The Way of St. James / El Camino de Santiago

The Camino de Santiago was one of the best experiences of my life and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go. The Camino was a 10 day trip of bike riding and backpacking through the mountains and along the coast of Northwestern Spain. It included breathtaking views of the ocean, crossing through beautiful hidden towns, riding up and down adventurous trails, intense exercise, and making new best friends for life. The satisfaction of finally reaching our destination at the holy city of Santiago de Compostela is one that cannot be expressed in words, only feelings. I plan to return one day to complete the entire Camino again, but next time beginning in France.

Andrea Bergen

The Camino de Santiago was like an extended field-trip that involved extreme physical exercise, a demand for Spanish outside of the classroom, and an understanding of the historical and literary importance of the journey. But it also included experiences of making absolutely incredible friends, seeing beautiful parts of Spain that i otherwise wouldn’t have seen, and an even greater appreciation of the language/food/culture. I would ecstatically reccommend the Camino to anybody–i’m even thinking of doing the extended camino again with my family!!

Kim Forster

Internships

This semester, I have interned at La Corredoría Secondary School and have really enjoyed it. Secondary school in Spain has students who are ages 12-16. Every Tuesday from 8:30-11:30, I go to different classrooms and help the teachers with their English lessons. Sometimes I assist with the lesson, but more often I work in groups of 2-3 students, conversing in English. The teachers are great and always chat with me about their classes, my school work, and where I have traveled. It is honestly one of the best parts of my week because the kids are eager to talk to me and are so nice. They truly ask me the best questions.

The first couple of times I was there, I was asked many questions about life in America. My favorite questions that I have been asked have been how much a Big Mac costs, if it’s true that Americans only eat junk food, if we throw our caps in the air at high school graduation, and what was different about life in England from Spain (right after they were told that I was from the United States!).

I am an International Studies and Spanish major and I did not think I would ever want to teach. However, after this semester, I am very interested in looking into some programs where I could teach English in a Spanish speaking country such as Spain or somewhere in Central or South America.

Katie Koffman

My practicas at IES EL PANDO, a highschool is great. I help with Bachiller 3, which is with 17 and 18 year olds and like AP english and also with Level 2 with 14 year olds. Both classes are great and it is really fun to do activities with the students. The teachers actually turn the class completely over to me and leave the room so the students will be more outgoing and not worry about messing up in front of their teacher, and I even get to make my own lesson plan so it is like I am student teaching! It is wonderful and the kids are always excited to see me and talk to me.

Sarah Kruse

In my internship I am working in La Escuela Inmaculada with 2 groups of students on Tuesdays and with a teacher on Thursdays. It is only 3 hours a week, but I work with Technologies, Natural Sciences, and Arts. In the art class, I work one on one helping the teacher prepare her English lesson plans because the school offers a bilingual education program. I also taught my students in the technologies class how a computer works in English. It was very difficult, but I really enjoyed being able to get up in front of a group of students and teach. It has been a really great opportunity.

Amanda Yantis

My favorite class at my internship at a high school here in Oviedo is a roomful of 16 year-olds. We basically talk for the entire class period; they first ask me questions, which leads into a discussion, which leads to me asking them questions. They’re really inquisitive and quite intelligent, for instance, during my first day we had a debate about school uniforms. Their favorite topics to discuss are cheerleaders, guns, school dances, music, sports, going out, and other topics that they see in movies…

Kim Forster

For my “prácticas,” I go to high school English classes once a week for a few hours. The first few weeks I was there either for the students to ask me questions about myself or just to observe how the Spanish classroom works. That was cool because it gave me a sense of the differences (and believe me, there are plenty!) between the American and the Spanish classroom culture. Now I’m actually teaching lessons every time I go. The lessons are on pretty general topics, like American sports or American foods, but it is still great practice for preparing a lesson and actually carrying it out. My favorite part is getting to see a bunch of different classes with various English language levels because each one presents its unique set of challenges and easy parts. I also feel like I’m actually doing something with these classes, not just being a blowoff presentation for the students. In fact, the other day I was able to get one student to talk in class and ask a question, something that he apparently has not done voluntarily this entire school year before now! I was a little unsure about doing the prácticas, but now I am so glad that I have because I feel like it has been a great experience for all of those involved.

Laurie Jacob

Cultural trip

Friday, March 18 – Salamanca

Today is the first day of our cultural trip. I was very excited when we arrived in Salamanca. It’s because my Art professor talks a lot about the architecture and history of Salamanca, so I was waiting to apply what I learned in class, in Oviedo. Salamanca is famous for the skull that has a frog on top on the façade of Salamanca University. I was the first student that found the frog. You can’t imagine how excited I was at that moment. I was interested in the façade of the New Cathedral, because I knew that there was an astronaut and a dragon that is eating a three-ball ice cream. And indeed, there they were. Original, without doubt.

Students in front of the façade of the University of Salamanca

今天是我们文化之旅的第一天。当我们到达萨拉曼卡的时候我非常的兴奋。因为我的艺术课老师讲过很多有关萨拉曼卡的建筑和历史，所以我一直想亲眼看看。萨拉曼卡以萨拉曼卡大学正门墙上带青蛙的头颅而出名。我是第一个找到那个头颅的学生。你们无法想像我当时有多激动。我对新教堂的正门也很感兴趣，我听说上面有一个宇航员和一条吃冰激凌的西方龙。实际上，他们确实存在，一点儿也没错。

Xinru (Penny) Sun

We began our journey in Salamanca in the Plaza Mayor. We had some free time so Laurie Jacob and went exploring together. We walked through the streets we saw the Cathedral and various buildings of the University of Salamanca, which is one of the largest in all of Spain. As we wandered, I noticed that Salamanca was a young city with many people around my age or slightly older and that there was a large mix of different ethnicities of people from around the world due to the University population. This was one of my favorite aspects of the city. Later, we found the statue of Lazarillo and his blind master from the book Lazarillo de Tormes. I thought it was neat to see the statue and the river I had read and written about in prior semester in my Spanish 351 literature class. We also saw the statue of the bull that is also in the story, except I didn’t hit my head on it like Lazarillo.

Katie, Tyler, Michelle, Sarah, Raeanne, and Kelsey

While we were there, we bumped into an elderly man who noticed our American accents when we were speaking in Spanish and told us about several sights he thought we should see. Following his directions we found a pretty garden with a fountain in the middle alongside one of the University buildings. Laurie and I took advantage of the picturesque scenery and the wonderful weather and took several fotos and enjoyed the sun. Our free time ended and we began our group tour around the city. Our guide pointed out many of the miniscule details of the city’s architecture and history, and at times I struggled to pay attention. She showed us the old and new halves of the Cathedral, all of the university, and La Casa de las Conchas and we concluded our day in the bus.

Lauren Jack

Saturday, March 19. Cáceres and Mérida.

After we went to Cáceres, we continued on to Mérida to see the Roman Theater and Amphitheater. I really enjoyed this part of the trip because I took a class on Roman Civilization in my second year at Miami University. It was so nice to finally be able to see what I learned about.

In the theater, I recorded Kelsey and Raeanne singing in front of everyone to see. Milites gloriosi nos saludabant. They did a wonderful job!

Plato would have been pleased with their performance.

Amanda Yantis

Caceres: I liked when the tour guide mentioned that the coat of arms on shields provided people with more information than written words. I hadn’t really thought of how during the time of the middle ages very few people could read and write. This was why I found it interesting to learn that coat of arms used symbols that could communicate to the public in a more effective way than written words. I was also impressed by how almost the entire city is still intact; that the city´s structure continues to be the same as it was 500 or 600 years ago.

Merida: I loved the visit to the amphitheatre and the theatre in Merida. I haven’t seen the movie ¨Gladiator¨so I didn’t know that gladiators were poor people or slaves that would participate in flights to entertain spectators. I also didn’t know that the people of the town (the public) were the ones who determined the final destiny of a gladiator is he asked for mercy.

Michell McVicker

Sunday, March 20. Sevilla

In Sevilla, we went into El Alcázar. Due to its history, this palace exemplifies the christianization of the Arabic style. We spent a while in the garden and then walked around the city center. We stopped for a drink in the Hostelería del Laurel, where the first scene of Don Juan Tenorio takes place. I also tried a pestiño, a typical pastry in Sevilla during Holy Week. Afterwards we went to the cathedral, perhaps the most interesting building that we saw and my favorite of all those we saw. We took a look around it, went up the Giralda, and then some of us went to mass in the Royal Chapel.

Laurie Jacob

Sevilla is a beautiful city and I would like to visit it again in the future. The weather was perfect and I liked that I could wear shorts and a tshirt, something very different that what I could wear in Oviedo right now! I loved the Alcazar and its gardens. The architectures was fantastic. The Arabic and Christian influences formed a very elegant palace, and it was very different than anything that we could encounter in Asturias.

Visit to the Alcázar in Sevilla

The funniest parts of my day were when the boys of our group ate oranges(which are very bitter) out of the trees in the garden against my advice (they didn’t believe me!) and when Tyler received a gift from a bird.

Katie Koffman

Monday, March 21. Córdoba

We spent the fourth day in Cordoba. We visited the Mosque, which I had learned about in my Spanish 351 class. It was interesting because I could personally see what I had learned last semester. (…)

Interior of the Cathedral/Mosque in Córdoba

We then went to Granada at 3:30 and had free time in which I went shopping and ate dinner in an awesome restaurant. They served a lot of delicious food and it didn’t cost very much money. Maybe we will go back tomorrow.

Kelsey Browne

 

Córdoba was just as beautiful as Sevilla. We crossed a Roman bridge to arrive in the old part of the city. There, the streets are very narrow and the buildings are all tall and white. The guide told us that the city was constructed that way to fight against the heat, something that I didn’t know. The guide took us around the city; moreover, we went to Córdoba’s Mosque-Cathedral, which was really beautiful. I loved it. It was very interesting to learn how the Christians partially reconstructed the mosque (a “small detail,” according to the guide) in order to make it a cathedral. I saw the famous horseshoe arches and the mihrab that still remains from the mosque. In my free time, I walked down the tranquil streets of the city and tried the salmorejo, a typical food in Córdoba.

Kelly Ament

Tuesday, March 22. Granada

In the Generalife gardens in Granada

Today we drove from Granada to Toledo – but we stopped during the journey on bus to see the birthplace of Federico García Lorca. Garcia Lorca was a famous intellectual and artist in the Spanish art world, and we talked about him in class when we studied “Un perro andaluz” by Luis Buñuel. There was a museum inside of the house that conserved a large part of the original furniture of his home. There was an exposition in the second floor of the house, where they showed works by modern artists related to the poet in New York. I very much liked the movie that the guide showed us, where we saw images of García Lorca while he directed “La barraca”.

Kim Forster

Today the main thing we did was our visit to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace built by the Muslims living in Granada that was rediscovered by Washington Irving and other writers in the 1800′s. The thing that I liked most about the Alhambra was its mix of architecture and gardens, the coexistence of the artificial and the natural. There is also a beautiful view of the city of Granada from the palace. After the visit, we walked to a part of town which offers a great view of the Alhambra and which apparently has a certain connection to the life of former president Bill Clinton. We took a short break there, and then we split up to eat lunch. During the meal, I had a glass of “fino” wine, a drink that’s typical of the region. After lunch we walked back to the hotel, passing through a series of streets where people were selling Arabic-style products and where there a lot of tea houses.

Andrew Herrick

Wednesday, March 23. Toledo

Sarah and Penny

After a large and delicious breakfast, we took the bus to the city of Toledo from our hotel in the mountains. The first part of the trip was by bus. The guide had to describe the city from the outside before we entered on foot. In Toledo, we went to many places, but the most impressive for me was a painting by El Greco which is entitled “El entierro del Conde de Orgaz. ” The painting was simply overwhelming, but just only a small portion compared to what lay ahead the next day at the Prado in Madrid.

Tiffanie and Veronica

Max Wuesthoff

In the excellent Parador of Toledo hotel, around a beautiful view of the city surrounded by the river, I tasted probably the best breakfast I’ve ever had. There were many choices and I loved them all and ate it all until the crumbs. In our visit I got distracted a lot because Max was drawing the guide and the drawing looked just like him. I liked the aspects of Jewish culture that were found in many of the buildings in Toledo. We finally traveled to Madrid after walking around Toledo all day. I was really excited because it is the capital of Spain and one of my best friends from high school lived there, Pablo.

Tyler Taylor

Thursday-Friday, March 24-25. Madrid

In Madrid I spent all my free time in the art museums, mostly in the Prado Museum. I love making art and going to art museums so this day was absolutely phenomenal. I saw the majority of the most famous Spanish paintings including works by El Greco, Velazquez and Goya. I saw most of these on the guided tour, and later when I had time to explore on my own I discovered a treasure trove of new artists like, Antionio Fabres y Costa, Jose Villegas Corder and Mariano Fortuny. I will never forget the experiences I had today!

Sarah Kruse

Max, MIke and Dylan

Today we explored the Prado. The Prado is enormous and has about 8,600 paintings! We began our tour with the works of art by El Greco. He was the first painter to paint feelings. He is also famous for his paintings of Jesus Christ. Later we saw paints by Diego Velázquez, Goya and Van der Weyden. I had a great time at El Prado and I hope that I can go back to see the other 8,400 paintings I didn’t get to see. After El Prado Laurie, Penny and I explored the Royal Palace. It was incredible! It has giant rooms just for the King to get dressed in. If the King has a huge room to dress himself I can’t imagine the size of his closet.

Raeanne Carella

Saturday, March 26. Ávila

The thing that interested me most in Avila was its famous wall, which was built to protect the city from Moorish attacks. From the top of the wall there is a great view of the Zapatero Mountains in the distance. Another interesting thing about the city that our guide pointed out were the “verracos”: stone statues that are found throughout the city. No one knows exactly why the statues are built, or why there are so many. Our guide told us that they may have simply been landmarks or points of reference, or perhaps they had some magical or religious significance. There are even some verracos built into the wall that surrounds the city.

Dylan Sedam

“The last day of the trip arrived too soon, and although I am excited to get back to my host mother in Oviedo, I already miss our adventures from the trip. I was so sad when I realized that today was my last breakfast with the group in our hotel. It has been the perfect way to start the day each morning! I really enjoyed our guide in Ávila and also sampled the local specialty of the city: las yemas. I didn’t like them as much as the marzapan from Toledo, but they were still delicious! When I went through all my photos from the trip on our way back to Oviedo, I thought back on all the sights we visited during the past week. Without a doubt, it has been the best week since I arrived in Spain. My only regret is that we do not have another nine days to continue the adventure!”

Sarah Lechleiter

Traveling

Students in the program have had plenty of opportunities to travel around Spain. They have discovered nearby places with buildings dating back many centuries, beautiful mountains, and sandy beaches.

Sarah and Raeanne at the San Lorenzo beach in Gijón

They have also traveled north and south, east and west, discovering the diversity of the Spanish culture, from industrial Gijón to sunny Nerja or Frigiliana, from the Castillian sobriety of  León, to the modern feel of Barcelona.

Frigiliana

And they’ve even had time to travel abroad! See our adventurous students on a camel ride in Morocco!

Dinner in Tetouan

Amanda, Tyler and Laurie in Morocco

Yet traveling is not only about visiting important historical landmarks or impressive architectural sites. It is also about participating in the life of the people who live here.

Ryan, Penny, Lauren and Michael during the Carnival in Tenerife

And that’s what some students did when they traveled to Tenerife in the Canary Islands to join in the carnival celebrations or when they cheered for the local team in an exciting soccer game.

Raeanne and Michael in "El Molinón" soccer stadium before the game

Food

The food in Spain is amazing and my host mom, Berta, is a great cook! She has made soups, the Spanish tortilla, steak and potatoes, eggs over easy with hotdogs, and chicken. Tonight was a bit stranger. We had fish and it still had its head! I felt like the kid in A Christmas Story when they’re eating dinner at the Chinese restaurant and the duck still had its head. The fish was pretty good tasting except I kept eating tiny bones…ew!

Cider is very popular here in Oviedo. It’s their specialty drink and they have cider shops or siderías everywhere. You want a sidería you don’t have to walk very far. If someone were to ask you where you were and you responded by a sidería they would never find you because there is literally a sidería on every block. It’s fun to watch the waiters pour the cider because they hold the bottle way up in the air and try to pour it into the cup. It makes a mess but it’s fun to watch. The cider is mixed with alcohol too so I think they pour it this way so you don’t get too much cider in your cup.

I’m proud of myself because I’ve tried everything that has been put in front of me. I’m not sure if it’s because we eat at bizarre times like 9pm for dinner and 3pm for lunch and I’m starving by then or that I’m actually becoming more adventurous when it comes to food. I’m going to say more adventurous and I hope this can continue when I come back to the U.S.

The other thing that I absolutely love here is churros with chocolate! I’ve had them three times this week haha! Don’t be surprised to see me with tons of pictures with churros and no not all of the pictures are taken on the same day I just buy them a lot!

Raeanne Carella

La llegada / The arrival

I’m finally here! After three flights, about ten hours of flying, and various hours waiting in the airport I made it to my host family’s house. I live with Berta, su marido (husband) Luis, and her 6 year old daughter Claudia. They are so sweet. It’s funny because Berta can’t pronounce Raeanne so she insists on calling me Carella.

I am staying in a tiny but adorable apartment. I have my own room which is really cool. Dad wouldn’t fit because everything is really small here. I’m not sure they know English but I think that’s good so I can really practice my Spanish. The streets are packed with cars and the driving is a bit crazy. Luis scared me a little while we were driving through the streets. Berta says everyone normally walks everywhere and they rarely use their car. The university is not far from our apartment which is good but I’m use to walking far when I lived on good old western. 

They have hosted six girls from me which is nice because they are very accommodating. Berta said that there’s a crisis in Spain so her and her husband are without work but they are hopeful to find work soon (and I am too).

I haven’t met their daughter yet because she’s at her grandparent’s house and I’m excited to get to know her. I am extremely lucky with the host family I got and the apartment we live in.

The scenery is so beautiful here: very green and hilly. When we flew over Oviedo and looked out the window and saw all the hills my friend Amanda said “Toto we’re not in Ohio anymore.” And indeed we are not.

The Miami group is meeting tomorrow morning in front of the famous Cathedral at 11am. My host mom said she’ll accompany me, which is good so I don’t get lost. I can’t wait to hear about other people’s families.

Berta just came in and I think we’re going for a walk around Oviedo. ¡Adios! 

Raeanne Carella

Home

My breath sketched a cloudy imprint of my face on the once spotless glass of the train. I proceeded to clean it off with my sleeve, grainy with marbles of sand from the Mediterranean coast of Barcelona. A few managed to stick, and I chuckled at my absentmindedness. As usual, I had done more harm than good. As the train came to a halt, minutes outside of Oviedo, the first blue lights from the poetic city made the pieces of sand glimmer as if they were still asleep at the mouth of the ocean. I remembered my last moments in Barcelona. I spent them at the beach collecting seashells and eavesdropping on the fisherman’s stories.

After an hour of thoughtless wanderings, I sat on a rock on the edge of shore and watched a blue kite rise and fall gracefully. Suddenly, the wind picked up and the high tide rushed against my bare feet. The kite jolted uncontrollably before my eyes and I felt an inexplicable sadness. From where did this feeling emerge? The answer didn’t come to me at the shore but on an icy morning that caused my breath to sketch a cloudy imprint of my face on the once spotless glass of the train. I realized that I was suffering from a case of homesickness from a place I barely knew.

Although the thought of having a new home away from home made me feel warm inside, I still questioned my own rationality. Could it be that after a month I could call Oviedo my home? My mind wandered back to the beginning of January when I first pressed my face to the glass of the moving train with trembling hands, frightened by the images zooming before me. The city looked like the perfect setting for a horror movie. The darkened narrow streets and decrepit buildings from centuries past seemed fantastical. I felt like Little Red Riding Hood when she perceived for the first time that her defenseless grandmother was –in reality- a sneering wolf who would surely gobble her up. The Oviedo I saw that morning in the window was surely not anything like the beautiful images I had seen on my computer screen from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a nightmare coming alive in the glass.

Fortunately, this nightmare was temporary, and since then I have come to appreciate the warm reality of Vetustian life. Just after a mere weekend in the bustling city of Barcelona, I could hear the voices of my new home beckoning me like a beautiful symphony. I longed for the many ta luegos from friends in the streets on my way to the university and my host mom’s voice echoing through my bedroom door. I wondered about the many people who frequented her bar to simply drink a café solo or clara and talk about their lives without a hint of prisa. After feeling so small in the vastness of the Barcelonan streets, I missed the symbolic mystery of Oviedo and the welcoming smile of her people who lend me their ears when I go on my rants about love, literature or spurts of depression

On my second arrival to Oviedo, I felt confident. I quickly descended from the train towards the light of daybreak. I glided across the recently washed cobble streets with the calm stride of someone who knows their place within a city. I silently observed the movements that defined Oviedo’s elegant dance. The dark- haired waiters begun to arrange the tables in their respective plazas, the ancianos waltzed with their hands behind the backs staring out into the familiarity of the years, young African men walked briskly about with their book-bags full of movies and music and the aromas of fresh bread and cafe filled my lungs. I stopped in the middle of the street and lit a cigarette as the city awakened. The red light from my cigarro was overshadowed by a strange illumination of being home for the first time.

Tiffanie Rae