Day 2 in Perú!

You know that famous saying "not all those who wander are lost," well that was definitely not the case for me this morning!!! I decided to check out the local area, found a good cafe online, googled where to go, memorized the directions and everything. My big mistake? Forgetting that streets in Peru are not linear because they have roundabouts and basically run diagonally and cross each other. Which is exactly how I found myself among random pawn shops in some jewelry district at 9 am in the morning. :P Whoopsies. Thank god for google maps!! At least my effort wasn't in vain because now I know my way around the south part of town haha. By the time I made it back to the apartment it was around 11 and we were going out to lunch so I had to forgo my idealized notions of sitting in a cafe sipping on my latte for a more realistic croissant on the go. 

We went to the beach which is actually ten minutes from our apartment...but they're those reverse beaches with rocks in the water and sand near the parking lot so I don't think I'll be walking along the shore anytime soon. However we did go to a restaurant which was themed after old Hollywood stars for lunch to meet our tour guide, Danilo, and it had this gorgeous view of the water! I got my cappuccino there and even tried "chicha morada" which is a drink made from purple corn! Weird right?! It tasted like an exotic fruit rather than corn and was really sweet. Good news, I should have wifi in Cusco!

After lunch Uncle Ron and I walked around the park together and I should've known, it's always an adventure with Uncle Ron. This Peruvian old man randomly stopped us and started asking where we were from...one thing led to another and now we are besties with Javier. He is from Peru and lived in Montreal for 70 years and just moved back. He speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French. But that's not the best part, Javier randomly spotted three other tourists from Montreal and before I knew it we were standing around in a huge group talking about random Peruvian herbs Uncle Ron is looking for. I just had to laugh at the absurdity of it all, as Javier successfully navigated multiple conversations in Spanish, French, and English. Can I have those skills please? 

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet, since we have an 8 am flight tomorrow and have to be up by 5:30 am. Someone shoot me now...it's gonna be a rough morning hahaha. 

Can't wait for the adventure that lies at 11,000 feet!!

Besos,

Carolina

The Park!

A La Parilla

Post 20 hours of traveling. Thanks Uncle Ron for this gem of a picture! 

¡Bienvenidos a Perú!

After a very long flight that included a 10 hour layover in El Salvador, I finally made it to Lima! And before you ask, yes the layover was every bit as awful as you would imagine, especially when you can walk the entire airport in ten minutes...boredom at its finest. On the bright side, sitting in a common room for that long period forced me to be social and I made a new friend from Ecuador! She runs a nonprofit school for low income/ rural kids and invited me to come visit the school, her town, and the Galapagos! I see another trip in my future...sorry, not sorry mom and dad 😉 

On my first night here I had a typical Peruvian dish called "a la parilla" which is a bunch of grilled meat piled on a hot plate passed around the table. On this plate were normal things like, chicken breast, ribeye, sausage....and less normal things, like intestine, liver, stomach, heart, and morcilla (blood sausage). If this looks like the odds are not in my favor, it's because it totally wasn't and that's how I accidentally ate "anticucho"...in other words...cow heart😱. It was actually really good...so thank you Spanish skills for being so rusty I thought I was eating veil instead of cow heart 😂. 

I am traveling with Uncle Ron and his friend Steve (and his family). Steve's wife Luisa is from Peru and her brother is a general in the military. If you're wondering why I'm telling you all this, it's because the family has been super hospitable and with their connection to him we have been rolling high in Lima! How high? I'm talking hotel room with a jacuzzi tub, free waters/soda/candy, bubbles for the jacuzzi left in a wine glass, and breakfast delivered to my room status. I felt like a princess! 👸🏽 Don't worry, my head hasn't gotten too big since we moved into one of his apartments this morning where it's all self service. 😂

The apartment is right in the best part of town called Mira Flores and there's this huge park nearby filled with stray semi domestic cats!! You name it and they'll be there in every size, shape, and color. I'll see if I can snag some good photos tomorrow because if you sit on a bench they'll legitimately jump right on it with you! I explored the gardens, which also included one named John F. Kennedy...why? No clue, and the locals don't really know why he has a park dedicated to him either. I still found it highly amusing. 

In true Uncle Ron fashion the rest of our afternoon was spent at the markets hunting down different herbs local to Peru...unfortunately none were to be found, but we did get cool exotic fruit that we can't wait to try! Including lucuma, cherimoya, and aguaymanto. 

Finally our day ended with a visit to Luisa's family's home to meet her father (Big General), her brother (the General), sister, and two kids, Natasha and Stephen (who are older than any 5-7 years). If trying to get my Spanish back wasn't hard enough this first day, keeping up with multiple conversations in multiple languages (English and Spanish)  with that many people just about used up all my brain power. Nonetheless I powered through until 1 am! (Niurka would be so proud lol) I even think the Big General liked me because even though he didn't talk very much, half way through the night he brought me one of his collectible magazines all about Cusco to use on my trip. I'm scared to even take it out of its protective sheet but I have a snaking suspicion I might be quizzed when I get back, so looks like I have some reading to do on the plane ride over! Lol. 

Anyways this chick is pretty tired and off to bed. I'll keep you updated, haven't figured out if I have wifi or even data in Cusco yet but hopefully I'll find out tomorrow as our plane leave 8 am Friday. Eeeppp!!

Love ya lots,

Carolina 

Sing us a song, you're the organ man

Buenas!

So last week my history of music teacher took us to the old and new cathedral (they were built adjoining over the centuries) on a field trip and guess what? He played all four of the organs in the cathedrals! I'm talking about an experience that was like having backstage passes and front row seats to a private concert. We got to go behind all the roped off sections in the church and he opened up the tops of all the instruments to show us the mechanisms and explain how each organ functioned. They were amazing and I just could not get over the fact that they were from the 15th - 18h century!

Anyways, we got to go up a secret staircase where we saw that huge pumps that two men would be pulling and pushing the levers of in order to sustain the air for the organ. I bet they were super strong because the levers were taller than me. Luckily technology now sustains the air and makes sure that the pressure remains constant as long as the organist is playing. We got to go upstairs in the choir boxes so that we could access the balcony the organ was on. The new cathedrals organ was huge!

 

If you look closely near the bottom of the second photo you can see my professor playing away. 

The sound was phenomenal and the acoustics in the cathedral were every musicians dream. I was basically in a state of euphoria with a silly smile on my face the entire time our professor played for us. And then as if the afternoon couldn't get any better, one of the students, and aspiring singer was encouraged by the class to sing...Of course it would be the most unsuspecting, rather flat out nerdy, super quiet guy in our class to have one of the best voices in our class. (P.S. I tried uploading the songs I recorded but google blogger hates me and refused to upload them even though they are within the file size requirements, so you'll have to wait until i get home to hear them)

Honestly, surprises like these are what makes being a student so special, because I'm surrounded by people who have a true passion for learning and it's reflected in their ability to speak intelligently or in this case sing beautifully. While this class may be well out of my major, I'm so glad that the mean lady at the IES registrars office highly suggested I not take the history of art class if the professor had not responded to my email, because I would not have been enrolled in this class and had such an amazing afternoon. After class, I could not stop smiling to myself (I'm pretty sure half the people thought I was crazy but oh well) and rushed to share the story with my host mom. We listened to all the audios over and over again and she explained to me how special it was to have this experience because they don't let just anyone play the organs or even go into those sections of the cathedral that I had the privilege of seeing.

Well that's all for now. Hope everything is going well with you all!

Much love,

Carolyn

Dia de todos los santos y dia de las animas

Dia de todos los santos (All Saint's Day) Is a very big deal here in Spain and to be honest I wish that we adopted a day such as this one within our culture. Everyone goes to mass in the morning for those who have passed away and then visit their graves during the day. Armed with bags of cleaning supplies, flowers, and vases, everyone floods the cemetery gates. There's a small church off to the side that my host mom and I visited first. Then we proceeded to each grave and stood in a moment of silence. We cleaned the marble, replaced the fake flowers that stay all year around, and then set up vases with fresh flowers near the cross. What I thought was so special was that it didn't matter if they were her blood relations or relatives by marriage, we paid respect to everyone from her grandparents and parents to her brother-in-laws and art master (she was his apprentice).

Also it was amazing how there were very few gravestones that hadn't been visited and adorned with flower.

Dia de todos los santos is the equivalent of the Mexican Day of the Dead, but the traditions here are a lot more serious and subdued. I knew that this day meant a lot to my host mom and that she was really missing her parents so I decorated four candles and lit them while she was making lunch. She was so surprised and absolutely loved the gift, which made me happy to make her smile on a solemn day. We lit the candles yesterday and then relit them in the morning for dia de los animas (spirits day).

The big white one is for all of her family and then the three little red ones are lit to remember certain people from my life (their names are integrated in the designs). While this weekend has been rather eerily quiet, especially in terms of the lack of people walking around in the streets and going out for tapas, it's nice to know that majority of the community surrounding me is taking a moment to remember. I'm not sure I'm doing so well to describe this feeling surrounding us, but it's a pleasant, supportive camaraderie.

This is one holiday I will continue to celebrate, even after my time here in Spain ends.

Love and miss you all,

Carolyn

(p.s. sorry this post is rather sad but at the same time it really is important and such a big part of their culture here, especially since this weekend has been a polar opposite change from the customary siesta and fiesta mentality)

Carolyn the "Freaky" American

(note: freaky in spanish means weird)

Hola!!!

So October 31st is a very special day for Spaniards because it's the day that the mariquelo (orignally the person who is responsible for ringing the cathedral bells) climbs the tower of the old Cathedral. On October 31st 1755 there was a huge earthquake (9 on the Richter Scale) called El terremoto de Lisboa. The people of Salamanca took refuge in the new cathedral, attached to the old one, and prayed that the building would not collapse on them. Surprisingly the only damage to come from the event was the inclination of the tower (belonging to the old cathedral) slightly to the right. After the tremors subsided, the mariquelo climbed to the top of the tower to check that everything was okay with the building, and rang the bells at the top to thank God that the nothing collapsed And so began the tradition of the mariquelo, which has continued without fail every year since 1755.

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At 11:00 the mariquelo rides through the plaza to the cathedral accompanied by traditionally dressed dancers and musicians.

Then there was a large period of waiting around and being entertained by the various musicians as the mariquelo began his climb inside the tower from the bottom. He then pokes his head out of the clock to talk to all of us waiting in the plaza below him and explains the history of the tradition. At 12:00 sharp he rings all of the smaller bells 12 times in total, and climbs to the next level to ring the biggest bell 12 times.

 

Now here's the good part. He climbs out the window and begins scaling the dome of the old cathedral tower to reach the highest bell! It was so cool and I really wanted to do it too, but unfortunately security wouldn't let me for some lame reason like liability and safety...all I really heard was "No...blah. blah. blah." But really, can you imagine how cool it would be to come home and say "I climbed the tower of the old cathedral mom!"

 

Finally he rings the bell, reads a prayer to thank god that the inclination has not gotten worse, sings a traditional song about loving Salamanca/Spain, screams Viva Salamanca! Viva Castilla y  Leon! Viva Espana! (with the entire crowd below him of course), and then releases a gazillion doves as a symbol of wishing for world peace in the years to come. He climbs down as all of us below applaud him in his success.

The End.

So if we are judging my Halloween by the uniqueness of it all, then I would say it was pretty special. But in terms of having a real Halloween, well the fact is that it truly is a Hallmark (and Nestle) holiday. No one celebrates it here, or even dresses up, except the littlest kids. And even that is a brand new tradition that did not start until a couple of years ago with the Americanization of a perfectly good society.

But luckily my program threw a Halloween party and a pumpkin carving contest! I spent three hours working on this masterpiece and I am pretty proud of myself. The winner will be announced on Monday, so we'll see how it goes haha.

Later that night, I dressed up in masquerade (which was super easy because the tienda de los chinos had these fun masks for 2 euros!). I think the worst part of it all was the fact that Kathleen (who dressed up like Kate Middleton) and I were the only ones in costume walking down the street, besides the five-year-old kids with terrifyingly grotesque masks. Halloween is very scary here.

After the party Kathleen and I walked around the Plaza Mayor, just enjoying the night when we noticed that there were cafes still open even though it was 1 am! So we found one that looked good and tried ordering hot chocolate. Well we made a very foreign error that had us laughing the entire night. When ordering we asked for chocolate caliente which literally means hot chocolate, as in melted chocolate in a cup with a spoon. To ask for the hot chocolate we were expecting, we should have said cola cao. But it's okay because I'm a flexible person and who would want melted chocolate at 1:30 in the morning?! (service can be exceptionally slow here sometimes) It was every bit as delicious as you are probably imagining and I have no shame in saying that I will probably order it again before I leave. I'm pretty sure you are supposed to order it with churros and dunk them inside...oops, however I prefer to believe that I'm not in a cafe in Spain but rather Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Do you think Augustus Gloop would settle for anything less? I think not, and therefore why should I? :p

Ending the night on a perfectly sweet note (ba dum chhhhh) we walked home, snuck inside our respective apartments (careful not to wake our host moms), and crashed in bed.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Love,

Carolyn

(btw photo credits of the mariquelo goes to various websites from google)

Fama en España

Public Announcement: I now apparently have a secret admirer in Spain. While I don't agree with grafting buildings, going to class every morning always puts a smile on my face because I'm greeted with this lovely message. I have no clue who the artist is, but if I had to guess I'd put my money on Cristiano Ronaldo or Pablo Alboran...looks like we shall see if this mystery will unveil itself before I leave Spain :)

BIENVENIDOS A ESPANA

Hello everyone! 

First of all I’d like to start off this post by apologizing for missing out on so many days of blogging. I had a pretty rough start to this adventure, dealing with credit transfers and bad course scheduling, but luckily it’s all fixed, so I finally have a chance to breathe and update you all on my life here!

I absolutely LOVE Spain. The city is gorgeous and I often feel like I’m walking through a movie set rather than to class. The only complaint I could have is the uneven cobblestone roads, while pretty, they wreak havoc on my feet with my slightly over a mile walk to school. Yup, that’s right. I’ve been walking around 5 miles every day just going back and forth to class. I also have this gigantic uphill stretch, which makes the fifteen minute walk home sometimes seem impossible. The good news is that I’ll be in awesome shape and the Stairmaster will be a breeze after my time here haha. 

Classes

So I’m really excited because this semester I am taking almost all electives, which means that I have a lot of freedom in my course choices. I’m enrolled in History of Music, Spanish Linguistics, Spanish Language, Politics of Spain, and Art and Literature in Salamanca. I absolutely love my History of Music class at the University of Salamanca. I have an amazing professor and each day I go to class he manages to completely change my outlook music and society. Currently we are studying Gregorian chants and the evolution of written musical notes. Art and Literature in Salamanca is another rather engaging class as well, half the time we review the literature or art we were asked to analyze for class and then we spend the rest of the class visiting the settings or the places the pieces are held. I love going to class every day because it’s like I’m going on an extended tour of the city I’m living in.  When else do you get a chance like that and get credit for it too? I have a total of 20 hours of class every week which is hard, especially keeping up with the Spanish, but hopefully it will get easier with time (I’m already starting to have more confidence and participating too!)

Food

I don’t think I have ever eaten as much as I do here. The food is delicious and my host mom is an amazing cook. My favorite dishes are sweet empanadas (they taste like tapioca inside), abobóndigas which are basically meatballs in veggies and tomato sauce, and leche helada which is in between ice cream and frozen yogurt and has cinnamon/lemon flavored (trust me it tastes waaaaayyy better than it sounds). Also every morning I have the most delicious coffee, it’s very strong but since I’m an espresso girl it works out just fine for me. I have two shops that I visit once a week, which are my panderia and my heladeria aka baked goods and ice cream! My goal is to try every flavor at the ice cream shop before I leave, and I have done a better job at doing so than I’d like to admit hehe. Also, my host mom makes me pizza every Friday, it’s our tradition :).

Culture

So I kind of cheated in terms of taking true Spanish dance classes (which would be Flamenco), but twice a week I go to a dance academy a few blocks away from home at take Latin Dance! I think those two hours are my all-time favorite moments of the week. I’m pretty sure I don’t stop smiling the entire time and I am so goofy and sassy in class everyone laughs. Right now we are working on Bachata and I’ve learned both the male and female parts (since it seems to be universal that all dance classes lack sufficient male members). The professor is kind and patient, especially if I don’t understand her explanation. If you are every struggling to learn your directions, I suggest taking dance lessons in that language. The classes have forced me to remember long sequences and know my rights and lefts without having to translate it in my head first. I’m also the only foreigner in the class so I’m surrounded by Spaniards who know the city and have recommended some great sites. I can’t wait to dance more and make better friends in this class!

During orientation week we went to Camelot, ordered a ton of pizzas, and the program hired a tuna for the night (basically a student music group with classical guitars, accordions, mandolins, ect). The students dress in funny traditional outfits like those of the 16^th and 17^th century: doublets, puffy white shirts, breeches, tights, and becas (colored bands to identify which school the student comes from). The lead tunera was hilarious and cracking jokes the entire night, however our IES group was a rather tough crowd. So in order to help break the ice, he got down, ordered his group to play a song, and then dragged the six guys on our program onto the dance floor to dance with all of us girls. Unfortunately, no one in my generation knows how to dance anymore so we looked a lot like this scene from Harry Potter: scuffling feet, crashing into one another, unenthused facial expressions, and general lack of rhythm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtp0-sWbgzc Because we Americans were so bad at dancing, the tuna sacrificed some of their members to dance with us in order to help us copy their steps (I was chosen by one of the guitar players and I'd say I held my own fairly well). By the end of the night, all of us were doing the chacha and laughing. In terms of orientation activities, I’d say this one was a success.

Home

I have this gorgeous room and a bathroom all to myself in my home stay (which is a big deal after living in a residence hall for two years haha). My host mom’s name is Esperanza, and she’s like my Spanish grandmother. For example, before I leave the house, she makes sure that I take an umbrella if she thinks it’s going to rain. Let’s just say that after the first day she was right and I came home drenched, I didn’t doubt her Spanish intuition again. On weekends we like to share our favorite songs, surprisingly she has a whole Bruce Springsteen CD! I’ve also been introduced to The Puma and Julio Iglesias, who I would like to think are the Spanish equivalents of the oldies. This a song that I really really love by them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGZTtB6wW4 .  

My host mom and I also have another weekly routine: every Monday and Wednesday we watch a serial drama together. Monday nights are Isabel, her show about the king and queen of Spain Isabel and Ferdinand. It is fairly historically accurate and I love the costumes from this period piece Wednesday nights are Broadchurch, my show about solving this grand murder mystery in a small beach town. It started the week I arrived and we’ve been hooked watching it together ever since. Surprisingly each week is getting easier to understand and I’m learning a fair amount of historical and criminal terminology. Looks like in this case television isn’t so bad after all :p

Missing everyone at home!

Xx,

Carolyn