Favorites: La Plaza de Cervantes

“Give me a clear day in the Plaza, a classic novel, and a pastry and I am content.”

I haven’t quite found the perfect “spot” yet, but the Plaza de Cervantes might make it to the top of my list by spring.

Walking home from school one day I found myself smiling as I walked by the Plaza and so I quickly took a snapshot of what I saw. Bundles of grandpas. Apparently, it is a typical social event to take a stroll in the plaza with some good amigos sometime right around siesta (2 to 5 p.m.). The awesome hats that these caballeros wear make me so happy.

Something else that endears me to the Plaza is this little treasure found across the street. There are dozens and dozens of pastelerias here and I have had to resist many times. I came here the first day I was in Spain and I think I have been back too many times for my own good. It’s a mystery how Spaniards stay thin with all these temptations. (Lauren and I have attributed it to tons of walking and smoking cigarettes.)

Don’t you love the name? Salinas. I really think it was fate that this little pastry shop has walked into my life. Maybe I’m just embracing my roots because I grew up in Salina. I can’t remember the names of all the goodies I’ve tried, but I will have to take some close-ups and make a list of names. I will also somehow become friends with the pastry guys behind the scenes so I can get an exclusive tour on how they make these little bits of bliss. Wouldn’t that be neat?!

NEW BLOG DAWG

Yeah, so if you haven't noticed yet, I don't post on this blog anymore. My new blog is called A Solitary Carnival so the site is www.asolitarycarnival.blogspot.com. It's fun!

Madrid Temple

A few of us went to visit the temple in Madrid one day. It was a refreshing sight among the tall apartment building. We are planning a trip to go do baptisms soon.

Beginnings: El Autobús

¡Oh how I love public transportation!

Without the mountains along the Wasatch front I have been somewhat disoriented and inevitably Lauren and I have gotten ourselves confused and lost many times. Our host “mom,” Elena Perez, and her son, Carlos, tried to explain to us many times the routes to different places, but of course we just nod our head like we have understood and once again find ourselves on the wrong bus and end up walking. I think we have finally found some sort of routine to at least get to school. The 6 in the morning and the 5 in the afternoon. Most of the other students live very close to school, church, and the train station, compared to us and are able to walk most places. Lauren and I are planning on walking when the weather gets better.

Coming home from Madrid for the first time we rode the bus for almost an hour with no idea where we were. At every bus stop we would ask each other if we should get off or not. We rode the bus to the end of the route and had to ask the bus driver for help. Because we are both not fluent enough to even ask how to get home, talking to the bus driver included a lot of pointing on our already tattered map. We were so close to calling a taxi and spending a ridiculous amount of money when we could have been a few minutes from our house. It was a miracle that we even made it home!

I think most of the bus drivers in Alcalá have noticed that 22 crazy American students have invaded their city and that we will need a while to get adjusted. I really don’t mind riding the bus and train though. It is interesting to see all the different people and to listen to the other passengers and try to figure out what they are saying.

By the way, plan on walking when it snows in Spain. The whole bus and train system was delayed when it snowed and it was scary to watch the tiny European cars slip and slide and the streets.

Beginnings: Alcalá

My first day in Alcalá some of us went to the Plaza de Cervantes to explore. Although my ears, toes, and nose were numb with the cold, I loved the atmosphere of the Plaza and the beautiful old buildings surrounding it.

The trees look rather odd right now because they have no leaves.

Calle Mayor with Christmas lights still up. This is one of the main shopping areas and centers of the night life in Alcalá.

We visited the house where Cervantes was born.

The court yard inside the casa was pretty neat.

Me encanta the cobblestone roads.

The university is very old, some say it has been here for over 5 million years. (Okay, I forgot the exact age, but work with me here.)

This is a courtyard inside this section/division of the university. As you can see, the snow is still here for a while.

Ximenez de Cisneros

Try to read this!

I love that there are classic American movie posters everywhere in the halls of Alcalingua.

Look closely and you can see the storks and their nests on top of these towers in Alcalá.

Beginnings: Our Home in Alcalá

We live in a suburb of Madrid (about 30 minutes away by bus and train) called Alcalá de Henares. It was the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes and is known as a university town. Good thing I read Don Quixote two summers ago because many of the murals, statues, and street signs reference characters and places in the book. We attend school at the Universidad de Alcalá, in the Alcalingua program, which offers language courses and Spanish culture courses. Monday through Thursday we attend classes from 9 until about 1 p.m. and then for the rest of the day we have time to explore, be good students and study, go shopping, take dance classes, eat, take fiestas, go to Madrid and different cities, or just relax. On the weekends we have trips planned to see all around Spain, including Aranjuez, Toledo, Granada, Sevilla, Italica, Cordoba, Segovia, El Escorial, Barcelona, Tarragona, Pamplona, Bilbao, Avila, Salamanca, Santiago, León, Penafiel, Coca, and even Portugal. We also have three free weekends to go to wherever we would like to go.

Beginnings:The Flight

A six hour wait in the airport, got to love it! (Don't look too closely, I didn't have my luggage overnight with me so I was wearing the same clothes for three days and I had none of my makeup.)

Atlanta was cloudy and rainy most of the day while I was waiting for the next flight.


Moved up to first class.

I was grateful for the leg room and free orange juice. The guy sitting next to me really liked the free champagne.

I really liked the appetizers.

There was no way I was going to abstain from eating chocolate this year. Spain is all about chocolate every day.

My first glimpses of Spain from the airplane.

There were so many orange orchards and olive orchards dotting the countryside. I was suprised by the mountains and the colors.

Some of the Christmas Break...

Okay, so I kept on trying to get Siena to talk but she does nothing without a little incentive.... so I let her hold the camera. You'll see the funny stuff she tries with it. Man, Staz! I love your baby!

Chad did, fortunately, make it down alive....
and then attacked Harper on his way up...

(Hey momma sita, thanks so much for the secret favor! Okay, it's not secret but now that I said it is, it is.)
So.... the moral of the story is: Smile lots and lots and maybe the smile will eventually get back around to me and I'll smile back and it'll get back to you!

Joy in the Journey

And what a journey it has been so far!

I left Provo early Monday morning and flew out of Salt Lake Airport at 9:35 a.m. to Atlanta Georgia. I was finally able to board the plane at 5:50 p.m. to Madrid after a three hour layover in Atlanta. (It still didn’t all seem real to me that I was leaving the country at this point.) We were scheduled for take-off at 6:40 p.m. Around 7:00 p.m. one of the flight attendants asked me for my boarding pass. At 7:10 p.m. I was in tears watching the plane take off without me.

I’m still not quite sure how it all happened, but there was a mistake because my seat had been duplicated and the plane was completely full. They gave me a nice hotel room and rebooked my flight for the following day. And the best part is that I had been moved up to first class! I’ll admit that I had a mental and emotional breakdown initially, but the tender mercies from the Lord outweighed the confusion, the frustration, and pretty much the whole inconvenience.

The first tender mercy was when I recognized another student, Kami, who was flying with me to Atlanta and then to Madrid. The second and third tender mercies were sitting by some of the very nicest people on my way to Atlanta and to Madrid. That’s a whole other blog post on it’s own.

Another blessing was the Bible in my hotel room. Never before had I been more grateful to see a bible in a hotel room! Of course I had Internet access to the scriptures online, but the sight of that bible was comforting and the reminder I needed to gain perspective on my dilemma.

Once again I knew that the Lord was watching out for me because I happened to open to the book of Esther in the Bible. In my English 350: The Bible as Literature class this past semester we able to study this book along with other women in the Bible such as Ruth. I gained a great love for these women of faith and great courage. I cannot begin to compare myself to Esther, but I had hope that I could face my fears of insecurity for the rest of my trip and study abroad.

A phrase I heard many times while travelling with my mother and grandmother in Pennsylvania and Delaware popped into my head as I was waiting for my shuttle to the hotel. It was, “We are not lost, we’re just on an adventure!” This was a tender mercy as I tried to assume the twinkling smile and hearty chuckle, which came with this genuine attitude and character of my dear grandma.

I found bits of joy at the airport while watching children play and talking to other people waiting in lines. Boy are there some very interesting people in this world!

While in Atlanta I saw part of the season premiere of “True Beauty,” which helped me to embrace my natural, inner beauty the following morning when I found myself with no luggage, including all my clothes, toiletries, and yes, makeup.

Many have asked me why I decided to go to Madrid for a study abroad. At first I wondered myself why I would choose to put literally my entire life savings into this and add another semester onto my education. Why? Well, um… I’ve always wanted to do a study abroad, it will help me to learn Spanish better, and because it counts toward my minor. These answers never seemed sufficient, they never got at the main reason I came on this adventure. When I began to make my resolutions for the New Year, I felt that this year would be one of much growth and learning. To learn and to grow. Those are my goals for my time in Spain. When I was taken off the plane, it was like the Spirit said to me, “You wanted to learn and grow? Well, here is your first challenge.”

When I left my application interview for the program I said something quite unexpected to Dr. Brown, our program director. It was, “I think this will probably change my life in many small ways.” Many of you know that I have the most extraordinary talent for saying some pretty cheesy, lame, and absolutely foolish things sometimes. This was one of those times. However, now that I look back on what I said, maybe it wasn’t such a stupid thing to say. For one thing, it was truth, because I feel a change already.

(I wish I could add my photos to this post, but it seems like Blogger is acting up. I will try again tomorrow as well as posting more about my arrival and introduction to Spain.)