Check in

Sorry about the lack of communication! As always, I'm staying very very busy. Let's see. . . In the last week I've been to Córdoba (holy cow. Impresionante) to see the mosque-church. Stupid church. They knocked out a huge section on the middle of this amazing mosque and stuck a catholic church in it. Nothing against the catholic, but that wasn't very nice.  Also went to nerja for the day and sat on a beach all day long- lovely. Mom, I put some of my peanut butter on a piece of chocolate Brandi gave me and just sat there on the sand feeling like the happiest person on the earth. Then yesterday I went to a cello/orchestra concert in the Cervantes theater. SO NEAT AND CLASSY! and only seven euro! new today I am off for northern Spain on a very interesting adventure. interesting in that I booked a ticket to the wrong destination and am now having an adventure!

Gotta get down on Friday

And indeed I did. Got a whole little list o things done today from printing my flight ticket to Santander (doing the Green Spain scene this coming week) to catching up on emails, budgeting, and the ol´ blog. Note- I need to take an accounting class.

Bueno, this last week has been school and learning and RAIN and good things like that. Classes are still super interesting and I wake up in the morning excited to attend and see what type of architecture the visigoths used in their churches and why. Also, check out Carme Chacon from the PSOE party here- badass woman that is 37 and has been super involved in politics, held a bunch of cabinet positions and is currently Minister of Defence. She traveled to Afghanistan 7 months pregnant to check on relations there, and the great thing is that the pregnancy during her term as minister of defence made not a whit of difference. She does her job and happens to be hugely pregnant at the same time. It´s never a big deal, it´s never her focus in press conferences or political interactions. She´s not a pregnant lady, she´s a representative of her party and of her government. GO WOMEN! :) Interesting note- it is illegal for a woman to be portrayed in a demeaning way in advertising. Can´t even show a woman by herself in any ad for appliances, etc. ALSO, waist size minimum for spanish models is a 36 (I am a 36-38). They look at least somewhat healthy here.
So I head off to Santander/San Sebastian/Bilbao/small french town recommended by our new french friend on Wednesday, come back the following monday. I will try to take pictures from my phone so I can upload them to the blog. I can´t figure the camera-to-blog-scene quite yet because I don´t have a computer here. :) It´s so neat here to come into the ISA office, sit down at a computer, and overhear people planning trips to portugal, dublin, paris, africa, italy. Then they kind of just look around and say, ¨who wants to come with me to southern france?¨ And if someone wants to go, boom. They start making plans. It´s a neat and very unique vibe, being able to do that.  Off to find a milkshake with my friend (we´re missing america a bit).
-Captain
 

Better:   The soups. Elena´s soups. They make me want to cry. Some are like, garbanzo beans and magic mixed with some peppers and more magic. Others I don´t even ask. I just eat. Also, eating bread with every meal. My host dad makes fun of me when I have one hand in my lap while eating because it´s so strange to them not to have it holding bread.

Worse: Too much fish, and they expect that having small spines in there is totally bueno. They eat them. Fish meatballs are no longer bueno.

Different: Roofs are tile. But curved tile. I like it.

Grandma, I love you.

This past week started out really well but then it got pretty cloudy and a little rainy, and my high died with it. Yesterday I was just in grump city and feeling down. Then I got a package from my wonderful grandma g with my favourite teas, information on different places to travel, a little letter, and a note that a little trip planning money had been deposited in my account. Grandma, you made my day. Thank you so much. After that, I splurged on a cute jacket and warm shirt, ate a huge baked potato, and bought a chocolate truffle. Things are looking better. :) this morning it was raining when I got up early to run and I almost didn't go,  but go I did (my señora thinks I've lost it) and today I feel good. It helps that the sun is out. In other news, I am back to running (and tracking the mileage on the shsxc site ;) I KNOW NO OTHER WAY!) And today is my first day volunteering at Ceper, a live-in center for mentally handicapped people. Their goal for each person is complete integration into mainstream society, and to this end Ceper works on life skills among other things on their little campus a bus ride out from the center. I have not a clue what I will be doing, but I am excited for today. :)
Besos
-the captain

Romeo

He will not hold still. But I do believe this captures the true spirit of Romeo.

Plaza at night.

These are all from awhile ago, and today I went to nerja. Coincidentally, this Saturday was the best Saturday if my life. google nerja caves. Then google nerja beaches (specifically playa carabeo)- definitely hot enough to dunk in the Mediterranean twice. Then, thanks to my friend Rick Steves, I led my friends to mind shattering all you can eat paella on the coast. Legit paella, with the huge pan and fresh, full shrimp with little eyes that looked at you till you popped them off and meat chunks on the bone. We were also given a round of drinks by the really sweet waiter who ended up giving Brandi his number. Then cruised the streets and found bomb deals on all things leather. We've decided to go back every weekend we're not busy. If just for the paella, it would be worth it. Oh, also washed the five pounds of food down with caramel gelato. Six hours later and my stomach still hurts. WORTH IT AND MORE.

Right before going dancing.

Boy, do I not know how to dance. Luckily, Caitlin and I met these two very nice guys (one French engineer, Jean-Baptiste, the other Argentinian, Miguel Antonio) who didn't mind, danced with us anyway, and joked around with us. I didn't remember how grody Spain Spanish is until I got to talking to the guy from southern America. Beautiful, crisp, understandable Spanish that made me want to cry. Ah. I miss Mexico.

Beautiful string quartet playing on the streets.

Stopped to listen, and was transported. music really does transcend language.

Don't know who that creeper to the right is.

Archway at the Alcazaba. Beautiful.

This was on Valentines day. Went to dinner with my ladies, also had salsa lessons and went dancing. So very nice.

Mid February sunbathing time. Gotta love the Mediterranean coast

The hand shaking that never loaded

Hey, beautiful people

Today I realized that I haven´t posted in awhile- and I was excited. I think I am going to try something here for a bit. I am going to try living in Málaga. Not visiting, being a tourist in, and blogging about Málaga. So I will get some of those photos I´ve been meaning to up from beach day, Alcazaba, and night time in Plaza Marina. And then I am, if you will, taking a siesta. This might or might not include email. I don´t plan on this being for the entirety of my trip in the least, I just want to sit on a bench and look around instead of posting and emailing. Who am I kidding, this phase won´t last long, but until then, much love from Spain. :D

Hope

I'm really bummed the vivid green isn't coming through. It was magical.

This nymph was feeding a pond with her water urn. What a nice lady.

WILD JUNGLE!! :)

That's Malaga in the background.

I am shaking his hand!!! Can you tell?

Great plant number two. I'll try to limit myself.

Great martian plant. We went offroading at first on accident and tried to eat all of the citrus fruits we found. Serves us right, they were all terrible.

The floor of it and reflecting pool. You can tell it's Muslim because of the eight pointed star.

Neat Muslim style veranda deal

Ok, thus stuff is nuts. Here I am just chillin with a headless marble statue FROM THE FIRST CENTURY. people like me should not be allowed to even touch this kind of history. It was mind boggling.

First thing almost crushed this cute line of furry guys

Alright, folks. Picture time. Botanical Gaaaaaarden!!

I am a little bit miserable in the best way

I ate three fourths of a tortilla (please do not insult my appetite by thinking this is a flour and water tortilla), half a foot of French bread, a large bowl of onion soup (yeah, you heard me, onion soup. I ate it. Ate it and liked it!), and a salad. For the record- yesterday I was presented with a little plate of what looked like jet black sushi at dinner. Decided to go for it, popped the whole thing in my mouth, ended up tasting like fried rice. And it ended up BEING pig blood sausage made with rice. So weird. Definitely threw me for a loop while eating the next two.

Sat on the beach reviewing some vocab today

Sitting in a little park after attending Sunday morning misa/mass in the huge Malaga catedral nicknamed "la manquita" (the little one armed girl)

And they keep coming! Oldest bullring in Spain. In Ronda the on foot with a cape version was invented by this very neat guy whose name I forget at the moment. It was a type of bullfighting for the common people, since the other form involved riding a horse.

Spanish countryside. I got the impression people wanted more pictures, so here you are!

This is Ronda.

Dead leaves

Sadly, seeing these crumbly old leaves has been the thing that has made me miss home for the first time.

And this is down in the canyon right underneath the bridge looking out. getting down there was an adventure. The sights made you feel like you could hold it all in your arms if you just stretched them far enough.

So this is the sweet old bridge.

Goat cheese and raspberry bun. It was the least adventurous thing on the menu. Though I did try someone's octopus dish and really enjoy it.

Outing to Ronda. Beautiful sights and this amazing bridge spanning a gorge that I actually went down and explored.

My Thursday

Was pretty kickin. Last day of classes for the week, and all were super informational and bomb. Romans- kudos on the city planning and use of strong, clean geometric shapes in building things. After lunch I wandered a little, ended up in this great, quality shoe store and bought me some classy shoes! They´re not heels, more of an everyday shoe but with flair. So that´s good. I won´t post a picture- you´ll see them when you see them. But they are real leather, very comfortable, and raspberry pink/red. not ´cute´, but very ´hope´. After the exhaustion of hitting one store, we figured we´d better fuel up with some chocolate con churros that were supposed to be the best in the city. It tasted the same is the first time in the neat cafe I found, but hey, ´the same´ is like heavenly goodness, so there´s no complaining here. After dinner, I ventured out for the first time since being here. Caitlin, Brandi and I went searching for a Latin dance club that Caitlin had heard about, and after some serious navigation errors (like every single time I try to get anywhere here), we found it. It´s called Asucár (yeah, with an ´s´) and it turned out to be a CUBAN latin dance club, which I learned after dancing with a few cubans and asking one if he were related to the other. He pointed to the cuban flag on the wall and it all fell together... oops. :) But holy cow was it a good time!!! Very salsa-y music and bachata and guys asking you to dance and not caring if you CAN´T dance and indeed not listening to you saying that you can´t dance or that you don´t want to (not me- another in our group didn´t want to, but she had a lot of fun when she did.) Got told I danced like Shakira (HA), got my hair felt (not a lot of natural curly blondes here), and got my arm stroked. Definitely not what I´m used to, and I had to just let it go that my space wasn´t going to be respected, but through it all I was laughing (mostly at myself) and having so so much fun. Finally had to leave to catch the 2:30 am bus back home. I was bookin in my new shoes, walking around the centro like I knew where I was going so I didn´t get hassled (though it´s pretty hard to look like you know what you´re doing when you pass through the same street back and forth three times). I finally made it out of the maze alive, found the bus, and lo and behold it was coming in ten minutes. thank goodness. My roommate had me all scared that there was one at two twenty and one at four thirty.  Great day, no school on friday, and yet more adventure awaits!
Lots of love,
hope

almost forgot!
Worse: Elevator doors will shut on you and busses will leave you behind. Although I kind of love this because it´s like, get your crap together or you´re getting left.
Different: personal space is nonexistent and saying ´excuse me´ or ´perdon´is not very common, even if they brush by you or looking at the same shirt in a store and kiiind of move it out of your hands. huh
Better: The type of clover here has three heart-shaped leaves. Also, it´s totally ok to stare at people. Has come in handy. ;)

Flamenco

Left to go to a presentation about a famous Spanish flamenco man, eventually located the building, found an enclave of old gentlemen having a somewhat heated discussion about flamenco interspersed by clips of flamenco music and dancers. We then had a man adopt us (a Spanish host husband) and walk us from the museo de flamenco to the bus stop with an hour stop at a local seafood restaurant where we were given glasses of wine and joked around with by a few salty local men. What a great time. One of the guys was the manager of a flamenco crew- he showed us some clips of his crew singing and dancing. Holy cow do I want to see that live. Wow. Now waiting for the bus at :37 por la noche to go back home. :) the air is softer, the life slower. And the music is all English. captain out.

Here are those parrots you ordered, grandma.

Look closely. It's like an I Spy.  :) 

COMPUTER TYPING!!! Ahhhh love it.

Bueno, I have realized that I never really explained what I´m doing in the Spain. Entonces, 
-I am studying abroad in Màlaga, Spain (in the south, on the costa del sol/Sun Coast) until the beginning of May, whereupon I hope to be able to do some traveling around Europe since HOLY COW, I´m in Europe. I have to stop every few hours, look around, look north east and realize that my feet are planted on land that is contiguous with France. It´s nuts. 
- I am staying with a host family, mi señora se llama Elena and my host pops is Juan Carlos. I´m pretty sure. I`ll double check on that one. My `mom` is very sweet and also is a very good cook of spanish food. I bless the ground she cooks on every day because it´s surprising how many students here tell me bummer stories of personal sized frozen pizzas and bocadillos (sandwiches) or salads for meals. :( No paella yet, but I´m not dying to have it, so we´re good. Today I had some kind of broth-y soup, small cooked and fried potatoes, and carne de cerdo (pig) in sausage form in this tomato sauce. IT WAS SO GOOD. Either I´m so hungry by the time lunch rolls around (14:30) that my sense of taste is compromised, or Elena can´t cook bad food. It might definitely be a mix of the two, but either way I am so happy here. 
- I had my first day of classes this morning! (I am 9 hours ahead of you. If you´re running on Sandpoint-Moscow time.) I was pretty nervous because our directors scared the crap out of us by being super serious and saying it would be really intense, but my teachers are so NICE and the subjects sound so interesting. Mis cursos son: History of Latin America.  History of Art in Spain (bth painted, architecture, etc) Women of Spain in the 20th and 21st centuries (pretty interesting, esp with Franco regression). Spanish Lit, and one more that I am forgetting. I have two teachers: Antionio, dresses very smartly, talks very slowly (too slowly), very sweet, very expressive face. then there`s Carolina (or something that starts with a ´C´. I forget at the moment). She has CRAZY huge hair, long black curls that stick out everywhere. She´s petite and well dressed (I should stop saying that. it´s a given here), and she teaches three of my classes. I am stoked on life right now because I literally understood every word she said without difficulty. Though I do know that she is making an effort to use small words, mime things, and talk slowly. Still, I feel quite accomplished. 
-I have class from 8:30-14:20 with an hour break somewhere there in the middle. Seems long, right? No class on Fridays. Boom. Also, once again, the content of the classes seems to be super quality and interesting. Plus there is little to no homework. Just presentations, papers, and tests at the end. (one of each per class). 
- It´s cold today.  It was around 61 degrees or so. Sorry bout it if you hate me for whining about 60· weather, but it´s cold for here. I wore a jacket. :(
- What else... I still can´t speak worth beans sometimes. I hear myself leaving verbs unconjugated and gross things like that. It´s embarassing. But hey. AMERICA.
-I broke down and bought Oreos the other day in the Supermercado. My first american breakdown. But no peanut butter to eat them with. D:  
-In my house, which is on Calle Conde de las Navas, number 23 in El Palo (you could try to find it on the Google maps, Two blocks away from the surf. but they write their addresses a little differently here, anyway- in my house we have a dog and a cat. The dog´s name is ´Romeo´though it´s pronounced ¨roh-MAY-oh¨. The cat is Tula and is grey, super long hair, and a weirdly squat face. I´m a fan. Romeo, however, is a french bulldog and I am running a pretty love hate relationship with him right now. Where he loves to lick and slobber all over my toes and jump on me and I kind of don´t like him in the least, especially the noises he makes while breathing. He sounds like he´s a fat man dying. But wetter. Also, he lives in the kitchen and is a meter away when we´re eating. Solid.
-I went running before class today and it was calming and beautiful. Usually I go down by the boardwalk and turn right, heading to the city center. Check it- there are little mini parks along the wall that runs along the ocean that contain different pieces of workout equiptment. Super stange. But kind of neat- I do a chin up whenever I pass. Gotta stay ripped for the rock wall back home.
-Don´t have access to a gym and neither want nor need one. 
-Carnaval is this week (and no, I didn´t miss spell that). The one in Malaga is super chill and pretty lame. It appears part halloween, part parades, part huge gatherings of people outside, part reason to party, part presentations. It lasts the week. I tried to stay up for the first day, supposed to be a big parade but it never came and I got grumpy and took the bus home at 2:00 am tired and grumbly. that´s another thing- no one sleeps here. ever. Even small kids in strollers are out at midnight and later with their padres. Another thing- I mentioned being dressed nicely, but the shoes! Females have shoes at least three inches high all the time. Even grandmas. Kind of strange. Old old old people don´t, but boooy howdy does everyone else. For me it´s ok because it brings them up to my height, but otherwise I might be buying me some high heeled shoes. 
-I found my address!! If you want to mail me a nice letter, a picture, a hilarious joke you heard on the street (why am I so funny?), o algo asi, send it to the ISA office:      Hope Woodruff  /  Antonio Baena Gòmez 2, 5ºD  /  29005 Màlaga, Spain     (except make those accent marks go aigu, slash up instead of down). If you´re sending packages, look up rules on how to do that for the spain. You have to list the contents. General contents, like ´food´, not like `peanut butter`.... hint hint. JUST KIDDING.  Don´t even know if you can mail food...  But write me!!! Either electronically (hopexc921) gmail, or old school paper and pen. which reminds me
-some people here are characters. I was writing in my journal (thanks, oz!) about yesterday, and one of the guys I was at coffee with was all ´´are you like, blogging or something? But on paper?`` I told him it was called journalling, writing things down so I wouldn´t forget, and he asked for a copy. Ah. (suse, it was Jersey). It´s a good time. You definitely have to have patience, both with your lack of communication ability but even more the lack of consideration or at least... there´s a word for it... total obliviousness in regards to not disrupting others. Talking really loudly, skyping really loudly.... merrr. :( it got me in a grump today and I tried to call my mam, but the phone didn´t work. But then I went for a walk in the sun with little mini parrots chillin above my head. not bad.  ALSO, terrible sorry (actually, not that sorry) for spelling errors. it is a combination of not having the squiggly red line underneath bad words and getting in the spanish mindset that every letter makes the same sound every time, so I end up spelling things phonetically or using part of its spanish equivalent. Party. :) Y eso es for now! Lots and lots of love, write me maybe. (once again. how does anyone exist without me home. I AM SO FUNNY. joke). 

Now time for better, worse, different!

Better: fashion. fashion fashion everywhere. everywhere you look, clothes and shoes and scarves and things are ridiculously cute AND THEY FIT. In the states, everything is way wide. Here, the norm is fit/thin, and it seems like everything I try on is tailored to me. Good golly I love it. Buit don´t worry! I am sticking to my budget. I´ve set five euro a day, more for excursion days. Obvs this didn´t apply the first few days, where I spent twenty a day. OOPS. but that was for food and things! No frivolous buys except for two coffees that were semi unneeded so far.
Worse: The grass variety that grows here sucks. It´s short, as coarse as turf, and is constantly being peed on by dogs.
Different: Front doors on the houses- no doorknobs. You use a key to turn and push.

Flea market this morning. Yes, that's a ham leg. No, I didn't take the free sample. I am sick of their ham.

Also, win of the day was that my host senora has decided to trust me with making my own toast. I had four slices this morning. She might regret her decision.

My super authentic Spanish breakfast. Fresh churros from the churros man next to the café and chocolate so thick you can only take a half sip at a time. Wow. The whole time I was thinking "this is the worst thing in the entire world to eat for breakfast. The cafe was filled with locals and a nice man greeted me and everyone seemed to know each other. I loved it.

Also met two awesome Irish men on the bus ride home. They were reminiscing about youth and telling us we are the future. One was named Louis, not sure on the other nice old guy. They had some gems though, that they said. All in an Irish accent. Beautiful. Especially after he'd dropped the change from his bus ticket and picked it up, "I pick up the pennies in life". It was literally just a penny that he'd dropped. more later, no rest for the weary.

I am in the Spain.

There has been so much going on in the past few days that I don't quite know how to capture it all. Also, todavia I am typing on my kindle, so things are slow going. hmm. let's go with bullet points. 

- People of Malaga wear scarves and big coats in the seventy two degrees weather and extremely hot sun. 

- I don't like walking with big groups of students in my program because they are pretty extremely obnoxiously American. I think their single goal here is to be as loud,oblivious, and uncaring as possible. Add that to wanting to get trashed most every night you have half the group. The other half is pretty great,though. and even those kinds are really sweet one on one. 

-My Spanish is improving already. I can definitely understand things better even at a decent clip, but slang and accents absolutely get me. I like to practice listening by watching shows with my host family. Even Spanish commercials are interesting because they're in Spanish. :) 

- wandered around the Centro lost and confused by myself for a good hour and a half this morning. I really like one-woman wolf packing it, so I was solo trying to find a building that was tear inducingly close the entire time. the buildings are mostly four pisos high minimum, so once you walk into that marble floored maw of calm walkers, outdoor terraces, and gently rolling or short, staccato bursts of spanish you are forever lost to the view of the ocean, which is usually about two blocks away. I came home today and studied my giant map of Malaga for a good long time and I think I can do better the next go round. 

-I asked Iker (our kind of guide, director and friend) where their thrift shops were- great news, all, they exist. they are not as plentiful, but he marked three for me on a map of the city. GUESS WHERE I AM SPENDING ALL OF TOMORROW??

Now time for Different, Worse, Better, with your beautiful host Hope Woodruff!

Spain:

Different: No one is dressed in his pants or has a messy bun. They all look nice.

Worse: less access to fresh water, very short showers expected. 

Better: A lot of things, but first and most importantly, coffee. US coffee is not coffee. it is dirty water. my eyes have been opened and unfortunately will be forever spoiled and snobby about this beautiful brown liquid (not a phrase I ever thought I'd be needing to use, but eh). Ok, and because there are so many 'better' things,  I will list one more- amazing, pleasant, clean, timely, every five minutes bus systems. I bought myself a bus card and am almost pro at not looking like a fool getting on and of the bus. Solid.  So much more, but it's late here. les amo a todos. just so we're all clear, when i use spanish here I'm defs never sure if it's right. aight? aight. night night.

Para mamá. Encontré una piedra con forma de un corazón.

It was in the surf. :) Tomorrow I hope to beach it a bunch and who knows what else. I bought a bus pass today! Excited about that.I tell you what, bus systems are bomb. Especially clean, punctual ones.