TWO DAYS until I leave this beautiful country. Sad, yes. I kind of wish I could have an extra day or two to hang out without the stress of exams. I've been so stressed out that I've had to go to the bars and discotecas the past four nights! (ha) Friday night my roomates and I stressfully tried on eighteen outfits each. Our house dynamic is so fun, it really has been excellent living with these four gals. Katie left early, so it was just us four friday night. Caryn left Sunday morning, and then there were three... We all are incredibly different, and would most likely never have met or been so close if we had gone to the same school. I love experiences like this, out of my comfort zone, meeting incredible people in the most incredible circumstances.
So Friday we all headed over to the wake boys' apartment for their last pre party bash. I brought my flip camera, and so there were pledge of allegiances, spontaneous guitar concerts, even more spontaneous dance moves, and "interviews" occurring. We traveled to Kapital that night, the door man gave me free drink vouchers por supuesto! I will truly miss this discoteca! Seven floors of fun, and they were PACKED. We all had a great time dancing on the main floor, and ended the night with the 24 hour pizza place that is only appealing at 6am. I made it home with someone else's jacket and will be giving it to Senora's African friend. I hope they aren't cold... Saturday Amylita and I walked to San Miguel market. We stopped for extra large pastries at the oldest pastry shop in Spain on the way to the market-my face, clothes, boots, and hands were covered in marshmellow cream. San Miguel market is fantastic and Amy and I had euro sushi, vino rosado, and cheese. There are food stands (sushi, croquetas, cheese, tacos,tapas, wine, desserts) and little shops. It is always crowded, and always a great time. People just float from stand to stand sampling food and wine and standing at these little tables enveloped in conversation. Lively atmosphere. Amy and I then ventured to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor. It was pretty cheesy to be honest, and a let-down after Prague's adorable Christmas markets, but one funny aspect about Madrid's market is they sell really bright wigs and outrageous hats. SO many people buy them and wear them. of ALL ages and nationalities-not just tourists. The past two weeks there have been hundreds of people walking around with large Christmas hats, pink curly wigs, mohawk wigs, large sunglasses. It is a SITE.
Dinner with Senora was quite charming, as both of her grandchildren came to visit and decorated the tree while we were eating dinner. We sang Christmas carols, played the piano, and told Christmas stories after we were finished eating. Senora told a story about the pine tree, the tree of amor, and a pajarito. Her grandchildren were absolutely precious.
That night Stephanie's family came into town, and I was so happy to meet them. They are AMAZING people. We went to a bar and decided to go to another one, but somehow only Spencer, Stephanie's brother, and I made it to this bar, becuase Stephanie's mom and sister Jill became MIA after an unfortunate laughing incident. And so Stephanie and her papa "Mr. Madrid" went to go look for them and Spencer and I visited with our dear old friend the bartender. He remembered Stephanie's dad, Stephanie, and I from when we did our own pub crawl the last time Mr. Clark came to visit in November. Generous man. After an hour or two Spencer and I met back up with Steph and Jill and headed to Joy. It was a short lived clubbing experience. I got lost from the group first, Spencer got lost second, and I ended up walking/taxi ing home. Still a fantastic evening, minus flying onto my roomates bed in the dark while running to the restroom in the middle of the night.
Sunday was my last rastro experience, and a successful one at that. Mom, I bought you five scarves. I found a fantastic leather black jacket that makes me look much cooler than I am.
Sunday night I had dinner with Stephanie's family at a paella restaurant, La Barraca I believe was the name. The conversation was great, and the family is trying to marry me off to Spencer so I'll be a part of their family. Hilarious. We had a delicious "Baked Alaska" dessert which was like a meringue, ice cream, whipped cream combo. Apparently it was supposed to be like a melting glacier because they lit it on fire before they served it to us. Cool presentation. I like fire? After dinner Spencer, Jill, Steph and I walked to Sol, ran into Jonathon (our FANTASTIC Spanish friend) and went to a few bars. Jonathon is so stylish and wore his favorite red "trousers," a very sophisticated jacket and a scarf. European men can totally get away with wearing anything. Well, at least Jona can. Jill picked up five Colombians who came along with us. I told one of them Spencer is my future husband so he would stay more than four inches away from my face? It was a GREAT night full of dancing, stealing peoples' french fries, and jamming out to Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, and Spice Girls. There was a little bit of Flamenco music in there so Jona told me how to pretend like I'm picking an apple, eating it, then throwing it away! and that is the Flamenco dance. We didn't get in until about 6am again and so I just stayed in the hotel with them. Stephanie and I are quite used to sharing a tiny twin bed. Steph's mom and I grabbed coffee in the morning for everyone and today is devoted to studying for my last final. Stephanie's parents are trying to get me to go to Italy with them for Christmas! Stephanie's family are the most fantastic people, and I love seeing the sibling interaction, they all are so close, protective, and great friends. such caring, fun, and genuine people. I reallllly enjoy being around them! However, I believe my family would not be pleased if I ditched them Christmas day... I'll be back Europe!
I have my last abdominales class tonight, had my last kebab today, and will have my last cena with senora tonight as I will probably be out n about Tuesday night with Stephanie and my new family for the week. Then I leave Wednesday morning! I cannot believe this experience is coming to its end...
I do not like goodbyes. However, I do LOVE happy endings!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The week countdown begins...
SEVEN days until I return to the states. Funny enough my extremely long travel in the sense of time will only happen to take about four or five hours because I'm going back into time eight hours. So star trek.
I just took my first of four finals about half an hour ago; my last one is 24 hours before my flight home so the last week I get in Spain is devoted to studying and rekindling my passion for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I had two large final papers, one of which I presented to my political communications class yesterday and during my presentation said "yada, yada, yada." I've never said this phrase in my life, so why did I think it was appropriate for its premier to be in front of an audience? After my presentation my teacher stopped class and announced that my paper was "the most distinguished of the final papers" and well written. I was that student. Gold star. Little did anyone know I wrote that "churnalism" paper ten hours before it was due, which if you know what churnalism is, is quite ironic. Success. Sidenote: the I'm gay and republican asked to dim the lights for his presentation because he was having a bad hair day.
My other paper I procrastinated a bit harder for eight hours before deadline and only picked analyzying Hillary and Bill Clinton's marriage as my topic becuase a picture of him popped up on the internet? Studious intellectual?
The procrastination is because of this weekend. I went to a little bar with my roommates down the street one night, walked home after and the kebab man opened up his closed shop for my roommate and I after 2 am becuase I'm a regular. That may be embarrassing. I wandered the streets of Bilbao and Fuencarral in and out of shops one day becuase it's the easiest place perhaps in the entire world to lose yourself and get distracted. This was my first attempt though to walk to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor (there's apparently cute little booths in the middle of the square) but literally the streets had THOUSANDS of people in Sol and the surrounding area of Plaza Mayor, so while mosh pitting was fun for about an hour, reaching the market was unsuccessful. I've never seen so many people in my life. Neither have you, truly.
Sunday the addiction of traveling to Rastro market took over and I indulged on more scarves. My mom called and said to buy more so this Sunday will follow suit. Sunday night I met up with Stephanie, Steven, and Mike (who is a hilarious man that goes to Baylor). Stephanie finally got her belly button pierced, followed by a few Spanish curse words, and then we were all off to the Kesha concert that night. It was semi short, apparently she was so drunk she had to end the concert early? Rumor has it at least? She had a few "groupies" following her onstage like a fifteen year old entourage which was odd (I'm thinking they were either her back up dancers or current "BFFs"), but other than that I was dancing and singing like I was right onstage following her around too. The only things I lost at the concert was my stockings and socks? After the concert us four walked around and found a...surprise! an open kebab place. Seeing a trend? I'm glad I'm forced to take public transportation aka walk everywhere.
And so, this busy weekend forced me to stay awake for all but maybe nine hours of the past seventy-two.
Still keeping up my fitnesssss. I will truly miss my little gym down the street once this week commences. I ran out of membership and so the lady gave me my last two n a half weeks for free. WHAT a gem. My abdominales has kept me consistently sore, and our last class we had to do "couples' exercises." All the hombres usually have their "spot" on one side of the room and the mujeres have their place on the other. Creatures of habit. Unofficially assigned mat placements. However, our trainer man told us we had to match up with a boy, wrap our legs together and do this awkard sit up thing while looking at them. A little intimate? My chosen exercise partner was like a Ricky Martin with shaved legs. Not a terrible experience. I was a social butterfly at the gym that day. Met someone from the states after the line, "I was like wow when I saw your thighs" was presented as an opening line. Not a particularly good choice for him. Another seventy year old asked me if all Americans are as beautiful as me and he would love to go to the states. I'm not quite sure if I should be flattered or mortified from these experiences.
I was walking home the other day and the drunk guys that always hang out in our plaza kicked their soccer ball my way. Well I have skills from back in the day so I stopped it and kicked it back pretty adequately in my high heels (AND in cobblestone, mind you). I decided to take a break and played futbol with them for a bit and then they started making fun of my American accent so I left. They said (through their vodka laden breath) that I sounded like a duck who swallows my words. I said I play better futbol in high heels than they do.
What's funny is my senora was making fun of American accents maybe a month ago (the same night she trolled on Asians for like TWENTY uncomfortable minutes) and she said American's talk out of the side of their mouth and swallow their words too. I'm just fitting the mold i guess.
Senora has categorized us. Linsdey is Dona Perfecta. She is beautiful, intelligent, organized, and clean. She is so multi-faceted that she will be able to marry someday, unlike the rest of us. Every day Senora walks into our apartment, "Lindsey?" Everyday. It is true though (the multi-faceted, not the marriage situation). Lindsey is a gem. Caryn is the lucky one with red hair, like a leprechaun. We all think Senora didn't know Caryn's name until about a month and a half into the semester. Amy is the funny one and most improved player when it comes to this learning Spanish kind of thing. I LOVE Amy's sarcasm. It's one of the only things we have in common, but we get along because of it quite nicely. Katie is unclassified? I'm the guapa one that doesn't sleep and goes to the gym too much. I will never get married becuase I don't make my bed in the morning and will occassionally leave an article of clothing on the ground. Failure.
It still is hard to take in that I have been living in a foreign country for four months. The amount I have grown as an individual from exposure to cultures and different situations, people, and countries is invaluable and unattainable from any other experience. And next semester I'll be spending weekends partying in friends basements, or studying of course, instead of traveling to Prague, Amsterdam, England, Ireland, Portugal, or France?
I just took my first of four finals about half an hour ago; my last one is 24 hours before my flight home so the last week I get in Spain is devoted to studying and rekindling my passion for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I had two large final papers, one of which I presented to my political communications class yesterday and during my presentation said "yada, yada, yada." I've never said this phrase in my life, so why did I think it was appropriate for its premier to be in front of an audience? After my presentation my teacher stopped class and announced that my paper was "the most distinguished of the final papers" and well written. I was that student. Gold star. Little did anyone know I wrote that "churnalism" paper ten hours before it was due, which if you know what churnalism is, is quite ironic. Success. Sidenote: the I'm gay and republican asked to dim the lights for his presentation because he was having a bad hair day.
My other paper I procrastinated a bit harder for eight hours before deadline and only picked analyzying Hillary and Bill Clinton's marriage as my topic becuase a picture of him popped up on the internet? Studious intellectual?
The procrastination is because of this weekend. I went to a little bar with my roommates down the street one night, walked home after and the kebab man opened up his closed shop for my roommate and I after 2 am becuase I'm a regular. That may be embarrassing. I wandered the streets of Bilbao and Fuencarral in and out of shops one day becuase it's the easiest place perhaps in the entire world to lose yourself and get distracted. This was my first attempt though to walk to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor (there's apparently cute little booths in the middle of the square) but literally the streets had THOUSANDS of people in Sol and the surrounding area of Plaza Mayor, so while mosh pitting was fun for about an hour, reaching the market was unsuccessful. I've never seen so many people in my life. Neither have you, truly.
Sunday the addiction of traveling to Rastro market took over and I indulged on more scarves. My mom called and said to buy more so this Sunday will follow suit. Sunday night I met up with Stephanie, Steven, and Mike (who is a hilarious man that goes to Baylor). Stephanie finally got her belly button pierced, followed by a few Spanish curse words, and then we were all off to the Kesha concert that night. It was semi short, apparently she was so drunk she had to end the concert early? Rumor has it at least? She had a few "groupies" following her onstage like a fifteen year old entourage which was odd (I'm thinking they were either her back up dancers or current "BFFs"), but other than that I was dancing and singing like I was right onstage following her around too. The only things I lost at the concert was my stockings and socks? After the concert us four walked around and found a...surprise! an open kebab place. Seeing a trend? I'm glad I'm forced to take public transportation aka walk everywhere.
And so, this busy weekend forced me to stay awake for all but maybe nine hours of the past seventy-two.
Still keeping up my fitnesssss. I will truly miss my little gym down the street once this week commences. I ran out of membership and so the lady gave me my last two n a half weeks for free. WHAT a gem. My abdominales has kept me consistently sore, and our last class we had to do "couples' exercises." All the hombres usually have their "spot" on one side of the room and the mujeres have their place on the other. Creatures of habit. Unofficially assigned mat placements. However, our trainer man told us we had to match up with a boy, wrap our legs together and do this awkard sit up thing while looking at them. A little intimate? My chosen exercise partner was like a Ricky Martin with shaved legs. Not a terrible experience. I was a social butterfly at the gym that day. Met someone from the states after the line, "I was like wow when I saw your thighs" was presented as an opening line. Not a particularly good choice for him. Another seventy year old asked me if all Americans are as beautiful as me and he would love to go to the states. I'm not quite sure if I should be flattered or mortified from these experiences.
I was walking home the other day and the drunk guys that always hang out in our plaza kicked their soccer ball my way. Well I have skills from back in the day so I stopped it and kicked it back pretty adequately in my high heels (AND in cobblestone, mind you). I decided to take a break and played futbol with them for a bit and then they started making fun of my American accent so I left. They said (through their vodka laden breath) that I sounded like a duck who swallows my words. I said I play better futbol in high heels than they do.
What's funny is my senora was making fun of American accents maybe a month ago (the same night she trolled on Asians for like TWENTY uncomfortable minutes) and she said American's talk out of the side of their mouth and swallow their words too. I'm just fitting the mold i guess.
Senora has categorized us. Linsdey is Dona Perfecta. She is beautiful, intelligent, organized, and clean. She is so multi-faceted that she will be able to marry someday, unlike the rest of us. Every day Senora walks into our apartment, "Lindsey?" Everyday. It is true though (the multi-faceted, not the marriage situation). Lindsey is a gem. Caryn is the lucky one with red hair, like a leprechaun. We all think Senora didn't know Caryn's name until about a month and a half into the semester. Amy is the funny one and most improved player when it comes to this learning Spanish kind of thing. I LOVE Amy's sarcasm. It's one of the only things we have in common, but we get along because of it quite nicely. Katie is unclassified? I'm the guapa one that doesn't sleep and goes to the gym too much. I will never get married becuase I don't make my bed in the morning and will occassionally leave an article of clothing on the ground. Failure.
It still is hard to take in that I have been living in a foreign country for four months. The amount I have grown as an individual from exposure to cultures and different situations, people, and countries is invaluable and unattainable from any other experience. And next semester I'll be spending weekends partying in friends basements, or studying of course, instead of traveling to Prague, Amsterdam, England, Ireland, Portugal, or France?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
From Christmas lights to red lights...Prague and Amsterdam.
Welllll my life has been a blur the past week. give or take four months.
Thursday night was my dance performance for salsa. I bought special black heels to go with the shiny plastic gold dress (which I actually thought was kind of cute, but I think my style is way off of average perspective). It was my roomate Caryn's birthday, so we had a party in the locker room (complete with bags of chips and drinks) before the performance to get our salsa mentality into full swing. The actual performance was a lot of fun. I started out doing the bachata with four other gals...we were front, center, and unfortunately the main event of that song. Then I danced the salsa with Chris. He's very nice and doesn't suck, have sweaty hands, or step on my feet so he's above par for my class. Of course I messed up a few moves, and of course that mess up was the only clip from our performance that made it into the "Salsa 2010" video. Really? But I definately had the biggest smile onstage...pulling out new moves, people just couldn't keep up.
Friday morning Stephanie and I got on our 6:30am flight to Eindhoven for a layover. We landed and had no idea what country we were in, but for future reference, Eindhoven is located in the south of the Netherlands. We flew to Prague and very conveniently met up with Ari, Micheal, and Nick in the airport who we were staying with in the same hostel room. Our hostel was FANTASTIC. Legitimately felt luxurious compared to what I'm used to. Private bathroom, hot shower, down comforter. Bliss. Our first night in Prague we had a delicious Czech dinner. I had goulash, like beef stew, dumplings, and good ole czech beer. Our table had a picture of our waiter framed in the middle, it was odd but makes sense? Otakar the waiter. We wandered around the numerous Christmas markets and tried hot wine and honey almonds. That night we went out to a few bars and ended at a club where our guy friends got in a fight <<onstage>> (for emphasis) for legitimately fifteen minutes becuase some guy chatted up Stephanie. Boys are oh so strong and protective. I fled the scene after the entertainment of it died down. The next morning we went on a fantastic tour led by our pothead tour guide. He was HILARIOUS and every other word was a curse word, but really, I learned a lot. We saw Prague's pride and joy, the famous midieval astronomical clock in the main square that was built in 1410 and has an hourly show with figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. The main square had an unbelieveably beautiful Christmas tree that had lights that looked like gleaming icicles surrounded by an adorable Christmas market with hot food (brats, hot wine, goulash, roasted chestnuts, rolled cinnamin bread) and hand made Prague souveniers. We toured Prague's Jewish quarter (called Josefov) which dates back to the 13th century when Jews were forced to vacate their homes and settle in one area. There was a phenomenal musuem that Stephanie and I went in later (Pinkas Synagogue built in 1535) which houses the exhibit, "Children's drawings from Terezin 1942-44). This emotionally wrenching exhibit houses 4,000 original drawings of the 10,000 prisoners under the age of 15 in Terezin (they weren't all on exhibit). Only 242 kids survived. Mind blowing. It was so sad to see despair in many pictures. But it was incredible to see such joy and hope in others. There was a teacher that gathered the resources for children in Terezin to be able to draw pictures becuase she wanted to take away some of the pain and bring happiness through art. (This would be Mrs. Hardy, a teacher of mine from high school, back in the day!!) It was incredibly moving, especially when I read a poem from an eleven year old boy, near death, yet still praising God and the strength of his Jewish people. How lucky I am living in today. We saw a beautfiul Spanish synagogue built in Moorish style which is the oldest Prague Jewish house of Prayer. We got kicked out for taking pictures. Stupid tourists.
After our tour on Saturday we signed up for a pub crawl and got a free beer n t-shirt that says "crawl with me" haha. hmmm. We met some guy that works for Lego and travels the world for his job. He lost my jacket at one of the bars. Swell guy. The first bar we went to had a man who screamed and called it music who was the entertainment. I politely asked him if I could karaoke Britney Spears but apparently he owned the place and had an agenda. We mistaked one bar for a strip club, walk in, walk out, terrifying. I had to buy a hot dog off the street vendor the forget about that place. Our group got seperated from "the group" and we asked a variety of taxi drivers before we found "Northern Europe's Largest Club!" The club is five stories with different music on each floor, smoke doors, spotlights to stand and dance on, dance floors made of colorful lights, and a light show in a seperate balcony type room. There were balconies to dance on lining each dance floor and cages that I was not a part of. Definately competitive with Madrid clubs. One floor literally was labeled, "Black Music." Why does America get singled out for being racist and intolerant?
The next day the boys left and Steph and I wandered around shops and Christmas markets. Largest success of the day: fur hat purchase. That night was St. Nicholas Eve and there were holiday events going on in Old Town Square that Steph and I watched from a great restaurant. On St. Nicholas Eve people dress up as Mikulas (St. Nicholas), angels, and devils. While the angel is a creature of good, the devil acts as a reminder for children to behave throughout the year to ensure that they will be given treats on St. Nicholas Eve and not stuffed in his sack and sent to Hell. What a holiday to bring in the Christmas cheer. Terrifying. Apparently I've been great this year becuase I made it out alive. Besides binge eating on market food and faceplanting in the snow while simultaneously losing my camera, the night was simply fantastic.
Waking up with Bohemian Bagel in the morning was blissful. Steph and I then went up to Prague castle and wandered around the grounds, briefly being attacked my Asian tourists. We asked them to take a picture of us, and then one popped in our picture from the group whilst relaying their camera to another person. By the time the photo shoot ended we had taken about twenty or so different pictures complete with thumb ups and peace signs. Hilarious. The castle grounds overlooked all of Prague so that was very pretty, especially becuase the town was covered in a pretty blanket of white and it began to snow yet again. To get to the castle we had walked over Charles Bridge and stopped at the John Lennon Wall. This wall was graffiti'd by Lennon in the 1980's with lyrics of Beatles songs and since has been painted over and over again with pictures and saying symbolizing peace and hippy loveeeee.
Tuesday our flight was delayed to Amsterdam for hoursss. and so Stephanie and I hung out in the airport with some people going to Amsterdam as well and had a few drinks. When we arrived three hours behind schedule we went to a coffee shop on the way to our hostel. People were using plastic bags aka vaporizers to smoke weed and the place was run by a long haired man who had not been sober in years. We ordered a latte (really Mom, it was a latte) off of the "Less Interesting Menu: We used to sell coffee, but now we only sell drugs." A 60 year old Californian business man dressed in a very expensive suit with the biggest smile and smallest eyes I've ever seen was chatting us up at the "420 Cafe." Small world story, I ran into Alex, Stephanie's cousin that we stayed with in Barcelona in our hostel. He had gone there for a vacay of relaxation and happened to be there the same dates, in the same hostel. We met up with the Wake Forest boys and walked around Red Light District complete with lingerie clad women in windows lit up with red lights knocking on the windows and "Sex Shows, Come on In!" places in between those. Oh, and coffee shops. The sex show signs were in the shape of a banana. I'm really upset someone told me why that is. Amsterdam is an interesting place. What was really strange was the whole town was barren at about 1am. Our hostel was the hopping place to be, "The Flying Pig." It had a smoking lounge with a giant bed, a dance floor/bar, and a pool table surrounded by couches. And all the people that I feel like would appreciate the John Lennon wall even more than I did.
Wednesday morning may have been the greatest morning ever. We ate at this breakfast cafe that had trees and vines and purple lights surrounding the interior. It was like a Rainforest Cafe without the wierd robotic animals. Pancakes are officially the greatest thing.
The rest of the day consisted of us walking to the main sights we wanted to see, but getting cold so we'd stop in a coffee shop and eat food. We had about eight meals in total that day. When it's cold, what are ya gonna do. Cheesecake muffins, Thai pan beef, pancakes, french fries with garlic and ketchup (but really its great), donuts, kebabs, lots and lots of coffee. Solution.
Alex, Steph, and I toured the Anne Frank House which was a really well put together musuem that her father, Otto Frank created as he was the only surviving one of the hidden group. Anne's diary quotes on the walls, all of the rooms were furnished, the secret bookcase was open, and it was well worth seeing, but very sad, of course. I just need to read the book now! Later we went to the amazing Van Gogh musuem. I absolutely loved seeing his paintings that he accomplished in the ten years before his suicide. Fabulous style. He created over 2000 artworks in ten years! There were also Monet paintings among other well-known artists. So amazing to see the originals.
Of course our flight was delayed to Madrid. I fell asleep on the plane, woke up two and a half hours later excited that we were on the ground, I had slept the whole time! False, we hadn't even left yet. Something about snow and crashing kept us grounded. Amateurs.
Excellent trip to end my European tour on... now finals, would love to just skip them and fly home?
Thursday night was my dance performance for salsa. I bought special black heels to go with the shiny plastic gold dress (which I actually thought was kind of cute, but I think my style is way off of average perspective). It was my roomate Caryn's birthday, so we had a party in the locker room (complete with bags of chips and drinks) before the performance to get our salsa mentality into full swing. The actual performance was a lot of fun. I started out doing the bachata with four other gals...we were front, center, and unfortunately the main event of that song. Then I danced the salsa with Chris. He's very nice and doesn't suck, have sweaty hands, or step on my feet so he's above par for my class. Of course I messed up a few moves, and of course that mess up was the only clip from our performance that made it into the "Salsa 2010" video. Really? But I definately had the biggest smile onstage...pulling out new moves, people just couldn't keep up.
Friday morning Stephanie and I got on our 6:30am flight to Eindhoven for a layover. We landed and had no idea what country we were in, but for future reference, Eindhoven is located in the south of the Netherlands. We flew to Prague and very conveniently met up with Ari, Micheal, and Nick in the airport who we were staying with in the same hostel room. Our hostel was FANTASTIC. Legitimately felt luxurious compared to what I'm used to. Private bathroom, hot shower, down comforter. Bliss. Our first night in Prague we had a delicious Czech dinner. I had goulash, like beef stew, dumplings, and good ole czech beer. Our table had a picture of our waiter framed in the middle, it was odd but makes sense? Otakar the waiter. We wandered around the numerous Christmas markets and tried hot wine and honey almonds. That night we went out to a few bars and ended at a club where our guy friends got in a fight <<onstage>> (for emphasis) for legitimately fifteen minutes becuase some guy chatted up Stephanie. Boys are oh so strong and protective. I fled the scene after the entertainment of it died down. The next morning we went on a fantastic tour led by our pothead tour guide. He was HILARIOUS and every other word was a curse word, but really, I learned a lot. We saw Prague's pride and joy, the famous midieval astronomical clock in the main square that was built in 1410 and has an hourly show with figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. The main square had an unbelieveably beautiful Christmas tree that had lights that looked like gleaming icicles surrounded by an adorable Christmas market with hot food (brats, hot wine, goulash, roasted chestnuts, rolled cinnamin bread) and hand made Prague souveniers. We toured Prague's Jewish quarter (called Josefov) which dates back to the 13th century when Jews were forced to vacate their homes and settle in one area. There was a phenomenal musuem that Stephanie and I went in later (Pinkas Synagogue built in 1535) which houses the exhibit, "Children's drawings from Terezin 1942-44). This emotionally wrenching exhibit houses 4,000 original drawings of the 10,000 prisoners under the age of 15 in Terezin (they weren't all on exhibit). Only 242 kids survived. Mind blowing. It was so sad to see despair in many pictures. But it was incredible to see such joy and hope in others. There was a teacher that gathered the resources for children in Terezin to be able to draw pictures becuase she wanted to take away some of the pain and bring happiness through art. (This would be Mrs. Hardy, a teacher of mine from high school, back in the day!!) It was incredibly moving, especially when I read a poem from an eleven year old boy, near death, yet still praising God and the strength of his Jewish people. How lucky I am living in today. We saw a beautfiul Spanish synagogue built in Moorish style which is the oldest Prague Jewish house of Prayer. We got kicked out for taking pictures. Stupid tourists.
After our tour on Saturday we signed up for a pub crawl and got a free beer n t-shirt that says "crawl with me" haha. hmmm. We met some guy that works for Lego and travels the world for his job. He lost my jacket at one of the bars. Swell guy. The first bar we went to had a man who screamed and called it music who was the entertainment. I politely asked him if I could karaoke Britney Spears but apparently he owned the place and had an agenda. We mistaked one bar for a strip club, walk in, walk out, terrifying. I had to buy a hot dog off the street vendor the forget about that place. Our group got seperated from "the group" and we asked a variety of taxi drivers before we found "Northern Europe's Largest Club!" The club is five stories with different music on each floor, smoke doors, spotlights to stand and dance on, dance floors made of colorful lights, and a light show in a seperate balcony type room. There were balconies to dance on lining each dance floor and cages that I was not a part of. Definately competitive with Madrid clubs. One floor literally was labeled, "Black Music." Why does America get singled out for being racist and intolerant?
The next day the boys left and Steph and I wandered around shops and Christmas markets. Largest success of the day: fur hat purchase. That night was St. Nicholas Eve and there were holiday events going on in Old Town Square that Steph and I watched from a great restaurant. On St. Nicholas Eve people dress up as Mikulas (St. Nicholas), angels, and devils. While the angel is a creature of good, the devil acts as a reminder for children to behave throughout the year to ensure that they will be given treats on St. Nicholas Eve and not stuffed in his sack and sent to Hell. What a holiday to bring in the Christmas cheer. Terrifying. Apparently I've been great this year becuase I made it out alive. Besides binge eating on market food and faceplanting in the snow while simultaneously losing my camera, the night was simply fantastic.
Waking up with Bohemian Bagel in the morning was blissful. Steph and I then went up to Prague castle and wandered around the grounds, briefly being attacked my Asian tourists. We asked them to take a picture of us, and then one popped in our picture from the group whilst relaying their camera to another person. By the time the photo shoot ended we had taken about twenty or so different pictures complete with thumb ups and peace signs. Hilarious. The castle grounds overlooked all of Prague so that was very pretty, especially becuase the town was covered in a pretty blanket of white and it began to snow yet again. To get to the castle we had walked over Charles Bridge and stopped at the John Lennon Wall. This wall was graffiti'd by Lennon in the 1980's with lyrics of Beatles songs and since has been painted over and over again with pictures and saying symbolizing peace and hippy loveeeee.
Tuesday our flight was delayed to Amsterdam for hoursss. and so Stephanie and I hung out in the airport with some people going to Amsterdam as well and had a few drinks. When we arrived three hours behind schedule we went to a coffee shop on the way to our hostel. People were using plastic bags aka vaporizers to smoke weed and the place was run by a long haired man who had not been sober in years. We ordered a latte (really Mom, it was a latte) off of the "Less Interesting Menu: We used to sell coffee, but now we only sell drugs." A 60 year old Californian business man dressed in a very expensive suit with the biggest smile and smallest eyes I've ever seen was chatting us up at the "420 Cafe." Small world story, I ran into Alex, Stephanie's cousin that we stayed with in Barcelona in our hostel. He had gone there for a vacay of relaxation and happened to be there the same dates, in the same hostel. We met up with the Wake Forest boys and walked around Red Light District complete with lingerie clad women in windows lit up with red lights knocking on the windows and "Sex Shows, Come on In!" places in between those. Oh, and coffee shops. The sex show signs were in the shape of a banana. I'm really upset someone told me why that is. Amsterdam is an interesting place. What was really strange was the whole town was barren at about 1am. Our hostel was the hopping place to be, "The Flying Pig." It had a smoking lounge with a giant bed, a dance floor/bar, and a pool table surrounded by couches. And all the people that I feel like would appreciate the John Lennon wall even more than I did.
Wednesday morning may have been the greatest morning ever. We ate at this breakfast cafe that had trees and vines and purple lights surrounding the interior. It was like a Rainforest Cafe without the wierd robotic animals. Pancakes are officially the greatest thing.
The rest of the day consisted of us walking to the main sights we wanted to see, but getting cold so we'd stop in a coffee shop and eat food. We had about eight meals in total that day. When it's cold, what are ya gonna do. Cheesecake muffins, Thai pan beef, pancakes, french fries with garlic and ketchup (but really its great), donuts, kebabs, lots and lots of coffee. Solution.
Alex, Steph, and I toured the Anne Frank House which was a really well put together musuem that her father, Otto Frank created as he was the only surviving one of the hidden group. Anne's diary quotes on the walls, all of the rooms were furnished, the secret bookcase was open, and it was well worth seeing, but very sad, of course. I just need to read the book now! Later we went to the amazing Van Gogh musuem. I absolutely loved seeing his paintings that he accomplished in the ten years before his suicide. Fabulous style. He created over 2000 artworks in ten years! There were also Monet paintings among other well-known artists. So amazing to see the originals.
Of course our flight was delayed to Madrid. I fell asleep on the plane, woke up two and a half hours later excited that we were on the ground, I had slept the whole time! False, we hadn't even left yet. Something about snow and crashing kept us grounded. Amateurs.
Excellent trip to end my European tour on... now finals, would love to just skip them and fly home?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Death by Irish Hamburger.
Since I have four days of "rest" (aka homework galore and still not sleeping poor, poor body) in between my Paris and Prague trips...
I went to Ireland last weekend with Stephanie (surprise, surprise) and we met her friend Deck there who is a doctor that she met when she was volunteering in Haiti this past summer (Stephanie is wonder woman with the kindest heart.) We flew into Dublin and immediately located a bagel shop aka heaven with cream cheese (Spain doesn't believe in bagels). I blended into the airport's crowd with my leopard print suitcase and even brighter leopard print jacket (false). We piled into Deck's car and he drove us to Galway on the wrong side of the street the whole way (aka the "right" way legally but who are we kidding here). Galway is a quaint, adorable little town and that night we ventured into a packed out Christmas market. That night they lit the Christmas tree up and everyone cheered. On cue, it started snowing. The market was quite crowded and had interesting stands including one that sold hamburgers with wild animal meat from all over the world. Kangaroo hamburger, impala hamburger...yum? We decided to pass that up for a more healthier indulgence of a powder sugared cranberry deep fried Danish donut. Success. We wandered into an Irish pub for our first taste of famous Irish cider and then we rallied and went to the Ireland v. Scotland rugby game. The crowd was INSANE. They were yelling Irish curse words and slang, screaming at the ref, the players, drinking "hot whiskey" (literally whiskey with hot water and lemon-yuck), and Stephanie and I were learning words that will never be used in real life. Ireland lost in literally the last minute becuase of the kicker. Bummer. We stopped in another pub after the game and got free cider that was included with our rugby ticket. Speed dating was going on upstairs in the bar and I ran into a gal who was ditching her current bachelor #8 and hiding in the bathroom. Was only a little tempted to try out an alter ego and participate.
The next day we drove to the cliffs of Moher, a finalist for the seven wonders of the world. They were outstandingly beautiful and completely worth the drive through the country side. On our way out we passed by several little cute towns, one of which had a population of what seemed to be forty and everyone was out on the streets selling horses and various animals. The animals were surrounding our car. And I think Loveland is small. What do I know. We traveled to Dublin that night to stay with some of Deck's other friends living there; they were extremely nice. We did our own little "Irish pub crawl" that night and I woke up with someone's iphone in my purse becuase in the darkness of the pub I mistaked the iphone case for my contact case. Common mistake. Deck and his friends went through the phone to connect with someone to give the phone to and this owner of the iphone was a wild one-- let's not go into details. Deck tried to tell We all went into Dublin and saw University College Dublin which was a beautiful campus and then Stephanie and I went shopping all afternoon, but only bought things from the tourist store. Silly us. Later we toured the Guiness factory and ended with a cold Guiness on top of the factory in the "Gravity Bar" that overlooked Dublin. Afterwards, we met up with Deck's girlfriend and us four grabbed dinner in Temple Bar, a famous location for bars and restaurants. That night, Stephanie and I got food poisoning. Literally thought I was dying. I was completely floored. Luckily we were in a house of doctors, not luckily we were both sleeping on the bathroom floor and there was nothing anyone could do except move our flight to later in the afternoon and pray that Jill, who I was supposed to meet at the airport in the morning, could navigate around Madrid for a day. We made it home, Jill was fine--I cued my roomates in on the situation and they helped out, and I will forever be concerned with restaurants while abroad now.
After cena with the senora, Jill and I grabbed coffee in Madrid and I showed her Grand Via-Madrid's main street and Plaza de Espana. We called it an early night since I no longer had a stomach. Tuesday was the best, I decided to take off a day from school? and we went shopping all day along Fuencarral-a great shopping street leading from my house to Plaza de Sol. We stopped along a few of Madrid's great sights including San Miguel Market, a gorgeous basilica, and Plaza de la Villa (which I had written a paper on for my art history class). We drank a glass of wine in Plaza Mayor and caught up. Stopped in a Museo de Jamon and tried to enjoy a euro glass while ham legs hung all around the restaurant around us. My roomate that night at dinner informed us that Spainards began hanging ham legs in their bars and restaraunts in order to scare off the Muslims and Christians back in the day. Now they just love their jamon. The bartenders thought they were flirting with us when they gave us free samples off of the raw ham leg. Spainards have game. That night we walked around Bilboa and a few places around Sol.
The next day after school Jill and I sufficed our artistic cravings and went to the Prado musuem. Our version of looking at art was judging the Roman sculptures on how "hot" they were. The Roman Gods won. My kind of perfect muscular art. Obviously we are so cultured on the subject. We shamelessly grabbed McDonald's on the way to Madrid's beautiful modern cathedral next to Palacio Real and later that night indulged in Senora's famous paella dish.
That night Jill and I went to Orange bar, where Jason Derulo was "flyin' solo, I'm flyin' solo..." We were ushered into VIP where we met Derulo (Jill shamelessly asked if his diamond watch was "real." REALLY?) He was very nice and gave us some goose. Classy, classy.
Thursday was THANKSGIVING and a sad reminder that I am family-less. However a few American school friends, Jill, and I went to Hard Rock Cafe where they served turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the MOST delicious apple crisp I have ever eaten... or maybe that's just becuase I am so deprived of mama's cooking? After was a Kapital kind of night and Jill experienced Madrid's seven floor club...
I have so many things to be thankful for, and it was nice to reflect on all the good in my life on Thanksgiving. I shared it with my roomates, friends... my "Madrid" family. It sure was odd having school that day though!
Currently I am sick and am chugging vitamin C tablets in order to get better before Friday (aka Prague for four nights Amsterdam for two--we didn't realize we mixed up the dates?) If I faint or get food poisoning like the past two trips I may be the most unlucky person. Thursday is our dreaded dance performance for my salsa class. I am wearing a metallic gold dress with an extra large gem on front. Some would definately call it an "adorable" piece. If they were speaking about a rap video...
Three weeks until I am home. I would say the time has flown, but really it hasn't. I've grown, matured, and experienced so much the States seem like forever ago. And Qdoba, I know you miss my dollars.
I went to Ireland last weekend with Stephanie (surprise, surprise) and we met her friend Deck there who is a doctor that she met when she was volunteering in Haiti this past summer (Stephanie is wonder woman with the kindest heart.) We flew into Dublin and immediately located a bagel shop aka heaven with cream cheese (Spain doesn't believe in bagels). I blended into the airport's crowd with my leopard print suitcase and even brighter leopard print jacket (false). We piled into Deck's car and he drove us to Galway on the wrong side of the street the whole way (aka the "right" way legally but who are we kidding here). Galway is a quaint, adorable little town and that night we ventured into a packed out Christmas market. That night they lit the Christmas tree up and everyone cheered. On cue, it started snowing. The market was quite crowded and had interesting stands including one that sold hamburgers with wild animal meat from all over the world. Kangaroo hamburger, impala hamburger...yum? We decided to pass that up for a more healthier indulgence of a powder sugared cranberry deep fried Danish donut. Success. We wandered into an Irish pub for our first taste of famous Irish cider and then we rallied and went to the Ireland v. Scotland rugby game. The crowd was INSANE. They were yelling Irish curse words and slang, screaming at the ref, the players, drinking "hot whiskey" (literally whiskey with hot water and lemon-yuck), and Stephanie and I were learning words that will never be used in real life. Ireland lost in literally the last minute becuase of the kicker. Bummer. We stopped in another pub after the game and got free cider that was included with our rugby ticket. Speed dating was going on upstairs in the bar and I ran into a gal who was ditching her current bachelor #8 and hiding in the bathroom. Was only a little tempted to try out an alter ego and participate.
The next day we drove to the cliffs of Moher, a finalist for the seven wonders of the world. They were outstandingly beautiful and completely worth the drive through the country side. On our way out we passed by several little cute towns, one of which had a population of what seemed to be forty and everyone was out on the streets selling horses and various animals. The animals were surrounding our car. And I think Loveland is small. What do I know. We traveled to Dublin that night to stay with some of Deck's other friends living there; they were extremely nice. We did our own little "Irish pub crawl" that night and I woke up with someone's iphone in my purse becuase in the darkness of the pub I mistaked the iphone case for my contact case. Common mistake. Deck and his friends went through the phone to connect with someone to give the phone to and this owner of the iphone was a wild one-- let's not go into details. Deck tried to tell We all went into Dublin and saw University College Dublin which was a beautiful campus and then Stephanie and I went shopping all afternoon, but only bought things from the tourist store. Silly us. Later we toured the Guiness factory and ended with a cold Guiness on top of the factory in the "Gravity Bar" that overlooked Dublin. Afterwards, we met up with Deck's girlfriend and us four grabbed dinner in Temple Bar, a famous location for bars and restaurants. That night, Stephanie and I got food poisoning. Literally thought I was dying. I was completely floored. Luckily we were in a house of doctors, not luckily we were both sleeping on the bathroom floor and there was nothing anyone could do except move our flight to later in the afternoon and pray that Jill, who I was supposed to meet at the airport in the morning, could navigate around Madrid for a day. We made it home, Jill was fine--I cued my roomates in on the situation and they helped out, and I will forever be concerned with restaurants while abroad now.
After cena with the senora, Jill and I grabbed coffee in Madrid and I showed her Grand Via-Madrid's main street and Plaza de Espana. We called it an early night since I no longer had a stomach. Tuesday was the best, I decided to take off a day from school? and we went shopping all day along Fuencarral-a great shopping street leading from my house to Plaza de Sol. We stopped along a few of Madrid's great sights including San Miguel Market, a gorgeous basilica, and Plaza de la Villa (which I had written a paper on for my art history class). We drank a glass of wine in Plaza Mayor and caught up. Stopped in a Museo de Jamon and tried to enjoy a euro glass while ham legs hung all around the restaurant around us. My roomate that night at dinner informed us that Spainards began hanging ham legs in their bars and restaraunts in order to scare off the Muslims and Christians back in the day. Now they just love their jamon. The bartenders thought they were flirting with us when they gave us free samples off of the raw ham leg. Spainards have game. That night we walked around Bilboa and a few places around Sol.
The next day after school Jill and I sufficed our artistic cravings and went to the Prado musuem. Our version of looking at art was judging the Roman sculptures on how "hot" they were. The Roman Gods won. My kind of perfect muscular art. Obviously we are so cultured on the subject. We shamelessly grabbed McDonald's on the way to Madrid's beautiful modern cathedral next to Palacio Real and later that night indulged in Senora's famous paella dish.
That night Jill and I went to Orange bar, where Jason Derulo was "flyin' solo, I'm flyin' solo..." We were ushered into VIP where we met Derulo (Jill shamelessly asked if his diamond watch was "real." REALLY?) He was very nice and gave us some goose. Classy, classy.
Thursday was THANKSGIVING and a sad reminder that I am family-less. However a few American school friends, Jill, and I went to Hard Rock Cafe where they served turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the MOST delicious apple crisp I have ever eaten... or maybe that's just becuase I am so deprived of mama's cooking? After was a Kapital kind of night and Jill experienced Madrid's seven floor club...
I have so many things to be thankful for, and it was nice to reflect on all the good in my life on Thanksgiving. I shared it with my roomates, friends... my "Madrid" family. It sure was odd having school that day though!
Currently I am sick and am chugging vitamin C tablets in order to get better before Friday (aka Prague for four nights Amsterdam for two--we didn't realize we mixed up the dates?) If I faint or get food poisoning like the past two trips I may be the most unlucky person. Thursday is our dreaded dance performance for my salsa class. I am wearing a metallic gold dress with an extra large gem on front. Some would definately call it an "adorable" piece. If they were speaking about a rap video...
Three weeks until I am home. I would say the time has flown, but really it hasn't. I've grown, matured, and experienced so much the States seem like forever ago. And Qdoba, I know you miss my dollars.
Paris how I love thee...
Jill Conrad and I flew into Paris this past Friday and stayed for the weekend until this Monday morning.. I have found my favorite city. That first day we went to our hostel, St. Christopher's which was cute, very nice, and how Jill put it "trying way too hard to be hip" but I liked it. We dropped off our stuff, and went out to dinner with my friend John who I know from Colorado and also happened to be there this weekend. Dinner was phenomenal. We had DELICIOUS french onion soup-they coated it in breading and cheese, duck (French delicacy, had to at least try the thing that looked like tuna?), and other French dishes. Definately ate too much so decided to walk it off climbing up the hill to Sacre-Coeur Basilica and wander the streets a little bit in Montemarte district. It started snowing. Sounds adorable but it was unbelievably freezing. And so, the solution to the situation of get warm quick: we stopped to split a bottle of wine that we would take turns drinking after sprinting up each flight of steps (like eight hundred--maybe exaggeration?). Didn't work but was worth a shot. The Sacre-Coeur was fantastic. White, huge, with large cupulas, and overlooks all of the city of Paris at night. Lights lit up, snow falling. I cannot even begin to set the gorgeous scene. The night ended with meeting two of John's girlfriends he was staying with and John's hotel desk worker, Lester from Sri Lanka, who bought me hotel peanuts while I typed to him in an English-French translator on the hotel computer. He taught me a few necessary phrases that I instantly forgot becuase I cannot produce the French "phlem" sound necessary to speak the language. It was late, the metro was closed, and an apparently "famous" wrestler who is going to train in America this coming summer helped us home telling us the bus stops and riding them with us. I didn't let him walk us back to our hostel. HELLOOOO. I've seen "Taken." My dad just doesn't have those skills, however raging of a Berthoud drug dealer he is.
We woke up and went on a 4 hour walking tour that our hostel put on. We started off with minature coffees (one inch large, how do the French get things done??) and journeyed through the city while our PHENOMENAL tour guide cracked hilarious jokes that only I laughed at, pranced instead of walked, and told us the stories that no one could ever know via wikipedia, touring the streets, or even by most history books. We saw a police station with bullet holes from WWII, one of the only scars Paris has from that war. We saw Napolean's "N" ALL OVER the city built into various places. The outside of the Louvre and the gardens behind it, the square where the guillotine killed thousands upon thousands of people, Pont Nuef (ironically named "New Bridge" when really it is the oldest bridge in Paris)-a bridge that has wierd faces on it that were designed after actual people (who were incredibly drunk) that were at one of King Henry IV's parties. Jacques de Molay from the Knights Templar was burned at the stake in 1314 near this bridge. While being burned he cursed the King and the Pope to die in a year becuase they would not let him face Notre Dame while he was dying. Both died within a year in really bizarre ways. One of my favorite things from the tour was Le Pont des Arts also known as the Passerelle des Arts. It is a bridge from 1803 that contains hundreds of padlocks with couples' names written on them. Couples from all over the world write their name on a lock, attach it to the bridge, and throw the key into the Seine River securing their love for eternity. ROMANTIC!!! The bridge is right by the beautiful building that keeps English out of France. Literally there is a highly-selective committee of forty people to protect the French language and keep English words like computer and weekend out of the French language. They publish a new dictionary every year to secure these words. And they think Americans are pompous. We ended the tour in front of the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais which were sights that were almost blown up if Hitler had gotten his wish to destroy Paris (if he couldn't have it no one could). Jill and I then strolled Champs Elysees where the Tour de France always ends. The streets were lined with Christmas lights and decorations. We saw the grand store of Louis Viutton with a line coming out the door. Jill and I decided while walking Champs Elysees that we would be THE BEST rich people, or at least the best dressed. We made it to the Arc de Triomph at the end of the busy street. The circle surrounding the Arc de Triomph is not covered by car or life insurance by law. If you die or crash, your out of luck. There's a tomb of an unknown soldier from WWI is under the arch with an eternal flame always burning since 1920. Bryan our guide said it has only been extinguished when a drunk Mexican tourist peed on it, which got him kicked out of his country and Europe forever among other things. An Australian couple also attempted to have a picnic under the Arc and roast hot dogs over the flame. Romantic. They're banished from Europe forever as well. There was a Christmas market going on by the Champs-Elysees so we strolled through that while eating a delish crepe. We made it back to the Notre Dame cathedral to tour the inside. There was a Christmas tree lit up out front. By the time we got out it was so cold we couldn't breath and so we strolled in and out of touristy shops trying to keep warm. We had a delicious dinner of pizza (an Italian queen (Catherine maybe?) brought in her Italian friends of chefs, etc, to keep her company so pizza shops today almost outnumber French restaurants) and pink wine and overlooked a mini Arc de Triomph. We then went on to Latin Quarter to see the night life of Paris. It was a busy street of bars, nothing close to Madrid, and we were rejected from one after the bouncer was like, "Do you speak French?" and we said no. He legit turned his back to us and let everyone in before us. We stopped in one bar and two drinks cost 27 euros so we decided that was enough fun for one night.
The next morning was Versailles. We took a train to the quaint town and toured the magnificent palace and Marie Antoinette's palace seperate from the Versaille Palace with beautiful gardens, fountains, and now a delicious french restaurant with more excellent onion soup and red wine (I don't even like red wine...when in Paris its fantastic?) I asked a French gal standing in line to get tickets why French people hate Americans. Apparently we are loud and obnoxious, pompous and think we are superior, don't try to attempt to learn their language, and then she pointed to my starbucks cup and she said we are unwilling to learn the culture. I said their coffee is too small. She said she despises that everything is bigger and fatter in America. Fail. (note: I had a double cheeseburger today for lunch.) After drooling on myself on the way back to Paris from Versaille Jill and I went on a fantastic night boat tour on the Seine River while drinking wine (trend?) and eating fresh crepes. BEAUTIFUL city at night. We saw the light show of the Eiffel Tower and I felt like I had seen a fourth of July fireworks display. Magnificent. We attempted to go inside the closed Louvre.. fail. Sorry Mona Lisa. And ended our night watching naked women in FANTASTIC hats at the Moulin Rouge show. Literally only wore diamonds, great shoes, and feather hats. The show was unbelieveable. There were jugglers, the beautiful naked dancers, a couple that did an act of balance (legit were straight up and down only touching heads and balancing), and a newly wed couple next to us where the man looked very pleased and the wife looked very uncomfortable. I felt so awkward for everyone with their boyfriends and grateful that Jill was my date. Took a snowy cab home and woke up to a very sick Jill in the morning. I packed all of her stuff, carried her suitcase and mine while navigating us to the airport (felt like wonder woman), and finally got us on the shoulder to shoulder suitcase to suitcase very cramped train to take us to the airport. Jill was throwing up while I was doing her hair and trying to get everything together. We were two stops away before she said, "There cannot be anything worse" before my ears became very hot, my vision and hearing began to fade, and I began pouring sweat. I knew I was fainting. I began tearing off my scarf and jacket but it was too late and I fell onto people and blacked out. My clothes were soaked with sweat when I came to after a few seconds, and we were almost to the airport. I was so busy trying to make sure Jill was ok that I neglected my overheated body. Excuse my French but that was one hell of a train ride, and the poor people around us are probably getting checked for malaria or something now after that fiasco. I navigated us through the airport, got Jill to her gate, fell asleep on my hour delayed plane, and made it home in time for dance class. Jill made it home safely to Utah.
Paris is beautiful. People aren't as nice as Madrid, but I really think it is my favorite city I've seen. So romantic. Beautiful. So much interesting history. Arriving home in Madrid is fantastic though, good to be back after such an adventure, and like I said, Madrid is home.
22 more days of traveling the world...
We woke up and went on a 4 hour walking tour that our hostel put on. We started off with minature coffees (one inch large, how do the French get things done??) and journeyed through the city while our PHENOMENAL tour guide cracked hilarious jokes that only I laughed at, pranced instead of walked, and told us the stories that no one could ever know via wikipedia, touring the streets, or even by most history books. We saw a police station with bullet holes from WWII, one of the only scars Paris has from that war. We saw Napolean's "N" ALL OVER the city built into various places. The outside of the Louvre and the gardens behind it, the square where the guillotine killed thousands upon thousands of people, Pont Nuef (ironically named "New Bridge" when really it is the oldest bridge in Paris)-a bridge that has wierd faces on it that were designed after actual people (who were incredibly drunk) that were at one of King Henry IV's parties. Jacques de Molay from the Knights Templar was burned at the stake in 1314 near this bridge. While being burned he cursed the King and the Pope to die in a year becuase they would not let him face Notre Dame while he was dying. Both died within a year in really bizarre ways. One of my favorite things from the tour was Le Pont des Arts also known as the Passerelle des Arts. It is a bridge from 1803 that contains hundreds of padlocks with couples' names written on them. Couples from all over the world write their name on a lock, attach it to the bridge, and throw the key into the Seine River securing their love for eternity. ROMANTIC!!! The bridge is right by the beautiful building that keeps English out of France. Literally there is a highly-selective committee of forty people to protect the French language and keep English words like computer and weekend out of the French language. They publish a new dictionary every year to secure these words. And they think Americans are pompous. We ended the tour in front of the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais which were sights that were almost blown up if Hitler had gotten his wish to destroy Paris (if he couldn't have it no one could). Jill and I then strolled Champs Elysees where the Tour de France always ends. The streets were lined with Christmas lights and decorations. We saw the grand store of Louis Viutton with a line coming out the door. Jill and I decided while walking Champs Elysees that we would be THE BEST rich people, or at least the best dressed. We made it to the Arc de Triomph at the end of the busy street. The circle surrounding the Arc de Triomph is not covered by car or life insurance by law. If you die or crash, your out of luck. There's a tomb of an unknown soldier from WWI is under the arch with an eternal flame always burning since 1920. Bryan our guide said it has only been extinguished when a drunk Mexican tourist peed on it, which got him kicked out of his country and Europe forever among other things. An Australian couple also attempted to have a picnic under the Arc and roast hot dogs over the flame. Romantic. They're banished from Europe forever as well. There was a Christmas market going on by the Champs-Elysees so we strolled through that while eating a delish crepe. We made it back to the Notre Dame cathedral to tour the inside. There was a Christmas tree lit up out front. By the time we got out it was so cold we couldn't breath and so we strolled in and out of touristy shops trying to keep warm. We had a delicious dinner of pizza (an Italian queen (Catherine maybe?) brought in her Italian friends of chefs, etc, to keep her company so pizza shops today almost outnumber French restaurants) and pink wine and overlooked a mini Arc de Triomph. We then went on to Latin Quarter to see the night life of Paris. It was a busy street of bars, nothing close to Madrid, and we were rejected from one after the bouncer was like, "Do you speak French?" and we said no. He legit turned his back to us and let everyone in before us. We stopped in one bar and two drinks cost 27 euros so we decided that was enough fun for one night.
The next morning was Versailles. We took a train to the quaint town and toured the magnificent palace and Marie Antoinette's palace seperate from the Versaille Palace with beautiful gardens, fountains, and now a delicious french restaurant with more excellent onion soup and red wine (I don't even like red wine...when in Paris its fantastic?) I asked a French gal standing in line to get tickets why French people hate Americans. Apparently we are loud and obnoxious, pompous and think we are superior, don't try to attempt to learn their language, and then she pointed to my starbucks cup and she said we are unwilling to learn the culture. I said their coffee is too small. She said she despises that everything is bigger and fatter in America. Fail. (note: I had a double cheeseburger today for lunch.) After drooling on myself on the way back to Paris from Versaille Jill and I went on a fantastic night boat tour on the Seine River while drinking wine (trend?) and eating fresh crepes. BEAUTIFUL city at night. We saw the light show of the Eiffel Tower and I felt like I had seen a fourth of July fireworks display. Magnificent. We attempted to go inside the closed Louvre.. fail. Sorry Mona Lisa. And ended our night watching naked women in FANTASTIC hats at the Moulin Rouge show. Literally only wore diamonds, great shoes, and feather hats. The show was unbelieveable. There were jugglers, the beautiful naked dancers, a couple that did an act of balance (legit were straight up and down only touching heads and balancing), and a newly wed couple next to us where the man looked very pleased and the wife looked very uncomfortable. I felt so awkward for everyone with their boyfriends and grateful that Jill was my date. Took a snowy cab home and woke up to a very sick Jill in the morning. I packed all of her stuff, carried her suitcase and mine while navigating us to the airport (felt like wonder woman), and finally got us on the shoulder to shoulder suitcase to suitcase very cramped train to take us to the airport. Jill was throwing up while I was doing her hair and trying to get everything together. We were two stops away before she said, "There cannot be anything worse" before my ears became very hot, my vision and hearing began to fade, and I began pouring sweat. I knew I was fainting. I began tearing off my scarf and jacket but it was too late and I fell onto people and blacked out. My clothes were soaked with sweat when I came to after a few seconds, and we were almost to the airport. I was so busy trying to make sure Jill was ok that I neglected my overheated body. Excuse my French but that was one hell of a train ride, and the poor people around us are probably getting checked for malaria or something now after that fiasco. I navigated us through the airport, got Jill to her gate, fell asleep on my hour delayed plane, and made it home in time for dance class. Jill made it home safely to Utah.
Paris is beautiful. People aren't as nice as Madrid, but I really think it is my favorite city I've seen. So romantic. Beautiful. So much interesting history. Arriving home in Madrid is fantastic though, good to be back after such an adventure, and like I said, Madrid is home.
22 more days of traveling the world...
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Lots of nudity...
Ruby, the lunch lady and I, are now on first name terms, becuase she laughs at me every day for eating french fries. "Engorda Jessica!" It's the only true American food I am holding onto, and literally is involved in my every day diet...
Which brings me to my next gym catastrophe of my shorts ripping past my thigh during an extreme abdominales drill. There is a new man who is our instructor, and he is Satan with a smile and greattt bod. The first time I met him, my abs hurt for four days (because of the abs class-to clarify.) and he literally is a drill sergeant on steroids who listens to techno. He stands over me and yells in spanish until french fries are only a memory. So, on one of these occassions my shorts ripped, exposing things which do not pertain to abdominales class, but here is Satan standing over me demanding abdominal perfection. What are ya gonna do? At least he ends each class by stretching and listening to soft melodies by Whitney Houston.
Speaking of nudity, my senora told us tonight of how she loves to walk on beaches during vacation, but last year she accidently found herself in the middle of a nudist beach. Senora said the human body is the most beautiful, miraculous creation. It is perfection by God. She said we could visit nude beaches, take off our clothes, and be beautiful, becuase we are young with still beautiful naked bodies. Typical not awkward dinner conversation, was going to take off my clothes then, but she kept talking. She said nude beaches are completely natural, and if you are asthetically pleasing, esta bien, es nada. If you are old and saggy and fat she went on to say, you should stay inside. Ha she's an opinionated one? Needless to say, she fled the nude beach scene becuase the catagory of people belonging inside were not adhering to her wishes. Lindsey told of when her and her dad were vacationing in south France and accidentally found themselves in the most uncomfortable situation by mistakenly going to a nude beach. I don't feel like she shares the same ideology as Senora.
I felt for the first time truly home sick last night and even shamelessly looked at pictures from my freshman year in college for about half an hour...
I'm so glad this can all soon be cured by a casual weekend in the Ireland cities of Galway and Dublin. Tough life I live.
Which brings me to my next gym catastrophe of my shorts ripping past my thigh during an extreme abdominales drill. There is a new man who is our instructor, and he is Satan with a smile and greattt bod. The first time I met him, my abs hurt for four days (because of the abs class-to clarify.) and he literally is a drill sergeant on steroids who listens to techno. He stands over me and yells in spanish until french fries are only a memory. So, on one of these occassions my shorts ripped, exposing things which do not pertain to abdominales class, but here is Satan standing over me demanding abdominal perfection. What are ya gonna do? At least he ends each class by stretching and listening to soft melodies by Whitney Houston.
Speaking of nudity, my senora told us tonight of how she loves to walk on beaches during vacation, but last year she accidently found herself in the middle of a nudist beach. Senora said the human body is the most beautiful, miraculous creation. It is perfection by God. She said we could visit nude beaches, take off our clothes, and be beautiful, becuase we are young with still beautiful naked bodies. Typical not awkward dinner conversation, was going to take off my clothes then, but she kept talking. She said nude beaches are completely natural, and if you are asthetically pleasing, esta bien, es nada. If you are old and saggy and fat she went on to say, you should stay inside. Ha she's an opinionated one? Needless to say, she fled the nude beach scene becuase the catagory of people belonging inside were not adhering to her wishes. Lindsey told of when her and her dad were vacationing in south France and accidentally found themselves in the most uncomfortable situation by mistakenly going to a nude beach. I don't feel like she shares the same ideology as Senora.
I felt for the first time truly home sick last night and even shamelessly looked at pictures from my freshman year in college for about half an hour...
I'm so glad this can all soon be cured by a casual weekend in the Ireland cities of Galway and Dublin. Tough life I live.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Coveting some LEETHAHH. (from my teacher?)
I forced myself to stay in this weekend to try to relax and catch up on homework, since many people were out of town anyways. What, might you ask, has happened to my "when in Spain..." mentality? Oh it has died along with the rest of my internal organs from lack of sleep. Four hours and less per night hasn't been cutting it the past few weeks, and I am severely afraid of getting sick since the next three weekends are devoted to Ireland, France with Jill, and Prague and Amsterdam.
While I did go out Thursday night for a good ole' American night of card playing, being something less of a human on three hours of sleep while touring a gorgeous monastery in the mountains all day Friday with my art history class caused me to reassess my health decisions. The monastery was beautiful, and my super chic, 65 year old teacher (she thought I asked her age when I really was trying to ask about her grandchildren) decked out in leggings (she's hot) was very knowledgeable on all of the art the monastery encompassed. The basilica located in the monastery was unlike any church I've seen thus far with fresco paintings covering the tall, tall ceilings and large columns. It struck me as odd when I looked up to see boobs on the church's ceiling. The artist was thinking ahead when he painted naked women on the ceiling anticipating men falling asleep during sermons? Terrible joke. The library was also my favorite inside the monastery, and like the basilica the ceiling was also engulfed in a fresco painting, this time of all naked men (note: that's not the reason the library was my favorite. and proportions were way off...?). I asked my art teacher why everyone was undressed, and she said it better showed the movement of their bodies... I'll use that next time someone comments on my short shorts. It's art, creative movement. Walking out of the monastery my teacher offered me a cigarette...Spain is also different because my other Spanish teacher wore a leather skirt to class, which is an item that I have been looking for since I got here...LEEETHAHH.
I would LOVE to see a Baylor professor in leather. Or a Baylor student for that matter. Will be depressing when i return to Texas and stop seeking fashion advice from my hot Spanish teachers. Speaking of Baylor our football team is doing phenomenal and actually winning quite a few games. Sic em.
I walked around Bilbao area yesterday with ambitions to find a Starbucks to buckle down and catch up on reading. The shopping district of Madrid has its enchantments however and I was lured in window shopping and coveting some fantastic heels. However, this poor college student traveling the world made one single purchase of Spain's version of Top Ramen while going in and out of Madrid's hottest stores. That's just sad. While in Starbuck I did however make a purchase of what probably amounted to an eight or nine US dollar cup of coffee (can I just be done with the euro please?) and reflected on how truly blessed I am. Even though I'm sleep-deprived, language deficeint in Spanish (and English lately?), and truly missing spicy food, I am exactly where I am supposed to be not according to my plan but His, and that is so satisfying.
While I did go out Thursday night for a good ole' American night of card playing, being something less of a human on three hours of sleep while touring a gorgeous monastery in the mountains all day Friday with my art history class caused me to reassess my health decisions. The monastery was beautiful, and my super chic, 65 year old teacher (she thought I asked her age when I really was trying to ask about her grandchildren) decked out in leggings (she's hot) was very knowledgeable on all of the art the monastery encompassed. The basilica located in the monastery was unlike any church I've seen thus far with fresco paintings covering the tall, tall ceilings and large columns. It struck me as odd when I looked up to see boobs on the church's ceiling. The artist was thinking ahead when he painted naked women on the ceiling anticipating men falling asleep during sermons? Terrible joke. The library was also my favorite inside the monastery, and like the basilica the ceiling was also engulfed in a fresco painting, this time of all naked men (note: that's not the reason the library was my favorite. and proportions were way off...?). I asked my art teacher why everyone was undressed, and she said it better showed the movement of their bodies... I'll use that next time someone comments on my short shorts. It's art, creative movement. Walking out of the monastery my teacher offered me a cigarette...Spain is also different because my other Spanish teacher wore a leather skirt to class, which is an item that I have been looking for since I got here...LEEETHAHH.
I would LOVE to see a Baylor professor in leather. Or a Baylor student for that matter. Will be depressing when i return to Texas and stop seeking fashion advice from my hot Spanish teachers. Speaking of Baylor our football team is doing phenomenal and actually winning quite a few games. Sic em.
I walked around Bilbao area yesterday with ambitions to find a Starbucks to buckle down and catch up on reading. The shopping district of Madrid has its enchantments however and I was lured in window shopping and coveting some fantastic heels. However, this poor college student traveling the world made one single purchase of Spain's version of Top Ramen while going in and out of Madrid's hottest stores. That's just sad. While in Starbuck I did however make a purchase of what probably amounted to an eight or nine US dollar cup of coffee (can I just be done with the euro please?) and reflected on how truly blessed I am. Even though I'm sleep-deprived, language deficeint in Spanish (and English lately?), and truly missing spicy food, I am exactly where I am supposed to be not according to my plan but His, and that is so satisfying.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Flamenco is redeemed... Madrid metro is not.
A tearful walk home after grabbing my mom one last taxi to the airport and now I am back to my "normal" life in Madrid full of catching up on a week of gym time and class work and SLEEP. Letting my mom in on the Madrid experience was phenomenal, and it was so nice to bring a slice of familiarity into my life here even if just for a short time.
Madrid was not so kind to my mom when she first got here. Being the terrible daughter that I am, I didn't meet her at the airport and she ended up driving around for two hours in her rental car looking for the obscure street signs that are placed in odd locations on the sides of buildings in size 12 font. Turns out, she drove back to the airport, turned in her rental car, and took a taxi to the hotel. Within thirty minutes of that fiasco I wanted to show her sights so we hopped on the metro towards plaza de Espana and Retiro Park. After strolling through the park and walking through the streets to the plaza, she realized that her wallet was gone. She was pick pocketed on the metro. After calling her credit card company it turns out whoever took her card attempted 1400 dollar and 800 dollar purchases unsuccessfully (imagine that). Despite having the credit card company freeze her account after sending a back up card every other purchases and resorting to my atm account which is now near zero, her trip ran quite smoothly and extremely enjoyable after that. We ate a nice lunch at my favorite Italian place, DiBocca and had a glass of wine to drown our sorrows of the lost items of our past...
That night, she had a real dining experience of drifting from tapas bar to tapas bar starting with an unusually dissapointing El Tigre much to my dismay. The quote of the evening I must say was, "Well,I'm American. People just look at me and want me to speak American, because if I didn't it would be insulting." My mother in Madrid. Getting home very late only to wake up to fly to Portugal three hours later set the theme of no sleep for the week. True Spainards.
Our hotel in Lisbon, Portugal could not have been situated in a more perfect location--on the corner of the most popular shopping streets with a famous plaza and the ocean a block away. We dropped off our luggage (after arriving in the city at 8 am) and walked (i.e. HIKED) to the Se cathedral (built in the 12th century) and the Castillo de S. Jorge which overlooked Portugal and had an excellent view of the town and the gulf. The castle was once used as a fortress and still had canons amongst the ruins and outside of the dry moats surrounding the main towers and interior. It also had an excessive amount of cats sunning on the grassy terrace...added to the experience? Jet lag and fatigue forced us to wander back to our hotel and nap for a bit. We woke up to a group of teens singing Elton John just below our window--they were extremely good, until we realized they only knew one song and it began to get excessive after the fifth or sixth time?
We took one of those ancient cars from the 18th century (Mom-what are they called? and how does that EVEN work after all that time??) that drives you up a hill and drops you off and found a great wine and sandwich place with a GORGEOUS view. That sandwich was fantastic. Later that night we searched for the aquaduct, and ended up walking inside a skyscraper hotel like we were guests and taking the elevator up on the first floor. We found the aquaduct lit up overlooking highways after we walked onto the outside staircase, pushing my purse in the doorway so we wouldn't get locked out on the 22nd floor. We ended up passing it again in our taxi on the way to the airport and it was even more grand in the daylight. Mom and I attempted to walk to Belem, a part of Lisbon, but just found a taxi who took us to one of his favorite restaurant locations on the boardwalk. The cute host lured us in with his wine samples and we were sold on one the most expensive meals I've had-complete with very chewy steak I couldn't chew so had to stuff through the cracks of the boardwalk instead of leaving it in my fancy napkin. I was MADE for fine dining. Lisbon was a ghost town at 11:30 on a Friday night, so Mom and I wandered looking at beautiful wedding gowns and ended up finding ourselves in a closing Italian restaurant sharing a delicious Tiramisu.
The next morning we saw the 16th century defense structure, Torre de Belem, overlooking Lisbon's Tagus River, and the beautiful Jeronimos Monastery. The Monastery had a very large, very eerie gothic cathedral, complete with a sculpture of Jesus on the cross (with his side wound gushing) overlooking the very dark, very gothic sanctuary. Vasco de Gama's remains added to the light and happiness the cathedral possessed. The actual Cloister of the monastery was beautifully built in the Manueline style, popular in the early 16th century and was very beautifully detailed. One thing that my mom and I noticed were all of the mystical creatures many of these types of structures had sculpted into the walls and designs--these were odd, eerie, and showed the paganism that this time period dealt with. We wandered. Past closed palaces due to the visit China's president was paying to Lisbon that day. We did wander (i.e. HIKEEEE) up this extra large hill to the Palacio Nacional de Ajuda and toured that GORGEOUS home of the royal Portuguese family of the 19th century. My mom took illegal pictures. Tourists these days. They had a large dining room set up for one hundred people that was the sight for dinner that night for China's president. What a life.
That night, after our casual night stay in a different country, Mom experienced her first kebap (better than the 70 euro dinner??) and later we found a great street close to my house full of cute bars. We split a bottle of wine, had great conversation, and went out for late night pizza.
The next morning was RASTROMARKET. Scarves basically sums up our wild shopping experience as I believe we bought 23948 each.
That night. we experienced. the futbol match. of a lifetime. Real Madrid v Barcelona. Of course Christiano Ronaldo proposed and I had to politely decline, but he still managed to pull it together and played rather well. The fans were WILD. (No wonder alcohol is forbidden in the futbol stadium!) I was decked out in my pink Real Madrid scarf. The game was excellent and we even had a gal who flew out from France telling us the play by play. Even though my mom and I ate an entire bag of potato chips, honey almonds, and corn nuts, we still found it necessary to grab a mojito with Mel, Bailey, Nick, and Micheal after the game. Mom really felt like a college student with the conversations we were having I'm sure...
Andddd we were off to Seville early in the morning. We took the express train which was excellent, so smooth, and lulled us to sleep as it grazed the Spanish country side. We hit the ground running in Seville seeing the sights and walking miles and miles past the beautiful orange and lemon trees. We saw the largest gothic cathedral in the world (with Christopher Columbus's tomb inside) complete with the largest plateresque gold alter ever created. It was breathtakingly overwhelming and to be honest gave both of us a slight headache... Even though the bell tower of the cathedral was a climb, we made it up the 34 floors and the bells even rang upon our arrival.
The Real Alcazar of Sevilla, Europe's oldest palace in use, was absolutely gorgeous and looked QUITE similar to the Alhambra of Granada with its Mudejar architecture and beautiful gardens. I was happy my mom was able to see something so beautiful and so different than anything else you can find in the world. Large tapestries, elaborate decorations...
We then got lost on our way to Casa de Pilates becuase I decided we should take a detour on the "cute bright little street" instead of follow the map. Once we finally did make it there, the lady said we were only able to tour the bottom floor becuase the palace was closing in thirty min. Of course we toured that in literally FIVE minutes (don't get me wrong, it was grand and gorgeous) being American and all. It was quite comical and so we sat on a bench instead of leaving eight minutes into the trip. Later that night I decided my mom had to experience Flamenco for herself and I must say the show was much better than the one in Granada. Pretty dresses, INCREDIBLE impromptu spanish guitar, much talent, excellent show. I even enjoyed the authentic Flamenco singing (i.e. slight wailing in certain stanzas--ehh esta bien).
Braved the rain the next morning and took a covered river tour, had the most delicious KEBAP (Mom is now hooked.), and took the train back. Mom experienced a fresh and delicious Paella dinner with Senora and my roomates and we went out for a drink with Stephanie and her dad (great family!).
Woke up to the best three euro American breakfast from Vips and hasta luego-- 41 days to mi madre. I'm so happy she was able to share this experience with me. I have so many blessings in my life, an amazing loving family being at the top of the list.
...and my new Madrid Aveda hairstyle being not at the top. The day before my mother arrived, I decided my roots were showing and should be trusted to Madrid's Aveda. Three people involved in my hair dye process later and I was not happy. However, my roots are not showing, it was free, and my roomates didn't even notice. How self-critical are women. Esta bien.
Sleep is necessary, homework is calling... and between Ireland, France, Prague, and Amsterdam in my future I'm thinking both of those things need to get taken care of.
Madrid was not so kind to my mom when she first got here. Being the terrible daughter that I am, I didn't meet her at the airport and she ended up driving around for two hours in her rental car looking for the obscure street signs that are placed in odd locations on the sides of buildings in size 12 font. Turns out, she drove back to the airport, turned in her rental car, and took a taxi to the hotel. Within thirty minutes of that fiasco I wanted to show her sights so we hopped on the metro towards plaza de Espana and Retiro Park. After strolling through the park and walking through the streets to the plaza, she realized that her wallet was gone. She was pick pocketed on the metro. After calling her credit card company it turns out whoever took her card attempted 1400 dollar and 800 dollar purchases unsuccessfully (imagine that). Despite having the credit card company freeze her account after sending a back up card every other purchases and resorting to my atm account which is now near zero, her trip ran quite smoothly and extremely enjoyable after that. We ate a nice lunch at my favorite Italian place, DiBocca and had a glass of wine to drown our sorrows of the lost items of our past...
That night, she had a real dining experience of drifting from tapas bar to tapas bar starting with an unusually dissapointing El Tigre much to my dismay. The quote of the evening I must say was, "Well,I'm American. People just look at me and want me to speak American, because if I didn't it would be insulting." My mother in Madrid. Getting home very late only to wake up to fly to Portugal three hours later set the theme of no sleep for the week. True Spainards.
Our hotel in Lisbon, Portugal could not have been situated in a more perfect location--on the corner of the most popular shopping streets with a famous plaza and the ocean a block away. We dropped off our luggage (after arriving in the city at 8 am) and walked (i.e. HIKED) to the Se cathedral (built in the 12th century) and the Castillo de S. Jorge which overlooked Portugal and had an excellent view of the town and the gulf. The castle was once used as a fortress and still had canons amongst the ruins and outside of the dry moats surrounding the main towers and interior. It also had an excessive amount of cats sunning on the grassy terrace...added to the experience? Jet lag and fatigue forced us to wander back to our hotel and nap for a bit. We woke up to a group of teens singing Elton John just below our window--they were extremely good, until we realized they only knew one song and it began to get excessive after the fifth or sixth time?
We took one of those ancient cars from the 18th century (Mom-what are they called? and how does that EVEN work after all that time??) that drives you up a hill and drops you off and found a great wine and sandwich place with a GORGEOUS view. That sandwich was fantastic. Later that night we searched for the aquaduct, and ended up walking inside a skyscraper hotel like we were guests and taking the elevator up on the first floor. We found the aquaduct lit up overlooking highways after we walked onto the outside staircase, pushing my purse in the doorway so we wouldn't get locked out on the 22nd floor. We ended up passing it again in our taxi on the way to the airport and it was even more grand in the daylight. Mom and I attempted to walk to Belem, a part of Lisbon, but just found a taxi who took us to one of his favorite restaurant locations on the boardwalk. The cute host lured us in with his wine samples and we were sold on one the most expensive meals I've had-complete with very chewy steak I couldn't chew so had to stuff through the cracks of the boardwalk instead of leaving it in my fancy napkin. I was MADE for fine dining. Lisbon was a ghost town at 11:30 on a Friday night, so Mom and I wandered looking at beautiful wedding gowns and ended up finding ourselves in a closing Italian restaurant sharing a delicious Tiramisu.
The next morning we saw the 16th century defense structure, Torre de Belem, overlooking Lisbon's Tagus River, and the beautiful Jeronimos Monastery. The Monastery had a very large, very eerie gothic cathedral, complete with a sculpture of Jesus on the cross (with his side wound gushing) overlooking the very dark, very gothic sanctuary. Vasco de Gama's remains added to the light and happiness the cathedral possessed. The actual Cloister of the monastery was beautifully built in the Manueline style, popular in the early 16th century and was very beautifully detailed. One thing that my mom and I noticed were all of the mystical creatures many of these types of structures had sculpted into the walls and designs--these were odd, eerie, and showed the paganism that this time period dealt with. We wandered. Past closed palaces due to the visit China's president was paying to Lisbon that day. We did wander (i.e. HIKEEEE) up this extra large hill to the Palacio Nacional de Ajuda and toured that GORGEOUS home of the royal Portuguese family of the 19th century. My mom took illegal pictures. Tourists these days. They had a large dining room set up for one hundred people that was the sight for dinner that night for China's president. What a life.
That night, after our casual night stay in a different country, Mom experienced her first kebap (better than the 70 euro dinner??) and later we found a great street close to my house full of cute bars. We split a bottle of wine, had great conversation, and went out for late night pizza.
The next morning was RASTROMARKET. Scarves basically sums up our wild shopping experience as I believe we bought 23948 each.
That night. we experienced. the futbol match. of a lifetime. Real Madrid v Barcelona. Of course Christiano Ronaldo proposed and I had to politely decline, but he still managed to pull it together and played rather well. The fans were WILD. (No wonder alcohol is forbidden in the futbol stadium!) I was decked out in my pink Real Madrid scarf. The game was excellent and we even had a gal who flew out from France telling us the play by play. Even though my mom and I ate an entire bag of potato chips, honey almonds, and corn nuts, we still found it necessary to grab a mojito with Mel, Bailey, Nick, and Micheal after the game. Mom really felt like a college student with the conversations we were having I'm sure...
Andddd we were off to Seville early in the morning. We took the express train which was excellent, so smooth, and lulled us to sleep as it grazed the Spanish country side. We hit the ground running in Seville seeing the sights and walking miles and miles past the beautiful orange and lemon trees. We saw the largest gothic cathedral in the world (with Christopher Columbus's tomb inside) complete with the largest plateresque gold alter ever created. It was breathtakingly overwhelming and to be honest gave both of us a slight headache... Even though the bell tower of the cathedral was a climb, we made it up the 34 floors and the bells even rang upon our arrival.
The Real Alcazar of Sevilla, Europe's oldest palace in use, was absolutely gorgeous and looked QUITE similar to the Alhambra of Granada with its Mudejar architecture and beautiful gardens. I was happy my mom was able to see something so beautiful and so different than anything else you can find in the world. Large tapestries, elaborate decorations...
We then got lost on our way to Casa de Pilates becuase I decided we should take a detour on the "cute bright little street" instead of follow the map. Once we finally did make it there, the lady said we were only able to tour the bottom floor becuase the palace was closing in thirty min. Of course we toured that in literally FIVE minutes (don't get me wrong, it was grand and gorgeous) being American and all. It was quite comical and so we sat on a bench instead of leaving eight minutes into the trip. Later that night I decided my mom had to experience Flamenco for herself and I must say the show was much better than the one in Granada. Pretty dresses, INCREDIBLE impromptu spanish guitar, much talent, excellent show. I even enjoyed the authentic Flamenco singing (i.e. slight wailing in certain stanzas--ehh esta bien).
Braved the rain the next morning and took a covered river tour, had the most delicious KEBAP (Mom is now hooked.), and took the train back. Mom experienced a fresh and delicious Paella dinner with Senora and my roomates and we went out for a drink with Stephanie and her dad (great family!).
Woke up to the best three euro American breakfast from Vips and hasta luego-- 41 days to mi madre. I'm so happy she was able to share this experience with me. I have so many blessings in my life, an amazing loving family being at the top of the list.
...and my new Madrid Aveda hairstyle being not at the top. The day before my mother arrived, I decided my roots were showing and should be trusted to Madrid's Aveda. Three people involved in my hair dye process later and I was not happy. However, my roots are not showing, it was free, and my roomates didn't even notice. How self-critical are women. Esta bien.
Sleep is necessary, homework is calling... and between Ireland, France, Prague, and Amsterdam in my future I'm thinking both of those things need to get taken care of.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Lions and Tigers and Chipmunks, oh my! Alllllright Barcelona!
I was walking back from the metro stop, Quevedo, to my house after spending the weekend in Barcelona, and it felt like I was returning home. One of the main streets I have to cross was closed off and there was a father and his two sons playing soccer, kids riding bikes, couples holding hands, families spending time together. The weather is beautiful, sky is clear and blue, I even saw a pigeon give a smaller bird a worm. No, but I really did. Madrid was welcoming me home and it feels good to be back after an enjoyable long weekend. It was a holiday today, meaning no school on a Monday and a three day week!
I spent the night at Stephanie's senora's house which actually ended up only being two and a half hours of sleep before we taxi'd to the airport at 5:30am to catch our morning flight.
We spent the weekend sharing a tiny single bed (which we DEFINATELY had to wash the sheets of) in the apartment of Stephanie's cousin who is a student in Barcelona this semester. He lives with his fraternity brothers. Their apartment obviously shows this, but it was a fun group of people and a free place to sleep. Their phrase that defines their lives is "Allllright." Her cousin, Alex, showed us around Barcelona a bit. We walked down Las Ramblas-a main street lined in large shady trees, various stands (some selling chipmunks, ferrets, mice, fish,etc.), and people dressed in insane costumes that you can take pictures with for money. I took one with a golden godess lady? Ultimate tourist. The three of us walked in the market and there were whole fish, some 4 feet long, very fresh fruit, delicious juice which we indulged in, and a variety of candies and other food stands.
We took the metro to the beach and rented 6 euro bikes for two hours and rode along the water and through the city, stopping on occassion to snap a photo. We stopped at a sandwich shop famous among college students and took sandwiches to go. Unfortunately for me my sandwich was incredibly saucy and my sandwich fell through the bag while i was riding my bike and i fell off of my bike after it, picked it up, took a bite, and kept riding. More unfortunately for me after the sauce continued to cover my leg while i was carrying my sandwich and biking two gals walked in front of me so i hit a curb, dropped my sandwich and fell off of my bike again. I shamelessly picked up my sandwich remains that weren't all over the city of Barelona, turned in my bike and ate it. I was hungry. I have a good immune system? It was a good sandwich.
Later that night the guys in the apartment we were staying at and Stephanie and I went over to their friends' house and cooked an elaborate meal of fajitas. Everyone chipped in and we jammed to music, cooked, and had drinks. Very fun. We made a large bowl of guacamole that had the potential to feed a small country. Later we all metro'd to this bar called Chupitos (shots in Spanish) which fit becuase the bar had over 300 shots unique to them, ranging from the Monica Lewinski (which involved taking a shot out of something I do not want to say) to the Boy Scout which involved the bar being lit on fire and roasting marshmellows to the Harry Potter which involved an orange being lit on fire with sugar. Basically there was a lot of fire going on.
We walked on the beach barefoot to the main plaza where clubs are and the nightlife happens. We ended up just hanging out for a bit, taking a taxi home, and Alex, Stephanie's cousin, is so bad with directions that we got lost for quite a while, even though he lives there. I would criticize, but in my book that's definately an easy thing to do, ha.
We slept in and didn't end up leaving the apartment the next day until 4. Alex, Stephanie and I strolled through Park Guell and saw Gaudi's work. There were mosaic park benches in a main plaza that apparently used to be the location for a large market. Two houses that Gaudi designed based on the opera Hansel and Gretel framed the gates to the entrance of the park. They looked magical. Like gingerbread houses. Gaudi's work is so abstract and colorful and the definition of "modern" in the art world. Later Stephanie and I walked through Las Ramblas again stopping in and out of shops while also taste testing every ice cream stand we saw. Probar que...este? We stopped in a restaurant, sat at the bar, and enjoyed white wine (one on the house-thank you!) and delicious croquettes. We walked toward the beach after and stopped to buy chestnuts roasting on an open fire (jack frost knocking at your dooorrrr) from a vendor. We thought they were acorns at first, but then realized we weren't being as adventurous as we had anticipated. I FINALLY bought my "real" Prada bag from a vendor, just before he had to pack up and run away from police. Stephanie was bartering with him but he just looked so sad so I gave him his precio que quiere for a black n white checkered fantastic accessory.
We met up with Alex and the boys at a hoppin' Irish bar where people were watching futbol and getting pretty rowdy. I finally ate spicy food, nachos, and it was divine. Spanish food is NOT spicy food and many Spanish people don't like spicy, so it was funny when the waitress tried to tell me it was way too spicy of a dish because really it barely sparked my taste buds. Everyone kept sticking beer labels on one of the boys' back who we were staying with and I believe he was up to twenty or so before he realized it- typical group of beta fraternity guys?
There were a lot of people from my Madrid school in Barcelona this weekend, so I met up with a few gals and went to club Opium. We were there early-aka 1:35am- so it wasn't quite hoppin' yet but we were able to sit back and watch forty year old men dance in scarves and fleece vests, so i guess being an early bird was worth it just this once. Old men just living the dream? The club was very close to the beach and you could hear the ocean from the patio outside. It was decorated in halloween and even the club workers were in costume. We left and went to a kebap place on the corner and split one but when we wanted another one they said they were closed. A divorcee from Turkey handed the guy a large euro bill and said give the ladies whatever they want so we ate our kebap and chatted about different cultures. He wasn't flirting or hitting on us, he was observing how we all interacted. It was kind of odd, but very interesting. He works in spice exporting, and saves up money to travel by himself, indulge in photography, and meet people from all over the world.
The next day I woke up at 8:30 to peel my contacts out of my eyes, then woke up around eleven to greet the day and be in excrutiating eye pain, sensitive to light, barely opening my eyes, fantastic. My eyes and contacts have been having a battle since I've been here, with me always as the loser. Good news. Was forced to buy cute sunglasses that I had to wear even indoors which forced me to look like Stevie Wonder riding the metro. Fab.
I went to Sagrada Familia, a modern cathedral designed by Gaudi which is still under construction. The interior will be done by the end of this year and the exterior has plans to be completed by 2030 and stand as the tallest building in Barcelona with its eighteen spires. The entrance has sculptures built into the walls depicting scenes of Jesus's life. There is a scene of Judas giving Jesus the betraying kiss; a snake was in the corner of that scene which I found interesting. A scene of John disowning Jesus three times and a rooster crowing. A sculpture of the scene of Jesus on the cross. Jesus riding a donkey entering Jerusalem was carved into the floor of the entrance. Inside the cathedral was magical, magnificant, abstract, unlike anything I've seen, too much for words and pictures to describe. It was as if I was walking into a different world or unimaginable shapes and architecture and designs. Beautiful stained glass, sculptures, glass, shapes, columns, staircases. Very tall ceilings. It was a little eerie, and didn't feel as religious, as if I could feel God's presence like other cathedrals I've been in. It was more a work of modern art.
After, we went to Montjuiic which is a large park on top of a hill overlooking the city. Gorgeous views. Very green, huge trees, smelled so amazing and fresh. Montjuiic encompasses gardens with elaborate waterfalls, sculptures, and various structures including the Olympic Stadium from 1992 which we saw and Palau Nacional which was built in 1929 for the world fair but is now used as the National Catalan Musuem. We didn't mean to see these things we were kind of just roaming in the park and happened to come across them, very cool. We felt like we were going to pass out from lack of food so we wandered back into the city and found a little restaurant. The service was incredibly slow, as always here, and the food was lukewarm, which is normal as well.
That night Stephanie and I dressed up like tigers for Halloween and the boys we were staying with all wore RIDICULOUS costumes as well. They found full animal suits so in the end there was a chipmunk, a lion, and a monkey and then an indian, a soccer player, and some other random things. We went out to Opium club again and there were so many dancers and other people dressed up in costumes that were hired by the club. There was a fountain of chocolate that you could dip fruit in which I of course indulged in. My night was probably catagorized by eating as on the metro I bought chips and somehow got one for free out of the vending machine. Success. Also, after the club we stopped by Mcdonald's and had an elaborate meal. Finally. I've been wanting to go there for months. haha SO american.
The next morning waking up for our early flight was brutal but somehow we did it. Overall Barcelona was a great trip. I am faithful to Madrid and will say I enjoy Madrid better. But I very much liked Barcelona's trees everywhere and the ocean was beautiful.
My roomates did not have as good as an experience, one missed her flight, another's best friend got punched in the face by a taxi driver for slamming the door and had to be taken to the hospital for a blood transfusion (she lost so much in the 45 min it took for the ambulance to get there). The police apparently didn't do anything about it. What kind of man beats up a girl for shutting a car door too hard. How frightening. She's ok now. Apparently studies in London. I'm sure her parents are thrilled with Barcelona. Apparently a lot of people had things stolen.
I'd say my trip was definately a success in light of others.
I am a 21 year old. Tuesday was my birthday and it was catagorized as going out at midnight, going to sleep, waking up to Bailey's in my coffee and going out again that night. A little wild, but you only turn 21 once, and I'm not one to make too terrible of decisions, but I definately think my triple decker PBnJ was a bit too far and will not be eating any more peanut butter anytime soon. The early am I went out with the Wakeforest crew to cavebar. It literally is a bar that looks like a cave and drinks come out of the ceiling. A Britney Spears song request was made. Success. Free champagne for your birthday. In the morning I woke up to a card and chocolates from my senora--she is SO sweet. The day was catagorized as free everything. I wish it was always my birthday! My roomates and I met up at DiBocca, our favorite Italian place near school, for my birthday lunch and we all ordered our elaborate menu del dia with three courses and a glass of white wine for ten euro. They gave me a free dessert with candles and also balloons that I tied to my party backpack. Good friends, good food. Later that night I went out with my girlfriends to a few relaxing bars. We saw a purple light at this one place, rang the doorbell, and Spain gay men in underwear answered the door to a club full of Spanish men in whity tyties. We weren't allowed in, that was ok by me! The gals, Mel, Bailey, Stephanie, Naila, Elyse and I saw these other people dressed up in party hats and it turned out that it was this other gal's brithday from Sweden. We instantly became best friends, at least for one photo session. Apparently an American's 21st is equivalent to Sweden's 20th I found out. Great birthday...
The other day at dinner my senora was making fun of Chinese people and their accents and how they look. I actually was getting a little uncomfortable, I feel like she took it too far? Maybe by fifteen minutes? She then was making fun of American accents which was pretty funny--she said we swallow our words before they come out of our mouth, and that's how we sound...
My mother comes on Thursday, in 3 days! Familiarity will be SO good to see. I cannot wait to play tour guide for Madrid and travel to Portugal and Sevilla with her...
My life is incredible.
I spent the night at Stephanie's senora's house which actually ended up only being two and a half hours of sleep before we taxi'd to the airport at 5:30am to catch our morning flight.
We spent the weekend sharing a tiny single bed (which we DEFINATELY had to wash the sheets of) in the apartment of Stephanie's cousin who is a student in Barcelona this semester. He lives with his fraternity brothers. Their apartment obviously shows this, but it was a fun group of people and a free place to sleep. Their phrase that defines their lives is "Allllright." Her cousin, Alex, showed us around Barcelona a bit. We walked down Las Ramblas-a main street lined in large shady trees, various stands (some selling chipmunks, ferrets, mice, fish,etc.), and people dressed in insane costumes that you can take pictures with for money. I took one with a golden godess lady? Ultimate tourist. The three of us walked in the market and there were whole fish, some 4 feet long, very fresh fruit, delicious juice which we indulged in, and a variety of candies and other food stands.
We took the metro to the beach and rented 6 euro bikes for two hours and rode along the water and through the city, stopping on occassion to snap a photo. We stopped at a sandwich shop famous among college students and took sandwiches to go. Unfortunately for me my sandwich was incredibly saucy and my sandwich fell through the bag while i was riding my bike and i fell off of my bike after it, picked it up, took a bite, and kept riding. More unfortunately for me after the sauce continued to cover my leg while i was carrying my sandwich and biking two gals walked in front of me so i hit a curb, dropped my sandwich and fell off of my bike again. I shamelessly picked up my sandwich remains that weren't all over the city of Barelona, turned in my bike and ate it. I was hungry. I have a good immune system? It was a good sandwich.
Later that night the guys in the apartment we were staying at and Stephanie and I went over to their friends' house and cooked an elaborate meal of fajitas. Everyone chipped in and we jammed to music, cooked, and had drinks. Very fun. We made a large bowl of guacamole that had the potential to feed a small country. Later we all metro'd to this bar called Chupitos (shots in Spanish) which fit becuase the bar had over 300 shots unique to them, ranging from the Monica Lewinski (which involved taking a shot out of something I do not want to say) to the Boy Scout which involved the bar being lit on fire and roasting marshmellows to the Harry Potter which involved an orange being lit on fire with sugar. Basically there was a lot of fire going on.
We walked on the beach barefoot to the main plaza where clubs are and the nightlife happens. We ended up just hanging out for a bit, taking a taxi home, and Alex, Stephanie's cousin, is so bad with directions that we got lost for quite a while, even though he lives there. I would criticize, but in my book that's definately an easy thing to do, ha.
We slept in and didn't end up leaving the apartment the next day until 4. Alex, Stephanie and I strolled through Park Guell and saw Gaudi's work. There were mosaic park benches in a main plaza that apparently used to be the location for a large market. Two houses that Gaudi designed based on the opera Hansel and Gretel framed the gates to the entrance of the park. They looked magical. Like gingerbread houses. Gaudi's work is so abstract and colorful and the definition of "modern" in the art world. Later Stephanie and I walked through Las Ramblas again stopping in and out of shops while also taste testing every ice cream stand we saw. Probar que...este? We stopped in a restaurant, sat at the bar, and enjoyed white wine (one on the house-thank you!) and delicious croquettes. We walked toward the beach after and stopped to buy chestnuts roasting on an open fire (jack frost knocking at your dooorrrr) from a vendor. We thought they were acorns at first, but then realized we weren't being as adventurous as we had anticipated. I FINALLY bought my "real" Prada bag from a vendor, just before he had to pack up and run away from police. Stephanie was bartering with him but he just looked so sad so I gave him his precio que quiere for a black n white checkered fantastic accessory.
We met up with Alex and the boys at a hoppin' Irish bar where people were watching futbol and getting pretty rowdy. I finally ate spicy food, nachos, and it was divine. Spanish food is NOT spicy food and many Spanish people don't like spicy, so it was funny when the waitress tried to tell me it was way too spicy of a dish because really it barely sparked my taste buds. Everyone kept sticking beer labels on one of the boys' back who we were staying with and I believe he was up to twenty or so before he realized it- typical group of beta fraternity guys?
There were a lot of people from my Madrid school in Barcelona this weekend, so I met up with a few gals and went to club Opium. We were there early-aka 1:35am- so it wasn't quite hoppin' yet but we were able to sit back and watch forty year old men dance in scarves and fleece vests, so i guess being an early bird was worth it just this once. Old men just living the dream? The club was very close to the beach and you could hear the ocean from the patio outside. It was decorated in halloween and even the club workers were in costume. We left and went to a kebap place on the corner and split one but when we wanted another one they said they were closed. A divorcee from Turkey handed the guy a large euro bill and said give the ladies whatever they want so we ate our kebap and chatted about different cultures. He wasn't flirting or hitting on us, he was observing how we all interacted. It was kind of odd, but very interesting. He works in spice exporting, and saves up money to travel by himself, indulge in photography, and meet people from all over the world.
The next day I woke up at 8:30 to peel my contacts out of my eyes, then woke up around eleven to greet the day and be in excrutiating eye pain, sensitive to light, barely opening my eyes, fantastic. My eyes and contacts have been having a battle since I've been here, with me always as the loser. Good news. Was forced to buy cute sunglasses that I had to wear even indoors which forced me to look like Stevie Wonder riding the metro. Fab.
I went to Sagrada Familia, a modern cathedral designed by Gaudi which is still under construction. The interior will be done by the end of this year and the exterior has plans to be completed by 2030 and stand as the tallest building in Barcelona with its eighteen spires. The entrance has sculptures built into the walls depicting scenes of Jesus's life. There is a scene of Judas giving Jesus the betraying kiss; a snake was in the corner of that scene which I found interesting. A scene of John disowning Jesus three times and a rooster crowing. A sculpture of the scene of Jesus on the cross. Jesus riding a donkey entering Jerusalem was carved into the floor of the entrance. Inside the cathedral was magical, magnificant, abstract, unlike anything I've seen, too much for words and pictures to describe. It was as if I was walking into a different world or unimaginable shapes and architecture and designs. Beautiful stained glass, sculptures, glass, shapes, columns, staircases. Very tall ceilings. It was a little eerie, and didn't feel as religious, as if I could feel God's presence like other cathedrals I've been in. It was more a work of modern art.
After, we went to Montjuiic which is a large park on top of a hill overlooking the city. Gorgeous views. Very green, huge trees, smelled so amazing and fresh. Montjuiic encompasses gardens with elaborate waterfalls, sculptures, and various structures including the Olympic Stadium from 1992 which we saw and Palau Nacional which was built in 1929 for the world fair but is now used as the National Catalan Musuem. We didn't mean to see these things we were kind of just roaming in the park and happened to come across them, very cool. We felt like we were going to pass out from lack of food so we wandered back into the city and found a little restaurant. The service was incredibly slow, as always here, and the food was lukewarm, which is normal as well.
That night Stephanie and I dressed up like tigers for Halloween and the boys we were staying with all wore RIDICULOUS costumes as well. They found full animal suits so in the end there was a chipmunk, a lion, and a monkey and then an indian, a soccer player, and some other random things. We went out to Opium club again and there were so many dancers and other people dressed up in costumes that were hired by the club. There was a fountain of chocolate that you could dip fruit in which I of course indulged in. My night was probably catagorized by eating as on the metro I bought chips and somehow got one for free out of the vending machine. Success. Also, after the club we stopped by Mcdonald's and had an elaborate meal. Finally. I've been wanting to go there for months. haha SO american.
The next morning waking up for our early flight was brutal but somehow we did it. Overall Barcelona was a great trip. I am faithful to Madrid and will say I enjoy Madrid better. But I very much liked Barcelona's trees everywhere and the ocean was beautiful.
My roomates did not have as good as an experience, one missed her flight, another's best friend got punched in the face by a taxi driver for slamming the door and had to be taken to the hospital for a blood transfusion (she lost so much in the 45 min it took for the ambulance to get there). The police apparently didn't do anything about it. What kind of man beats up a girl for shutting a car door too hard. How frightening. She's ok now. Apparently studies in London. I'm sure her parents are thrilled with Barcelona. Apparently a lot of people had things stolen.
I'd say my trip was definately a success in light of others.
I am a 21 year old. Tuesday was my birthday and it was catagorized as going out at midnight, going to sleep, waking up to Bailey's in my coffee and going out again that night. A little wild, but you only turn 21 once, and I'm not one to make too terrible of decisions, but I definately think my triple decker PBnJ was a bit too far and will not be eating any more peanut butter anytime soon. The early am I went out with the Wakeforest crew to cavebar. It literally is a bar that looks like a cave and drinks come out of the ceiling. A Britney Spears song request was made. Success. Free champagne for your birthday. In the morning I woke up to a card and chocolates from my senora--she is SO sweet. The day was catagorized as free everything. I wish it was always my birthday! My roomates and I met up at DiBocca, our favorite Italian place near school, for my birthday lunch and we all ordered our elaborate menu del dia with three courses and a glass of white wine for ten euro. They gave me a free dessert with candles and also balloons that I tied to my party backpack. Good friends, good food. Later that night I went out with my girlfriends to a few relaxing bars. We saw a purple light at this one place, rang the doorbell, and Spain gay men in underwear answered the door to a club full of Spanish men in whity tyties. We weren't allowed in, that was ok by me! The gals, Mel, Bailey, Stephanie, Naila, Elyse and I saw these other people dressed up in party hats and it turned out that it was this other gal's brithday from Sweden. We instantly became best friends, at least for one photo session. Apparently an American's 21st is equivalent to Sweden's 20th I found out. Great birthday...
The other day at dinner my senora was making fun of Chinese people and their accents and how they look. I actually was getting a little uncomfortable, I feel like she took it too far? Maybe by fifteen minutes? She then was making fun of American accents which was pretty funny--she said we swallow our words before they come out of our mouth, and that's how we sound...
My mother comes on Thursday, in 3 days! Familiarity will be SO good to see. I cannot wait to play tour guide for Madrid and travel to Portugal and Sevilla with her...
My life is incredible.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
I eat PBJs like it's my high-paying job.
Midterms. I'll just cover the high points and not document the lows. Political Communications-"Our highest grade in class was achieved by a non native to Spain" says my pirate teacher. I get my test back. I AM that non-native speaker...success, especially in a class ruled by democrats. Another high point- I ate at least two pb and j's every night i studied for midterms. Thank the LORD I am finally out of peanut butter, even though those second and third dinners were thoroughly enjoyed. Studying=eating=great thing I'm a communications major and not studying to be a doctor.
Also in Political Comm the "I'm gay and republican" (i really don't know his name) popped in chew. front row in class. twenty min into lecture. casual. Teacher looked semi-surprised, "Do you always chew? Don't swallow otherwise it's lights out!" Funny scenario. Tobacco is welcome in school and teachers are giving advice to not swallow. lights out. Apparently he's quitting lung cancer and moving onto lip cancer. Buena suerte.
I am in dire need of sleep after those tests. The day after my last midterm I passed out in the student lounge and woke up to spanish students singing a lullaby over me. Groggily was terrified, and then realized my hand and side of face was covered in drool. Really awkward situation as a whole. I then decided it was a good idea to say, "you guys were in and out of my dreams" (aka their conversations kept fading in and out.) but that just made the situation less comfortable. Recieving an A in social skills during midterms week.
I will not be going to Rome with my roomate and her friends. After asking, she said she needed to ask the other girls and even though "they really like me" I am not invited on their "sorry, it's a best friends trip." Roma, Roma-ma-ma can wait. Italy is a place that I think I need to go later in life and spend quite an amount of time there...
Our senora hides cookies in the oven. Sometimes when we go into the kitchen, our normal food of bread, cookies, and jam that she provides for us isn't there. Now we know where it goes. Maybe she thinks we eat too much and is just trying to help us out? Funny.
There is not a word for dating in Spanish, which I just find odd? There are no engagements and no dating. How do people get married?? People have "amijitos" or "little friends" and then I guess they turn into a "novio" a boyfriend (that doesn't take them on "dates." spanish people always say "date" as a connotation towards how Americans are-"date" is said with sarcasm/quotations), and then it just becomes known to the couple that they're going to get married and they just get married? Apparently dating is outlawed in some countries, like Iran I believe was one place said? YIKES.
We are learning the Bachata in latin rythms. Me ENCANTA. Lots of hip movement. Call me crazy or call me Shakira.
I booked a trip to Prague and Amsterdam for the first long weekend in December. Will be staying three nights in Prague and three nights in Amsterdam because we have days from school off. Booked my flights with Stephanie (of course) but there are a lot of wakeforest guys going so it should be super fun. Amsterdam was a must-see on this trip becuase let's be honest, if red light district is my scene in five or ten years I will have serious life issues. If red light district was my scene now I'd have serious life issues...you get the point.
My sorority is going inactive on Baylor's campus. It's a little sad to see it not workout how I had hoped, especially because last semester was SO great, such improvement. Apparently there has been some serious issues this semester, and I'm happy that I don't have to be there to deal with the situation, but sad that I cannot be there for my girlfriends.
Another geographical adventure: I tried to meet friends at Orange Bar on metro line Arguelles and ended up on Gran Via, a few stops in the opposite way. Alessandro, a very nice Italian, saved me and got me on my way, walked me to my right stop and made me his official facebook friend.
I hate facebook. It is a party of everyone's lives, but really is my only connection to America that is free. Nothing is true until facebook says it is. We aren't facebook friends? Who are you? Literally I asked Rudy, the twin of Stephanie's new Spanish boyfriend (not really, but kind of) what he liked to do and facebook was included in that. Rudy and Rory-moved here from Venezuela. Shy, good looking, tall, dark, blue eyed. Stephanie is in love.
It's getting very chilly, sickness season-not fun, and wearing two pairs of socks to bed with a hoodie with sweatpants is to be expected becuase apparently heat doesn't get turned on until November? Why Spainnnn?
I finally bought black boots that go past my knee and have a cute tassle on the back-been on the PROWL for a while. Every other person wears them here. Chic, trend follower? Feelin' Spanish.
Last night at dinner, senora told us about her friend from Africa oh-u-wa-i is how her name was pronounced. But this friend comes and visits her occassionally and is the most amazing woman. Always feeds the homeless children, even though she has no money and is struggling herself as a teacher. Senora and this lady speak french and spanish together and I think they met in France but have been friends for many years. In Africa where the lady lives aids is a huge problem and it is so dangerous. Senora was telling us about all of the problems of daily life there, yet whenever she calls ouwai, she always says she is great and doesn't complain. Her life is in Africa, her family is there (she has 20 brothers and sisters becuase her dad has four or five wives, meanwhile ouwai was divorced becuase her husband wanted more women-so sad!) My roomates and I decided that we want to put together a box of clothes for the children that the lady feeds every day before we leave and give it to senora in december.
I am going to Barcelona this weekend for Halloween. MOM IS COMING NEXT WEEKEND. and tonight i may indulge in either el tigre, kapital, or something fantastic. buena noche.
Also in Political Comm the "I'm gay and republican" (i really don't know his name) popped in chew. front row in class. twenty min into lecture. casual. Teacher looked semi-surprised, "Do you always chew? Don't swallow otherwise it's lights out!" Funny scenario. Tobacco is welcome in school and teachers are giving advice to not swallow. lights out. Apparently he's quitting lung cancer and moving onto lip cancer. Buena suerte.
I am in dire need of sleep after those tests. The day after my last midterm I passed out in the student lounge and woke up to spanish students singing a lullaby over me. Groggily was terrified, and then realized my hand and side of face was covered in drool. Really awkward situation as a whole. I then decided it was a good idea to say, "you guys were in and out of my dreams" (aka their conversations kept fading in and out.) but that just made the situation less comfortable. Recieving an A in social skills during midterms week.
I will not be going to Rome with my roomate and her friends. After asking, she said she needed to ask the other girls and even though "they really like me" I am not invited on their "sorry, it's a best friends trip." Roma, Roma-ma-ma can wait. Italy is a place that I think I need to go later in life and spend quite an amount of time there...
Our senora hides cookies in the oven. Sometimes when we go into the kitchen, our normal food of bread, cookies, and jam that she provides for us isn't there. Now we know where it goes. Maybe she thinks we eat too much and is just trying to help us out? Funny.
There is not a word for dating in Spanish, which I just find odd? There are no engagements and no dating. How do people get married?? People have "amijitos" or "little friends" and then I guess they turn into a "novio" a boyfriend (that doesn't take them on "dates." spanish people always say "date" as a connotation towards how Americans are-"date" is said with sarcasm/quotations), and then it just becomes known to the couple that they're going to get married and they just get married? Apparently dating is outlawed in some countries, like Iran I believe was one place said? YIKES.
We are learning the Bachata in latin rythms. Me ENCANTA. Lots of hip movement. Call me crazy or call me Shakira.
I booked a trip to Prague and Amsterdam for the first long weekend in December. Will be staying three nights in Prague and three nights in Amsterdam because we have days from school off. Booked my flights with Stephanie (of course) but there are a lot of wakeforest guys going so it should be super fun. Amsterdam was a must-see on this trip becuase let's be honest, if red light district is my scene in five or ten years I will have serious life issues. If red light district was my scene now I'd have serious life issues...you get the point.
My sorority is going inactive on Baylor's campus. It's a little sad to see it not workout how I had hoped, especially because last semester was SO great, such improvement. Apparently there has been some serious issues this semester, and I'm happy that I don't have to be there to deal with the situation, but sad that I cannot be there for my girlfriends.
Another geographical adventure: I tried to meet friends at Orange Bar on metro line Arguelles and ended up on Gran Via, a few stops in the opposite way. Alessandro, a very nice Italian, saved me and got me on my way, walked me to my right stop and made me his official facebook friend.
I hate facebook. It is a party of everyone's lives, but really is my only connection to America that is free. Nothing is true until facebook says it is. We aren't facebook friends? Who are you? Literally I asked Rudy, the twin of Stephanie's new Spanish boyfriend (not really, but kind of) what he liked to do and facebook was included in that. Rudy and Rory-moved here from Venezuela. Shy, good looking, tall, dark, blue eyed. Stephanie is in love.
It's getting very chilly, sickness season-not fun, and wearing two pairs of socks to bed with a hoodie with sweatpants is to be expected becuase apparently heat doesn't get turned on until November? Why Spainnnn?
I finally bought black boots that go past my knee and have a cute tassle on the back-been on the PROWL for a while. Every other person wears them here. Chic, trend follower? Feelin' Spanish.
Last night at dinner, senora told us about her friend from Africa oh-u-wa-i is how her name was pronounced. But this friend comes and visits her occassionally and is the most amazing woman. Always feeds the homeless children, even though she has no money and is struggling herself as a teacher. Senora and this lady speak french and spanish together and I think they met in France but have been friends for many years. In Africa where the lady lives aids is a huge problem and it is so dangerous. Senora was telling us about all of the problems of daily life there, yet whenever she calls ouwai, she always says she is great and doesn't complain. Her life is in Africa, her family is there (she has 20 brothers and sisters becuase her dad has four or five wives, meanwhile ouwai was divorced becuase her husband wanted more women-so sad!) My roomates and I decided that we want to put together a box of clothes for the children that the lady feeds every day before we leave and give it to senora in december.
I am going to Barcelona this weekend for Halloween. MOM IS COMING NEXT WEEKEND. and tonight i may indulge in either el tigre, kapital, or something fantastic. buena noche.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
GRA NA DAAAA and such...
In my art class we are required to find La Plaza de la Villa and describe what kind of arquitecture the buildings are in the area. So, today I walked from my house to La Plaza de Sol and what I thought would be a thirty minute ordeal took about three hours. I wandered into shops, stopped and took pictures in La Plaza Mayor, people watched, enjoyed the scents and feelings of fall. It smells like cold, feels brisk, the days are getting shorter, but it is so beautiful, especially at dusk, so my spontaneous three hours passed by so pleasantly. Distractions are a factor I need to start accounting for, but time is so easily lost in Madrid.
Thursday night I met up with some friends at their apartment and went to Joy. My bus to Granada left at 8am on Friday, so i figured that I should just stay out all night and then go home, pack, and head to the bus station sin sleep so I could pass out on the five hour trip to the south of Spain. Sleeping is hard to do in a 200 degree 2 ft by 2ft environment, so that plan didn't involve my best logic or go necessarily according to plan.
When we (Vladimir, Stephanie, and I) arrived to the bus station in Granada we made fun of the touristy segway tour signs and then indulged in buying tickets for that segway tour and a flamenco show. The segway tour was by far one of the most enjoyable, hilarious experiences thus far. We segwayed up a mountain all the way to a Jewish synagogue built in 1610 that overlooked the city of Granada and the famous Alhambra. Stephanie crashed into a wall. Also a site. We segwayed around the streets a bit and our neon vests kept us safe from traffic in the very tiny quaint streets. A very nice but talkative old man told me his life story and said I'd be perfect for his 31 year old son. I'd have to disagree.
Our hostel was in a great location, right by tapas bars with free food, the main plaza, and Arabic shops selling pillowcases, tea, gaudy jewelry, and smoking devices. Granada has a very large Arabic presence. After our segway tour we wandered around and were attacked by toothless gypsies who grabbed our hands apparently read our fortunes (I'm going to have a lot of babies and be madly in love and live a happy life--of course. who isn't.) and demanded money. Later, we indulged in a glass of beer and the bartender brought out three large sandwiches and papas fritas. for free. complimentary with our three euro drink. fantastic. we revisted that bar later in the night solely for the free food. college life would be made so much easier if the States decided to follow the free food with drinks aspect Spain so graciously enacts.
We had our Flamenco show later that night and it was interesting to say the least. I honestly didn't enjoy it, too authentic perhaps? Stephanie pointed out that as Americans we are so used to a grand spectacle with beautiful performers adorned in grand costumes and this wasn't the case, even though it was very cultural. Live band, four dancers, very expressive in their faces and movements. Clapping, stomping, screaming/wailing/singing? I am planning on going to another flamenco show in Madrid with my mom that I'm hoping will be more what I was expecting flamenco to be? When we got back to our hostel there was leftover paella that our hostel had from a dinner they had put on and we decided we should try it? There was octopus and other unknown things that had once been alive. Should have just let it be.
The next morning we woke up extremely early to go wait in line in the freezing cold for tickets to the Alhambra. Tickets sell out almost instantly. The morning tickets sold out which was a bummer but at least we were able to buy three for the afternoon. We went back down into the city and toured the Granada Cathedral. White large pillars, magnificent, majestic. black and white squared floor like a checkerboard. painted cielings of gold in the central chapel where the message is given. and of course, like all other cathedral I've seen, seperate rooms surrounding the edges of individual chapels that were usually owned and designed by extremely wealthy people, dedicated to a saint, or in some cases are where some rich famous person of the time was buried, etc. The plans and construction began in 1526 and was completed in 1561 which is just amazing to me becuase it is SO large.
We ate Kebaps which are fantastic arabian sandwich deals after window shopping for a bit and then went up to the Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex built in the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers in Granada. BREATH-TAKING gardens and palaces with waterfalls/ fountains and exotic flowers and walkways made of bushes and elaborate detail covering the palace walls and cielings. Overwhelming man-made beauty. The Alhambra may have been the most beautiful site I have seen in my life. Walking through the gardens, breathing in the aroma of thousands of flowers, I truly wondered what the Garden of Eden must have looked like. If this was man-made, wow, what is God-made?? The fortress overlooked the city of Granada, gorgeous views, interesting to see war-type architecture because I have been learning about "flechas" (small windows to shoot arrows out of) among other things and it was awesome to see them in person versus on a slide in class. Canon balls casually laying around. There was a maze inside the fortress but it was only about three feet tall so I'm not quite sure how protected that is or what the point was? The palaces were stunning and the walls were covered with detailed engravings. The court of the lions was underconstruction becuase the fountain is being refurbished. The fountain is made up of 12 lions of white marble. A different lion shoots water out of its mouth every certain time period, maybe every hour- not sure. They had the lions in a special room that you weren't allowed to take pictures in, but people could still go see them. haha why? The gardens the the Palacio del Generalife was by far my favorite. Fountains, walkways formed by a tunnel of shrubs and bushes and vines and colorful varieties of plants all overlooking the fortress and palaces and cities. Pictures do not do justice and I cannot describe the bliss, romance, breathtaking views.
The bus ride back included air conditioning, a rather large piece of chocolate cake, and a bus driver who was so fast that he got us back to the station in Madrid about an hour before scheduled arrival-my kind of driving. Apparently someone was throwing up in the front seat the whole time--that's what 200 km per hour in the mountains will do to you.
The Columbus day parade last Tuesday was quite elaborate. I went with my roomate Lindsey, who literally is one of the most enjoyable, genuine persons I have met in my life. Very inclusive of everyone, friendly, intelligent, happy, makes anyone feel fantastic just by being around her. I met her mother this weekend-hilarious woman, and I see where she gets it from. The parade--every military unit was there, navy, army, many others dressed in uniform, there were planes that flew in the air emitting colorful smoke, fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, horses.... it was quite a site from what i saw but I kept my two week contacts in for way over two weeks, a few nights included which results in bloodshot, sensitive to light vision. My senora gave me eyedrops one night at dinner,so motherly, and my dance teacher said I looked terrifying and asked what was going on. self esteem boost. i look like a normal human being now.
mid terms last week were draining, i have two more this week. midterm week=sweatpants season (which no Spainards own) so I will be boldly being american in my elegant midterm attire.
Thursday night I met up with some friends at their apartment and went to Joy. My bus to Granada left at 8am on Friday, so i figured that I should just stay out all night and then go home, pack, and head to the bus station sin sleep so I could pass out on the five hour trip to the south of Spain. Sleeping is hard to do in a 200 degree 2 ft by 2ft environment, so that plan didn't involve my best logic or go necessarily according to plan.
When we (Vladimir, Stephanie, and I) arrived to the bus station in Granada we made fun of the touristy segway tour signs and then indulged in buying tickets for that segway tour and a flamenco show. The segway tour was by far one of the most enjoyable, hilarious experiences thus far. We segwayed up a mountain all the way to a Jewish synagogue built in 1610 that overlooked the city of Granada and the famous Alhambra. Stephanie crashed into a wall. Also a site. We segwayed around the streets a bit and our neon vests kept us safe from traffic in the very tiny quaint streets. A very nice but talkative old man told me his life story and said I'd be perfect for his 31 year old son. I'd have to disagree.
Our hostel was in a great location, right by tapas bars with free food, the main plaza, and Arabic shops selling pillowcases, tea, gaudy jewelry, and smoking devices. Granada has a very large Arabic presence. After our segway tour we wandered around and were attacked by toothless gypsies who grabbed our hands apparently read our fortunes (I'm going to have a lot of babies and be madly in love and live a happy life--of course. who isn't.) and demanded money. Later, we indulged in a glass of beer and the bartender brought out three large sandwiches and papas fritas. for free. complimentary with our three euro drink. fantastic. we revisted that bar later in the night solely for the free food. college life would be made so much easier if the States decided to follow the free food with drinks aspect Spain so graciously enacts.
We had our Flamenco show later that night and it was interesting to say the least. I honestly didn't enjoy it, too authentic perhaps? Stephanie pointed out that as Americans we are so used to a grand spectacle with beautiful performers adorned in grand costumes and this wasn't the case, even though it was very cultural. Live band, four dancers, very expressive in their faces and movements. Clapping, stomping, screaming/wailing/singing? I am planning on going to another flamenco show in Madrid with my mom that I'm hoping will be more what I was expecting flamenco to be? When we got back to our hostel there was leftover paella that our hostel had from a dinner they had put on and we decided we should try it? There was octopus and other unknown things that had once been alive. Should have just let it be.
The next morning we woke up extremely early to go wait in line in the freezing cold for tickets to the Alhambra. Tickets sell out almost instantly. The morning tickets sold out which was a bummer but at least we were able to buy three for the afternoon. We went back down into the city and toured the Granada Cathedral. White large pillars, magnificent, majestic. black and white squared floor like a checkerboard. painted cielings of gold in the central chapel where the message is given. and of course, like all other cathedral I've seen, seperate rooms surrounding the edges of individual chapels that were usually owned and designed by extremely wealthy people, dedicated to a saint, or in some cases are where some rich famous person of the time was buried, etc. The plans and construction began in 1526 and was completed in 1561 which is just amazing to me becuase it is SO large.
We ate Kebaps which are fantastic arabian sandwich deals after window shopping for a bit and then went up to the Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex built in the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers in Granada. BREATH-TAKING gardens and palaces with waterfalls/ fountains and exotic flowers and walkways made of bushes and elaborate detail covering the palace walls and cielings. Overwhelming man-made beauty. The Alhambra may have been the most beautiful site I have seen in my life. Walking through the gardens, breathing in the aroma of thousands of flowers, I truly wondered what the Garden of Eden must have looked like. If this was man-made, wow, what is God-made?? The fortress overlooked the city of Granada, gorgeous views, interesting to see war-type architecture because I have been learning about "flechas" (small windows to shoot arrows out of) among other things and it was awesome to see them in person versus on a slide in class. Canon balls casually laying around. There was a maze inside the fortress but it was only about three feet tall so I'm not quite sure how protected that is or what the point was? The palaces were stunning and the walls were covered with detailed engravings. The court of the lions was underconstruction becuase the fountain is being refurbished. The fountain is made up of 12 lions of white marble. A different lion shoots water out of its mouth every certain time period, maybe every hour- not sure. They had the lions in a special room that you weren't allowed to take pictures in, but people could still go see them. haha why? The gardens the the Palacio del Generalife was by far my favorite. Fountains, walkways formed by a tunnel of shrubs and bushes and vines and colorful varieties of plants all overlooking the fortress and palaces and cities. Pictures do not do justice and I cannot describe the bliss, romance, breathtaking views.
The bus ride back included air conditioning, a rather large piece of chocolate cake, and a bus driver who was so fast that he got us back to the station in Madrid about an hour before scheduled arrival-my kind of driving. Apparently someone was throwing up in the front seat the whole time--that's what 200 km per hour in the mountains will do to you.
The Columbus day parade last Tuesday was quite elaborate. I went with my roomate Lindsey, who literally is one of the most enjoyable, genuine persons I have met in my life. Very inclusive of everyone, friendly, intelligent, happy, makes anyone feel fantastic just by being around her. I met her mother this weekend-hilarious woman, and I see where she gets it from. The parade--every military unit was there, navy, army, many others dressed in uniform, there were planes that flew in the air emitting colorful smoke, fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, horses.... it was quite a site from what i saw but I kept my two week contacts in for way over two weeks, a few nights included which results in bloodshot, sensitive to light vision. My senora gave me eyedrops one night at dinner,so motherly, and my dance teacher said I looked terrifying and asked what was going on. self esteem boost. i look like a normal human being now.
mid terms last week were draining, i have two more this week. midterm week=sweatpants season (which no Spainards own) so I will be boldly being american in my elegant midterm attire.
Monday, October 11, 2010
"Que comes, un piedra o una postre?"...."una piedra?"
"What do you eat, a rock or a piece of cake?" my art history teacher asked me during class today when I said I think I understood what she was saying about the historic building in question. I answered a rock. I would eat a rock. My Spanish is really coming along.
I have a test in this class that is taught solely in Spanish this Wednesday. I'm expecting a solid "A."
Last week in Salsa i punched a girl in the face. We were learning a new step. I was really committed to the movements I was making and somehow my closed fist collided with this girl's cheek. Audibly hard. Aggressive. Impressed with my strength, appalled at my grace and dancing ability.
Friday night I went out with Stephanie, Jaime, and Jonathon to this DELICIOUS restaurant called Ojala. We ate downstairs and there was sand all over the floor and pictures projected on the walls of beach scenes. We sat on pillows on the ground and a low table with our feet in the sand. We had DELICIOUS tapas and mojitos and vino. They are SUCH funny guys! I impressed everyone with my new learned Spanish expressions that I just had a test over. "Hace buen migas" -we are good friends, basically- was my response for being late as always. We could write on the bathroom walls, so i indulged in that activitiy. Luego, fuimos a discotecha, Joy, and had an interesting night meeting Swedens, attempting to learn French, and watching dancers wearing diamonds and not much else in giant champagne cups onstage. I gave someone my autograph who swore I was his true love.
The next day it rained allll day and Stephanie and I went shopping. All i bought was socks, after hours of shopping. That's just really sad. My shoe broke so I was walking around barefoot the whole time. That is literally the 5th shoe that has broken this month. Luckily(?) I brought hundreds of pounds of luggage so that's not really a problem.
That night it was raining and so I confess to having my first "lame" night in Madrid. I went to Burger King and left with a beer to go (in a to-go cup from tap? Burger Kind beer wasn't bad?), bought ice-cream and Notting Hill, and sat in my bed listening to rain, eating my body weight in healthy food, and watching Hugh Grant. Now that I went to London and visited the Notting Hill area and the market that Grant lives by I recognized all of the places in the movie...
Rastro market Sunday morning did bad things to my wallet but great things to the people I will be giving gifts to upon my return. I DID buy black boots without heels for six euros and had to flat iron the tassles with my straightener so they didn't look like a wild animal (6 EUROS). Excellent purchase.
Tomorrow is a National Holiday in Spain celebrating when Columbus first set foot in America. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS. being American and all. I will most likely have celebrity status tomorrow.
I have a stalker at my gym. I believe he eats small children and has lost his neck somewhere. He follows me everywhere I go and breathes really loud. It's absolutely TERRIFYING. I'm missing running in the mountains by my lonesome. I would rather catch a rainstorm on a back road than someone's eye and body odor. My abdominales teacher recognizes me now and asks me how I am. I've reached "regular" status. Yes.
Fiesta tonight, discovering AMERICA tomorrow.
I have a test in this class that is taught solely in Spanish this Wednesday. I'm expecting a solid "A."
Last week in Salsa i punched a girl in the face. We were learning a new step. I was really committed to the movements I was making and somehow my closed fist collided with this girl's cheek. Audibly hard. Aggressive. Impressed with my strength, appalled at my grace and dancing ability.
Friday night I went out with Stephanie, Jaime, and Jonathon to this DELICIOUS restaurant called Ojala. We ate downstairs and there was sand all over the floor and pictures projected on the walls of beach scenes. We sat on pillows on the ground and a low table with our feet in the sand. We had DELICIOUS tapas and mojitos and vino. They are SUCH funny guys! I impressed everyone with my new learned Spanish expressions that I just had a test over. "Hace buen migas" -we are good friends, basically- was my response for being late as always. We could write on the bathroom walls, so i indulged in that activitiy. Luego, fuimos a discotecha, Joy, and had an interesting night meeting Swedens, attempting to learn French, and watching dancers wearing diamonds and not much else in giant champagne cups onstage. I gave someone my autograph who swore I was his true love.
The next day it rained allll day and Stephanie and I went shopping. All i bought was socks, after hours of shopping. That's just really sad. My shoe broke so I was walking around barefoot the whole time. That is literally the 5th shoe that has broken this month. Luckily(?) I brought hundreds of pounds of luggage so that's not really a problem.
That night it was raining and so I confess to having my first "lame" night in Madrid. I went to Burger King and left with a beer to go (in a to-go cup from tap? Burger Kind beer wasn't bad?), bought ice-cream and Notting Hill, and sat in my bed listening to rain, eating my body weight in healthy food, and watching Hugh Grant. Now that I went to London and visited the Notting Hill area and the market that Grant lives by I recognized all of the places in the movie...
Rastro market Sunday morning did bad things to my wallet but great things to the people I will be giving gifts to upon my return. I DID buy black boots without heels for six euros and had to flat iron the tassles with my straightener so they didn't look like a wild animal (6 EUROS). Excellent purchase.
Tomorrow is a National Holiday in Spain celebrating when Columbus first set foot in America. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS. being American and all. I will most likely have celebrity status tomorrow.
I have a stalker at my gym. I believe he eats small children and has lost his neck somewhere. He follows me everywhere I go and breathes really loud. It's absolutely TERRIFYING. I'm missing running in the mountains by my lonesome. I would rather catch a rainstorm on a back road than someone's eye and body odor. My abdominales teacher recognizes me now and asks me how I am. I've reached "regular" status. Yes.
Fiesta tonight, discovering AMERICA tomorrow.
Friday, October 8, 2010
67 year old women can work it at clubs.
last night. My roomate Amy and I met up with our friends at Sol and went to our American Irish pub, Dubliners. We saw the dancers from Rock the Ballet, one of which I awkwardly got out of a date with. The gay dancers (half of the dancers are gay and half are straight. they have "drink-offs" and "dance-offs" between the two groups apparently) were pouty and glaring at us, I think for me standing up their friend.
The bathroom in one of the bars we went to had like seven chrystal chandeliers in it and the rest of the bar was decorated with hula hoops hanging from the cieling in an elegant manner? There were also dancers in wedding dresses and hats and gloves?
An older lady quite past her prime was dancing in the middle of the dance floor by herself at the first bar after Dubliners. Of course I was intrigued and made the sixty year old woman my dance partner for a few songs, who wouldn't have. Hilarious woman. She must be suffering through a terrible divorce and midlife crisis to have to get drunk at a club by herself.
I randomly met an Australian who said he recognized me from our gym becuase I'm the one that falls on treadmills. Will be haunting me for life.
Stephanie and I ended up at Joy, a four story discoteca, and I ran into Tomek. Tomek is the bouncer for club Orange, a place I went to Wednesday night. At the door I said I needed to go in right away to use the restroom, which I did, but then Tomek hunted me down and said I needed to pay. Legitametly I started crying (why?) and he felt bad and ended up paying for me.
I have three midterms this coming week, and I had my first one this past Wednesday. Classes are more geared toward applying information, like giving examples, using dialogues to explain theories or ideas. This is different than most classes I have taken where you are given a study guide and basically just memorize facts, places, dates, etc.
There was a metro strike this past week and many people didn't show up to school or work. Our senora warned us the night before the strike to be extremely cautious (I don't get organized strikes, what's the point?) and I was expecting riots all over the streets. I however was not affected whatsoever by the strike, and apparently a few metros were still running? I've been walking to and from school-that's about four miles round trip. "When I was girl I used to walk to school."
I am on the way to getting lung cancer, can't wait. It is KILLING me that literally everyone smokes and places don't restrict smoking. Cigarettes here are harsher and have less of a filter so when people casually blow it in my face I choke.
Coffee will be my nicotine of choice as falling asleep in Art History in Madrid is extremely easy when you have no idea what the teacher is saying in Spanish. I've taken to writing down words that I think she is saying and translating it at home. For this class I had to go to a museum, the San Isidro, and then write a paper on one of the works there (at least I think that's what she said?). I chose a mosaic from the Roman time period. The museum was in an adorable location, and so I wandered and stumbled upon a cathedral down the road, the San Francisco Cathdral built in the 16th century. I walked in the garden by it that overlooks part of the city. Gorgeous.
Dance class is going great. We learned this move in salsa where you shout "yogul," stomp, and then roll your body upwards towards your partner. It's a little provacative and awkward so everyone was cracking up the whole class. We also just started learning this one salsa dance where everyone is in a circle and they switch dance partners and we touch our butts together while rolling our hips all the way towards the ground (why yes, it IS as awkward as it sounds) and turn toward each other for kisses on the cheek and all these crazy fun moves. We have a performance in front of our school I believe at the beginning of December and Jill is going to be here to see it.
JILL IS GOING TO BE HERE. For a week. For Thanksgiving. My best friend is coming to see me in Europe. She flies in the same day that I get back from Ireland so we will be at the airport the same time. I just booked our flights to Paris the weekend she is here from Friday to Monday. How fantastic is life.
My senora and i bonded the other day when I broke our toilet by pulling the knob on top off. We fixed it, I don't even know how. She said she always cries when her girls leave to go back home after the semester. I think that will be the case again in December--we all get along so well with her! our adopted mama.
Going out tonight with Jaime and Jonathon to a restaurant on Gran Via. Yes I just did eat dinner, this will be my second. whatEVER, when in Spain.
The bathroom in one of the bars we went to had like seven chrystal chandeliers in it and the rest of the bar was decorated with hula hoops hanging from the cieling in an elegant manner? There were also dancers in wedding dresses and hats and gloves?
An older lady quite past her prime was dancing in the middle of the dance floor by herself at the first bar after Dubliners. Of course I was intrigued and made the sixty year old woman my dance partner for a few songs, who wouldn't have. Hilarious woman. She must be suffering through a terrible divorce and midlife crisis to have to get drunk at a club by herself.
I randomly met an Australian who said he recognized me from our gym becuase I'm the one that falls on treadmills. Will be haunting me for life.
Stephanie and I ended up at Joy, a four story discoteca, and I ran into Tomek. Tomek is the bouncer for club Orange, a place I went to Wednesday night. At the door I said I needed to go in right away to use the restroom, which I did, but then Tomek hunted me down and said I needed to pay. Legitametly I started crying (why?) and he felt bad and ended up paying for me.
I have three midterms this coming week, and I had my first one this past Wednesday. Classes are more geared toward applying information, like giving examples, using dialogues to explain theories or ideas. This is different than most classes I have taken where you are given a study guide and basically just memorize facts, places, dates, etc.
There was a metro strike this past week and many people didn't show up to school or work. Our senora warned us the night before the strike to be extremely cautious (I don't get organized strikes, what's the point?) and I was expecting riots all over the streets. I however was not affected whatsoever by the strike, and apparently a few metros were still running? I've been walking to and from school-that's about four miles round trip. "When I was girl I used to walk to school."
I am on the way to getting lung cancer, can't wait. It is KILLING me that literally everyone smokes and places don't restrict smoking. Cigarettes here are harsher and have less of a filter so when people casually blow it in my face I choke.
Coffee will be my nicotine of choice as falling asleep in Art History in Madrid is extremely easy when you have no idea what the teacher is saying in Spanish. I've taken to writing down words that I think she is saying and translating it at home. For this class I had to go to a museum, the San Isidro, and then write a paper on one of the works there (at least I think that's what she said?). I chose a mosaic from the Roman time period. The museum was in an adorable location, and so I wandered and stumbled upon a cathedral down the road, the San Francisco Cathdral built in the 16th century. I walked in the garden by it that overlooks part of the city. Gorgeous.
Dance class is going great. We learned this move in salsa where you shout "yogul," stomp, and then roll your body upwards towards your partner. It's a little provacative and awkward so everyone was cracking up the whole class. We also just started learning this one salsa dance where everyone is in a circle and they switch dance partners and we touch our butts together while rolling our hips all the way towards the ground (why yes, it IS as awkward as it sounds) and turn toward each other for kisses on the cheek and all these crazy fun moves. We have a performance in front of our school I believe at the beginning of December and Jill is going to be here to see it.
JILL IS GOING TO BE HERE. For a week. For Thanksgiving. My best friend is coming to see me in Europe. She flies in the same day that I get back from Ireland so we will be at the airport the same time. I just booked our flights to Paris the weekend she is here from Friday to Monday. How fantastic is life.
My senora and i bonded the other day when I broke our toilet by pulling the knob on top off. We fixed it, I don't even know how. She said she always cries when her girls leave to go back home after the semester. I think that will be the case again in December--we all get along so well with her! our adopted mama.
Going out tonight with Jaime and Jonathon to a restaurant on Gran Via. Yes I just did eat dinner, this will be my second. whatEVER, when in Spain.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
SO many activities...London Rubbish.
I don't even know where to start. First off, I am becoming so cultured and into history, which is so different. This trip to London, I felt like I walked straight into a tourist book and accomplished seeing and doing EVERYTHING. I was SO BUSY the entire trip wandering around London snapping memories left and right.
Stephanie and I flew into Luton airport Friday and had to take an hour train ride to our adorable tie dyed walls, bright colors everywhere, all girl hostel, seperate from other hostels under the same name. We were lugging our luggage around in the rain with umbrellas and coffee before we found the very laid back happening reception room with computers, young people, and a bar called Belushi's all encompassed into the joint. Free breakfast in the mornings. I like free, especially when pounds is the currency at hand.
Stephanie and I dropped off our stuff and began wandering around London. We walked over to london bridge, which isn't really that pretty. We wandered over to this cool looking building so close to our hostel and discovered it was the first gothic church built in London, the Southwark Cathedral built from 1220-1420. It was absolutely beautiful and all day Sunday its bells were ringing. We smelled food and wandered over to the Borough Market. People just kept giving us food samples, so that was fantastic. Everything from turkish delight (Narnia anyone?), Baclava, cheese, cake, oils, some dip that tasted like Colorado herb? We were full and continued walking.
...over to London Tower Bridge which is actually the bridge that everyone associates London with. It has two beautiful towers and even looked amazing through the persistant rain that kept me permanently wet the whole weekend. Right next to Tower Bridge is this ultra modern square with huge glass buildings styled with funky architecture. There are mini fountains built into the ground in this one area that periodically get taller. Water was everywhere.Walked across the bridge over the Thames River, bought a london umbrella, and went to London Tower. London Tower is old. Not super beautiful, but still cool to see becuase of all the history. Built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. Saw Traitor's Gate where Anne Boleyn entered through among other offenders.
Stephanie and I were walking trying to find St. Pauls Cathedral when my map blew away followed by my umbrella and as I was looking ultra touristy and graceful running around with my camera flailing Stephanie was asking IN ENGLISH for directions. There were many great things about London. Not only did they speak in English but BRITISH ACCENTS are the sexiest thing. and london men are beautiful. with their mouth closed (london:dentists wanted.) On our way to St. Pauls this woman had a fantastic umbrella, so I asked her where she bought it and then went to House of Fraser to buy the perfume that the umbrella came with as a free gift. When we finally got to the cathedral we snapped a few pics then sat down in front of the doors that were closed. A Japanese man came up and pointed to my now three umbrellas and asked me how much. I was offended at the thought of being an umbrella lady, but still shamelessly said ten pounds, very goo price for you?! nada.
We stopped in a pub and got the famous "fish n chips" that London has to offer while an Irish band played and excessive beer drinkers posed as entertainment.
After walking for so long my high heeled boots were doing awful things to my feet and the cobblestone streets were doing worse things to my boots. We unsuccessfully searched for some cheap flat shoes (210 pounds was the best offer) and proceeded to go to a pub crawl that our hostel put on. It started at eight, which seemed so early for night plans to start! Usually we haven't even eaten dinner at this time! How quickly I've adapted to the Spanish lifestyle. Everyone met in the basement for a little pre pub party and then we all went out. Almost accidentally committed a felony by not realizing I needed a ticket and casually walking through the tube doors. Would of made it but Stephanie was at that point in the night not as discreet and the cop explained that we were in the process of committing a crime. After apologizing profusely he showed us how to properly enter with a purchased ticket.
Started the next morning with walking through Green Park (saw Brits playing croquet in suits and sweaters-so posh) and went to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. CROWDED. Police men on horses everywhere. Large spectacle of guards in fuzzy black hats entered in, band played, they came out. GRAND spectacle. Steph and I got seperated so I met some fantastic people from Ireland, Australia, all over. I feel like my grandpa chatting up people everywhere I go-terrifying. I kept handing my camera to people who were closer to the gates than I so they could take better pictures for me. The band played fantastic music for about half an hour before their grand exit. someone fainted? i snapped a picture.
Stephanie and I wandered towards Trafalgar square and went inside the National Gallery for a minute. On our way we saw Piccadilly Circus, which basically has statues of people and some guards walking down the street that kept smiling at us, even though thats so unallowed-they were HILARIOUS.
We walked toward Big Ben- I thought it would be bigger but it was VERY cool to see. Parliament buildings.
Went into Westminster Abbey Cathedral-said a prayer inside. Enscripted on the wall outside of the entrance was "May God Grant:To the Living.Grace. To the Departed. Rest. To the Church and the World. Peace and Concord. And to us Sinners. Eternal Life."
We went to Camden market afterwards, bought too many fantastic items including vintage dresses and tassle black ankle boots. Some guy tried to buy me? Stephanie said I wasn't for sale?
Catie, my house mate from last year, her mom was in London with her sister, and so we met up at a pub for dinner and chatted for HOURS while having a delish meal complete with pudding cake and fantastic desserts. SO good to see a familiar face but bittersweet to part. I was incredibly homesick for one of the first times since I've been abroad. During our dinner these men in ridiculous outfits-Mario, Gorilla suit, etc- came in and apparently were part of a pub crawl. They were going to thirty bars and this was number twelve for them. Fantastic.
The next day we saw the Tate Museum-modern art is NOT my thing. Saw Picasso and Andy Warhol pieces. Couldn't understand any other works, so decided it was time to walk across Millenium bridge. Took the tube ("mind the gap" was written to caution people of falling in the tracks) to Oxford street-shopping capital. Window shopped becuase after Camden we were broke and got lost in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It wasn't raining! Beautiful. Green. Sculptures, monuments, Kensington Palace, fountains later we traveled to Notting Hill (just becuase of the Julia Robert's movie.) There really wasn't anything notably there it was just the name of the area. We ate at an Italian Restaurant overlooking the Thames River and Tower Bridge which is beautifully lit up at night. Our waiter was so cute and Hungarian and he kept telling us to talk to him becuase he loves American accents. He said he learned English from South Park and other shows and is infatuated with America. All the waiters kept stopping at our table and chatting us up and the food was incredible, the view was perfection.
We walked along the thames and met one of Stephanie's friends she knew who was living in London in a pub and had wine and chips. I was exhausted and just grateful to be sitting down. I only brought high heeled boots. I overestimated my feminine ability to walk miles upon miles in cobblestone streets. In rain.
We took the train and spent the night in the airport. There were actually a lot of people in comfy chairs, on the floor, everywhere just passed out. Party.
We went next to this little cafe and I put together four chairs. I drank a beer from the cafe and slept for a few hours only to get woken up by the cafe guy, "excuse me miss i need my chairs." never have felt more like a homeless person in my life, especially becuase I was in the same clothes for the past twenty four hours and showerless. Oh the traveling life of a college student.
carried my three umbrellas through check in but had to pawn one off on a romanian so i could make it through-stict luggage regulations. he was very nice and apparently had learned english from south park as well. good show to learn english?
i feel like i saw all of london. we were so busy, did so many things, i am utterly exhausted.
spain feels like "home" to an extent so it was nice to get home and fall asleep not on a bar chair....
Stephanie and I flew into Luton airport Friday and had to take an hour train ride to our adorable tie dyed walls, bright colors everywhere, all girl hostel, seperate from other hostels under the same name. We were lugging our luggage around in the rain with umbrellas and coffee before we found the very laid back happening reception room with computers, young people, and a bar called Belushi's all encompassed into the joint. Free breakfast in the mornings. I like free, especially when pounds is the currency at hand.
Stephanie and I dropped off our stuff and began wandering around London. We walked over to london bridge, which isn't really that pretty. We wandered over to this cool looking building so close to our hostel and discovered it was the first gothic church built in London, the Southwark Cathedral built from 1220-1420. It was absolutely beautiful and all day Sunday its bells were ringing. We smelled food and wandered over to the Borough Market. People just kept giving us food samples, so that was fantastic. Everything from turkish delight (Narnia anyone?), Baclava, cheese, cake, oils, some dip that tasted like Colorado herb? We were full and continued walking.
...over to London Tower Bridge which is actually the bridge that everyone associates London with. It has two beautiful towers and even looked amazing through the persistant rain that kept me permanently wet the whole weekend. Right next to Tower Bridge is this ultra modern square with huge glass buildings styled with funky architecture. There are mini fountains built into the ground in this one area that periodically get taller. Water was everywhere.Walked across the bridge over the Thames River, bought a london umbrella, and went to London Tower. London Tower is old. Not super beautiful, but still cool to see becuase of all the history. Built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. Saw Traitor's Gate where Anne Boleyn entered through among other offenders.
Stephanie and I were walking trying to find St. Pauls Cathedral when my map blew away followed by my umbrella and as I was looking ultra touristy and graceful running around with my camera flailing Stephanie was asking IN ENGLISH for directions. There were many great things about London. Not only did they speak in English but BRITISH ACCENTS are the sexiest thing. and london men are beautiful. with their mouth closed (london:dentists wanted.) On our way to St. Pauls this woman had a fantastic umbrella, so I asked her where she bought it and then went to House of Fraser to buy the perfume that the umbrella came with as a free gift. When we finally got to the cathedral we snapped a few pics then sat down in front of the doors that were closed. A Japanese man came up and pointed to my now three umbrellas and asked me how much. I was offended at the thought of being an umbrella lady, but still shamelessly said ten pounds, very goo price for you?! nada.
We stopped in a pub and got the famous "fish n chips" that London has to offer while an Irish band played and excessive beer drinkers posed as entertainment.
After walking for so long my high heeled boots were doing awful things to my feet and the cobblestone streets were doing worse things to my boots. We unsuccessfully searched for some cheap flat shoes (210 pounds was the best offer) and proceeded to go to a pub crawl that our hostel put on. It started at eight, which seemed so early for night plans to start! Usually we haven't even eaten dinner at this time! How quickly I've adapted to the Spanish lifestyle. Everyone met in the basement for a little pre pub party and then we all went out. Almost accidentally committed a felony by not realizing I needed a ticket and casually walking through the tube doors. Would of made it but Stephanie was at that point in the night not as discreet and the cop explained that we were in the process of committing a crime. After apologizing profusely he showed us how to properly enter with a purchased ticket.
Started the next morning with walking through Green Park (saw Brits playing croquet in suits and sweaters-so posh) and went to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. CROWDED. Police men on horses everywhere. Large spectacle of guards in fuzzy black hats entered in, band played, they came out. GRAND spectacle. Steph and I got seperated so I met some fantastic people from Ireland, Australia, all over. I feel like my grandpa chatting up people everywhere I go-terrifying. I kept handing my camera to people who were closer to the gates than I so they could take better pictures for me. The band played fantastic music for about half an hour before their grand exit. someone fainted? i snapped a picture.
Stephanie and I wandered towards Trafalgar square and went inside the National Gallery for a minute. On our way we saw Piccadilly Circus, which basically has statues of people and some guards walking down the street that kept smiling at us, even though thats so unallowed-they were HILARIOUS.
We walked toward Big Ben- I thought it would be bigger but it was VERY cool to see. Parliament buildings.
Went into Westminster Abbey Cathedral-said a prayer inside. Enscripted on the wall outside of the entrance was "May God Grant:To the Living.Grace. To the Departed. Rest. To the Church and the World. Peace and Concord. And to us Sinners. Eternal Life."
We went to Camden market afterwards, bought too many fantastic items including vintage dresses and tassle black ankle boots. Some guy tried to buy me? Stephanie said I wasn't for sale?
Catie, my house mate from last year, her mom was in London with her sister, and so we met up at a pub for dinner and chatted for HOURS while having a delish meal complete with pudding cake and fantastic desserts. SO good to see a familiar face but bittersweet to part. I was incredibly homesick for one of the first times since I've been abroad. During our dinner these men in ridiculous outfits-Mario, Gorilla suit, etc- came in and apparently were part of a pub crawl. They were going to thirty bars and this was number twelve for them. Fantastic.
The next day we saw the Tate Museum-modern art is NOT my thing. Saw Picasso and Andy Warhol pieces. Couldn't understand any other works, so decided it was time to walk across Millenium bridge. Took the tube ("mind the gap" was written to caution people of falling in the tracks) to Oxford street-shopping capital. Window shopped becuase after Camden we were broke and got lost in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It wasn't raining! Beautiful. Green. Sculptures, monuments, Kensington Palace, fountains later we traveled to Notting Hill (just becuase of the Julia Robert's movie.) There really wasn't anything notably there it was just the name of the area. We ate at an Italian Restaurant overlooking the Thames River and Tower Bridge which is beautifully lit up at night. Our waiter was so cute and Hungarian and he kept telling us to talk to him becuase he loves American accents. He said he learned English from South Park and other shows and is infatuated with America. All the waiters kept stopping at our table and chatting us up and the food was incredible, the view was perfection.
We walked along the thames and met one of Stephanie's friends she knew who was living in London in a pub and had wine and chips. I was exhausted and just grateful to be sitting down. I only brought high heeled boots. I overestimated my feminine ability to walk miles upon miles in cobblestone streets. In rain.
We took the train and spent the night in the airport. There were actually a lot of people in comfy chairs, on the floor, everywhere just passed out. Party.
We went next to this little cafe and I put together four chairs. I drank a beer from the cafe and slept for a few hours only to get woken up by the cafe guy, "excuse me miss i need my chairs." never have felt more like a homeless person in my life, especially becuase I was in the same clothes for the past twenty four hours and showerless. Oh the traveling life of a college student.
carried my three umbrellas through check in but had to pawn one off on a romanian so i could make it through-stict luggage regulations. he was very nice and apparently had learned english from south park as well. good show to learn english?
i feel like i saw all of london. we were so busy, did so many things, i am utterly exhausted.
spain feels like "home" to an extent so it was nice to get home and fall asleep not on a bar chair....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)