til study abroad. “Todo pasará bien en el fin”. I need to look at my management class and economy of Spain classes. Those should be very interesting and I’m not as worried. I just hope they don’t conflict with my others.