so, i know that yesterday was our actual american holiday of giving thanks. but i had class...until 7:30 pm so i didnt celebrate. instead, i celebrated today!
we all went to christina's apartment around 11 (jill, lindsey and myself) and met up with christina and her family who are in town visiting. we went to the market which was an experience. ive gone to the grocery store here before but have never seen it so crowded which was quite confusing since thanksgiving is an american holiday and was technically yesterday...
anyways, after fighting our way through we headed back to the apartment and started cooking. i am proud to say i did some chopping and then spent almost 2 hours whipping cream. yep. 2 hours because they dont have official whipping cream here. it was worth it though, very good if i may say so myself.
we ended up eating around 3-3:30 which was perfect because our spanish friend, marc, came around that time to join us. we had a real american thanksgiving which was very nice. we had mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, gravy, salad, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, baked bread, stuffing, and the only thing we did not have was a turkey. we had chicken instead which was delicious. and for dessert we made apple crisp.
so now, after shopping, cooking and cleaning i am back home and ready for my thanksgiving nap. happy turkey day everyone!!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
last weekend
so, last weekend was fantastic. on thursday it was my friend grants birthday so a group of us went out to celebrate and it was so cute because his girlfriend came to visit him from the states (she came in a day early to surprise him) and it was nice to see him so happy especially for his birthday.
friday i was lame, just did some hw, but then saturday my friend steve, grant, grants girlfriend, elizabeth, and i hung out and went to montjuic which is one of the mountains here. we took a gondola ride to the top and checked out the fortress which was pretty cool. surprisingly, there were a lot of stray cats... but it was a beautiful sunny day and relatively warm which was nice. we then went to the olympic stadium which was not as cool or big as i was hoping it would be. but it was cool to think that it was were the olympics had taken place. there were more stray cats there and one of them fell in a trash can which sounds really mean in retrospect, but its tail was sticking up and it was pretty entertaining. we then walked down the rest of the mountain to plaza espanyol. we were going to go into the palau nacional which is where the catalan art museum is but it cost money and we were tired and hungry, so instead we walked to get food. after that we all went home because we were exhausted.
sunday, the four of us met up again and went to tibidabo which is the other mountain here. we took a cable car up part of the way and then it just dropped us off so we ended up hiking up the rest of the mountain. it was a very pleasant walk though. the views of the city were the best i have seen and even though the weather was not ideal (cooler and overcast) it was still beautiful. we saw the amusement park (yes there is an amusement park at the top of the mountain) but did not go in since it cost 24 euros and frankly, i dont like amusement parks anyways. we then continued to trek up the mountain and by this time it was sunset, which was absolutely breath taking from the top of the mountain. so we took a break to relish in the beauty. it also is interesting because when im in the city, it doesnt seem that big because i go to my certain places and know how to get there, but looking at the city from up there, its amazing to me how large it is and how there are still so many places and areas ive never even seen and need to explore. i feel like there is just not enough time to see and do everything here let alone everything i want to do in europe in general.
anyways, so after taking in the view we continued up the mountain to the very top to the monistary. by this time it was dark and the monistary was all lit up. we went in and the church on tibidabo is by far the prettiest church ive visited. it was amazing. we then went up to the top of it which i believe is something like 542 meters up. im not sure, but when we climbed all the way to the very top my stomach was doing little flips and i realized that i am somewhat afraid of heights. after chilling (literally we were starting to freeze with the wind) at the top for awhile we headed back down, stopped in a cafe and headed home.
all in all i would say a good successful weekend of being able to see more of my current city :)
friday i was lame, just did some hw, but then saturday my friend steve, grant, grants girlfriend, elizabeth, and i hung out and went to montjuic which is one of the mountains here. we took a gondola ride to the top and checked out the fortress which was pretty cool. surprisingly, there were a lot of stray cats... but it was a beautiful sunny day and relatively warm which was nice. we then went to the olympic stadium which was not as cool or big as i was hoping it would be. but it was cool to think that it was were the olympics had taken place. there were more stray cats there and one of them fell in a trash can which sounds really mean in retrospect, but its tail was sticking up and it was pretty entertaining. we then walked down the rest of the mountain to plaza espanyol. we were going to go into the palau nacional which is where the catalan art museum is but it cost money and we were tired and hungry, so instead we walked to get food. after that we all went home because we were exhausted.
sunday, the four of us met up again and went to tibidabo which is the other mountain here. we took a cable car up part of the way and then it just dropped us off so we ended up hiking up the rest of the mountain. it was a very pleasant walk though. the views of the city were the best i have seen and even though the weather was not ideal (cooler and overcast) it was still beautiful. we saw the amusement park (yes there is an amusement park at the top of the mountain) but did not go in since it cost 24 euros and frankly, i dont like amusement parks anyways. we then continued to trek up the mountain and by this time it was sunset, which was absolutely breath taking from the top of the mountain. so we took a break to relish in the beauty. it also is interesting because when im in the city, it doesnt seem that big because i go to my certain places and know how to get there, but looking at the city from up there, its amazing to me how large it is and how there are still so many places and areas ive never even seen and need to explore. i feel like there is just not enough time to see and do everything here let alone everything i want to do in europe in general.
anyways, so after taking in the view we continued up the mountain to the very top to the monistary. by this time it was dark and the monistary was all lit up. we went in and the church on tibidabo is by far the prettiest church ive visited. it was amazing. we then went up to the top of it which i believe is something like 542 meters up. im not sure, but when we climbed all the way to the very top my stomach was doing little flips and i realized that i am somewhat afraid of heights. after chilling (literally we were starting to freeze with the wind) at the top for awhile we headed back down, stopped in a cafe and headed home.
all in all i would say a good successful weekend of being able to see more of my current city :)
la vida en barcelona lately
so in general life has been pretty decent here in barcelona. ive been making an effort to hang out with a bunch of different people which has been good, but i still have my main people here which is nice. the weather has gotten a lot colder the last few days which sucks. but i guess its not supposed to stay this cold that much longer and warm up again before i leave. and when i say cold, im talking in the 50s. i have no idea how im going to deal with coming back to winter in illinois/indiana... dont be surprised if i cry a little bit.
i started my UB courses when i returned from italy. im taking a short story class and a poetry course. i much prefer my ub courses to any course im taking at IES. IES is pretty much ridiculous and im done with them. i have been given an insane amount of work for these last few weeks and it irks me not because i have a problem doing work per se, but that a)i thought studying abroad was supposed to be easier and b) the amount of work they're giving us is so not comparative to what ive actually been learning in class. it also makes me sad that they are making it so difficult for people to travel the last few weeks here due to all of the work they are giving us. for example, in one class i have a presentation, 10-12 page paper that i have to write with a partner and a final. not horrible, i know, but i have not done anything in this class all semster except watch movies and discuss them. i have no idea how that warrants all of those things especially all in the last couple weeks of school.
oh well, enough complaining about school, i will just be glad to get back to IU and have real courses that i care about and help me with my major.
what else can i complain about? my senora. i dont understand how, when or why this happened but sometime after my return from italy i realized that i was just kind of "over" being here in her house and im pretty sure she feels the same way about me. she is still very nice but the food is not nearly as good as when i first got here and just weird things have been happening. for example, our clothes were blown off the line the other night and she came in our room at 3:30 am to tell us this and show us and then just be like, "you can help me with this tomorrow" but piyal and i were like what are we suppsed to do about this? the clothes had blown onto the roof of the building next to ours and neither one of us was about to climb down and get them because we would have no way of getting back up. im not sure what happened, but i do have my clothes now thank goodness.
also, i know ive mentioned this before, but i really miss consistent hot showers. especially now thats its cold. its like torture showering because the water starts out freezing which is the worst when you're already cold and then even when it does heat up the temperature fluctuates when you havent moved the thing to make the water hotter or colder. and i also just really miss having a kitchen to cook in. we're not even allowed to make eggs which i think is a little ridiculous. i asked her on emorning if piyal andi could make eggs and she wont let us, but then she offered to make them for us which was very nice. so piyal and i went and bought a thng of eggs and she made them that day, but hasnt made them since. and im like, we still have eggs sitting in the fridge and i would personally like to consume them before they go bad.
bottom line: i love barcelona but am ready to come home to have my own space and all of my stuff. although even the thought of coming home makes me anxious because i will definitely go through reverse culture shock. ive gotten so accustomed to the lifestyle here which i do love in general and i also am going to miss all of my people here :( i jsut cant win. while im here i miss everyone at home and when i go home i will miss everyone here...oh well, such is life so they say
i started my UB courses when i returned from italy. im taking a short story class and a poetry course. i much prefer my ub courses to any course im taking at IES. IES is pretty much ridiculous and im done with them. i have been given an insane amount of work for these last few weeks and it irks me not because i have a problem doing work per se, but that a)i thought studying abroad was supposed to be easier and b) the amount of work they're giving us is so not comparative to what ive actually been learning in class. it also makes me sad that they are making it so difficult for people to travel the last few weeks here due to all of the work they are giving us. for example, in one class i have a presentation, 10-12 page paper that i have to write with a partner and a final. not horrible, i know, but i have not done anything in this class all semster except watch movies and discuss them. i have no idea how that warrants all of those things especially all in the last couple weeks of school.
oh well, enough complaining about school, i will just be glad to get back to IU and have real courses that i care about and help me with my major.
what else can i complain about? my senora. i dont understand how, when or why this happened but sometime after my return from italy i realized that i was just kind of "over" being here in her house and im pretty sure she feels the same way about me. she is still very nice but the food is not nearly as good as when i first got here and just weird things have been happening. for example, our clothes were blown off the line the other night and she came in our room at 3:30 am to tell us this and show us and then just be like, "you can help me with this tomorrow" but piyal and i were like what are we suppsed to do about this? the clothes had blown onto the roof of the building next to ours and neither one of us was about to climb down and get them because we would have no way of getting back up. im not sure what happened, but i do have my clothes now thank goodness.
also, i know ive mentioned this before, but i really miss consistent hot showers. especially now thats its cold. its like torture showering because the water starts out freezing which is the worst when you're already cold and then even when it does heat up the temperature fluctuates when you havent moved the thing to make the water hotter or colder. and i also just really miss having a kitchen to cook in. we're not even allowed to make eggs which i think is a little ridiculous. i asked her on emorning if piyal andi could make eggs and she wont let us, but then she offered to make them for us which was very nice. so piyal and i went and bought a thng of eggs and she made them that day, but hasnt made them since. and im like, we still have eggs sitting in the fridge and i would personally like to consume them before they go bad.
bottom line: i love barcelona but am ready to come home to have my own space and all of my stuff. although even the thought of coming home makes me anxious because i will definitely go through reverse culture shock. ive gotten so accustomed to the lifestyle here which i do love in general and i also am going to miss all of my people here :( i jsut cant win. while im here i miss everyone at home and when i go home i will miss everyone here...oh well, such is life so they say
theresa's visit
my friend theresa is studying at IES Paris and her fall break was the week after mine. so the following weekend after Italy, she came to barcelona to visit me! i was very glad to have her come visit but it turned out to be very stressful because...
originally theresa was supposed to stay at sean's apartment because it is for 4 people and there are only 3 guys living there. the night before theresa came in at 8:30 sean finally gets a hold of me (i had been trying to confirm plans with him all week) and says that a friend of his and a couple of his buddies are staying at his place, could my friend stay at christinas (who also is in an apartment but her apartment is full plus she also had a friend coming in who was staying there). so it just turned into a big problem and scramble trying to find a place for her to stay. thankfully, piyal and i know this guy that does couch surfing (its a website for young travelers where people will host you for free and let you stay on their couch) so theresa was able to stay with him, but it was a very stressful 24 hours until we heard from him and knew for sure that she could stay with him.
but other then that we had so much fun. it was really nice seeing someone from home that knows me and my other people from home. on friday we did parc guell and then made dinner at christinas and went to this one bar called the dow jones. its actually really cool because its like the stock market, there are tv screens and it shows all of the drinks and the prices and whats going up and down and then every once in awhile the stock market "crashes" and so all of the prices change and go down. it was fun.
on saturday theresa and i went to sagrada familia and parc de la ciutadella which i had not been to before but is now one of my favorite places in barcelona. theres the zoo and its just beautiful and has this one fountain and gazebo that are amazing. i really enjoyed it and if it had not been for theresa im not sure i would have gone there. that night we met up with some other friends of mine here and showed her some of the more touristy bars and such.
it was a lot of fun and im glad that she came to visit, but it was a lot to see and do in one weekend and by the time she left on sunday i was exhausted so it was good that i had most of sunday to relax and get ready for that upcoming week.
originally theresa was supposed to stay at sean's apartment because it is for 4 people and there are only 3 guys living there. the night before theresa came in at 8:30 sean finally gets a hold of me (i had been trying to confirm plans with him all week) and says that a friend of his and a couple of his buddies are staying at his place, could my friend stay at christinas (who also is in an apartment but her apartment is full plus she also had a friend coming in who was staying there). so it just turned into a big problem and scramble trying to find a place for her to stay. thankfully, piyal and i know this guy that does couch surfing (its a website for young travelers where people will host you for free and let you stay on their couch) so theresa was able to stay with him, but it was a very stressful 24 hours until we heard from him and knew for sure that she could stay with him.
but other then that we had so much fun. it was really nice seeing someone from home that knows me and my other people from home. on friday we did parc guell and then made dinner at christinas and went to this one bar called the dow jones. its actually really cool because its like the stock market, there are tv screens and it shows all of the drinks and the prices and whats going up and down and then every once in awhile the stock market "crashes" and so all of the prices change and go down. it was fun.
on saturday theresa and i went to sagrada familia and parc de la ciutadella which i had not been to before but is now one of my favorite places in barcelona. theres the zoo and its just beautiful and has this one fountain and gazebo that are amazing. i really enjoyed it and if it had not been for theresa im not sure i would have gone there. that night we met up with some other friends of mine here and showed her some of the more touristy bars and such.
it was a lot of fun and im glad that she came to visit, but it was a lot to see and do in one weekend and by the time she left on sunday i was exhausted so it was good that i had most of sunday to relax and get ready for that upcoming week.
my bad/italy
so, i am aware that i have not written in over a month and that is ridiculous. my apologies. i def have a lot to catch everyone up with so i am going to split these next posts up into different categories so that whatever interests you, you can read and you dont have to read everything else.
i figure i will start with italy since that is the first interesting/important thing that i did after my last post that i can remember...
for fall break at the end of october i traveled through italy with a couple of friends, sean and christina. turns out, all three of us are afraid of flying, but thankfully christina had some xanax and i have finally learned the joys of taking xanax with a gin and tonic. best. flight. ever. we arrived into venice pretty late that friday night. after missing our hostel/hotel twice we finally got off the bus (the bus driver dropped us off on the side of the road not at a real stop because he was tired of dealing withus) and we trekked to our hostel. we were able to still eat dinner in the dining room and actually, it was a pretty good meal. our trip was off to a good start.
the next morning we got up relatively early and headed into venice (we stayed on the mainland). venice was colder than what i was expecting, but it was very beautiful. everywhere we looked resembled a postcard. we walked around and went to the rialto bridge, st. mark's square and the bridge of sighs. unfortunately, the bridge of sighs was ruined by a car advertisement. yep. they are doing construction or so im assuming and to make it look better, they put up a car advertisement. it was horrible. after that, we just walked around the city and had the best meal i had in italy (which was kind of a shame since it was only our first day). we found this little family restaurant tucked in a side street not frequented by tourists and had this amazing gnocchi in cheese sauce and vino. delish.
after lunch we walked around some more and stopped to get a coffee. this would be my first of many experiences of not being a law abiding citizen. we ended up not paying for our coffee. although, we had every intention to, but he guy thought we had already paid, so who were we to correct him when we dont even speak tha language? we continued to just walk around and saw an older man singing opera on the street. that was very enjoyable and afterwards went into a music museum. it was free which i always enjoy. by that time it was time for us to head to the train station and hop on our train to florence.
we arrived to florence again at nighttime. we took a bus to our hostel without ever paying the fare (naughty us!) but the bus driver didnt say anything, so we hopped off feeling pretty smug with ourselves. although, i did feel a little badly, but im going to say that i needed that 1.30 euro more than the florence bus system.
we made it to our hostel which was interesting to say the least. im not sure if any of you have ever seen the french film "l'auberge espagnol" but that is what this hostel reminded me of. we walked into this tiny apartment and were immediately greeted by about 15 people. we were shown around and met new people in every room. there were people on laptops checking e-mail, others smoking and chatting in the kitchen, and some others that were just chilling in their rooms getting ready for bed. we dropped our stuff off in our room and then were asked how we felt about dogs as a black lab came bounding in. it was overhwelming and intense as a first impression, but everyone was very friendly so it was all good. we pretty much just went to bed right away.
the next day we got up and headed off towards the city center. we got lost on our way to see michaelangelo's david, but since we were in florence, i didnt really mind. again, everything was BEAUTIFUL and i apologize for not being able to be more descriptive, but i really dont know how to describe most of italy without using that word. we finally found david and luckily for us, we were early so we had no wait. i thoroughly enjoyed david. he was much larger then i had expected and there was lots of other great artworks in the same museum. it was a highlight of the trip for sure.
after david, we saw the duomo which unfortunately wasnt open for us to go in. so we ended up walking around and went to see michaelangelo and galileo's tombs. those were also very cool. we then stopped at a supermarket and headed up to the piazza michaelangelo to have a picnic. the piazza michaelangelo is this area up above with great views of the city. a lovely place to have a lunch of bread and cheese and salami and some vino. gotta love that cheap delicous vino in italia.
after lunch we headed back to the city and just bummed around. we saw the only bridge to not be destroyed in WWII which was cool. ate some gelat (it came with a waffle) and ran into a kid from IES.
after shopping around the leather market it was almost dinner time and we were exhausted. we just went back to the hostel where we were fed dinner and chilled there all night with people. we met this one guy, adam, who is from australia and really nice. he had been traveling through europe since september and was headed to rome the next day (as were we) so we made plans to go together.
so the next morning we got up and got on the train to rome with adam. rome by far was my favorite place in italy. we went to our hostel, the wow roma, and dropped our stuff. we then walked to the coliseum (a 10 minute walk from our hostel if that) and looked around. i really enjoyed it. after walking around all afternoon we went to the hostel, took a nap, and got ready for dinner. the three of us, sean, christina and myself, got dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. we went to a place near the spanish steps and ended up seeing the ex-prez of italy. that was pretty cool.
the next day (our first full day in rome) we got up and headed towards the vatican. we went and saw the sistine chapel which i must say, was not what i was expecting. it ended up being very dark and after all of the other artwork (because you walk through a crazy amount of other chapels and art pieces before you get to the sistine chapel) it was kind of a let down for sure. i was expecting to feel awe and inspired and instead i felt like i wished they would turn the lights up. also, sean got kicked out for taking a picture. it was comforting almost, like being on vacation with my dad, not abiding by the rules. what? DONT take pictures? ok. snap snap.
after walking through the vatican we were exhausted (it is very tiring being a tourist!) so we napped and then grabbed dinner with adam that night. oh i forgot to mention about my hostel. shortly after we arrived some other girls came and i went out into the common room to check my e-mail and they were there, so i made conversation with them. turns out, they're form northwest indiana and all go to valpo. they also all knew one of my good friends, lynn, so that was pretty cool.
anyways, our last full day in rome we spent doing all historical stuff. we did the coliseum and actually got a pretty sweet deal. for 20 euros we got tours of the coliseum, palatine hill, and the forum. we also didnt have to wait in line to get into any of those places which was nice. i was really glad we did it because im kind of a nerd and love history (especially greek and roman) so to be there in person was an amazing experience for me. after our coliseum tour we got lunch and met up with my roommate, piyal, who was also in rome. she did the other 2 tours with us which was nice because as much as i love christina and sean, theres only so much you can discuss with 3 people. needless to say, it was a nice change of pace having piyal around for a day.
the next morning we headed to naples, or hell, as i like to refer to it as. we got into naples early afternoon and christina and i just looked at each other and were like "this cant be naples can it??" it was disgusting and i do not recommend anyone to go there EVER. we got off the train and headed towards the metro (if thats what they want to call it) and we all immediately noticed the amount of stray dogs that looked like they were going to keel over any minute. it was really very sad. and the metro trains were so old, i seriously felt like i was being deported...it was scary
we then got off the metro and the directions for our hostel told us to exit the metro and walk through a garden...if by garden they meant crack park then yes, we walked through a garden. it was horrid. there was waste everywhere (we're talking garbage, animal waste, human waste, all of it) and homeless people and it was sketchier then any place i've ever seen/been. we also got lost on our way to the hostel and after seeing some of the things we did (for example a homeless man sleeping on the steps of an old church with human waste on the stairs) we were ready to head back on the train and go back to rome. but, we didnt because our friend jill was coming to naples to meet us and we had plans to go to pompeii.
poor jill. she got into naples that night and we were really worried about her making it to the hostel ok especially since we couldnt call her, but thankfully she made it to the hostel unscathed. surprisingly, our hostel was really nice. there were strange people there, but it was clean and cheery. which was kind of bad because i never wanted to leave the hostel.
the next day we went to pompeii which was really cool and i totally recommend to anyone that likes history, but do it as a day trip from rome do NOT under any circumstances go to naples. the ruins were very well perserved and i was surprised at how large pompeii was. and they are still uncovering stuff. there were a lot more stray dogs, and this time packs of them which was kind of strange and sad. but it was an enjoyable day at pompeii checking out their houses and such. it really was amazing to me all of the color. there were these beautiful murals in all of the houses with marble or tile floors. also, the toilets were just holes, but they were in what looked like modern counters with these beautiful tiles and such. kind of crazy but really cool.
we also got a chance to see the dead people. that sounds creepy. in retrospect it was really creepy and sad. it was so weird though because they have some people in cases where the bodies were found and others in this area with a bunch of pottery and stuff. i thought that was really random, all this pottery and then a body.
that night was halloween and our hostel had a party with a dj and everything. we totally rocked out to a "Grease" montage which was AWESOME. we then went out with some of the people from the hostel (like the owners son, Davide, who is around our age) and we were under the impression we were going to some bars near the university. well, we did go to the university. in fact, davide took us to a political rally at the university. apparently they were trying to privatize the university in naples, and the students were not happy with this, so they had taken over the university and were doing a sit in. it was really scary at first because, well, people in naples and naples is just a scary place. but i thought it was really cool, like we were helping this cause or something, i mean i know that i personally did nothing, but i was there and it was an intersting epxerience for sure. especially since going to that rally is exactly the opposite of what IES wants us to do. but, you know you're in a bad city when we asked davide if we could walk back and the response is "oh no. i wouldnt go. in fact, its really a bad idea for you guys to try to find your way back without us." but we did go back shortly thereafter.
the next morning we got back on the train and headed back towards venice since we were real dumb about our flight and did round-trip from venice. but it was ok, we didnt mind leaving naples at all. so that day we spent 7 hours on the train to get back to venice since there was no night train from naples to venice, although again, we didnt mind cuz we wanted out of naples as fast as we could.
we ended up sleeping in the airport that night which wasnt soo bad at first since we got a bottle of brandy and shared that. but i woke up around 5 am and was freezing and not feeling well which was not good. christina and i ended up getting up around 6 and people watched in the airport until noon. im still not sure how sean was able to sleep that long, but he did. we then got on our flight with a bunch of other IES kids and came back to barcelona. however, this flight, was not as enjoyable. i slept through the first half of it, but then we hit a bunch of turbulence and i seriously thought we were going to die. i mean, i know turbulence isnt that big of a deal, but we were all over the place; up, down, being thrown to the left and right, it was crazy. and then the flight attendants got all nervous and were pacing around and checking stuff, and then the captain started playing music which i thought was weird. and then we saw the ocean and were much lower then we should have been, and then after awhile we went back up. it was crazy and scary. but i made it home ok so thats all that matters. although i guess sean saw one of the flight attendants open the cockpit and say something to the captain who responded with a thumbs up and then she looked relieved. so i guess we really were in trouble for awhile...
so that was my trip in a nutshell. i know that was long, but i tried to keep it as short as possible
i figure i will start with italy since that is the first interesting/important thing that i did after my last post that i can remember...
for fall break at the end of october i traveled through italy with a couple of friends, sean and christina. turns out, all three of us are afraid of flying, but thankfully christina had some xanax and i have finally learned the joys of taking xanax with a gin and tonic. best. flight. ever. we arrived into venice pretty late that friday night. after missing our hostel/hotel twice we finally got off the bus (the bus driver dropped us off on the side of the road not at a real stop because he was tired of dealing withus) and we trekked to our hostel. we were able to still eat dinner in the dining room and actually, it was a pretty good meal. our trip was off to a good start.
the next morning we got up relatively early and headed into venice (we stayed on the mainland). venice was colder than what i was expecting, but it was very beautiful. everywhere we looked resembled a postcard. we walked around and went to the rialto bridge, st. mark's square and the bridge of sighs. unfortunately, the bridge of sighs was ruined by a car advertisement. yep. they are doing construction or so im assuming and to make it look better, they put up a car advertisement. it was horrible. after that, we just walked around the city and had the best meal i had in italy (which was kind of a shame since it was only our first day). we found this little family restaurant tucked in a side street not frequented by tourists and had this amazing gnocchi in cheese sauce and vino. delish.
after lunch we walked around some more and stopped to get a coffee. this would be my first of many experiences of not being a law abiding citizen. we ended up not paying for our coffee. although, we had every intention to, but he guy thought we had already paid, so who were we to correct him when we dont even speak tha language? we continued to just walk around and saw an older man singing opera on the street. that was very enjoyable and afterwards went into a music museum. it was free which i always enjoy. by that time it was time for us to head to the train station and hop on our train to florence.
we arrived to florence again at nighttime. we took a bus to our hostel without ever paying the fare (naughty us!) but the bus driver didnt say anything, so we hopped off feeling pretty smug with ourselves. although, i did feel a little badly, but im going to say that i needed that 1.30 euro more than the florence bus system.
we made it to our hostel which was interesting to say the least. im not sure if any of you have ever seen the french film "l'auberge espagnol" but that is what this hostel reminded me of. we walked into this tiny apartment and were immediately greeted by about 15 people. we were shown around and met new people in every room. there were people on laptops checking e-mail, others smoking and chatting in the kitchen, and some others that were just chilling in their rooms getting ready for bed. we dropped our stuff off in our room and then were asked how we felt about dogs as a black lab came bounding in. it was overhwelming and intense as a first impression, but everyone was very friendly so it was all good. we pretty much just went to bed right away.
the next day we got up and headed off towards the city center. we got lost on our way to see michaelangelo's david, but since we were in florence, i didnt really mind. again, everything was BEAUTIFUL and i apologize for not being able to be more descriptive, but i really dont know how to describe most of italy without using that word. we finally found david and luckily for us, we were early so we had no wait. i thoroughly enjoyed david. he was much larger then i had expected and there was lots of other great artworks in the same museum. it was a highlight of the trip for sure.
after david, we saw the duomo which unfortunately wasnt open for us to go in. so we ended up walking around and went to see michaelangelo and galileo's tombs. those were also very cool. we then stopped at a supermarket and headed up to the piazza michaelangelo to have a picnic. the piazza michaelangelo is this area up above with great views of the city. a lovely place to have a lunch of bread and cheese and salami and some vino. gotta love that cheap delicous vino in italia.
after lunch we headed back to the city and just bummed around. we saw the only bridge to not be destroyed in WWII which was cool. ate some gelat (it came with a waffle) and ran into a kid from IES.
after shopping around the leather market it was almost dinner time and we were exhausted. we just went back to the hostel where we were fed dinner and chilled there all night with people. we met this one guy, adam, who is from australia and really nice. he had been traveling through europe since september and was headed to rome the next day (as were we) so we made plans to go together.
so the next morning we got up and got on the train to rome with adam. rome by far was my favorite place in italy. we went to our hostel, the wow roma, and dropped our stuff. we then walked to the coliseum (a 10 minute walk from our hostel if that) and looked around. i really enjoyed it. after walking around all afternoon we went to the hostel, took a nap, and got ready for dinner. the three of us, sean, christina and myself, got dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. we went to a place near the spanish steps and ended up seeing the ex-prez of italy. that was pretty cool.
the next day (our first full day in rome) we got up and headed towards the vatican. we went and saw the sistine chapel which i must say, was not what i was expecting. it ended up being very dark and after all of the other artwork (because you walk through a crazy amount of other chapels and art pieces before you get to the sistine chapel) it was kind of a let down for sure. i was expecting to feel awe and inspired and instead i felt like i wished they would turn the lights up. also, sean got kicked out for taking a picture. it was comforting almost, like being on vacation with my dad, not abiding by the rules. what? DONT take pictures? ok. snap snap.
after walking through the vatican we were exhausted (it is very tiring being a tourist!) so we napped and then grabbed dinner with adam that night. oh i forgot to mention about my hostel. shortly after we arrived some other girls came and i went out into the common room to check my e-mail and they were there, so i made conversation with them. turns out, they're form northwest indiana and all go to valpo. they also all knew one of my good friends, lynn, so that was pretty cool.
anyways, our last full day in rome we spent doing all historical stuff. we did the coliseum and actually got a pretty sweet deal. for 20 euros we got tours of the coliseum, palatine hill, and the forum. we also didnt have to wait in line to get into any of those places which was nice. i was really glad we did it because im kind of a nerd and love history (especially greek and roman) so to be there in person was an amazing experience for me. after our coliseum tour we got lunch and met up with my roommate, piyal, who was also in rome. she did the other 2 tours with us which was nice because as much as i love christina and sean, theres only so much you can discuss with 3 people. needless to say, it was a nice change of pace having piyal around for a day.
the next morning we headed to naples, or hell, as i like to refer to it as. we got into naples early afternoon and christina and i just looked at each other and were like "this cant be naples can it??" it was disgusting and i do not recommend anyone to go there EVER. we got off the train and headed towards the metro (if thats what they want to call it) and we all immediately noticed the amount of stray dogs that looked like they were going to keel over any minute. it was really very sad. and the metro trains were so old, i seriously felt like i was being deported...it was scary
we then got off the metro and the directions for our hostel told us to exit the metro and walk through a garden...if by garden they meant crack park then yes, we walked through a garden. it was horrid. there was waste everywhere (we're talking garbage, animal waste, human waste, all of it) and homeless people and it was sketchier then any place i've ever seen/been. we also got lost on our way to the hostel and after seeing some of the things we did (for example a homeless man sleeping on the steps of an old church with human waste on the stairs) we were ready to head back on the train and go back to rome. but, we didnt because our friend jill was coming to naples to meet us and we had plans to go to pompeii.
poor jill. she got into naples that night and we were really worried about her making it to the hostel ok especially since we couldnt call her, but thankfully she made it to the hostel unscathed. surprisingly, our hostel was really nice. there were strange people there, but it was clean and cheery. which was kind of bad because i never wanted to leave the hostel.
the next day we went to pompeii which was really cool and i totally recommend to anyone that likes history, but do it as a day trip from rome do NOT under any circumstances go to naples. the ruins were very well perserved and i was surprised at how large pompeii was. and they are still uncovering stuff. there were a lot more stray dogs, and this time packs of them which was kind of strange and sad. but it was an enjoyable day at pompeii checking out their houses and such. it really was amazing to me all of the color. there were these beautiful murals in all of the houses with marble or tile floors. also, the toilets were just holes, but they were in what looked like modern counters with these beautiful tiles and such. kind of crazy but really cool.
we also got a chance to see the dead people. that sounds creepy. in retrospect it was really creepy and sad. it was so weird though because they have some people in cases where the bodies were found and others in this area with a bunch of pottery and stuff. i thought that was really random, all this pottery and then a body.
that night was halloween and our hostel had a party with a dj and everything. we totally rocked out to a "Grease" montage which was AWESOME. we then went out with some of the people from the hostel (like the owners son, Davide, who is around our age) and we were under the impression we were going to some bars near the university. well, we did go to the university. in fact, davide took us to a political rally at the university. apparently they were trying to privatize the university in naples, and the students were not happy with this, so they had taken over the university and were doing a sit in. it was really scary at first because, well, people in naples and naples is just a scary place. but i thought it was really cool, like we were helping this cause or something, i mean i know that i personally did nothing, but i was there and it was an intersting epxerience for sure. especially since going to that rally is exactly the opposite of what IES wants us to do. but, you know you're in a bad city when we asked davide if we could walk back and the response is "oh no. i wouldnt go. in fact, its really a bad idea for you guys to try to find your way back without us." but we did go back shortly thereafter.
the next morning we got back on the train and headed back towards venice since we were real dumb about our flight and did round-trip from venice. but it was ok, we didnt mind leaving naples at all. so that day we spent 7 hours on the train to get back to venice since there was no night train from naples to venice, although again, we didnt mind cuz we wanted out of naples as fast as we could.
we ended up sleeping in the airport that night which wasnt soo bad at first since we got a bottle of brandy and shared that. but i woke up around 5 am and was freezing and not feeling well which was not good. christina and i ended up getting up around 6 and people watched in the airport until noon. im still not sure how sean was able to sleep that long, but he did. we then got on our flight with a bunch of other IES kids and came back to barcelona. however, this flight, was not as enjoyable. i slept through the first half of it, but then we hit a bunch of turbulence and i seriously thought we were going to die. i mean, i know turbulence isnt that big of a deal, but we were all over the place; up, down, being thrown to the left and right, it was crazy. and then the flight attendants got all nervous and were pacing around and checking stuff, and then the captain started playing music which i thought was weird. and then we saw the ocean and were much lower then we should have been, and then after awhile we went back up. it was crazy and scary. but i made it home ok so thats all that matters. although i guess sean saw one of the flight attendants open the cockpit and say something to the captain who responded with a thumbs up and then she looked relieved. so i guess we really were in trouble for awhile...
so that was my trip in a nutshell. i know that was long, but i tried to keep it as short as possible
Monday, October 6, 2008
vino y bailar
so, i forgot to mention a cool thing i did last week. last wednesday i went to a wine tasting class. it was a step in the right direction of achieving my goal of becoming a wine-o. the class was small, there was jill, christina and myself and two others. we learned quite a bit about the differences between red and white and we also tried cava which is like champagne but specific to spain. i enjoyed all of the wine, even the white which i normally am not a fan of. also, i now know how to correctly taste wine which is pretty cool.
today my dance class started. it was interesting. the teacher is a guy from cuba and it is actually a latin american dance class. it is full of older spanish women, one of whom really couldn't dance and kept running into me. we are going to be learning six or seven different dances during the course. today we learned some salsa which was fun. overall, i enjoyed it and if nothing else it is a chance to work on my spanish some more and learn some basic dance moves.
today my dance class started. it was interesting. the teacher is a guy from cuba and it is actually a latin american dance class. it is full of older spanish women, one of whom really couldn't dance and kept running into me. we are going to be learning six or seven different dances during the course. today we learned some salsa which was fun. overall, i enjoyed it and if nothing else it is a chance to work on my spanish some more and learn some basic dance moves.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
London Town = love
so this last weekend i went to london for the first time. it was unbelievable. i am in love. after a long journey (a one hour bus ride to the airport, then a 2 hour flight and another hour long bus ride into london) we finally arrived to our hostel at about 1:30-2 in the morning.
the hostel was an experience. mostly good, some not so good. like a couple sleeping in jill's bed our first night. that was awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved although we spoke to them the next day and they turned out to be really nice. or the great masturbator. yeah. christina and i walked into our room friday night and this guy was naked and well, you can assume from his name what was going on. or the guy at 4 am who came in and woke everyone up asking if our room was just for girls. but really, other than those few incidents, the hostel was clean and fine considering it is a hostel.
anyways, friday was a jam-packed day getting up at 8 am and headed out the door by 9. our first stop was using the tube to get to parliament and big ben. the tube was definitely an interesting experience for me. now i am used to metros and the overall idea behind how they work. but the tube was strange to me because it literally does remind me of a tube. the cars are much smaller and i felt a little hunched over and im not even that tall.
so we rode the tube and made it to westminster and i thoroughly enjoyed seeing the real-life version of the puzz-3D my cousin, Lauren, and i made way back when, of big ben. very cool. we walked around and saw westminster abby and some authentic british children leaving their authentic british school and ended up at the cabinet war rooms. the cabinet war rooms is where winston churchill stayed during WWII. it was very intersting to see where so many pivotal decisions and history were made. it was also cool to see the rooms like how they were left (for the most part) and to see the maps and telephones that they used and you can see all of the pinholes marking where troops were and where there had been wins and losses.
after the cabinet war rooms we took a stroll through a park that in my opinion, was on the verge of breathtaking, and headed in the direction of buckingham palace. i was disappointed when i got to buckingham though because i was so excited to take pictures with the guards and to try to make them as uncomfortable as possible without getting expelled from great britain. however, the Queen has returned to buckingham, so i got to see my first authentic guard through a gate from very far away. besides that though, buckingham seemed quite cool. i can safely say, judging from the outside, i wouldnt mind living there.
at this point in the day, we decided it was time to take a break and sit down for some grub. we headed to this cute little pub and had some real british cuisine: sausage and mash, fish and chips. i thoroughly enjoyed it. after relaxing for a few we headed over to the tower of london. i was super excited to look at all of the torture stuff because i vaguely remember a classmate of mine who had gone and brought all of these pictures in for my english class senior year (beowulf anyone??) and i remember thinking it looked scary but cool. the actual torture part (at least what i saw) was interesting, but not that extensive. however, we did get to see the crowned jewels which were pretty fab and the bloody tower which held the most interest to me once i heard about the history behind it. i mean, i got to see where "the history of the world" was written!
when we were done with the tower of london, we took a few steps outside and i realized, i was looking at the london bridge. i must admit, it was hard not to bust out into either "london bridge is falling down" or fergie ferg's song about the london bridge. it was very pretty and i took probably too many pictures of it, but whatever, i figured this was the real deal, the REAL london bridge, it was ok to take too many pictures...
after crossing the bridge, we came across this amazing cafe that i recommend to anyone that goes to london. it's called "the bridge lounge" and it is on tooley street just a few blocks away from the london bridge. the irish coffee is to die for and the service was very nice and the food is delicious as well.
anywhoo, we ended up meeting one of jil's friends from school for dinner and afterwards walked around a little bit and went through chinatown.
saturday, we got up early and headed towards windsor castle. we decided to try to get there first thing in the morning because there was other stuff we still wanted to do plus, i was supposed to meet up with my friend, lynn, who was in london for the day to see a play at the globe. needless to say, nothing worked out like how we had planned (although the day still ended up being great) due to the magnificent (sense the sarcasm) london train system. we hopped on the tube heading towards our destination and when we were a few stops away from it, informed that everyone had to get off because of work being done on the underground. that would have been nice to know BEFORE we had gotten on. so we had to go all the way back to where we had started. needless to say, we got to windsor about an hour and a half later than we had hoped for. but we toured the castle and the grounds and looked around windsor a little bit and i really liked it. i found the town of windsor to be adorable and the castle was cool because the royal family still lives there. although, i do think i like versailles better, but mainly because it is much more extravagant and marie-antoinette interests me more. but i do still like windsor.
when we were done with the castle, we tried heading home, but that too turned into an ordeal. we got to the train station (which you get to by taking a 5 minute train ride from windsor) and after getting there we were informed that we had to go back to windsor to the other train station because due to a train fatality, our train was not running. so again, we lost at least an hour or so of time getting back. our original plan was to have gone to windsor and returned to london by 1:30, we got back at 4 or 5.
at this point, i was starting to get ancy because lynn was supposed to call me when her play got over which it should have been almost over by the time we got back. however, i did not hear from her. so we decided to go to abbey road because that was the only place we wanted to go that wasn't closed, and by the luck of the irish, i ran into lynn in the tube station. so that was fun. so lynn went with christina, jill and myself and we trekked to abbey road which was so amazing for me. i am a beatles fan and am slightly obsessed with "across the universe" so being on abbey road was awesome. i was a little disappointed though because i wanted to copy the album cover (a real original idea, i know) but was unable to because it turns out that abbey road is a very busy road. i almost got hit by a car like 10 times. so we settled with pictures of the road and studio instead.
after abbey road, lynn headed back to cambridge and christina, jill and i went back to the bridge lounge for dinner and we stayed there drinking our irish coffee and feeling intellectual until we could stay awake no longer. we got up very early this morning to make our flight back to barcelona, so needless to say i am exhausted but am also a very happy person. i do believe i shall live in london someday, i was quite a fan.
the hostel was an experience. mostly good, some not so good. like a couple sleeping in jill's bed our first night. that was awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved although we spoke to them the next day and they turned out to be really nice. or the great masturbator. yeah. christina and i walked into our room friday night and this guy was naked and well, you can assume from his name what was going on. or the guy at 4 am who came in and woke everyone up asking if our room was just for girls. but really, other than those few incidents, the hostel was clean and fine considering it is a hostel.
anyways, friday was a jam-packed day getting up at 8 am and headed out the door by 9. our first stop was using the tube to get to parliament and big ben. the tube was definitely an interesting experience for me. now i am used to metros and the overall idea behind how they work. but the tube was strange to me because it literally does remind me of a tube. the cars are much smaller and i felt a little hunched over and im not even that tall.
so we rode the tube and made it to westminster and i thoroughly enjoyed seeing the real-life version of the puzz-3D my cousin, Lauren, and i made way back when, of big ben. very cool. we walked around and saw westminster abby and some authentic british children leaving their authentic british school and ended up at the cabinet war rooms. the cabinet war rooms is where winston churchill stayed during WWII. it was very intersting to see where so many pivotal decisions and history were made. it was also cool to see the rooms like how they were left (for the most part) and to see the maps and telephones that they used and you can see all of the pinholes marking where troops were and where there had been wins and losses.
after the cabinet war rooms we took a stroll through a park that in my opinion, was on the verge of breathtaking, and headed in the direction of buckingham palace. i was disappointed when i got to buckingham though because i was so excited to take pictures with the guards and to try to make them as uncomfortable as possible without getting expelled from great britain. however, the Queen has returned to buckingham, so i got to see my first authentic guard through a gate from very far away. besides that though, buckingham seemed quite cool. i can safely say, judging from the outside, i wouldnt mind living there.
at this point in the day, we decided it was time to take a break and sit down for some grub. we headed to this cute little pub and had some real british cuisine: sausage and mash, fish and chips. i thoroughly enjoyed it. after relaxing for a few we headed over to the tower of london. i was super excited to look at all of the torture stuff because i vaguely remember a classmate of mine who had gone and brought all of these pictures in for my english class senior year (beowulf anyone??) and i remember thinking it looked scary but cool. the actual torture part (at least what i saw) was interesting, but not that extensive. however, we did get to see the crowned jewels which were pretty fab and the bloody tower which held the most interest to me once i heard about the history behind it. i mean, i got to see where "the history of the world" was written!
when we were done with the tower of london, we took a few steps outside and i realized, i was looking at the london bridge. i must admit, it was hard not to bust out into either "london bridge is falling down" or fergie ferg's song about the london bridge. it was very pretty and i took probably too many pictures of it, but whatever, i figured this was the real deal, the REAL london bridge, it was ok to take too many pictures...
after crossing the bridge, we came across this amazing cafe that i recommend to anyone that goes to london. it's called "the bridge lounge" and it is on tooley street just a few blocks away from the london bridge. the irish coffee is to die for and the service was very nice and the food is delicious as well.
anywhoo, we ended up meeting one of jil's friends from school for dinner and afterwards walked around a little bit and went through chinatown.
saturday, we got up early and headed towards windsor castle. we decided to try to get there first thing in the morning because there was other stuff we still wanted to do plus, i was supposed to meet up with my friend, lynn, who was in london for the day to see a play at the globe. needless to say, nothing worked out like how we had planned (although the day still ended up being great) due to the magnificent (sense the sarcasm) london train system. we hopped on the tube heading towards our destination and when we were a few stops away from it, informed that everyone had to get off because of work being done on the underground. that would have been nice to know BEFORE we had gotten on. so we had to go all the way back to where we had started. needless to say, we got to windsor about an hour and a half later than we had hoped for. but we toured the castle and the grounds and looked around windsor a little bit and i really liked it. i found the town of windsor to be adorable and the castle was cool because the royal family still lives there. although, i do think i like versailles better, but mainly because it is much more extravagant and marie-antoinette interests me more. but i do still like windsor.
when we were done with the castle, we tried heading home, but that too turned into an ordeal. we got to the train station (which you get to by taking a 5 minute train ride from windsor) and after getting there we were informed that we had to go back to windsor to the other train station because due to a train fatality, our train was not running. so again, we lost at least an hour or so of time getting back. our original plan was to have gone to windsor and returned to london by 1:30, we got back at 4 or 5.
at this point, i was starting to get ancy because lynn was supposed to call me when her play got over which it should have been almost over by the time we got back. however, i did not hear from her. so we decided to go to abbey road because that was the only place we wanted to go that wasn't closed, and by the luck of the irish, i ran into lynn in the tube station. so that was fun. so lynn went with christina, jill and myself and we trekked to abbey road which was so amazing for me. i am a beatles fan and am slightly obsessed with "across the universe" so being on abbey road was awesome. i was a little disappointed though because i wanted to copy the album cover (a real original idea, i know) but was unable to because it turns out that abbey road is a very busy road. i almost got hit by a car like 10 times. so we settled with pictures of the road and studio instead.
after abbey road, lynn headed back to cambridge and christina, jill and i went back to the bridge lounge for dinner and we stayed there drinking our irish coffee and feeling intellectual until we could stay awake no longer. we got up very early this morning to make our flight back to barcelona, so needless to say i am exhausted but am also a very happy person. i do believe i shall live in london someday, i was quite a fan.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
el duche y las coches
i finally have a serious complaint about espana. SHOWERS. now, i know they are trying to conserve water and be energy efficient and all of that. which is actually kind of funny since all of the stores keep their lights on all night...
but that's beside the point. i realized this morning how much i dislike the showers here in spain. for one, they are cold. two, they're still cold. and three, i have to turn the water on and off, which makes it colder. i always feel kind of bad though because i normally let the water run a little bit at first so that by the time i'm done rinsing my hair for the first time, there is a little bit of warmth. however, i have noticed that for it to be the perfect temperature (you all know what im talking about, that perfect shower temp. where its warm, but not too hot and not too cold), well the perfect temperature doesn't really exist here. because the equivalent of that here, there is still a touch of coolness running in the water.
another semi-complaint i have is the driving here. now, i came into this knowing europeans are crazy drivers. but i was not prepared for them not being afraid to run you over. literally, i was in the middle of the street (there was still the green person signaling it was ok for me to go) and then it turned red when i was halfway across the street and let me tell you, those cars did not wait for me.
another example of how these spaniards driving confuses me is yesterday when i almost got hit by a bus. now, this is not unusual so much in bloomington because i am always almost getting hit by cars, but i acknowledge that is my own fault. i cross where i'm not supposed to and most of the time i' m on my phone so i'm not paying attention. but here, i'm rarely on my phone and am always trying to be on my a-game after that first time where i almost got hit. but yesterday, i was waiting semi-patiently to cross the street and a big tour bus came by. normally, this is not a big deal because i was by placa catalunya which is where everyone gets dropped off and is the main plaza. but this bus driver stopped. and i was confused because she still had a green light, and i still had my little red person telling me to not cross. but this bus just stopped and chilled there even though there wasnt a lot of traffic to warrant this. so after 30 seconds or so of this, i assumed she was letting me pass, so as soon as i start to cross the street, she starts moving! good thing i have reflexes like a cat cuz otherwise, i would be smushed and chilling on passeig de gracia. i am telling you, crazy drivers and cold showers, my only two complaints of spain thus far.
but that's beside the point. i realized this morning how much i dislike the showers here in spain. for one, they are cold. two, they're still cold. and three, i have to turn the water on and off, which makes it colder. i always feel kind of bad though because i normally let the water run a little bit at first so that by the time i'm done rinsing my hair for the first time, there is a little bit of warmth. however, i have noticed that for it to be the perfect temperature (you all know what im talking about, that perfect shower temp. where its warm, but not too hot and not too cold), well the perfect temperature doesn't really exist here. because the equivalent of that here, there is still a touch of coolness running in the water.
another semi-complaint i have is the driving here. now, i came into this knowing europeans are crazy drivers. but i was not prepared for them not being afraid to run you over. literally, i was in the middle of the street (there was still the green person signaling it was ok for me to go) and then it turned red when i was halfway across the street and let me tell you, those cars did not wait for me.
another example of how these spaniards driving confuses me is yesterday when i almost got hit by a bus. now, this is not unusual so much in bloomington because i am always almost getting hit by cars, but i acknowledge that is my own fault. i cross where i'm not supposed to and most of the time i' m on my phone so i'm not paying attention. but here, i'm rarely on my phone and am always trying to be on my a-game after that first time where i almost got hit. but yesterday, i was waiting semi-patiently to cross the street and a big tour bus came by. normally, this is not a big deal because i was by placa catalunya which is where everyone gets dropped off and is the main plaza. but this bus driver stopped. and i was confused because she still had a green light, and i still had my little red person telling me to not cross. but this bus just stopped and chilled there even though there wasnt a lot of traffic to warrant this. so after 30 seconds or so of this, i assumed she was letting me pass, so as soon as i start to cross the street, she starts moving! good thing i have reflexes like a cat cuz otherwise, i would be smushed and chilling on passeig de gracia. i am telling you, crazy drivers and cold showers, my only two complaints of spain thus far.
Monday, September 29, 2008
man, its good to be the king
so, another amazing weekend in barca. friday i had a nice little adventure at the post office with christina. i can safely say i've never had to go through such an ordeal to mail a letter, and it wasn't even my letter! first, you have to go up to this machine and choose if you want a or b. well, we weren't sure what each option meant, so i suggested taking one of both until a nice spanish guy helped us out and told us to take a, which is if you need help mailing a letter. then, they have these televisions set up that tell you which number they're on and what line to go to when it is your turn. i actually found that to be quite cool and made life a little easier when it was christina's turn.
after our post office adventure, i went to a friend's dorm for some ping pong and "the office" which is always a good time. i then met up with some other friends for dinner and a big group of us went out to a couple of the local bars.
saturday was pretty chill, i just hung out and did some homework.
yesterday, however, was spectacular. one of my spanish friends, artur, has a mountain house in a town called el bruc. it was beautiful. the town had one street and was so quaint and cute i could have stayed there forever. although it was funny when artur, sergi, christina and i were going around town picking some stuff up for lunch and we could understand artur telling the people that "he was helping some americans and we were at his place for lunch". we definitely stuck out and it was entertaining to me how all of the spanish people looked at us like we were aliens. i mean, i know its a small town and most likely they don't get a lot of american tourists, but they're only 45 minutes from barcelona...its not like they havent seen other people before! well, maybe they haven't i dunno.
so after picking everything up for lunch and breakfast, we headed further up the mountain to a place called montserrat. at monserrat there is a monistary that has the best boys choir in spain (or so i was told). we didnt get to hear any singing, but the church there was by far the prettiest and my favorite of the churches i've seen so far. after checking the monistary out, we headed up up the mountain on a hike. it is safe to say the views were prety extraordinary and enjoyable.
after our hike we went back to artur's and the boys made us dinner and we sat around and drank good wine and talked for hours. it was a true authentic spanish meal and i thoroughly enjoyed it. especially because artur's family is extremely musical. both of his parents play in different philharmonics and apparently his younger brother was just accepted into the jacobs school of music at IU i believe for piano. so obviously, i am hoping his brother will go there so artur can come visit me!
also, artur is pretty much a genius. he wanted to buy a new violin and was informed it cost 10,000 euros, so he decided that instead he would learn how to make his own. so now, he makes violins (on top of school) and sells them for 4,000 euros. he is also in the process of transforming part of the third floor of his mountain house into a workshop to make his violins...impressive? i think so. it was also quite enjoyable after dinner, when he wanted to show sergi his new keyboard he bought when he was last in the states and he was like "yeah, ive just been messing around with this thing" but seriously, his version of messing around and mine are two extremely different things. he actually knows what he is doing and his messing around were songs that you could hear at a club or on the radio. it is ridiculous, but awesome.
so now, it is monday and that means back to the grind. however, this should be a good week because on wed. night i have a wine tasting class and then thursday night i leave for london for the weekend. i did put up some new pics on my other website, so please, go check them out!
after our post office adventure, i went to a friend's dorm for some ping pong and "the office" which is always a good time. i then met up with some other friends for dinner and a big group of us went out to a couple of the local bars.
saturday was pretty chill, i just hung out and did some homework.
yesterday, however, was spectacular. one of my spanish friends, artur, has a mountain house in a town called el bruc. it was beautiful. the town had one street and was so quaint and cute i could have stayed there forever. although it was funny when artur, sergi, christina and i were going around town picking some stuff up for lunch and we could understand artur telling the people that "he was helping some americans and we were at his place for lunch". we definitely stuck out and it was entertaining to me how all of the spanish people looked at us like we were aliens. i mean, i know its a small town and most likely they don't get a lot of american tourists, but they're only 45 minutes from barcelona...its not like they havent seen other people before! well, maybe they haven't i dunno.
so after picking everything up for lunch and breakfast, we headed further up the mountain to a place called montserrat. at monserrat there is a monistary that has the best boys choir in spain (or so i was told). we didnt get to hear any singing, but the church there was by far the prettiest and my favorite of the churches i've seen so far. after checking the monistary out, we headed up up the mountain on a hike. it is safe to say the views were prety extraordinary and enjoyable.
after our hike we went back to artur's and the boys made us dinner and we sat around and drank good wine and talked for hours. it was a true authentic spanish meal and i thoroughly enjoyed it. especially because artur's family is extremely musical. both of his parents play in different philharmonics and apparently his younger brother was just accepted into the jacobs school of music at IU i believe for piano. so obviously, i am hoping his brother will go there so artur can come visit me!
also, artur is pretty much a genius. he wanted to buy a new violin and was informed it cost 10,000 euros, so he decided that instead he would learn how to make his own. so now, he makes violins (on top of school) and sells them for 4,000 euros. he is also in the process of transforming part of the third floor of his mountain house into a workshop to make his violins...impressive? i think so. it was also quite enjoyable after dinner, when he wanted to show sergi his new keyboard he bought when he was last in the states and he was like "yeah, ive just been messing around with this thing" but seriously, his version of messing around and mine are two extremely different things. he actually knows what he is doing and his messing around were songs that you could hear at a club or on the radio. it is ridiculous, but awesome.
so now, it is monday and that means back to the grind. however, this should be a good week because on wed. night i have a wine tasting class and then thursday night i leave for london for the weekend. i did put up some new pics on my other website, so please, go check them out!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
photoshop
alright, i have finally figured out how to upload photos to a website where all of you can go look at my pictures. here is the web address:
https://www.photoshop.com/user/alexiturbow
if for some reason, that doesnt work please let me know
https://www.photoshop.com/user/alexiturbow
if for some reason, that doesnt work please let me know
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
dancing con fire
so i experienced the best thing of my life on saturday night. i went to this event for the festival called "le correfoc". going into this, i had no idea what to expect. needless to say, any sort of expectation i had was completely blown out of the water. turns out the correfoc is essentially a parade of fire. there were people in dragn, horse, pig, and gargoyle costumes and coming off of these costumes were basically fireworks/sparklers and they literally shot the flames AT people. so of course at first, i was concerned because a)i was not dressed properly since i thought it was going to be more of a show and b)i have never seen anything like this before. all of our comments were basically "this would never be going down in the states...AWESOME" so then, intermixed with the dragons, etc were spanish bands and firedancers. the firedancers were these guys with long poles that had the firework/sparkler combo on the end and again, they would direct the flames at people, but with the firedancers you could also go dance with them under the flames. so even though i was not dressed properly, i of course had to go dance with them! and let me tell you, even though i did get burned a little on my hands and feet, it was the best. experience. ever. and the burns were totally worth it.
after the correfoc, i met up with some other friends and the spanish guys, artur and sergi, again. they also brought another friend of theirs, vicky, so i now know a vicky and a christina in barcelona...
anyways, we all went to this place called the forum, which is essentially the largest slab of concrete in europe. it was a strange place because there is so much concrete, but then there is a carnival, and if you keep walking you get to an area for concerts. at the forum there were actually two concerts going on, so we went to a couple of the concerts there and pretty much just danced the night away. it was a blast. and free, which is always appareciated.
sunday, i got up after only a few hours of sleep (i am starting to learn these crazy spanish ways...and i love it!) and my roommate and i headed into the city center to see the castells. they were pretty cool, and i was excited to see them build the "human castles" in real life after seeing the pictures and hearing so much about them. however, i still think that the correfoc was the highlight of la merce (so far, it ends tomorrow, so maybe something better will come along) and quite possibly my life thus far.
after the correfoc, i met up with some other friends and the spanish guys, artur and sergi, again. they also brought another friend of theirs, vicky, so i now know a vicky and a christina in barcelona...
anyways, we all went to this place called the forum, which is essentially the largest slab of concrete in europe. it was a strange place because there is so much concrete, but then there is a carnival, and if you keep walking you get to an area for concerts. at the forum there were actually two concerts going on, so we went to a couple of the concerts there and pretty much just danced the night away. it was a blast. and free, which is always appareciated.
sunday, i got up after only a few hours of sleep (i am starting to learn these crazy spanish ways...and i love it!) and my roommate and i headed into the city center to see the castells. they were pretty cool, and i was excited to see them build the "human castles" in real life after seeing the pictures and hearing so much about them. however, i still think that the correfoc was the highlight of la merce (so far, it ends tomorrow, so maybe something better will come along) and quite possibly my life thus far.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
the last few days/ La Merce part uno
so, the last few days have been fantastic. first of all, i fixed my class schedule. i switched out of my internation events class into travel writing and unfortunately had to swtich out of my communications class but it was into contemporary spanish film, which also sounds interesting so it works out. also, i was able to have my computer fixed (por libre!) so that is good.
thursday night, a few of us went out with a couple of local spanish guys. my one friend, christina, met the one guy, artur, on the plane on the way he and he offered to show her around Barcelona. So christina, piyal, margaret and I went out with artur and his friend sergi, who were absolutely hilarious. first we went to dinner, and we had them order because they knew what everything was and we were all like "we will try everything and anything, but you guys know your stuff so pick it out and we'll eat it". needless to say we had a delicious feast. literally, the whole table was covered in food. we had everything from salchicas con beans from barcelona to squid, to peppers to foi grois to these little fish that still had their heads. and yes, i tried it all and i liked it all except for the little fish. they were too fishy for me plus i was a little freaked out that i could see their eyes...
after dinner, they took us to a few local places where we tried spanish drinks. of course, i cannot remember the names of them, but at least i remember what they were. the first place was pretty good and there we had a drink that was rum, sugar, lime and crushed ice. it was delicious. after that the guys wanted to take us to dry "panther's milk". at first we were a little leery of this because i mean, panther's milk doesnt sound too enticing at first. well, let me tell you, this stuff was AMAZING. we went to this little dive bar and there were only a few other customers so that made it a lot more fun since we essentially had the place to ourselves. this drink comes in what looks like old wine bottles and is served in a large shot glass, but you just sip it. it is milk, gin, sugar and i believe cinnamon. like i said, delicious and fun because the bartender liked us. we went to another place after the panther's milk but i didnt particularly care for it, it was a shot bar (gross) and was crowded and hot. im excited though because we are getting together with these guys again this weekend (tonight actually) for the big festival and they will show us the places to go.
so this festival. it is called La Merce and it is the biggest festival in catalunya and it is in honor of the virgin of mercy. basically starting last night until wednesday, there are crazy things happening everywhere. in every plaza there is a stage set up with free concerts happening everywhere all night. then during the day, there are different festivities going on. for example, the dancing of the giants, which is a traditional thing here from way back when when people thought that giants lived in the mountains. i am very excited to see the dance of the giants. then there are fire-dancers and fire-runs that are happening tonight inbetween 5-8:30. after that there is more partying and concerts, so there is always something interesting to do and see.
tomorrow they will have the castells, which are human towers. these guys are in teams and they practice this because it can be very dangerous and there are certain techniques. i believe the record for the highest castell was 10 stories high. the festivities go on until wednesday, but i believe that after this weekend, most of what is going on is the concerts. either way it has been a blast so far and im sure will continue to be fun. i will try to put pictures up as soon as i can.
thursday night, a few of us went out with a couple of local spanish guys. my one friend, christina, met the one guy, artur, on the plane on the way he and he offered to show her around Barcelona. So christina, piyal, margaret and I went out with artur and his friend sergi, who were absolutely hilarious. first we went to dinner, and we had them order because they knew what everything was and we were all like "we will try everything and anything, but you guys know your stuff so pick it out and we'll eat it". needless to say we had a delicious feast. literally, the whole table was covered in food. we had everything from salchicas con beans from barcelona to squid, to peppers to foi grois to these little fish that still had their heads. and yes, i tried it all and i liked it all except for the little fish. they were too fishy for me plus i was a little freaked out that i could see their eyes...
after dinner, they took us to a few local places where we tried spanish drinks. of course, i cannot remember the names of them, but at least i remember what they were. the first place was pretty good and there we had a drink that was rum, sugar, lime and crushed ice. it was delicious. after that the guys wanted to take us to dry "panther's milk". at first we were a little leery of this because i mean, panther's milk doesnt sound too enticing at first. well, let me tell you, this stuff was AMAZING. we went to this little dive bar and there were only a few other customers so that made it a lot more fun since we essentially had the place to ourselves. this drink comes in what looks like old wine bottles and is served in a large shot glass, but you just sip it. it is milk, gin, sugar and i believe cinnamon. like i said, delicious and fun because the bartender liked us. we went to another place after the panther's milk but i didnt particularly care for it, it was a shot bar (gross) and was crowded and hot. im excited though because we are getting together with these guys again this weekend (tonight actually) for the big festival and they will show us the places to go.
so this festival. it is called La Merce and it is the biggest festival in catalunya and it is in honor of the virgin of mercy. basically starting last night until wednesday, there are crazy things happening everywhere. in every plaza there is a stage set up with free concerts happening everywhere all night. then during the day, there are different festivities going on. for example, the dancing of the giants, which is a traditional thing here from way back when when people thought that giants lived in the mountains. i am very excited to see the dance of the giants. then there are fire-dancers and fire-runs that are happening tonight inbetween 5-8:30. after that there is more partying and concerts, so there is always something interesting to do and see.
tomorrow they will have the castells, which are human towers. these guys are in teams and they practice this because it can be very dangerous and there are certain techniques. i believe the record for the highest castell was 10 stories high. the festivities go on until wednesday, but i believe that after this weekend, most of what is going on is the concerts. either way it has been a blast so far and im sure will continue to be fun. i will try to put pictures up as soon as i can.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
the second day of school
so today was the second day of school, so i have now had all of my classes except for the ones at universidad de barcelona. yesterday went well, i had my spanish class which will be challenging, but i think will be good, and my language, culture, and communication class which is really interesting. my teacher is really cool and funny and we will be doing a lot with media which makes me happy. in fact, he is forcing us to get spanish newspapers to go through them and every week two people will have to summarize thenews for the class which makes me really happy.
however, today was not as good...
i had my two classes right in a row so i was essentially in class from 9-12:15. that part isnt so bad. however, the classes are pretty much the same class and it's the same teacher, who is really nice but really boring and is very hard to understand (even her powerpoints do not make sense). so, i was considering switching out of the second class (international events in barcelona. it's not what i thought it was going to be) into media and politics in europe. but, that conflicts with my poetry class at UB. so i was considering dropping that, but i came home to an e-mail saying that my other UB course (the one i was supposed to have on mondays after my lcc class) has changed times and now interferes with my LCC class. so, i desperately need to talk to an advisor (which i am doing tomorrow morning) to figure this mess out because i really need the LCC class and the two UB classes because those are the ones that really matter towards my minor/concentration.
then, on top of that my computer is malfunctioning again. i am being informed my computer has almost 600 viruses (how this is possible, i have no idea because its not like im downloading stuff) and when i try to purchase the anti-virus software so i can get rid of this mess, i am unable to. i am assuming that is because the address for my card is in the US and i informed the bank that i would be in spain. however, i do not know for sure. so needless to say, this has been my first "not so perfect" day en espana. so tonight, i am staying in, doing some hw, and getting sleep. hopefully i will get this mess all sorted out manana...
however, today was not as good...
i had my two classes right in a row so i was essentially in class from 9-12:15. that part isnt so bad. however, the classes are pretty much the same class and it's the same teacher, who is really nice but really boring and is very hard to understand (even her powerpoints do not make sense). so, i was considering switching out of the second class (international events in barcelona. it's not what i thought it was going to be) into media and politics in europe. but, that conflicts with my poetry class at UB. so i was considering dropping that, but i came home to an e-mail saying that my other UB course (the one i was supposed to have on mondays after my lcc class) has changed times and now interferes with my LCC class. so, i desperately need to talk to an advisor (which i am doing tomorrow morning) to figure this mess out because i really need the LCC class and the two UB classes because those are the ones that really matter towards my minor/concentration.
then, on top of that my computer is malfunctioning again. i am being informed my computer has almost 600 viruses (how this is possible, i have no idea because its not like im downloading stuff) and when i try to purchase the anti-virus software so i can get rid of this mess, i am unable to. i am assuming that is because the address for my card is in the US and i informed the bank that i would be in spain. however, i do not know for sure. so needless to say, this has been my first "not so perfect" day en espana. so tonight, i am staying in, doing some hw, and getting sleep. hopefully i will get this mess all sorted out manana...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
this weekend
this weekend has been awesome (shocker). yesterday i got up and jill and i went into to placa catalyuna to meet up with our friends lindsey, katie, and eda to go to la sagrada familia. it was pretty cool. the detail on it is ridiculous/awesome, but in my opinion, it was not worth the 8 euros (10 euros without the international student card which thank goodness i have). i mean, it is very pretty but again, in my opinion, not worth the money. so then, we got lost on the metro trying to get to parc guell (which is where all of the famous mosaics are). but we finally got there after stopping at a cafe to grab some lunch. it was absolutely beautiful. for me, seeing the mosaics was the one thing i really wanted to do in barcelona. one of my favorite movies, l'auberge espagnol, is set in barcelona and the main character goes there a few times. honetly, i was so happy/excited i teared up a little bit. i definitely plan on going back there (especially since it is FREE) to spend some more time looking around.
then today, a bunch of us went on a day trip to Tarragona, which was about an hour away by train. It was very interesting to me because there are a lot of roman ruins there and I am all about history, so I found it to be quite exciting. Christian, Sean, and I were the only ones that went to the ruins though. No one else wanted to pay to get in (even though it was less than 5 euros for entrance to every roman ruin, which there were many) so they went on and did their own thing. So we explored the ruins which was a lot of fun and again, very interesting. After that we met up with the rest of them for lunch, but we couldnt all decide on where to go so we split up again. My group ended up getting a little tour from this guy (we aren't sure what his real name is, but we decided he looked like a Louis) because he was trying to help us find a good place to eat. The first place would have been good but there was no seating. It was nice though because he knew the owner and was like, "These are good people, take care of them!" So then we followed him around Tarragona, looking for a place to eat. We finally found a place (without Louis) and just kind of chilled. We then went to look at the cathedral (which was pretty, large, and we weren't allowed in) and just walked around some more. After that, we all met up and headed home which is where I stayed tonight since I am exhausted from all of the walking I have done the last couple of days.
On a different note, I would like to reiterate how much I enjoy my living situation. My host mom is the best. The last few nights she has been teaching me different things in the kitchen (like the names of things) and then last night quizzed me and I pretty much aced it. She was impressed. She then started working with me on my numbers to work on my pronunciation and again she commented on how well I am doing and how quickly I am picking it up. I like to think of her as my personal Spanish coach, only without all of the yelling. And then this evening, we discussed food and cooking (she is an excellent cook) and she told me the names of more things (like a pot, the burners on the stove, a cutting board, etc) and said that if I want I can watch her cook stuff and she will definitely give me recipes. So, I am very pumped about that.
Thats pretty much all I've got for now, tomorrow is my last day before classes start on Monday. Here are the links to a couple more albums I have from this weekend. I am still working on putting them all on one website, but until then, this will have to do.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=46585042&l=761c0&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496763&l=bbedb&id=6855160
then today, a bunch of us went on a day trip to Tarragona, which was about an hour away by train. It was very interesting to me because there are a lot of roman ruins there and I am all about history, so I found it to be quite exciting. Christian, Sean, and I were the only ones that went to the ruins though. No one else wanted to pay to get in (even though it was less than 5 euros for entrance to every roman ruin, which there were many) so they went on and did their own thing. So we explored the ruins which was a lot of fun and again, very interesting. After that we met up with the rest of them for lunch, but we couldnt all decide on where to go so we split up again. My group ended up getting a little tour from this guy (we aren't sure what his real name is, but we decided he looked like a Louis) because he was trying to help us find a good place to eat. The first place would have been good but there was no seating. It was nice though because he knew the owner and was like, "These are good people, take care of them!" So then we followed him around Tarragona, looking for a place to eat. We finally found a place (without Louis) and just kind of chilled. We then went to look at the cathedral (which was pretty, large, and we weren't allowed in) and just walked around some more. After that, we all met up and headed home which is where I stayed tonight since I am exhausted from all of the walking I have done the last couple of days.
On a different note, I would like to reiterate how much I enjoy my living situation. My host mom is the best. The last few nights she has been teaching me different things in the kitchen (like the names of things) and then last night quizzed me and I pretty much aced it. She was impressed. She then started working with me on my numbers to work on my pronunciation and again she commented on how well I am doing and how quickly I am picking it up. I like to think of her as my personal Spanish coach, only without all of the yelling. And then this evening, we discussed food and cooking (she is an excellent cook) and she told me the names of more things (like a pot, the burners on the stove, a cutting board, etc) and said that if I want I can watch her cook stuff and she will definitely give me recipes. So, I am very pumped about that.
Thats pretty much all I've got for now, tomorrow is my last day before classes start on Monday. Here are the links to a couple more albums I have from this weekend. I am still working on putting them all on one website, but until then, this will have to do.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=46585042&l=761c0&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496763&l=bbedb&id=6855160
Thursday, September 11, 2008
bailar
yesterday was a good day (although i guess i say that about everyday here). i went to class and we went on a field trip to las ramblas, which is an avenue near placa catalyuna that has a bunch of shops and stuff, but i dont particularly like it because it is very touristy. anyways, so we walked around there and went to the market there (which was actually pretty nice with good food and its cheap). im still not used to the markets though with their seafood because all of the fish still have their heads and some of them are still alive! like at one stand some of the crabs were still alive and moving, and at another, we were asking this woman a question (we were doing a little scavenger hunt type deal) and i dont even know what it was, but something that looked like shrimp, only much larger just like bolted and it was trying to get away and moving and stuff. freaked me out. anyways, so after class i went with my friends jill and skylar to el corte-ingles, which is a department store here that is everywhere, but theres one right across the street from ies center 1, and i put more minutes on my phone and they were doing phone stuff. then we met up with christina and went to our irish pub for lunch. today i had chicken kebabs with salad and potato wedges and a beer for 6 euros. awesome. and then we did some shopping. i didnt buy anything (dont worry dad, im trying to spend money wisely, like food, sometimes drinks, and travel!). but we ended up walking to the cathedral and went into a bakery and then went to this other restaurant to have some sangria. it was quite delicious and only 3 euros. i then met back up with piyal and we came home. we were both really tired and i was looking forward to a siesta before dinner and going out last night, but when we came home our senora told us that she found a cheap place for us to take dance classes (we had told her we were interested in taking a spanish dance class while here) so she took us to go sign up! im pretty excited for this class. they teach a bunch of different dances, like the mambo and salsa and cha-cha, etc. and the timing is perfect because its on monday nights starting the first week in october-december 15 which is right before we leave here. so, that was exciting. i just cannot get over how nice people are here. im always expecting them to be rude or un-friendly, but when piyal and i stopped at the consum (its a cheap grocery store here) we were trying to figure out how to ask for face wash and lotion, and this lady overheard us who speaks english. so she helped us which was nice. and my host mom is just adorable. she is friendly and helpful and i have really noticed an improvement in my spanish just by trying to talk to her and communicate. its all still very exciting. so then we came back and had dinner (tortillas but not like how we think in the us, its like an egg thing with different stuff in it, it is a personal fave so far, more of the cauliflower mix, salad and melon for dessert) and then i got ready and went up to christina's neighborhood. we chilled there while waiting for sean to come because we all went out to this club, carpe diem, last night. today was the first day of a national holiday here, so we decided to suck it up and deal with the americans/ies people since the drinks were cheap and we could dance. it was fun. and now today, im relaxing and later will be going back to christina's (she lives in an apartment) where she, jill and i are making dinner for a bunch of people and then we're going to go out to a local place to help celebrate the festival this weekend!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
la dia pasade y hoy
last night, piyal, our friend jill who lives nearby, and i went up to our friend christina's neighborhood. there we met up with christina and another girl, skylar and we went to a mexican restaurant where they were having margarita mondays. it was a nice place that was really good (and cheap!) so i think we're going to make it our weekly thing, kind of like our version of sex and the city. today was pretty chill like yesterday. i went to class and spoke to my profesor, ata, afterwards to talk about why he was in fort wayne, indiana living and teaching. turns out, he taught in huntington, which for those of you that dont know, some of my good friends from IU are from there, so that was a strange coincidence. he also took some classes and lived in bloomington for awhile, so it was nice that he knew my campus and could tell me how pretty it is (even though i already knew that). after class vinnie, jill and i met up with christina and skylar and we went to lunch. we found this great irish pub that is a 5 minute walk from the center. most likely we will be frequenting this place because it was so cheap 6 euros for a full meal plus drink. i then went to this talk about how to get the most out of your experience here. it was pretty interesting and gave me some insight into some things, so that is always good. after that i came home and since have been working on putting pictures up. i will post the links here, but am trying to set up another web page through adobe so that all of you can see my pictures whenever you want. tonights dinner was good. we had pollo (chicken) but she pounded it so that it looked like a hamburger, cauliflower (which was actually quite delicious, surprisingly) with potatos, and salad with watermelon for dessert. thats all for now, but im excited because this weekend is a festival so that shall be very interesting to see.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2493866&l=6e1b4&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495121&l=a664a&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495138&l=77cba&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495197&l=34bfb&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2493866&l=6e1b4&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495121&l=a664a&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495138&l=77cba&id=6855160
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495197&l=34bfb&id=6855160
Monday, September 8, 2008
Valencia!
OMG Valencia is AMAZING!!! i had such an amazing weekend, so just as a heads up, this will be a very long post. Friday we left to head towards Valencia, but my group made a stop in Peniscola which is this beautiful sea town on the way to Valencia. In Peniscola I had a tour of my first castle (muy exciting) and made my first friend other than my roommate. Her name is Nicolette and she's pretty cool. She's from Texas and fun, but def very energetic. Like way more than me. But it was still fun. THen after spending some time there we went to Valencia and checked in to our hotel, Hotel Beatrix. Turns out, my roommate at the hotel, Jill, was one of the nice people that I met at this speed networking thing the other day, so that turned out well. At dinner we met a bunch more people that are pretty much awesome. There's Christina, Vinnie, Sean, Kaitlyn, and Lindsey. So after dinner we all met up and went out to a couple bars. The first one was alright, the wine I had was good but the place itself was just eh. So we went searching for another place and found this place called Sweet Soul. It was so much fun. There werent a lot of people in there and it was decorated in like 70s stuff which is always fun. So, since we had the place to ourselves it was a good time. Then on Saturday, had breakfast and went on a tour of the old part of Valencia and the Cathedral there. It was absolutely beautiful and very interesting. We also went through the central market which I found to be mesmerizing with the atmosphere. Then we had some free time to grab lunch and look around, so we went to a cafe and had sandwiches and just walked around for awhile. Then we headed with the group to the ciudad des artes y sciences and checked out some of the buildings there (which were magnificent) and then we headed towards the playa and saw where all of the teams have their boats for the America's Cup. Then went back to the hotel took a siesta and went to dinner which was much better from the night before. We had salad and paella and fruit. Then we met some more people Quinn, Steve, Raul, Charlie, Ralph, Lennon, and Meryl and we all went out. We went to placa de la Reina and found this pub called "Pub Sherlock Holmes" It was pretty sweet, we just sat around and talked and stuff. Then we went back to the hotel. Yesterday we got up, checked out, and went to the aquarium (which in all honesty was kind of depressing) and then had time to get lunch. Then we came back to Barcelona. Today was chill, I had class and then an advising meeting at 5:15 and inbetween just grabbed lunch and hung out with people and now I am getting ready to go to my friend Christina's neighborhood where a bunch of us are meeting up to go get some drinks and chill. I am sorry about not having any pics up yet, but I am working on it i promise!!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Gold Coast...Barcelona Style
so, apparently where i live in barcelona is similar to chicago's gold coast...i find that fitting. i know this because today piyal and i met with our RA, a girl named Maria who lives in our neighborhood, and a guy, Jordan (who also lives in our neighborhood. there is another guy in the program living in this barrio but he was sick and didnt make it tonight). so anyways, we walked around our barrio and gracia. she was explaining to us that where we are is where a lot of people with money live and they buy expensive stuff in this area. however, in gracia (which i fell in love with and piyal and i are going to go back there to check it out some more) it is cheaper. there were a lot more stores and a market that actually contains a flea market. im excited to go back there so i can check it out to see if there are any good things there (ie gifts for you guys). however, gracia was especially beautiful to me because it used to be a separate town, but now is part of barcelona. therefore, the people that live there are very proud and asked where they are from, they say gracia. my senora told us that she loves gracia because it is a good mix of the old and the new. there are many older people that live there and also many students. she also said that it is great for shopping because there are so many cute stores but they are much cheaper than where we are and sant gervasi which is the barrio right on the other side of us. however, this all happened much later today, from 7-8 or 9. before that i went to IES for my first day of intensive spanish class. my teacher is hilarious and lived in the US for 12 years. he actually lived in chicago, cincinnati, fort wayne and milwaukee. we basically went over the basics today and monday will start with the hardcore lessons. after that, piyal and i went to lunch with some girls we met yesterday. there is naomi who goes to a school in virginia i think (i cant remember its so hard to keep everybody straight), another girl named naomi who is from kansas city, missouri and is philipino, and margaret who is from Bloomington and goes to IU (which makes it nice to have someone to comiserate with). we went to this restaurant called cent focs and had the menu del dia. for those of you that dont know (which i didnt until a couple days ago...) this means that there are options for an appetizer, main course, and dessert, andyou pick one from each category. i had a salad with chicken, salchichas (sausage) with a salsa/sauce that i cant really describe but it was delicioso, and lemon sorbet for dessert. our meal also included water or wine, i went with water but tried some of the wine, and it was also quite good. after lunch the one naomi (non-philipino), piyal and i went back to the center for speed networking which was fun. i met some more people to hang out with, which is always a good thing. i then bought a cell phone, so for those of you that love me so much you dont mind the charges for a 5 minute phone call here, my number is: +34. 627116494 i then watched some street performers sing "i shot the sheriff" and then we went home. after our barrio tour we had dinner (macaroni minus the cheese with veggies, a tuna sandwich with tomatoe and lettuce and watermelon) and now here i am. im not really doing anything tonight because i have to be up and at the hard rock cafe by 8:45 tomorrow morning to meet my group to go to valencia. so, that is all for now, but i wont be able to write for a few days, but dont worry! i shall be back on sunday night/monday to give you every little detail of valencia.
p.s.
the club last night was pretty sweet, although most likely not a place i would go to again because it is in a very touristy area and it was all americans. im working on trying to find a good local place that real spanish people go to so i can meet them and utiliso mi espagnol (or lack thereof)
p.s.
the club last night was pretty sweet, although most likely not a place i would go to again because it is in a very touristy area and it was all americans. im working on trying to find a good local place that real spanish people go to so i can meet them and utiliso mi espagnol (or lack thereof)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
metro
today i figured out the metro. well, kind of. i figured out how to get to my house to the center for my program and back. but this is a start. i must say that riding the metro makes me feel super cool because the only other times ive really ridden on "a metro" was in paris or new york city which i think we can all agree are pretty rad places. so today has been a good day. i made it to my orientation even though it started at 9 and realized that about half of the students on this program are form santa clara in california and then another 30% are from wake forest. awesome...not so much. its very strange to me because there are only a few people from IU and i didnt know any of those people until this evening and i had assumed before getting here that this was somewhat similar to the program i did in france, so that the students would be from all over. this is not the case. everyone is from america and since 70-80% knew each other beforehand from school it has made it a little difficult to get to know people. however, i hope that this will change once we start spending more times with our classes and groups. and piyal (that is my roommate's nickname) and i get along well so that has been fine wandering around town with her. after we were done with the center for the day, we went to try to find me a phone and came into the problem that i needed my passport to get a phone here so that they can register me. so, i shall go do that manana. so i then went to the cathedral which was pretty, but we didnt stay too long because this particular trip was just to fulfill some of the "cultural passport" we have been given. i want to be one of the first 20 students to get 100 points with this so that i can get a free art ticket which would allow me to go to different museums and such for free. plus, i did not have my camera yet and i want to go back when i will be able to enjoy myself and take pictures to share with all of you. after the cathedral we went to marque santa martina which was a very nice, large food market that had some cafes and stores in it as well. it is a landmark here because it has a very colorful roof that makes it easy to spot. after this we went searching for lunch which turned out to be quite difficult for me since we never got that far in my spanish class. i only know the basic foods but never learned how to order, so i did more of a "pointing at the picture grunt type thing". no, thats not completely true, i didnt grunt i said the name of the food, but i did have to point at the picture. after lunch we started heading back towards placa cataluyuna which is where our center is located to show what we had done so far and to see if my backpack arrived from stockholm (which it did thank goodness) and on our way we saw a sign for churros (which is also part of the passaporte cultural) so we stopped and split an order. they were pretty good, they tasted like an elephant ear/funnel cake in a different form with the chocolate that is normally put on crepes in france. however, they are definitely something that would be much better later in the fall when its chilly and not in the 80s. after retrieving my bag from the center we returned home (via metro) and dropped my bag off. i then went to a market down the street to buy some necessities and freshened up before heading back to the placa cataluyuna where we had the opening ceremony for our program at a hotel. the opening ceremony was decent; they had food and drinks (non-alcoholic) and i had a chance to meet some people, but not a whole lot. i actually met a girl from bloomington that goes to IU so that was nice . but for the most part, i felt it was more awkward because again, that whole 80% of the students already knowing each other thing comes into play. now i am getting ready to take a nap before dinner and afterwards we are going to this club called "carpe diem" for a party. i am quite excited to see what the nightlife is like here in barcelona since i have heard it is just fabulous. SO, that is all for now but i will def be reporting back on the nightlife
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Day 1
hola everybody! i have safely arrived in barcelona and the only mishap was my backpack being left behind in stockholm :( oh well, i would have liked to have spent more time there as well so i guess i cant really blame my bag. and the good news is that i should have it within the next 48 hours. other than that, everything went really well. my flights were pretty much on time and flying SAS to stockholm was awesome. i got to pick what i watched and the time went by pretty quickly. i have had some interesting encounters already though. while sitting at the airport in chicago, this girl came up to me that is working on her masters. she is from belarus and we got to talking and she told me how all american students look alike because we all dress alike and have the same haircut. i found thi sinteresting since some friends and i were discussing the other day how we think other groups of people look the same, but how different we all look. she also inquired about what is is american college students love about flip-flops (i was wearing a pair from Old Navy). i had no real answer. then, the taxi driver i had was really nice, but did not speak any english. he did however speak catalan, spanish and french. so we tried talking in french but i gave up because i started speaking something i would like to call franish (french and spanish) it wasnt pretty. but i must say, even though i havent seen most of the city, what i did say was quite spectacular. my roommate ibithal is pretty awesome. she is form bangladesh but goes to lafayette college and is an econ. and math major. she is very nice and personable though considering her majors. tomorrow we go to the IES center together (we have to be there at 9) which is good since she already knows where it is. my apartment i am in is very nice. my mom, felicidad, is super nice and she used to be a professor so she is very patient with my lack of spanish speaking skills. however, i am happy because i am able to understand most of what she says, i just cant quite figure out how to respond. but again, she has been quite helpful thus far and is patient with me. she has three kids, but only the youngest livest at home. his name is alejandro, and i dunno how old he is, i would say like mid-20s. then there is the dog, leyeno i think and this dog is adorable! i will def be putting up some photos of the dog because he is 7 months old and appears to be a german shephard mix. he is very sweet. the only other real thing i have to say about today is the meal i had for dinner. it was delicious! i had ensalada, carne (it was a mix of beef and pork and was like real thin patties) and some arroz (rice with veggies) and honeydew for desset. i must say, i feel quite comfortable here so i guess we can count this first day as a success!
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