Vienna 12/3

Vienna was amazing! We couldn't see much most of the flight there, but when we broke through the clouds just before we landed the entire countryside was completely covered in snow. It was incredibly beautiful and I got very excited. 

Sally, the girl I met in Sevilla who lives in Vienna, had sent me directions on how to meet up with her at the metro near her house. It wasn't a problem at all taking the train then the ubon and then we met her and Will at the station. Will was heading up to Munich to record a CD with his band so there was space for us to stay with Sally. Everything was covered in about 4 inches of fresh snow and it was gorgeous. We headed back to her apartment, which is adorable, and then made tea and figured out what we wanted to do in our 2 days there (2 half days on each end and 1 full day). The Christmas markets there were at the top of our list. It isn't just one Christmas market, but a bunch of little ones all over the city that are each a little bit different.

Sally took us to her favorite ones our first night there. The first place we went we were able to walk to, and it was very cute. In the winter wonderland of the city, it was a circle of little booths in a plaza in front of a giant church. This was the artsiest and craftiest of all the markets we went to. It has very nice and high quality hand made gifts ranging from wood carvings, to hand painted ornaments to many other things. 

One of the things they have at all the markets is "punsch". It is a type of hot punch that comes in many different flavors and has alcohol in it. I think the majority of the flavors were different kinds or combinations of fruit. We went to three Christmas markets, and at each one got a mug of punsch. It not only warms you up being a hot liquid in your hands and while drinking it, but the bit of alcohol it has in it helps keep people warm there too because it is really cold. The first type of punsch I got was apple-pear (Sally had to translate everything for us) which was really good like hot apple cider, then at the next Christmas market we all tried hot coco punsch which was also incredibly delicious and tasted like Christmas, and then the last one I got was eggnog punsch which had a very strong flavor of grenadine with a little eggnog flavoring on top of the whipped cream. Another cool thing about the punsch was that it came in cute little christmas mugs. You had to pay a deposit on the mugs that you got back when you returned the mug but it made it so you could walk around the market with it. There can also be good cheap souvenirs for some people too. 

The next Christmas Market that we went to was the one in front of the Town Hall. The town hall building is huge and magnificent. The market there is probably also one of the larger and more popular ones. There were a couple tour busses there even. Sally told us that people who live outside of the city will take busses in to go to the markets too. These weren't the high levels of individual craftsmanship booths like we had seen before, but each one had its own little theme or type of goods it had there. It was so incredible to be walking around in such a beautiful place filled with so much Christmas spirit. 

One of the things that was absolutely adorable there was what they had inside the City Hall. In there there were many different areas for kids to make their own Christmas presents. There were different little enclosures for painting a cover for a photo album, or making cookies, or different types of arts and crafts things. It was very much something where the kids went in (after their parents paid a little bit of money) and they got to make something completely on their own having everything they need all around them. It seemed like such a great thing and the kids all looked like they were having tons of fun.

We went and explored yet another Christmas market after that and then went out to dinner. Sally took us to a brewery where they make all their own beers and have really good and authentic Viennese food. I got a small mug of their light beer and it was quite good, along with Viennese schnitzel that came with potato salad. Both were delicious. Two of Sally's friends met up with us there and then after that all of us headed back to Sally's apartment. 

Sally made a round of her special cocktail for all of us and we all just hung out there and it was a lot of fun. Another one of her friends came later to hang out too. Around midnight Sally and her three friends all went out to a club to go dancing, but Laura and I just went to bed since we were so exhausted from such a long day having to get up at about 5:30 am this morning to catch our flight.  

Upcoming Events

We only have one more day of classes here. It is amazing how quickly the time has flown by. Starting tomorrow (Friday) we have a 6 day break because we don't have classes on Fridays, and Monday and Wednesday are holidays so everyone just takes Tuesday off too. For this break I'm going to Vienna and Prague with Laura who I went to Paris with. I'm so excited!

However, one more day of classes also means that finals are coming up. I have a lot to do here too. In total I have 3 finals, 3 final projects, 2 presentations and one dance show. The dance show was last night (I'll write more about it later and post pictures) and we already turned in the anthropology paper, but the rest are coming up after the break. It would be really nice to have it a bit calmer at the end of the semester to be able to enjoy the last of my time here and get to do everything I've wanted to do but haven't had time for, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. At the same time I'm excited to go home and spend lots of time with my family, especially getting there just in time for the holiday season.

Past Weekends

Sorry that there haven't been many posts recently- I've just been in Madrid this whole time! The weekend after Paris I devoted to working on a project for Anthropology. It is a project with a partner and I was worried at first because my partner is a lot better at Spanish than me, but I definitely made up for it and a lot more with working really hard and doing a lot more than I needed to. That project is worth 40% of our grade in that class, the final is worth 25% and then there is also a midterm and participation but I'm not sure how heavily those weigh. 

Then this past weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) River came to visit! His birthday present (in October) from his parents was a trip out to see me and he took the red eye flight after his classes on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. Unfortunately he was feeling sick for a lot of his time here but it was still really nice to get to see him and spend time with him. We do talk on skype a lot doing video chats but it just isn't the same as in person.

Alas I still had classes while he was here and being the good student I am I went to them. We usually don't have classes on Fridays, but I had 2 different teachers who had make up classes on that day. I was thinking of not going, but River wanted to see me dance flamenco while he was here so we got up early and went to my flamenco and then art history class. Well I went to the second and he did his homework.
The class was only one class before our final performance so it was a great time for River to get to see it since it was like a dress rehearsal and he got to see all but one of the dances. And we got there early so I got him to take pictures of me spinning around in my pretty skirt.

Our big events for the long weekend were going to explore the Parque del Buen Retiro, going to the museum el Reina Sofia, and going to a soccer game.

El Parque del Buen Retiro (a giant park) is my favorite place in Madrid where I've gone running a lot and walk back through there on my way home from my internship. We stopped by the Museo de Jamon and picked up a traditional Spanish food: a bocadillo. These are sandwiches where the bread is a baguette and they can have different combinations of meats and cheeses or there are some with tortillas españolas, calamari or other types of food on them. The ones we got had ham. Then we walked to and through the park until we got to the lake where we rented a row boat and rowed around which was a lot of fun. We also had our picnic on the boat and River got to feed ducks for the first time. It was a really cold day but at least the sun was out.

While he was here we also went to the Reina Sofia which is one of the three big museums in Madrid. Well there are a lot of museums here, but one of the top three. It is the modern art museum near the park and I've walked by it many many times wanting to go in, so having River here was an excuse as good as any to go. We didn't spend a ton of time there, but it was still really interesting. The most famous piece of art there is Guernica by Picasso and there was also a bunch of other Picasso and Dali along with many other famous painters. The temporary exhibit was also quite random but a lot of fun.

Then our other big event was going to a soccer game for the Atletica de Madrid which is one of the three teams in Madrid. The most famous is Real Madrid and I don't know much about the other one. Atletica de Madrid usually looses, but their stadium is really close to where I live and they are the team my host family roots for. It is really cool when there is a game going on because all the streets are lined with parked cars (lines of cars parked in the middle of the street too) and the bars of full of people there to watch the game and running by the stadium during a game is always really cool too.

I'm really glad that I finally got to go to a soccer game here- it feels very European and is a lot different than in the States because people care a lot more about it here and get a lot more into it. The stadiums are also a lot larger with a lot more people. In the entire section behind the goal at the other end from where we were sitting, everyone there was standing for the entire game singing songs and doing cheers. A few had giant flags and hearing them the whole time was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the game itself too. I think having played soccer a lot in the past helped too with understanding everything that was going on and what they were doing.

The crowd was quite enjoyable to watch too. I've never heard so much swearing, in English or Spanish, in my life. Whenever the ref made a call or if someone was pretending to be hurt, which happened a lot, people would be yelling. There was a little tiny group of about 15 people there rooting for the other team located in a section completely empty except for them in the middle. Whenever the other team scored, which happened three times, everyone would be sitting except for them who were yelling, jumping, and waving flags.

Then one more big difference- the food. In the US they check your bags to make sure that you don't bring any food in, but here, at halftime, pretty much everyone in the stadium pulled out their bocadillo wrapped in aluminum foil and started eating it. It was very comical for us and I think we might have been some of the only people there without a shiny sandwich, since we went out for tapas right before.

They ended up loosing 3-2, but each time they scored the entire stadium would be up on their feet yelling and cheering. One of the goals took 3 tries with the goalie or someone else blocking it twice and them finally getting it in. It was such a fun and good experience to get to do while I was here. Oh and one thing that I'm extremely thankful for in the US is that people aren't allowed to smoke in stadiums, it really makes the experience so much better.

Having River come to visit was so wonderful and I'm so glad that he was able to be here.

My 21st Birthday!

This past weekend was my 21st birthday! It is funny to think about, but in the US, someone's 21st birthday is a really big deal because then they can drink legally and go out to bars. However, in Spain we can all already drink legally and one's 21st birthday means that lots of things get more expensive because we don't get the youth discounts anymore.

I considered Paris my birthday present but still did a little celebrating here. I hadn't really mentioned it to my host family much because I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but I mentioned it at lunch and Maria's son and Maria both got very excited for me. Maria said that we would celebrate that night when Pilar, her daughter, got home. Dinner is usually small and I can ask Maria to make something for me but usually just do something on my own. But tonight she made chicken Mexican fajitas which she had made before and were absolutely delicious. Better than some I've had in the US before. I think it is the salsa she has and the very fresh veggies and her use of spices.

She also gave me a little gift which is a silver necklace with the Tibetan symbol for peace on it. It is very pretty and that was very cool. Then after she brought out a cake she had bought for me from the bakery and dessert shop near by that had candles with the numbers 2 and 1 on it. It was in the shape of a flower and had lots of different layers and different types of chocolate. They sang me Happy Birthday in Spanish, and I was surprised, although I shouldn't have been, that the words were different than the English version just translated into Spanish. Her daughter was also very excited for my and gave me lots of birthday wishes.

Then Thursday night I went out with some friends to dinner. I decided not to on Wednesday because most of us had class early the next morning. I met up with Rachel, Emma, Kevin and Jaja and we headed to Peggy Sue's American Diner which I had seen before and seemed like it would be really fun to try. There were only people at 2 of the tables when we got there and so I was really surprised when she asked if we had a reservation. It was on a back street and a little hard to find, and a Thursday night, but I guess they were all booked up starting at 9:30.

A disappointment but we headed out to find somewhere else. There was an Indian restaurant near by that looked good so we went in. All the people working there were Indian and it had a really cool ambiance. We ended up sharing 4 dishes and naan and rice among the 5 of us and it was delicious! The food in Spain isn't spicy at all (they mention how spicy something is when it doesn't seem spicy to me at all) so it was really nice to get more strong flavors and spices for a night.

In Spain everything is a lot more relaxed and they take their time at meal. And they don't bring you the check- you have to ask for it. Therefore we got to just hang out for a long time just talking and enjoying the food and it was a great night and a lot of fun.

Harry Potter also comes out on Friday, so with some other friends from the school, we bought tickets for Friday at 00:20. One would think that this means 12:20 am on Friday, but I guess here it actually means 12:20 am on Saturday. I went to the theatre at midnight to meet up with people there and get my ticket from Charlie who had bought four online. However, I didn't know at that time that it was for the next night because the last I heard was that we were going to meet at the theatre.

I called them and they were all somewhere else so I took the metro and met up with them (Audrey, Thea, Sophie, Brinna, Charlie, and Ross) and found them at a jazz club where we had to pay a 6 euro entrance fee but it came with a free beer. So my first drink as a 21 year old was a beer in a really cool jazz club. The funny thing to me though was that I didn't realize that it was my first drink of legal US age until about half way through. We stayed there until just before the metro closed at 1:30 just hanging out, relaxing and having fun.

Paris! 11/14

Today was our last day in Paris, but we still fit in a lot. We started out early by going to the Louvre. I was really excited about going there but Laura doesn't really like museums but felt like it was a place she had to go when she was in Paris.

We started out together heading first to the Mona Lisa. It is interesting how some pieces of art get so famous and if someone didn't know what it was they might not look twice at it. I remember hearing at one point too that the man who it was painted for refused to pay for it because he didn't like it and now it is one of the most famous paintings of all times. There was a false wall in front of it and barriers keeping the many people away from it at a distance but it was still really cool to get to see.

After that we wandered around and saw a bunch of French paintings. One of the really big differences for me between the Louvre and the Prado is that almost all of the paintings I saw here were of a very large size and with more similarities, and the Prado has a lot more paintings of different sizes and varieties. It could also be that I didn't get to see as much of the Louvre so didn't see those parts.

Then we split up because I am more interested in paintings but Laura wanted to see more of the sculptures. I saw some Italian paintings and a few Spanish paintings and then headed over to the area of Napoleon's Apartments. That was very impressive and very grandiose and lavishy decorated with a lot of details and gold covering absolutely all of it.

There are four floors and three large wings in the museum. After being there for just 2 hours, going through getting a general view without stopping to look closely at many paintings I only saw a third of it. I would have been happy to stay for a lot longer but we didn't have that much time today. After that we headed out and walked across the river to find the Luxembourg Gardens. It is the largest public park in Paris with a palace next to it and was very pretty. It is a place that would be absolutely amazing in the spring or when more flowers are blooming and the trees have leaves. I'm still a fan of the Parque de Retiro in Madrid though and it is a lot larger and better for running.

Then we headed back toward the hostel. It was very disappointing that almost all the shops were closed on Sunday too like Madrid but then when we were on a street behind our hostel where we hadn't been before we suddenly found all the people. We had stumbled upon streets filled with all the little boutiques Paris is famous for. I don't really understand stores like that because they have just one of each thing. If you like something do you have to hope that the one thing they have is in your size or do they have more in the back? All of the clothes were very stylish and I really enjoyed going through all the stores, but the 400 euro price tags for a t-shirt just made me laugh. I'm sure as soon as I walked in they knew that I wasn't the type of person who would be buying stuff there.

We took the metro back to the airport, and it is a lot less clear here and not as easy to use like the one in Madrid. It was difficult to figure out how to get to where we wanted to go, and we actually ended up on a metro and got almost all the way to the airport at the north end of Paris when we were trying to go to the airport at the south end. That was a little bit scary being that far away and having a plane to catch, but some people on the metro helped us and we got headed in the right direction. Their signage is really bad. We got to the airport and got our boarding passes, went through security and got to the gate just as they were starting to board. We left the hostel with lots of extra time and I'm really glad that we did.

Overall it was a great time in Paris for my 21st birthday and I'm so glad that I went!

Paris! 11/13

Today was our big monument day. We got up early, had breakfast in the hostel, and then walked along the river Seine to the Eiffel Tower. The receptionist guessed that it would take about an hour to walk there but it was probably closer to an hour and a half. We could have taken the metro, but I like walking through places I'm visiting because then we got to see so much more and get more of a feel for the city. We could see it at one point off in the distance and then it slowly got larger and larger as we got glimpses of it through the buildings. It is an amazing structure just so big and grand and an icon in the world.

I really wanted to do a four hour bike tour of Paris that was recommended to me by old tour guides in my hostel in Cadiz, but it goes until some point in November and with the cold and rainy weather forecast for today they weren't there so I didn't get to do it. We did however take the stairs up to the second level of the Eiffel tower and walk around there and see the views. They are actually better from the second level than the top because we are closer to the monuments and it was really cool to look out onto the city in all different directions. As you can see it was rainy and overcast the whole time we were there without any sun, but Paris was still a great city despite that.

From there we walked up the road some more and onto a different one to head to the Arc de Triumph. This I remembered seeing too but it was still very impressive to me. So large with lots of different sculptures and decorations. We didn't go up it but took the tunnel under to road to get to the base of it and the inside was really interesting too but I really like the large flag blowing in the wind under the arch.

The we walked down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées which is a very famous and large street with expensive shops and car dealerships on each side. We went in a few stores along there, way out of my price range, and went in Ladurée the place famous for macarons in Paris. We didn't get anything there because of the long line and likely very high prices, but I did get a macaroon later in the day at a fancy chocolate store. I had never had one before and didn't really know what to expect but it was delicious! Three of four different layers and a fudgy frosting type center and an egg-shell like crust.

The road took us back into more of the heart of the city and into the really expensive stores that we didn't even try to go in and just did more window shopping. After that we split up with Laura doing some more shopping and going back to the hostel to work on a paper. I was going to go to the Orsay Museum that we passed earlier in the day but then felt like walking around and exploring more. It was raining lightly and almost everyone was using umbrellas, but being from the northwest with my raincoat and already being a little bit wet it didn't bother me at all.

I put away my map and just wandered wherever I wanted to go and wherever seemed interesting. There were some building with light decorations flashing on and off on the sides and it was just really calm, relaxing and fun to go around exploring the city on my own.

I wandered upon the Opera House by chance all lit up during the night and that was a really cool surprise. I saw it as I looked down a street and then realized how grand and elegant it was so doubled back to get a better look.

Later I started heading back to the hotel to meet up with Laura again. I decided to take a road parallel to the main one so I could see a part of the city I hadn't seen before. This however did not work because the roads aren't in a regular pattern or system so I ended up quite a bit off. The people I asked who worked in the stores couldn't really point to where they were on my map but I eventually found my way back. One of the streets I ended up on was pedestrian only and lined with little stores, restaurants, and some places that I'm pretty sure were strip clubs.

I did some work when I got back to the hostel and then went to bed early at 11 pm. Yesterday we went to bed at 10. It is kind of funny to me that we go to bed on weekend trips so much earlier than we do in Madrid, but it's good because then we can get up and start our days earlier.

Paris! 11/12

This past weekend I took a trip to Paris with my friend Laura from school here and it was tons of fun! My 21st birthday is also on November 17 so I considered it my birthday present to myself and from my parents. Our flight left at 8:15 am, but the metro doesn't open until 6 am here and it takes an hour to get to the airport on the metro from my house. Taking the metro would have been cutting the timing a little too close but fortunately I found a train from the station near my house that gets to a metro station closer to the airport at 6:04 getting me there early enough. It took me a little longer in the morning to get ready than I thought it would and I ended up running to the station and getting to the platform exactly at the same time as the train. What luck.

After we got to Paris we took the metro to a station near our hostel and walked there. It was located right in the center very close to Notre Dame. We dropped off out bags in the room and then started doing the Rick Steves walking tour and got through about half of it until we just stared exploring more on our own. It started at Notre Dame and then wandered around the Latin Quarter and old part of the city. I think the old parts of cities are my favorite for the small pedestrian roads and all the fun stuff that can be found there.

At Notre Dame I remembered being there when I was 10 on our first big family trip but it was still really cool to see it again. Especially since I've started taking my art history class I feel like I can understand it and appreciate it a lot more along with knowing a lot better what I'm looking at. The inside seemed new to me though, not remembering it, and really big old churches just impress me so much. There were lots of arches and art and stained glass. I would love to go to a service there, and I think that is something I want to do in Spain while I am here- go to a church service in a big cathedral.

The tour brought us to places like the Deportation Memorial, which was closed, the Latin quarter which had a bunch of book stores and cute little shops, Sainte-Chapelle, a cathedral of glass that is said to be amazing but had a long line and an 8 euro entrance fee, and then an old metro entrance that looks very spooky and a flower market. From there we just wandered around in the streets and explored on our own also seeing the very interesting exterior of the modern art museum only finding out later what it was.

Laura and I definitely have different styles of traveling. I'm a lot more into the museums and sights and learning all about what I'm seeing and the history of the city while she was more interested in going shopping after checking off the 3 big things she felt like she had to see. After exploring the old area of the city we did some shopping on a street near the hostel. She had a goal of at least needing to get something from Paris, but I was the one who ended up finding and buying a dress in H&M. It is a store in the US too and Madrid, so I'm just hoping that they have different clothes for different countries so it can feel a little more special having a dress from Paris. I was a lot less excited about going shopping there too because all of the stores around there they also have in Madrid.

Then we headed back to the hostel and were able to check into our room. It was a simple little room with 2 twin beds, a shower and sink, a window that looked out onto a road below and the back of a church, and the toilet just across the hall. They didn't however have towels to use for a deposit like every other hostel I've stayed in so showering was a bit more difficult, wet and cold after. We looked at maps and guide books to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our time there and then took a nap since both of us had gotten up so early and then dressed up a little bit to go our for our nice birthday dinner in Paris.

We asked the receptionist for a recommendation nearby and she pointed us to a place a short walk away. I was surprised by how much more difficult it is here not being able to speak French especially being used to communicating so easily in Spain. I had no idea what most of the stuff on the menu was and so chose the option for the two course dinner with limited selections and then just went with what the waiter recommended. Definitely a good choice. The first plate was a tomato tart that had a bunch of rosemary and other vegetables, herbs and flavors that all went together so well.

The second plate was steak au poivre which was equally as delicious. It was a cute little restaurant and we were sitting next to a big window looking out on the street so it was almost equivalent to sitting outside and being able to watch life on the street go by, just without the cold. Dinner was a lot of fun and definitely a great place to go for my 21st birthday.