Granada

So to finish out my winter break I went to Granada with another Fulbrighter (Teresa) and a mutual friend we have who has lived in Madrid his whole life (Alvaro). We were there for 4 days and most just explored and walked around/did all of those touristy things. Also, quick shout out to Teresa and Alvaro for finding our Airbnb! We had rooftop access and had an amazing view of La Alhambra from said rooftop. Well done you two. I must say that the trip wasn't the most exciting trip in the world but it was really nice to spend time with Teresa and Alvaro and get to know them a little bit more. Also! We did run into another Fulbrighter (Danny) while we were exploring and we had dinner with him one night. Of course we went to La Alhambra, a palace from back when Spain was under Islamic rule. It is incredibly beautiful and the architecture was incredibly detailed. As you can imagine, many of the same themes seen in my Morocco trip reappeared here in la Alhambra. However what hurt the authentic feel for me was seeing all of the maintenance crews working while we walked around. Additionally, we were not allowed to enter certain parts of la Alhambra as they were fenced off.

Actually Granada really is a more controlled and Spanish version of Marrakesh. You see many of the same things like tea shops, the way some of the markets are organized, and even some of the food served, but the feel is totally different. Marrakesh felt authentic and the chaos was organic and I absolutely loved that aspect of the city. Granada is clearly a watered-down version of this and doesn't have the same feel, even though on paper it has a large Moroccan and Islamic influence. For example, there are maintenance trucks and fenced off areas in la Alhambra. Right there the visit has already become more controlled and restricted. For these reasons I think I was less enamored by the city and tourist attractions than my friends, but I should make clear that it is a beautiful city and is 100% worth the trip. Also I was exhausted from my trip to London and Paris and I just wanted to lay down. So that may also have played a part in my lack of undying love for the city.

As we left the city we were all pretty exhausted and ready to just sit and relax in our own homes. PLUS we were extremely cited to try this tea we bought in a tea shop in Granada. The tea was called Mil Flores and was 2-Die-4. There was this little tea shop right outside our Airbnb where you could buy a pastry and a little shop of tea for 1.50. We went there every chance we had, not because the pastries were amazing, but because we wanted the tea. I think they put crack in it....
Actually this trip to Granada and my trip to Morocco have inspired me to drink more tea and less coffee. At Oxy I drank a lot of coffee and when I would drink too much coffee (i.e. during Finals studying or just trying to survive in Raney's Biochemistry of Energy and Exercise class) I would gulp down an energy drink that contained 400 mg of caffeine ON TOP of whatever coffee I had that day. For those of you who don't know, that's a lot of caffeine and probably way too much caffeine. Even in Spain I drink a decent amount of coffee, about 1-2 espresso shots a day which is about 200-400 mg of caffeine a day. So I am trying to cut back and drink more tea.

The rest of my winter break was spent in my bed watching Netflix or going to the gym. Needless to say I was exhausted and I needed to rest up to prepare for the event that is Global Classrooms. After our winter break we only had 1 week before the real conferences took place and my students still needed more preparation. The life of a Fulbrighter am I right?

Until next time!

Teresa and Me doing weird things

All three of us with la Alhambra in the background

Spanish Breakfast and Moroccan Dinner

So a few weeks ago I took my very first trip to Africa! The destination? Marrakesh, Morocco. So not only was it my first trip to an African country but it was also my first trip to an Islamic State. Before going I truly did not know what to expect. To be honest before my two travel partners mentioned Marrakesh to me, I had never heard of it. However I could gather that it was going to be a totally new experience and because of that I was very excited. My goals for the trip? I wanted to ride a camel.

We arrived to Marrakesh on a Thursday night and after arriving to our Riad (Airbnb/hotel) in the Medina (the busiest neighborhood in Marrakesh where all the action happens), our host said offered us Moroccan mint tea. Although the concept is incredibly simple, this is by far the best tea I have never tried in my life. All it contains is sugar, green tea, and fresh Moroccan mint, but the Moroccan mint transforms beverage from a regular green tea to an addiction inducing experience. After that life changing cup of tea, I had Moroccan mint tea with almost every single meal while in Morocco. This tea is actually incredibly important to Moroccan culture. Its a sign of hospitality and Moroccans take great pride in the quality of their tea. There are entire books written about the history of the mint tea and its cultural significance. It actually inspired me to haggle for a beautiful tea kettle.

Speaking of haggling, this is another HUGE aspect of Moroccan culture. For those who do not know, it is essentially bargaining. If you have ever seen the television series "Pawn Stars," just imagine that and you have a good idea of what haggling entails. Thus, whenever you want to buy goods (excluding food items) you must haggle for it as there are no prices posted in stores. So if you want a scarf, skyrocket the price and pray you go for it. However no one is expected to pay that price. In fact, most shop owners thoroughly enjoy haggling and do not get offended when you slash and axe their initial offer. In the end, it is just a game. You have to figure out if they need the sale more than you need the item. Although at first I was hesitant to haggle, towards the end I reaaaallly enjoyed it and was looking for things to buy just so I could haggle. I was hesitant at first for a couple of reasons. Firstly, their "skyrocketed prices" were already much cheaper than anything in Europe, so you knew you were saving money already. Secondly, you are really arguing over the difference of a couple of dollars. One dollar/euro is approximately 10 Dirhams and the price of most items that you can haggle for range from 40-150 Dirhams. So if the starting price is 100 Dirhams and you haggle it down to 80 Dirhams, your bank account doesn't really notice the difference. Finally, the shop keepers usually need the money a lot more than you do. The Moroccans heavily rely on income from tourists to survive, so at first you feel very guilty about depriving them of a couple dollars that may make a huge difference in their lives. For these reasons, a lot of people don't like to haggle. If you are able to look past that and just participate in the cultural experience, it can become very enjoyable for you and them. My two haggling experiences? I bought a tea kettle for 80 Dirhams (starting price was 100) and a scarf for 90 (starting price was 160).

Quick note about the Moroccan economy. As their economy heavily relies on tourism, many people will literally do whatever they can to get you to eat at their restaurant or buy their goods. Thus if you go to Marrakesh, expect people to grab you, yell at you, and follow you, trying desperately to get your attention. Since they have tourists from all over Europe and the world, many of them know numerous languages. Thus, you'll hear people yelling at you in Spanish, French, Germany, Italian, English, or whatever language that will get your attention. Definitely not a calm vacation and definitely not meant for families. It is meant for people who don't mind a slightly uncontrolled and chaotic environment.

As I mentioned previously, I reeeaaally wanted to ride a camel while I was in Morocco. I achieved this goal within 24 hours of being in the country. Thankfully the host at our Riad also organized excursions to the Sahara Desert, as does every other human being in Morocco. After being in a van for 8 hours, meeting a wonderful Spanish family from Zaragoza and some Germany Erasmus (study abroad) students, we arrived in a village called Zagora. From Zagora our guides took us on camels through the Northern Sahara Desert where we camped for the night. On this trip we met a 20 year old man named Zachariah. A man who has never left his village 30,000 people knew a great deal about the world and of other languages. His English was impeccable so he could articulate complicated ideas about arranged marriage, religion, and Moroccan culture that many people can't articulate in their native tongue. As a Muslim, he knew the Koran by heart, was accepting of opposing beliefs (even though he believe them to false), and denounced Islamic extremists saying that they are ridiculous. He also joked that the extremists bomb people because they lack quality marijuana, something that is apparently very abundant and widely used in Morocco. It was wonderfully insightful to have a conversation with him and its a night I will never forget.

Zachariah during our night in the Sahara (Photo credit: Justin Chacko)

Just a regular night in the Sahara (Photo Credit: Justin Chacko)

Also, huge misconception: deserts can't get cold. Trust me, they can. In fact they can get absolutely freezing with wind. I learned that the hard way when I didn't bring a sweater and was freezing. Thankfully there were blankets.

Modern day explorers

On our way back from the Saharan adventure we stopped in an ancient village called Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou. This is a huge tourism stop as many movies and television shows have filmed here. For example Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and the Jewel of the Nile have all filmed in this village. It's also a very cool place because the homes still use traditional materials such as clay, mud, rocks, and sticks to build and maintain their homes. However this quick stop was a classic Moroccan excursion move as the driver did not tell us that we would be stopping here. Nor did we have a choice when the tour guide asked for 3 euros a head for the tour. However was fun, super interesting, and well worth the money. Finally on this trip, the tour guide really tried to hit home that the village doesn't use modern materials when we crossed a "traditional" bridge. Until this day I was unaware that "plastic tarp wrapping sandbags" were an ancient material. I guess no one is perfect.

Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou

After our excursion in the Sahara, we spent the next two days exploring the historical sites of Marrakesh. We saw the Jardin Majorelle, which is a beautiful garden and museum that explores the history of Morocco, Ben Yousseff Madrasa, which was a Koran school, the Bahia Palace, the Koutoubia Mosque, and we explored the main square in the Medina. Overall the architecture was absolutely incredibly. The amount of detail put into the designs of the most seemingly pointless aspects of a building was incredibly. Doors, ceilings, fireplaces, windows, bathrooms, hallways, doorknobs, pillars, etc. Every design was unique and mind boggling. In one room you could find 4 finds and each door had a different design about and around it.


In conclusion, the Morocco trip was a huge success and it has definitely made me want to travel outside of Europe more. Before I thought I wanted to stay in Europe during my Fulbright travel years, but now I think I may venture out a little more. I don't think my mother will appreciate that.

Only time will tell.

Living the Andorrable life

During our orientation in September, the Madrid Fulbrighters had the pleasure of meeting the Andorran Fulbrighters. Since we haven't seen them for a few weeks, my friend Justin and I decided to pay them a visit during our first 4 day weekend. In case you haven't heard of Andorra (which a lot of people haven't) it is a small country located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. So as you can imagine, it is basically like living within Yosemite Valley, but in Europe. The main activities include hiking and shopping. So that is exactly what we did (minus the shopping).

After our 12 hours bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona to Andorra, we walked around Andorra la Vella, which is the capital of the country. To give you a sense of the capital's size, it takes 20-30 minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other and only has 22,000 people. Nevertheless the town is incredibly adorable (thus the Andorran Fulbrighters use the phrase Andorrable to describe everything). On Saturday we hiked for about 5-6 hours and actually hiked INTO FRANCE. The pile of rocks below is the border between Andorra and France. They don't seem to have the strictest border patrol...

As we walked into France, we scouted a good spot to have lunch and enjoy the view. Unfortunately we did not get a passport stamp, but we did meet some Germans who were hiking into Andorra from France. Before we met them, we thought the water was too cold to swim due to the fact that it was 50-60 degrees outside. However they had been hiking for a couple of days and desperately needed a shower, so they took a dip into Arctic waters to freshen up a bit.

On Sunday, we took another yet shorter hike. It was cool, but not nearly as cool as hiking into France.   After some cheese and chocolate fondue, many Andorrable moments, and a whooooole lot of walking, Justin and I returned to Madrid absolutely exhausted. Still, it was good to know that Europe isn't all big buildings and busy streets. There is still some natural beauty left in this history continent. 

Cruising in Cataluña

Ahhhh! My blogging game as been slacking lately!

Well here we go, a couple of weeks ago I went to Barcelona to visit some family friends. Since I do not have work on Fridays, I decided to take advantage of this three day weekend to see a different part of Spain.

Although my trip only lasted 3 days, Barcelona seems like an incredibly different city than Madrid. Firstly, every prefers to speak Catalan, not Spanish. If you walk into a restaurant and start speaking Spanish, the waiter immediately knows that you aren't from Barcelona. Of course they all speak Spanish, but it seems like they identify more with the Catalan language. In my experience, the people of Barcelona preferred to speak Catalan, English, then Spanish. I really had to force the issue when I wanted to speak Spanish. But alas, I still had a good time. There is so much to do in Barcelona so I simply didn't have time to do everything. But I sure tried.

I hit the ground running when I arrived Friday morning. I left Madrid at 5:30 am and took the high speed train which is called AVE. I arrived to Barcelona around 9 and since my family friends were all at work or school, I decided to talk a walk around the city. I saw the Arc de Triomf (below), Antoni Gaudi's La Catedral, and a whole bunch of signs in Catalan. After walking around Barcelona for a few hours, I had a very relaxed day just chatting with my family friends and eating some quality food.

Arc de Triomf in Barcelona 

 Saturday included more exploring and eating. I got a personal tour of all of Gaudi's famous architectural masterpieces (albeit I didn't have enough time to wait in line and buy tickets, so my tours were of the outside of the buildings). Nevertheless, the experience was pretty incredible. It was a great introduction for when I go back to Barcelona next year. I realized that even on a slow day Barcelona is jam packed with people. So you really need to spend time waiting in line in order to actually see the inside of these masterpieces.

The outside of the La Sagrada Familia

Finally on Sunday we went to the beach for a nice little boat ride and to have some amazing seafood. I had the mussels, just in case you were wondering. It was actually the first time I ever tried mussels, and I've gotta say they were quite tasty. However I am pretty sure butter and salt can make anything taste like Heaven.

Next blog topic? Andorra, details at 11.

Until next time you stay classy, blog readers.

Hala Madrid!

So I went to my very first Real Madrid game a few weeks ago. I must say, even though we were in the nosebleed seats, the view was incredible. It was a completely different than any soccer game I've been to in the United States. First of all, there are no food stands. No one is eating food or drinking beer while watching the game. What do they do instead? They smoke, eat sunflower seeds, and they watch the game. In addition to not letting food be a distraction during the event, no one leaves their seat while the ball is in play. What this results in is 80,000 people "oohing" and "ahhing" in absolute unison, almost as if there was a script. Plus, just like in tennis, when a player makes a great play everyone claps in unison. It doesn't matter if the person plays for the opposing team or not. Everyone was there to enjoy the game and it was the most fun I've had at a soccer game, even though it ended 0-0.

Outside of el Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Not too shabby for the cheapest tickets possible

Orientation with a Side of Exploration

So this past week was incredibly hectic. Monday-Thursday I had orientation with all of the other Fulbright teaching assistants and researchers. Overall it was a blast! I got to meet a lot of really interesting people with different academic backgrounds. However it wasn't all fun and games. From 9 am to 9 pm we were listening to presentations about how to be an effective teaching assistant, how to help prepare students for the Model UN competition*, how to apply for residency in Spain, plus so much more. The information was incredibly helpful but I am glad I have a chance to just relax before classes start on Tuesday.

The break between orientation and classes has given me a chance to investigate different intercambio programs and my neighborhood. Intercambio "programs" are more like language groups where you can talk to native Spanish speakers in a cafe or bar instead of a classroom. The incentive for native Spanish speakers to come help those who want to learn Spanish is the fact that we help them with their English. It's a great way to practice speaking Spanish, to meet local Spaniards, and get out of the Fulbright bubble. 

I haven't really completed a deep search of my neighborhood yet. I have mostly just been walking around and seeing what is actually available. There are so many cafes, bars, fruit stands, and supermarkets its hard to pick one! Hopefully I am able to find a cafe and fruit stand that I continually go to in order to develop a more personal relationship.

Finally, while exploring the neighborhood of Salamanca in Madrid, I came across this gem and just had to snap a photo.
                                                        

Isn't it beautiful?? It was so cool to see my name all over cafes and restaurants, especially because it is not a common name in America. In fact, there is a town in Northern Spain called "Ayala" that is slightly south of Bilbao. Since that is where my family is originally from, I have to visit! My dad wasn't able to visit the town when he came to Spain, so I may be the first one in my family to see the town in a few generations. So obviously I have to go visit! 

Until then I will continue to relax and read in Retiro Park while watching magic shows and drinking cafe con leche. Life is so hard....

*This is a huge part of my grant and I am require to prepare students for a model UN conference that includes schools from all over Spain. The winning school gets to compete in an international competition in New York. Trust me, more to come on this topic. 

“It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy...Let's go exploring!" Calvin

Since taking the MCAT in July I have thoroughly enjoyed my last month in the United States. I was able to travel to Boston, Maine, Mammoth Lakes, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. During these visits, I was able to say my last goodbyes to most of my friends and family and enjoy a few laughs while doing so.

Of course during my visits, people always wondering if I am more excited than I am nervous. Obviously, I am very excited. Am I nervous? A little bit, but I always have the Fulbright safety net. I have a huge network of other people going through the same thing. But I am way more excited than I am nervous. However what I am most excited for may surprise a few. Yes, my conversational Spanish will improve exponentially. Yes, there are countless historical landmarks to see (I mean, there are real freaking castles there!!!). And yes, the food will be world-class. Of course, girlfriend would question my sanity if I told her there is more to the world than good food, but I am most excited to just live as a Spaniard and blend in with the Spanish culture. I look forward to discovering the idiosyncrasies that make the Spanish culture so unique. It’s really going to be the adventure of a lifetime. 

On a different note, I know this is year is supposed to be a huge break from schoolwork and studying. However what I really want to investigate is how the Spanish view food. As many Americans know, the Mediterranean diet is a common option for those looking to adopt a healthier lifestyle. However since fast food options have become more prevalent in Spain, have they started to veer away from their traditional diet to a more “Americanized” diet? I plan to investigate this in a more relaxed way than a traditional scientific study.

Firstly, I plan to research treads regarding obesity, caloric intake, nutrient intake, and physical activity rates within the country. After researching this, I plan to interview chefs, personal trainers, nutritionists, doctors, nurses, and anyone else willing to sit down with me and discuss nutrition, physical activity, and the overall health of Spain. I do not know what I will discover, but I am sure it will help contribute my deeper understanding of the Spanish thought process. Who knows, maybe I will make a few friends who can accompany me on my adventure. 

Let's Start the Insanity

As recommended by Professor Marci Raney, I started this blog to ensure that I am checking things off of my bucket list while I am in Spain and I am able to fully remember all of the events that occur while I am abroad. I don't want to forget the nuances of this trip and I want to be able to track my hopes and dreams while I am on this adventure. I will mostly be writing about my adventures as a teaching assistant and documenting my travels, but every now and then I will be posting about my Med School troubles.

Just as a quick intro to who I am, I recently graduated from Occidental College with a degree in Kinesiology. I have a huge interest in public health (specifically preventative medicine) and have aspirations of going to medical school once I come back from Spain. In fact, I spent most of this summer studying for the MCAT. SO GLAD for that to be done.

I just had my visa appointment at the Spanish consulate in San Francisco yesterday. The entire process was rather painless, as long as you have all of your documents together at the time of the meeting. However getting all of the necessary background checks, signatures, and paperwork together is tedious and annoying. The most frustrating part was just waiting in the lobby for an hour for a 10 minute appointment, followed by copious amounts of traffic on my way home. But hey, the Fulbright is worth it, right? There were a few people who had appointments before me and they were sent home because they did not have their stuff together. Since I leave in about 5 weeks and it takes 4-5 weeks to receive your visa after the appointment, I could not afford to delay the process anymore.

A plus that came from the trip is the fact that I met another Fulbrighter for the first time in SF! It was great to finally put a voice to all of the emails/messages that were sent back and forth while planning/talking about Spain.

Thankfully, this was the last administrative thing I had to complete before I leave for Spain. So now the idea that I am leaving the country for an entire year is becoming more and more real.

So let's start the insanity.