SOOOO i havent forgotten about my blog.... my internet access has been suuuper contstricted.... right now i have like, 26 min left on this computer while i wait for my laundry to be finished lol. im in roma, and its fantastic!! i love this city, something about italians, theyre all so nice! weve been here for 3 days and this night is my last night here before i leave for pompeii tomorrow, early morning wake up! yesterday we went to assisi for a day trip and got to see the church where saint francis is buried, it was really cool, and it was such a cute small city.
we started off in barcelona, where we stayed at a fantastic hostel and met a few people there, including a couple (names? i forget. bob and gretta lets say) SOOO we saw lots of really cool gaudi stuff, including the segrada familia, i was really impressed wtih the city and it didnt really feel like spain there. we went to the beach too and walked along the mediteranean! we were there for a few, then got on a flight with easyjet.... which for a discount airline really was good! we arrived in milan a few short hours later and checked out the major duomo aka church there, which was really big, i mean, ive seen SO MANY CHURCHES in europe. thennnnnn we started our tran traveling tour of this country. we went to venice and it was just like the movies. imagine a city with rivers for roads, and thats what you get. there are about ten million little alley ways and only one major center of the city, which isnt much of a center. it makes it really cute and easy to find a little dock thats not full of people. it was fun to explore there and get lost. we didnt go for a gondela ride, it was a little expensive, but we did use their ferry service to get along faster to saint marks. ugh i just LOVED all the water and quaint-ness (is that a real word?) of the city. next was florence, where we stayed over night and made some great friends in our hostel. there were 2 canadians, an argentine, someone from brussels and others. it was a fun night talking and using a mix of spanish french but mostly english. it was an ok city, i like the things that florence has, its definately famous for its art, aka the DAVID who was SO TALL i didnt realize, and then a bunch of artwork that was comissioned by the medici family (google them, they are really cool people) so we are talking about the "birth of venus" among others. it was really touristy there and we had to wait in a lot of lines but it was worth it.
nooooow we are more up to date. we arrived in rome a few days ago and its, like i said, a really amazing city. its home to a million different ruins like the colesseum, roman forum, the VATICAN (go on google and look up the swiss guard, im obsessed.) today we walked up 501 steps to get to the top of the duomo so we could see allll of st peters square from the sky! i got good picture footage, ive gone through about 600 or more pictures so far i think. we ran into people that we know from our university in madrid in the train station, what are the chances! then again we saw them in the vatican museum. this is a huge city, how the heck did that happen? and then we found bob and gretta, who are actually staying at our hostel. its SO BIZARRE.
like i said, the italians are nice!! its hilarious cause i find that they will talk to you even if you dont know italian. they are very good at one sided conversations. on our way to assisi our transfer train was held up for an hor and 20 min and this ooooold italian lady with 2 teeth was talking to us for a while and she was the cutest thing. we got to talk about the weather and such. jeannie and i understand a LOT of italian, its so similar to spanish! i took 2 classes too so it helps me even more with some of the different verbs, but my issue is speaking. im so out of italian speaking practice that when i go to talk it sorta just turns into spanish, whoops! every morning i always need a cappuccino- longgg walking days so i just need that to help me out. my favorite was when i went into this cafe and went to get a coffee and the old man behind the counter took my 1.5 liter water bottle and filled it up for me at the faucet behind the counter. so nice! of course, jeannie and i are so gorgeous so we get a lot of people calling us bella all the time, funny.
ill see if i get an opportunity to update again soon but i dont know when that will be. im excited to have a last 3 days to spend in madrid before i go back home, jeannie is leaving the 8th and im leaving the 9th so i have a little time to say bye to the city. our director patricia is letting me sleep at her house that night and shes driving me to the airport. EEK!
xoxoxoxooxoxoxoo
ps. the end of the semester went well.... i overall think my professors liked me, one of them i have 2 classes with, monica, sent a really nice email telling me that i was a pleasure to have in class, and ill see how the grades transfer over.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
the heat
my poor computer is seeing the end of its days..... its been overheating because the vent/fan is broke so i dont know what im going to be doing about that! i can use it for 20 min or so before it reaches 100 degrees (i downloaded this program to tell me) and it shuts off, its so sad, i cant do too much on it like research because it overworks itself. :(
soooo thats why im at school today, a friday, so that i can use the stupid computers here in the library. before i sat down i went to the famous sandwich shop a little off campus ("eat well for cheap!"). ive got 2 favorite sammies, ill share:
chapata bread with barbecue sauce, chicken, lettuce, and onion and mozzarela, and the other, which i just created, is hard boiled egg, avocado, corn, marinated red peppers, salt and pepper. delish! and its cheap. 3 €!
i need to write another 7 pager (just finished one for history on the catholic monarchs, ferdinand and isabella) and now ive gotta write up an analasis of some random short story by this author. luckily jeannie sent me the link so i dont have to buy the book... its all online! fantastico. it stinks to sit down for too long... i dont konw if ive got allergies or what, but my nose is DYINGG i can barely breathe.
im dooone with classes, and minus the whole "exam " part, im really happy. the weather the past two dys has been GORGEOUS, like, 85 degrees and sunny. weeeeird i only have 7 more days left living with concha :( i am going to miss them so much...... that means i have to pack up everythinggggggg for next saturday cause AYA is meeting at patricias for a farewell paella and jeannie and i are leaving our big suitcases with her, and then after that we are going directly to the train to go to barcelona!! wow, im so excited, but freaked out that ive got not time left in madrid. not faiiiiiirrrrrr
ill give you a run through of where ill be from may 16- june 8th
may 16- embark for barcelona in a train
may 18th- flight to milan from barcelona
until the end of may, we are hopping around italy: florence, venice, milan, pompeii, naples, rome, and finally our port city, bari.
last day of may we are going to be crazy people and take a 15 hour ferry from bari to this port city in greece- wow! then from there we bus it to athens
we´re parking it in athens for a few days in a hostel right next to some famous ruins, then we are taking anotttther ferry to santorini!! be jealous, yes, fantastico.
i think weve got 4 full days there on the beach to relax then we are going back to athens airport to get our flight to madrid, and we are spending 2 night in the middle of the city, at sol.
june 8th, in the evening, i will be arriving gloriously jetlagged in the united states of america. let the games begin!
soooo thats why im at school today, a friday, so that i can use the stupid computers here in the library. before i sat down i went to the famous sandwich shop a little off campus ("eat well for cheap!"). ive got 2 favorite sammies, ill share:
chapata bread with barbecue sauce, chicken, lettuce, and onion and mozzarela, and the other, which i just created, is hard boiled egg, avocado, corn, marinated red peppers, salt and pepper. delish! and its cheap. 3 €!
i need to write another 7 pager (just finished one for history on the catholic monarchs, ferdinand and isabella) and now ive gotta write up an analasis of some random short story by this author. luckily jeannie sent me the link so i dont have to buy the book... its all online! fantastico. it stinks to sit down for too long... i dont konw if ive got allergies or what, but my nose is DYINGG i can barely breathe.
im dooone with classes, and minus the whole "exam " part, im really happy. the weather the past two dys has been GORGEOUS, like, 85 degrees and sunny. weeeeird i only have 7 more days left living with concha :( i am going to miss them so much...... that means i have to pack up everythinggggggg for next saturday cause AYA is meeting at patricias for a farewell paella and jeannie and i are leaving our big suitcases with her, and then after that we are going directly to the train to go to barcelona!! wow, im so excited, but freaked out that ive got not time left in madrid. not faiiiiiirrrrrr
ill give you a run through of where ill be from may 16- june 8th
may 16- embark for barcelona in a train
may 18th- flight to milan from barcelona
until the end of may, we are hopping around italy: florence, venice, milan, pompeii, naples, rome, and finally our port city, bari.
last day of may we are going to be crazy people and take a 15 hour ferry from bari to this port city in greece- wow! then from there we bus it to athens
we´re parking it in athens for a few days in a hostel right next to some famous ruins, then we are taking anotttther ferry to santorini!! be jealous, yes, fantastico.
i think weve got 4 full days there on the beach to relax then we are going back to athens airport to get our flight to madrid, and we are spending 2 night in the middle of the city, at sol.
june 8th, in the evening, i will be arriving gloriously jetlagged in the united states of america. let the games begin!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
one month in 15 minutes
its been forever and there is way too much to catch up on. in the past few weeks ive been to london and sevilla two times! im currently taking a study break... recently ive been quite the procrastinator and i have papers that neeeeed to be done, this is my last week of classes and next week ive got exams. so, briefly
london= fantastico, we got to stay at our friends place, and we all had a glorious time speaking english and drinking tea. i recently saw a harry potter trailer for the new movie and it had a clip with the millenium bridge in it and i was very excited to have walked that same bridge! i was also secretly hoping to run into robert pattinson, the protagonist of the book-now-movie twilight- my perhaps unhealthy addiction. (i bought the book in spanish to practice reading hehe)Unfortunately hes in Canada filming part two.
sevilla part one was right after that- we went for the famous "semana santa" aka holy week during easter. it was amazing--- tons of procession type things featuring people in tall pointy hats that have a resemblance to the KKK - ill have to explain this to you in person if your interested- no fear, theyre holy people. i got food poisning in the middle of the trip- well, i self diagnosed, it was a 12 hour stint and i was vomiting all day long, a horrific situation especially when your in a 8 bed room in a smelly hostel. i survived.
sevilla part 2 was a trip covered by our AYA program and we all (14 or so of us) went with our director, who actually studied there when she was a student. absolutely a gorgeous place, im trying to make laura consider studying there. uhh - may- zing. and the food is good too of course. on the way back in the metro on sunday at 10 PM someone stole my wallet. i was being careful!!! they were professionals, and got me flustered as i was trying to leave the metro... i was walking out and realized as the doors were closing that they got me. i was really upset at first but i calmed down and now im just a super psycho everytime i travel/ am in a crowd.
oh! and i went to see a soccer game too. that was sooo fun and it was a Real Madrid game (the name of the madrid team, obviously) against Getafe (where my school is, funny) and Madrid won.
its 11 , ive got class in an hour and i MUST get this done! xoxoxoxo, im done on the 16th, and that day im also catching an overnight bust to barcelona, 18th to Milan, around the wonderful country of italy till the end of the month, then a week in greece and the grecian island santorini. 20 days living out of a backpack!!!! you all can be jealous of my tan :)
london= fantastico, we got to stay at our friends place, and we all had a glorious time speaking english and drinking tea. i recently saw a harry potter trailer for the new movie and it had a clip with the millenium bridge in it and i was very excited to have walked that same bridge! i was also secretly hoping to run into robert pattinson, the protagonist of the book-now-movie twilight- my perhaps unhealthy addiction. (i bought the book in spanish to practice reading hehe)Unfortunately hes in Canada filming part two.
sevilla part one was right after that- we went for the famous "semana santa" aka holy week during easter. it was amazing--- tons of procession type things featuring people in tall pointy hats that have a resemblance to the KKK - ill have to explain this to you in person if your interested- no fear, theyre holy people. i got food poisning in the middle of the trip- well, i self diagnosed, it was a 12 hour stint and i was vomiting all day long, a horrific situation especially when your in a 8 bed room in a smelly hostel. i survived.
sevilla part 2 was a trip covered by our AYA program and we all (14 or so of us) went with our director, who actually studied there when she was a student. absolutely a gorgeous place, im trying to make laura consider studying there. uhh - may- zing. and the food is good too of course. on the way back in the metro on sunday at 10 PM someone stole my wallet. i was being careful!!! they were professionals, and got me flustered as i was trying to leave the metro... i was walking out and realized as the doors were closing that they got me. i was really upset at first but i calmed down and now im just a super psycho everytime i travel/ am in a crowd.
oh! and i went to see a soccer game too. that was sooo fun and it was a Real Madrid game (the name of the madrid team, obviously) against Getafe (where my school is, funny) and Madrid won.
its 11 , ive got class in an hour and i MUST get this done! xoxoxoxo, im done on the 16th, and that day im also catching an overnight bust to barcelona, 18th to Milan, around the wonderful country of italy till the end of the month, then a week in greece and the grecian island santorini. 20 days living out of a backpack!!!! you all can be jealous of my tan :)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Finally...
a VACATION! im currently inbetween classes, i have a 2 hour history class left, and then tomorrow i have a literature test and then its finally spring break!!!! right after my class that ends at 6 im hopping on over to barajas airport to go to london... i cant WAIT its going to be a really good trip and i better delete all the pics off my camera cause im gonna be there the 2nd through the 7th. HOWEVER we have other things to discuss.
i caved. i know, im ashamed. i got starbucks yesterday. its just that i was so frusterated after trying to find some jeans (ahhh i need jeans) i went into every store on fuencarral and i just couldnt find anything i really liked. so then i was thristy so i got an overpriced mango passion tea slushie thing which was really good. starbucks is funny here. its basically 75% american customers. haha and they asked me for my name for the cup and i said "jill" but they looked at me funny so i just said "julia". things that can not be pronounced in the spanish language= my name.
this past weekend was home base. (i know your thinking, how was germany?- patience). it was kindof nice to be settled for a bit but for some reason we were getting some cloudy colder weather. friday andy and i walked around the palacio real and got to see some pretty cool old stuff including the armory and medicines they used back in the day. then we ate lunch pretty late at 100 montaditos and we ordered WAY to much food, but it was fun anyways. i dont recommend sammies with anchovies and blu(e?) cheese. good job with that one, andy. Sunday night AYA went to see a bullfight! well, that is, most of us. theyre pretty contreversial because of animal rights stuff, but im glad i went, im not gonna be running back to see another one anytime soon. basically theres a bunch of matadors dressed up in that costume thats so typical spanish and the bull comes out and he runs around and they take their capes(?) and frustrate him, then you have the main matador with his red cape and they ..... how do i say this in a nice way.... slowly bleed the bull to death? well, once he hits the floor they stab him to "put him out of his misery" per say. the first bull is sortof shocking but theres actually 6 bulls so you get a hang of the pattern of things by the 6th one. i know mom, it sounds horiffic, oye.
the weekend before THAT was germany!!! it was amazing. first off, the plane we had was a baby one so we had to take a bus over to the plane and then walk up the steps to board. so cool! it was a considerably smooth flight, when i think of small planes i think of instability but it was not the case. jeannie and i DINED on that flight, we flew lufthansa, a fabulous airline that passes by with drinks 3 times during the 2.5 hrs. i think god was trying to tell jeannie something when the dinner was raviolis.... she had been craving italian food forever. we landed and our friend lisa picked us up from the airport. we drove the ottobon(i dont know how to spell this word but there you go) home 40 minutes... i can not thank lisa and her family enough for treating us to such a wonderful weekend. first off, lisa and i met in the US when she was there for a year as an au pair aka nanny. she has 3 sisters, all of whom speak english pretty well, which was necessary because i didnt know a word of german. her parents didnt really speak engish, they would understand a word here or there, but we definately had our own way of communication. ive never had to read facial expressions or hand motions so much in my life! it was so funny. i learned how to say 1-10, delicious, cheers, and "i dont speak any german", oh, and please, thank you, and good morning. im on my way! (2 days ago i signed up for classes next semester and german 101 is on that list hahaha). we got to visit her hometown and meet a lot of her friends, she took us to brewery close to her house and got to meet her grandma who lives pretty close to her in the countryside. at her grandmas we met a bunch of her cousins too and then we got to walk around the property and then over to some woods. it was beautiful and so relaxing! one day we went to munster, a town historically known as the place that the peace to tee 30 years war was signed long long ago. another day, we crossed the border into holland aka the netherlands. that language, dutch, equally as difficult as german! but we went to a market there and it was really cool. we have pics where we crossed the border. as a finalle on our last day, lisa surprised us with a horse drawn carriage ride!!! how cooooool
every morning they had breakfast set out for us, rolls, jams, cold cuts, cheeses, lunch is at 12 on the dot and thats their big meal where we had delicious food (shnitzl! haha cant spell that either) and soups and bread... the bread is SOOO GOOD and then tea or coffee at 4 and dinner at 6 if we were home at the time. i was full for the rest of the week by the way that i ate that weekend... lisas mom would always tell jeannie and i to try everythingggg and most of the times i did!
it was amazing. our flight came in at 9 in the morning on monday and i had just enough time to get bac on the metro to home and take a shower and get to class at 1!!! ok class is upstairs and it starts in 2 minuts so im hopping out. ill post germay and bullfighting pics later. xoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxo miss you
i caved. i know, im ashamed. i got starbucks yesterday. its just that i was so frusterated after trying to find some jeans (ahhh i need jeans) i went into every store on fuencarral and i just couldnt find anything i really liked. so then i was thristy so i got an overpriced mango passion tea slushie thing which was really good. starbucks is funny here. its basically 75% american customers. haha and they asked me for my name for the cup and i said "jill" but they looked at me funny so i just said "julia". things that can not be pronounced in the spanish language= my name.
this past weekend was home base. (i know your thinking, how was germany?- patience). it was kindof nice to be settled for a bit but for some reason we were getting some cloudy colder weather. friday andy and i walked around the palacio real and got to see some pretty cool old stuff including the armory and medicines they used back in the day. then we ate lunch pretty late at 100 montaditos and we ordered WAY to much food, but it was fun anyways. i dont recommend sammies with anchovies and blu(e?) cheese. good job with that one, andy. Sunday night AYA went to see a bullfight! well, that is, most of us. theyre pretty contreversial because of animal rights stuff, but im glad i went, im not gonna be running back to see another one anytime soon. basically theres a bunch of matadors dressed up in that costume thats so typical spanish and the bull comes out and he runs around and they take their capes(?) and frustrate him, then you have the main matador with his red cape and they ..... how do i say this in a nice way.... slowly bleed the bull to death? well, once he hits the floor they stab him to "put him out of his misery" per say. the first bull is sortof shocking but theres actually 6 bulls so you get a hang of the pattern of things by the 6th one. i know mom, it sounds horiffic, oye.
the weekend before THAT was germany!!! it was amazing. first off, the plane we had was a baby one so we had to take a bus over to the plane and then walk up the steps to board. so cool! it was a considerably smooth flight, when i think of small planes i think of instability but it was not the case. jeannie and i DINED on that flight, we flew lufthansa, a fabulous airline that passes by with drinks 3 times during the 2.5 hrs. i think god was trying to tell jeannie something when the dinner was raviolis.... she had been craving italian food forever. we landed and our friend lisa picked us up from the airport. we drove the ottobon(i dont know how to spell this word but there you go) home 40 minutes... i can not thank lisa and her family enough for treating us to such a wonderful weekend. first off, lisa and i met in the US when she was there for a year as an au pair aka nanny. she has 3 sisters, all of whom speak english pretty well, which was necessary because i didnt know a word of german. her parents didnt really speak engish, they would understand a word here or there, but we definately had our own way of communication. ive never had to read facial expressions or hand motions so much in my life! it was so funny. i learned how to say 1-10, delicious, cheers, and "i dont speak any german", oh, and please, thank you, and good morning. im on my way! (2 days ago i signed up for classes next semester and german 101 is on that list hahaha). we got to visit her hometown and meet a lot of her friends, she took us to brewery close to her house and got to meet her grandma who lives pretty close to her in the countryside. at her grandmas we met a bunch of her cousins too and then we got to walk around the property and then over to some woods. it was beautiful and so relaxing! one day we went to munster, a town historically known as the place that the peace to tee 30 years war was signed long long ago. another day, we crossed the border into holland aka the netherlands. that language, dutch, equally as difficult as german! but we went to a market there and it was really cool. we have pics where we crossed the border. as a finalle on our last day, lisa surprised us with a horse drawn carriage ride!!! how cooooool
every morning they had breakfast set out for us, rolls, jams, cold cuts, cheeses, lunch is at 12 on the dot and thats their big meal where we had delicious food (shnitzl! haha cant spell that either) and soups and bread... the bread is SOOO GOOD and then tea or coffee at 4 and dinner at 6 if we were home at the time. i was full for the rest of the week by the way that i ate that weekend... lisas mom would always tell jeannie and i to try everythingggg and most of the times i did!
it was amazing. our flight came in at 9 in the morning on monday and i had just enough time to get bac on the metro to home and take a shower and get to class at 1!!! ok class is upstairs and it starts in 2 minuts so im hopping out. ill post germay and bullfighting pics later. xoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxo miss you
update...
6 hours later...
HERES THE PICS!
typical! even though this was in the market in holland they still have a ton of sausages
YUMMM fresh fried fish and fries with homemade mayo (not my fav) and AMAZING PEANUT SAUCE! this was our meal at the market
we got a private tour of this windmill! it was fun... we got to see how they ground wheat or whatever inside
we were driving along and saw this hot air ballon go from deflated to lift off... it was cool! notice how i got the bike in this pic- bikes are typical german/holland transportation and the reason that lisas fam has one car for the 6 of them. bikes get them everywhere, and in munster where we visited they outnumber people x 2!
we got to feed deer! they were so cute- but the pappa with the antlers was the piggie. they liked the apples a lot
beer department in the grocery store. it was funny taking this pic...
our horse ride!
ok, tomorrow i leave for london. then one day back in madrid and im off to sevilla. YAY!
Friday, March 27, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!
love you mom!.... xxoxoxoxoxo
This is the first time in forever where I have slept in past 9:30… its about 12:20 and I woke up and hour ago and it’s a glorious day outside… I'm planning on visiting the palacio royal and some Egyptian stuff in some park somewhere…. Ill let yall know how that goes. I'm currently enjoying the new Kelly Clarkson CD- my host bro Pablo sent me a link for this cool itunes like program called Spotify where you can listen to music, basically anything you want, you just cant put it on your ipod L.
I haven’t updated!! Tisk tisk…. School is, well, school, and I think I like the US grading system better than here. I’ve only gotten a few grades here so its too early to tell how the semester is gonna finish up, I'm just gonna try to get some stuff done in advance. The 2 past weekends have been awesome, first Lisbon then Germany.
I went to Lisbon the 13th-15th, near the beaches and whatnot. We stayed at the most amazing hostel EVER you walk up 2 flights of stairs and you walk in and theres a huge common floor and its decorated by local artists…. Every night they offered 8 euro full dinner with soup, main course, and dessert and basically everyone took advantage of the food and company. We met other Americans from Texas, we met someone from india and her friend who is teaching in Madrid, we met Germans who were doing their senior project for their degrees, a really nice French girl and someone from Tokyo! English was the common language- thank goodness, I don’t know Portuguese or French and lord knows I cant even tell one word from another in German. We walked around Lisbon and got around on their tram system. We visited the monument to the discoverers, the belem tower (the workers were on strike so we couldn’t go in but it was cool ahah), the main square (figueira square), the Lisbon cathedral, castle of saint george, and others. Oh and the cream custards, famous in the area, are delish. Food, my favorite topic. My favorite day was Saturday when we took the train to Sintra, a UNESCO world heritage site for its romantic architecture. (don’t worry, I just looked that up on Wikipedia ehehe) we didn’t see the famous Pena palace, HOWEVER we saw Castelo dos mouros which was AMAZING you could see the whole world … ive got video ill post later. And this really cool creepy palace with lots of awesome gardens and little nooks and crannies and turrets everywhere called the “Quinta da regaleira” a summer residence of the monteiro family built in the neo-manueline style. Hehe, good thing I hold onto all the random pamphlets they give us. This was all in mountainous area and we took a bus to get to the places and let me tell you, they are CRAZY drivers! It was like an amusement park ride… Then we went to Cascais by bus where there was a small beach and people surfing and we got to touch the Atlantic Ocean! the next day we took a ferry to the really big jesus statue modeled over another famous one in.... well i forget but it was really cool. Beautiful place, good company, overall wonderful weekend topped off with a tan. Shoutouts to Ryan and Jeannie, my amazing coordinators and experts in public transportation.
the castle... we met some canadians while we were walking around (whoops we didnt wear our sneakers for this hike!)
the cool house we went to... its sorta off the beaten track and im sooo glad we went!
the jesus statue! i think its a copy of one in rio de janiero...
the three of us
the castle that we watned to go into but the protests... oyeee
i liked this huge map that was on the ground... the US seemed so close, yet so far
the hostel... AHHH SO COOL! see the floating table? and the chairs where we ate dinner? so classy
This is the first time in forever where I have slept in past 9:30… its about 12:20 and I woke up and hour ago and it’s a glorious day outside… I'm planning on visiting the palacio royal and some Egyptian stuff in some park somewhere…. Ill let yall know how that goes. I'm currently enjoying the new Kelly Clarkson CD- my host bro Pablo sent me a link for this cool itunes like program called Spotify where you can listen to music, basically anything you want, you just cant put it on your ipod L.
I haven’t updated!! Tisk tisk…. School is, well, school, and I think I like the US grading system better than here. I’ve only gotten a few grades here so its too early to tell how the semester is gonna finish up, I'm just gonna try to get some stuff done in advance. The 2 past weekends have been awesome, first Lisbon then Germany.
I went to Lisbon the 13th-15th, near the beaches and whatnot. We stayed at the most amazing hostel EVER you walk up 2 flights of stairs and you walk in and theres a huge common floor and its decorated by local artists…. Every night they offered 8 euro full dinner with soup, main course, and dessert and basically everyone took advantage of the food and company. We met other Americans from Texas, we met someone from india and her friend who is teaching in Madrid, we met Germans who were doing their senior project for their degrees, a really nice French girl and someone from Tokyo! English was the common language- thank goodness, I don’t know Portuguese or French and lord knows I cant even tell one word from another in German. We walked around Lisbon and got around on their tram system. We visited the monument to the discoverers, the belem tower (the workers were on strike so we couldn’t go in but it was cool ahah), the main square (figueira square), the Lisbon cathedral, castle of saint george, and others. Oh and the cream custards, famous in the area, are delish. Food, my favorite topic. My favorite day was Saturday when we took the train to Sintra, a UNESCO world heritage site for its romantic architecture. (don’t worry, I just looked that up on Wikipedia ehehe) we didn’t see the famous Pena palace, HOWEVER we saw Castelo dos mouros which was AMAZING you could see the whole world … ive got video ill post later. And this really cool creepy palace with lots of awesome gardens and little nooks and crannies and turrets everywhere called the “Quinta da regaleira” a summer residence of the monteiro family built in the neo-manueline style. Hehe, good thing I hold onto all the random pamphlets they give us. This was all in mountainous area and we took a bus to get to the places and let me tell you, they are CRAZY drivers! It was like an amusement park ride… Then we went to Cascais by bus where there was a small beach and people surfing and we got to touch the Atlantic Ocean! the next day we took a ferry to the really big jesus statue modeled over another famous one in.... well i forget but it was really cool. Beautiful place, good company, overall wonderful weekend topped off with a tan. Shoutouts to Ryan and Jeannie, my amazing coordinators and experts in public transportation.
the beach!! there was sand on the other side..
the castle... we met some canadians while we were walking around (whoops we didnt wear our sneakers for this hike!)
the cool house we went to... its sorta off the beaten track and im sooo glad we went!
the jesus statue! i think its a copy of one in rio de janiero...
the three of us
the castle that we watned to go into but the protests... oyeee
i liked this huge map that was on the ground... the US seemed so close, yet so far
the hostel... AHHH SO COOL! see the floating table? and the chairs where we ate dinner? so classygermany post is next...
Friday, March 13, 2009
video documentary
this is a small clip of a fab thursday in madrid. it speaks for itself. really though, it was one of the best.
Monday, March 9, 2009
home base...
Ive gotta make this quick because i have homework that i havent done for class at 130 and its 10...
so this week was a madrid week, last wednesday was my first test here (in lengua) and it went ok minus the fact that it was REALLY LONG. we'll see how that goes. but anywho, it was a great week because it was Catholic's spring break, so there were a few people who made the journey to europe. My friends mimi and jess traveled here and we got to hang out a few times (sorry i never got to say bye!!!), and then Ashley and nick came over too. it was nice to have familiar faces around, and from the sounds of it they had a great time here. this weekend i was in madrid but that doesnt mean that there was no action. saturday our culture studies class had a2 field trips. we went to the sofia reina museum and saw picasso's famous "guernica" amongst others, and then later on that day our class got on a bus and hiked it 45 min to "valle de los caidos" a huge monument/church where franco is buried. it was gorgeous... its in the montains so it was nippy, but it was a cool thing to see. (i didnt have my camera with me but the entire class was taking pics so im sure i can get my hands on some) yesterday, sunday, our spanish teacher from school was in madrid and jeanette, kara and i had a coffee with her, and then we headed over to our director, patricia's, house via bus to have a cooking lesson. we were late because of our coffee date, but i now have recipes and expierience making: spanish tortilla, spinach salad (cooked down with pine nuts, raisins, tomatoes, red and green peppers among other things), sangria, and arroz con leche. it was sooo good and we were so full for the rest of the day!
next weekend is lisbon, portugal, which should be amazing because its next to the atlantic ocean and its been hovering around 65 degrees here, so i cant imagine how gorgeous it will be there. i will leave you with a little clip from paris, enjoy!
so this week was a madrid week, last wednesday was my first test here (in lengua) and it went ok minus the fact that it was REALLY LONG. we'll see how that goes. but anywho, it was a great week because it was Catholic's spring break, so there were a few people who made the journey to europe. My friends mimi and jess traveled here and we got to hang out a few times (sorry i never got to say bye!!!), and then Ashley and nick came over too. it was nice to have familiar faces around, and from the sounds of it they had a great time here. this weekend i was in madrid but that doesnt mean that there was no action. saturday our culture studies class had a2 field trips. we went to the sofia reina museum and saw picasso's famous "guernica" amongst others, and then later on that day our class got on a bus and hiked it 45 min to "valle de los caidos" a huge monument/church where franco is buried. it was gorgeous... its in the montains so it was nippy, but it was a cool thing to see. (i didnt have my camera with me but the entire class was taking pics so im sure i can get my hands on some) yesterday, sunday, our spanish teacher from school was in madrid and jeanette, kara and i had a coffee with her, and then we headed over to our director, patricia's, house via bus to have a cooking lesson. we were late because of our coffee date, but i now have recipes and expierience making: spanish tortilla, spinach salad (cooked down with pine nuts, raisins, tomatoes, red and green peppers among other things), sangria, and arroz con leche. it was sooo good and we were so full for the rest of the day!
next weekend is lisbon, portugal, which should be amazing because its next to the atlantic ocean and its been hovering around 65 degrees here, so i cant imagine how gorgeous it will be there. i will leave you with a little clip from paris, enjoy!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Side note.
Typical Jillian situation.
Jill just woke up 15 minutes ago and hears a buzz from the kitchen. Shes heard that buzz before and has always been a little confused about it. Over time, she learned that that buzz means that someone is outside, downstairs, and thats the "doorbell" for them to get in.
Jill had problems with her credit card, for some reason there was some security code someone accessed and, anywho, her credit card company told her they were sending her a new card and that it should arrive in 3-5 days. So, Jillian tells her host mom and Jillian doesnt quiiiite understand what concha is saying about the mail man but she smiles and nods anyways. All she knows is that she is going to get a new credit card in the mail soon.
Well, concha has work early in the morning at the hospital, and pablo has school now, so when Jillian wakes up and hears that buzz, what is she supposed to do? ignore it, of course. it could be someone she doesnt know, and she would like to avoid an awkard situation in her current just-woken state of mind. but that buzz just wont leave her off like that. so she lets it buzz 3 times before she starts to panic. WHAT DOES JILL DO? well, she picks up the phone, attached to the buzzer, and says Hola?. Well, someone replies back, in spanish of course, that "Jillian Olson has a package from the United States". Now what does she do? He says to let him in so that he can drop it off. but Jill has never opened that door before so she has no idea. KATIE???!! poor thing, she was half awake but Jill might have startled her a little bit. she tells me that the button is on the phone. DUH. (it looked like the little button that the phone pushes to recognize to hang up.) So now Jill is waiting for the mailman to drop off her package.
He comes to the door DING DONG.... Trufa, stop barking! She goes to open the door, and realizes that she doesnt have her key. the door here keeps giving her trouble- the key is used to lock the door from both sides so she says "un minuto!", Katie lends her the keys, and finally Jillian meets the mailman, who is probably now thinking "Crazy americans". He was really nice, and Jill had to sign the pin pad for her express packaged visa debit card. at least she knew how to say "sorry, i didnt know how to open the door".
To think that all happened within the first 20 minutes of her day.
Jill just woke up 15 minutes ago and hears a buzz from the kitchen. Shes heard that buzz before and has always been a little confused about it. Over time, she learned that that buzz means that someone is outside, downstairs, and thats the "doorbell" for them to get in.
Jill had problems with her credit card, for some reason there was some security code someone accessed and, anywho, her credit card company told her they were sending her a new card and that it should arrive in 3-5 days. So, Jillian tells her host mom and Jillian doesnt quiiiite understand what concha is saying about the mail man but she smiles and nods anyways. All she knows is that she is going to get a new credit card in the mail soon.
Well, concha has work early in the morning at the hospital, and pablo has school now, so when Jillian wakes up and hears that buzz, what is she supposed to do? ignore it, of course. it could be someone she doesnt know, and she would like to avoid an awkard situation in her current just-woken state of mind. but that buzz just wont leave her off like that. so she lets it buzz 3 times before she starts to panic. WHAT DOES JILL DO? well, she picks up the phone, attached to the buzzer, and says Hola?. Well, someone replies back, in spanish of course, that "Jillian Olson has a package from the United States". Now what does she do? He says to let him in so that he can drop it off. but Jill has never opened that door before so she has no idea. KATIE???!! poor thing, she was half awake but Jill might have startled her a little bit. she tells me that the button is on the phone. DUH. (it looked like the little button that the phone pushes to recognize to hang up.) So now Jill is waiting for the mailman to drop off her package.
He comes to the door DING DONG.... Trufa, stop barking! She goes to open the door, and realizes that she doesnt have her key. the door here keeps giving her trouble- the key is used to lock the door from both sides so she says "un minuto!", Katie lends her the keys, and finally Jillian meets the mailman, who is probably now thinking "Crazy americans". He was really nice, and Jill had to sign the pin pad for her express packaged visa debit card. at least she knew how to say "sorry, i didnt know how to open the door".
To think that all happened within the first 20 minutes of her day.
Dear Violet...
HI NEW BABY COUSIN!
Welcome to the world! I am so sorry I couldn't be there.... and im sorry that its going to be a few months until i meet you. Its that im studying abroad in Spain this semester, and i get back on June 8th, which seems to be so far away. You are such a cutie-pa-tootie! You were probably not aware of the pictures taken of you while you were sleeping, but you had quite a few visitors! Leslie, who you met, sent me pics. Your cheeks are so chubby, and youre so cute!! You didnt beat me though, i was 10 pounds 10 ounces. I hope your letting Mom and Dad sleep a little... im sure you are well behaved. You see, your lucky to have such awesome parents, your going to have the BEST time. When i get back i promise to hang out with you a lot. You live close to me, and we can play dress up if you want.
WELLL you wont believe where I was when you were born! see, I dont know what you have seen of the world yet, probably the hospital and your cute house, (i heard its snowing there. its not always that cold, dont worry). The world probably seems so big. Well, the more i travel around the more i see how small the world is. I was in PARIS!
one day you will watch Madeline and see what its like. I went with my friend Jeannie, my translator, navigator, and historian. We left on a thursday night straight from class with our backpacks all ready for the flight at 9PM and we got into the city by midnight. Jeannie is very afraid of flying, but the flight was smooth and relatively fast so she handeled it like a pro. We got a bus nearer to our hostel and found our way on a road called Gobleins (these are going to be my attempts at french words. see, they speak french in France. figures that in different parts of the world people speak different languages. it does create a problem sometimes with communication. you and i speak english, and french is a little different so im not that good at it). Well we checked into our hostel, a shared room with a bathroom. we were exhausted and fell right to sleep, ready for a full friday.
We woke up early, got breakfast downstairs (baguette, croissant, cereal, coffee), and we headed off! we walked a LOT of paris. Jeannie had sit down earlier that week and drew out an agenda of "things to do" and ordered them and estimated times and such, so we were able to see Notre Dame, a very famous cathedral, the Louvre (Mona Lisa, Venus etc- it was fantastic), some famous Egyptian obelisk, the Arc de Triumph made up by Napolean, the entire famous street "avenue de champs elysees", across the oldest bridge, nappleans grave, and of course my favorite time of the day, FOOD. Violet, im sure you love food too. well, we had paninis and i got a crepe with nutella, which was heaven on earth, but expensive. here are some pictures:
this is Notre Dame Cathedral- so pretty!
this is me in front of the Arc de Triumph. it looks small in this picture but it really is a whole lot bigger
this is a really funny sculpture that is in the louvre. i could have posted my pic of the mona lisa but everyone knows what that looks like already. this guy on the other hand...
it took us a little while to realize that the entrance to the louvre was IN the pyramid!
a really old, really pretty bridge we got to go over
we walked back to our hostel and i went to take a shower and it was clogged :( it was gross, but it was really funny. i guess you get what you pay for, haha. the guy at the desk downstairs gave us a plunger to try to fix it, and i laughed, attempted to fix it, then gave it up 2 minutes later. Jeannie and i went downstairs and they gave us a key to another room that we were able to use for showering. it happens to be that it was the most beautiful room with a balcony and awesomeeee shower. So, jeannie and i no longer stunk and we were happy, except our feet hurt and we were sore from a long day of walking. your going to learn how to walk later, your still very little so your lucky that people just get to hold you all day. My sister, Laura, sat on my moms lap until she was 10 years old... she was a little crazy. She still is a little crazy haha.
We woke up the next day, got the same breakfast, and got our train tickets to versailles. (thats probably misspelled). its a very pretty palace that marie antoinette lived in once upon a time. not many people liked her because she wasted a lot of money that the French government needed, but she left behind a really cool estate. we were there 11-6 touring the main palace, her private quarters, the gardens etc. It was awesome! we also got these fun audio tour guides that were fun to use. After a long day there, we took the train almost all the way back but stopped at the EIFFEL TOWER!!! we got off the metro and the sun was starting to go down. we didnt hop in line quite yet because we were hungry again and we found a cafe nearby to have dinner. after that, we got in line for tickets because we really wanted to go to the top- jeannie says its in the book "100 things to see/do before you die", so i figured it was worth it and i knew i would regret it if i didnt know. i got jeannie to finally go to the top with me (scared of heights) and it was amazing!!! did you know that the eiffel tower glitters/blinks/sparkles for a minute or so on the hour??? it was so pretty! well, after that adventure, we went back to home base again and slept and woke up AGAIN for our last day in paris.
the PLUNGER
probably the most famous room in versaillais- hall of mirrors
hanging out in marie anoinettes backyard
i took this piture while it was blinking!!
my camera died at this point, which was kind of sad, i had fogotten my charger, so i made sure that jeannie took a lot of pictures on her camera. we saw some really famous building whose name escapes me (sac decour? french- ahhhh) and i found a pin to add to my collection! then we went and took pictures outside the moulin rouge, which did not remind me of the movie at all. who knew that it meant "red windmill?" crazy french. i dont know how jeannie convinced me to go to some crazy catacombs after that. its a 1.7 kilometer walk under the city of paris that houses a ton of perfectly stacked bones and skulls. it was spooky, but i didnt get nightmares luckily. it was definately an experience. after that, we went to the luxumbourg gardens where we parked it for a few, sitting in some chairs near a big circular pool with a big fountain in the middle. there were a lot of kids who rented little boats to put in the pool- they take sticks that come with the rented boats and push them off into the water, it looked like so much fun! after resting for a little bit we walked back to the hostel to pick up our things and made our way back to the airport. we made sure to get another crepe before leaving, and i think that they put almost a half a cup of nutella in ours, it was overwhelming but wonderful.
the flight back was a little delayed but i got back home in my bed at around 1 ready for class the next day.
funny to think im taking "weekend trips" to places like paris. i have tickets also to lisbon portugal, dusseldorf germany, and london england too!! its such a thrill. 3 months till i get to meet you! tell your mom and dad i say hi!!! keep sending me pics too. love you so much!!!
your (favorite) cousin,
jill
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Algunos fotos... (illustrations for the previous post)
a view from inside the alhambra during my trip to granada
the aqueducts that i love so much!
me with aqueducts in the background
the palace/castle
our new friend who lives inside the castle
the ballroom? im not sure. but it was pretty
one of my new favorites
segovia cathedral
salamanca, the shell house
the grand plaza mayor in salamanca in the night time
DONER KEBABS
Sorry for the long delay. Time has really been slipping right through my fingers- figures that yesterday was my one month anniversary of arriving in Spain! And so far so good. There is so much to fill you in on- I’ll fill you in on my current life then tell you about the my past 2 weekend adventures. I heard from my Mom that my blog is becoming quite the commodity at home--- who knows, maybe I will end up on Oprah or something haha!
Well I have been doing a lot of planning. We are taking advantage of our long Fri-Sat-Sun weekends and I have trips and tickets all ready! I'm going to Paris this weekend! We found a hostel, life is good. Thank goodness for my tax refund that I got recently because that covered my flight to LONDON during my spring break! That trip will be from April 2-April 7, then we come back to Spain and book it to Seville, south of Spain for “Semana Santa”(Holy Week). We chose Seville because it is famous for its processions etc. Other sites of interest: Germany (to visit Lisa, a friend who lives there that I met while she was in the United States for a year), Italy, and Greece. Of course, my list is infinite but unfortunately classes just get in the way J.
Do not fret! I am staying at home base, Madrid, the city I keep learning and exploring. With all the traveling my mom asks “when do you do your homework” and the answer is basically, in transit (1 hour to get to my school via public transportation), and night times during the week. Its all good. Talking about family, I had a dream about the new BABYYY!!! Rosie, you’ve been pregnant too long, lets get that baby out! And mind you, my dream did not determine the sex of the child, so that is still a surprise for me J. All I know is that it was absolutely precious- obviously.
Today I got out of classes at 5, got back to my metro stop at 6, and decided to just walk. So, I walked around and didn’t realize how close Zara, United Colors of Beddington, and other stuff is to my house (I mean, its close, like 15 min walk)! I have been spending a lot of time in the city city, so now that my neighborhood and I are good friends I'm going to have to hang out here more. It was a perfect day to walk around- pants, ballet flats, light jacket. I even just let my hair air dry now and let it do its own thing (my bangs are too long to be considered bangs and too short to be pulled back into my pony tail, so I pin them back). 18 degrees Celsius, or something like that? I don’t know what that converts to… I open up the doors to the balcony in my room and its just fantastic.
Well, the pictures I put up the last post were from Granada- the trip was one I will never forget. For the good, the bad, and the uuuugly haha. Really, it’s a beautiful city and a must-see if you go to Spain, but our AYA group (11 of us) went through a bigger group of 75 students associated with ERASMUS and the trip was “led” by Erasmus Students. I used the word “led”, but really what I mean to say is that they basically organized the bus ride but not much else. The hostel situation was a disaster, the planning was a disaster, but other things went REALLY well. For example we got to see a cool flamenco show done in the gypsy fashion- it was basically in a cave! The next day (insert excited voice) we saw the Alhambra! Unbelieveable- destination wedding anyone? Or at least the wedding pictures- its worth it. Basically the trip was blind leading the dumb. Or stupid leaving the blind- you get the gist- but it’s a beautiful place. Thank goodness Concha made me a sack of food before I left- shes so cute she told me the other day that if I'm going on these weekend trips to remind her and she’ll put together food for me. Sammies, cheese curls, yummy chocolate things, fruit. THANKS CONCHA (we all remember this is my host mom’s name)!
Uugh I just love food. Currently I'm in a huge kebab kick… the kebabs here are in the doner kebab style- basically a gyro. Shops are all over the place for this delish food! And I was about to get my fill…..
[(Letting down the curtains, lights fade back on.) Intermission. Please take a 5 minute break and grab a snack. Or popcorn or something- phew this is a long epic story]
...during my weekend adventure! After a week of classes, We toured the Iberian Peninsula a little more to Spanish cities Segovia and Salamanca. Segovia is closer to Spain, so we went on Friday. We left early in the day and got there around 11 after a bunch of confusion about our train/bus situation. Jeannie Ryan and I made the epic journey! We saw ROMAN AQUEDUCTS probably one of my favorite sights so far that I have seen, and we went to a castle, Alcazar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcazar is the link if you want to read up. Basically we got to hang out with a bunch of knights in shining amour. Well, they weren’t REAL guys, but the amour was impressive!
We also went to a castle, Alcazar, where we got to go up 150 twirly stairs alllll the way up to the top of the tower! The view was very impressive and we took many a pictures there. We walked around, and a lot of stores were closing down a little early because this weekend was Carnival, Spain’s version of Marti Gras. We were SO HUNGRY, like usual, and Jeannie and I were adamant about finding a Doner Kabab in the city. Luckily we got directions from someone on the street and found one and it was probably one of the best Kebabs I’ve had here. DELISH!!! Then, we found a bakery and got dessert, because here I feel no remorse in eating chocolate mousse cake when I spent all day walking up 150 stairs and what not. we had a smooth arrival back to Madrid at 6, and got to meet up with some friends from Catholic who were visiting Madrid during their study abroad in London (makes sense?). It was super fun but I made sure to rest up that night to get prepared for Salamanca!
We got a real train to Salamanca, you know when they have the seats facing each other with a table in the middle? Tres cute. It didn’t take long and we got to Salamanca, walked around, saw the awesome plaza mayor, ate Kebabs again, met up with Katie from our program, and then spent the night celebrating Jeannie’s 21st birthday at one of the bars in town! The next morning we got our train ride back and I was back in Madrid at 11. and then another week of school….. and now I'm getting ready for my trip to PARIS!!!
Oh, and another funny thing. Well not funny, more informative- whatever. Well, we all decided to give up English for lent (minus communicating with people that don’t know Spanish). So that way we wont be tempted to use it, which does get frustrating sometimes when theres confusing stories involved, but it all works out ok in the end.
Really now, I think I have said enough. PHEW! Next time I’ve gotta write earlier so I don’t have to much to recount…
besos
Well I have been doing a lot of planning. We are taking advantage of our long Fri-Sat-Sun weekends and I have trips and tickets all ready! I'm going to Paris this weekend! We found a hostel, life is good. Thank goodness for my tax refund that I got recently because that covered my flight to LONDON during my spring break! That trip will be from April 2-April 7, then we come back to Spain and book it to Seville, south of Spain for “Semana Santa”(Holy Week). We chose Seville because it is famous for its processions etc. Other sites of interest: Germany (to visit Lisa, a friend who lives there that I met while she was in the United States for a year), Italy, and Greece. Of course, my list is infinite but unfortunately classes just get in the way J.
Do not fret! I am staying at home base, Madrid, the city I keep learning and exploring. With all the traveling my mom asks “when do you do your homework” and the answer is basically, in transit (1 hour to get to my school via public transportation), and night times during the week. Its all good. Talking about family, I had a dream about the new BABYYY!!! Rosie, you’ve been pregnant too long, lets get that baby out! And mind you, my dream did not determine the sex of the child, so that is still a surprise for me J. All I know is that it was absolutely precious- obviously.
Today I got out of classes at 5, got back to my metro stop at 6, and decided to just walk. So, I walked around and didn’t realize how close Zara, United Colors of Beddington, and other stuff is to my house (I mean, its close, like 15 min walk)! I have been spending a lot of time in the city city, so now that my neighborhood and I are good friends I'm going to have to hang out here more. It was a perfect day to walk around- pants, ballet flats, light jacket. I even just let my hair air dry now and let it do its own thing (my bangs are too long to be considered bangs and too short to be pulled back into my pony tail, so I pin them back). 18 degrees Celsius, or something like that? I don’t know what that converts to… I open up the doors to the balcony in my room and its just fantastic.
Well, the pictures I put up the last post were from Granada- the trip was one I will never forget. For the good, the bad, and the uuuugly haha. Really, it’s a beautiful city and a must-see if you go to Spain, but our AYA group (11 of us) went through a bigger group of 75 students associated with ERASMUS and the trip was “led” by Erasmus Students. I used the word “led”, but really what I mean to say is that they basically organized the bus ride but not much else. The hostel situation was a disaster, the planning was a disaster, but other things went REALLY well. For example we got to see a cool flamenco show done in the gypsy fashion- it was basically in a cave! The next day (insert excited voice) we saw the Alhambra! Unbelieveable- destination wedding anyone? Or at least the wedding pictures- its worth it. Basically the trip was blind leading the dumb. Or stupid leaving the blind- you get the gist- but it’s a beautiful place. Thank goodness Concha made me a sack of food before I left- shes so cute she told me the other day that if I'm going on these weekend trips to remind her and she’ll put together food for me. Sammies, cheese curls, yummy chocolate things, fruit. THANKS CONCHA (we all remember this is my host mom’s name)!
Uugh I just love food. Currently I'm in a huge kebab kick… the kebabs here are in the doner kebab style- basically a gyro. Shops are all over the place for this delish food! And I was about to get my fill…..
[(Letting down the curtains, lights fade back on.) Intermission. Please take a 5 minute break and grab a snack. Or popcorn or something- phew this is a long epic story]
...during my weekend adventure! After a week of classes, We toured the Iberian Peninsula a little more to Spanish cities Segovia and Salamanca. Segovia is closer to Spain, so we went on Friday. We left early in the day and got there around 11 after a bunch of confusion about our train/bus situation. Jeannie Ryan and I made the epic journey! We saw ROMAN AQUEDUCTS probably one of my favorite sights so far that I have seen, and we went to a castle, Alcazar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcazar is the link if you want to read up. Basically we got to hang out with a bunch of knights in shining amour. Well, they weren’t REAL guys, but the amour was impressive!
We also went to a castle, Alcazar, where we got to go up 150 twirly stairs alllll the way up to the top of the tower! The view was very impressive and we took many a pictures there. We walked around, and a lot of stores were closing down a little early because this weekend was Carnival, Spain’s version of Marti Gras. We were SO HUNGRY, like usual, and Jeannie and I were adamant about finding a Doner Kabab in the city. Luckily we got directions from someone on the street and found one and it was probably one of the best Kebabs I’ve had here. DELISH!!! Then, we found a bakery and got dessert, because here I feel no remorse in eating chocolate mousse cake when I spent all day walking up 150 stairs and what not. we had a smooth arrival back to Madrid at 6, and got to meet up with some friends from Catholic who were visiting Madrid during their study abroad in London (makes sense?). It was super fun but I made sure to rest up that night to get prepared for Salamanca!
We got a real train to Salamanca, you know when they have the seats facing each other with a table in the middle? Tres cute. It didn’t take long and we got to Salamanca, walked around, saw the awesome plaza mayor, ate Kebabs again, met up with Katie from our program, and then spent the night celebrating Jeannie’s 21st birthday at one of the bars in town! The next morning we got our train ride back and I was back in Madrid at 11. and then another week of school….. and now I'm getting ready for my trip to PARIS!!!
Oh, and another funny thing. Well not funny, more informative- whatever. Well, we all decided to give up English for lent (minus communicating with people that don’t know Spanish). So that way we wont be tempted to use it, which does get frustrating sometimes when theres confusing stories involved, but it all works out ok in the end.
Really now, I think I have said enough. PHEW! Next time I’ve gotta write earlier so I don’t have to much to recount…
besos
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Belated Valentines Day!
AH yes, the highly anticipated life of Jillian Marie, oye the stories i have to tell of late.
really though, it is late. 1 oclock in the morning... so i will leave you with pictures now with a thorough update later on (hopefully by tomorrow.)
Pics of the Alhambra (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra), a palace that i am pretty certian is haunted.
Enjoy the pics and read up on Alhambra! and familia,,,, a million hugs and kisses for a belated Valentines day. thank you so much for the package.... i destroyed those live savers and am trying to space out those chocolates..... YUMMM!!! i love the shorts too---- they are perfecto! and the hearts are hanging behind my desk..... it was so nice!
xxooxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxooxo
really though, it is late. 1 oclock in the morning... so i will leave you with pictures now with a thorough update later on (hopefully by tomorrow.)
Pics of the Alhambra (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra), a palace that i am pretty certian is haunted.
Enjoy the pics and read up on Alhambra! and familia,,,, a million hugs and kisses for a belated Valentines day. thank you so much for the package.... i destroyed those live savers and am trying to space out those chocolates..... YUMMM!!! i love the shorts too---- they are perfecto! and the hearts are hanging behind my desk..... it was so nice!
xxooxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxooxo
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ray ban Wayfarers
Its been a while now that i have been obsessed with wayfarer sunglasses- i just dont have the heart to spend that much money on sunglasses when i could be getting a ticket to london or berlin or milan.....
This past week FLEW by. i cant believe its so long since ive posted. let me see if i can recount a lot of what has happened. I guess ill pick out a few highlights. Sit back and relax.
The best way to learn transportation around this city is to just throw yourself right in and see what happens. well, i learned the bus system with Jeannie and Ryan last week on our day trip (aka 5 hour) to Avila homeplace of Saint Teresa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_Avila). the bus wasnt as confusing as i thought. you go up to the ticket booth and ask for the train you want and then you have the option of buying an open ended ticket or the trip back. so, it took us 2 hours or so to get there, and didnt quite realize how far up in the mountains avila really was.... we saw snow on the way and it was definately colder. ryan wasnt quite prepared with his thin jacket, but we made due. we got a private tour of this creepy church/cathedral, and saw a mini museum about st teresa plus other stuff like a chair that pope john paul sat in once upon a time. i was honestly creeped out and was pretty certain it was haunted, but jeannie loved it. we found our way to the murallas- gorgeous walls that surround the old part of the city
This past week FLEW by. i cant believe its so long since ive posted. let me see if i can recount a lot of what has happened. I guess ill pick out a few highlights. Sit back and relax.
The best way to learn transportation around this city is to just throw yourself right in and see what happens. well, i learned the bus system with Jeannie and Ryan last week on our day trip (aka 5 hour) to Avila homeplace of Saint Teresa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_Avila). the bus wasnt as confusing as i thought. you go up to the ticket booth and ask for the train you want and then you have the option of buying an open ended ticket or the trip back. so, it took us 2 hours or so to get there, and didnt quite realize how far up in the mountains avila really was.... we saw snow on the way and it was definately colder. ryan wasnt quite prepared with his thin jacket, but we made due. we got a private tour of this creepy church/cathedral, and saw a mini museum about st teresa plus other stuff like a chair that pope john paul sat in once upon a time. i was honestly creeped out and was pretty certain it was haunted, but jeannie loved it. we found our way to the murallas- gorgeous walls that surround the old part of the city
unfortunately we got there 15 min too late to actually walk the walls, but its ok cause we got to see a lot of the view in hilly parts inside the walls. this is a square located in the middle of the town:
last week we (aka the 13 of us on the AYA program) also got 2nd row seats to a flamenco production. it was so cool, and i was particularly impressed with the bagpipes and the crazy ruffily colorful dresses.
probably one of my favorite days so far has been this past sunday. jeannie and i met up at the "la latina" metro station to experience el rastro, the HUGE flea market that happens every sunday. it opens up really early (for spaniards that is), 8am or so and is open till 2pm so you got to hustle. its so big that noone has really seen the whole thing. theyve got everything minus food- but this includes clothes, sunglasses, jewelry, pashminas, even animals (not really allowed, but we are in spain). well, i have currenty solved my wayfarer situation- i found some really good fakes (quality not so good, but the effect is the same) for 6 euro! good deal! i also found a spot that was selling pashminas for 2 euro! geeze, it was awesome. Jeannie and i had 3 hours to kill between the end of rastro and the 5 oclock free entrance to the prado museum, so we walked arounda and i was caught by a sudden urge to find hot chocolate. but not ANY hot chocolate. I hope you all know samantha brown on the travel channel- the perky blond who goes around and tells us why to visit certain places. well, she visited this hot chocolate store, the oldest in madrid (1881) and i found it and had a cup (they were out of churros so i got a croissant) AND IT WAS SO DIVINE! i think i talked about this melted-chocolate-bar-experience in one of my first posts. good thing its not around the corner or i would come back in june not quite fitting in my pants. well, we spent enough time there and found our way to the prado aka one of the most famous museums in the world featuring goya, velazquez, even some caravaggio and rubens. im a pretty fast museum walker but i did stop for a few minutes at las meninas.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas. it was my fav, and everyone elses fav too according to the crowd around it. i bought a little pin with the Infanta Margaritas face on it, super cool. so that was a very good sunday.
we started classes on monday and so far, so good. i was a little disgruntled when i heard about a car bomb that occurred that day- the ETA is a terrorist group located mostly in northern spain, and they are not too happy right now with an election that is going on. (currently as i am sitting here, i can hear out my balcony and someone is having a car horn fight. someone has been honking at another car for a minute now. crazies...oye, now the other one is honking back. parking spot perhaps? going the wrong way on a one way street? hmmm) Back to the ETA, they protest via violence but always call in 2 hours or so before each act. Hopefully any scares are going to stop after this election- dont worry i am safe and promise not to get involved with any protests.
i am taking 5 classes
a spanish language class level advancado B, which means nothing to most of you but basically i took an oral and written test and was placed at this level, spanish for professional use (i learned my first class that it is a law that when you get married, you get 15 vacation days), history of spain, Cultural studies, and hispanicamerican literature. and i dont have classes fridays (YESS!). its a hefty commute that involves metro and a commuter train, but its fine becasue i like people watching and i almost always find someone that i recognize in transit. and did you know: lined paper is for learning to write- they use graph paper here for notes and basically all spirals use graph paper. hmmm funny. also, i signed up for an intercambio, a native spanish speakers interested in practicing their english with you and your spanish with them.
This coming weekend i am signed up for a trip to granada, at the south of spain, with ERASMUS- an international organization that creates activites for students to meet other students- things like these weekend trips, or even sometimes they have a "meeting point" at a bar or something were they get special deals and can all hang out in the evenings. i have an ERASMUS card that gives me discounts on stuff, a Carlos III Univeristy card, a special monthly transportation card, an international student card.... lovin cards here.
oh, and to top that all off today, on the way home in the metro there was this huge crowd that was surrounding this guy that was levitating . yes, he was probably 8 feet in the air. CREEPY. the things you see in madrid. like the people that dress up and paint themselves and their clothes to look like statues and actually LOOK like statues. (theres one that holding a big broom, and if someone gets close, will sweep in their direction- the cause of many a gasp and yells).
well, thats updating you all- oye!
ps. a million thanks kristy for that book- Veronika Decides to Die. It was fabulous and i even marked pages with my favorite quotes. I have also been listening to the CD you gave me basically every day. "your ex lover is dead"/Stars is a personal favorite.
i do love madrid, but i do miss home...
we started classes on monday and so far, so good. i was a little disgruntled when i heard about a car bomb that occurred that day- the ETA is a terrorist group located mostly in northern spain, and they are not too happy right now with an election that is going on. (currently as i am sitting here, i can hear out my balcony and someone is having a car horn fight. someone has been honking at another car for a minute now. crazies...oye, now the other one is honking back. parking spot perhaps? going the wrong way on a one way street? hmmm) Back to the ETA, they protest via violence but always call in 2 hours or so before each act. Hopefully any scares are going to stop after this election- dont worry i am safe and promise not to get involved with any protests.
i am taking 5 classes
a spanish language class level advancado B, which means nothing to most of you but basically i took an oral and written test and was placed at this level, spanish for professional use (i learned my first class that it is a law that when you get married, you get 15 vacation days), history of spain, Cultural studies, and hispanicamerican literature. and i dont have classes fridays (YESS!). its a hefty commute that involves metro and a commuter train, but its fine becasue i like people watching and i almost always find someone that i recognize in transit. and did you know: lined paper is for learning to write- they use graph paper here for notes and basically all spirals use graph paper. hmmm funny. also, i signed up for an intercambio, a native spanish speakers interested in practicing their english with you and your spanish with them.
This coming weekend i am signed up for a trip to granada, at the south of spain, with ERASMUS- an international organization that creates activites for students to meet other students- things like these weekend trips, or even sometimes they have a "meeting point" at a bar or something were they get special deals and can all hang out in the evenings. i have an ERASMUS card that gives me discounts on stuff, a Carlos III Univeristy card, a special monthly transportation card, an international student card.... lovin cards here.
oh, and to top that all off today, on the way home in the metro there was this huge crowd that was surrounding this guy that was levitating . yes, he was probably 8 feet in the air. CREEPY. the things you see in madrid. like the people that dress up and paint themselves and their clothes to look like statues and actually LOOK like statues. (theres one that holding a big broom, and if someone gets close, will sweep in their direction- the cause of many a gasp and yells).
well, thats updating you all- oye!
ps. a million thanks kristy for that book- Veronika Decides to Die. It was fabulous and i even marked pages with my favorite quotes. I have also been listening to the CD you gave me basically every day. "your ex lover is dead"/Stars is a personal favorite.
i do love madrid, but i do miss home...
Monday, February 2, 2009
Penelope Cruz
So, i didnt meet her, but i did see her on TV yesterday. one of the funniest things about Spain is its television. Although lacking in number, the channels do play a lot of american shows! my host mom likes to watch House, so my roommate and i watched it with her. no subtitles... its all dubbed! it actually makes it harder to understand because sometimes i rely on both the sound AND movement of lips to catch quick phrases, and obviously lip movement does NOT match up.
Last night were the "Goya" awards... sortof an oscar- like deal. lots of famous people in pretty (or not-so-pretty) dresses and lots of "thank you" speeches. penelope cruz won one, it was pretty cool. they have a lot of people i have never heard about before, but it was fun to watch anyways. my host mom was very excited about watching the awards- she is so great, and is a really good cook, even though she wont admit it. we had artichoke and her version of paella last night (she didnt say it was paella but it was yellow rice with chicken, red peppers, shrimp and mussels) YUMMMMMMM. over dinner we talk about the most random things aka Victoria beckham and how her and her futbol hubbie were in Madrid. (supposedly vikki hates madrid becaue it smells like garlic. and sounds like the spaniards dont like her either. my host mom said that david, who is SO good looking, could have done so much better than her. hahahahah).
this blog is sortof everywhere- sorry if i lost you. continuation of my thoughts...
we went to Toledo the other day (saturday?) and it was GORGEOUS- its just like the movies- itty bitty stone streets that seem to go nowhere, and laundry hanging out of peoples balconys. i was thinking- can you order pizza for delivery?
sunday it snowed furiously- it didnt really stick cause it was a rain mix, but my plans to go to the flea market at rastro were cancelled. my host mom says nothing works when it snows- spaniards dont know what to do. (same with dc- snow+driving=mess)
can you see the snow? this is off my balcony
today we went to our campus for the first time. it was a hike but i think its doable... its worth the commute because i get to live in the city and go to a school that is smaller and international-student friendly. im trying to choose classes now... ill let you know when i figure that out.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Darn it
So i was a little sad just right now because i finished that huge bag of Christmas red and green M&Ms mom gave me for the flight over. they were so good! and now i dont have any. lets talk a second about food in Espana
im basically as picky as my dad when it comes to food- aka i will eat anything. i have confirmed however, my dislike of olives, but am starting to like tomatos, believe it or not. breakfast is always small.... fruit, piece of toast, on the way to somewhere grab a coffee (1.50 euro)... lunch is bigger, like a dinner, usually warm, or a bocadillo aka sandwich with whatever on it (the other day i had a sandwich with the equivilant of an omelet in it w/ eggs, ham etc). and dinner is not small but its lunch sized. so far ive eaten things like lentil soup, chorizo sausage, pasta with red sause, pumpkin soup, fried fish, lots of ham. ham is big here... jamon serrano is a kind of cured ham, not as thinly sliced as proscuitto, but its similar to that. basically, people can buy the entire leg of a pig, hoof and all, and they just slice off what they want. ive noticed that very commen appetizers are "tostadas" which is basically toast with stuff on top of it- sardines, cheese, serrano ham, tomato... you name it.
i almost forgot to mention the churros and chocolate. so basically if you get "hot chocolate" your going to get a mug full of melted chocolate bar. i dont konw how they do it, but you dip your churros right in and its just delish. no sipping though, its spoon material.
going out to eat has been one of my favorite things to do. there are always so many people out and about, and theres so many "hole in the wall" type of resturants that have great food. the trick is trying to find one that isnt too touristy.
off to bed for me, we are all going to toledo tomorrow for a day trip! early wake up call too, so im going to go do a sudoku puzzle (new latest obsession), and fall asleep.
-jilliefrijole
im basically as picky as my dad when it comes to food- aka i will eat anything. i have confirmed however, my dislike of olives, but am starting to like tomatos, believe it or not. breakfast is always small.... fruit, piece of toast, on the way to somewhere grab a coffee (1.50 euro)... lunch is bigger, like a dinner, usually warm, or a bocadillo aka sandwich with whatever on it (the other day i had a sandwich with the equivilant of an omelet in it w/ eggs, ham etc). and dinner is not small but its lunch sized. so far ive eaten things like lentil soup, chorizo sausage, pasta with red sause, pumpkin soup, fried fish, lots of ham. ham is big here... jamon serrano is a kind of cured ham, not as thinly sliced as proscuitto, but its similar to that. basically, people can buy the entire leg of a pig, hoof and all, and they just slice off what they want. ive noticed that very commen appetizers are "tostadas" which is basically toast with stuff on top of it- sardines, cheese, serrano ham, tomato... you name it.
i almost forgot to mention the churros and chocolate. so basically if you get "hot chocolate" your going to get a mug full of melted chocolate bar. i dont konw how they do it, but you dip your churros right in and its just delish. no sipping though, its spoon material.
going out to eat has been one of my favorite things to do. there are always so many people out and about, and theres so many "hole in the wall" type of resturants that have great food. the trick is trying to find one that isnt too touristy.
off to bed for me, we are all going to toledo tomorrow for a day trip! early wake up call too, so im going to go do a sudoku puzzle (new latest obsession), and fall asleep.
-jilliefrijole
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDDDDDDYYYY!!!
a great past couple days! i just took a siesta and it was wonderful- today the group got together to see an art museum featuring sorolla. well, actually it was his house full of his art. it was fantastic and beautiful! google image it- i had been familiar with one or 2 of the paintings before- it was very nice. then we went walking around the parque de retiro-- this HUGE park that is absolutely beautiful with lakes and a place to rent rowboats (we will do that when it is a little warmer out) and artwork and statues and basically , let me quote kara, is a "recipe for romance" haha. its giong to be so cute in the spring with all the little ducklings! we walked all around and ended up near the prado museum but didnt go in but did go to eat, yummmmm- a favorite pastime.
yesterday we saw this awesome cathedral being constructed by an 80 year old with no experience in building making. ive forgotten my camera the past two days but no worries- friends have the pics and i will just steal them from their cameras.
after dinner tonight a few friends and i are interested in going out and seeing madrid in action during the evening. this place is always awake! i have been verrrry happy here- i love the city and the location of my flat. i would only say that the only frustration would be the language- i knew it would be a little difficult at first, its just that there is so much i want to say! i know i will be getting better.... i already AM getting better ive learned so much random vocab like "deer" and "needle point" and the 20 different kind of hams.
we are going to toledo on friday for a day trip. i wont forget my camera for that one! next week i will be picking out classes etc. ill keep yall updated. besos- and note- in spain its a kiss on each cheek
yesterday we saw this awesome cathedral being constructed by an 80 year old with no experience in building making. ive forgotten my camera the past two days but no worries- friends have the pics and i will just steal them from their cameras.
after dinner tonight a few friends and i are interested in going out and seeing madrid in action during the evening. this place is always awake! i have been verrrry happy here- i love the city and the location of my flat. i would only say that the only frustration would be the language- i knew it would be a little difficult at first, its just that there is so much i want to say! i know i will be getting better.... i already AM getting better ive learned so much random vocab like "deer" and "needle point" and the 20 different kind of hams.
we are going to toledo on friday for a day trip. i wont forget my camera for that one! next week i will be picking out classes etc. ill keep yall updated. besos- and note- in spain its a kiss on each cheek
Sunday, January 25, 2009
ESTOY AQUI! (i am here...)
BUENOS DIAS! well, i guess its after 6 now so its more like BUENOS TARDES!!! remember, 6 hour time difference. lets see....
i got here 2 days ago. the flight went smoothly- said bye to les, mom, and dad as i passed through security and from there i went to find my terminal and such. british airways was amazing- i highly suggest it. everyone had a awesome accent- any rubbish for me to get rid of? cheerio!--- you know, the regular. so the flight was 6 hours long and i did not sleep a wink. dad, i know you would be interestd to know what we got to eat on the plane. wellll i got chicken and pasta with a side salad with feta cheese and crasins, a piece of apple pie, a roll, and kit kats. lol- it wasnt bad considering its plane food. then they turned off the lights and like, 2 hours later they turn the lights on and announce breakfast. silly silly silly. i TRIED to fall asleep but i couldnt so i did some sudoku, played around with the touchscreen tv i had in front of me and watched moulin rouge, listened to music etc. i had an isle seat in row 50--- you know how those big planes have 2 aisles so its 3 seats, 4 seats, 3 seats going across the plane? well i was on the aisle in the middle (does that make sense? seat 50D out of 50A through J) well anyways.... basically the seat next to me had NOONE IN IT!!! so i had some elbow room. that was nice.
then i had a layover in heathrow which i was really concerned about but i had enough time becuase our plane arrived earlier than expected due to very strong tail winds. so, i got to the right terminal, which was a small miracle, and we were loaded right onto the plane again. i was laughing a little bit to myself because as we were getting on there was a group of tourists from china (i think) that SOMEHOW ended up getting rows 15-32 window seats only. really funny watching that happen. the food on that flight was basically inexistant, but i was fine with it cause i had m&ms my mom packed for me for my flight over..... yummmm.
i arrived and go through customs (dude, he didnt even ask questions. he just marked my passport and let me through, nbd (no big deal)). i picked up my luggage and used some spanish skills to find out where patricia witzig was giong to be meeting me.
i found her! it was nice... i had been traveling for a while and was quiiiiite exhausted so we spoke in english for a while and she drove me to the hostel where my friends jeanie, jeanette and kara were staying. she dropped me off quick on the busy street and showed me the entrance and said the hostel was on teh 7th floor... so me with my HUGEEEE bags was a funny sight. i found the hostel and the room (again, funny with the owners of the hostels because they were confused which room i was in) and walked in on the girls all dead asleep. GOOOOOD MORNINNGNNNGGG SUNSHINES!!!! we all reunited, i was very very energetic, then i crashed until dinner. we walked around the city at 8 ish... which is still sortof early for a spanish dinner, but found a little pizzaria and we all split 2 pizzas and wine for 20 euro.... what a deal!
the next day the rest of the students were going to be arriving so we had to move to the hotel next door that was reserved by our program and we got to meet the others in the group. overall there are 13 of us- its cute, and small! 6 from catholic, 6 from ripon in wisconsin, and 1 from bard college. the director picked us up at 8 for a tapas dinner and handed off a handbook of rules etc.
we fell asleep, and now it is sunday, and this morning we had breakfast at the hotel, and met our host families! the senora of the house is named concha, and she has a son, daughter and a dog. her daughter has recently moved out of the house and is renting with friends, and her son is my age and studying engineering at a nearby college. one of the girls from ripon in wisconsin, katie, is also living in the flat. i have the CUTEST room. it is painted tiffany blue and there is a corner baclony with all these potted plants looking out onto the city street! its amazing. we are all on the 5th floor of our building and its very small, but its very typical, especially in the city. i am near a few metro stops which will be helpful getting to school, about a 30 minute ride. if i go downstairs and walk along the streets it is very safe, and there are sooooo many places to eat, places to watch movies, cafes,.... so much to do and see. its still intimidating walking around and giong into places especially when they are busy because of the language barrier, but i just had lunch a few hours ago and got through the how conversation in spanish so i guess so far so good.
ok, tomorrow we have breakfast at puente de sol (google map it... its near the center of the city) to have churros con chocolate for breakfast.... my type of meal!
this has been a very long blog, i guess its nice to be able to use english to express myself! xoxoxo i love you all. ps. mom, get skype, cause laura and i just used it and it was very very dandy.
CIAO! HASTA LUEGO!
i got here 2 days ago. the flight went smoothly- said bye to les, mom, and dad as i passed through security and from there i went to find my terminal and such. british airways was amazing- i highly suggest it. everyone had a awesome accent- any rubbish for me to get rid of? cheerio!--- you know, the regular. so the flight was 6 hours long and i did not sleep a wink. dad, i know you would be interestd to know what we got to eat on the plane. wellll i got chicken and pasta with a side salad with feta cheese and crasins, a piece of apple pie, a roll, and kit kats. lol- it wasnt bad considering its plane food. then they turned off the lights and like, 2 hours later they turn the lights on and announce breakfast. silly silly silly. i TRIED to fall asleep but i couldnt so i did some sudoku, played around with the touchscreen tv i had in front of me and watched moulin rouge, listened to music etc. i had an isle seat in row 50--- you know how those big planes have 2 aisles so its 3 seats, 4 seats, 3 seats going across the plane? well i was on the aisle in the middle (does that make sense? seat 50D out of 50A through J) well anyways.... basically the seat next to me had NOONE IN IT!!! so i had some elbow room. that was nice.
then i had a layover in heathrow which i was really concerned about but i had enough time becuase our plane arrived earlier than expected due to very strong tail winds. so, i got to the right terminal, which was a small miracle, and we were loaded right onto the plane again. i was laughing a little bit to myself because as we were getting on there was a group of tourists from china (i think) that SOMEHOW ended up getting rows 15-32 window seats only. really funny watching that happen. the food on that flight was basically inexistant, but i was fine with it cause i had m&ms my mom packed for me for my flight over..... yummmm.
i arrived and go through customs (dude, he didnt even ask questions. he just marked my passport and let me through, nbd (no big deal)). i picked up my luggage and used some spanish skills to find out where patricia witzig was giong to be meeting me.
i found her! it was nice... i had been traveling for a while and was quiiiiite exhausted so we spoke in english for a while and she drove me to the hostel where my friends jeanie, jeanette and kara were staying. she dropped me off quick on the busy street and showed me the entrance and said the hostel was on teh 7th floor... so me with my HUGEEEE bags was a funny sight. i found the hostel and the room (again, funny with the owners of the hostels because they were confused which room i was in) and walked in on the girls all dead asleep. GOOOOOD MORNINNGNNNGGG SUNSHINES!!!! we all reunited, i was very very energetic, then i crashed until dinner. we walked around the city at 8 ish... which is still sortof early for a spanish dinner, but found a little pizzaria and we all split 2 pizzas and wine for 20 euro.... what a deal!
the next day the rest of the students were going to be arriving so we had to move to the hotel next door that was reserved by our program and we got to meet the others in the group. overall there are 13 of us- its cute, and small! 6 from catholic, 6 from ripon in wisconsin, and 1 from bard college. the director picked us up at 8 for a tapas dinner and handed off a handbook of rules etc.
we fell asleep, and now it is sunday, and this morning we had breakfast at the hotel, and met our host families! the senora of the house is named concha, and she has a son, daughter and a dog. her daughter has recently moved out of the house and is renting with friends, and her son is my age and studying engineering at a nearby college. one of the girls from ripon in wisconsin, katie, is also living in the flat. i have the CUTEST room. it is painted tiffany blue and there is a corner baclony with all these potted plants looking out onto the city street! its amazing. we are all on the 5th floor of our building and its very small, but its very typical, especially in the city. i am near a few metro stops which will be helpful getting to school, about a 30 minute ride. if i go downstairs and walk along the streets it is very safe, and there are sooooo many places to eat, places to watch movies, cafes,.... so much to do and see. its still intimidating walking around and giong into places especially when they are busy because of the language barrier, but i just had lunch a few hours ago and got through the how conversation in spanish so i guess so far so good.
ok, tomorrow we have breakfast at puente de sol (google map it... its near the center of the city) to have churros con chocolate for breakfast.... my type of meal!
this has been a very long blog, i guess its nice to be able to use english to express myself! xoxoxo i love you all. ps. mom, get skype, cause laura and i just used it and it was very very dandy.
CIAO! HASTA LUEGO!
Monday, January 5, 2009
esperando....
got my visa!
my room up until now has been a complete mess. now its only a minor mess. it was funny going through some of my old papers and memories. im the type that gets easily distracted from cleaning by random old memorabelia.... there was just so much STUFF in my room after moving all of my things out of my dorm.
presently im thinking about how to go about packing for my adventure, considering all the stuff i have here. hmmm..... downsizing. i got this really cool book for christmas- "mega gramatical y dudas del idioma"- that one might have to come with me! that and sneakers. im considering tennis. OH and my webcam that i finally installed. the list continues!
three days off in a row? wowwww
my room up until now has been a complete mess. now its only a minor mess. it was funny going through some of my old papers and memories. im the type that gets easily distracted from cleaning by random old memorabelia.... there was just so much STUFF in my room after moving all of my things out of my dorm.
presently im thinking about how to go about packing for my adventure, considering all the stuff i have here. hmmm..... downsizing. i got this really cool book for christmas- "mega gramatical y dudas del idioma"- that one might have to come with me! that and sneakers. im considering tennis. OH and my webcam that i finally installed. the list continues!
three days off in a row? wowwww
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