¡Mi Viaje a España!

Hello all,

Once again, it is my last night in Salamanca. Once again, this will be my last post.

I have a flight to leave Madrid tomorrow afternoon back home to NY, which I miss dearly.

Once I get back, classes start, and I’m sure things will be back to normal before I can say “Salamanca”. However, I’ll still have the memories of such an exciting experience here in Spain, which have definitely taught me lots about life, people, cultures, and of course, the Spanish language.

Adios!

Hello all,

My last post was going to be my last one since I’m supposed to be on a plane to NYC at the moment.

However, things happen. Big things happen… like hurricanes… named Irene.

So, my flight es cancelado, or cancelled. Customer care isn’t open yet either, so it looks like I’m forced to enjoy my wonderful experience in Spain a bit longer. Now, I do want to go home… but I can’t. So, I guess I’ll try and make the best of this and do some more vacationing till this storm passes. I hope NY and it’s residents will be okay though…

I really like Spain… but I love NY.

Hasta luego!

Hello,

As someone once said, “all good things come to an end”. Well, I think someone said it… feels like I heard it from somewhere. Anyway, this is the case here. My trip is coming to a close very soon, although I’m not sure exactly when. My flight is tomorrow afternoon and New York (after the earthquake this week) will be hit with a hurricane this weekend as well. So, I may be getting to know the Madrid airport a bit should my flight be delayed or cancelled.

My past few days, once again were great. Just been taking it easy and trying to soak up all of the Spanish air I can! Yesterday, I went on a boat ride with a couple of my friends on the rio, which was a lot of fun. Then, we went to a museum called “Casa Lis”, which I have been wanting to go to for the whole trip. My exam also went well, and I got my certificate! My Spanish definitely improved while I was here and I recommend this experience to anyone, should they get the opportunity! I’d definitely love to come back!

Now, it’s just time to pack… and keep checking delta.com for my flight status…

Adios!

Hola!

These past few days have been great. I’m really going to miss Salamanca when I leave this weekend.

So, a few days ago I got the chance to watch a football (soccer) game in a cafe here in Salamanca between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Great game, but my favorite, FC Barcelona came out on top. In case you don’t already know, Spain is very good at soccer. Usually, the champions of the World Cup are pretty good. So, needless to say it was a great experience. I was also able to snap a photo of the TV in the cafe. so here it is:

Cristiano Ronaldo, of Real Madrid in the recent game vs. FC Barcelona

Today, I did a little souvenir shopping, and then went to a couple of other museums here in Salamanca. Never gonna get tired of visiting these many museums here in Salamanca. Once again, they were great!

From here on out, it’s just studying for my exam this upcoming Thursday, finishing off doing the list of things I haven’t yet done, and then redoing the things I love the most!

Talk to ya’ll soon!

¡Hola!

I am now sitting in the cafe where I previously asked for a cup of coffee… to drink. Well, I overcame my fears and decided to come back here. There’s great wifi here, so why not update my blog?

My past few days have been great! Well, before I get to that, I’d like to announce that I did, in fact, order a cup of coffee this time with no trouble. I was also able to joke with the same waitress about my previous experience with ordering a cup of coffee… to drink. Of course, all of this was in Spanish… hence, the title of this post.

Anyway, these past few days were great. Sunday night, there was a huge multicultural festival in the plaza mayor with different cultures being represented with flags being held up in the midst of the bustling crowd. The entire plaza was filled with people, and the stage that I spoke about in my last post had small shows representing different nations/areas including: Korea, China, United States, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, South Africa, Russia, Mexico etc. The list goes on…

Me clowning around in the plaza mayor!

The festival overall was great! Great music, comical shows, and loads of happy diverse people in one place! One of the best parts was when they interrupted the show to say that a boy of only 5 years old was lost amidst the crowd. They explained his features: blonde hair, caucasian boy with a white t-shirt. Now, that wasn’t the best part… the best part was about 10 minutes later when they interrupted the show again to say that the little boy was found. The crowd filled with people from all over the world cheered louder than they had the entire night. What an experience!

Yesterday, I went to a swimming pool here in Salamanca. The weather here has been great all weekend. Of course, I had class today, and it’s still going great! I’ll be writing again soon!

Keep reading!

I figured that if ever during my trip was a great time to call my post legendary, or “legen-dary” with the ‘How I Met Your Mother” reference (great show btw, totally recommend it), then it would be now.

I am currently sitting in the famous Plaza Mayor, in the center of Salamanca, Spain writing this. The wi-fi is great here, and so is the coffee so it’s definitely legendary.

Tonight is the night before the Spanish ‘fiesta’ called “Asunción” in honor of the Assumption of St. Mary. The Plaza Mayor is lively, filled with people, and there is a band setting up a stage and equipment for a show later on tonight.

Today also marks the beginning of the second half of my stay in Salamanca… got two weeks left, let’s see if I can make the second half more legendary than the first!

Me in the Plaza Mayor: Yes, that lady in the back is waving at YOU!

The past few days have been pretty routine with them being weekdays; I have class in the morning and I have the afternoon free to do what I want. I’ve been using these afternoons to visit some of the numerous museums in Salamanca like the Museo de Historia de la Automoción and the Palacio de Congresos (Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit).

The class is going great! I definitely feel my Spanish is improving. However, every now and then I am also reminded that I am in fact, not a native Spanish-speaker, and that I am a student of the language. Well, maybe that’s softening it up a bit. Maybe it reminds me that I am pretty much a beginner.

Now, before I get to this illustrious story of how I was reminded that I had a lot to learn in my Spanish learning adventure, I’d like to explain the context and the setting of the story a bit. Tapas, in Spain, is pretty much a “snack” that the Spanish eat around 6 or 7pm to keep them filled from their 2pm lunch until their large late meal around 9 or 10pm. They’re pretty much the best invention since the wheel, since you can find tapas at almost any restaurant, and the tapas menu is always filled with different things like potatoes, fish, chicken, rice, etc. They’re smaller portions than a normal meal, but they are by no means smaller in value. Salamanca is well known for it’s tapas. An example can be seen below of three classic tapas that I ate, and which can be seen all over tapa bars in Salamanca.

Spanish Tapas: salad tortilla and meat tortilla

Spanish Tapas: chicken and tomato tapa

So, my friends and I, after visiting the exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci (just because I’m not discussing it too much doesn’t mean it wasn’t great!), decided we wanted to grab some tapas at a tapa bar before we head back home to eat dinner. So, we chose a nice small place on a corner of a main street in a shopping area. The way it works with tapas is normally you are expected to get one tapa and a drink of your choice: coffee, tea, soda, beer etc. So, the lady behind the counter asked us what we would like to drink. I answered  confidently in Spanish,

“un cafe, por favor”

Great! Not bad, eh? What I wasn’t ready for was the reply:

“Café con leche o solo?”

Now, looking back on this, I obviously know she was asking me if I wanted coffee with milk or without milk. Now this part of the story is a bit fuzzy, and I’m not sure exactly how it went. However, it went something like this… for some odd reason I answered saying,

“para beber”

I have no idea why or what I meant by saying that, but my friends definitely got a kick out of it… and the lady behind the counter did as well. Turns out my friends later revisited the bar/café and the lady asked about me. Nice huh? Yea, except she didn’t know my name… she asked about “el chico del café para beber” (Translated, ‘the boy of the coffee to drink’) And yes, I understand if you no longer trust my translations…

Hey, at least now I’m leaving my classic, “no comprendo” line for the title of my blog and not for my conversations!

So today, I went to Toledo, Spain; a town Southeast of Salamanca, just South of Madrid. Toledo is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. And having just came from Toledo, I completely agree. The trip to Toledo didn’t start out so pretty. 3 hour bus ride from Salamanca, which leaves at 8am in the morning.

However, the trip was totally worth it. The streets of Toledo are like old narrow cobblestone roads shared by pedestrians and cars. They reminded me of a similar town in England called York. However, one thing that Toledo has that York doesn’t is the warm 90 degree Fahrenheit weather. According to our tour guide, it was a cool day… for Toledo.

Streets of Toledo

We learned a lot about the deep history with it’s occupation by the muslim crusaders in the 600’s, and it’s eventual re-christianization later on, hundreds of years later. This makes for an interesting mix of historical monuments of different cultures and religions. We visited the Catedral de Toledo, which is one of the, if not the most beautiful cathedral I have ever visited. From the outside, the cathedral is completely amazing. Tourists to Toledo can’t go wrong if they simply come to the cathedral to see it from the outside. Placed in the center of Toledo, the cathedral acts as a sort of centerpiece for the city.

Catedral de Toledo

The detail on every inch of the walls and columns of the cathedral is completely astounding. Standing there surrounded by the echo’s of the huge baroque-styled cathedral, one cannot do anything other than simply admire the brains and planning behind such a great piece of architectural art. The cathedral also has its own museum on the inside, which seemed as though it never ended, with rooms that led to more rooms that led to corridors leading to bigger rooms… check out this picture I was able to snap while security had his back turned to me…

Catedral de Toledo

Toledo is situated as a sort of peninsula in how it is almost completely surrounded by a river. The river makes for great pictures, so instead of me trying to describe the beauty of the river bank, I’d rather just post one of my many pictures…

River Banks of El Rio de Toledo

We also visited the Museo de Santa Cruz, which hosts many works of art by artists such as Ricardo Arredondo, Calmache, and El Greco.

wait… did I just say El Greco?! What’s the big deal you may ask… well… my family has a restaurant in Sheepshead Bay we frequently go to (really good) called “El Greco”. So, I couldn’t help but make the link once I saw the artists name on his painting, “La Immaculada Concepcion” seen below. Good to know the reason behind the name of our family restaurant is finally discovered… and  I guess it makes for great dinner conversation too, probably at El Greco (the restaurant).

"La Immaculada Concepcion" de El Greco

So, hope you’re enjoying my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!!

Adios!

Hola mis amigos,

So, today is Wednesday. I’ve been here for 3 days so far, and I had my third day of class today. It is…

AWESOME!

I took a tour of Salamanca yesterday. The city is amazingly beautiful filled with a deep history and culture. The city is extremely old, to the point that they have a cathedral called ‘la catedral nueva’ (the new cathedral). So, I figured hmm.. it’s new right? Built last year? The year before? 50 years ago? 100? No… try 500 years ago! Building began in 1513… and that’s the new one… the old one, or ‘la catedral vieja’ was constructed in 1140. Just an idea for the deep history that Salamanca has. Not much has changed… and how can I forget… not only is the city old, but it is beautiful.

I think I said that before, but it’s totally worth it to say it again. You know what? I get the feeling you may not believe me… here’s a picture of Salamanca from the top of the new cathedral:

La Ciudad de Salamanca

I can go on and on about that. The Spanish know how to build. They also know how to speak Spanish, which is what I am learning how to do as well! It’s going great! My class is great, only 8 students and the professor is very exciting, making the 4 hour long class fly by, leaving us wanting to learn more. The thing is, this class isn’t really like the spanish courses I’ve taken in America. Most of them are straight from an old 1850’s textbook and we learn nothing about the culture of the spanish people. This course is accompanied by spanish sayings and bits and pieces relative to the culture of Spain. It’s the reason I’m here: and I’m super grateful.

Just another post of the super exciting adventures in my quest to becoming a spaniard…

hasta luego!

P.S. I spoke lot’s about the cathedrals… but a picture says a thousand words… here you go!

La Catedral Nueva de Salamanca, construida en 1513 y yo

I know you’re probably wondering: “why is this person’s blog called no comprendo?” Well, before I get to that, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Joseph Mossad, and I am a college student on a study abroad program in Salamanca, Spain. I decided I’d use this blog to try and keep track of my adventures and allow my readers to get a laugh, or two.

So, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Or maybe not. The reason why the name of my blog is called “nocomprendo” is because…

that’s what I’ve been saying for the past few days. You see… I’m already here in Spain. I arrived last Thursday, and I’m here in Salamanca now. I was in Madrid for 3 nights before I came here. I’ll admit it, my Spanish is a bit rusty. It’s been more than 4 years since I took an actual course in Spanish, and this is my first time in a Spanish speaking country. So, “no comprendo” has pretty much become my favorite line thus far. Also, I have a feeling I’m a much better charades player than I previously was.

Madrid was a great experience. Kinda reminded me of New York City with it being always lively, 24 hours a day. However, there are a couple of differences. In NYC, everyone tends to have a destination, always rushing somewhere; in Madrid, people tend to stand around and relax a bit more. There is a famous plaza in Madrid called ‘la puerta del sol’, which means gateway to the sun. Funny enough, it was always sunny in that plaza. Anyway, this plaza can be likened to Times Square, the 24-7 action and the bright lights at night. Also, the surrounding streets of vendors and tourist attractions were great! This plaza was the place to be; for Spaniards and foreigners alike.

Here’s a picture of La Puerta del Sol in Madrid!

La Puerta del Sol

So here I currently am in Salamanca with my host family. I’m studying at the Colegio de Espana, which is a great college for international students interested in learning Spanish. The first day of class was today, and we took a placement exam, and met our professors. My professor’s name is Carmen, which is a popular Spanish name. The best part of the class is that only one language is allowed in the classroom: Spanish.

Anyway, just wanted to open the blog and get my first post in. Keep checking for more exciting blogs about my experiences!

¡Hasta luego!