Life Update

Hi, everyone! Sorry it has taken so long to get to this blog post (it’s been about a month), but final exams have just wrapped up here in Madrid and we have just started our second semester this past week. Needless to say, things have been pretty hectic and I’m hoping life will calm down for a bit until the first batch of midterms set for mid-March. Nevertheless, I owe you all an update (and special thanks to those who have been Badger-ing me [pun intended] to update!).

On the academic end, final exams went well but there is such a difference between the educative system here and in the States. While in the US professors value and encourage critical thinking and application of the concepts learned in class, the Spanish professors here seem to focus only on rote memorization. That is to say, while studying for my exams, I had to remove myself from the material that I was studying and tell myself that it was not my opinion that mattered, but instead the professor’s. On the exams then, it was important to refer to the different readings I had done if I wanted to disagree with something stated in class. For instance, on my picaresque novel exam, the professor asked us to write about whether there existed a “feminine” picaresque novel and to justify our answer. To answer the question required that I cite different authors who shared my view (like a paper), but I was not allowed to put in any personal analysis if I did not have an academic that shared my thoughts. That is not to say that the system in the US is any better or the system here is any worse, they’re just two different models. As of now, I’m waiting on the official results from my classes, and I hope to come out ok!

The sad part about ending first semester is that a lot of the friends I have made from different countries in the EU are returning to their home institutions to finish up their academic year there. To say goodbye to one of my friends, we went out to an Indian restaurant and had dinner with a big group of people from France, Italy and the US. It felt very bittersweet to know that I had to say goodbye to some friends, but hopefully I’ll be able to meet just as many new and interesting people during the second semester.

With the end of one semester came the start of another. This past Monday classes restarted at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. I’m still not sure which classes I will end up taking, as I have a variety of options and a lot of professors I would be honored to study with, but a limited amount of time to study with all of them. I’m heavily considering taking a class about Spanish theatre in the Golden Age (c. seventeenth century) because I really enjoyed the professor’s picaresque novel class last semester. She seemed really excited to see me in her class for a second semester—hopefully that’s a good sign! I have two more options to explore tomorrow and Friday in the Spanish Department and one more to see on Monday when the History Department’s classes start.

Aside from classes, teaching English and volunteering have been keeping me busy. I teach English to a 14-year-old Spanish student named Jorge once a week, supplementing what he has learned in class with spoken and written exercises that I prepare for him. He is very bright with a good command of English. He really tries to free himself of his Spanish accent when speaking English, imitating my accent to the best of his abilities. Sometimes I can’t even tell he’s a non-native English speaker. As time goes on, I’m sure he’ll be able to improve even more and be confident enough to speak English while he travels to the US, Canada, and the UK. He has traveled to some of these places before, but told me that he was too embarrassed to even attempt speaking English because of his accent. I tried telling him that that fear is normal, especially if you’re traveling abroad. I then told him to consider what I do every day: speak in Spanish to people whose native language is Spanish. I still get embarrassed when I realize I made a grammatical mistake, but that can’t stop me from speaking Spanish all together. I encourage my friends to correct me when I make a mistake otherwise I’ll never learn! Jorge has gotten a lot better about this lately.

In terms of volunteering, which I have been doing since October, I have had a wide array of experiences, both positive and negative. I work in a women’s center, helping school-age children with their homework for a few hours a week. The center is in a more disadvantaged area of Madrid, so the kids sometimes lack the resources that they need to succeed in school (a supportive home environment, school supplies, etc.), so the other volunteers and I try to provide them with what we can. The kids are great overall. They’re a happy bunch of youngsters that just need a little positive reinforcement to do their work, although sometimes they can get a bit rambunctious. Last Friday, for example, I went in with another friend of mine for one day of unstructured activities with kids. While we assist them on Mondays and Wednesdays with homework, Fridays are days with games and other activities for the kids to relax after a long week at school. This past Friday we helped the kids decorate some masks for the Carnival here (in celebration of the last weekend before Lent). While most of the kids were really excited to get to work on their masks, others were instigating arguments and provoking conflict among some of the other students. Once we were able to resolve the situation by talking to those who were bullying the other students, everything went fine. It’s hard remembering how it was when I was a kid sometimes. I know bullying happens at most schools, but dealing with it in English is one thing; dealing with it in Spanish is another. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all and I’m going back to the center tonight to assist the kids with more homework.

Lastly, I have some new travels to report. Maintaining my promise to myself that I should see as much of Spain as possible while I’m here, I spent one day last weekend in Salamanca, about 2.5 hours away from Madrid. The city is much smaller than Madrid and it is very much a college town, but I was excited to visit it because of its relevance to my picaresque novel class that I had just finished. One of the books we read, el Lazarillo de Tormes is partly based in Salamanca, so it was nice to walk around and see all the sites mentioned in the novel: the Roman Bridge, the Tormes River (where the protagonist was born), etc. I even got a picture with two of the most famous residents of the town—El Ciego (the blind man) and Lazaro (the protagonist), both characters from el Lazarillo de Tormes. It was a truly rewarding trip and I’m glad I finally got to go!

Well, that’s all for now, folks (pardon my Looney Toons reference). More soon (I promise!).

Un año nuevo

I hope everyone’s holiday season has treated them well, filled with a lot of time with family and friends. I know I really enjoyed mine, but since break is wrapping up here in Madrid, I should start getting back to preparing for final exams. Tomorrow, perhaps. What follows is a summary of the (many) holidays I celebrated here in Madrid and what I’ve done during break:

1. Christmas. Obviously, this is a lot of people’s most important holiday, so I hope it went well for those people. As a Muslim, I was a little intimidated about spending Christmas in an (unofficially) Catholic country, especially since all of my roommates went home to celebrate it! After getting used to seeing them most every day, eating our dinners together and exchanging great stories, I felt a little weird being in the apartment alone. I got “by with a little help from my friends,” though! Cooking my favorite Palestinian dish (Maklouba) for the first time since I have arrived in Spain, watching Taken, and just relaxing after a whirlwind of a semester made me one happy camper on Christmas Day.

2. Inter-holidays. Once the Christmas festitivities were over, my brother (Amjad) came to visit me from the States. After waiting for him for two hours in the wrong terminal, I finally found him and we went back to my apartment so he could drop off his luggage before proceeding on a quick walking tour of the city. The next day, we were off to Morocco! We went to Tangier, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled about the trip. Spending time with Amjad, eating food just like mom’s, and relaxing in such a multicultural city are all experiences to be treasured.

3. New Year’s. Amjad and I arrived back to the apartment on New Year’s Eve to find my roommate busily cleaning for that night’s festivities. We were playing host to this year’s gathering, so I immediately started helping her clean the apartment, shop for groceries, and cook. That night, I believe the apartment had reached its maximum capacity of about 15 people. Space was limited, but good company was not, so it wasn’t a big deal. At around 11PM, Eloise (my roommate) and I prepared 12 grapes in small plastic glasses for everyone to take with them to the Puerta del Sol. The tradition here is to eat the 12 grapes as you countdown to the New Year. There are many theories as to why this is, but the most common one is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Grapes. I’ve never been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve, but I imagine Madrid would give that celebration a run for its money.

4. Inter-holidays #2. On January 2, my friend Megan came to visit me. Also a friend of my brother, we were both excited to have her. Despite her massive jetlag, we had a full day in store for her, including trips to the Reina Sofia Museum, the Puerta del Sol, and a flamenco show. It was a non-stop day, but a great one. The rest of the break, up to 6 January, was spent showing Amjad and Megan various sites in Madrid: the Prado, my university, the different neighborhoods that I frequent, and eating Spanish cuisine (for the most part).

5. Three Kings’ Day. I bet you all wondered why I labeled the period after New Year’s “Inter-holidays #3?” Well, much to my surprise Christmas didn’t truly end on 25 December. Instead, Spain continues celebrating the Christmas season until Three Kings’ Day, which fell on 6 January. The tradition is to buy a roscón de reyes (kings’ ring; circular cake), which is filled with small surprises. The tradition is best explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosca_de_reyes. Despite my roommate and I being under the impression that we were heading to a mutual friend’s apartment for the celebration, this friend informed us that we couldn’t have the celebration at her place at the last minute, so we had to play host to another gathering four days after New Year’s! Cleaning was rampant, yet again, but in the end, everything turned out well. We had a great time.

So, now you know everything I have been up to lately. I’m trying to get myself back into the “school” mindset since final exams are coming up soon, but I’m finding it incredibly difficult. I’ll be fine once I get back into my daily routine. I just wish we had had final exams before break!

Enjoy your last two weeks of break, everyone! I’ll try to enjoy my last two days.

Puente, End of Semester, Navidades

Where I last left off, I had just gotten back from a trip to Córdoba in the south of Spain. This post will start off with a different trip that I took at the beginning of December to Jerez de la Frontera and Cádiz, two cities also in the south of Spain.

We were given off the weekend of the 4 December to celebrate “Constitution Day” here in Spain. Essentially, after the fall of Franco´s dictatorship on the 20 November 1975, a new constitution was written in 1978, which to this day, continues to guide Spanish governmental affairs. What better way to commemorate this holiday than to take a trip? It wasn´t just any trip, however, as it was a trip to the area where Spain´s very first constitution in 1812 was written after their independence from the French.

Jerez de la Frontera was our first stop, a city famous for its sherry and horses. The sherry is said to be good (friends of mine attest to it—I was given a non-alcoholic alternative to respect my religious beliefs) and various celebrities (Pasión Vega ) to important political figures (Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill) have traveled to Jerez just to try its famous drink. My favorite part of the trip, however, was a little journey through the city from inside a dark room known as a “cámara oscura.” In it, a lens and a mirror combine to give an impressive visual image of the city and highlighted all the important areas to visit, including the grand cathedral, the Moorish castle, the Tío Pepe Factory. The picture below shows the cathedral, as seen from the cámara oscura:

When we returned to Madrid, it was time to get back into finishing up what was left of the semester before winter break (exams are not until January/February). Even without exams, this time got to be really busy for a lot of students, myself included. In the last week alone, I have written three papers in Spanish for a total of about 45 pages of academic writing. It was exhausting. At least I´m getting practice, I guess! This will be a very helpful learning experience depending on what I do for graduate school.

To help celebrate the approaching festivities, and as a sign of gratitude to our office staff for such a great semester, we threw them a little surprise “thank you” gathering in our WIP office. We had the cake made in a pastelería (pastry shop) by my apartment—chocolate truffle—and, I must say, it was delicious. We also made a collage of various pictures of everyone in the program from throughout the semester, which is now proudly displayed in our office. According to Amy Olson, the student services coordinator for WIP, this was the first time in her memory that a group of students did this for them—go, Badgers!

I wrap up this post wishing you all the happiest of holidays and the safest of travels. ¡Felices fiestas!

Midterms, Thanksgiving, Córdoba

It has been quite a busy last few weeks in Madrid. With class projects, midterms, Thanksgiving, and a program-sponsored trip to Córdoba have been more than enough to make it so. Let´s go in that order; otherwise, the head cold I have right now will prevent me from making any sort of sense.

As I wrote in my last post, I had to read many picaresque novels within a short period of time so that I could successfully write and present my literary commentary to my class full of Spaniards. Although the entire process leading up to the actual presentation was exhausting (i.e., reading so many novels written in medieval Spanish), the presentation itself was not. I decided to present first since I didn´t want to have the added pressure of going after some of the Spaniards—with their fluidity in speaking their native language—in the class. Nevertheless, the professor was so warm and inviting. She actually introduced me to the entire class and told them my entire life history—where I am from, what I am doing in Madrid, and how good she thinks I am at speaking and writing Spanish. Embarrassed, I began my presentation and when it finished, I was quite proud. I was able to do it without letting my nerves get the best of me and the professor told me that I did a great job.

Even though the whole process with writing and presenting my literary commentary had kept me busy for a few weeks, midterms in myreunidas classes (alongside fellow U.S. students) did not help the matter. While many of my classmates suffered through three, four, or five midterms exams in these classes, I (fortunately) only had two since I am taking two classes outside of the program to push myself that much harder to learn Spanish. Despite this, I still had to prepare for the exams, as they are very different here. In the U.S., exams are less about how much you remember of the facts or what the professor told you in lecture and more about applying what you have learned throughout the semester. Here, it is quite the opposite. To be successful, you must learn—by memory—everything the professor has said to you and, depending on the question the professor asks you on the exam, repeat that information in the form of an essay or short answer question. While some classes here do value free expression and personal analysis in an academic setting, most follow a didactic approach to learning. Admittedly, this is different, but I hesitate to call it weird since I do not believe such a label is ever appropriate to describe another culture. Returning to the topic, however, everyone seems to have done well on midterms, with results trickling in every day. I should have mine by next week, I hope.

Once midterms ended, Thanksgiving festivities started! Thanksgiving here is, obviously, not a big event since Spain has a different history than that of the United States. Nevertheless, the Program sponsored a deliciously satisfying dinner the night of Thanksgiving at a Spanish restaurant called Casa Adolfo. Eating anything and everything from fried eggplant as an appetizer to a delicious red-pepper steak as my entrée, I truly enjoyed myself that night. The food, the company, and the atmosphere were so pleasant that it helped a lot of people through what would be a difficult time of culture shock (since so many miss their families). Despite what could have been a very emotional evening for a lot of the program participants, it ended well and helped everyone in the Program—including the administrators—the opportunity to bond and develop a sense of camaraderie that we otherwise would not have had.

That weekend, the Program also sponsored a weekend trip to Córdoba, about 400 kilometres from Madrid. As a Muslim, I was truly excited to go on this trip since I would have the opportunity to see the city´s Great Mosque-Cathedral, especially since we were able to visit it on our religious holiday, Eid el-Adha. Seeing such a rich legacy on such an important holiday was so awe-inspiring. The pictures below do not even do the mezquita (mosque) justice, so I encourage you to visit it if ever given the opportunity!

The next day, we visited Medina Azahara (derived from Arabic for ¨Brilliant City¨), which contains ruins of the caliphate in the area from the tenth century. Although the day left us wet and cold due to off-again, on-again onslaught of rain, I enjoyed seeing such a vital part of Spanish history; knowing that it also makes up a part of my culture made it that much better for me. There was a very well-constructed museum that possessed remnants from the medieval city as well, so we were able to get out of the rainy conditions for a bit.

No matter where I travel, seeing how much pride others take in their culture makes me learn and discover that much more about my own. This whole process of exploring another´s culture really does make it so that you explore more of your own. I hope to continue this process of self-discovery, as cliché as it may sound, as I continue with my year-long stay in Madrid.

Time Flies…?

Let me begin with the reasoning behind the title. It is not meant as a criticism in any way, shape, or form of anyone who has ever said that phrase. Instead, I use the expression to represent how I felt while reading about 1,000 pages of el Guzmán de Alfarache—a picaresque novel and a required reading-- in the last week. The operative word here is “felt” because as I write these words, I have officially tackled that monstrous reading. The whole process seemed to drag on, partly because of its use of medieval Spanish vocabulary, but mostly because of the hundreds of moral digressions the narrator inserted at various points throughout the story. Now that it is finished, I can relax… oh, wait. I have two more books to read. Oh, well, never mind. J

Despite that little rant, everything is going so well in Madrid! In reality, I’m not drowning in schoolwork, but after I finish the required paper and presentation due on 16 November (which is why I need to get those other two books read—and I have not procrastinated either!), things should be pretty mellow until final exams.

One of my biggest apprehensions since arriving in Madrid has been how to go about making new, non-American friends. I figured the process would be easier once classes started, and after an initial hesitance to greet/talk to other students on my part, I can honestly say that I am finding a good mix (literally) of people to hang out with—Spaniards, Colombians, Peruvians, Mexicans, and even some French people. Don’t get me wrong—I really enjoy hanging out with my fellow program participants but it’s nice to start branching out, especially when the program participants would speak English to one another all the time.

On that point, however, I’m happy to report, that the situation has improved dramatically. Last week, we all had an individual meeting with Amy Olson, our student coordinator, who so kindly offered to be our scapegoat/excuse for why all WIP students had to speak Spanish to one another. The way it was, nobody wanted to be that “one person” speaking Spanish all the time while everyone else spoke English. It would have been odd. Nevertheless, now everyone is happy to be practicing Spanish with one another, even if it requires a little bit more effort. I finally feel as if I have achieved a fairly high level of immersion in the Spanish language, which can only be a good thing for me in terms of achieving the level of spoken Spanish I desire.

Other than that, life has been pretty normal lately. I have no real new adventures to share with all of you as of now (other than a couple of trips around Madrid, but we’ll save that for another day!). This week is what one would call a puente (literally “bridge” or three-day weekend). While some people are going out of Spain for those few days, I most unfortunately will not, mostly because of time restrictions on the above-mentioned presentation. Nevertheless, I do promise to bring you more exciting news in my next post, so stay tuned!

Oh, Madrid

Now that it’s been about two weeks since our classes have started, I can honestly say that I have lucked out. I hope I’m not speaking too early, but I really enjoy every class that I’ve enrolled in this semester. My first class from the Complutense, La novela picaresca, is perhaps my favorite. The professor is so friendly, accommodating, and best of all, marches to the beat of her own drummer. She has a welcoming smile for Spaniards and international students alike, and does not hesitate to pause the lecture to explain a concept for those of us who might not understand the literary theory she might have just mentioned. My three other political science professors are just as welcoming and even more stimulating, and I can’t wait to progress further into the subjects. In terms of the curso intensive that we finished up at the end of September, we just received our grades today and all my studying paid off! I’m quite happy with my results.

On the traveling front, we had our very first three-day weekend since we’ve arrived to Madrid this past week. On Monday (our Columbus Day), Spaniards celebrated El Dia de Hispanidad with parades and other festivities throughout the city. Many of us in the WIP program decided to spend the weekend out of Madrid, myself included, and so I went with a couple of friends to Alicante, a town right on the Mediterranean Coast. As you can imagine, it was gorgeous and exactly what I needed to get some reading done in a low-pressure environment. Here is just one picture for your enjoyment:

One thing that I have noticed while traveling around to the different autonomous communities in Spain is that while there might be some similarities between them, they are largely different. Take Madrid and Valencia (the autonomous community where one finds Alicante), for example. In Madrid, the people are nice, but seem to be much more reserved, more introverted. If they have somewhere to go, they will get there as fast as they can, and if they bump you while doing it, they probably won’t apologize. That’s not to say that’s a negative aspect of the culture; rather, madrilènes just have a different way of looking at situations than in the US. It is “overkill” here to say “excuse me” if you just slightly bump into somebody. On the other hand, if you end up causing some sort of harm by smacking somebody unintentionally (which I unfortunately did), an “excuse me” is more than acceptable. In Valencia, speaking from my experience in Alicante, the mood is more relaxed and the people are much more extroverted. It is also much more of a “touristy” area than Madrid is, so that might play some role in the different experiences.

I want to finish this entry with just a couple of other observations that I have made since arriving in Madrid:

• Going to the same restaurants or grocery stores as often as you can really helps you to get to know the locals. They get to know you, your tastes, and even start talking to you—in Spanish! It’s a great way to practice the language.
• Life here seems so much less stressful than in the US. Don’t get me wrong—I’m working just as hard as I would on-campus, but the academic environment is less competitive here and more collaborative. I’m not sure which system I like better, but there is something about students helping students that I really appreciate.
• The exchange rate of dollar-euro just keeps getting worse and worse.

Hope midterms are going well for everyone!

Freedom at last…

I know, I know. It’s been far too long since my last entry. I don’t like to make excuses, but (get ready for one) these past few weeks have been such a whirlwind of schoolwork and settling down in our apartments that I just haven’t had the time for anything! I’ll get to that later on in this post though.

From where I last left off, the WIPPERS were on their way to Segovia, Spain to visit the Roman aqueduct there that has remained since the end of their rule in the Iberian Peninsula oh so long ago. It truly was an amazing experience since, instead of just learning about the aqueduct in art class, we were actually able to see it! Here’s a picture for all of you:

If you just think about it for a moment, this entire structure was built in a time without heavy machinery to help the laborers in their work. Instead, they used two tiny holes in each piece of stone to lift them up to the desired height and were ultimately able to bring water to this dry city.

After Segovia, the students in the program had to start a careful balancing act between what our classes and social lives, especially since we have all officially moved into our apartments. If you have been a loyal follower of my blog, which I’m sure you have, then you know that I thought that I had found the perfect place last time in the neighborhood of Arguelles with two Spanish-speaking roommates. Well, I guess I published the work prematurely because I ended up not living there! Our handbook warned us not to dawdle if we found a place that we liked and to put down a security deposit, but I was not able to go to the bank as quickly as I needed back then, so I lost the place to another apartment hunter. Regardless, I don’t really mind too much because I found an even BETTER place in an even greater neighborhood, right off Metro Goya. My roommates are spectacular and it is the exact environment that I was looking for in a madrilène apartment. I would put up pictures, but now isn’t the right time for that—the roommate whose room I took is still on vacation and her things are all packed and still in my room until about the 5 October. It’s no big deal though—it’s still a great place.

Perhaps the most stressful (hmmm, that’s not the right word… perhaps inconvenient?) part of the past few weeks have been our classes. As I write this, I have just come off a string of three exams within 48 hours, one final paper for our grammar class, and one final paper for our history class. They sure got the name right when they decided to call the class the curso intensivo (“intense course”). Overall though, the exams weren’t too bad, and I’m glad to be done with the class. I enjoyed our grammar/conversation component of the course most because the professor taught us a little bit about how madrilènes speak instead of just regular “book Spanish.” It should be easier to blend in that way!

Just as I thought that I had finished my curso intensivo and finally earned some rest and relaxation, this past Monday and Tuesday were the first day of classes for everyone enrolled in the Facultad de Geografía e Historia (School of Geography and History). This obviously surprised me since I had thought all classes would start on the 5 October, but regardless, I went to my first class on Monday. I was very excited after my brain had processed that I would be starting “real” class, and so I was very disappointed when my professor DIDN’T SHOW UP on the first day! I can’t say that I was surprised though. Most people I talked to after the fact told me that that’s just the way it is here—sometimes the professors show and sometimes they don’t. Nevertheless, I went to talk to the History Department, and the secretary told me that they were still finalizing some contracts with new hires, so she wasn’t sure if or when there would be a professor for the course. I thus instantly switched classes to Seguridad y Defensa en Europa desde 1945 (Security and Defense in Europe since 1945) just to make sure that I could get into a class that I enjoyed that had a guaranteed professor. I went to that course’s lecture on Tuesday, and I really enjoyed it and the professor is very nice.

The rest of my classes start on 5 October. The program requirement is that we take 1 class from the Universdad Complutense de Madrid (alongside Spanish students) and 3 other Reunidas classes (alongside our fellow American students) for the first semester. I have decided instead to take 2 classes from the Complutense and 2 from the Reunidas since I have already completed many of the classes offered in the latter setting. In total then, my schedule looks as follows: 2 political science classes from the Reunidas (Comparative Politics and Economy in Spain; Spanish International Relations) and 2 classes from the Complutense (the one I mentioned earlier and my last Spanish class before I finish the major—La novela picaresca). I cannot wait to start my class on the picaresque novel—our graduate student assistant Virginia has told me only good things about the professor, so I expect great results!

Since I don’t start the rest of my classes until next week, I have a five-day weekend. I’ll be staying in Madrid doing some of the big touristy things that I have yet to do—visiting the Plaza Mayor, the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofia Museum, and the like. Some people are traveling to other countries this weekend—I want to hit up Spain first before I go elsewhere! There are so many independent communities here with their own ways of life that I would like to explore before heading out to some other European countries.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope everything is going equally as well for all of you!