Ni un día sin poesía

I can't believe it's already been more than a week since I left and came here. It's gone by so quickly! The end of last week wasn't too crazy. I explored more of Madrid and - ready for this? - bought a SIM card for my phone, bought a transportation pass for the metro/train/bus, ordered a student ID at my university, found an apple store and got my iPod fixed, and ordered something at a Starbucks... all in Spanish!!! I'm really proud of myself, you have no idea.

I've been thinking about how I could describe Madrid in a way that you could picture it. Think of New York-like place, with horizontal and vertical streets crossing into each other and with cars passing every which way and people walking on the sidewalks. Now imagine that there is no trash on the ground (there are people cleaning it literally every second of every day), and the sidewalks are lined on one side with pretty stores, markets, or cafés, and on the other side with a long row of sycamore trees (thank you Waterbound). Imagine that there isn't that much traffic and your thoughts and conversations aren't constantly overpowered by the noise of the happenings on the street. Instead, it's quiet and peaceful. Some people are in a hurry, others walk leisurely. Cars pass by, but they respect the traffic lights, as well as the people walking across the street. Actually, cars will very nicely stop for you if you need to get to the other side of the street, except they stop so close to you that it feels like they want to run you over, but it's only their way of being respectful. Also, it's funny to me to see police cars or ambulances on the road - cars don't react the same way as they do in America. The other day, I saw a police car with its sirens blaring stuck in traffic for a good five minutes because the traffic light was red!

I see my being in Spain a lot like a big research project. I like observing my surroundings and asking questions about the culture. For example, my host family is Catholic and very religious, which is something to which I have never been exposed, and it is interesting for me to learn about their religion and their customs. The oldest host sister and I had a long talk about God and religion the other day, it was fantastic to see what she thought about fate and happiness and what she called "God's plans for each person." It was a wonderful look into the mind of a Catholic believer, and I very much respect her ideas and opinions. However, I thought long and hard about my own beliefs, and I decided that I'm fine believing in my own ideas of success and happiness without being tied to a certain religion.

OH and I forgot a really important part of my stay here in Spain - the FOOD! I had paella with chicken and all of this seafood on Sunday at the family's grandparents' house. It was so so so good. I also had papaya the other day and tonight I had some other sort of tropical fruit, but I forget what it's called. I've also eaten a lot of lentils, which is unusual for me because in Italy, we only really eat them on New Years' Day, since it is said that it brings luck for the entire year. The 16-year-old sister and I like to cook together, so the other day we made pizza, which turned out pretty well! We decided that we're going to cook something every weekend, so I'll keep you updated.

And today was my first day at the university! I LOVED it! Today, we only had a placement exam, which wasn't too awful, thankfully. The actual classes start tomorrow and I really should be going to sleep soon, but I definitely have to tell you all about what I learned today. First off, the other students - there were about fifty of us - are mostly all Chinese and Japanese, which was a little unsettling at first, I'm not going to lie. They were all taking Chinese/Japanese with each other! But I met this fantastic Italian girl who knows a lot more Spanish than I do, but she's great and I'm glad I met her! We made a promise to only speak in Spanish, and it's helping me very much, especially since I have to speak English for three hours a day with the children of my host family. I'm really excited to meet the other students in my class tomorrow though. I also want to make friends with Spanish people, so that I can get as close to the culture and the people as I can.

With one of the professors of my program as our guide, the other foreigner students and I went on a tour of the city of Alcalá de Henares, where the university is located. My little Spanish program is part of a much larger university called la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, and it was the third university of Europe (meaning it was built in the mid-1400s). As our professor told us, not that many things have happened in the little town of Alcalá, but those events that have happened changed the course of history. This completely struck a chord in me - isn't amazing to think of an event that changes future years and years of history? Inside the actual, original university of Alcalá, which is currently under construction, is a big inner courtyard, covered in trees and surrounded by beautiful architecture. On the left is a prison (yes, the university had its own prison!), which was meant for students who had bad grades or were caught cheating.. can you imagine?! In front is a little area that was meant for students to only talk in foreign languages, meaning no Spanish. If a student crossed an imaginary line into the area and was still speaking Spanish, he/she was sent to the prison!

We also saw the house were Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, among other things, was born. And next to it, the first hospital in Europe to admit patients free of charge. It was built in 1438 and it is among the oldest hospitals, if not the only one, that is still functioning today. Also, we stood outside of the palace where Fernando and Isabel (the rulers of Spain in the late 1400s, I think?) met with Christopher Columbus for the first time, so he could show them his plans for his travels to India - aka the infamous trip that led to the discovery America. Lastly, we went inside the room where the Premio Cervantes, which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Spanish and Latin-American literature, is given. On the walls outside the room were names of important authors who had won the prize, and upstairs, on the walls, were the names of people important to the university. One of them was the first woman in the world who got her Ph.D., graduating from that university. She wrote a 14,000 page senior thesis at 24 years old on the origin of many Spanish words. How incredible? Another was the man who basically wrote out all of Spanish grammar for the first time. He did it right inside of that university! The actual room was was small, but it felt enormous, as if the knowledge that passed through those doors was palpable to all of us, and it was beautiful beyond belief. The three most important religions of Spain - Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - were represented by the architecture in the room, in three different layers, from the walls to the ceiling respectively. We just stared around us in wonder for a few moments. After all, how could we not? Around us were the most important authors in the Spanish/Latin-American world - their words and language enveloped us warmly, welcoming us.

And to finish the day just right, the train I was on broke down on the way home and I ended up taking a different train and the metro (for the first time by myself!). On the metro, I saw a poem posted up on the wall. At the bottom it said "Ni un día sin poesía" (not a day without poetry), which I liked immensely and am currently writing on a post-it so I can hang it up on my wall. I keep thinking that I was fated to be here. The other day, I took a picture of a sign that said "Destino: ¡Madrid!" Destino in Spanish means destination, and in that case, it meant destination for the metro, but in Italian, it's a word that is much more commonly used to mean fate. So that made me laugh - I swear, it's destiny at it's finest!

Now I really do have to go to bed, it's almost midnight and I have my first day of actual school tomorrow! I'm still thinking about this changing the course of history business.. we're all changing it in our own little words, no? Even though we don't all end up in history books! :)

Buenas noches!