This Saturday I went to see a castle. My family and I drove for about 30 minutes to town decently close to where I live which had a 15th century castle. This was a castle, the real thing. Of course, the inside had been renovated a little into a museum, but the castle was still there. We walked around and took some pictures and looked over the town surrounding the castle. I took some pictures and here they are:

Today, after I got to school, I found out that my school had a strike. This was a students’ strike. There was some change in the college system that someone didn’t like so they decided to not go to school. This is generally just an excuse to miss school. But it is seemingly well organized, and classes either skip or come as a whole. My class came as a whole. I didn’t see any other students from our grade at the school, and only a few from the grade below us. It was a pretty relaxed day with one professor not coming, and another not having us do anything. In the class next to mine, no one came. I didn’t notice anyone talking about the strike yesterday, so I am not sure how they all orchestrated skipping together while in my class everyone came. Another day in Spain.

In school I am with the same group of students in the same room for nearly all of my classes. There is another group of students that are next door to us and both groups co-mingle a lot. The English professor, Ramon, for the other group was ecstatic the first time he met me and he invited me to his class. I have gone a few times. I help him out a little and he will help me with Spanish. He is the one who organizes a two-week exchange with a school in Massachusetts. However, he wanted to learn more about how I was here for an entire year. So he invited me to lunch. After school on Monday we went to a restaurant for lunch and he spoke to me in English and I spoke to him in Spanish. It is very likely that everyone who heard us that we were crazy.

It was a little different than usual because I actually knew what I was having for lunch. Usually, I just order and enjoy without completely knowing what I am eating. I enjoyed talking with him and learning that he speaks like five languages fluently. After lunch he helped me with some Spanish questions that I had about reflexive pronouns and indirect and direct object pronouns. These are quite peculiar and I still don’t feel completely sure with them. He would like to meet with me weekly and help me with Spanish every week. I think that this could be very helpful for rolling out some of the kinks that I have with Spanish. Plus, when the students from Massachusetts come, I can go with them and Ramon on some trips to Madrid.

Today we had some family over for lunch. Having some people over for lunch is a little different here though. Last night my host father began making the Paella. Then, this morning he started up again and was cooking away for a few hours. We had six other people come and join us making a table of 11. For La Comida, lunch, you have a first course, and a second course. The second course was the Paella, a huge plate full of it that would be a normal sized meal in the States. However, here, before that, we had an entire first course of a mix of different little dishes. And, of course, after the Paella we had a desert of some cake. I think we were eating for about 2 hours. The following 2 hours are just hanging around the house talking, relaxing, and digesting the mountain of food we had consumed earlier. It took another hour for the guests to actually leave. It is like a game of telephone where they slowly relay the message that they are leaving and an hour later, it actually is clear what was said. So, the “coming for lunch” was a 5 hour function. I enjoyed it very much. I really like the way that Sundays are very family oriented and very relaxed and not rushed.

While the Paella was being made I watched a little of the process and learned some Paella trivia. The word Paella actually means the big round pan that it is served in. The full name is Rice in a Paella, but the rice part has been lost. Additionally, the origin of Paella is from Valencia which either has the best rice in Spain, or grows the most, or both. I am not sure, so don’t hold my word on this one. It also contains Azafran, Saffron in English, which is very important for the taste and color. Also, I was told that Saffron is more expansive that Heroin. It cost around 5 Euros for a box that seemed empty with 60mg of Saffron. I will upload some pictures of the Paella and it being cooked in the days to come.

After our guests had left I watched a game of soccer and continued to lounge around the house with my host family. I feel like all I did today was eat and lounge. And so therefore, it was a good day!

So, I have done a terrible job of writing blogs this last week. The elections were quite exciting for me here considering that it was the first time that I ever voted, and my candidate won. Here in Spain the people are very informed about the U.S. political scene. McCain and Obama were on the news quite a lot in the days preceding the election, and afterwards everyone knew about it. In the States most people are completely oblivious to the elections in other countries. Generally, people are pretty provincial and don’t think about much besides their own life country. I met someone for the first time a few days after The News and she told me that Obama winning was good news. That is the opinion that I have been getting pretty generally around here: people are glad that Obama won. I think this is really important to show the world that we want to change our foreign affairs. Because in the past years, I think Americans have had a negative image. Hopefully this will change in the following four years.

Unfortunately, because of the time change, I didn’t have the endurance to stay up until 5AM when the election news came through. So I woke up at 6AM turned on my computer, and saw the results.

Today I had my first non-science test in Spain. It was a history test covering Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. The format was fierce: 15 time period/topics (such as Economical, Social and Demographic Crisis in the Middle Ages) and you needed to write about 10 of them. There were no multiple choice questions, or more specific questions to provide you with some information to extract how to spell names, or help you remember terms. Only the brief time period and possibly the part of it that should be discussed. The test ran for about an hour and 10 minutes with my peers writing frantically for all of it. At the conclusion, many were shaking and massaging their writing hands in pain.

In Spain the grading system is from 1-10 which directly represents your percentage in the class. 5 is passing, 7 isn’t bad, and 8 or 9 is very good. 10 is rare and exceptional. The system is set up this way and the good students who study a lot get notes in the 6-8 or 9 range. In the states the tests are much more easy, with multiple choice questions and more information helping you remember what to write about. However, in this U.S. system a 9 or 10 is good, and common as a A or B. And 70%, a C is quite bad. Well, quite bad unless it is in a Advanced Placement class. I would suppose that when you subtract the language as a difficulty the system here would be comparable to taking all or almost all Advanced Placement tests.

On the other hand, in the states understanding the concepts, not only being able to solve problems associated with them is sometimes stressed more. In a month and a half I haven’t done any labs in my Physics or Chemistry courses. In the states many labs are used to help students understand the material. I think here it is all about being able to solve problems associated with them.

I am not sure how difficult college is going to end up being at Wesleyan University, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I passed all my classes my first year. In the states that is the standard, and if you don’t at least pass your classes you might not be allowed to continue. In public universities, more about public vs. private later, in Spain your first year you only need to pass 1 class to be allowed to continue. Out of the generally 6 classes you take a course, less than 5% percent pass them all. To repeat, 95% of students in public universities in Spain fail at least one class their first year. Wow! If students in universities are similar to students in my school here than I will feel confident saying that college is hard here. However, if you can afford a private university, it is very easy to pass, but you have to pay. Public universities cost around $1000-1,500 per year, and while most students live at home the total cost of going to college drastically cheaper than in the United States.

Officially, Halloween in Spain doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, I didn’t have school on Friday. For Spaniards, it seems more like an excuse to party, not that they need one. On Halloween my family had a party for my little host brother, Nacho, who is 10, and his friends. They went trick or treating, although in Spain it is called “Truco o Trato.” The party was very similar to the parties that I have seen in the States. After this I went with some friends to Madrid. On the train and subway we saw many interestingly dressed figures. But other than dressing up, there isn’t much else different for Halloween.

While, I can actually see who the number of unique visitors that come to this blog I don’t really know who you are. I think considering the circumstances of where I am, far, and where you probably — remember, I don’t know who you are exactly, oh the beauty/creepiness of the internet– are, in the States, I think it is far to saw that it is easier for you to vote than for me. But, really, the point I am trying to make is that it doesn’t matter how easy it is, you still have to do it. I have received my absentee ballot, selected my candidates, and sent it back across the seas to the States. If I can and have voted from here, you can and should vote and make sure everyone you know if following the same advice. Just think, well, if Evan did it, so can I. And why don’t you do it today, if you are in Oregon, and not wait to the last minute in case something comes up.

If you don’t know where to drop off your ballot you can easily punch in your street address at the following Web page to get directions:

Vote For Change

If you are needing some inspiration for a reason to vote, you can find that here.

Victor Wooten, the legendary bassist, well maybe not legendary, but very awesome bassist, is playing tomorrow in Madrid. I have been talking with some other exchangers who live nearby Madrid also if they would be interested in going to see him with me. I found some other people who wanted to go and only needed to get tickets. At first, I wasn’t even sure if I could get tickets before hand, or just at the door. The website for the venue where he is playing is completely in Spanish and even in Spanish contains no useful information. I eventually found a place to get tickets from Wooten’s band website. This sent me towards a Spanish ticket service website. This website only half worked and after trying to buy tickets it would stop loading. Having built websites I have both a greater appreciation of well designed and functional websites, and a harsher wraith towards the contrary. This was one of the latter. After my second attempt to buy tickets online I was about to give when I saw a phone number. So at 11:30 at night I find myself speaking Spanish and trying to explain my predicament with the woman on the other line. She seems to understand me completely and checks to see if the previous purchases online worked, they didn’t. So I ask if I can buy tickets with her, and I can. So I go through the usual steps of giving my credit card information spelling out my name, Evan Carmi isn’t very common in Spain, and asking where to pick up my tickets. It is possible that I will have a nasty surprise waiting for me tomorrow instead of tickets, and the knowledge that I should study a little more Spanish, but hopefully that won’t be the case. So now, I will go to bed feeling quite happy and successful that I managed to buy tickets over the phone completely in Spanish.

My school here in Spain has one club. The Club of Mountains. They go on hikes. Today they had their first trip of the year, and I went along. We all took the train for about 30 minutes to Navecerrada and began our hike. After about 2 hours we had reached a platueau of sorts. A clearing with some nice trees and rocks to sit on. There we had lunch. After lunch we formed a circle and all the new hikers had to introduce themselves (me included) and say something about what we/they liked. The English teacher who had told me about the hiking trip had brought a multitude of chocolate and that was passed around as every had their share and a half of chocolate. After some more hanging out on the plateau, we started the descent down. This was first a trail, then a gravel road, then a real road, and eventually right into town and to the train station from which we returned to Villalba.