Pre-departure Thoughts

Bienvenido!

I’d like to start this blog off by saying I never thought I would be a blogger. People who know me can vouch for the fact that I barely know how to download pictures onto my computer, let alone set up a website. I also always made fun of my parents for being nerdy bloggers, but I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Anyway, I thought this blog would be the easiest way to communicate with people instead of writing tons of the same emails. Plus, I guess it’s the trendy thing to do now, because at least five of my friends who are also going abroad have already set up their own blogs and posted links to their Facebook pages.

My reason for choosing Spain was really a process of elimination. I’ve been trying to become fluent in Spanish since 7^th grade. I remember my middle school Spanish teacher asking us to write down our goals for the year. I wrote, “By the end of the first trimester, I want to be 1/3 fluent. By the end of the second trimester, I want to be 2/3 fluent, and by the time school’s out I want to know the whole Spanish language.” Eight years later I am at a nine-year-old’s reading level. Great.

I chose Spain instead of Latin America because, like every other blonde girl who goes to UCSB, I just want to party!! No, just kidding. I wanted to be in Europe as a college student, yes, but I also think it’s hard to understand Latin America without first understanding Spain, since after all, Spain was responsible for much of the way Latin America ended up. I picture Spain as this regal country full of ancient splendor, long-entrenched traditions (like the dreaded bullfighting), a relaxed lifestyle complete with daily siestas, and a perfect Mediterranean climate. It’s easy to forget about the country’s atrocities: the Spanish Inquisition, Los Conquistadores in the New World, Franco… Europe, despite the stereotype that it’s a popular college partying destination, has a lot to offer in terms of insight, education, and history.

I must add here that my other inclination for choosing Spain may sound selfish or pretentious (or both!), but if I was going to live in a foreign country for a year, I really wanted to be able to eat and drink without worrying about dysentery. I lived in Nicaragua for a summer during high school and loved it, but my hypochondria never let me fully enjoy some authentic street food, or even brush my teeth with the tap water, without wondering if I would be hunched over the toilet in three hours (TMI??). Also my neighbor got robbed at gunpoint, which I guess could happen anywhere but at least in Spain you can enjoy a good glass of wine and a siesta while it does.

I chose Granada as the city because the smaller size appealed to me, as well as the fact that Spanish is the main language, whereas Madrid is very metropolitan so there is lots of English, and in Barcelona they speak Catalan, an entirely different language altogether. But honestly what really sold me on Granada was the fact that it’s one of the few remaining provinces that still serves free tapas (small portions of food) with every drink—you just can’t say no to such a great thing!

I started the process of traveling to Spain back in January, and applying for my Visa was arguably more difficult than some classes I took Spring quarter at UCSB. I’m inclined to think that Spain does not want visitors—I had to get fingerprinted, cleared by the FBI with an assurance that I have no criminal record (twice, since the timing of the documents was messed up), a seal of the Apostille on an original document from the State Department, and an in-person visit to the Spanish Consulate in Los Angeles. Luckily I go to school nearby—I found out during this process that students in, say, Minnesota who wish to study abroad in Spain also have to show up in person to the Consulate, and there are only three in the U.S.—two in California and one in New York.

            My trip is now a week away, and I’m getting really excited, although I have to admit I’m also very nervous for all the cultural differences. I tend to eat dinner like an old lady, at 5 o’clock on the dot. Spaniards are eating a late lunch at this time. I tend to go to bed around 10 or 10:30 here. Spaniards are eating dinner at this time! Also, people keep telling me that Spaniards are very well-kept, and don’t even go to the grocery stores without getting nicely dressed first. Any UCSB student will tell you it’s perfectly acceptable to wear sweats or gym clothes to class—I even showed up to work in my pajamas the other day! (Ok, maybe that was even stretching the UCSB dress code a bit. . . .) It seems counter-intuitive to get all dolled up in order to buy a slab of bloody meat from the butcher next door, but I guess I’ll have to adjust.

To prepare for my adventures, I spent a lot of time over the summer reading some of my favorite childhood books in Spanish. This really knocked out two birds with one stone—I practiced my Spanish and didn’t have to feel bad about re-reading Harry Potter for the hundredth time instead of picking up a more “intellectual” novel during my spare time.

I’ve also been killing a lot of free time and sunny days by watching the Discovery Channel show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. This man travels the world, eats tons and tons of local specialties, and essentially has my dream job. I considered all this TV to be research, as I watched two episodes where he went to Spain. I should add here that Anthony has said that he considers Spain to have the best culinary achievements in the entire world, outside of Asia. But I would say that watching these episodes has given me some reservations of my own.

Spaniards clearly like their meat. Every meal he ate included some form of fatty tissue, whether it was braised oxtail, ham, seafood of literally every origin, shape, preparation, and horridness (i.e. piles of anchovies); pate with a side of ham, hanging pig, the stomach lining of a cow, a little more ham, and countless other pig products. The one glimmer of hope was that there was bread and wine in every scene—those are the real culinary achievements, in my opinion.

Although it is rare for me to find a food I don’t like, I must say I’m not a huge meat, cheese, or oil lover—and it seems these are the only three ingredients in Spanish cuisine. Although I’m definitely open to trying new things, and will in fact start eating red meat for the first time in roughly five years (with small slips here and there) to accommodate, I will guess that by the end of this trip I will have resorted often to a full meal of bread—and let’s be honest, I have no reservations about that.  

Thanks for reading my blog, and I’ll try my best to write frequent updates while I’m abroad!