Alyssa Abroad 101
Below is an overview of things I imagine people would be curious about and I will frequently refer to. I will update and add to this post as I see fit. Use the comments to tell me what I’m missing!
Classes
I will be taking a break from my normal Computer Science and Psychology courses this semester, focusing on knocking out some elective requirements. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, either, if I could get better grades than normal to help my not-so-nice GPA.
Two are in Spanish (which I hadn’t spoken since junior year in high school until I took a Spanish conversation class this past Fall). I’m hoping that the immersion will help make those two bearable. They will most certainly be a challenge, but I think most of my peers are study-abroad students and in a similar situation.
-Spanish Culture & Civilization (14 students enrolled): For this one we will be traveling to Andalucia and Asturias, Cantabria, and Leon–two separate trips. Look out for posts on those in the coming months.
-Introduction to Spanish Literature (12 students enrolled)
Two are about Spain, but taught in English.
-The Music of Spain (6 enrolled)
-Art in Latin America (3 enrolled): I’ve never been in a class this small!
And I’m really excited about this last one.
-Approaching the Arts (15 enrolled): This one will include trips to concerts throughout Madrid. Nothing like good old first-hand experience.
Host family
My family lives about 2km from campus (so I can walk, it’s about 20 minutes) and near the Moncloa Metro stop. They have 2 kids (Isabel-18 and Santiago-14), a dog (Lula who likes to steal wrappers from my trashcan and watch my shadow on the wall like it’s a movie), and I have three two other housemates: 2 1 (the other moved to a different house with more of her friends from home) from SLU’s home campus and one from St. Joe’s (in Philadelphia).
What I Packed
I am armed with:
-A new SLR (aka “real”) digital camera, thanks to lots of saving and a combination of Birthday and Christmas money from my family. I have two different lenses, too.
-Oodles of medical supplies
-My favorite granola bars
-Mini Swedish Fish, Cinnamon FireBalls, and one pack of gum (reported to be not very good in Spain, but I decided to go cold turkey and not stock up on gum)
-A host gift (book with pictures of Philly that I can use to tell stories about where I’m from and they can flip through if they ever want to remember me)
-Homemade swirled chocolate chip chocolate cookies because, though the chocolate and desserts themselves in Spain are supposed to be way better than ours, cookies are just not the same. I hear that it’s also tricky to find some of the main ingredients of homemade ones—like brown sugar—so I took up the suggestion from one veteran SLU student to bring them to share with my family. (Update: The family loved these. Santi ate three within 10 minutes of me giving them the gift, the third one done ever so manipulativly and against his parents’ strict No’s…what a 14-year-old boy.)
-My trusty laptop and an interesting contraption to convert voltage/power.
-USB phone for Skype calls to the States.
-iPod
-Pile of Europe and Spain travel books. Hopefully they will come to some use. If not, I just discovered wikitravel.
-Not very much clothes, as I didn’t have a lot of room and it’s a great reason to make sure I look like a Spaniard (though, I think the red hair will be enough of a giveaway).
-My teddy bear from my brother, fully accessorized with a University of Michigan t-shirt.
-New glasses (due to unforeseen circumstances at the lab shipping my lenses, this was not realized…what luck I have) from my most recent appointment. Supposedly I’m only 20/30, but I feel much more blind than that walking around. I guess it would help if I actually wear my glasses.
-Shoes: new everyday sneakers (thanks to UPS, I’ve now got an urgent mission in Spain), running shoes, old pair of shoes (for the hiking orientation trip), slippers, and flip-flops.
-Odds and ends for personal products. They’re very expensive in Spain, but I’m intentionally going to run out of a number of items so I will be forced to clean myself and smell like a Spaniard.
-My Nalgene water bottle
-My beloved electronic Spanish-English translator.
And I fit all of this in one rolling dufflebag, a backpack, and medium rolling suitcase. We’ll see what I end up with when I return.
Hola! Just wanted to say I hope you have an absolutely wonderful time. The blog’s a great idea! I signed up for the email thing, so looking forward to hearing more about your trip. There’s probably not too much here that I can talk about that would excite you, just offering some friendship from Phila (holla! hola? challah? HOLLA!!!… forget it :-P) Have a wonderful time!!!
Comment by Evan — January 16, 2008 @ 7:08 pm
Hi Alyssa! Wow, Spain! I’ve heard it’s a wonderful place.
My tip: Jordi Savall is having a concert in Madrid on 20 Feb (http://www.alia-vox.com/), which I encourage you to go to! His concert in New York City was the best musical thing I’ve ever been to.
Comment by Ryan — January 16, 2008 @ 8:01 pm
Your semester sounds so exciting!! I’m glad you’re taking time to get elective credits in; what a way to get them done! I know you are going to have an amazing experience in Spain, and I can’t wait for more updates. See if you can put some pictures up here!
Katie
Comment by Katie — January 16, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
Hola Alyssa,
Have a wonderful time and be safe.
I can’t wait to see your adventures each day.
Love
Uncle Russ
Comment by Uncle Russ — January 17, 2008 @ 7:40 am
Hi Alyssa-
Glad you are getting settled in and I’m so excited to hear about your adventures abroad! Have an absolutely fantastic time and let us know if you need anything from here at Penn, I’m happy to organize a care package!
-Michele
Comment by Michele — January 17, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Hi Alyssa!
Nice to hear that you found your way to our continent! Spain is really nice. I can definately recommend you to go to Barcelona - think it must be kind of the perfect city: big, nice architecture and culture, good weather, close to the sea and good shopping :)
You’re always welcome to visit us in Sweden! Especially Stockholm is worth a visit, but you should wait until it gets a little bit warmer and the weather is nicer (unfortunately we don’t have much of real winter this year, mostly grey, rain and 5 C degrees, so it’ll be better…). I just moved to Linköping, which is about 2 hours south-west of Stockholm, so I would be glad to meet you up in our capital.
Have a great time in Spain! Take care.
Comment by Tina — January 17, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
Hi Alyssa,
Good job on this. I’ll comment more when i learn how to do this. right now UR is doing it for me.
Love
Gramma
Comment by Gramma — January 17, 2008 @ 6:21 pm
Hi Alyssa, Nice job on this. I’ll write more when i learn how to do it. Right now UR is doing it.
Love
Gamma
Comment by Gamma — January 17, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Hi Alyssa,
I hope you have a great time in Spain, it sounds so exciting. That’s way more exciting than the stuff we do in school. I loved your reading your blog!
- Eve -
Comment by Eve — January 17, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
Hey,
A. I loved looking at your photos…it’s so easy to find you in photos!
B. I’m glad you’re getting settled.
C. Those courses sound amazing and WOW those are such tiny classes! Good luck on the spanish stuff…you’ll do fine with the immersion.
D. Things here are: well, they’re the same. Voting on the constitution started today..hopefully that’ll pass.
E. Much Love!
PS-I liked the Mummers pictures even if you didn’t especially the ones of the guy with the baby bottle umbrella!
Comment by Jana — January 17, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
Hi Alyssa!!!!
I haven’t had quite the chance to read this yet (just wanted to post a hi =) ) so I don’t know if you posted an address, but please send me an email with a snail-mail addy and I will write you a letter!!!
Have the time of your life m’dear =)
Tiff
Comment by Tiff — January 17, 2008 @ 10:22 pm
Dear Alyssa,
What a great website! I will sign up for the email, as we will really enjoy living vicariously through you and your wonderful months in Spain.
Have a GREAT time - we know you will!!
Lots of love to you, sweetie!
:) Pat, Lori, Sam and Dingo
Comment by Lori Putnam — January 18, 2008 @ 8:17 pm