Spain is still warm

Picture from my faculty

In the middle of September I wrote that Spain got cold but after for a while it got warm again. Here have been few short colder periods but today it was too hot to wear sweater outside. Weather forecast says that in Finland it is about zero degrees. Here have been only few rainy days on the contrary In Finland sky is cloudy and grey almost all the time in October and it feels that it can start to rain in any moment.

In Spain also professors swear in the classes using same bad words what I have learned by watching Los Serrano. I have also learned many new bad words which are common but were too offensive for the family series Los Serrano. I do not yet have this Spanish habit to respond by saying "joder".

First football match

Football field in the campus

Today our Erasmus football team FC Freekick had first match in the internal competition of football seven. We have 14 players in the team so a bit too many if everyone can come. Today we were 11 and we won the match 6-2. Our team has one star player who scored today four goals. After the first victory spirit is high and we are looking forward to win more matches. Finally I did not find players for volleyball team but I am hoping to make team in the second semester.

First match of the season

Today we had first floorball match of the season against the toughest team Leganés. We had 12 players and goalkeeper. I had played as a defender in two friendly matches before but this time I played as a left winger. We won the match 4-3 and I made one goal and two assists. Our team had lost to Leganés about five years in row which means that we broke about twenty match winning streak. Great to start season with big win.

Crowd was definetely more noisy than any crowd in my match before. I can see the hot Spanish temperament when playing. In every match there have been situation when players have had to calm down another player.

Birthday

Guests

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday and invited friends to celebrate it with me. I served some appetizers, drinks, pizza and pulla. I also showed parts of IDFH episodes and they liked watching them even they could not understand the language. Thanks for the party and gifts.

Octopus

Octopus a la gallega

Today I achieved second goal. I ate octopus. Menú which I ate included two plates, drink, dessert and it cost 17.95. I think this was the most expensive meal I have had in the restaurant. Seeing the suction cups in the pieces of tentacles made octopus look less tasty. The taste of octopus was not strong and it was a bit hard to bite like raw meat of pig. I did not fall in love with the taste of octopus but I do not hate the taste either. I am happy that I tried octopus. I was able to make Ana try the octopus first time in her life.

Hello!

Here greeting is different than in Finland. In Spain always two kisses when meeting women and shaking hands when meeting men. In Finland we just say hello. Therefore I have shaken here in one and half month more hands than in my past 20 years. Kisses and hand shakes are also involved when you are saying good bye. Spanish do not say good bye just once they say at least twice before leaving. Sometimes it feels like it is competition who can say the last word before leaving. Finnish style to greet seems so cold compared to Spanish.

Emos in Spain?

In Spain piercing in a lip seems to be the most popular place to have a piercing like in Finland. But in Spain people who have they lip pierced do not dress up differently like in Finland. Pierced people have same kind of style as people who do not have their lip pierced. In Finland lip pierced people mostly dress up in emo style which means black hair, black eye make-up and black clothes. Here I have seen just a few dressed up in emo style.

Four day holiday ended

Streets were full of people in the middle age market.

Four day holiday is now over. In Alcalá was middle age market from Friday to Monday. Because of this market we had free day on Friday. Market was arranged in the middle age spirit. There were sold many different products and traditional food in the stands. There was also possibility to see performances and theater.

On Monday was the national day of Spain. In Madrid was arranged military parade and I went to see that with David, Aritz who were in erasmus in Finland and Andrés. After parade I went to Museum of queen Sofia with David. There I saw the famous painting of Picasso called Guernica. In the museum I liked the most the paintings of Dali.

Segovia

Roof in the castle Alcazar

Cathedral from the tower of Alcazar castle

Knight inside the castle Alcazar

Aqueduct

On Saturday University of Alcalá arranged free trip to Segovia which is about two hours from Madrid by bus. Most famous sight seeings in Sagevia are aqueduct, Alcazar castle and cathedral. The most I liked castle Alcazar. Especially roof of the castle in every room was impressive. View outside was good and knights looked nice. Castle had about one meter thigh walls. Stairs to the tower of castle were really narrow and people were going up and down with a bit more people it would have been nightmare.

Poor people

Here I can see few people begging money on the streets. Almost everytime when I have travelled by train someone comes to ask money from me. Some beggers share a story why they want money and some show just paper which says help me. Spanish people have said to me that they are drug addicts. I have been curious to see if they would accept food instead of money.

First credits earned

Diploma

Yesterday I got diploma from my Spanish language course. According to this diploma level of my Spanish is B1 with grade 7. Spanish grading system is from one to ten and five is the lowest mark to pass exam.

Finally I have to stay in the current flat because I did not find better. I visited four different flats and one of them was good but I never got change to speak with the flatmates. In the others were living people who had 40 years. Now we are trying to get Internet to our flat but one company who had good offer could not offer internet there even we are living in the center.

Padel

Padel racket

Padel court

Yesterday I played very popular sport in Spain called padel. In the sports center there were players on all the padel courts. Padel resembles a lot of tennis. Padel is played in a cage and ball can touch once ground and then wall before hitting. Padel can be played one vs one but people prefer to play two vs two. One reason for padels popularity is that it is easier to learn than tennis. Because I have played tennis I had no difficulties to play padel. I would say that if you are good in tennis you are good in padel. I enjoyed playing padel like I enjoy playing tennis.

My courses in the first semester

Deadline to choose courses have passed now. All my courses in the first semester are in Spanish. I chose: planning of the strategy, human resource management, allocation of human resources, economy of Europe and environmental economy. I should find the person who has my learning agreement to inform my university about the changes I made.

Buying the food in the supermarket is much slower in Spain than in Finland. the line moves so much slower. There are few reasons for that. People pay here with cash and not with credit card. When paying with cash people always search for a while little coins to get rid of them and that takes time. In the evening cashiers run out of exchange money so they have to go ask exchange money from other cashiers and when they do not have exchange they just give discount. This seems to be problem everyday I wonder why they do not get more money to give exchange.