{"id":1820,"date":"2018-06-26T08:43:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T12:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2018-07-20T09:52:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T13:52:28","slug":"buenas-de-toledo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/06\/26\/buenas-de-toledo\/","title":{"rendered":"Buenas de Toledo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a1Hola! I\u2019ve been in Toledo for just over a week, but it feels like I\u2019ve been here a lifetime. I have trouble even thinking about what to write in this blog since there\u2019s so much to include. To start, let me share how I was thrown directly into Spanish culture. After arriving in Toledo, I was handed to my host family and sent home with them. After arriving home, we immediately sat down for dinner in front of Spain\u2019s first game at the World Cup. My \u201cpadres\u201d, Pilar and Salvador, are 73 and 75 years old but cheered like they were 25. This was a great introduction for me because I love \u201cf\u00fatbol\u201d and had a topic to discuss with my new parents. At first, I was terrified to talk to my padres and only responded in short, nervous answers. I quickly realized that this was ridiculous because my padres were willing to listen to me struggle and clarify things I didn\u2019t understand. This helped me to trust myself to speak Spanish.<\/p>\n

Over this week, the biggest improvement I\u2019ve made in my speaking abilities is simply having the confidence to speak. I\u2019ve learned that I\u2019m going to make mistakes; I\u2019m going to forget words, conjugate verbs wrong, and generally sound like an idiot on occasion. However, I know that this is the only way I am ever going to improve. I only speak Spanish when I go to stores and have found that most of the natives can understand me just fine. Even when they speak English to me because they can tell I\u2019m American, I try to respond in Spanish anyway. My comprehension has also gotten much better. Even if I still have trouble speaking, I have almost no issue understanding people anymore. This is a product of being around Spanish all day. My friends, teachers, and padres are forcing me to assimilate. Finally, I\u2019ve really enjoyed learning all the quirks of the Spanish tongue. In just a week, I\u2019ve learned the regional words for \u201cbathroom\u201d and \u201cteam\u201d while learning to add a lisp when I pronounce \u201cc\u2019s\u201d and \u201cz\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Cathedral rising above a Toledo street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During my first week, I\u2019ve used my class breaks to explore Toledo with my friends. It truly is an amazing city. The streets and buildings have essentially not changed for over 400 years. As a history major, I feel like I\u2019m in paradise. In one week I\u2019ve been in a thousand-year-old mosque, seen world-class paintings, and gotten to know this incredible city. The food is delicious and the sangria isn\u2019t too bad either.<\/p>\n

This past weekend, my friends and I traveled to Madrid to see La Ciudad Real. This was a completely different experience from Toledo. Toledo is like living in a history museum. Madrid is more like living in New York. Still, it was a great experience to travel to a big Spanish city and get a taste of the more hectic urban life. We split up our time, going to historic sites like the Prado and El Palacio Real on some days and then heading to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu another.<\/p>\n

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Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabeu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I can\u2019t wait to keep learning, living, and falling in love with this country. \u00a1Hasta luego!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a1Hola! I\u2019ve been in Toledo for just over a week, but it feels like I\u2019ve been here a lifetime. I have trouble even thinking about what to write in this blog since there\u2019s so much to include. To start, let me share how I was thrown directly into Spanish culture. After arriving in Toledo, I … Continue reading Buenas de Toledo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3013,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290963,63994],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sla-blog","category-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1824,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions\/1824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}