Barcelona!

…and now back to reality. Fresh off the plane from Barcelona the only things I can think of are the insane events from the past weekend and not of the homework due in six hours. While rummaging through my purse I find things that remind me of my weekend in Cataluña.

First, I pull out all of the receipts and cards from restaurants and bars I grabbed and threw into my purse. A card from the restaurant, Foc, where we all had lunch by the beach. Their website is called Focyou.com (clever I know.) An empty candy bar wrapper which served as my ticket to the chocolate museum…yes the chocolate museum. They gave you a bar of chocolate when you pay to enter and you can enjoy it while you browse the museum. A card from the fairytale bar off of Las Ramblas where the inside is full of trees, fairies and drinks.  And then I found a ticket from a cable car ride we took over the city. You can see the entire city looking one way and the Mediterranean looking the other way. It was a breathtaking view.

When I reached back into my bag to find something else I come across something I hadn’t realized had gotten into my bag…sand. Escaping from the Mediterranean coast I found some grains of sand settled at the bottom of my bag and I can’t help but remember how amazing the weather was when we had a girl day at the beach. You get past all the old women going topless after seeing a couple. I remember how sweet the coconut tasted that we bought to snack on while lying in the sun and staring at the clear blue water. The beach is an advantage Barcelona has over Madrid. It was an amazingly relaxing day.

Next out of my bag was an orange peel. Without me saying I bet you would wonder why the hell I would have an orange peel in my purse…allow me to explain. There is a very well-known bar in Barcelona which is simply called “Chupitos” which simply means Shots. The bar is the size of my room in Spain, which is insanely small but up on the wall is a list of the 200 shots they offer. Some examples include: President, el ultimo, snoopy, tarzan, and lou lou. My first, obviously, was a Harry Potter shot. It consists of orange liquor and vodka. The bartender then puts an orange slice on top with some sugar then lights it on fire. The fire caramelizes the orange so when you eat it its warm and tastes like candy. I wanted a souvenir from the shot which carries the same title of my favorite books so I put the peel in my purse; I just forgot I’d done that. Oops.

Next on the list was a package of cookies which I stole from the hostel’s continental breakfast for sometime in the day. This was the first time I’ve ever stayed in a hostel so it was interesting. The 10 of us stayed in a 12-person suite with 2 other college kids traveling for the weekend. There were communal bathrooms and we had to buy a towel and sheets. There were lockers for us to lock our stuff in every time we left. In all honesty we weren’t in the hostel much so it worked out. It was a lot cleaner than I had thought and it had an amazing roof-top terrace which we sat and relaxed on during siesta time. I met a lot of other students doing the same thing we were doing: visiting Barcelona for the weekend. I met a girl who went to Conard high school on West Hartford and is studying in Italy. All in all the hostel was clean, in a great location and was pretty comfortable.

El Parque Guell

La Sagrada Familia

Together all those things make up my weekend in Barcelona. Some great food and cool sites like Sagrada Familia (cathedral designed by Gaudí) El Parque Guell (popular spot for tv shows and movies) occupied my days. My good friend from Marist is studying in Barcelona and was able to show us around. It worked out perfectly. Although Barcelona was great, it’s nice to be back in Madrid. Madrid isn’t as touristy as Barcelona-great for vacation, but not for school. I am happy with my choice to be in Madrid.

Hasta la próxima!

Aventuras sobre Castilla La Mancha

It’s been yet another 2 weeks here in España and things just keep getting better and better. I am getting a lot more used to their way of living here, especially their schedule. Typical meal times consist of 8am piece of toast and coffee, 2pm huge lunch, 10pm dinner. I think I have finally trained my hunger when meal times are. I miss omelets.

Enough talk about food. Classes have gotten into full swing and I am more into the routine of being back at school. The university is about a 40 minute commute from my host mother’s apartment but it’s a pleasant commute. I have gotten closer to my Señora as we learn more about each other when we have meals together and talk. She used to work at a very prestigious news station in Spain and has met people such as Neil Armstrong, Truman Capote and 5 Nobel Peace Prize winners. Needless to say, she has great stories. She loves movies, especially musicals and comedies so when our soap opera ends at 11 she usually puts on a movie that she always claims as “mi favorita!” (my favorite) But shes 72, so every movie is her favorite. They’ve all been good so far so I trust her judgment in movies.

This past week has been hectic with events. A friend in my group had a birthday this past Thursday so we tried to think of something fun to do that none of us had done before. Our solution? A drag show. Now, they’re definitely not for everybody but for a group of fifteen 20-year-olds it was hysterical. There was an emcee named Shana and 4 different acts. One even picked a girl from our group and danced with her! It was a blast.

Our group spent the last 2 days in Castilla La Mancha, which is where the epic Spanish novel Don Quixote is set. The route he takes in the story is marked around the region and we followed some of it. We saw the huge windmills he fought in a famous part of the story in which he believes them to be giants. We also saw the jail cell where the author, Miguel de Cervantes was held when he wrote Don Quixote. We visited a farm where they produce manchego cheese, which is common throughout Spain and is made from sheep’s milk. We saw how it was made and were able to try the 3 different kinds. We then went to our hotel to have a siesta (break in the middle of the day) and then had a tour Almagro, a part of Castilla La Mancha. We saw an outdoor play and then had tapas for dinner. The next day we were up early for a hike around a different part of  Castilla. This part of the town was full of mountains and lagoons formed from limestone and rain water. There were tons of beautiful waterfalls and small coves of water that looked like Jacuzzis. We saw how the water comes up, yes up, from the soil in the mountain and runs down the side and into the lagoons. It’s ironic since La Mancha actually means dry land in Arabic so having a part of it with tons of water is a blessing to its citizens.

We then went to have lunch at a restaurant situated around a lot of Don Quixote gift shops. Castilla La Mancha is dedicated solely to Don Quixote; it is much like any boring town with one college in it. You can get Don Quixote anything…even underwear.  In all it was a very enjoyable trip. Castilla La Mancha is much more calm then the hustle and bustle of Madrid. It was nice to relax for 2 days but it’s good to be back. This coming weekend is booked for a 3 day trip to Barcelona! Just need to get through classes this week! Hasta la próxima!

First 2 weeks

My room

So here we are, first 2 weeks in Madrid. After landing and sleeping for about an hour overnight it was 10am in Spain. We got our passports stamped and finally stepped outside onto Spanish soil. The 10 of us had done so many forms and gone to so many meetings and waited so long for just this. We got on a bus which took us to our host families houses and had lunch for the first time in the place where we'd live for the next 3 months.

El Plaza Mayor

My host mother, or señora, is a widow and is 72 years young. She loves to blast any kind of music and make up words as she goes along. She dances around while cooking dinner and has a fan in her hand at all times. She cooks extremely well and makes really god paella, sangria and home made rice pudding! We ate and talked about our families and she told me about her upcoming night of singing at a jazz club called Toniz. Two of my friends and I went along with her to a jazz bar where she sang along with a piano player. One thing about going out in Spain is that the bars/clubs usually don't open until about 1:30am and close at 6am. We went and had coffee in an open terrace at midnight and then it was on to Toniz where she made us go on stage with her and sing "When The Saints Go Marching In" (apparently a popular song to sing in English at a spanish bar) We didn't leave until 4am.

El Parque del Retiro
I thank god everyday for the coffee here...its not exactly coffee. Its espresso, all of it. But it works well in helping me stay awake. The first week we did a lot of tourist things such as paseos (walks) around the city, visits to places like Museo del Prado, El Parque Del Retiro, El Rastro (a huge outdoor market) Sol (city center) La Plaza Mayor (next to Sol) Gran Via (street similar to Broadway) una obra de Flamenco (popular spanish dance, tapas (meal of appetizers) and a tour of our university.

Mi universidad

un bailador de Flamenco

The university we are all attending is called Universidad de Carlos III. It is located in a part of Madrid called Getafe. Like New York City, Madrid has its different villages. I am taking 4 classes-- Spanish Literature, Advanced Language, History of Spain and Spanish Art. There is so much to do here, this Saturday night is Noche en Blanco (night of white) where all of the stores and museums and restaurants are open all night long. Its sort of like a city-wide black party. We all plan to stay out for that and next weekend we have a group trip to Castilla where Don Quijote de la Mancha was set.

My friends and I have discussed traveling on weekends and I am starting to get into the Spanish schedule of things. I am very excited to see where this semester takes me. I am learning so much just by walking around and my classes are very interesting so far. Keep reading for more updates and pictures!

Hasta mi próxima
(until my next)