¡Un gol por España!

I'm sitting here watching the World Cup with my host mom and roommate. Spain is about to win (there are 2 minutes left). It's been such an exciting game! They've made so so so many goal attempts and there have been lots of close calls (okay, Spain just won. Yay!). After watching the USA struggle, this was a nice affirmation of how exciting and rewarding fútbol really is. It was also nice to sit and share it with my host mom - I don't feel like I "hung out" with her enough this summer. Usually between lunch and dinner I'd be doing work in my room or out in Madrid, and after dinner I hung out in my room, many times with the door shut. With something like soccer, you don't really need words to have an authentic experience with someone - rooting for your team crosses all language barriers.

I also finished up my work today, which was nice. I had one final essay to write (which clocked in at about 6 pages double spaced - not a lot, but it was all in Spanish!) and I submitted my entire notebook this afternoon at 5:30. I knew, then, that I wanted to be outside. I've missed the sun - I haven't spent a large amount of time outside since I went to the beach at Barcelona two and a half weeks ago. Being outside is one of my favorite pastimes.

My time here is running out - we have three more days - and instead of rushing around Madrid to visit all the attractions I never got around to seeing, this evening I knew I wanted to just sit and enjoy the city. I wanted to lie on the ground using my purse as a pillow and feeling the sun on my arms and face and smelling the air and just experience this place, this new home of mine, before I have to give it up for who-knows-how-long. So that's exactly what I did, and it felt great. A perfect evening :)

Yikes!

So, I was talking to my mom last night and she said that I really needed to update this thing! Which is completely true - ever sine Barcelona, we've gotten busier and busier with school. In fact, classes are now OVER! I just have an exam on Wednesday and I need to finish up a final paper - and do all the other work I haven't completed, yet. Nuts!

I do still want to update you guys on what has happened, so I'll start with where I left off and make new posts as I complete assignments! A win-win situation!

Barcelona

Although I'm glad I went to Barcelona with the group, it was a huge money-drain. We had to buy overnight train tickets, book a hostel, and pay for all of our food. And, honestly, I much prefer Madrid and the other places we've visited. Why? The Catalán is one thing - I didn't feel like I was practicing my Spanish (and I wasn't, actually, since we spoke English with each other). Also, the city is not as "friendly" as Madrid. What do I mean by that? It's very, very touristy and thus has a lot of pickpocketers. Although nothing was stolen in our group, a few people did lose some very important belongings by being reckless. The train ride was awful and guaranteed no sleep because of the small compartment we were in - I did wind up flying back to Madrid with four other people the evening before. And, all the nice clubs were ~1 hour away walking, so I either didn't go out or killed my feet. Humph.

But, it wasn't all bad. Barcelona has a BEACH, for one thing, so that's where I was every day for an hour or two. I got a great tan! (It's now gone.) Europeans, as I had heard previously, aren't much for modesty. Most of the men were in speedos and a huge proportion of the women were topless. No big deal, right?

We also did some sightseeing. We visited two very unique monuments designed by someone we had talked about in class (Antoni Gaudí): Sagrada Familia and Casa Milà.


(My pictures weren't very good, so this is from Wikipedia). You'll notice that it's still under construction - although work began in 1882, it's not expected to be completed until 2026 due to a halt in construction during the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936.


(Also from Wikipedia) This "house" was originally built for a wealthy couple.

We also visited Parque Güell, a huge garden/park also designed by Gaudí. We hiked uphill for 436 steps (I counted), then we discovered they had a tourist escalator a block away from where we started. Oh well. I have pictures of this one!

It's so green!


Archways/the tunnel
More neat architecture (my captions are so creative today..)

The main plaza.

Me in the park, photo-bombed by John.

We wanted to see the lit-up fountains that night, so we had to kill some time and eat dinner. The group split up (it's impossible for 20 people to agree on a place to eat, and also, a good portion of our group simply likes to eat McDonalds wherever we go). After a lot of wandering and getting lost, we found a random Catalán restaurant owned by a Chinese family. One of the girls in our group is from China, so they spoke Chinese and she was able to tell us about all the items in the menu. It was a lovely dinner, definitely one of the highlights of the trip. When we exited at ~9:30 (the fountains were from 9-11, I believe), we saw huge blue streaks across the sky - picture Superman, or something. My camera isn't very good, but here's the best I've got:

Turns out it was leading the way back to the fountains - how thoughtful.


This picture is TILTED (so sad!) but it is a good representation - basically the colors and shape/size of the water varied (and was constantly changing). At one point they had classical music playing along, which was nice.

View up-close.

Okay! That concludes my trip to Barcelona. So, I'm caught up until June 6 - go me! I'll try to crank out another update today after I get some work done. Also, I'll be home in 6 days (my birthday!!). I can't wait!

I'll leave you with a panorama of the city:

Blogging from Barcelona!

¡Hola a todos! I´m in Barcelona, Spain, currently. It is 18:08 o´clock and I´m finding it incredibly difficult to type on this Spanish keyboard. We took an overnight train ride at around 11:30 last night for 8 hours. It was INCREDIBLY small! We saw some cots while walking to our traincar and got super excited, but those apparently were for people who had paid more - we got stuck with 8 people in a 5x6 comparement. That´s 30 sq. ft for 8 people. There were 2 rows of 4 seats facing each other, and we had 7 Dukies + 1 random Spanish dude who left at 1am. Sleeping was incredibly difficult and none of us really got much sleep. I slept for maybe 3 hours which is probably the most out of everyone! It was also incredibly hot and the a/c wouldn´t come on. :( I´m seriously considering flying back even though I already have my return ticket. I don´t know if I can do that again.

But, at around 7:30 am, we finally made it to Barcelona! We had to purchase a metro pass to our Hostel which was about 15 mins away. We couldn´t check in yet so we put our stuff in lockers, changed, and went to the beach, which was a few metro stops away + a small walk.

Upon reaching the beach, we were delighted to see rows of beach chairs with umbrellas scattered throughout. Beach heaven, especially since I forgot to bring a beach towel. About 30 minutes later, the reverie was broken when we spotted a man going from beach chair to beach chair requesting money. Apparently the beach chairs were 2 for 17€... that´s more than $20. Just to sit in the chairs, not to buy them or anything. RIPOFF! So we moved down to the sand before he could see us and spent a few hours there. The water was freezing! Also, the sand is a darker brown than normal.

Then we showered (the hot water ran out for me... worst shower I´ve ever taken in my life, probably) and went to eat lunch, then wandered around town a little. So far, I´m a little underwhelmed by the sightseeing, but we´re going other places tonight. Also, the language here (and thus, all the signs) is NOT Spanish.. it´s Catalán, which is a strange mixture of French and Spanish. That´s why the keyboards have these: ççççç as one of the keys. Crazy!

An Asturian weekend

Faithful readers, my apologies as to my absence as of late. I've been incredibly busy - this past weekend was devoted to an excursion to Asturias, a region in the northern part of Spain:

(Madrid is the triangle in the middle, Asturias is in red, France is in the northeast corner, Portugal is on the west side, and Africa is below)

Asturias is known for a few things: its cheese, its sidra (a type of alcoholic apple cider - there are lots of apple trees in Asturias), and overall, how green it is (as you'll see in the pictures!). We'd leave our hotel at 9:30 every morning and not get back until dinner time, leaving very little free time. In truth, though, it was one of the best weekends of my life in terms of sightseeing. This sounds cliche, but every place we visited was more beautiful than the last. The sidra was particularly interesting because it is poured in a particular way:

Apple groves foster the production of the traditional alcoholic drink, a natural cider (sidra). When Asturian cider is served, it is poured in a particular way, El Escanciado: since it is natural and bottled without gas, the bottle must be held above the head allowing for a long vertical pour (requiring considerable skill and accuracy) which causes the cider to be aerated when it splashes into the glass below. This gives it a pleasant "zingy" taste. The glass is passed around and everyone drinks from the same glass. After drinking most of the glass, it is customary to splash a little out onto the ground, as a way to clean the glass of any lees for the next pouring.
(From Wikipedia)

On the first day, we hiked up to a cliff overlooking the beaches of a town called Llanes:

(Click for bigger!)

We had lunch there and stayed for a while, then got back on the bus and went down to the port town called Gijón:

Looks a bit like the Intercoastal Waterway with all those boats, eh?


Saturday was definitely my favorite day of the trip. We visited the Somiedo National Park and rode horses through the mountains. I saw a lot of cows grazing, which made me very very happy :) There are also teitos, a type of stone dwelling with shrubbery for the roof.

My horse's name was Popeye (pronounced the Spanish way, Poe-PAY-ay):

We rode for about an hour and a half and then stopped and ate lunch while the horses grazed. Lots of picture taking ensued, of course.

Bernice and me!

Literally this is the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. There are people who live there and take care of the cows and the upkeep of the teitos (which are centuries old). How awesome would it be to live in a place like this?

After all that, we said adios to the horses and walked down to the Saliencia river. It was extremely freezing (a few degrees above freezing, I'd wager) but some of my classmates were brave enough to stick limbs in. Some even went swimming! Not me!


Unfortunately I got a little sunburnt on my face while in Somiedo - they told us that, since we were going to be in the mountains, the temperature would be cooler. It was cooler in the morning, but we were there all day and after 11am it was all sun. Today I had to go to the Farmacia to get some lotion and sunscreen. Note to Mom: This visit was MUCH less awkward than the last! (If you're curious as to what went down the first time I visited a Spanish pharmacy, talk to my mom. It's not an appropriate story to post here, but it's very funny..) Anyway, the pharmacist suggested that I get SPF40 or SPF50 (she was like, look how white you are!), but I told her that I usually used SPF15 in the USA. She informed me that the sun in Spain is NOT the same as the sun in the USA, so I got SPF40 and hopefully I will get tan without being burnt. We'll see!

Oh and, before I forget!! Thanks for all your comments. It makes me very happy to read them :)

Feels like forever since my last post.. (image heavy!)

But it's only been five days! I think it's because we do a lot each day - I barely have any free time! That's not to say it isn't fun, though, because I LOVE Madrid! I could definitely see myself living here some day. It feels so strange to think that I'll be gone in less than five weeks :(

Here's what I've been doing lately...

1. El Real Jardín Botánico (Royal Botanical Garden) in Madrid

On Thursday we took a class field trip to the Prado Museum in Madrid to see some of Francisco de Goya's paintings (unfortunately, no cameras are allowed! But, it was fantastic!). Afterwards, I went with some friends to the El Real Jardín Botánico because we have to do a presentation on it for class. The gardens have been around since the mid 1700's and has about 30,000 flowers/plants and 1500 trees. It was the most beautiful park I've ever been to - I've noticed that Spain is really big on parks, and not just your run-of-the-mill playgrounds, but really gorgeous, specially crafted architectural wonders.

2. Descubrimientos

Another project I'm working on is what's called a descubrimiento (discovery).Our teacher asked us to find a site in Madrid that personifies Madrid of the 1800's up to the 1940's. My roommate Ashley and I decided to go find our places on Saturday since we're required to photograph ourselves inside the place (could be a restaurant, cafe, casino, etc). Ashley had a few places to go - and without a GPS, everything is hard to find! It wound up taking us over an hour to find the last place, and after walking in an hour-long circle, we discovered that it was literally 500 feet from where we had started. Also, it was closed, even though we went during the hours of operation. So, we were not happy. Luckily, an incredibly famous chocolatería (bet you know what that means!) was right next door. I got the chocolate concoction (a milkshake-y dark chocolate base with whipped cream and 3 types of chocolate pearls.. to die for) and Ashley got the kiwi smoothie. Except it was JUST blended kiwi without any of the additives they usually put in, like yogurt and excess sugar. It was truly delicious!

3. Field trip to Córdoba - La Mezquita

This actually happened before #2, but whatever. So, every Friday we take a day trip to another part of Spain. Next weekend we're going to be in Asturias, then we're going to Toledo, then Segovia. Córdoba is known for its beautiful religious architecture: the town has Arab, Jewish, and Christian influences present throughout. Perhaps the most famous image of Córdoba is La Mezquita (the mosque). Architects begun work on La Mezquita around 600 A.D. as a Christian Visigoth church, but it was bought by the founder of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba, a Muslim dynasty which ruled in the area for three centuries, and turned into a mosque. After 1492 it was turned into a church with a gothic cathedral placed in the middle of it:



I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful building - the minute attention to detail was absolutely insane - there were no "plain" areas in the entire interior. Even the columns, floor, and ceiling were adorned with engravings, patterns, and words. It's hard to think that people were able to construct such magnificent things over a thousand years ago.

Arab influence.


Arab columns with Crucifixion in the background.

4. Hanging out in Córdoba

We spent the day walking around the city, which was completely without clouds (this is a trend in Spain, I've noticed) - don't worry, Mom, I managed to escape sunburn! Anyway, one thing that our professor pointed out was the tendency of residencies (homes, universities, restaurants, etc) to have an interior patio area before the main area, like so (this is a restaurant):


I thought that was a nice touch :)

4. Visit to Córdoba - Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of the Christian Monarchs)

Located down the street from the mosque, the Alcázar (a type of Spanish castle) was the home of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (you know, the people who funded Columbus' 1492 journey to America). Mostly we hung out in their gardens. Interestingly, the castle has Islamic features although it was built during Christian rule. There is even a section called the "Arab baths."


BEAUTIFUL gardens.


About half our group in front of the gardens. I'm sitting next to our tour guide who was an extremely enthusiastic and interesting, and very sweet lady :)

5. Random pictures!


Some of our group before going to La Puerta del Sol on Friday night after getting back from Córdoba. The Metro is a huge part of our lives - I take it at least once a day!


Textbooks are a must, unfortunately. The light green one, Deseo de ser Punk ("Desire to be punk" - and yes, that's Iggy Pop on the cover) isn't due until the end of the program, but the play (La casa de Bernarda Alba) is due very soon...

OKAY! Enough of a study break. Time to actually work! Hope you enjoyed all the pictures :)

Two posts in one day!

Just got back from El Parque Santander which is just a 5 minute walk from my house.. very convenient! I went with my roommate and we saw a couple of other students there, since we all have free time after lunch. I did some reading, listened to music, and napped on the park bench (and thus might've gotten a little sunburnt...). Anyway, aquí están algunos fotos:


View of the park from where I was sitting. It's actually a really big park - it has a golf hitting range, a huge fountain (where people were tanning), and two cafes.


Me, Katie, and my roommate Ashley at the park!

Updates!

Sorry I've been really silent thus far, but rest assured, I'm still here and having a great time :)

Yesterday we went to La Puerta del Sol to get Spanish cellphones, since thusfar we've been constricted to communicating via Skype (which can be difficult, because it requires one to be at the computer to use!) Getting phones was really interesting because none of the workers spoke any English! However, we managed to do it; I guess when you have twenty people you can figure it out eventually. We've had some problems with meeting up at the Metro, so being able to text each other should solve this problem. I'm lucky enough to live extremely close to the University - our condo is the closest out of all of them at only a 5 minute walk - others have to leave 45 minutes early to get on the Metro.

Speaking of the Metro - those things go WAY underground! My stop is at a street called Guzmán el Bueno. To get a sense of how far underground we have to go to get to the train platform, picture the length of an escalator at the mall. Now, multiply that by five. Yeah, we have to go down 5 full-sized escalators, plus a handfull of stairs, just go get to the platform!

The funny thing is that although I'm in Spain, there are definitely American/English language influences everywhere! For example, there's a KFC in La Puerta del Sol (and a McDonalds, but those really are everywhere). I'm fortunate enough to have a papelería (school supplies store) right across the street from my house, and when I went in yesterday to buy notebooks for class, I saw that a lot had english text in the designs ("I like to dance" was one of them). Also, they were playing "Tik Tok," in the store, which is a hit song back in the states.

I'm adjusting well and having lots of fun, though! The strange thing is the mealtimes. I'm hungry a lot of the time because we have a relatively small breakfast (just cereal in the morning before class), then a large lunch at 2pm, and then dinner at 9:30pm or so. The stretch from breakfast -> lunch is definitely harder to deal with! For lunch, we have different things - I just finished eating cooked mixed vegetables (green beans, peas, brussel sprouts, carrots) with little bacon pieces plus fried fish. I'm not sure what kind of fish it was, but it's whatever fish that comes in fishsticks at the grocery store. I'm not a big fish person (besides salmon) but it is definitely true that you will eat whatever when you're hungry :)

There's not much to do today since we (the students) have been pretty busy going out every day since we've been here - plus, classes have started, so we actually have a lot of stuff to do. It's not just reading - for example, we have several assignments that involve visiting various places in Madrid and reacting to them as foreign exchange students. Also, this Friday we're taking a field trip to Cordoba, and next weekend we will be traveling to Asturias, a province in the northern part of Spain.

I'll leave you all with a picture since I'm going to tomar una siesta (take a nap!) or perhaps go to a nearby park and listen to music/read. It's a lovely day - sunny and 82F with absolutely no humidity. My favorite!


This was a La Puerta del Sol yesterday while we were exchanging money before getting cell phones.