UIMP, wi-fi and Lazarillo

I realized that I haven't really shared any information with you about my university or the house I'm living in (except for letting you know about my VERY tiny room). I finally took pictures of my University and some pictures of the city that I want to share with you. There will be more to come. Anyway, the piso that I live in is a decent size; it's actually very large in comparison to the size they normally are. There are 4 bedrooms (1 for me, 1 for Naomi, a guest room and Tete's room), a large living room, a beautiful yellow kitchen with a laundry room attached to the side, 3 terraces, and two bathrooms. The side of the piso that I live on looks out onto one of Santander's main streets, Avenida de los Castros (the one I use to walk to school), and the ocean. The other side of the piso looks out onto the parking area and a small park with benches and colorful trees. I do enjoy living in this piso. It is a 15 minute walk to school and about a 30 minute walk to downtown. To get to downtown, I need to walk through a tunnel which is a shortcut. The tunnel has pathways for pedestrians to walk on without being near the cars. The following pictures are of my piso in Santander.

The walkway that leads to the guest room. On the left is our bathroom.

My quaint bathroom that I share with Naomi.

The living room where I watch my futbol games!

The beautiful bright yellow kitchen! In the picture you can see one of our tortilla dinners already prepared.

UIMP: Universidad Internacional de Menendez Pelayo (the abbreviation is pronounced as "wimp"....funny, I know!). This is the university that I'm attending. It is actually a language university that only offers classes in Spanish and English. The professors that teach English are from the UK and Ireland so it is fun to hear their accents when they are talking in the halls. The university is a modern building, but very nice. The university is in a gated area which has large areas of grass to use to rest or hang out on. There are four "residencias" which are dorms for students that are not from Santander and a dining common. Also in the university there are two computer labs and a cafe with wi-fi access. In the building where we have classes is the ISA office (the program that I am with) and we have two wonderful ISA workers who are so helpful and are like friends to all of us. They really care about us and always want the best for us. Carmen is the director who went with us to Madrid and Toledo and Mayte is the assistant. Today they decorated their office with Halloween decorations to make us feel more at "home". It was sweet!

In front of the university gate there is a "caseta" which is the reception and someone is always there to keep an eye out on things. I do enjoy the university because it is not overwhelming and the classes are small. I have 8 people in my grammar class and only one is Swedish, the rest are from my group. I have a different professor for each class and all are female, but with very distinct personalities. My grammar teacher, Marta, is always a mess when she comes in, as if the wind blew her in. She is very sweet, but assumes that we know as much Spanish as she does. My literature teacher, Inma (short for Inmaculada-immaculate, always teaches us as if she is telling a story. She uses a deep voice and talks as if she is telling a tale from the 16th century. It makes the class more interesting and I love all the literary works that we are learning about. We just finished the Middle Ages and now learning about the Renacimiento (Renaissance). My culture teacher always cracks me up because when she talks she is basically yelling, which is typical for Spaniards...hehe. She always makes interesting facial gestures and body movements to exaggerate what she is saying. I love everything I've learned about in that class so far. So I am having a good time at school even though some days may not be so fun. The pictures below are of my university and the places I see on the 15 min walk to/from school every day. Enjoy!

The park near my piso. When I walk back to the piso after class sometimes there are children with their grandparents here.

The path that leads to my school and to the ocean!

Santander has SO many roundabouts. This one has a tunnel to the left of it that leads to the center of the city. If you keep walking by the roundabout, it's about 1 min away from the university.

This is the caseta (reception) of the university and on the gate you can see the school's name: UIMP.

This is a view of my university from across the street.

These are the dormitories for students studying at UIMP who are not from Santander.

Here is a close up of the university. The part of the building on the left is the cafe and on the right is where our classes, the computer labs, and the ISA office are.

Here are my two favorite people, Mayte and Carmen, showing the Halloween spirit!

Wi-Fi.....it's a miracle!
So, last Thursday I turned on my computer to upload pictures and I curiously looked up the wireless networks that are near me (I had done this before, but they all are locked.) and surprisingly there was one network without a security lock! I know it might sound bad that I'm using someone else's internet for free, but I am so happy that I can have more contact with all of you! I'm super excited, but not sure how long this will last.

Lazarillo de Tormes.
So in one of my previous blogs I shared that for my literature class I had to read a Spanish story (before the 20th century) and then write a paper on it by the end of December. The story I chose to read is Lazarillo de Tormes. I had read a few excerpts from this story and really enjoyed it. I borrowed the book from my school library and kept it for 3 weeks until I finally read it this past Tuesday. I was worried that it would be hard and take me forever to read (even though it is adapted for students learning Spanish), but when I sat down to read the story I enjoyed it so much that I read it in 1hr and 30 min! I was amazed I read it that fast and relieved it wasn't as hard as I had thought. The story is very famous and important to Spanish literature. It is a story about a young boy who must leave his poor mother to learn about the world and work for men who need a servant. The first person Lazarillo goes with is a blind man. Now I don't want to bore you with all the details, but Lazarillo basically plays tricks on the blind man because he won't feed Lazarillo very much. Then Lazarillo goes with a priest, soldier, friar, a man who sells miracles and a "policeman". With all these people Lazarillo works for, his situation gets worse and worse. Either they don't feed him very well or his work gets harder. The story starts when he's about 10 and ends when he becomes an adult. The story has a happier ending when Lazarillo meets a monk who introduces Lazarillo to a young woman, who becomes his wife, and Lazarillo becomes a respectable man in society. His life ends up turning around for the better. Anyway, it is called a "picaresco" which was a new form of story telling. Picaresco is a story about playing tricks and fooling people. The reason this story is important to Spanish literature is because it was written in a time (16th century) when religion was very important and if you noticed most of the people Lazarillo worked for were religious figures. Well, in the story Lazarillo finds out that these people aren't as "holy" as they seem to be and may not be as good of people as they ought to be. So the story challenges the role of the church and religion. It's a very interesting story and very entertaining.

Well, I hope all of you are well. I think of all of you often and only wish you the best. I'm going to Portugal tomorrow (Halloween) until Monday so I will have lots to share soon!
Besos, Celeste