Saturday, June 11, 2011
Bonus knowledge
After seeing this ad, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a Domino's customer the rest of my life.
Friday, June 10, 2011
First Week
It has been about a week since I got here in beautiful Alcala. I have learned so much more than I can say, but since it's my blog I guess I will give it a shot. Here is a list of some of the things I have learned here in Spain.
1. Navigation is pretty hard. For those who know me, I have a pretty hard time with directions. The record right now for times getting lost in a single day is now at 3 times. I found out the hard way that I my map wouldn't help me out too much if I leave it in my room. On a more positive note, as my house is about 1 kilometer away from school, I will be pretty fit by the end of this trip if I keep getting lost all the time
2. The mountains are beautiful. A group of us decided to go up to the mountains and hike a couple days back. The mountains are located in the Cerros national park, only about a twenty minute walk away from my house. The trail we took was a 10 kilometer (6 mile) trek to the top of the highest mountain in the park. About half way up the trail, I got separated from my group. My phone had ran out of minutes, so I could not call my group and get any of their water. I figured that I would see them on top of the mountain, so I kept pressing on until I was there. Except they weren't there. I had missed a trail and had accidentally climbed the second tallest mountain. I was pretty freaked out at this point because I had no group or water. I knew there was water at the base of the park, so I headed down to find it.
Going down the mountain, I was mostly sure I knew where I was going. Mostly sure is not that reassuring when it means you might might have a heat stroke because you were almost on the right trail. Fortunately, there were other hikers on the trail to guide me down. In particular, I was helped by a man named Lino. Lino is about 60 years old and was running and walking up the mountain. He knew were the water was, so we run walked towards it. I am to God for people like Lino who helped me out on the mountain that day. I might not have made it out otherwise. Next time, I will not get separated from the group.
3. Don't greet people you don't know on the street. You are walking towards a stranger who is in turn walking towards you. Once you get about 5 feet away, you wave and say hi as you pass, right? Nope. In Alcala, people consider it very strange when some random person just greets them when they pass by on the street. I am still reeling from the culture shock on this one. I've gotten a lot a weird stares for this one.
4. Some times you get to use the words you never thought you would use. One of my favorite Spanish words is fregadero. It is Spanish for 'kitchen sink.' In grade school, I laughed when my brother told me he needed to know this word for a test. It seemed fairly pointless to me. That is, until two days ago. I was in a restaurant and I wanted some tap water. I started to think about how to say it. After a while, the answer hit me: agua(water) de fregadero! I asked the waiter for agua de fregadero, and he gave me tap water. Bam! Just that easy. As it turns out, I wasn't exactly right about what agua de fregadero meant. It really means dishwater, but I did get my (clean) water.
5. You don't learn Spanish by magic. I came to Spain with the interesting misconception that I would just pick up Spanish by osmosis. By hearing a whole lot of people talking Spanish, I would somehow apprehend it perfectly after a while. That has in no way described my experiences in Spain. It has taken me a lot of work to improve my Spanish here in Spain. I have to constantly be thinking about grammar as I speak to people around me. As I walk down the city streets, I have to train my mind to think in Spanish. Constantly, I am fighting to keep my thoughts in Spanish. Although the constant feedback from native Spanish speakers makes learning Spanish faster, I still have to work pretty hard to not sound like an ignoramus. That coming from a man who's taken 8 years of school Spanish.
6. The graffiti is everywhere. Graffiti is common and highly visible in Alcala. If there is a store that has been vacated, it will have graffiti, guaranteed.
While most of the graffiti is done on walls or abandoned buildings, many live businesses have graffiti-like artwork on them. Many businesses have paid for artists to spraypaint murals on their doors. I am glad they did, as it makes the city look amazing.
7. Planning trips is pretty hard. It takes a lot of work to get trips off the ground. Malcolm, Margrett, and I decided we wanted to go to Toledo. It would be a day trip so we would only need to buy bus tickets. All three of us looked for hours on the internet and in the train stations for any information about this stuff to no avail. Not even on the official government site. We each decided that we would show up together at 8 tomorrow and hope that the magic happens. By magic I refer to us actually making it to Toledo and back. I gotta admit that it would be quite comical for us to make it to Toledo and not be able to make it back. It would make for some pretty great stories. Thankfully, my host my set me straight on a lot of the things. In about 20 minutes, she did what we couldn't do in 3 hours.
Well I got to stop now. It is 4:15 in the morning here in Spain, and more importantly, I have run out of original interjections to add in my paper. I wake up in 2 hours to figure out some last minute Toledo stuff. If I survive it, I might just have some pictures for you. Just saying.
 |
| Mississippi State goes to Alcala |
1. Navigation is pretty hard. For those who know me, I have a pretty hard time with directions. The record right now for times getting lost in a single day is now at 3 times. I found out the hard way that I my map wouldn't help me out too much if I leave it in my room. On a more positive note, as my house is about 1 kilometer away from school, I will be pretty fit by the end of this trip if I keep getting lost all the time
2. The mountains are beautiful. A group of us decided to go up to the mountains and hike a couple days back. The mountains are located in the Cerros national park, only about a twenty minute walk away from my house. The trail we took was a 10 kilometer (6 mile) trek to the top of the highest mountain in the park. About half way up the trail, I got separated from my group. My phone had ran out of minutes, so I could not call my group and get any of their water. I figured that I would see them on top of the mountain, so I kept pressing on until I was there. Except they weren't there. I had missed a trail and had accidentally climbed the second tallest mountain. I was pretty freaked out at this point because I had no group or water. I knew there was water at the base of the park, so I headed down to find it.
 |
| Me on top of the second tallest mountain in Alcala |
 |
Going down the mountain, I was mostly sure I knew where I was going. Mostly sure is not that reassuring when it means you might might have a heat stroke because you were almost on the right trail. Fortunately, there were other hikers on the trail to guide me down. In particular, I was helped by a man named Lino. Lino is about 60 years old and was running and walking up the mountain. He knew were the water was, so we run walked towards it. I am to God for people like Lino who helped me out on the mountain that day. I might not have made it out otherwise. Next time, I will not get separated from the group.
 |
| Me and Lino |
3. Don't greet people you don't know on the street. You are walking towards a stranger who is in turn walking towards you. Once you get about 5 feet away, you wave and say hi as you pass, right? Nope. In Alcala, people consider it very strange when some random person just greets them when they pass by on the street. I am still reeling from the culture shock on this one. I've gotten a lot a weird stares for this one.
4. Some times you get to use the words you never thought you would use. One of my favorite Spanish words is fregadero. It is Spanish for 'kitchen sink.' In grade school, I laughed when my brother told me he needed to know this word for a test. It seemed fairly pointless to me. That is, until two days ago. I was in a restaurant and I wanted some tap water. I started to think about how to say it. After a while, the answer hit me: agua(water) de fregadero! I asked the waiter for agua de fregadero, and he gave me tap water. Bam! Just that easy. As it turns out, I wasn't exactly right about what agua de fregadero meant. It really means dishwater, but I did get my (clean) water.
5. You don't learn Spanish by magic. I came to Spain with the interesting misconception that I would just pick up Spanish by osmosis. By hearing a whole lot of people talking Spanish, I would somehow apprehend it perfectly after a while. That has in no way described my experiences in Spain. It has taken me a lot of work to improve my Spanish here in Spain. I have to constantly be thinking about grammar as I speak to people around me. As I walk down the city streets, I have to train my mind to think in Spanish. Constantly, I am fighting to keep my thoughts in Spanish. Although the constant feedback from native Spanish speakers makes learning Spanish faster, I still have to work pretty hard to not sound like an ignoramus. That coming from a man who's taken 8 years of school Spanish.
6. The graffiti is everywhere. Graffiti is common and highly visible in Alcala. If there is a store that has been vacated, it will have graffiti, guaranteed.
 |
| Just business as usual here in Spain |
While most of the graffiti is done on walls or abandoned buildings, many live businesses have graffiti-like artwork on them. Many businesses have paid for artists to spraypaint murals on their doors. I am glad they did, as it makes the city look amazing.
 |
| On the door of a bike shop |
 |
| Jimi Hendrix a la Che Guevara. On the Louisianna Rock Cafe |
7. Planning trips is pretty hard. It takes a lot of work to get trips off the ground. Malcolm, Margrett, and I decided we wanted to go to Toledo. It would be a day trip so we would only need to buy bus tickets. All three of us looked for hours on the internet and in the train stations for any information about this stuff to no avail. Not even on the official government site. We each decided that we would show up together at 8 tomorrow and hope that the magic happens. By magic I refer to us actually making it to Toledo and back. I gotta admit that it would be quite comical for us to make it to Toledo and not be able to make it back. It would make for some pretty great stories. Thankfully, my host my set me straight on a lot of the things. In about 20 minutes, she did what we couldn't do in 3 hours.
Well I got to stop now. It is 4:15 in the morning here in Spain, and more importantly, I have run out of original interjections to add in my paper. I wake up in 2 hours to figure out some last minute Toledo stuff. If I survive it, I might just have some pictures for you. Just saying.
 |
| Me and my bros Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. |
Hasta banana!
-Ottpocket
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Hola Spain
Hola personas!
It is now Sunday, 2 days since I flew out from Jackson to Alcala. Needless to say, I have been up to more than a little bit. The journey from Jackson to Madrid took somewhere around 15 hours. The flight across the Atlantic was actually pretty awesome. I was quite taken aback when they offered people in 2nd class wine for refreshment. It served as a sort of welcome to Europe for me. Though I did not sleep much, I had a great time talking to the very cool Delta flight attendants.
I had been nervous for quite a while about my host family. For you unawares, I will be spending my two months in Spain with a random family that takes me in. My worries were completely unfounded. When I was introduced to the family, we all had a great time. There are three people in the family: the mother Gema and her sons Daniel and Carlos. Daniel and Gema picked me up from the bus. I was quite surprised when Daniel started speaking to me in fluent English. Turns out that Spain has a pretty good educational system. We discussed philosophy (which is a mandatory high school subject in Spain) all the way home where Daniel entertained me with his guitar playing. Unfortunately I left my piano back home so I couldn't serenade my host home. On a more positive note, I did get to make up words to a flamenco song Daniel played. I loudly sung about my grandfather (first word I could think of in Spanish) to the family. We had a really good time hanging out and being goofy together. Gema then cooked an exceptionally good meal of Spanish rice, beans, chicken, topped with olive oil and vinegar. That night Carlos invited me to play soccer with him that night. Needless to say, I have a the best host home in the whole world.
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| My new family: (l to r) Daniel, Gema, Carlos |
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| Why yes, I do know that I have a farmer's tan. |
That night I got to go hang out with some friends and eat Spanish food. After spending an inordinate amount of time buying cell phones, we went to eat at a Tapas Bar. Tapas are places that serve appetizers only. We all ate a bunch of good Spanish appetizers and enjoyed life together. Lots of good times to be had by all. That night I got the first good night's sleep in a long while. By that time, I had only slept one hour in the past day and a half.
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| Me taking a nap in Movistar phone company. Unfortunately for me, Europeans traditionally do not fall asleep in phone stores. |
Sunday morning I got up and went to a Pentecostal church with Daniel. Daniel became a Christian 4 months ago. He told me that most of the Spanish youth are Christian in name only or don't care about religion. When he converted, he lost most of his friends because of his faith. After hearing all of this, I was amazed at 1) how joyful he was despite this and 2) how much he loved Christ regardless of what others thought. As a Christian, I felt more than a little bit challenged to be live my life completely for Christ. In church, I was largely clueless as to what was being said, but I did catch understand all of the scriptures. Whenever the pastor would read something, I knew what the passage spoke about because I have read through the Bible in English.
I got out of church and Bible study at 5pm. I was surprised about that too. Though It was long, I was very glad to be there. The main service lasted from 10 until 2. At 2, Daniel, a friend of his, and I went to eat food. His friend was wearing a shirt in Spanish that said that he had survived a roundhouse kick to the face by Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris is revered worldwide it seems. After lunch we had a bible study from 3 until 4:45. After church, I mostly just talked with my family. As it is 2:15 and I have class tomorrow, I think I will call it a night.
Hasta la Vista,
Ottpocket
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
So I'm going to Spain
Hey world,
Turns out I'm going to Spain in two days. If you just continue with me in this blog for the next 2 months, you might as well be going with me. Ok, that was a bit of an overstatement. But I do hope you come along and enjoy the ride in Espana.
By the way, My name is Andrew Ott. I am a Spanish major and have studied Spanish in classrooms for around 8 years. Language has interested me since I started taking it in 9th grade. Language is arbitrary yet highly structured. It is random yet one of the primary vehicles used to convey thought. I would like to further acquaint myself with the Spanish language by going over to Spain. More than just the language, I would like to discover more about the Spanish culture. To be able to speak someone's language yet not understand their culture is to be unable to communicate with that person. For example, the people of Morocco do not use or understand sarcasm. If you tried to communicate a something to a citizen of Morocco by using sarcasm, they would be utterly lost. Even if you spoke in perfect Arabic. As I am in Spain, I desire to know more clearly what it means to be Spanish.
I guess I need to get back to packing. I seem to have lost my passport somewhere. If I can just find it I won't have to stow away. I guess that would add an interesting dynamic to this whole trip, though.
Hasta banana! (Spanish for: until banana!)
Turns out I'm going to Spain in two days. If you just continue with me in this blog for the next 2 months, you might as well be going with me. Ok, that was a bit of an overstatement. But I do hope you come along and enjoy the ride in Espana.
By the way, My name is Andrew Ott. I am a Spanish major and have studied Spanish in classrooms for around 8 years. Language has interested me since I started taking it in 9th grade. Language is arbitrary yet highly structured. It is random yet one of the primary vehicles used to convey thought. I would like to further acquaint myself with the Spanish language by going over to Spain. More than just the language, I would like to discover more about the Spanish culture. To be able to speak someone's language yet not understand their culture is to be unable to communicate with that person. For example, the people of Morocco do not use or understand sarcasm. If you tried to communicate a something to a citizen of Morocco by using sarcasm, they would be utterly lost. Even if you spoke in perfect Arabic. As I am in Spain, I desire to know more clearly what it means to be Spanish.
I guess I need to get back to packing. I seem to have lost my passport somewhere. If I can just find it I won't have to stow away. I guess that would add an interesting dynamic to this whole trip, though.
Hasta banana! (Spanish for: until banana!)
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