Cádiz!

So… Cádiz. This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been! I feel like I’m in some sort of gorgeous movie set, which is actually true. The James Bond movie Die Another Day was filmed here since Cádiz looks a lot like Havana. (Little fun fact for you there, since we watched a video clip in our Spanish Cultura clase this morning.)

Although we’ve only been here two days, I feel like we’ve already settled into a routine. We arrived on Sunday night, pulling into the bus station a bit dazed from our 12-hour bus ride to find our host families waiting for us. It was quite a peculiar looking moment I’m sure; imagine a group of American students standing off to the side trying to manage our huge rolling suitcases while staying out of the way on the microscopic sidewalk (that’s one thing I’ve noticed… the sidewalks are very, very narrow. Hence you better watch out for speeding cars and mopeds while you’re wandering around) and the host moms milling around, gawking at us and trying to figure out which kids belong to them. It was so cute, they had their little info packets out and were trying to pronounce our names and match our pictures with our faces (I’m sure I didn’t look much like mine at the moment, I had weird marks on my face from sleeping awkwardly on the bus seat for two hours.) Pepa found Amy and I eventually and promptly kissed us both on the cheek and insisted upon helping us haul our stuff to her house. Two other girls in our group, Sydnor and Elyse, are living with Pepa’s sister, and their mom and several family friends were also there to greet us. So essentially we’ve just been adopted into an adorable little Spanish family. Pepa and her sister own a little tienda (store) in the Plaza de San Antonio and Amy and I hope we can use this to our advantage and obtain some extra rebajas (discounts) there. In Spain, for the months of July and August, there are HUGE sales EVERYWHERE. Excellent planning with the dates of this trip Davidson. J

Our living situation is rather funny actually… Pepa and her 17-year-old daughter Alba are obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with Michael Jackson. I’m not kidding. Alba pretty much has a shrine to him in her room with pictures plastered all over the wall. Interestingly enough, Alba is actually in L.A. right now for Michael Jackson’s funeral and Pepa was absolutely enthralled to learn that Amy is from there. I’m sure Alba is going to be peppering her with questions when she gets home on Friday. Pepa has been glued to the TV today, watching the funeral hoping to catch a glimpse of Alba. Other than that the house is filled with random trinkets and decorations from Pepa’s store along with Coco (the Chihuahua) and Dulca (some sort of terrier) and two turtles that have yet to be named (Pepa told us we can do the honors so we’ve been perusing our dictionary. We’re taking this responsibility very seriously.)

So we unpacked, showered and ate our first dinner with Pepa before going out to explore the city, which entailed walking out of the door of our little casa on Calle Adolfo de Castro, taking a left and walking about 50 yards to encounter the most amazing sunset ever. Then we tested out the WiFi in the plazas, which has not disappointed thus far. (Currently we’re sitting in the Plaza de Mina sipping coffee at a little café. I love this.) Classes started yesterday and I am really excited to start studying again! (I feel like some of my friends are going to cringe after reading this, but it’s the truth). We’re taking Spanish Culture and Grammar and Composition with Miguel and Art History with Alberto, both of whom are University of Cádiz professors. We have class from 9:30 to 11:30, then a descanso (break) until 12, in which we go and fight our way to the front of the cafeteria line to order café con leche, and then class again until 2:00. They’ve also planned all these cultural excursions for us… we’ll be taking a cooking class (SO EXCITED), taking flamenco lessons (we’ll see how that goes…) and going to museums and cathedrals too.

Other than that we’ve just been trying to improve our Español talking with Pepa, sitting along the seawall doing our homework and trying to learn our way around the city. Although we’ve gotten turned around quite a few times, we’ve discovered that if you walk long enough in one direction you’ll either run into a cathedral or the ocean. So no worries about getting lost. Although we did have quite a fun excursion this evening… a group of us embarked on an autobús adventure to find the Corte Ingles and buy Spanish phones so we can stop with the whole, “meet you in front of the university at this hour” thing. We left around 8:00, promising Pepa that we would return by 9:30 for dinner. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The service at Corte Ingles is quite a bit slower than your typical Walmart, Target or Best Buy. (Plus the whole Spanish thing adds another element as well.) After two hours in the store, numerous trips up and down the escalators searching for the móvil section, and a trip to the supermercado to buy liters of lemon Fanta (our new obsession) we walked out of the store ten minutes after it closed. (Also, the tag that I’ve neglected to cut out of my shorts kept on setting off the alarm every time we walked in and out of the electronics section, so the clerks all though I was shop lifting. That was fun to explain in Spanish.) They turned the lights off while we were still inside and locked the doors behind us. We closed down the Corte Ingles! Turns out we actually came out on the wrong side so then we hiked around the massive building, found the right bus and returned to Pepa who fed us well, scolded us a little (but in a sweet, motherly way) for being late and sent us on our way. It’s 1 AM right now… and I’m not even tired! The streets are still filled with people at this hour. It’s Tuesday night. I love Spain. I think we’re going to regresar y acostar muy pronto (AHH I just wrote that in Spanish without thinking about it!) Cool. Maybe I’ll dream in Spanish tonight. Just maybe. ¡Adios!