SBX Part 1: Greece

//\\ So, this post is extremely belated, but enjoy anyway, and look for more to come! I promise to recap my trips and write a farewell post, all in due time :) //\\

April 17, 2010
These last few weeks of class are real Debbie Downers... they are keeping us busy with presentations, papers and exams. Of course, after returning from spring break, everyone realized that we have very little time left with everyone here. For me, classes officially end in ten days. When did this happen?! I swear just yesterday, I was gearing up for a month full of traveling adventures, and the end of April seemed very far away. Although I'm feeling nostalgic for the comforts of home (mom's chicken soup, dad's steak tacos...) I'm not ready to leave yet. Lucky for me, I get 3 extra weeks after classes end to experience Europe. Not sure what I will be filling those weeks with, but I'll let you know when I do :)

Now, a little recap of my spring break trip! I spent an amazing ten days in Athens, Santorini, Florence and Rome, and had some unforgettable experiences.

The journey began bright and early on a Friday, where my travel buddies and I headed to the airport lugging large, heavy suitcases and a lot of bottled up excitement. Our first stop: Athens. We were to arrive in the early afternoon, and were looking forward to a day walking around and seeing the sights. After dropping our stuff off at Hostel Zeus, we headed "toward the mountain," which to local Grecians is a sufficient and useful way to give directions to tourists hoping to reach the Parthenon. We stopped at a small gyro stand close to our hostel for some much needed sustenance, and I tried my first gyro (because Amsterdam does NOT count)!

We headed towards the Parthenon, stopping to take in the sight of several ruins on the way, which was really cool. Ever since seeing the Foro Romano when I went to Italy with my family about 8 years ago, I have always been amazed/intrigued by the realization that these places are thousands of years old; you just don't get that kind of ancient history in the US, and I feel really lucky that I've had the opportunity to see both ancient Greece and Rome. Anyway, after a good hike up, we made it to the top of the hill, only to find that the Parthenon had been closed for about 3 hours.. but, we did find a great lookout spot with views of the whole city, and were able to catch the sunset up there, too. 

We then had a delicious dinner, and headed back to the hostel. There was a rooftop bar at Hostel Zeus, so we checked it out and had a couple drinks. Our flight to Santorini was the next morning, so we just chilled the rest of the night. 

Disclaimer: The next four days of spring break were the most relaxing, amazing days I have ever experienced. I became obsessed with the island of Santorini, and words can't actually accurately express how much I love that place. But I'll do my best.

Our flight left Athens at 8:05am, and we took off on the smallest jet plane any of us had ever been on. Catherine, who doesn't enjoy flying anyway, was a little bit freaked out. 

But it was all worth it to see this...

We were picked up at the airport by the owner of our hotel, Lefteris. He is a jovial man who has lived his entire life on the island of Santorini, which explains why he is such a happy person. We were greeted each morning with a "Good morning girls, if you need anything you tell me! You want a coffee or a tea?" and he was so helpful and friendly. Our room wasn't ready when we first got there, so we had all morning to explore the streets of Fira. We discovered this great restaurant called the Pelican Bar, which we ended up having breakfast at every morning the rest of the trip. We had delicious omelettes with mushrooms and feta cheese, a great way to start the day. If you turned right leaving our hotel, you found fields full of daisies, and a view of the sea. If you turned left and walked about 10 minutes through some cute cobblestone streets, you ran right into the caldera, or cliffside. Running into the caldera that first morning was the most amazing experience--to me, it represents the quintessential Greek island. 

After settling into our room, which was a million times better than any hostel I've stayed in, and cheaper than most, we decided to head to the beach! Santorini has 3 beaches- the black beach, the red beach, and the white beach. The black beach is made of volcanic rock, and is the only one that you don't need a boat to get to. So we took a bus to Kamari beach, a short way from our hotel, where we enjoyed a nice dinner and a great view. 

The next day, we woke up leisurely, ate our omelettes, and headed to a bike shop to rent some ATVs for the day. Best.day.of.my.life. There is nothing better than being able to explore an island entirely by ATV. Seriously. Do it sometime. The three of us were like giddy children, and could not stop smiling. We rented two bikes for the three of us, so we took turns riding them solo or sharing. I got the bike to myself at first, and I was seriously having the time of my life. 

We first headed toward the town of Oia, about a 30 minute ride from Fira. We pulled over for a while on the way to take some photos, of course...

In search of the town center, we actually turned too soon and found ourselves walking down the cliffside, where we ended up at a currently under construction hotel that was completely deserted. It turned out to be the perfect location to get some sun and appreciate the beautiful, white-washed serenity of Oia. 

We then headed back toward Fira, but continued on in hopes of reaching the red beach before sundown. Well, we caught the sunset on our way, but when we got to what we hoped was the red beach (after a little hiking...), we found out you actually need a boat to reach it. Oops. What we saw was still completely beautiful though.

So, to recap: Our fun-filled ATV adventure took us from one end of the island-Oia, to almost the completely opposite end. We drove back to Fira exhausted, but completely content after our day of exploring, and decided that the only way to go for the next two days was by 4-wheeler. 

The next day, we took a boat tour to go see a volcano, and then swim in some hot springs. The boat ride was nice, and it was a gorgeous day. The website for these tours had warned that you should wear comfortable walking shoes, but all of us ignored that warning and wore cute sandals and flip flops. Well, getting around this volcano required a good deal of hiking; needless to say, our feet were not thanking us  for this, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. The hot spring was an interesting experience, and was not what any of us expected. By this I mean that generally, a hot spring sounds like a big, natural hot tub where one can relax and enjoy, that generally does not involve any form of stress. Well, our tour guides anchored the boats about 75 meters from the actual hot spring, which required us to to swim through the knife-like cold of the sea to reach it. This would have been fine, even worth it, to reach the expected "hot" of the hot spring; weeeell, hot was more like lukewarm, erring on the side of chilly. The place smelled of sulfur, and we weren't exactly basking in the heat, more like shivering and trying to find the spots where warmth was spurting out momentarily. So. We stayed a bit, then swam back to our boat, which also involved holding up the plastic bag containing Catherine's camera, which made the swimming more of a challenge. Despite the unexpectedness of our little boat excursion, I'm glad to have invested in this 3-hour tour, for the simple fact that every piece of an experience goes to create the tapestry of the memory. 

One of my most unforgettable experiences of this entire spring break happened after the boat ride, however. The three of us were still wet from swimming, and wearing dresses and skirts, so we made the executive decision while on the boat to take the cable car up the Caldera upon our return. When we walked to catch it, however, it was closed. We waited around for a couple minutes, trying to figure out what to do next, when we realized that everyone else from the boat tours would be, well, in the same boat as us, and we had better hurry to secure a form of transportation up the cliffside, which is a treacherous and long walk. The next 20 minutes were a whirlwind--we walked over to the base of the Caldera; an old Greek man asked us if we wanted to take a donkey ride; we said yes; we paid him; we walked over to a group of donkeys; we were hoisted on in a hurried fashion; we began the trek up; Catherine's donkey took her a little too close to the edge for comfort; my saddle started to slide off (probably due to my leaning to take videos...); a herd of "free-range donkeys" stampeded down the hill, complete with small Greek man chasing after them; my saddle continued to hold me at a precarious 45-degree angle; I prepared myself to fall off the donkey; our guide came to rescue me, or so I thought... but really, it was just the end of the ride! This donkey ride, which was simply taken as a quick form of transportation, turned into an unforgettable experience, and fulfilled one of the bulletpoints of my Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants checklist :)

Later on that day, we headed to Perissa on our ATVs, which is another part of the island along the black beach. We soaked up the sun all afternoon, and then headed on our way back to Oia, to catch the famous sunset! We stopped at a small convenience store on the way, and bought way too many snacks and a bottle of wine for the occasion. We walked through the town of Oia, which is so charming and lined with great little shops; we made a mental note to come back and check it out during the day. Anyway, we found a great spot to watch the sunset from, and posted up. We had heard that during peak summer months, hundreds of people could be found on the Caldera to watch the sunsets on any given evening, which made for a crowded experience. Lucky for us, there weren't too many people there, and we could enjoy the beauty of it without much distraction. The view was straight out of a postcard; I had high expectations for this particular sunset, because I had heard that it was one of the most beautiful in the world. What I found out though was that the sun sets beautifully wherever you are, but it's the atmosphere and sun setting on the white-washed beauty of this small, Greek town that makes it special.

One of my most memorable experiences came after watching the sunset; it was my turn to drive the ATV solo, so I took off ahead of the other two with a need for speed. Despite the cheesiness of this statement, I felt more alive than I have ever felt driving along the now-familiar road back to Fira. The cold wind was whipping across my face and hands, I admired the way the moonlight struck the water (and made the surface look like queso; very eloquent, I know), the smell of the flowers was intoxicating; all of this, coupled with the deserted road and the loudness of the ATV motor, motivated me to start singing. First, at a normal volume, which quickly turned into me belting out any and every song I had in recent memory. It was the most liberating, exhilarating feeling I have ever experienced, and I felt true joy in that moment. 

Our final day in Santorini was filled with beach time and a return to the town of Oia for shopping. While the other girls shopped, I took some time to write a couple postcards, and search for stamps (which was harder than it should have been). I admired the view of the Caldera one last time over an ice cream cone, and in that moment, vowed to return someday. Santorini is ridiculously romantic, so going with future hubby is a must. 

Leaving Santorini was hard, but the next leg of our journey was sure to be a worthy contender: Italia! I was excited to return to two of the places I had gone with my family when I was 13; Rome was my favorite, and I hadn't gotten a real feel for Florence back then, so I was excited to go back. 

Italy post coming soon!

Dublin.

Now that I'm back from spring break, I have a lot of catching up to do concerning this blog! The weekend before spring break (March 19-21), I ventured to Dublin, Ireland for a few days. My good friend Clint was nice enough to let me crash at his place, which was a short walk from the center of town, so that was great. I was looking forward to experiencing Ireland the weekend after St. Patrick's Day, even though people had told me that it wasn't a big deal there.

Once we got there, we dropped our stuff off at Clint's and then started walking toward Grafton Street, which is pretty centralized within the city. The street is known as a shopping area, and it's completely pedestrian, with a great atmosphere. There were street vendors selling beautiful flowers, and of course the usual street performers (a guy making huge bubbles, and some musicians). Right on the corner of Grafton Street is Trinity College, which is famous for housing the Book of Kells, a manuscript transcribed by Celtic monks around the year 800, containing the four gospels of the New Testament. It's printed on calfskin, and the calligraphy and illustrations are amazingly detailed. After seeing it, you are led into the Long Room of the Old Library, which was totally unexpected and cool! It's literally this really long hallway, completely lined with shelves housing ridiculously old books. They had to vault the ceiling to add another level of shelves, and it's really impressionable.

Trinity College

We then made our way over to St. Stephen's Green, a huge park on the other end of Grafton Street. We walked around and saw swans in this pond, which was really pretty. 

Friday night, we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Green 19. We also hit up a great pub called The Bleeding Horse.

Saturday, Beata and I had a lot we needed to see, so we bought one of those hop-on, hop-off bus passes that takes you to all the tourist hotspots in town. Best. idea. ever. First spot on our tour was St. Patrick's cathedral, which was really cool to see. St. Patrick's park was great as well, and we had a nice little photo shoot outside. We had heard it wasn't really worth it to go in, so we went ahead and passed on entering. 

Next stop: the Guinness Storehouse! I really enjoyed the tour, and we ended it on the 7th floor at the Gravity Bar, where they poured us a perfect pint of Guinness. After being taught how to properly drink it earlier in the tour, I actually enjoyed my pint a lot.

After Guinness, the bus took us to Kilmainham Gaol, which is an old jail that is most famous for housing political prisoners after the 1923 rebellions. Many of these rebellion leaders were imprisoned and executed in Kilmainham. The tour was really interesting, and the place is definitely a little eerie. 

The plan was to do some more stuff on Sunday morning before heading back to Barcelona, but after an unfortunate run-in with a bladder infection that caused me to spend 5 hours in the emergency waiting room from 4-9am, I decided that sleep was more of a priority haha. Despite that, I had an amazing time, and really enjoyed the atmosphere of Dublin. The people were SO friendly, and it was nice to have some American comforts (a.k.a Subway). I'd love to go back someday and maybe explore the Irish countryside, and I've heard great things about Scotland as well. 

Next post: Spring break updates! I had an AMAZING week, traveling to Athens, Santorini, Florence and Rome. It was a whirlwind, but I loved (almost) every minute of it... I'll fill you in when I get some more time! As for now, I'm off to watch the Barca game with my cousin Ricky!

Cheers!

Still need to do a Dublin post, buuut...

I'm in GREECE.

I will do it though, promise.

Excited to be here...

All in the next two weeks. 

♥

Amster-dam good weekend.

So, the weekend started bright and early with a 6:45am flight. Beata and I decided to just stay up all night and head straight to the airport--even after many wise folks told us not to do this. Adventure prevailed though, and Thursday night we met up with some friends at L'Ovella Negra, a favorite Barcelona bar with delicious sangria pitchers, and spent the evening with great conversation and of course, some of our favorite fruity beverage. We headed back to the Mar, an affectionate name for our dorm, Mestral Mar, and finished up some last minute packing before heading out to El Prat. We literally passed out on the flight, and woke up as the plane was landing in Amsterdam.

After a nice chat with our cab driver, who was originally from Suriname, we made it to our hostel, Hotel Orfeo. It was in a great location, close to lots of restaurants and a short walk from Leidseplein Square, which is the heart of Amsterdam's nightlife. I won't lie, after a delicious breakfast at a nearby restaurant (with the most delicious, and expensive, glass of fresh squeezed orange juice I have ever experienced) and getting all situated in our room, we slept for a good 3 hours. It was a refreshing nap, and since we got there so early in the morning, we still had all afternoon for sightseeing! It started with a walk down the street next to the canal, and even on this gloomy Friday afternoon, it was a charming sight.

We headed first to the Anne Frank house, which I was very excited to see. Besides the book being a virtual staple in the United States middle school English classroom, I have always been really interested in WWII/Holocaust history. The tour of the house was incredible, and seeing the bookshelf leading to the hiding place was surreal. At one point, while standing in what used to be Anne Frank's room, I just had a somber moment and thought about how she had stood in that exact spot at some point. Later that evening, we were able to see the Van Gogh museum. My mom insisted I splurge on the audio tour headset, so I ventured to the first floor, ready to get some good commentary. There was a lovely jazz band playing in the atrium of the museum; however, said jazz band was not conducive to me being able to hear anything being said on my headset. So after some frustration, I went ahead and returned the headphones and got a refund. However, I was still able to enjoy the artwork, but left wishing there had been more Van Gogh and not so much other artwork. I don't know if the name deceived me, but I loved all the Van Gogh stuff. We spent the evening literally wandering the city streets, with no real plan. We experienced the infamous red light district, which was something else.

Saturday, we explored the Rijksmuseum, which is dedicated to Dutch history and art. It's housed in a beautiful building that was unfortunately under construction, so didn't really take too many pictures. After searching for a place to eat lunch, we were corralled in to an Italian place by a very persistent waiter who promised to give us either a) 10% off our meal, or b) free garlic bread (we chose option b). It was a decent meal, but as we walked a little further down the street afterwards, we ran into two other Italian places with cheaper food! That guy was really effective in intercepting unknowing tourists... We made our way to the Heineken brewery after lunch, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Compared to the only other brewery I've been to (Coors in Golden, Colorado), I'd say this tour was better. They had a lot of interactive stuff inside, and the tour ended with two good-sized Heinekens.

I discovered my new favorite fast food this past weekend-- Wok to Walk. I mean, it's a pretty standard Chinese takeout, but I fell in love with it. Amsterdam had wayyy too many good restaurants, and we barely even made a dent.

I had a lot of fun on my first out-of-country trip, and I'm looking forward to the weekends ahead! I think Amsterdam would be gorgeous in the summer, and next time (who knows when that may be...), I would love to see the famous tulips in full bloom, and one of those iconic Holland windmills. Hopefully someday I'll get the chance to go back.

Snow? In Barcelona?

So, it's basically blizzarding outside. Normally, this wouldn't really surprise me-- it's not like I've never seen it snow (unlike Lourdes or Leo, or a good chunk of the other Spanish students!).

However...

This is BARCELONA. It doesn't snow here. EVER. In fact, I had high hopes that we were headed more in the direction of beach weather. Really. This is the opposite of beach weather.

                          

Anyway, instead of going to class, here I am, holed up in my room (otherwise known as "the cave"). I think it would be a treacherous journey to go anywhere right now, seeing as it's probably snowed a total of 3 times in the history of Barcelona, so they don't really know how to handle this situation. Crossing my fingers that next week, I will be laying by the beach, possibly sipping on a piña colada. Here's hoping.

Tarragona

This past Saturday, I took a day trip with a small group from my program to the city of Tarragona. It's a short train ride away, and boasts a rich Roman and medieval history. It used to be called Tarraco, and was the capital of the Roman province of Tarraconense, the largest province on the Iberian peninsula at the time. It even served as the capital of the entire Roman empire for a short time during Caesar Augustus' reign.

After a quick cafe con leche at the train station, we set off to go see the amphitheater ruins. It was built right off the sea, so from inside we had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean. We were treated to an impromptu showing of a group of castelleros (human tower), who were filming inside the amphitheater, so that was a nice surprise.

              Castelleros in the amphitheater

We then went to an old Roman government building that was also used as a prison during Franco's time. We climbed up a super small, narrow staircase to get to the roof, where we had a great view of the entire city. 

                        Tarragona

After that, we headed over to the Roman circus, which had a lot of the tunnels (that would have led to the track) preserved. It was impressionable to picture how big this thing was--our tour guide said it usually took 10 minutes per lap! Also, he said that the chariot races were actually more dangerous and had more fatalities than the gladiator fights in the amphitheater. We then made our way to see the medieval cathedral (it's almost a shame that no cathedral can compare, so far, to the one in Toledo). After that, we walked around the old Roman muralla (wall) that used to surround the city. There's a great little path going around there, and it was amazing to see a structure that has been around for thousands of years (it was built around the same time as the Great Wall of China!). 

                            Roman Muralla 

Overall, a good day trip with a lot of interesting history. Also cool because I had learned a lot of the information in my Barcelona: The City & its History class, so it was good to get a visual to go with the information I've been learning. 

Upcoming trips: AMSTERDAM this coming weekend, DUBLIN the weekend after that, and then ATHENS, SANTORINI, ROMA & either NAPLES or FLORENCE (any suggestions between going north or south of Roma?) for SB'10. Really looking forward to these trips :)

Ciao!

Lesson 1: Set more than one alarm when hopping an early flight.

So, if you hadn't heard, I missed my flight to Paris last weekend. Yes. My flight was at 10:05am, so I set my alarm for 6:30am in order to have time to shower, have some breakfast, etc. Wellllll, I woke up at 11am. This was clearly my fault, and if you don't know this about me, I am a chronic snooze presser. I often set my alarm one, even two hours earlier than I need to wake up and just continuously press snooze. I'm not really sure why I do this, or when I started doing this, but the fact is, I just do. Therein lied my problem: my watch alarm has no snooze option, so I can imagine 6:30am rolled around, I hit one button to turn it off, and that was the end of it. So after freaking out and calling my parents at 4am their time (Sorry, mom and dad) to see what I should do, I decided that I should just defer my Parisian adventure to May, when I have three weeks to travel. I think it will work out pretty well. My hope is that everyone gets a quota of one travel mess up, and then it can't happen again!

Other then that, I just finished up the week from hell: midterms. It really started the week before this one, with a paper due and a poetry exam. This week, I had a grammar quiz, a history exam, a culture/communication exam, and a literature exam. Oh, and three of those were on the same day. Generally speaking, I think they went well.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a day trip with my program to Tarragona. Fun fact: In Roman times, the city was named Tarraco, and at one point, was the capital of the entire Roman empire. Score one for Catalunya.

Also, I JUST booked a flight for Amsterdam for next weekend (March 12-14). I PROMISE that I will be able to post a successful weekend journey where I actually made it the country this time.

Rumination: WHY do the older Spanish women here think it's ok/attractive/flattering/appropriate to dye their hair bright, unnatural colors? I'm talking bubblegum pink, fire engine red, and Mardi Gras purple.

Funny story: Last night, I needed to borrow a hair straightener from the girls down the hall. I told my roommate Beata that I would be right back and that I had to go molest the girls for their hair straightener. Clearly I can't speak English anymore, and what I wanted to say was I was going to go bother them for their straightener. Molestar=to bother.

That's all folks, have a great weekend!

Operation Anne Frank was a complete and utter failure.

So I have officially been here for almost 2 months. I can't believe how the time has flown by, but I feel like I've really been able to do a lot and I finally feel completely comfortable with the city. Although it has rained more days than I would like to admit, we're starting to get more sunshine and warmer days, and all Beata and I can think about is how we want it to be beach weather! If it's a nice day, we try to eat lunch out on the residence hall patio, and it's a nice change to sitting inside, moping about how it could possibly be raining again. Classes are going fine, we're starting to get into more exams and papers, so I'm staying busy with that.

As far as trips go, the only place I've been outside of Barcelona since Poblet was Sitges. It's a small beach down a 30-minute train ride from Barcelona, and is known for having the biggest and best Carnaval party around. So naturally, I decided to go on Fat Tuesday, which is the final night of the Carnaval celebration. Beata, myself and our friend Olivia showed up at the train station around 10pm, and the place was packed with people headed to Sitges. Beata and I figured we would be fine not dressing up (Carnaval is kind of like Europe's version of Halloween), but we immediately felt a little out of place in our normal looking clothes- everyone was wearing outrageous costumes, complete with face makeup and the like. Either way, we hopped on the train, which was not an easy process. The platform was packed, and the minute the train pulled up, people were pushing and shoving to get on, but luckily we pushed through and found a seat. The train was packed and you could feel the excitement- people were blowing whistles, singing songs and drinking their 40s. I felt bad for the few people who were on their way to somewhere besides Sitges and had to deal with the rowdy crowd of Carnaval seekers, but before we knew it, the train had pulled up to the station, and everyone piled out. We started walking through the streets, and stopped a small shop that had some costume items. I bought some mouse ears and decided that my red dress and ears could pass as a weak Minnie Mouse costume. We headed through the streets looking for a place to post up, and we found a spot where the parade had just started. This parade was no ordinary parade; first off, it was the longest parade I have ever experienced. Secondly, it was filled with drag queens galore, lots of dancers in skimpy outfits, and ridiculous costumes. But I kid you not, I had the best time watching this parade go by! We called people over and took pictures with some of our favorites, and the atmosphere made it impossible to not have a good time. We spotted a man in full geisha garb across the way from us, and after the parade had gone by, he became our new friend (ok "friend" might be a stretch, but we took some good pics with him). After the parade ended, the party continued on down to the beach. Everyone was just dancing and having a good time, and we danced the night away until the wee hours of the morning. I can definitely say that this night was one of my favorites of the whole trip, and something I won't soon forget.

Last weekend, Kat Sheffield, one of my Theta sisters who is studying in Alicante, came to visit Barcelona! The weekend was filled with lots of sight-seeing and a whole lot of kiting pictures :) We started off with a visit to La Sagrada Familia, and then did a Gaudi walking tour, seeing his architecture and designs on Passeig de Gracia, kind of like the 5th Avenue of Barcelona. We saw Casa Battlo and La Pedrera, two of his famous designs, and then headed down to Plaza Catalunya, and finally Las Ramblas. We stopped at La Boqueria, the famous open market, got some delicious ice cream and walked around a little. On Saturday, we had a gorgeous, sunny day, so took the opportunity to visit Parc Guell. It was crowded, but we were able to find a spot on the windy Gaudi bench and soak up some sun while listening to a band. We then explored more of the park, and of course went up to the highest point where there is a great view of the city. We also saw the Arc de Triomph, one of my faves, and had lunch in Parc de la Ciutadella. That evening, Kat and I decided on a whim to catch the Barca futbol game! We got great seats, and watched Barca shutout the other team 4-0. That night, some of the Spanish students in the dorm joined us and we went to Razzmatazz, a club with 6 different rooms that play different kinds of music. It was a really great weekend, and I enjoyed being able to show off Barcelona and revisit all the touristy sights.

This weekend = PARIS! Beata already left, and I'm leaving tomorrow morning to meet up with her and her friends that live there. I'm excited for my first weekend trip outside of Spain, and looking forward to what will surely be a good time.

Also, we finally booked spring break! Flying into Athens, then spending 4 days in Santorini, flying back to Athens, and then on to Rome!! We are considering training it to Naples from there, but that's still up in the air. I am SO excited :)

That's all for now, Paris update after this weekend!

Madrid! Toledo! Poblet! Oh my!

So it's been a while since I have updated. Sorry for that. For the record, I haven't been doing anything too terribly exciting during the week-- all my classes are going fine, I like my language and grammar class (despite the 9am start time) and surprisingly, I am enjoying my Hispanic poetry class. I'm kind of enjoying analyzing poems, looking for metaphors and underlying themes... it's definitely a challenge, seeing as I was never that great at analyzing poems in English, but it's keeping me engaged. We were supposed to have our first fieldtrip this afternoon in my Barcelona: The City and it's History class, but it started pouring down rain about 15 minutes in so it was called off. It has definitely been a transition to go from studying physics and anatomy for countless hours in the library, to having a lot more reading and analyzing and discussion about literature and history. I can't decide if I like this change or not... it's a bit drastic, so I feel a little bit out of my element, but regardless, I think I'll definitely learn a lot.

The past couple weekends have been a lot of fun! January 28-30, the whole Advanced Spanish Studies group (all 30 or so of us) took a "study tour" to Madrid. We met bright and early on Thursday morning at the train station, had some breakfast (the fresh squeezed orange juice here is AMAZING!) and boarded. I started watching Twilight in Spanish, but at some point dozed off. It was pretty entertaining while it lasted though. We arrived late morning, and right away checked into our hotel. The hotel was really nice, and I stayed in a room with two other girls from my program on the 8th floor. Seeing as this will definitely be the nicest accommodations I will be staying at for the remainder of my time in Europe (hellooo hostels), I savored it. Right away, we headed over to la Casa de la Villa/Ayuntamiento, which is the equivalent of the town hall building. We had a guided tour, and got to see the room where the city officials still hold their meetings. (**Disclaimer: My head was overwhelmed with historical facts this weekend, so I'll try to throw them in whenever I remember, which may not be very often). After the tour, we all headed over to a little restaurant on a side street for a traditional Spanish comida of tapas. Everything was delicious, excluding the tripa (pig intestines) that I tried. Oh well, check that one off the list. We then went on a guided walking tour of the city, with special emphasis placed on what Madrid was like before the Bourbons were in control. After that, we headed over to the Prado museum, and were able to see the most famous paintings housed there. My favorite was Las Meninas by Velazquez, probably because I had seen Picasso's interpretation of this painting at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.  But we also saw some great works by Goya and El Greco, too. That ended our first day, and later that evening, a bunch of us went to Kapital, the biggest club in Madrid; it has 7 stories, and each floor has a different type of music playing, so that was a lot of fun.

The following day was probably my favorite of the weekend. We took a charter bus to Toledo, which is about an hour outside of Madrid. It's a beautiful old town, with narrow cobblestone streets and a lot of character. We went to a small church that houses one of El Greco's most famous works called "El Entierro del Conde Orgaz," and then headed over to an old synagogue. At one point in time, Toledo used to have a large population of not only Catholics, but Muslims and Jews as well, which was very uncommon for a Spanish town in the 14th century. After the synagogue, we went to el Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, which was built in the 15th century. It had a great center courtyard with orange trees and an old well where the Franciscan monks used to grow their own food. Finally, we had a guided tour of the Catedral de Toledo. It took 250 years to build, and it shows-- jaws were dropping at how intricate everything was! I have never seen a more beautiful church, with so many different artistic styles represented. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but I was able to snap one of a depiction of the heaven's opening up in the ceiling. No way my picture does it any sort of justice, but I will always remember how beautiful this cathedral was. That concluded our day trip to Toledo, and we were able to get out of the bus and snap some panoramic views before heading back to Madrid.

Our last day in Madrid, we were able to tour the Palacio Real, where the Kings and Queens used to live, but don't anymore. The rooms were really extravagant, filled with ornate ceiling paintings and huge wall-to-wall rugs. We concluded our visit by going to el Reina Sofia, a contemporary art museum that was built from a huge old hospital. The main event was definitely seeing Picasso's Guernika, which was very cool. Seeing as it was a contemporary art museum, there were some interesting, shall we say, "paintings" of seemingly blank canvases, along with some other strange pieces. There was some confusion as to how certain things were considered art, but that's neither here nor there.

Off to class, I'll add the Poblet day trip stuff later!

//Poblet\\
Ok, so like promised, I will add my Poblet day trip on here. Better late than never, right? Anyway, a few weekends back, IES took us on a day trip to this small little town about an hour and a half outside of Barcelona. We showed up outside of the Hard Rock Cafe in Plaza Catalunya for our 8am departure, a bit sleep-deprived and more than anything, looking forward to being able to nap on the bus. We arrived and immediately went to the monastery that houses 30 or so monks who live there and take care of the place. We got to see where their old living quarters were, the dining hall, library, etc. Overall, pretty cool with a long history, but nothing that really wowed me. After the monastery tour, we loaded back on the bus and took the quick drive to a nearby town called Montblanc. They took us to a restaurant called El Call de Montblanc, where we ate a traditional Catalan meal called calçotado. Basically, they give you a bib, and for good reason! There is a contraption that I like to call the "wine bong," where you grab the handle of the jar and directly pour the wine into your mouth. No wine glasses, nothing. As you may be able to imagine, it can get a little messy, but fun nonetheless! Then they bring out an appetizer of spring onions. Basically, you peel the charred outer shell, dip them in this AMAZING sauce (tomato, almond, etc.) and then just eat them whole. Normally, I wouldn't find an onion appetizer very... appetizing, but these were really good, and it was a fun and messy experience! Then they bring out a gigantic plate of more appetizers like baked potatoes and artichoke, and then comes out the meat. All types you could imagine, including blood sausage, which I finally decided I should probably try to see if I was missing out on something. No. Not a fan. Then they bring out dessert, which was a typical Catalan favorite called crema catalana. It reminds me of flan with caramelized sugar on top, and was really delicious. After stuffing our faces with this delicious meal, we had some free time to explore Montblanc. A group of us basically just blindly walked around, and found a great little lookout hill where we could see the whole town. It was a super windy day, but we were able to enjoy the sunshine and have a nice photo shoot atop this hill. That pretty much concluded the day trip, and I can say that I ended up really enjoying it.

Rain, Rain, Go away...

It's raining here for the third day in a row. Apparently this is rare for Barcelona, so it's a little irritating. Also, since my unfortunate run-in with an umbrella thief a couple weeks ago, I have yet to purchase a replacement. I think an IKEA run is in order...

It's ok though, the rain here is more like a drizzle, so I don't mind walking around in it. On one of my walks the other day, I discovered a cute little Mexican restaurant called "Las Mañanitas," right by our dorm! We're going to check it out soon, and I'm hoping it will become a regular treat where I can find tacos con carne asada, and maybe a good marg every now and again :)

Started one of my new classes yesterday, and another one today (in about an hour... class from 5:30-7pm will take some getting used to). So far, so good, seems like as long as I keep up with the readings and participate in discussion, a good grade will follow.

Plan for this evening is to lay low, do some homework, and maybe do some laundry, seeing as I'm quickly running out of clothes. I FINALLY had a Skype convo yesterday that lasted more than 30 seconds before the internet connection crapping out. Hooray! It was great to see my roomies, I miss them, but we'll survive a few months apart :)

Happy first day back at school for everyone back in the States, I'm thinking about you all (and Facebook creeping) lots!

Sandy

Settling in.

So, my room is a pit.

I'm looking around and a little amazed that in less than a week, my roommate and I have created this sort of explosion involving clothes, shoes, chips and salsa, pringles, and toiletries. Let's be honest though, when I say "my roommate and I," what I really mean is 90% belongs to me, and the other 10% is just on her side, but could still be my stuff. So. I'm done with class for the day, and this will be my project. All of my past roommates know that when I'm in the mood to clean, I do it, and I do it well.

But before I take on this massive project, here's what's up: Orientation week has officially come to a close, and starting next week, the process of stairstepping our way into the semester will continue. My language class began this week, and I will add two more classes to the mix on Monday: "Barcelona and the Latin American Literary Boom," and "Language, Culture, and Communication." The Monday after that, I'll start my two university courses at Universitat Pompeu Fabra: "Barcelona: The City and its History," and "Hispanic Poetry, Poets, and Songwriters." It's been nice having a lot of downtime, but I'm ready to get into the swing of things and have a schedule. Basically, I'm craving being busy again :)

As far as the orientation activities, I've really enjoyed this week. Just as a preface, Barcelona is made up of several barrios, or neighborhoods, that are each unique in their own way and known for different things. They say it's almost like having several little cities within the greater city of Barcelona, so this week has involved a lot of getting to know and experience the different flavors of each barrio. On Monday, we took a tour of the Barri Gòtic, or the Gothic quarter. This is the oldest part of the city, and has a lot of Roman history. The streets are narrow, and there are a lot of beautiful, old churches and some interesting museums as well. Something that I love about Barcelona and just Europe in general is how they have integrated modern businesses into these old areas of town- you still feel like you're surrounded by history, and the integrity of the buildings hasn't been destroyed, but you can find great little shops and restaurants everywhere. Later on in the day, each language class was assigned a neighborhood to explore and participate in a gymkhana, or scavenger hunt. My group was assigned to the Gràcia district, a posh neighborhood on the upper part of town (which just means it's closer to the mountains than the beach). It's an alternative, young, and trendy area with theaters that show independent films, little cafes, and restaurants with lots of international flavors. My group had a rough start to the scavenger hunt, and wasted a lot of time on the first few questions. We thought about quitting, but we finally got the hang of it, and I think we all really ended up enjoying it. Not all the questions were obvious, so that gave us a chance to ask locals questions about the history of a church or clocktower, etc.  So two and a half hours after starting, we finally finished the scavenger hunt with a newfound knowledge of the area. On Wednesday, we took a tour of Barcelona's Modernist architecture, which basically took us down one of the major streets, Passeig de Gràcia. This is one of the streets I take to get to the IES center and my classes, so it was cool to look at it with a more detailed eye. We saw La Pedrera and Casa Battló, the houses designed by Gaudí, and several other interesting buildings along the way. It's easy to become complacent and forget to look around and notice the details around you, so it was a good experience to hear the history behind the lampposts or sidewalk tiles (all designed, of course, by Gaudí). By Thursday, I think people were getting a little annoyed with all these excursions, so a smaller group of us actually went to El Museo de Xocolat, or the Chocolate Museum. Bad call, people. It was like a wine tasting, but with chocolate. We learned all about how chocolate is made, and how the flavor variations come about. For example, if a cacao tree is planted in the same soil as a farm that grows coffee beans, even if that farm is not that close by, the chocolate will absorb some of those flavors and will have a hint of coffee. We also learned why dark chocolate is healthier, and why some people in the know don't believe that white chocolate is actually chocolate (ask me about it!). Of course the best part was getting to taste test, yummmmm. So basically, I'm really glad I decided to go.

I love how easy it is to get around the city, so I have been walking places every chance I get. I'm starting to get my bearings, and it feels good. Walking through the Arc de Triomph last night to get home was satisfying, and something I could only get in Europe! I'm looking forward to familiarizing myself even more with Barcelona, discovering other places in Spain, and visiting other countries. Paris? Definitely. London? Sure. Rome? Why not?! The possibilities are endless, and that's an exciting prospect.

Sandy

On my own.

So mom and dad left on the 3rd, and I was staying at my cousin's place for a while, and now I'm living in the dorm! I can't believe I've been here for two weeks...  But for an update:

Palma de Mallorca was great! We got there on the 31st, and I was tooo tired for the first round of sightseeing, so I took a nice nap. Watched a movie with the cousins while my aunt and uncle cooked, and then got ready to celebrate the new year. We brought in the new year with some champagne and a great show (or shows, rather) of fireworks all along the opposite coast, which was visible from my aunt and uncle's balcony. The next day, we were all invited to eat at my aunt and uncle's family friends place. They live in an old, old house from the 15th century! The house is huge and has all these great little nooks and places to explore, and it's filled with so much history. The man of the house cooked up a delicious paella, and we all ate and talked. [**Nerd alert**] Afterwards, he showed us his personal library with all these ancient looking books; part of me felt like I was walking through Dumbledore's office.

We got back to Barcelona, and I said bye to the parentals and headed over to Ricky's place. We had a pretty cozy little set-up: ten people in a 4-bedroom apartment with one toilet and one shower (which was by far the worst shower I have ever experienced). But we somehow made it work, and had a blast together! The first night, we went to this little cave bar called L'Ovella Negra; pretty famous for their cheap sangria, which was definitely delicious. The next day, we woke up early and took the train to the Torres vineyard, about 30 minutes outside of Barcelona in the beautiful Penedès region. We were all pretty wiped out from the lack of sleep from the night before, but once we got to the wine tasting, everyone seemed to perk up a little :) We got to try 5 different wines- 3 reds, 1 white, and 1 pink. They told us what foods they would taste good with, and showed us the proper way to smell the wine (don't swish it around, that oxygenates it and may make a not so great wine seem ok). A couple days later, we went to the Barcelona vs. Sevilla game at Camp Nou! Being inside the stadium was an awesome experience, and despite the rain and the loss, I really enjoyed it.

I loved hanging out with my cousin and all his friends, but was definitely excited to meet everyone on my program. So on Friday the 8th, I woke up early and packed all my things, then took an extended journey to the IES center in Plaça Catalunya (OK, it was an unintentional extended journey, I may have gone the wrong way on the metro and walked around the entire plaza before finding the correct street to turn on...) but at least I'm learning my way around the city! Rick and I took a taxi to my dorm with all of my luggage, which I somehow have added an entire suitcase worth of things since I got here, and I met my new roomie, Beata! The three of us went to IKEA, which will be my first of many trips, seeing as I had never been before and I LOVE IT, and got some towels, etc. When we got back, I met two of the three other American guys, Jay and Joe, and as the night went on, we decided to go out. The cool thing about my dorm is that the five of us are the only Americans- the rest are Spanish, German, French, Dutch, etc., and it's been really cool to meet them and talk to them. Anyway, it was the Russian guy Sergei (sp?)'s last night, so we all went to L'Ovella Negra to celebrate, and then to a dance club called Bikini. We were rolling pretty deep, with about 15 people with us. Not only were a handful of people from the dorm with us, but we were joined by some of his other friends, who came anywhere from Peru to Norway!  I would say our first night was a success.

Anyway, this post is way too long, so if you get through it, props to you! Basically, my language class starts tomorrow, my IES classes the next week, and my UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) courses the week after that. I'm looking forward to getting on a more regular schedule, and now that I have internet in my room, I plan on updating this more often so my posts aren't ridiculously long.

Ciao!

Sandy