Spanish Health Care System

(this is the hospital we went to, although it looks a little different since it's been remodeled)

The other day, my friend Irene was becoming increasingly sick with flu like symptoms, so after class we went to the hospital. The experience was so different from experiences I've had in America, I felt it merited a blog post. Spain has universal healthcare (which is actually in trouble right now because of the crisis), but this doesn't apply to our group since we are "extranjeros"or foreigners. We have health insurance through the program. And since we don't have regular doctors, the hospital was the easiest place to go.

When we got there it was about 8pm. When we walked in, it was a small and cozy room with a reception area. There were about 8-10 people waiting. We went to the desk and told them we were foreigners and needed to see a doctor. We spent about 10 minutes figuring out the paperwork, and Irene even had to call her host dad to get her zip code. We also had to look some words up in the dictionary (like congestion and boogers- mocos, if you were wondering). After that we sat down.

By that time, only one person was left in the waiting room. I was amazed how fast everyone had been seen by doctors. In America, I've waited an hour just to be called out of the waiting room and then more time to be seen by the doctor once in a room. So I wasn't sure what to expect at that point. But Irene and I just waited and chatted. About 10 minutes later, we were called into a room. I couldn't believe how fast it took.

We walked back and entered a room with a female doctor sitting at a computer. Irene sat on the examining table and the doctor sat at the computer and typed while they talked about the symptoms. After another 10 minute discussion, the doctor got up from the computer and listened to Irene's heart and looked in her throat. She then wrote out a sheet with the suggested medicines and doses and told us where to find a 24 hour pharmacy, and we were on our way.

It was by far the easiest hospital visit I've ever had. The whole process only took about 30 minutes, and Irene and I left without paying a cent. The Spanish healthcare system is not without it's problems, but on the whole, the experience was much more pleasant than anytime I've been to the hospital in America.

Colegio Limonar

Having been in Spain for a little while now, I decided that I wanted to volunteer somewhere. I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice my Spanish and also meet Malagueños. After talking with my program director about specific places, I decided to volunteer at a school to help with the English classes.

The school is called Colegio El Limonar (Colegio means school that's usually for younger children and Limonar means lemon grove). The school is between where I live in El Palo and El Centro and I've clocked so if I have a reasonably fast bus driver and the bus isn't too crowded, I can get there in 8 minutes. The teacher I am working with is named Pilar and she is native to Spain (however we usually talk in English). I volunteer twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays. Fridays I am there for all of her classes (five in total).

(this is the administrative building, which used to be an old mansion)

The Spanish education system is set up very similarly to America's. The system is structured as so:

Educación Infantil- 3-6 years old

Educación Primaria 6-12 years old

Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) 12- 16

Bachillerato 16-18 years old

School is compulsory through the ESO level. Colegio Limonar is an interesting school because is "concertado" meaning half-public half-private. This seemed weird to me at first, but if you look back at history, it makes sense. When Franco was in power, all of the schools were run by the state and very Catholic. When he died and the state became a democracy, the schools that wanted to keep the religious aspect had to become private. Since most did that, there was going to have to be a massive building effort for public schools. In order to avoid that, the government set up "concertado" schools. These schools are private, but the state will pay for anyone to attend through the ESO level. After that, if they want to continue, they will have to pay tuition. Because of this, the classes that I helped with at the ESO level were bulging with 30-40 kids per class. But the classes at the Bachillerato level were much more manageable with 15-20 students.

On an average day, I sit on the side of the classroom and read passages from books, help answer questions and sometimes do mini lessons. I have done lessons on English writing and American culture, such as slang, the college experience and the Pledge of Allegiance. One Friday when I went into school, Pilar was not there. I was told that she had a meeting with a friend and wouldn't be coming in at all. I was told that I should go to all her classes and help because the substitute that would be coming wouldn't speak English. I went to the first class (17 and 18 year olds) and did the mini-lesson on writing that I had prepared. By the time we finished, the substitute still had not arrived and the kids were asking to play games. We settled on hangman and we played in English to keep some educational aspect. It was really fun and funny because as advanced as the students were, they couldn't remember some letters of the alphabet!

As the day went on, the substitute never came and I went to all of her classes. It actually turned out to be really fun and the kids could understand me pretty well. The classes with the younger kids were sometimes difficult, and I even got a paper airplane thrown at me, but overall it was a great experience.

(school yard and academic building. ignore the writing, I found the picture on google)

"It's hard out there for an American"

I've been thinking that I would write a post about the hardest/funniest/most surprising/most interesting changes and culture shocks I've experienced so far in my time in Spain so far. I was skyping my friend from home when the frase "It's hard out here for an American" came up. Of course, it is a joke because having three day weekends all the time and going to the beach everyday is anything but hard. But, here it goes:

1. The grapes have seeds! You cannot imagine my surprise when I bit into a green grape and felt a crunch. I thought it was rotten or something and spit it all out (politely into my napkin). Then I realized it was actually just seeds. I haven't encountered seeded grapes since I was a child and to be honest, pretty much forgot that they existed. Now I eat my grapes by cutting them in half. Taking the seeds out and then eating them. It takes a while, but it's worth it.

(they look just like seedless grapes from the outside, so I was completely unsuspecting when I bit into it!)

2. The water. Water is extremely expensive in the South of Spain because there has been a drought for about a decade according to my host dad. My shower is pretty tiny-about enough room for one person to stand in-and there's pretty much no way you could ever take a bath in it (unless you were curled up in the fetal position maybe). We were told that most Spaniards don't take a shower everyday and most definitely do not take 2 or more showers a day. I have adjusted to taking very short showers (less than 10 minutes), and I turn the water off when I'm suds-ing up and only turn it back on to rinse. It's actually a great way to conserve water and I think I'll continue this when I go back to the US. Another thing, lots of rivers and other waterways have completely dried up. Right near my house is a "rio sin agua" (river without water). It is very big and there is a bridge over it, but now it is littered with garbage and overgrown flora and people walk their dogs up and down it. I have also noticed bridges over dried up waterways in other parts of the country when we have been travelling.

(I'm standing on the bridge and looking down into this now dried up river)

(the people are walking right through where the water should be)

3. The size of everything. Everything in Spain (and I think all of Europe) is smaller than in America. The cars, the houses, the roads, the serving sizes, the money, the soft drinks, the stores, etc, etc. For some things it's a bummer, like soft drinks. They're definitely smaller than can in America. So I usually get two. One time at a restaurant, my friend and I got each got two soft drinks. When the bill came, all the drinks cost 9 euros! So not only are the drinks small, they are expensive (2.25 euros each which is about $3)!

(the one on the right is 250mL, the size in Spain)

These are just a few of the first culture shocks I experienced in Spain, but I'll post more as I think of them!

Hasta Luego!

Córdoba

Hola amigos!

So this weekend we had another planned trip to Córdoba. To give some history, Córdoba was the capital of the Hispania Ulterior during the Roman Republic, and the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba when the Muslims ruled Spain. It is said to have had more than a million inhabitants in the 10th century, making it the most populous city in the world at that point.

The bus ride from Málaga was about 2.5 hours long and the first place we went was Madinat al-Zahra. This place is Muslim palace-city built in 936. I'm not sure if "palace-city" could even really describe it. It was a huge town completely surrounded enclosed by walls and at the top of a hill overloooking all of Córdoba. Only 11% of it had even been excavated fully and only 5% was open to the public. We first watched an animated video recreating the palace and what it looked like way back when. Then we took a bus to the top of the hill and went into the archaeological site.

What is left standing is slowly being restored, so some parts looked like piles of rubble while others looked completely done. We walked through the different rooms of the palace and Manolo, our tour guide, pointed certain things out. For one, Muslims had plumbing systems in the 10th century that were built into the castle. The hole in the ground was used for sewage. Also, the architecture is consistent with an Islamic style . There are arches everywhere and geometric designs are depicted instead of people or animals. Gardens and water are center points in the design.

A focal point of the castle in the "mezquita"or mosque, although it is actually located outside of the palace walls. This is because it served as the mosque for all of Córdoba at the time, and most people were not allowed inside the city walls. Outside the mosque was a bathing area where people washed themselves before entering. And I'm not 100% sure but I believe Manolo said that there were separate entrances for men and women.

After Madinat Al-Zahra, we headed into the city of Córdoba to head to the Sinagoga and Catedral. We passed over a bridge built by the Romans when they occupied Spain. It was quite exciting because this was the first bridge I had seen with water under it. Due to the drought, many of the rivers are dried up in the south of Spain.

To get to the synagogue, we had to go down a series of narrow streets. In reality, the synagogue was very small. It was built in the 1315 and is the only synagogue that exists in Andalucía and one of three in all of Spain that exist today. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, it became a hospital, a chapel for shoemakers and a school for children. After some time, it was made into a national monument and restored.

After all of that, we headed to lunch. I ended up at a restaurant called 101 tapas and it was delicious. We ordered eggplant with honey (my new favorite dish), fried squid, fried cheese balls, and gazpachuello (a soup).

The last thing for the day was the Cathedral/Mosque. This is one of the most well-known things in Córdoba. The construction of the mosque started in 785 (Moors took over Spain in 711) and it was small at first but had very distinguished red and white double arches. As it expanded through the years, the architects kept the same design and continued with the unique arches. Although Manolo is our tour guide, when we go to some public sites, they only allow their licensed tour guides, so we had a new guide. When we first entered, it seemed very dark but the arches were immediately striking. As we walked through, the building seems to lack some organization and that is because it was built in 6 different installments.

At the end of the first section, there is the original mihrab. A mihrab is a niche in the wall that indicates which way to face when praying (always toward Mecca). Interestingly, the mosque in Córdoba is the only one in the world that does not face Mecca- it faces south instead of southeast. The mihrab is in impeccable condition and there for good reason. When the mosque was converted into a church after the Reconquista in the 14th century, the worshipers did not want to see the mihrab. So, naturally, they covered it with plaster. For years and years they kept it covered and continued to pay to have the plaster maintained. After some time, no one was interested in paying anymore and the plaster came off. Ironically, it turns out that the plaster had been protecting the original design all that time and it was in very good condition (much better than it would have been if they just left it alone) when it was revealed again. Pretty ironic.

The aspect I found most interesting about the building was the juxtaposition of two religions. The architecture was clearly Moorish with the arches, geometric designs and lack of people or animals. However, there were statues of angels carved into the walls and crucifixes right under the red and white arches. This makes the Córdoba mezquita/catedral very unique. In most other prominent cities in Spain that had large mosques, they were completely destroyed and built over when the Christians took over power. In Toledo, Granada, Sevilla and Málaga for example, cathedrals stand over the ruins of the mosques that once were there.

In total, there are over 800 arches remaining today in the mosque/cathedral. It was truly amazing to see. After we left, we got some ice cream and headed back to Málaga. So far, Córdoba has been one of the best experiences of Spain and I loved all the history it has.

Hasta luego!

Ronda

Saturday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn again (8am) to head to Ronda. This trip was a required one that Manolo and Elise take us on. Manolo is a sort of permanent tour guide for the group. He takes us on all of our trips and offers some extras that we can participate on (like to Morroco which I'm planning on doing). He has been with Dickinson since the start of the Málaga program in the 80s and knows everything about everything. Basically, he's awesome.

Ronda is a little more than an hour away and Dickinson rents out a private coach bus for us (The whole way there and for most of the time we were sightseeing, I had the song "Help me, Rhonda" stuck in my head). The first place we went when we got there was Ronda's famous bull fighting ring. It is considered one of modern bullfightings birthplaces and was built in 1785. Every September, they celebrate "Corrida Goyesca"in honor of a "torero" (bullfighter) named Pedro Romero. This bullfighter killed more than 600 bulls in his lifetime and is considered one of the founders of modern bullfighting. Part of the ring is now a museum that has old bull fighting costumes, posters and relics. We were also able to tour the back where the hold the bulls before fights. The also have stables for the horses that are used in the bull fighting ceremony.

After the bull fighting ring, we headed to "Palacio de Mondragón" which is a palace that was built in 1314 when the Moors were in charge of Spain by an Arab king. It has lots of arches and geometric designs which are very common in Muslim architecture. The palace was eventually taken over the Christians during the Reconquista, but now it is a museum. It has a beautiful garden and overlooks the countryside.

After the palace, we went to La Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor. This church is built on top of a mosque, which was built on top of other religious buildings that go all the way back to when the Romans were in Spain. It's crazy to think about what is under that church.

After the church, we went to El Puente Nuevo and El Tajo de Ronda, which are what Ronda is known for. Ronda is essentially split in half by a "tajo" or a gorge and a small river runs through it. There are two "puentes" or bridges that go over the gorge. The older one is called "el puente árabe" because it was built by the Moors in the 14th century. The "new" one was built in 1616. In Europe, everything in the last 500 years seems to be called "new." Anyway, the view is absolutely amazing. I feel very lucky to be able to see all these beautiful places, and it makes me want to travel more and more. Here are some pictures:

Hasta luego amigos!

Nerja- Parte dos

Hey everybody,

On Friday, the group decided to return to Nerja for the second time, but this time, to see the caves. We got there around noon and ate our lunches our host moms packed us. At the picnic table, there were lots of stray cats and I gave them all some of my tuna sandwich which they gobbled up. After that, we headed down to the caves. At first we had to to down a staircase duck our heads a lot. We walked through a narrow stretch and we were already amazed. Thousands of years of erosion made amazing designs in the cave.

Once we walked through a narrow part, the entire caves opened up into huge "rooms." It was like standing in the middle of a huge concert hall. In fact, in one part of the cave, there are seats for concerts that are held in July. Acoustically, the caves must be amazing. It is difficult to see, but in the picture below, you can see people at the bottom left, showing you just how large the caves are.

The ceiling had thousands of spikes that looked like massive icicles ready to fall at any minute. I would not want to be in there during an earthquake. At one point in the caves, some friends and I all laid down on the floor and stared at the ceiling for 20 minutes. It was really so amazing to just look at.

After about an hour, we left the caves. Here are the rest of the pictures from that. All photo credit goes to Hannah Anderson for these amazing shots.

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After the caves, we decided to hit the beach. But before that, I stopped in the bathroom. It was in the basement of the restaurant, and a bunch of my friends and I went down. When I was going to the bathroom, a hand reached under my stall and grabbed my backpack and pulled it out. Thinking it was one of my friends, I called out for them but I didn't hear a response. Then my backpack was shoved back under the stall, so I assumed my friend just needed tissue or something. When I left the stall, none of my friends were in the bathroom anymore, only several elderly ladies were. I thought to myself "nice, old ladies wouldn't steal from me!" so I washed my hands and left. I discovered the next day when I was looking for my camera when we went to Ronda, that it was gone. I told this to a friend later, and he suggested that I should have stomped on the hand when I saw it. Well, lesson learned.

On our way to the beach, we got very lost. It was all downhill weaving down a path in between farms. We would occasionally run into a dead-end, then turn around and retrace our steps. When we finally reached the beach, it was almost empty and very beautiful. One thing that is very evident here is that women go topless at the beach all the time. We were not sure, but this beach might have been a nude beach because not only did we see a topless woman, but also a completely naked man.

When we left it was quite a hike back up the path and I had to take a break at the end because I was breathing hard. Since we were still near the caves, we needed to go back to the town center of Nerja because the buses back to Malaga ran more frequently. We decided to walk it, which ended up being an hour, but it was nice, leisurely walk. We reached the bus stop early, and decided to get some gelato. After, we hopped on the bus and headed back.

Tomorrow we are going to Ronda, so I will write back soon about that! Hasta luego!

Marbella

On Thursday we once again woke up early to go on a day trip, this time to Marbella (literally means beautiful ocean). We had a bit of a conundrum when we got to the bus station because it turns out that Marbella buses only left from a different station. So we got a map and trekked through Malaga to find the other station. Luckily it wasn't too far and we got there just time to run and catch our bus. It was about an hour ride down the coast towards Gibraltar.

When we got there, it was about a 20 minute walk all downhill. The beach was really beautiful and the ocean was choppy. My friend Irene and I jumped right in and jumped over and rode the waves for a solid hour. It was really fun. We decided to call it quits for while and we decided to ride one last wave in. As I jumped to catch the wave, both of my calves seized up and I was in lots of pain. One leg relaxed almost instantly but the other turned into a full blown cramp. I yelled out and Irene rushed to my rescue. I was pretty much screaming in pain and Irene and I hobbled to the shore. Once we were in the shallow water, our friends on the sand came rushing and pulled me out. My cramp had pretty much subsided and the whole ordeal was more scary than anything because I could only stand on one leg in the ocean and was trying not to get knocked over by the waves. After that I took it easy and eventually Irene and I went to get tapas for lunch.

Most of the places were touristy (aka expensive) around the beach, so we wondered around the streets a bit until we found a good place that had cheap tapas. We ordered garlic potatoes and chicken kabebs. The potatoes turned out to actually be potato salad smothered in mayonnaise. It was actually horrible. Our chicken kebabs were good though. Our waiter was a friendly man who was very nice to us, but when we ordered, we spoke in Spanish. Then he would respond in English. This has been a problem sometimes in restaurants or stores where they know we are American and speak English, but it stinks because we want to practice our Spanish. Nevertheless, it was an interesting tapas.

After that we returned to the beach for a while then decided to catch the 6pm bus home. Apparently we had underestimated the time it took to get back to the bus stop because at some point we had to start running. Although it was a leisurely walk down the beach, it was straight uphill the entire time back. After a good sprint, we made it just in time to the bus station. We paid without even collecting our change and sprinted to the bus. Just as we were sitting down, the bus pulled out. So all in all, it was worth it and we got a good workout.

As you will see in my next post, my camera was stolen, so I lost my pictures from Marbella. However, I did borrow this from another student.

Hasta luego!