Today I woke up in SPAIN!

Last night I could hardly sleep a wink. I think I finally went to sleep at one, woke up at five and then not again until 9:45. My internal clock is  TOTALLY wacked out! When I woke up at five I was totally sweating! It was so SO hot in my room. HOW DOES PILAR NOT HAVE AC? no idea. I have a hook behind the door with like 10 scarves hanging from it... Oh how I long for weather to be able to wear those in! I mean, I don't want Wisconsin cold or anything, but haven't I sweat enough in the past five months? I am ready for a little chill! Even Jerusalem got cooler at night than it currently does here. 

I am sure my body will adjust to the temperature and the time schedule soon enough! I woke up and hurriedly took a shower. Miriam blew a fuse with her straightener, freaked Pilar out... she was speaking so fast I could barely understand her! haha Gotta love trying to make American appliances compliant with European voltages and outlets... it scares me. I think she might have blown her straightener up. whoopsie! [she still is hopeful, but I smelled the smoke, I am hoping right along with her though.]

Anyways, I got dressed... Pilar made us breakfast: toast with nutella and warm milk with hot chocolate powder [actually it's just yahoo chocolate milk powder]. haha I am going to GAIN 50 pounds if i eat that every morning. I am pretty sure that every morning we'll have milk and one piece of toast, I asked for peanut butter and a banana. That's a pretty good breakfast, right? Pilar said she likes that too. Perfect. She noticed we both only ate one piece of toast so she's going to modify that! :) I really like her, she's a bit crazy, but fun. 

After breakfast I braided Miriams hair, blew dry [took my life in my own hands hoping that it wouldn't blow a fuse, luckily it worked fine] the top of my hair and we rushed out the door. We were still a little late, but hey... that was pretty good for waking up so late. 

We met our group at the plaza at 11 and took a little walking tour through Alcala. Oh it's just the cutest little town.

This is what I imagine when I think of SPAIN... it's real life, I took this photo. The people live above these little shops. Look at the vines and window planters!!

Here are some old city walls! I am kind of akin to those after 4 months in the Holy Land. The Arabs built these walls! I also saw the site of an old Jewish Synagogue. It made me really happy... I miss Jru. 

See the storks nest atop this wall? Alcala is FAMOUS for their storks. Their nests are EVERYWHERE at the top of buildings. I probably saw 20 today.

This photo describes perfectly this street we were walking down, I didn't edit it or anything. This man was getting creative right on his doorstep and the hugh of the whole street was red! So BEAUTIFUL. I love Spain!!

After we walked through the city and identified our school and museums and churches we should check out we went to the old Universidad de Alcala founded in 1492 by Cardinal Cisneros. It's beautiful. We learned that he was an old man and wanted the university built in his lifetime so he had it build with brick and mud. Later on it was given a stone face to make it more prestigious and beautiful. The church owned the school in that day. Students were only male and were to wear robes and only speak Latin otherwise they were thrown in prison for a couple day... ya, rough I know! Luckily the prison was right on site... so convenient. There are several courtyards to this beautiful building with old arches and gates and theater rooms. 

Our whole group in front of the University. Stole this photo from Julie's facebook... Thanks, Julie!

I am loving the architecture here.

Inside the first courtyard, these used to be classrooms and dormitories, now they're just offices.

Alex and I in front of the school...

Gate in second courtyard, back in the day it opened and led to markets [oh and the jail].

3rd courtyard. 

Arches in the 3rd courtyard, there is so much detail, look at the ceiling, it's so textured and pretty.

The ceiling in the room where they had shows and where PHD students defended their thesis... if they passed the three day examination they had a fiesta, inviting the whole town. If they failed... there was a public humiliation ceremony. ... these people didn't mess around.

Scale model of the city of Alcala... two weeks ago I was looking at scale models of Jerusalem... I can't believe I am here.

The school is not built like American Universities, it is spread all throughout the town. I like that better. Alcala is on the map because of this university and there are traces of it on almost every street! This is such a beautiful place. I feel so blessed to be here! Life is really good.

Saludos de Espana

Hey Everyone!

I am HERE! I am in SPAIN! In Dallas I met up with a girl named Hope from my group, but we weren’t sitting next to each other on the flight. Luckily, I sat next to the nicest girl, Meg, who was also going to study abroad. She is studying in Ohio at Dennison? Anyways, after the flight we went through border control, got our passports stamped, picked up our bags and whizzed past customs. Why did I think it would be so hard? It was SO easy. Really nice, new airport too.  I guess my only other experience would be Turkey and Israel and Jordan which were all hard and took forever. Our teacher and his wife were waiting outside for us when we walked through customs.

This was in the morning, look how cool the clouds look over the ocean! This is like hour 6.5 of this 8 hour flight.

          

Meg and I on the flight... I am SO happy I sat next to her. We def look like we were on a plane for hours and hours.

Hope and I riding the tram to get our luggage. We're in SPAIN!

We drove to Alcala to the Plaza and met our host families there. We are living with a nice lady named Pilar. She lives in on the second floor of nice apartments and guess what? She hates the elevator too… so we loaded it with our stuff and took the stairs. That’s my kind of lady. [It’s one of those small closet like elevators that they prefer in Turkey. Eek. No thanks.] She talks so fast. I try to catch everything, but sometimes I get nothing. My roommate, Miriam is really nice, but kind of mute. I actually think she knows more words than me, but she doesn’t understand too well. SO I feel like a missionary all over again. Seriously. I do all the talking. I am kind of struggling a little with their accents; I guess I will get soon enough. Sometimes I don’t know the word their saying, at all. But, I like it, it’s like figuring out a puzzle every time someone speaks… I said “ahorrita” about something when we were eating lunch and she asked me if I was from Mexico! Haha She said I speak like a South American. Whoopsie! She liked it though; she lived in Argentina for like 5 years. The word should just be “ahora” but in South America they use “ahorrita” to mean right this second, like now instead of when you feel like it which is more of the meaning of ahora or so I was taught.

We’ve unpacked and she made us lunch pasta and some salad with oil and vinegar dressing and some tuna in it] and now it’s time for a siesta… its 6 am at home [3pm here] and I haven’t slept since yesterday.  I was falling asleep eating lunch. I am a big fan of this siesta business.

I can tell I am going to like it here. It’s SO cute! Alcala is cute, our host is so cute, the people in general here are cute and so friendly with each other, the buildings are cute… cute, cute, cute.

On the way to her house, we walked from the Plaza to her apartment; we stopped at the grocery store to get some food. It was the tiniest little market. Miriam and I waited in the front with our luggage and we nearly blocked the entire entrance. Everyone said hi to us and talked to us, I felt like I was in the scene of a movie. Two little white girls completely submerged in this culture, standing out like sore thumbs sitting in front of a tiny little market. This guy that was checking out came over and told us he’s from Germany visiting his sister and that we’re going to be totally secluded because we’re living with Pilar and that he could hook us up with our own flat. Hahaha no. thank you. [he was cute though] He shook our hands and left.

Since I just came from Jerusalem I can’t help but compare how I feel. It’s so safe and warm and friendly and becoming here. I mean, I guess it feels more like home. And we’re living in a house, I love it. We have the tiniest little wardrobe on the planet. Remind me to never complain in Provo, again. We made everything fit, though. This apartment is really clean and she’s older so there is lots of art on the walls, paintings all mis matched and hung together and lots of knick-knacks. But, it’s cute. [have I overused that word yet?] There is a nice wrap around porch with a good breeze! Oh ya, and no air conditioning. I don’t think very many people have AC. Everyone has their windows open… I woke up kinda sweaty from my nap, but it wasn’t like uncomfortable, just a little warm. There is still a breeze. I bet it really cools down at night.

I bet you’re wondering why this email is so dang long? Well Pilar keeps saying she’s going to give me the password, then she forgets and starts doing other things. She just came in our room and told me that she’d give me the “clave” like 30 minutes ago. I came out to the kitchen, I am sitting at the table, she’s nowhere in sight. Haha WHERE IS SHE? HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? She’s a really nice older lady and has had lots of students live with her. She loves us, loves to talk to us! [we’re tots  a captive audience] In like a month another student is coming to live here, she will be from Germany. I am excited for that, she’s going to live in the room right next to ours. Cool. [Pilar just walked by, told me her and the cleaning lady are cleaning the lights, she turned off all the power in the house. Hahaha She said, “Un minuto, un minuto mas” as she walked down the hall! GOODNESS GRACIOUS. There is no hurry here, none.]

I really can’t believe I am in Spain. I feel so grateful for this opportunity, I really do. I was sitting on the plane thinking about how two weeks ago I was flying home from Israel. WHAT? I’m Pamella Black, I don’t go to Israel and Spain! I loved my time in the Holy Land, it really was life changing. I am excited to learn new things here in Spain as well.

I love you all! I am grateful for you and for your support!

Love, Pamella

La plaza at night! Everyone is just sitting around and chatting or smoking! This was our first stop on our walk tonight, a great meeting place!

My roommate Miriam and I, we were SO tired and worn out, this was after our like four hour nap!

A different section of the plaza. People everywhere! It was late too, like 9:30 and people [infants to really, really old people] are just getting started!!! 

I'm Here... I am ACTUALLY in SPAIN. I honestly can't believe it.