Classes Cake and Culture Shock

CLASSES
I started classes at the University on Monday, and they’ve been…different. The professor who was 20 minutes late on Monday due to the metro didn’t show up at all on day two…apparently due to car troubles. Nonetheless classes have been interesting and I am meeting new people! I am taking History of Theater and the professor seems really cool. He’s short and has white hair and for some reason reminds me of a leprechaun. I’m also taking Regional Geography, the prof is a little dry but I think it’ll be a great class to take here because it will cover so much I don’t know! And I’m also taking History of Latin America and that professor is a good lecturer, really easy to follow, and interesting. Although it may not seem like it, all these classes are in the Humanities department!

I found out today that nobody eats in class – not because I just noticed it, but rather because the History of Latin America professor was talking about cultural differences and pointed out the “content American in the back eater her sandwich” and how nobody eats in class here but it’s very acceptable in the US. Pretty sure my face was red the next hour and a half…
There are quite a few differences between school here and school in the US. For one, not only is it ok to arrive late to class, but it’s the norm. I got to class at 8:58 am, rushing to make sure I wasn’t lat on my first day, and I showed up to a dark empty room. I thought it had been canceled! By 9:15 most people were there and the professor began. And when people come in late and the prof has begun, whether it’s 10, 15 or 20 min late, they always say hello and greet the professor! I guess interruptions are the norm. People also leave the room to answer their phones, or they just leave. They get up and say “sorry, I have to go” – announcing it to the world – and walk out! I’ll have to try that during a particularly boring lecture one day…

I’ve met a few people this week and I hope the number grows! A Spanish girl started talking to me in class the other day (waiting for the professor who never showed) and we talked for like 20 minutes, so I hope we keep doing so! She was really nice and has traveled to California so we had some things in common. I have also met a few international students in my classes; Federica from Italy and Coralie from France are a lot of fun and really nice so I’m excited about forming new friendships! I played volleyball with the boy’s school team yesterday and met the guys and Marian, who plays on the girl’s team but was practicing with them yesterday. Afterward I grabbed a bite to eat with Tomas and Marian and talked to them about volleyball and school and life. They are both really nice but it was hard to joke around and be “fun” because I’m still in the phase of searching for words and so it’s hard to just say exactly what I want right away. Nonetheless I have some more Spanish contacts and wills see them more, so I hope those are some more friendships in the making!

CAKE
It was the birthday of one of the guys in our program the other day, so I decide I would bake a cake instead of buy one, after all I love baking and it would be cheaper and fairly easy, right? So wrong. It turned out to be quite the experience. I first had to find a recipe I could cook, that didn’t have nuts as one person has allergies, which was difficult in and of itself. I’m pretty sure nobody in Spain knows what chocolate cake is. Don’t get me wrong, this country has great tapas and salty foods-but when it comes to sweets, Spain is lacking. So anyway once I finally found a recipe I had to translate all the measurements and ingredients so I could bake it. The recipe called for the usual: flour, sugar, eggs , vanilla extract, cocoa powder and for the topping (directly translated) “bar of chocolate of cup and 1 can of condensed milk”. What did that mean? What size bar? What size can? In the US it would be obvious, but the sizes are different here! And what is bar of chocolate of cup? And is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk? So many doubts…after talking with my host mom I figured out that the chocolate is bakers chocolate, and that condensed milk is “sweet and heavy” so I knew it was the same as in the US. Sizes I would worry about later…
So all that in mind I ventured to the local supermarket. Upon arrival I saw yellow baskets (but no shopping carts) so I picked one up – they were huge! At least 3 times the size of a shopping basket in the US. I was surprised but nonetheless began walking around awkwardly with my big yellow basket. I quickly realized I was mistaken. Everyone in the store was wheeling around their yellow baskets-there was another long handle, and wheels on the bottom that I somehow completely missed! Ok so I had my shopping cart. Now, for the ingredients. I went to the refrigerated section for the butter, and could only find margarine. I finally found a package that said “butter” and when I opened it back home, it too was some hybrid of margarine and butter. Anyway next I headed to the baking aisle, which turned out to be really hard to find, partly because in Spanish supermarkets the aisles aren’t conveniently labeled like in the US, and also because, oh yea – there isn’t one. The concept of backing, I never realized until trying it myself, is something foreign to Spaniards. People here don’t really eat sweets and they certainly don’t bake them. So when I finally did find flour and sugar (scattered among pasta and jam) I got the biggest bags available –about 3 cups worth. Don’t even begin to think I was able to find cocoa powder or vanilla extract –those things don’t exist here. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to describe vanilla extract to the sales clerk “a liquid that is an extract of vanilla, usually near the spices) etc etc, he had NO CLUE what I was talking about. So I gave up on that and trotted back to the house to bake. I knew Angela had a hand-held mixer and she said I could cook there. So I got everything out and was ready to go…only Angela didn’t have any mixing bowls. So I got out a series of pots, salad bowls and soup bowls, and used spoons and mugs as my measuring units – such a fiasco! First thing that happened was I realized Angela’s old single-blade hand held mixer was no match for butter (it just kept making that “rrrrrruuuuuurrrrrrrr” noise and didn’t do anything), so I whipped in the sugar by hand. The things we take for granted – that was hard! Oh and of course she doesn’t have a cake pan. She’s a great cook, emphasis on the cook – she never bakes and thus, no cake pan – I ended up using a paella pan! Despite all my setbacks however, it all turned out pretty good. Traveling in the metro with it was difficult but it made it to its destination and was readily and happily consumed, I think everyone was missing chocolate cake.

I travel to Toledo this Sunday with the international program (5 euro trip!) so I should have some cool pictures and stories from that.

Hasta la proxima, ciao
~Alex