Working for the man...

Now that I just checked-in an erotic thriller DVD...

Today's my third day on the job at la Biblioteca Regional de Castilla-LA Mancha (yeah, I get to update from work), and it's been quite different from the first week. During the first week I worked with some really awesome ladies, and today the women I worked for were really cool too. However, then there is the one guy I have had to work since starting. For the last half hour, I was stuck alone with him...uf! He's rather impatient and quite mean, and he doesn´t have the same politeness that the other women have. He also appears pained when he has to listen to me, answers me bluntly and coldly, and when I ask how to do something he just doesn't because it appears he can't be bothered to teach me. Dude! If you don't teach me, how am I ever going to learn. He's the first person I haen't liked here, and am so happy when he takes breaks. Another thing that bothered me was that he left me alone for about a 5 minute period. I'm not supposed to be left alone because a lot of times there are lectores (borrowers) who I can't understand or things, like issueing new library cards, I don't know how to do yet. I don't think the others like him too. For example, as soon as he left on a pausa de fumar (smoke break), the woman I was working with quickly snapped off his music and gave a universal face of extreme annoyance...I simply responded "de acuerdo" (I agree). Loli, another woman, has come back to work from her breakfast break, so it's not as bad now because I can ask her questions and she is really nice about things.

Other than grumpy man, I cannot complain about this job. It's fantastic, I am meeting a lot of people (including native Spaniards, International students, and immigrants) and learning a lot of Spanish. Well worth putting up with grumpy men. C'est la vie...

I will not use a Ricky Martin song to title this entry...

...but the last weekend really did seem like 'la vida loca' (forgive me, please). The fun thing about classes and shedules here is that the weekend technically starts on Thursday, so every weekend is a three-day weekend!

On Thursday night the Fund held a welcome dinner for the 13 new arrivals from the University of Chicago. While they are at the same institution as us, they do not attend the same classes as us because their school is on a quarter system. It´s interesting to have new faces after two weeks of getting to know everyone already here. A small group of Chicago kids went out with Amy and I on Thursday night, and it was a pretty fun time. We called it an early night however because they were tired and expectedly so. After all, it was their first day here.

On Friday a few friends and I went to Luz del Tajo, the mall just outside the city. It was pretty cool, with lots of fun stores and an Eroski, which is like a Spanish Wal-mart, but much better. While at the mall, I bought a bolso (the closest translation into English would be 'man-purse', and hey, they are all the rage here :-P), a new belt, a nice new dress shirt (only €9.90!) and a CD by an artist named Diego. I wanted to see a movie but there really wasn´t time so we will return to go to the cinema. We then went to a discotheque on Friday night and had fun but ended up leaving early (around 2 AM) because a glass dropped on the dancefloor.

Saturday began dull with homework, but ended amazingly. As I was walking around Toledo a few weeks ago I spotted a poster with the image of one of my favorite bands, La 5ª Estación. It turns out they were coming to Toledo, so I searched the internet and found tickets for the show! Andrea, Amy and I went with two Minnestoa friends (Sarah and Christy) to the concert on Saturday. It was awesome. I stood in the pit while the others took seats in the back and I danced and jumped to the music among a swarm of Spanairds. And when the song "Me Muero" was performed, I sang along just like the rest of the crowd. The lead singer was really awesome and talked to the crowd quite a bit and the band was so full of energy. I slept well that night.

On Sunday Andrea and I fulfilled one of our key duties as future Spanish teachers -- we attended a corrida, or bullfight. It was a novice night in Madrid, so it didn't cost as much to get in but was still an awesome show. I thought the fight would have been a lot bloodier and that I might not be able to handle it (me+blood=bad), but it was okay. Of the three novices, the guy originally from Spain won the ear (still trying to figure out exactly how the logistics of a bull fight work). It was also fun because it was the first time ever that I got to take the AVE, or high spped train, and then I got to take the bus back from Madrid to Toledo. Overall, it was a fun and packed weekend!

The First Ever Josh´s Adventures in Toledo Photo Post!!!

So, it's been a little while since i last posted, and people say pictures are worth a thousand words...so here come a couple thousand....(Note: I´m mainly doing this because none of the computers at the fund are cooperating with me and my desire to put these pictures on facebook...)

Last Friday, our program had an excursion to Madrid. Here are the fruits of that trip:

El Palacio Real (The Royal Palace)

Me in front of the Palace (The person taking the picture didn't quite understand I wanted the entire fountain behing me in the picture...)

The front of the Palace from the courtyard (The Royal Family is not at the palace at this time, if they were, there would be two flags flying...they tend not to live here often, we learned)

Around Madrid
It's don Quijote and Sancho Panza!

Downtown Madrid

Museo de Jamón (Museum of Ham): Yeh, lots of ham on the walls, also a restaurant in which our program ate lunch. And guess what we ate... chicken

Downtown Madrid Bus Driver doing Sudoku while driving his route...

Me, posing with Garcia Lorca at Casa de Libros...mainly becaus I love "La casa de Bernarda Alba." There is a similar picture of Andrea with Emilia Pardo Bazán, but I decided not to post that one, for various reasons...


Around Toledo
Me posing with don Quijote in Toledo!

Patatas Deluxe, not you ordinary French Fries...nummy!

Best. Photo. Album. Ever.

The following images were taken from el Torreón, a classroom at the top of the Fund:

The City of Toledo

Al Alcanzar (Also where I work)

La Catedral in Toledo

So, now you got to see a bit of what I see everyday!

Clases clases clases

Today I had my first meeting about my internship at the library. Now, I should explain something first. The library I am working at isn´t just the old library, it is also the head library of all of Castilla-La Mancha (basically the most important and largest library in the 'state'). It is such a beautiful library, with so many books and movies, and its on the 8th floor of the Alcanzar (see post below) so it has a wonderful view of the entire city. From what I gather I am going to be working as what we would call a circulation associate in the US (you can tell I grew up in a library since I know the actual names of the jobs). I will also get to help out some with children´s programs.

Classes are pretty cool too. I think the MaxSA class I was dreading will be really fun because it's taught by one of the three student coordinators, Yuki. Yuki is a very awesome person, she´s from Japan but speak fluent Spanish and pretty good English and is fantastically full of energy. She really made last night's class pretty fun. My grammar class is a little below my level, but as a future teacher it will be a nice review of everything as well as I talked to the professor and see said I can use the compositions to improve on my higher level grammar. Phonetics is also going to be fun because I´m going to pick up the 'cothina' accent. Finally I have Conversation, which is fantastic because it only has 7 people!

Anywho, I have to go now, because we are going to go get Youth Cards...€5 AVE trips to Madrid!

Don't forget your toothbrush

Amy, Me, Andrea, and Chelsea in TOLEDO!

No seriously, don´t forget it. I did. And I went to la farmacia this morning to buy one....and now have €3 less in my wallet. It's crazy because that's like over $4 in US currency, but oh well, now I will have clean teeth!

Things have been continuing to be amazing here. Yesterday we took our placements exams, and apparently I did fairly well. We also got our classes and I'm extremely happy with my schedule, which is a little different from what I had originally picked. I have Advanced Grammar, Advanced Conversation, Spanish Phoenetics (for the cothina accent), and a Maximizing Study Abroad course that the University of Minnesota is FORCING us to take (just to warn you, I am still very bitter toward the University of Minnesota, but the program itself makes up for it). I also received my internship assignment yesterday. I will be working at the local biblioteca (library)...which isn't just any library...it's this:
I will be working in what is called the Alcanzár, one of the largest and most beautiful buildings in Toeldo. Al Alcanzár used to be a Roman palace in the city of Toledo and was renovated in the 1500's. Later it became a military academy, and then was used as a stronghold in the city during the Spanish Civil War.

Anyway, that´s all from now, I'm going to do a bit of shopping before lunch!

Otra día que va...

Ah, another day has passed in the wonderful land that is Spain. Last night was Saturday, and I called it an early night after hanging out with friends for awhile in the Casco Historical. By early, of course, I mean I returned home at 2 AM, and of coarse was the first person back (yes, even mi madre stayed out later than me). My problem is that my body has had so much to adjust to. There´s the time difference, the new diet, the new atmosphere/altitude, and the new sleeping schedule my body is screaming at me as if I kicked myself in the stomach and was curled in a ball in the corner. I want to sleep a lot because I´m pretty sure I still haven´t caught up from the plane and while the food is amazing, my stomach doesn´t quite recognize it. I guess these are the immediate trials one goes through, but once I adjust all will be well. Yesterday Amy and I spent the afternoon exploring Toledo a bit and picking up some tapas. We stopped at a little cafe called Enebro where you can get free tapas with any drink order, which is a major rarity nowadays. I got the tinto del verano, which is wine and lemonade mixed together. It was pretty good, but definitely hit me hard due to the heat. I wound up with a headache, but lots of water and dos aspirina helped that out. After that we went around the city and sat down on a staircase and people watched for awhile. This was fun because it gave us a chance to talk a bit about home as well as observe some of the culture of Spain (I swear, watching people is not a creepy as it sounds!). There were familias and amigos, and almost any combination you could think of. Later we met up with Andrea and Chelsea and spent a night on the town. After making sure Andrea and Chelsea would be able to get home (tip to future program users-- if you live somewhere where you need to take the bus, learn the name of your stop, and the stops around it IMMEDIATELY) we walked around a bit and stopped at a small bar called O´Brien´s. Now, I must admit I feel a bit guilty about this choice because it was a place where you could easily fall into English because the staff all speaks it (in order to give the feel of an Irish pub), but we did our best to speak Spanish as much as possible. After a short stay there we went to one of the local plazas and watch the end of the Festival de Jazz, which has been running all week. It was a pretty cool festival with good music and lots of fun people. Unfortunately we didn´t get to see much because we just caught the end. Then we decided it would be good to do an experiment...how does Spanish McDonald´s compare to their conterparts in the US? Let me tell you, they are 1000 times better. The burgers taste fresh and, oh, not made of soy product, you can order fries that are actual potato wedges, and you can also order beer. I didn´t order much at Micky D´s because I was already feeling a bit sick and my headache had returned, so I was ready to make my way back home. Overall though, the night was enjoyable and I got to see a whole bunch more of my new home! ¡Me encanta Toledo!

¡Estoy aquì!

This morning the alarm clock rang at 8:45. Like usual, I rolled over to turn it off. However, as I rolled, suddenly there was no bed under me. You see, my bed here is a little less wide than mine at home, but hey, it woke me up pretty well.

Other than the bed mishap, everything else here is going well -- amazingly well. The flight wasn´t too bad and I got a tiny bit of sleep. And even though I am petrified of hieghts, I managed to gaze out the window as we landed in Madrid, which was my first ever glimpse of European soil. From the airport, vans picked us up and brought us to la Fund. The unfortunately was an accident on the highway so it took longer than usual, but that was okay because it just meant we got to talk me and see more of the way to Toledo. Andrea and I met two girls from St. Norbert who are also going through U of M, Amy and Chelsea. There´s really cool and it seems like the four of us got really close. Much like Andrea and I they both are doing homestays because they see it as much more valuable than stay in the dorms. While on the bus we found out that homestayers were going to get there families tonight, which is contrary to what we had found out back in the States.

At La Fund we had a tour of the building. It´s fairly quaint, but I would see myself going stircrazy if I chose to live here. The classrooms are on the same floors as dorm rooms and everything...however because I am living with a host family I have the variety of sites so all is well. The coolest part of la Fund is the aula (classroom) at the top of the monastery (btw, my school is a remodeled monestary which is absolutely gorgeous). There are stairs in the aula that lead up to an amazing observation deck where you can see so much of Toledo.

Then we got our family assignments. I was so excited because my family lives in central Toledo, which itçs rare because only 1/7 of the population lives there and are mostly elderly. However, I lucked out and happen to live a mere 4 minutes by foot from the Fund, which makes me happy since I did not bring my computer and have access to the labs now. My family is fantastic. It is mainly mi madre, whose name is Blanca. She´s really nice and has hosted before, so knows what to expect. I have a wonderful room, a little bigger than a Ripon double room, to myself. It has a desk overhead and desk light, closets and two beds (okay, don´t understand the two bed thing but que serà serà). The house is fantastic -- it´s the entire second floor (primer piso) of a building and the living area wraps arounf a patio, where the family dog livee. I also have older siblings. My sister is a little older than me and is studying in Madrid. She is really sweet but doesn´t live at home. My brothers are 27 and 29 and live at home. Carlos works in a local discotec and also is really nice. I have not met the other brother Ricardo yet because if I understood correctly is a visiting Ukraine right now. That is one of the hardest things to combat, country and city names. Some of them are much different in Spanish.

Today we had a tour of Toledo and I have learned one thing, the cure for a fear of heights is to live in Toledo. I have noticed heights that used to scare me are getting much easier. The city is gorgeous and I have learned on the tour that I live 30 seconds from the largest and most important plaza in Toledo, el Zocodover. I didn´t no this last night when mi madre brought me there to withdraw dinero, buy a phone card, and recharge minutes on my mobile, which soon I will figure out how to get us people to use.

Well, that´s pretty much it for now. Classes star Tueçsday and Monday we have level exams, I´ll let you all know hoe those go!