Sure, I've had a lot of Spanish experiences over the last two months. I been blessed to have many adventures and experiences, but for the most part I've always had the buffer of an American friend to experience it with me. However, this past weekend, I got to experience something unforgettable without any buffer at all: I got to go out with my host brother Miguel, and his Spanish friends!
On Saturday, after I came home from Jerez, Miguel walked into my room and asked me if I wanted to go out tonight. Even though I was feeling pretty tired, I jumped on that opportunity and said "yes." He wanted me to bring my friends, but I knew they were either out of town or not feeling up to it.
After my 10pm dinner, I saw Miguel and he told me to get ready quickly, so I ran to my room and threw something cute on. We left the apartment around 10:30 and walked to a nearby plaza to wait for a couple of his friends. We made small talk (remember that no one in my family speaks English), and joked about the kids who were playing tag around us. I had noticed that he was sneaking alcohol out of the house, even though he is of age to drink by a few years, and asked him why. Apparently, my host parents are against alcohol. Basically, from what I got of the conversation, it's a mixture of being from "the time of Franco," and religion. Now, I cannot speak of "the time of Franco," but you know, Jesus drank wine. Anyway, I just get to keep learning more and more about the culture of different generations in Spain!
After about 20 minutes, two of his friends showed up, and one immediately began speaking English to me. I would answer him in Spanish, so it was a solid Spanglish conversation, but both of the friends were very nice. To the best of my knowledge at that point in time, I thought that that was the whole group, and that we would walk around and botellón (walk around the streets and drink with friends), but instead we got up and started heading towards another destination. We soon met up with 3 other friends, who I was introduced to, and the group continued to grow. We added one more (now a total of 7 people), then once again, started heading towards another destination.
At this point in time, it was about midnight. No one was really vocalizing where we were headed, I just was following the group. Miguel was being very sweet and walked next to me, trying to make me feel more comfortable in the group. It was a funny situation: I felt awkward because I was clearly the black sheep of the group since I wasn't fluent in Spanish, and didn't know anyone other than Miguel, but I was content because I was having fun observing, and listening. One of Miguel's friends asked me how old I was, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand what he was saying. I had to ask him to repeat what he said probably 4 times before he grabbed the friend that could speak English to translate. I felt silly, but this was my first full blown experience with the Andalusian accent. In my classes, or with people associated with the program, people have been sure to speak slowly and to enunciate, but in this situation, I was not granted that courtesy. So, they spoke fast, lisped some of their s's, and dropped the s from the ends of words. It was a true test to my Spanish conversational level.
We ended up at the train station, where the girls went inside to buy bottles for Tinto de Verano. At one point it was just Miguel, Alejandro (the friend I couldn't understand), and myself. I tried to start up a conversation, but I couldn't get the conversation to stick. At this point, I mostly just felt awkward because I just didn't know anyone well enough to have any kind of a conversation (except with Juanma the guy who spoke English and loved to talk in general). Once we left once again, headed for an unknown destination, two of the girls struck up a conversation with me, probably finally noticing that I really didn't know anyone in the group. They were very sweet. One was originally from the Ukraine, and the other has family from Morocco. Again, very multicultural. We talked about the basics to begin with: where I'm from, why I'm here, how old I am, how do I know Miguel, etc. During the conversation, we ended our walk near the train station in a small park of sorts. Here, about five more friends joined in as well. The boys broke out the drinks, and started passing them around. I originally wasn't going to drink, but then I figured "why not," plus my Spanish gets better when I'm not thinking as much...
As time went on, the guys were drinking and having their laughs, and I was finally fully immersed in conversations with the girls. I learned that almost all of them had some knowledge of English, so they would sporadically throw out an English word in conversation. One of them, is also studying at the business school, so we talked about the classes and some of the professors. When they asked me what classes I am taking, I went through the list, and once I got to Flamenco they all got very excited, thinking that I was learning how to dance Flamenco, when in reality I am not. I didn't correct them, but they proceeded to ask me if I knew how to dance Sevillanas (Andalusian "national" dance- specifically Sevilla). When I said "no," the immediately said "here, we'll show you." Just like that, two of the girls hopped up, and faced each other, ready to show me their moves. One of them shouted for Juanma to sing, and he began to sing flamenco for them to dance to, and another girl because to clap just like in Flamenco. I was in awe! These kids were my age and younger, and here they were dancing, singing, and clapping Flamenco (more or less), like it's no big deal and it happens every weekend. Other than thinking "this is the coolest thing I've seen yet," I thought, "where else in the world does this ever happen?!" It was so amazing!
Once they finished and sat back down to finish their drinks, we kept talking about this and that. The amiga who's from Morocco, asked me if I was going to go there at all, and I said that I would be going in a few weeks with my program. She gave me some advice on safety and food and places to see. She complemented my beauty also (who wouldn't), and I tried to complement her back saying that she had a wonderful "Mediterranean beauty."She reminded me of my sister-in-law Emilie in that way. However, I don't think she completely got what I was saying because she said "you too." I'll try again another time! It was a fun and friendly one-on-one.
We began walking to the discoteca around 1:30am, and it seemed like all of the kids were out in the streets with their friends. The walk was fun, and at that point Miguel was a bit tipsy, so it was interesting to see him quite as uptight as he can be in the house (apparently because of his parents).
Instead of going into the discoteca with Miguel and his friends, I decided to leave the night on a high note and head home, since I was still worn-out from Jerez, and I know that when Miguel goes out, he doesn't come home until 7:30am. As I said goodbye to too many Spaniards to count (my cheeks were chapped from all of the Spanish kisses!) and headed home.
It was such an amazing night. It was slow to start, but all it took was a little outreach from some friends, and I was in. The experience is one that I will never forget, and I can't wait to have another similar experience soon! Which, by the sounds of my conversations with Miguel, should me next weekend! YAY! Next time, the discoteca will be involved!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sherry Tasting in Jerez
Saturday, during the day, a couple of my friends, Maria and Jessica, and I decided that it would be fun to go to one of the best known areas for sherry in the world-- Jerez. In history, sherry has been known as more of an English drink, but overtime, it has become very Spanish, and it is common to have sherry with tapas during a meal. Many think of sherry as a desert wine, but the evolution has lead it to be, at least in Spain, a drink accompanying a meal.
Some other people from our program had done this day trip, so we got some tips from them, and left at 10:30am by bus for Jerez. The bus ride was only about an hour and 15 minutes long, so we were off on the town in no time! We got our bearings and started to head toward a winery that was well recommended in Rick Steves. Walking around town, I noticed that Jerez is very quaint and extremely beautiful (it helped that the weather was phenomenal!) Everyone around town, tourists and locals alike, were just strolling; there wasn't any rush to do something other than enjoy the day. We found our ways to the center of town, where we got to see the aftermath of a Spanish wedding ceremony. It was very interesting to see the people who were there: many of them were wearing blue, especially the kids. Then the groom was wearing a very formal tuxedo, and the bride was wearing what appeared to be a traditional Spanish bridal dress, which was also blue--not white. Yet another difference between Spain traditions and U.S. traditions.
The winery that we had intended to go to ended up being closed, so we decided to head to (arguably) the world's most famous sherry winery and company: Tio Pepe. We got there just in time to go on a tour of the "winery," which is really just where the original winery was, and has a few fake winery areas, but nowadays it is mostly just buildings with barrels, both old and new and in use. The winery fields for Tio Pepe our now outside of town. So, Maria, Jessica, and I took the tour with a handful of other tourists, and the entire experience was rather informative. It included taking a train around the compound, and stopping in each of the buildings to learn about the history of Tio Pepe, also known as González Byass (which celebrated it's 175 anniversary last year), and also learning about the process to make sherry and brandy. At the end of the tour, we had the chance to taste a couple different types of sherry's. The biggest difference between the two were the length of time they spent in the barrels (which, by the way are made of North American Oak trees). The first, which had spent less time in the barrel, was not as sweet, and was more strong because the sherry hadn't had enough time to absorb the "flavor" from the barrel. The second, whose grapes had also spent more time in the sun drying (and therefore leaving more sugar than water), had also spent more time in the barrel, and was very sweet. I liked both of them, but naturally, I enjoyed the second one more!
Once we left the Tio Pepe grounds, we headed to a plaza to enjoy lunch outside. The food was great, and it was a beautiful place to eat and people watch (which is a fun activity in Europe-- plenty of characters around!) After lunch we headed back to the bus station, and by 5:15, we were back home in Sevilla. It was the perfect time to spend in Jerez, and we could still enjoy the evening in our home town!
This upcoming weekend I am headed to Lagos, Portugal with a group of 4 other friends. Lagos is known for it's world class beaches, and I am more than ready to spend some quality time on them!
Some other people from our program had done this day trip, so we got some tips from them, and left at 10:30am by bus for Jerez. The bus ride was only about an hour and 15 minutes long, so we were off on the town in no time! We got our bearings and started to head toward a winery that was well recommended in Rick Steves. Walking around town, I noticed that Jerez is very quaint and extremely beautiful (it helped that the weather was phenomenal!) Everyone around town, tourists and locals alike, were just strolling; there wasn't any rush to do something other than enjoy the day. We found our ways to the center of town, where we got to see the aftermath of a Spanish wedding ceremony. It was very interesting to see the people who were there: many of them were wearing blue, especially the kids. Then the groom was wearing a very formal tuxedo, and the bride was wearing what appeared to be a traditional Spanish bridal dress, which was also blue--not white. Yet another difference between Spain traditions and U.S. traditions.
The winery that we had intended to go to ended up being closed, so we decided to head to (arguably) the world's most famous sherry winery and company: Tio Pepe. We got there just in time to go on a tour of the "winery," which is really just where the original winery was, and has a few fake winery areas, but nowadays it is mostly just buildings with barrels, both old and new and in use. The winery fields for Tio Pepe our now outside of town. So, Maria, Jessica, and I took the tour with a handful of other tourists, and the entire experience was rather informative. It included taking a train around the compound, and stopping in each of the buildings to learn about the history of Tio Pepe, also known as González Byass (which celebrated it's 175 anniversary last year), and also learning about the process to make sherry and brandy. At the end of the tour, we had the chance to taste a couple different types of sherry's. The biggest difference between the two were the length of time they spent in the barrels (which, by the way are made of North American Oak trees). The first, which had spent less time in the barrel, was not as sweet, and was more strong because the sherry hadn't had enough time to absorb the "flavor" from the barrel. The second, whose grapes had also spent more time in the sun drying (and therefore leaving more sugar than water), had also spent more time in the barrel, and was very sweet. I liked both of them, but naturally, I enjoyed the second one more!
Once we left the Tio Pepe grounds, we headed to a plaza to enjoy lunch outside. The food was great, and it was a beautiful place to eat and people watch (which is a fun activity in Europe-- plenty of characters around!) After lunch we headed back to the bus station, and by 5:15, we were back home in Sevilla. It was the perfect time to spend in Jerez, and we could still enjoy the evening in our home town!
This upcoming weekend I am headed to Lagos, Portugal with a group of 4 other friends. Lagos is known for it's world class beaches, and I am more than ready to spend some quality time on them!
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| An interesting statue in Jerez |
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| The tranquil streets in Jerez |
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| Mmmmmmm!!! |
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| The plaza where we ate lunch |
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| Enjoying the weather! |
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| Tio Pepe and I! |
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| Inside the grounds of Tio Pepe |
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| Training around the area |
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| Some of the "vineyard" |
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| The black on the walls is from erosion, from the alcohol in the air from years and years of sherry making. |
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| Maria in front of some of the first machines used to make sherry. |
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| A "who's who" of international drinkers |
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| Jessica and Maria at our sherry tasting |
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| Lots of fun with friends! |
Monday, March 21, 2011
Exam Week
Well, I survived my exam week. The only times in history that I have 5 exams in one week is during exam week at school at home. But that is when the entire week is devoted to taking exams, therefore there aren't other classes during the week. Here, I had 5 exams during the last to days of my school week (Wednesday and Thursday) and had normal classes the first two. It might just be me, but this seemed like a little much!
The week was stressful, and I think my señora was impressed that I was able to study so much in one week. My host family didn't see me very much! I had to divide and conquer to split my time in studying.
With all of it behind me, I have to say that I think I did well on my exams. (But I'll find out how correct I am on that self evaluation this week!) I'm glad to be done with them. On to the second half of my schooling in Spain!
The week was stressful, and I think my señora was impressed that I was able to study so much in one week. My host family didn't see me very much! I had to divide and conquer to split my time in studying.
With all of it behind me, I have to say that I think I did well on my exams. (But I'll find out how correct I am on that self evaluation this week!) I'm glad to be done with them. On to the second half of my schooling in Spain!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Cordoba
Last weekend, (or should I say 2 weekends ago now), I had the pleasure of going to Cordoba, Spain with my program. At first I wasn't positive if I wanted to go because I was sick, had 5 upcoming exams, and I had already seen the big sights in Cordoba! However, I'm only going to live in Spain once, and there isn't a better way to spend your time than with friends in an interesting place! (My parents would argue that in this case, the best place would be for me to be studying, but oh well!)
So, the students from my program that signed up for the trip to Cordoba met in front of the main University building, as we always do, and hopped on a couple of coach buses for our 2 hour ride to Cordoba. Since the weather was overcast, and had off and on rain, I got to see the Spanish country side in a different light. Let me just tell you, it is still breathtaking!
We arrived at Cordoba around 11am and immediately crossed the river into the historic center of the town to tour the Mezquita. Again, I had seen this site, but this time I was back older, and more prepared to learn more about it and appreciate it better. The Mezquita was originally a mosque for the arabs that lived in Cordoba and the surrounding areas in the 8th century. Eventually, in the 13th century, the christians came (like they have done to many), and decided that the building was too beautiful to tear down, so they stuck a cathedral right in the middle of it. I find the history very interesting, and both sad and funny. The process of conquering the area by the christians is very sad, but the idea to just stick a cathedral in the middle of a mosque I think is a bit humorous. But together, this makes for a beautiful, majestic, and culturally diverse site to see.
After the Mezquita, we toured (in our respective tour groups) the Synagogue of Cordoba and the Jewish Quarter, as well as the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, which housed the kings and the seat of the Inquisition. One thing is for sure, there were many sites to see in Cordoba! Once we had finished with our tours, we were left to our own devices for a few hours, which included eating lunch, avoiding the gypsies and their rosemary, and strolling the streets with friends.
Walking around the town of Cordoba reminded me of when I came with my family, and I kept having flashes of Deja Vu. I remembered sitting with my brothers in one part of the Mezquita, waiting for my Dad to get his fill of history, then I remembered John ordering "Bacon Pizza" at a family lunch. It brought back really great memories. But this time around, I got to make my own memories with my own friends!
Around 4pm we all headed back to the buses for our ride back. The day seemed to fly by, and in no time, we were back home in Sevilla. At this point it was time to turn my full attention to studying for the upcoming midterms. Mother nature must have known that I needed to study too, so she rained all weekend long, to not tempt me from going elsewhere and procrastinate! So thanks, Mother Nature!
It seems that the weekend of rain helped Andalusia be "all rained out", at least for this past week, because the weather has been perfection. I hope it was the same for you all at home!
So, the students from my program that signed up for the trip to Cordoba met in front of the main University building, as we always do, and hopped on a couple of coach buses for our 2 hour ride to Cordoba. Since the weather was overcast, and had off and on rain, I got to see the Spanish country side in a different light. Let me just tell you, it is still breathtaking!
We arrived at Cordoba around 11am and immediately crossed the river into the historic center of the town to tour the Mezquita. Again, I had seen this site, but this time I was back older, and more prepared to learn more about it and appreciate it better. The Mezquita was originally a mosque for the arabs that lived in Cordoba and the surrounding areas in the 8th century. Eventually, in the 13th century, the christians came (like they have done to many), and decided that the building was too beautiful to tear down, so they stuck a cathedral right in the middle of it. I find the history very interesting, and both sad and funny. The process of conquering the area by the christians is very sad, but the idea to just stick a cathedral in the middle of a mosque I think is a bit humorous. But together, this makes for a beautiful, majestic, and culturally diverse site to see.
After the Mezquita, we toured (in our respective tour groups) the Synagogue of Cordoba and the Jewish Quarter, as well as the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, which housed the kings and the seat of the Inquisition. One thing is for sure, there were many sites to see in Cordoba! Once we had finished with our tours, we were left to our own devices for a few hours, which included eating lunch, avoiding the gypsies and their rosemary, and strolling the streets with friends.
Walking around the town of Cordoba reminded me of when I came with my family, and I kept having flashes of Deja Vu. I remembered sitting with my brothers in one part of the Mezquita, waiting for my Dad to get his fill of history, then I remembered John ordering "Bacon Pizza" at a family lunch. It brought back really great memories. But this time around, I got to make my own memories with my own friends!
Around 4pm we all headed back to the buses for our ride back. The day seemed to fly by, and in no time, we were back home in Sevilla. At this point it was time to turn my full attention to studying for the upcoming midterms. Mother nature must have known that I needed to study too, so she rained all weekend long, to not tempt me from going elsewhere and procrastinate! So thanks, Mother Nature!
It seems that the weekend of rain helped Andalusia be "all rained out", at least for this past week, because the weather has been perfection. I hope it was the same for you all at home!
Crossing the river to the old center of Cordoba
My tour group waiting to begin
Inside the Mezquita
The cathedral in the center of the mosque.
Purple for Lent!
The many arches inside the Mezquita.
Calle "I found a shortcut"
The intricate detail of the Synagogue
Friends!
More friends!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Some random thoughts to catch you up on mi vida...
So since I am not participating in any weekend warrior trips this weekend, it has freed up some time to catch up on many things, including this blog. It's also let my body slow down enough to get sick, but I plan on catching up on some sleep to take care of that problem!
Next week are our midterms. It's convenient (and stressful) that the program has set 2 days where we will have all of our exams, whereas the liberal arts program has their exams different days and weeks, depending on the class. So, the studying and reviewing begins!
This week was pretty low key. I had my classes, and I met for the second time with my language tutor to help me conquer Spanish. I really enjoy my tutor; she is a PhD student at the University of Sevilla for English, and she works with me in Spanish on my conversational Spanish, and general grammatical issues that she thinks I need to work on. It's exactly what I needed! My classes are all going well, and other than the upcoming exams, there isn't very much to report. As of now, my favorite class is my Advanced Spanish Business Writing class because it is fun, and is helping me a lot with my Spanish skills and making my Spanish more colloquial. International Marketing, Flamenco, and International Finance are all going well, and I don't have any issues with any of those classes. The topics are interesting and relevant, and I know understand my professor in International Finance. I mean I understand him not in the language sense, because I already understood him, but I now understand that he is in fact funny, it's just a dry sense of humor, and that he seems strict because he is the dean of the business school. If I were the dean of the business school I too would appear strict and cold. My Managing Cultural Diversity class is going fine as well, although it is a lot of work. I haven't ever had to read so much in an English business class, no less in Spanish. So that is frustrating. Also, I have taken a very very similar class already, but it was Diversity in Education, when I was considering pursuing that career path for a semester. It's a lot of opinions about how the world needs to change and how there are horrible stereotypes about everyone in the world. No one is exempt. I agree with a lot that the class is teaching, but it frustrates me that we (in this specific class) are all a bunch of white Americans giving their opinions, but I don't believe that most of the other students in the class have a really good idea as to what diversity is exactly and how it feels to be in a diverse group, or how it feels to not be a white middle class American. I'm not saying that I know, because I don't, but I have been blessed, and had the social opportunities to be the odd person out multiple times, so I do have a very general idea. I just happen to like having multicultural friends, and it's made me a better, more well-rounded person! So that's my beef with that class.
What else....
I'm becoming friends with my host brother, which is exciting! Our friendship takes the form in both face-to-face communication and also on Facebook chat. This is in fact the 21st century! We've been wanting to hang out outside of the house and go on a walk, or to a discoteca, but it has yet to actually happen. Both the weather, and miscommunication are to blame. It's pretty funny when we are talking online, because we are only about 15 yards away from each other in the apartment. And I am typically better at reading Spanish, so the conversation is a little bit more smooth. It's also funny that he will sometimes use an online translator so his words are sometimes in English. Last night I went out with my girl friends to a discoteca that he had recommended and it was a lot of fun. Plenty of good dancing! The people and the music were a combination of the Jersey Shore, Puerto Rico, and Spain. All in all, it makes for a fun, late night! Miguel was supposed to come and meet up with his guy friends, but they never showed. Then when I got home at 4:30am, I heard him snoring in his room. He apologized to me today, I think he said he wasn't feeling great. So we will try to mesh our friends together at another time.
Purdue has their Spring Break this upcoming week, so if any of my fellow Boilermakers are reading this, then I hope you have a fantastic time! Also, the next few days are the Big Ten basketball tournament, so Boiler Up! I know "the big dance" is fast approaching, so I'm hoping for an awesome turnout. Only about a week ago, while I was walking to class, I fantasized about Purdue winning the National Championship for a good 15 minutes. Maybe it's ambitious, but I've always thought you've got to reach for the stars!
Well, for all of you, I hope you were able to track my flowing thoughts in this blog. And if you happen to live in the Mid-West, then I hope all of that new snow melts ASAP! It's been raining here for the past week, and I think we still have another week of it. Here's to wishing for warm weather and sun for all of us! So basically, Grandma and Grandpa, please send some of that beautiful Arizonan sun to the rest of us! In one final note, I'm in the process of uploading basically all of my pictures to shutterfly.com. This way, if you don't have Facebook, or just want to see more pictures that aren't as sifted through to find the best and prettiest pictures, then you can go to my shared album(s) and take a look for yourself. It will take me some time to upload them all, so I don't have the link for you yet, but I will post it on here once I do.
I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Tomorrow I'm headed to Cordoba, and hoping this rain holds off for our day trip!
Next week are our midterms. It's convenient (and stressful) that the program has set 2 days where we will have all of our exams, whereas the liberal arts program has their exams different days and weeks, depending on the class. So, the studying and reviewing begins!
This week was pretty low key. I had my classes, and I met for the second time with my language tutor to help me conquer Spanish. I really enjoy my tutor; she is a PhD student at the University of Sevilla for English, and she works with me in Spanish on my conversational Spanish, and general grammatical issues that she thinks I need to work on. It's exactly what I needed! My classes are all going well, and other than the upcoming exams, there isn't very much to report. As of now, my favorite class is my Advanced Spanish Business Writing class because it is fun, and is helping me a lot with my Spanish skills and making my Spanish more colloquial. International Marketing, Flamenco, and International Finance are all going well, and I don't have any issues with any of those classes. The topics are interesting and relevant, and I know understand my professor in International Finance. I mean I understand him not in the language sense, because I already understood him, but I now understand that he is in fact funny, it's just a dry sense of humor, and that he seems strict because he is the dean of the business school. If I were the dean of the business school I too would appear strict and cold. My Managing Cultural Diversity class is going fine as well, although it is a lot of work. I haven't ever had to read so much in an English business class, no less in Spanish. So that is frustrating. Also, I have taken a very very similar class already, but it was Diversity in Education, when I was considering pursuing that career path for a semester. It's a lot of opinions about how the world needs to change and how there are horrible stereotypes about everyone in the world. No one is exempt. I agree with a lot that the class is teaching, but it frustrates me that we (in this specific class) are all a bunch of white Americans giving their opinions, but I don't believe that most of the other students in the class have a really good idea as to what diversity is exactly and how it feels to be in a diverse group, or how it feels to not be a white middle class American. I'm not saying that I know, because I don't, but I have been blessed, and had the social opportunities to be the odd person out multiple times, so I do have a very general idea. I just happen to like having multicultural friends, and it's made me a better, more well-rounded person! So that's my beef with that class.
What else....
I'm becoming friends with my host brother, which is exciting! Our friendship takes the form in both face-to-face communication and also on Facebook chat. This is in fact the 21st century! We've been wanting to hang out outside of the house and go on a walk, or to a discoteca, but it has yet to actually happen. Both the weather, and miscommunication are to blame. It's pretty funny when we are talking online, because we are only about 15 yards away from each other in the apartment. And I am typically better at reading Spanish, so the conversation is a little bit more smooth. It's also funny that he will sometimes use an online translator so his words are sometimes in English. Last night I went out with my girl friends to a discoteca that he had recommended and it was a lot of fun. Plenty of good dancing! The people and the music were a combination of the Jersey Shore, Puerto Rico, and Spain. All in all, it makes for a fun, late night! Miguel was supposed to come and meet up with his guy friends, but they never showed. Then when I got home at 4:30am, I heard him snoring in his room. He apologized to me today, I think he said he wasn't feeling great. So we will try to mesh our friends together at another time.
Purdue has their Spring Break this upcoming week, so if any of my fellow Boilermakers are reading this, then I hope you have a fantastic time! Also, the next few days are the Big Ten basketball tournament, so Boiler Up! I know "the big dance" is fast approaching, so I'm hoping for an awesome turnout. Only about a week ago, while I was walking to class, I fantasized about Purdue winning the National Championship for a good 15 minutes. Maybe it's ambitious, but I've always thought you've got to reach for the stars!
Well, for all of you, I hope you were able to track my flowing thoughts in this blog. And if you happen to live in the Mid-West, then I hope all of that new snow melts ASAP! It's been raining here for the past week, and I think we still have another week of it. Here's to wishing for warm weather and sun for all of us! So basically, Grandma and Grandpa, please send some of that beautiful Arizonan sun to the rest of us! In one final note, I'm in the process of uploading basically all of my pictures to shutterfly.com. This way, if you don't have Facebook, or just want to see more pictures that aren't as sifted through to find the best and prettiest pictures, then you can go to my shared album(s) and take a look for yourself. It will take me some time to upload them all, so I don't have the link for you yet, but I will post it on here once I do.
I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Tomorrow I'm headed to Cordoba, and hoping this rain holds off for our day trip!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Weekend Warrior Trip Numero 3: Barcelona
Barcelona's pretty awesome, but let's rewind for a minute to see how I got to this conclusion.
My weekend travel buddy, Erin, and I left for Barcelona Thursday night after classes and being nagged by my madre (Spanish, not American) about if I had enough warm layers, if I wanted a bocadillo (sandwich) for the airport, if I wanted chocolate to snack on, etc. (It made me smile actually, because Isabel is filling my real Mom's shoes pretty well while she can't directly nag me face to face. Isn't that what Mom's are for? To make sure you packed enough layers, and make sure you have your own packed meal?) Unlike Granada and Madrid, we had to take a plane to get to Barcelona, which we had purchased our flights through Ryan Air a few weeks before the trip. We took a bus to the airport, made it through security, and onto our flight just fine.
After an hour and a half of flying (and organizing my music on my iPod), we made it to Barcelona. At this point in time it was about 10:30pm, and raining, but we waited for a while to take the bus/metro combination to our hostel. While walking around the airport, I had a bit of Deja Vu, and I realized I had been in this airport before! About 9 years ago my Mom had the intentions of flying to France to visit my Aunt and cousins who were living there at the time, but the French air traffic controllers decided to go on strike that day, so we had the pleasure of flying into Barcelona, and having my aunt pick us up at a very very early hour. But anyway, when all was said and done with the current travel to Barcelona, we got to our hostel around 1am. (It ended up being a longer bus ride than we were expecting, but we went with the flow.) The hostel wasn't like anything either one of us had ever stayed in before, but it was an international student hostel, and got the job done. We had a room to ourselves, and had to make our own beds, and I used my sweatshirt as a pillow the whole weekend, but I didn't really mind.
Neither one of us shot out of bed in the morning. Breakfast was free in the hostel, so we woke up to eat some cereal and toast, and then we ended up just going back to bed for a couple hours. You can be jealous, or disgusted, but it was so great to sleep in! Once we had both woken up, we started talking about how we wanted to go about seeing the sights around town, and the only place that we both agreed that we had to go to was La Sagrada Familia. I mentioned that I wanted to go see the F.C. Barcelona stadium (largest soccer stadium in the world), and Erin agreed that would be fun. However, the conversation took a turn and we ended up agreeing that it would be awesome if we went to Barça soccer game the following night. As a huge soccer fan, obviously I was all in for this. So, our first act of the weekend was going to the stadium to buy our tickets for the following night.
After standing in line for a half hour, and having a spanglish conversation with the kind man at the ticket sales, we got our tickets and went off to see the rest of Barcelona. We ate lunch, and I dragged Erin to the City History Museum that Rick had recommended. Erin isn't a big fan of history, but she came anyway. I wanted to go because there were Roman ruins under the city that this museum allowed you to see. I found it all very interesting, and now we are both better educated on the history of Barcelona! Around 5pm, when we were finished at the museum, we decided to get some helado (ice cream) and go on a walk around town, down by the shore. One shop we walked into was a pet store, which my family knows can be a dangerous place for me to go. But there were puppies in the window, so we couldn't resist. The whole time in the store, I was trying to figure out how to tell my parents, both Spanish and American, that as a souvenir from Barcelona, I got a puppy. As soon as a golden retriever puppy ran up to me and I felt how soft his fur was, I decided that we had to leave the store before I made any rash decisions. We walked near the docks, and a couple piers, and eventually found our way to the beach. On a day that was 10 degrees warmer, our path would have been packed with many more people, but at that point in the day and with the temperature there weren't too many people out and about.
Once we got to the beach, I went and touched the Mediterranean (although I had been in it in France), and we enjoyed the sound and smell of the sea for a few minutes. Afterwards, we decided to pick up dinner and a grocery store and make it at the kitchen in our hostel. So we picked up a cold (not frozen) pizza, fruit, some juice, and chocolate for Erin's sugar craving. The night ended pretty calmly, after our baking of the pizza and watching an old movie that I had on my iPod touch.
The next day, we woke up, had breakfast, and got dressed for our day of sightseeing. Our first act was to walk down Las Ramblas, which is a popular street where local artists and vendors come out to sell their art, jewelry, flowers, birds, gerbils... Anyways. There were many beautiful pieces of art that wouldn't fit into my carry-on, so I managed to make it off of Las Ramblas with a full wallet. For lunch, Erin and I went into a local market that was off of the street, and picked up some ham, plenty of strawberries, Spanish olives, and a smoothie. While in the market, we were reminded that it was Carnaval in Spain (the equivalent of Spanish Mardi Gras) because many of the vendors were dressed up in costumes with masks and beads to fit. (Many of our friends from the program had gone to Cádiz for Carnaval because it is supposedly the second largest party in the world. We thought it would be better to spend Carnaval in a large city where we had more options than just getting very very drunk with a million or so of our closest friends.) But I digress...
After lunch, we headed back to our hostel for a little to take a quick siesta. After our siesta we left for La Sagrada Familia, and ended up needing to wait in line for a little while. By the time we got our tickets, the tickets for the lift to the top were all sold out, but we were still able to see the inside of the temple (which has also recently been dubbed a basilica... I don't know what the requirements are to become a basilica, but it made it!). For those of you who don't know, La Sagrada Familia is the great unfinished project by Gaudi. It has been under construction for about 180 years, and still has at least 30 left, if the money flow can keep coming (see, basilica's have the same problem as normal people too!) The inside of La Sagrada Familia is very beautiful and impressive in size. The inside was only finished just last year, and the architecture is all very impressive. My pictures don't do it justice, but I'm going to let them try, because I'm almost without words trying to describe it.
We left La Sagrada Familia, and went to dinner at a local diner, where we were able to watch a local Carnaval parade pass. Once we were finished, we headed for the Barça stadium, ready to enjoy some great soccer. F.C. Barcelona as currently the best soccer team in the world, with the largest soccer stadium in the world, and when the two are combined it's awesome! One side note: Many people have a habit of calling Barcelona, Barça, but this is incorrect. Barça is only in reference to the soccer team, so it would be like saying "I'm going to go visit Lakers," instead of saying "I'm going to go visit L.A." Now you all know better. Although I don't really consider myself a Barça fan (instead I'm a combination fan of Sevilla F.C., and Real Madrid), I figured why not... "Root, root, root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame." The experience was amazing, and the atmosphere of the stadium was fun and exciting. There were plenty of great "keeper saves" too. My favorite :)
After an unbelievably packed metro ride back to our part of town, we enjoyed churros con chocolate to end our day and our trip. Traveling back to Sevilla was painless, and we both enjoyed our time in Barcelona. I'd have to say Barcelona is my favorite city that I've visited for a whole weekend so far. I don't know if that is because Barcelona is truly that amazing (I mean, it is), or if it is because it's the first city that I've gone to where it's all been new and exciting. Regardless, I need to go back to visit the rest of the city that we didn't have time to get to! Now to find the time to do that...
My weekend travel buddy, Erin, and I left for Barcelona Thursday night after classes and being nagged by my madre (Spanish, not American) about if I had enough warm layers, if I wanted a bocadillo (sandwich) for the airport, if I wanted chocolate to snack on, etc. (It made me smile actually, because Isabel is filling my real Mom's shoes pretty well while she can't directly nag me face to face. Isn't that what Mom's are for? To make sure you packed enough layers, and make sure you have your own packed meal?) Unlike Granada and Madrid, we had to take a plane to get to Barcelona, which we had purchased our flights through Ryan Air a few weeks before the trip. We took a bus to the airport, made it through security, and onto our flight just fine.
After an hour and a half of flying (and organizing my music on my iPod), we made it to Barcelona. At this point in time it was about 10:30pm, and raining, but we waited for a while to take the bus/metro combination to our hostel. While walking around the airport, I had a bit of Deja Vu, and I realized I had been in this airport before! About 9 years ago my Mom had the intentions of flying to France to visit my Aunt and cousins who were living there at the time, but the French air traffic controllers decided to go on strike that day, so we had the pleasure of flying into Barcelona, and having my aunt pick us up at a very very early hour. But anyway, when all was said and done with the current travel to Barcelona, we got to our hostel around 1am. (It ended up being a longer bus ride than we were expecting, but we went with the flow.) The hostel wasn't like anything either one of us had ever stayed in before, but it was an international student hostel, and got the job done. We had a room to ourselves, and had to make our own beds, and I used my sweatshirt as a pillow the whole weekend, but I didn't really mind.
Neither one of us shot out of bed in the morning. Breakfast was free in the hostel, so we woke up to eat some cereal and toast, and then we ended up just going back to bed for a couple hours. You can be jealous, or disgusted, but it was so great to sleep in! Once we had both woken up, we started talking about how we wanted to go about seeing the sights around town, and the only place that we both agreed that we had to go to was La Sagrada Familia. I mentioned that I wanted to go see the F.C. Barcelona stadium (largest soccer stadium in the world), and Erin agreed that would be fun. However, the conversation took a turn and we ended up agreeing that it would be awesome if we went to Barça soccer game the following night. As a huge soccer fan, obviously I was all in for this. So, our first act of the weekend was going to the stadium to buy our tickets for the following night.
After standing in line for a half hour, and having a spanglish conversation with the kind man at the ticket sales, we got our tickets and went off to see the rest of Barcelona. We ate lunch, and I dragged Erin to the City History Museum that Rick had recommended. Erin isn't a big fan of history, but she came anyway. I wanted to go because there were Roman ruins under the city that this museum allowed you to see. I found it all very interesting, and now we are both better educated on the history of Barcelona! Around 5pm, when we were finished at the museum, we decided to get some helado (ice cream) and go on a walk around town, down by the shore. One shop we walked into was a pet store, which my family knows can be a dangerous place for me to go. But there were puppies in the window, so we couldn't resist. The whole time in the store, I was trying to figure out how to tell my parents, both Spanish and American, that as a souvenir from Barcelona, I got a puppy. As soon as a golden retriever puppy ran up to me and I felt how soft his fur was, I decided that we had to leave the store before I made any rash decisions. We walked near the docks, and a couple piers, and eventually found our way to the beach. On a day that was 10 degrees warmer, our path would have been packed with many more people, but at that point in the day and with the temperature there weren't too many people out and about.
Once we got to the beach, I went and touched the Mediterranean (although I had been in it in France), and we enjoyed the sound and smell of the sea for a few minutes. Afterwards, we decided to pick up dinner and a grocery store and make it at the kitchen in our hostel. So we picked up a cold (not frozen) pizza, fruit, some juice, and chocolate for Erin's sugar craving. The night ended pretty calmly, after our baking of the pizza and watching an old movie that I had on my iPod touch.
The next day, we woke up, had breakfast, and got dressed for our day of sightseeing. Our first act was to walk down Las Ramblas, which is a popular street where local artists and vendors come out to sell their art, jewelry, flowers, birds, gerbils... Anyways. There were many beautiful pieces of art that wouldn't fit into my carry-on, so I managed to make it off of Las Ramblas with a full wallet. For lunch, Erin and I went into a local market that was off of the street, and picked up some ham, plenty of strawberries, Spanish olives, and a smoothie. While in the market, we were reminded that it was Carnaval in Spain (the equivalent of Spanish Mardi Gras) because many of the vendors were dressed up in costumes with masks and beads to fit. (Many of our friends from the program had gone to Cádiz for Carnaval because it is supposedly the second largest party in the world. We thought it would be better to spend Carnaval in a large city where we had more options than just getting very very drunk with a million or so of our closest friends.) But I digress...
After lunch, we headed back to our hostel for a little to take a quick siesta. After our siesta we left for La Sagrada Familia, and ended up needing to wait in line for a little while. By the time we got our tickets, the tickets for the lift to the top were all sold out, but we were still able to see the inside of the temple (which has also recently been dubbed a basilica... I don't know what the requirements are to become a basilica, but it made it!). For those of you who don't know, La Sagrada Familia is the great unfinished project by Gaudi. It has been under construction for about 180 years, and still has at least 30 left, if the money flow can keep coming (see, basilica's have the same problem as normal people too!) The inside of La Sagrada Familia is very beautiful and impressive in size. The inside was only finished just last year, and the architecture is all very impressive. My pictures don't do it justice, but I'm going to let them try, because I'm almost without words trying to describe it.
We left La Sagrada Familia, and went to dinner at a local diner, where we were able to watch a local Carnaval parade pass. Once we were finished, we headed for the Barça stadium, ready to enjoy some great soccer. F.C. Barcelona as currently the best soccer team in the world, with the largest soccer stadium in the world, and when the two are combined it's awesome! One side note: Many people have a habit of calling Barcelona, Barça, but this is incorrect. Barça is only in reference to the soccer team, so it would be like saying "I'm going to go visit Lakers," instead of saying "I'm going to go visit L.A." Now you all know better. Although I don't really consider myself a Barça fan (instead I'm a combination fan of Sevilla F.C., and Real Madrid), I figured why not... "Root, root, root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame." The experience was amazing, and the atmosphere of the stadium was fun and exciting. There were plenty of great "keeper saves" too. My favorite :)
After an unbelievably packed metro ride back to our part of town, we enjoyed churros con chocolate to end our day and our trip. Traveling back to Sevilla was painless, and we both enjoyed our time in Barcelona. I'd have to say Barcelona is my favorite city that I've visited for a whole weekend so far. I don't know if that is because Barcelona is truly that amazing (I mean, it is), or if it is because it's the first city that I've gone to where it's all been new and exciting. Regardless, I need to go back to visit the rest of the city that we didn't have time to get to! Now to find the time to do that...
Some of the street views in Barcelona
Some ancient ruins of pots for staining clothes
More ancient ruins
Very pretty!
Here I am!
Here I am again, in La Plaza Catalunya
Las Ramblas
Santa's helpers in the market, ready for Carnaval
Apparently one of the 3 Musketeers had to get a new occupation
My lunch. Delicious.
La Sagrada Familia
Inside La Sagrada Familia, looking at the altar
Beautiful stained glass
My attempt to capture the impressive size of the temple/basilica
Ready for the game!
It's a weird angle, but I was trying to get the whole field.
Warmups
Erin and I at the game! A kid no more than 12 drinking beer took the picture.
Celebration after scoring the game's only goal! 1-0 Barça
I love soccer.
Random mid-game picture
Super awesome keeper save!
Churros con chocolate. Mmmmmm
A shot back at part of Barcelona and the shore.
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