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.

Por fin!

Only about 26 hours late, but I'm here! My host madre just fed me lots of food (I forgot that here, you don't get all the food at once - there are courses!) so I thought I was done when I finished the pasta with bread, but then came the chicken, and then the postre, which was strawberries in milk. Now I'm SUPER full! Time to rest a little bit, but not too much because we have dinner at 9:30pm, and I need to be able to sleep after that, because classes start on Monday!

Will update in more detail after my siesta :)

First day in Spain?

..Didn't actually happen!

I'm sitting at a lovely Sheraton hotel in Charlotte (they have a pool inside) using up my 45 minutes of free internet time (I have 16 minutes left.... better type fast!) and trying to figure out what to do with my time. I would've been happily on my way to Madrid by now, but my Charlotte->Atlanta flight was delayed by over two hours, resulting in my inability to make my Atlanta->Madrid flight. That flight also happened to be the last one out for the night, so they stuck me in a complimentary hotel and gave me a few meal passes. Suffice it to say... it was not a good evening! Luckily, I had an angry mom and an airline-savvy uncle to help me out...

So, we're going to try again tomorrow: I'll be leaving out of Atlanta at around 3:30pm to Paris, and I'll arrive in Paris at 6am. I have an hour to get through customs and on to Madrid (this doesn't seem possible, or probable), and I'll get there at 9:20am on Saturday. I'm going to be SO exhausted, because who goes to sleep at 3:30pm? I was talking to some experienced flyers at dinner, trying to devise a way to sleep on the plane tomorrow, but I'm told not to count on it (that, and stay awake as long as possible until I feel like dying, then drink an energy drink). I may wake up super early so I'll be tired enough to be able to sleep a little bit. The problem is that we have our first excursion on Saturday morning, at 11am. I could probably make it, but only if I don't sleep.

This should be an interesting day!

Hi all!

Hello family members and friends who are reading this blog :) As you know, I'll be studying abroad in Madrid, Spain from May 14-June 25. This blog will serve as a way to update you all on what I'm doing with my time while abroad. I hope to be able to post pictures as well as descriptions of the places I've traveled to. It will also be one of the few places I'll be communicating in English!

Feel free to leave comments and I can't wait to see you all when I get back!