Valencia Pictures!

So I decided to put the pictures I took in Valencia up on a page in photobucket, so the link below should take you there so you can check them out if you want to!

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z259/lilmizliz/Valencia%20Spain-%20September%202010/

Enjoy!

September 26, Valencia to Madrid

Not too much exciting today. We got up in the morning and everything was closed as usual on Sundays at 8:30 in the morning. Almost nothing is open on Sundays in general in Spain anyway. We had a not very exciting breakfast at Café y Té a chain restaurant in Spain, then went to the bus stop to catch the bus to the bus station for our bus to Madrid.

We had waited for at least 15 minutes and the bus never came around, so we finally decided to just take a taxi. Splitting taxis among 3 or 4 people ended up being barely more expensive than the bus, and we got there a lot faster and knew that we were going to be there on time.

I slept for the first 2 hours of the 4 hour bus ride, and the combination of the warm sun coming in the window, the extremely comfortable big seat, and the vibrations of the bus along the road made it heavenly. We stopped half way where most people got out and bought snacks or stretched their legs and then had the final 2 hours to Madrid.

I attempted to do homework in that last 2 hours, but it was too difficult to read my extremely scholarly chapters about anthropology in Spanish while people were talking around me and I didn’t have the resources to look up some of the words I didn’t know. I gave up only about 20 minutes out and looked out the windows.

It is weird that I am living in a very different country and culture, but as I was getting off the metro to head back to my room and host family here, I had a bit of the sense that I was going home. Or at least as close to home as I’m going to get here.

This evening I went for an hour run through the busy streets and some parts of parks in Madrid. It is so nice to be running on a cool evening with the streetlights illuminating the roads and people walking around everywhere since this city stays, or becomes, more alive into the late evening and early night.

Tomorrow morning I have my interview for where I will probably be doing my internship in a hospital. The short write up I have about it says that I will be visiting with patients and their families, or more likely people who don’t have anyone there with them. I guess there are lots of different parts of the hospital and opportunities and I’ll be given a route each day I go in. One thing I also really like is that it is a well established program and they have things for volunteers to do and I won’t just go in and have no idea where to go or what to do.

It also said that I will have to speak Spanish, and I’m really glad about that because a big part of this for me is getting to speak the language more and practice. Other people in their placements are teaching English or in a publish company editing books that have been translated into English but that just feels like doing more English and not getting immersed into the language and culture as much.

Saturday September 25, Valencia

We started off today pretty early in order to fit in as much as we could. At 8:15 we went out to try and find coffee and pastries or something for breakfast, and almost nothing was open. It took quite a while to find somewhere that was a little place for locals before work, and most people just ordered coffee to wake them up and hold them until we could find somewhere else.

Then we headed off to the City of Arts and Sciences since it was too dark for good pictures the night before. It didn’t open until 10 am, and the 30 euro ($40) price tag and limited time in the city lead to a group consensus of seeing the outside of the buildings but not paying that much to go in.

We found a pastry place after that and then grabbed our stuff and hopped on a bus to head to the hostel for the second night. We were able to drop our bags off in a room and then just take what we needed for the day. Our first stop was the cathedral there. Everything is very built up all around it, but the insides and outsides are still very elaborately decorated. The front had a lot of gold, and there were a lot of figures carved into the outside.

One of the highlights of the church was a small room off to the right that had the holy grail in it. The room was a bit smoky even though I didn’t see any lit candles, and the light coming in through the one window at the top had beautiful rays illuminated. I realized on this trip that I have a different way of traveling than a lot of students my age with me wanting to see the art and the church more (along with a famous art museum here) but everyone else wants to do other things.

holy grail

Next stop was the Mercado Central which was a large building with glass decorated walls and filled with little stalls inside selling fruits, vegetables, hams, fish, and all sorts of other things including different spices. We all split some figs and they were ripe juicy and delicious!

After that we went in search of La Lonja which was the original market before it was too small, and then after that was a place for silk trading. It had a gothic façade and the inside was a large room with chandeliers and columns that had twisting designs going up them. A small garden accompanied it on the side too.

Walking into town we had passed what looked like a very authentic horchateria. Horchata is a very traditional drink from the area made from tiger nuts and served chilled or with crushed ice. It was sweet and tasted really good, and there was a lot of the traditional ceramics decorating the doorway and walls.

From there we headed to the Plaza de Ayuntamiento where we saw the outside of the bullring and checked out the ceramics and decorations in the train station. Valencia is also famous for its ceramics, but I didn’t see that much of them there.

Lunch was quite difficult with a group of 7 with some people wanting to head back to the beach for lunch, but as it got later people got hungry and cranky, and then some people just wanted to find a place to sit while others wanted to try arroz negra (which we had seen a lot of earlier but were having trouble finding at that point) which uses black squid ink for coloring and flavor. We finally made our way back to a place we had seen before with arroz negra. Almost all of us got paella again and I’m pretty sure that everyone was very happy with the final decision. I was really happy that I got to try arroz negra since it is one of their other specialties.

We also tried Agua de Valencia with lunch today. It is a specialty of the area that we had seen yesterday with the paella but was a lot more expensive than we wanted to pay. It is a cocktail made from fresh orange juice, sparkling wine and a splash of liqueur. It was good, but not as good to me as the price a lot of people pay for it.

Post lunch we headed back to the hostel, the Red Nest Hostel, and checked in. The location of our first hotel was really nice being close to the beach, and the location of the hostel was really nice being in the middle of town. I’m really happy with how lucky I got in the locations since I wasn’t specifically looking for them in those places- just cheap and not in the outskirts of town!

We changed and headed back to the beach to relax and play in the surf since it was such a beautiful day! It was so nice to be able to lie on the beach and relax then go play in the ocean that only seemed cold for less than a minute. The beach there is very large and extremely nice with very fine sand and just a slight breeze.

Emma had been walking around town instead of going to the beach with the rest of us, so after a few hours there we headed back to meet up with her. After showers and getting ready, we shared a little cheap wine in the eating area of the hostel where we met a really nice guy from Belgium.

The hostel is a really neat place. We are in a room with 12 bunk beds and take up just over half the room. Some people were a little worried about staying in a hostel for the first time, but it was a lot of fun and an adventure to me. There are individual rooms along with rooms for 4, 6 or 12 people, and all the walls are extremely brightly colored with some swirly designs on some.

Then we headed out for dinner, ending up at a pizza place. It was really good and I ended up splitting a pizza with Lauren while everyone else completely ate one on their own. The waiter was also really nice, and at the end, he told us that it is actually cheaper (6.50 euros) to get a drink too instead of just the pizza by itself (7.55 euros). Not something that would happen in the US both with the restaurant doing that and a waiter working for tips.

On the way there Audrey and I had a very fun and excited conversation because she was really good friends in high school with Kirk who goes to Reed, and he was in my dorm freshman year along with being my chemistry lab partner and going running with me most mornings first semester.

We had coupons for free drinks at Purple Nest Hostel, the sister hostel to the one we were staying in, so we headed over there after dinner. It wasn’t too exciting because we didn’t want to be the huge group of Americans who intruded on people in their little groups and took over but hung out there for a little bit. There is an area, Barrio Carmen, which is the really good area for bars and going out, but most of the group was just wanting to go back to the hostel so we ended up doing that.

Even though it was a room for 12 people and all the beds were claimed, we were the only ones in the room so after we all got ready for bed we stayed up for at least an hour talking, playing games and hanging out. At one point the guy who had the bed under Kevin (who was a complete slob and we had been making fun of before even though we had never seen him) came in, changed his shirt, sprayed really strong cologne, and then good night to all of us in some sort of an accent as he left. That kept us laughing for a while.

the road our hostel is on with the tower next to the church in the background

It was a long day where we packed in a lot of stuff, but I think we are all extremely happy with how this trip is turning out.

Friday, September 24, Valencia

So this weekend we took a trip to Valencia. I was the one who initiated it and planned it including getting people together in a group, finding the buses to take, and hotels for both the first and second night. Parts of it were really hard to plan because we had 6 people that changed to 7 at the last minute, and we kept going back and forth between either one or two days and almost the whole group would decide and then someone would change it and turn it all around.

But it all worked out and was a wonderful trip! I learned a lot, especially at the very beginning. I’ve never really had to think about it much before because most of my travels have been with my parents and they just take care of absolutely everything and I just go along with it. This time I ended up in charge and responsible for everything without realizing it the night before. Some very important things that I learned for next time:

1. write down the names of the hotels

2. write down the confirmation numbers

3. write down the phone numbers of the hotels

4. write down the addresses of the hotels

5. look up how to get to the hotels before we get there

However, Audrey was awesome and bought a map and got us there on the bus. The first hotel was Abba Acetón. It was a 4 star hotel that is usually a lot more expensive but we got 2 triples for a lot cheaper because they had a special to try and fill their rooms. It was a nice hotel and a good location for the first day being close to the beach and City of Arts and Sciences.

After getting there we changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the beach for paella. Valencia is famous for its paella and it was something we all agreed we could splurge on to have great authentic paella. The guide books told us that all the best places were along one part of the beach, so that’s where we went. La Pepica was recommended in 4 or 5 different sources and a favorite of Hemmingway so when we saw it decided to go there.

Paella is a rice dish with saffron and a mix of different meats vegetables and seafood cooked in it. Good paella should be made and cooked individually for each table and take 30-40 minutes to make. For us they made one huge mixed paella that we all shared. It was brought to the table in the same flat dish it was cooked in and was absolutely delicious. There was chicken, vegetables, and a few legumes along with mussels, shrimp and little lobsters. The final price was less than we were expecting too at about 13 euros a person.

Post 3:30 lunch we headed out to the beach. The sun was shining and warm, the sand was fine and not too hot, and the ocean was blue with gentle crashing waves that were fun to watch. We set up our towels and relaxing in the sun hanging out and enjoying what felt like summer weather. Near the end about half our group jumped in the ocean for a little bit and then we headed out as it started to cool down. We stopped for gelato at the edge of the beach before our walk back and it was delicious.

We stopped and bought two bottles of wine on the way back to the hotel and then took showers and hung out for a while. Later we headed out and walked the few blocks to the City of Arts and Sciences. It is a combination off different museums, but is most well known for its architecture. Multiple people told me that it is the number one thing we have to go to while we are there. It has an aquarium that is the larges in Europe with 110,000 square meters and 42 million liters of water. About the equivalent to 18 olympic sized swimming pools I think. It closed much earlier than when we got there, but we mostly went to look at the outsides of the buildings and take pictures.

The City of Arts and Sciences

There were a few restaurants around there but they all seemed quite fancy and too expensive for us so we headed back to a puperia (octopus) we had passed earlier and enjoyed tapas and sangria de cava which was extremely delicious and a mix of fanta lemon, champagne, a splash of another alcohol, fruits and some sugar. Out waiter was a lot of fun asking if we were from Holland or Australia and then after finding out that we were Americans getting excited because according to him we have the best president in the world. Another fun night and we headed back to the hotel.

Weekend plans

Tomorrow morning bright and early I will be off to Valencia, Spain for the weekend with 6 friends from school!

September 18, El Escorial

Today (Saturday) I headed out to El Escorial with a big group of friends from school. I was able to walk to the train station from my house, and met up with them at noon for a 12:30 train. The train took about an hour to get there leaving from sunny warm Madrid and getting a little bit colder and darker at each stop. By the time we got there, there was just a little bit of rain.

El Escorial is a palace, monastery and a basilica. We entered first at the palace and I was one of the few people who got an audio guide for extra information (in Spanish of course). The tour started out with two different museums, one of architecture and another of paintings that had been in the castle at some point. The architecture part didn’t really interest me that much because it was showing the progression of designs to get to the final idea, and a display of the 20 different types of nails used to hold the building together just isn’t my idea of what I go to a museum to see. There was a model of the whole building though, and I liked being able to see what the whole building looked like in a cross with four courtyards.

The paintings were all very good though. A lot of them, especially at the beginning had very religious themes, and I liked looking at them trying to find parts that I wouldn’t have noticed at first glance or the different ways of painting. I’m getting more excited for my art history class the more I see here.

After that was a walk through for the rooms the king and royalty used when the palace was the residential area for them. At this point there weren’t many informational signs, and we had hit the large tour groups, so I was glad to have the audio guide to find out what the rooms actually were.

The most surprising part came after this. I was just following the route through the castle and then it separated for people with audio guides and tours with a different path for the other people. I went down some stairs and entered the Pantheon of Kings. It was a small very gilded and decorated room with the bodies of all the kings and queens from a certain time period in their little boxes stacked up on the walls. It was extremely surprising to me that they would keep their dead bodies quite close to where they were living.

One of my favorite parts was the library. I wasn’t expecting that much, but it was grand. A long hallway with extremely old and valuable books lining the walls, and then the ceiling was painted beautifully in bright colors filling every single available space.

The basilica was next, and didn’t seem that impressive to me at first, but then we all just sat down in the pews for a while and took it all in. After sitting there I was really impressed. It was huge, with very ornate decorations in the front and some along the walls. Everything seemed so precise and perfect that it was nice just to sit there and think and enjoy our time there.

On the train ride back we ran the last little bit in order to make the train and everyone got through the turnstile except for 3 of us because for some reason our tickets didn’t work. No one was around in the information or for security to help us, so we ducked under without having any other options. (We had paid for the tickets after all) We got up to the platform where the rest of our group was still waiting, and the doors of the train were still open, but they said it wasn’t our train because the name was different and about 15 seconds later the doors closed. Almost no one else was on the platform so someone asked a guy there if that was the train to Madrid- and it was, so we got to wait on the platform and play games for an hour until the next one came.

September 16, Art History Class

So every Thursday we have our art class in museums, a lot of the days, if not all in the Prado. I took the metro in and then met up with my class just outside the museum. After finally getting everyone together we headed in. The years for my class are prehistory to the baroque period, but today we started in just two rooms. The first was the recreated inside of a church and the paintings on the walls from the 12^th century.

It was a small church with just one window and arched doorway, but the entire inside was covered in paintings. They were all two dimensional and all biblical. There is very little motion in any of the paintings and they are mostly just the figures. However there is one scene with Adam and Eve where it shows both the snake giving her the apple along with them covering themselves since there is limited space in the church. It was from a time when almost all people didn’t know how to read or write, so paintings were one of the main forms of communication.

The next room had paintings from another church from about the same time period, but these showed men hunting and other similar scenes. This is most likely because it was a church that was later converted to a hunting lodge. Some people have tried to argue at one point that these were actually truly only religious and that the hunters and animals represented Jesus and other biblical figures, but our teacher doesn’t buy it. Only a few paintings were there (other museums have some of the other paintings) compared to the room before that was the entire church recreated.

We looked at one more painting in the same room and then that was the end of our 1 ½ hour class. We have to listen to a foreign language about foreign material, write in a foreign language, and look very inquisitively at the art being talked about all at the same time. It’s hard at first but the professora says it will get better.

So I haven’t really talked much yet about my history of art class, but the teachers seem like they are going to be awesome. There is an older man and a younger than him woman. He is actually a painter and she is his agent, but they also teach and are really good at it. He will be teaching the Tuesday classes in class and she will be teaching the Thursday museum classes.

They are a lot of fun, and we even talked about the professora’s past job of castrating bulls in Argentina. She also really wants us to ask her all types of questions about Madrid and what we should do here along with our other travels in Spain and the rest of Europe.

In the Tuesday class we talked a little bit about some of the most ancient art from prehistory and the paintings in caves along with going over the plan and layout of the class in the two different parts. I've never taken an art class before so I hope to learn a lot!

September 15, adventure and flamenco

Rachel and I had an adventure today! We are in different history of art classes, but we both need to get the annual museum pass (the abono). It gets us in to the Prado and lots of other museums for free once we have it, and since it is part of the class- the school is paying for it!

There is a whole list of museums and we were told that we could get it at any of them, so I found the closest one and we walked there after my one class. It took about 20 minutes to get there, and when we asked for it, the lady had no idea what we were talking about and thought it might be the Madrid Card, but that is only valid for a few days. So she told us we should go to the Ministry of Culture and we should be able to get it there.

The next thing we had to do was find the closest subway which was further than we expected, and turns out is the one in the university the stop before I get off at the school. Post one metro train, we decided to walk a little extra instead of take another train, so got to see even more of the city on our way to the Ministry. We even stopped in to another museum that we thought was on the list and they didn’t have it either.

The building was very official, and we first got pointed to information by security who then told us to go to the fourth floor. But to get to the fourth floor we had to show our passports to the security officers, get visitors passes and then go through security just like at the airport. We asked the secretary who went to ask someone else then came back to say that they don’t do those there, but she called some museums to see who did.

She gave us the addressed of the Prado and another museum that I don’t remember now. So we walked on! Madrid is a large city and stuff can seem very close on a map, but not so much in real life. We still hadn’t figured out where the street was, even though we knew we were almost there by 1:30 and we both had to return home for lunch so our host families wouldn’t be waiting for us. So then we met again at 4:30 after lunch to find the museum and finally get our passes, found the museum, and it was closed. Three museum and one ministry later, we still didn’t have what we needed.

Finally we headed over to the Prado, which we had originally avoided because it was farther away and seemed like it would have long lines, but the whole process was very quick. There was one person in front of us just buying an entrance ticket, and then we just had to fill out a short form, give him a copy of our passports and 2 photos, and we can pick it up tomorrow! All that hassle and just a little card tomorrow to show for it. But we got to explore a lot more of the city this way so at least that is a good part!

I also had my second flamenco class today. There are 12 girls in the class and only one guy, but it seems like he is having a lot of fun even though he has never done any dance before. On Tuesday for the first class we talked briefly about the syllabus and then she handed out skirts and shoes to all the girls, with heels with metal tap pieces on them, and shoes and a hat to the one guy. We were all very excited for all of this.

The teacher is tons of fun and I really enjoy it. For some things, especially as we just warm up she does some moves and steps and we all just copy her, but later in the class we sequences of steps and moves that we have to write down after class and remember for the next time. On Tuesday we just did an individual step and footwork sequence, but today we added more to that along with learning a dance with partners.

I was worried that I would get dropped from the class because I was just auditing in rather than taking it for credit and it is pretty full, but I think that I’ll be allowed to stay. At the very end of the semester we put on a big show and all of our host families and professors are invited to it, along with anyone else we know who we want to invite. I really hope they videotape it so I can show it to everyone back home!

September 14, First day of classes

First day of classes today! Well they actually started yesterday, but I just have a flamenco class that I'm auditing. Auditing the class will pretty much be the same amount of work as taking the actual class because it is all learning in class, and practicing a bit outside of class. It is just very rare for them to allow people to have 5 classes, and I'm already signed up for 4 other ones.

My first class today was Advanced Spanish 1. The professora made sure to let us know that just because we are in Spanish 1, doesn't mean that it will be a lot easier and a lot less work than the other classes. There is a lot of grammar, reading, writing and conversation in all of them. It feels like it will be a good level for me because I'm pretty good at the grammar right now, I just need to work on confidence, vocabulary and speaking. This class meets for an hour and a half every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and then for just an hour on Wednesdays for a conversation class.

The second class of the day for me, immediately following the first was Culture Shock: Culture and Diversity in Spain, aka Anthropology of Spain. I think from her talking that she might be from Cuba, or at least descend from there, but she definitely has African roots which is different for me because I haven’t seen as many black people here.

She talks really fast in Spanish, so it is going to take some getting used to. I also can’t read her hand writing on the board where she wrote some names of anthropologists whose ideas she was quoting. I have to concentrate really hard to understand the Spanish, so that makes it quite difficult to take notes at the same time because if I zone out for just a little bit to figure out how to write my notes in Spanish, then I miss the next part of her lecture. Right now this feels like it is going to be my hardest class, especially with the equivalent of five classes.

My third class is Spain Today, which is an internship. The professora is originally from the US but has lived in Spain longer than North America and has a husband from Spain too. I really like her. She handed out a bunch of paperwork to talk about the class and we went over the possible options for volunteering. There are a lot of ones that seem interesting, but I want to look them up and their locations so I can figure out where is close enough for me so I don’t have to spend too much time traveling. I already spend 4 hours a day traveling to and from school because we all go home for lunch then have classes again in the afternoon.

For the class we have to so either an internship for volunteer 6-8 hours a week for a minimum of 60 hours. Each day we have to keep a journal (in Spanish) about the experience and what we did that day totaling 20 pages minimum. I’m excited to look through the options and start this class but am a little nervous about my Spanish level.

I’m writing this being home for lunch, and I just want to mention that my host mother here is an Amazing cook J

two more pictures from orientation

the clown that tried to steal me away in Santiago

the whole group

September 11, A Coruña, La Noche en Blanco

Today we actually got a tour of A Coruña. We went form place to place on the bus first going to the tower that I ran to yesterday which is the Tower of Hercules which is a Roman light house that has been in continuous operation for about 2000 years. Following that we drove along the coast and past some gardens that the guide pointed out and said were very good. Then they took us down to the central plaza and that was the end of the tour and beginning of our free time.

I went with a group of people to explore, and we went along one street with a lot of booths that had stuff for sale from countries all over the world. That wasn't too exciting because we had two guys in our group who weren't interested at all in that, then hung out and relaxed in a park where a lot of kids were playing on toys. After that we split up with some people going back to the tower while others of us went to find the gardens. They were quite a let down being small and not that grand, but they had somewhat of a nice view of the water and a bit of the city.

For lunch we headed back to the main plaza and ended up eating at an italian resaurant where a lot of our group had actually had dinner the night before. They had lots of pizzas and pastas that other people really liked a lot, but my salad with fish was delicious.

After that we just sat in the sun for a long time in the middle of the plaza relaxing and enjoying watching all the people going by. Then we wandered a little bit finally ending up at the beach for our last half hour there.

We got to the airport and had three hours before our flight left, and then more because it was quite delayed. It was a tiny airport with only one shop open but outside security and we were all tired and just wanting to get back.

When we did get back, it was La Noche en Blanco which is a night when a great majority of the museums are open until late into the night and free along with tons of things going on in the streets and it being an all night party. I met up with Rachel and Erich to go out just before midnight. We went out to a bar and hung out and then wandered in the streets.

All the the main streets were completely closed off to traffic and were completely packed with people. We had no idea what was going on where, but it was still very enjoyable to wander out and about and see all the people. It was almost all locals, or at least people from spain, as far as I could tell and they all seemed to be walking in one direction once we got to a certain area. I have no idea what was in that direction because we were just wandering around.

I had originally thought that the museums would be open all night, but was mistaken. We went to the Prado later in the night to go exploring there, but it was very much closed along with most of the other museums at that point. Later in the night we went to McDonalds, one of the few places open where Erich devoured a hamburger fries and mcflurry not having had dinner at this house.

I wanted to stay out all night until the metro opened again at 6 am, but Rachel and Erich were both very tired and wanted to go home, so I hopped in a taxi for the short ride back to my house.

September 10, Castro de Baroña, La Coruña

Our morning adventure today was to Castro de Baroña which are 2000 year old ruins of a Celtic fort. Right now it is just the stone bases of 20 or so buildings but it was really interesting to be there and try to imagine people living there that long ago. It is protected on three sides by water, and actually a lot of the time is an island when the tide comes in more. Most of the areas where people lived were in the mountains for protection so this one is different.

After a short description and tour, we all wandered around a bit, some going down to the beach and others climbing to the top of a tall rock nearby. I sat with a few people just relaxing in the sun and watching the beach and the ocean and then we saw dolphins! Lots of dolphins. It was a line they were all following and we would see one group and then later another group followed by another. There were probably about 30 in total.

Lunch was a short ways away in the bus, different by being family style, and then we all headed to La Coruña. It is the second largest city in Galicia, and was the capital before Santiago. It is on the coast and has lots of beach and city life that we got to enjoy. The majority of us went to the beach when we got there even though it wasn't that warm anymore because it was the evening. Quite a few people went in the water which was originally too cold for me, but then I got persuaded to join them. My skin felt a little numb all over at first because of the water but then it wasn't that bad.

After that I went on a run with Kelly and Tom where we ran along the coast on a path next to the road out to a tower and then a point with a cool sculpture. They ran faster than me so it was hard to keep up, but running around cities when I'm there is a really fun experience to explore them and see more.

Dinner with Kelly, Nikki, Laura and Tom, and then we went out to a bar with a big group of people from our program getting back to the hotel at about 2 am.

September 9, La Toja, Combarro, Pontevedra

As we left Santiago this morning, the bells of the cathedral were ringing as if to send us off.

It was a longer ride in the bus today to get to la Ría de Arousa where we got on a boat and got a tour of the area along with trying mussels and seeing how the people farm and gather them here. It started as a sunny tour on the top deck, then we all moved down to the lower deck where we took turns looking out glass bottoms of the boat, and then they filled our tables with mussels for us to try. Most people if they had tried them previously didn't like them, but this time I think almost everyone did and enjoyed it likely because they were so fresh.

Back to the bus after that taking us to La Toja and the hotel there for lunch. It used to be an island that no one used or lived on, but then the water there was found to have super healing powers after a farmer had abandoned his dying donkey there and then came back to find him all better. The hotel was incredibly grand, and La Toja is a very pretty island and the one of the favorite places in all of Spain for the mother of one of our directors Christine. Another long lunch and then type to go out walking and explore the town.

I walked around with some other people at first, but then went off on my own for a little me time and to try and find a bathroom. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but one of the highlights we found on the island was a little church completely covered with scallop shells on the outside of it.

After that we got back on the bus and headed to Combarro. It is a little fishing town that we got a short tour of. We have homework on this trip, and one of the questions was about some little huts on sticks, and we found out that they were used for drying fish and meats elevated from the ground to keep animals out, and with small slits to keep out the sun but provide ventilation. We didn't have that much time there because we were behind schedule but had a little time to walk around after that and there was even a little table set up next to a restaurant with the typical food of the area.

traditional foods we tried: empanada, chorizo (a type of sausage), octopus and wine

Back on the bus after that to the hotel in Pontevedra. There isn't that much exciting there, it was more a convenient place with a parador on our way to our next destination. I went on a run around the city and in a park with Anna then out to dinner with a big group of people. After that we went to two different bars and then I went back to the hotel with Laura while other people tried to find other people from our group who had ended up at a karaoke bar.

September 8, Santiago

Our morning adventure today was to walk the last part of the pilgrim's walk to Santiago. The weather wasn't that great, so we stopped at a vendor on the way to the bus and a bunch of people bought umbrellas because it was starting to rain. We hopped on the bus and then drove a ways to one of the last places people sleep before they get to the city. From there we walked up a hill (in the light rain) to where there were two large statues of pilgrims dressed in the traditional clothes. It is the first place where pilgrims on their walk have get to see the city and the church that some people have walked for weeks or months to get to. After that we walked down the hill and followed the trail back through the city to the church.

In free time before lunch I explored the city a little more with Laura and then we had another very long lunch in the hotel. The many courses consisted of bread, soup, tapas, steak, and then for dessert a flan type dessert with some sort of alcohol type gelato.

Post lunch brought us via bus to a vineyard and wine tasting at Pazo de Galegos. It is one of the oldest vineyards around, and I believe still family run. The owner made it very clear that they are not a wine factory, but produce their own few varieties of wine. They showed us where the grapes are growing (to be picked very soon) and where the bottle the wine, and then led us down to a room for the wine tasting. They had tables full of food that is common in this area such as empanadas, cheese, breads, and a type of pepper.

Before we could taste our glass of white wine, the son of the owner told us that we first have to look at the color and clarity, then smell it, then taste it. I might be forgetting something else too since I'm writing this almost two weeks later. The wine was very good and I enjoyed hanging out with the people in our group more.

After that we headed back to Santiago where we had the rest of the afternoon and evening free to explore. I bought a pair of silver colored earrings in the shape of the scallop shell which is the symbol of the pilgrim in Santiago and brings them protection and luck along with being one of the many symbols to lead the pilgrim along the trail.

In walking around after dinner with some friends we found a park that a lot of locals were walking in. We walked up the hill a bit and got a wonderful view of the cathedral and church then headed back to town to walk around some more.

There wasn't really much to do at night, so I hung out with a couple people for a while then we all just went to bed.

September 7, Santiago

Today we traveled to Santiago in Galicia for the first part of our trip orientation. First we took a plane followed by a bus and got there about 2pm. Lunch wasn’t until 2:30 so we had just a little bit of time to walk around and explore.

The hotel we are staying in is a parador, which is owned and run by the government in order to preserve old important buildings as part of their culture. They are also quite expensive I believe. The Parador of the Catholic Kings of Santiago of Compostela (English translation) is extremely nice and creates one side of the main square, with the church right next to it on the other side. The majority of the streets are small and pedestrian only which is really nice.

Lunch was good but lasted for about three hours, both because of their culture of having really long meals, and because there were so many of us to serve. Lunch on this trip was almost always over 2 hours long, but is how they socialize and spend time here.

We had a walking tour after lunch that was pretty short walking wise. We went around the church and talked about the different plazas there, and then when we went inside, a service was about to start. The church of Santiago is absolutely gorgeous with tons of decoration and gold all the way up to the high ceiling in the front.

They have a tradition there that if pilgrims get together and pay enough, they have a giant incense burner hanging from the ceiling that they add incense to, light, and then it is swung through the air higher and higher on a rope filling the entire church with the aromas.

We stayed for the first part of the service and even though I couldn’t understand most of it, it was still quite interesting. They did do the ritual with the incense, I think it is for cleansing and it was a lot of fun to watch.

While we were there, there were huge lines for people waiting to get into the special chapel part of the church. That is because this year is the year of Santiago, which is when the day of Santiago falls on a Sunday. The next time this happens will be in about 21 years.

Inthe plaza at the start of our tour, a clown came up behind me and spooked my making everyone laugh. After that he told everyone that I was his girlfriend and told them to all take pictures of me with him. Many pictures later he told me that I have pretty eyes and then tried to take me away with him. I said no.

After the tour I went for a run with Nikki, Kelly and Tom. Running in other cities is a fun way to see more of the city, as long as there is a tall landmark that makes it easy to get back to where I started.

Late afternoons and dinners are on our own to explore the cities we are staying in, and tonight I went out for tapas with some friends, and then later we had churros and chocolate splitting a couple orders among eight of us.

My classes for this semester

Advanced Spanish Language in context I. Review and refinement of grammatical structure, practical vocabulary and syntax. Regular written compositions will be required. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of conversational skills. (Two sections.) Section 2 will include a fourth weekly hour of conversation and reading practice. Prof. Vivian Samudio.

Culture shock: Spain's cultural diversity. Introduction to the nature and methods of cultural anthropology and study of aspects of Spanish life from an anthropological perspective: ethnic groups, family relationships, "fiestas," religion, values and beliefs, giving special emphasis to the matter of gender. Students will learn to observe, define and interpret the anthropological differences of a foreign culture and thus better understand the "culture shock" that results from contact with Spanish life. Prof. Aída Bueno

History of Spanish Art - I (From Prehistory to Baroque). Study of Medieval and Renaissance masterpieces in architecture, sculpture and painting, with an emphasis on El Greco and the 17th-century realists, notably Velásquez, Ribera, and Zurbarán. Reference to the architecture and sculpture as a basis for the students' appreciation of the museums and monuments visited during group and individual excursions throughout Spain. Prof. Alfredo Ramón and Prof. Linda Hament.

Spain today: social and professional learning. (Internship) Study of and active participation in Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) and other social institutions in order to comprehend how the Spanish people, and Spanish youth in particular, are responding to the needs of contemporary life. The course includes weekly hands-on involvement in Spanish life and customs outside the classroom (through a project chosen by the student from an extensive list of possibilities), regular class meetings, and guest lectures from experts in different fields. A project prospectus, ample field notes, and lengthy research paper are required. Prof. Sheila Klaiber.

September 6, Madrid Orientation

Last day of orientation classes today! In the first class we were paired up with partners and each received a picture. We had ten minutes to write a story about the picture both in the present, and the story leading up to that point to practice using the different past tenses. Then we presented these orally to the class. In the second class we talked about letters and syllables, and in the third we took a multiple choice test. I felt like I did quite well on the test because it was all grammar and that is mostly what we learn in our Spanish classes in the US.

That test was combined with the oral exam from earlier, a short letter we had written, and our responses to questions after listening to a passage to give us our placement in the Spanish class we all have to take.

We didn't have time to return to our houses for lunch today so we all brought sandwiches with us along with made by our "mothers" this morning. That was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone again on the patio, and then I went off with a few other people to try to find a tobacco shop where we could get the form to get the month pass for the metro. I've been trying to do this for a long time but there kept being more things I needed or the tobacco shops would be closed whenever I wanted to use them.

We finally found one, but this one had a different rule from the others and we had to have our passports, a copy of our passports 2 pictures, and the form. None of the other ones require the passport so I didn't have it with me. After that and finding more people from our group we explored the area a bit then returned to the center to sign up for classes.

I've been looking forward to taking flamenco, but had to drop it in order to take the internship class I want to take in order to become more part of a community and around my Spaniards. So my classes are: Advanced Spanish I, Culture shock: the cultural diversity in Spain (an anthropological class), Spain today: social and professional learning (internship), and History of Spanish Art (prehistory to baroque). They all look like they are going to be good!

After that and waiting in line forever to make the change to the internship class (it has a class part to it too and I guess it's really really good) I went to a cafe with three other students and we got a little snack and just relaxed. I walked with JaJa towards her house where I finally found a tobacco shop I could turn my form in to and retuned to my home are via subway. I explored around my apartment area looking for gyms (they're all really expensive) and seeing what was there.

When I finally got back to the house a little after 7 pm Marías brother and daughter were there and I talked with her daughter for a while which I really enjoyed. She is a journalist and I was able to ask her questions about the area and some learn more. La noche en blanco is coming up the day we return from our orientation trip and is a night when all of the museums and other similar buildings and exhibits are open for the entire night and free to everyone so there are a lot of people out in the streets and it is a great time to be out and about.

Tomorrow morning we leave very early for Galicia and other towns in northern Spain and will return on the 11th!

September 5, Madrid Orientation

The same three classes again today. The teachers are all really great, entertaining, and I feel like I'm going to learn a lot this semester if all of the teachers are like this. My favorite was the civilization class probably because it was learning about Spain rather than just reviewing grammar.

I returned to the house for lunch today that I shared with María and her mother. Her mother doesn't actually live there, she is just staying there for a while while she recovers from I think being in the hospital. At the end and after lunch I watched the news with them and it is really interesting how much other countries talk about international news a lot more than we do in the United States.

I went for a run after lunch to and around the park next to the old royal palace near my house, but didn't actually go in the park because I have to run all the way around it to get to the entrance. I will next time though when I have more time. Something really different here is that pretty much everywhere is closed on Sundays and the streets didn't have many people on them at all.

After that I took the metro up 3 stops to meet up with my small tour group and get a tour of the old area of Madrid which has a lot more going on than near my house and the school and is the central area for people to go out for the night or just during the day. Lucia was our guide this time and awesome! She showed us to the more tourists areas and views along with through the popular streets. She also explained a lot more just about Madrid and what we were seeing all around us.

We ended our little tour after getting drinks at a bar in a smaller plaza, and then she led us to El Tigre which is a bar where we met up with other groups and I hung out there with people until about 11 pm when I headed back to mi casa. It was standing room only and extremely crowded, but a very popular spot for locals. It was cheap, good, and they gave everyone a plate of free tapas with every drink they ordered. Or if people ordered together they would just stack the plate really high with food. Here people don't drink to get drunk, but drinking is done as a social pastime almost always with food. It was really fun to hang out and get to know the people from my program a lot better and we all spoke Spanish the whole time except when a few people were talking to some other Americans!

September 4, Madrid Orientation

So I left the house an hour before classes started and got there right as they were starting. I've figured out the metro, I just have to hope the trains get there when I need them to!

Today was the first day of actual classes and we had three different ones, each an hour long. The first two for my group were language classes followed by a civilization class. In the first two we are reviewing for the placement exam on Monday and went over introductions, ser vs estar and direct and indirect object pronouns. In the civilization class we talked more about Spain and I really liked the teacher and found it very interesting.

The big even today was our first lunch together as a program. All of the students traveled together on the metro to the very large football stadium that Real Madrid plays in. (It is the most visited museum in all of Madrid) We had a bunch of different tables in their fancy restaurant overlooking the field with an excellent view. There were about 9 people or so per table and that was a really good size for getting to know each other better. The food was also really good and they served us 10 different dishes/courses. A red pepper dish, gazpacho, croquettes, fried potato columns with a tomato sauce on top, sushi, giant hamburgers, "my first cake", tiny brownie cake bites, and three tiny pieces of fruit on a skewer at the end. The hamburgers were huge but thankfully the rest of the courses were just tiny samplings.

After that we had the afternoon free and I wanted to do the recommended bus tour with some other people, but everyone else in the group went to corte ingles a giant store that is a cross between, nordstroms, sears, an electronics store, and a supermarket/drug store to buy shampoo and other things they needed. I thought people would go around and explore the city after but they didn't- they just all went home. I headed back on the metro and train with Yinan to show her how to use the train because she lives very close to me and bought a cheap purse large enough for my notebooks so I don't have to walk around with a backpack not being able to see if someone is getting in my stuff.

The rest of the night I hung out around the house and in my room trying to figure out Madrid a little bit better from maps, the internet and other handouts I had received at one point or another.

September 3, Madrid, first day of orientation

First day of school/orientation today! My host mother guessed that it would take about half an hour to get to the school from our house, so I decided to give myself an hour just to be safe because it was the first day, I still had to figure it out on my own, and I thought that it might be a little bit longer.

I actually only got out 50 minutes before class and then had to wait ten minutes for the first train just standing on the station. The metro pulled in to the stop and left just below me before I could get to it, then the one I got on had its final stop the stop before mine, but the next metro came only one minute later. I ended up getting to school five minutes late and then tripped up the very first stair to go to the class where everyone was sitting quietly as they were handing out folders. But it was okay because there were at least 8 people who came in later than me too.

They introduced the three directors then went over the things in our folders such as the language pledge, money for our host families, keys, health insurance cards and other paperwork type stuff. Then we did little icebreaker sheets in small groups then took turns introducing someone else from our group to the class. After that there were some small snacks and time to hang out and meet each other more.

People might or might not have come with friends, but I am one of the only people who came from a school who only has one person in the program. So far everyone seems really nice and inclusive so I don’t think that it will be a problem. We all signed a contract saying that we would speak only in Spanish unless it is an emergency or are talking to someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, and I’m impressed and very happy that we can all carry on conversations well in Spanish in pretty much the same way that we would be talking in English.

I explored the streets close to my house a little bit before lunch in search of a tobacco shop to get the form to fill out to get my monthly metro pass along to see if there are any gyms close by that would be in my price range. I found one but I think the “free” sauna and jacuzzi lead to its higher than I want price.

For lunch it was María, her mother, her son and I. She has five grown children, and I think the son coming there for lunch every day is a usual occurrence. He speaks very good English and is going to give me his number in case there is ever an emergency and I need to speak English to someone.

When I told my host mother that my parents are in Madrid, she invited them over for coffee around 4:30 to meet her and see where I would be living. I finally got a hold of my parents last night after leaving a message for them at the front desk of their hotel, and then they called back the house. I had to leave at 4:30 to get to the school by 5:30 for a walking orientation trip with a local Spanish student, and saw my parents in the lobby right before they got in the elevator.

María was worried when I had to leave because she doesn’t speak any English, and when I asked her about it later I guess it turned out really well because she would speak to my mom in French, who would then translate to my dad in English, who would then ask her questions in Spanish. Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Back at the school we broke into five smaller groups, there are 38 people in the program, we each had a student from the University of Madrid guide us around the area to get a little more oriented with the area. There isn’t really much close to the school, so we went one metro stop up and then walked around a little bit there.

I didn’t exactly feel that much more oriented or know what I was seeing, but at the end we stopped for drinks at a place where all the groups were stopping and they brought us, paid for by the program, pitchers of beer and sangria. With that they brought us some tapas that I think come free with rounds of drinks and some bars, and I found out after trying what I thought was just a piece of pork that I had actually had a bit of a pig ear. It was actually quite good.

Everyone from this program has come from good small liberal arts schools almost all on the east coast. From the west there is me from Reed and a few people from the Claremont McKenna schools in southern California. It is a lot of fun and two people mentioned people that they know who go to Reed, Hannah Brannon and Eli, and I know both of them. Still not as weird though as one of my best friends from home and one of the best friends of my friend Lauren being roommates during orientation at NYU and being on the same study abroad trip in London together.

September 2, Granada to Madrid

Not a ton of stuff going on today. After breakfast and sandwiches (bocadillos) to go for the train later, we walked the two blocks to the station with our bags. Getting on the train and storing our bags was no problem since we were at the front of the line, and then during the five hour train ride I was able to catch up on my journal/blog, take maybe half an hour nap, and watch the end of Invictus while reading the Spanish subtitles.

The train ride was actually quite nice and once we got to a certain point we started going faster and through the hills instead of just around them making my ears pop and we went through the dark tunnels. The view out the windows until the very very end when we got to Madrid was of rolling hills, some covered in lines of olive trees, and little white towns that occasionally popped up and one even had a large castle and the top of its hill.

Taking the taxi with my parents from the train station to my host family’s house wasn’t a problem at all and my parents waited to make sure that I got buzzed in before they headed off. I’m on the seventh floor out of eight and thankfully they had an elevator for my 50+ pound bag. Thank you so much to my friends who told me to only bring one- it saved so much hassle!

My host mother is named María and she is very nice and welcoming and along with her elderly mother who is there most of the time, they are my company in the house. She offered me lunch, but I had already eaten, and then I was able to move into my little room and unpack. It is very cute with a little bed and desk and a closet with drawers. There are also bright pictures on the walls, black frames for me to put my pictures, and two book shelves full of books, traveling and novels, that I’m guessing are a collection of books from her and what students have left for the next students over the past ten years. I had a bunch of extra time to relax and get settled, but I’m nervous.

Later in the afternoon María went with me to show me how I would get to school in the morning. The house is right between two different stations and both are very close. We went to the train and got on there, then got off at another really big stop with the train, metro, and bus, then bought another ticket to take the metro to the stop I get off for my school. She walked the two blocks with me to show me where the school is and then we took the bus back so that I’ll know how to get there in all of the different ways.

While some people have specific times that they have to be at their house for meals, for me breakfast will be me just getting it on my own whenever I want it in the morning, lunch will probably be some time around two, but when I want it, and for dinner I just tell her when I want to eat each day and she will make it for me. Lunch is the largest and most important meal of the day, and dinner is usually smaller and a sandwich or salad or something like that.

Later in the night I was able to skype with River, and having skype is going to make this time in another country a whole lot easier.

September 1, Granada

We visited the Alhambra today. It is an ancient Moorish palace and ruins that the Christians then took over and added some of their own buildings to. There is a section that the ticket can get people into at any time, but there are specific times on the tickets that allow people into the Islamic palace because it is so popular. Our time for palace entrance was 9 am, but because we the machine wouldn’t give us our tickets the day before, we had to get there about 8 am when it opened to make sure to get our tickets in time.

There wasn’t much of a line that early so it wasn’t a problem getting the tickets we bought a couple months ago and head in. It was a twenty minute walk to the restricted area to the restricted area, so we headed slowly in that direction enjoying the sights along the way such as old ruins and the old bath houses.

In different areas there were great views of the white buildings and the city of Granada and of other parts of the Alhambra. All of the 9 o clock tickets were let in to the first room leading that was part of the palace and cameras were flashing everywhere. It wasn’t that large of a room, but the decorations and details were very detailed and intricate. They couldn’t do any pictures of people so they had to find different ways of doing art along with the beautiful Arabic writing on the walls in some areas writing out poems.

There was a lot of blue paint and tiling in very pretty designs all over the walls along with similar designs carved into the walls completely covering the high walls up to the differently decorated ceilings. There were also many many aches, open areas for sunlight, and fantastic views of nature and the city below. I can definitely see why it is so popular and why so many people visit all the time.

We had an individual audio tour guide with someone reading what Washington Irving had written about the rooms and their purposes when he was there. It was all very informative and interesting and I really enjoyed the entire place. There were many different types of rooms decorated in different ways and quite a few courtyards with small pools or gardens in them.

Mom and I split up from Dad to go at our own pace while Dad listened to all of the information stations, took a ton of pictures, and probably offered to take the pictures of everyone taking a picture so they could have a picture of everyone in the group including the person with the camera. The extra time at the end let us enjoy the extensive gardens and views outside the restricted area.

When Dad finally emerged we headed over to Charles V’s palace. I expected a lot more. It was a circle with two floors and a large open courtyard in the middle. It seemed very plain to me. That could also be because we couldn’t get into the rooms because we didn’t want to pay the extra and take the extra time to go in the separate museums there.

From there we headed to the summer palace. It had a lot more of the same Islamic architectures and decorations with expansive gardens with many different plants, trees, flower, fountains and different ways of walking around in it in order to get there. The entire walk there looked out over a great view of the rest of the Alhambra and while it was smaller was still very pretty.

Lunch led us to Olivers, a tapas bar back in the main restaurant area and a little shopping along the narrow pedestrian streets that had the little shops filled on either side completely filled and flowing out into the street leaving the walls completely filled with no brick or stone to be seen. Mom and I walked by the large church in Granada, which was much larger and had more renaissance decorations and feel to it and had very detailed and large façades on the outside with statues of mother Mary and other famous religious figures along with stained glass windows.

The three of us finally made it up to Plaza Nueva after that, less impressive than I was expecting, and then stopped for an order of churros and chocolate since that is a traditional snack here that we have seen and wanted to try but haven’t had the chance to yet

We bussed back to the hotel, now knowing how to do it with the kinds of cards the use there, and took our siesta. After Mom and I walked some through the Moorish quarter up to the view we had been to before, then met Dad at a Moroccan restaurant for dinner.

That was the end of our say so we went back to the hotel, packed most of our stuff up, talked to Daniel on skype, and then went to bed.