Hello Morocco

This past Sunday through Wednesday, I went on a trip to Morocco with Crossing Boarders Education. I will try to keep this post short, while still capturing the highlights of the trip. Not an easy task, but I will do my best.

Day 1 - Sunday

3:45 am bus to the airport for our flight at 7:00 am. Praise the Lord, our flight left on time. This was a blessing considering that Spanish air traffic controllers went on an illegal strike on Friday and Saturday. We met our program leader, Katy at the Marrakech airport. The first thing we did was to have lunch with some Moroccan students. Afterwards, we split up into groups and went around the markets with the students. I went with two other girls from Arcadia and two Moroccan guys, Ami and Chalil. They did a great job of showing us both the tourist market and the more local market. I found it ironic that the market geared to tourists was full of "ethnic" things - scarves, leather purses, bronze lamps, silver teapots, wooden camels, etc. However, the local market was full of American-style leather boots, velour track suits, and other American label sport clothes. After a refreshing drink of orange juice with ice cream, we got into the van to head to the village of Amzmiz.

Once in Amzmiz, we paired off into groups (Kelsey and I decided to room together) and were taken home for dinner by our host families. Our family was a dad and mom, one son, and two daughters. This first night definitely had some awkward moments. We ate chicken tagine from a communal bowl, with our fingers. Yum! It felt very homey and nice. The electricity went out for a while, so we ate by candle light.

After dinner, our hosts were gracious enough to provide us with a shower. Since they go to the hamman, the public bath, they do not have a private shower. Even though it was just a bucket of hot water (heated on the stove) and some shampoo, it was one of the most refreshing showers I have ever taken.

Day 2 - Monday

We woke up at 7:15 am for breakfast, bright and early. Breakfast was simple - bread, oil, and some cheese. The amazing thing was that the cheese tasted exactly like cream cheese, making this the closest thing to a bagel and cream cheese that I have eaten since I left the U.S. Who woulda thought?

After breakfast, our host mom and sisters popped in a DVD of Moroccan music/dance. Kinda like aerobics, but with a lot more hip action and shimmies. One of the sisters got out her traditional outfit and they got Kelsey and I all dressed up. It was really nice to have the mom fix the headscarf and help me into the clothes. It felt very close and motherly, something that I have been missing here in Spain.

Then came the dance lessons!

At 10:00 am, we met up with the rest of the group to head to the Couscous Association for lunch. This is an association that employs divorced or widowed women to help them support themselves. We met this old lady (pictured on the right). Her story is quite interesting. She does not know how old she is, but she got married at around 12 years old to a man 15 years older than her as his second wife. She has 7 children, who are all married. After surveying our group, she decided that she wanted one of the guys as her husband. It was so funny! She made him taste her couscous and promised to take good care of him. There was laughter all around.

After lunch (couscous with hands is harder than it seems), we met up again to visit the potter and blacksmith and to take a hike around the village. Of course, the scenery was lovely and it was an awesome chance to get to know the students some more. I even managed to communicate some with one of my host sisters.

In the evening, we ate dinner with our host families again. We were joined by a cousin and her daughter. After dinner, all the boys were shooed out of the room and the DVD came back on. This time, things really got crazy in that little room. Even Momma got up to dance. Kelsey and I were happy to find out that the cousin is a professional henna artist, so we got beautiful henna designs on our hands. It was a wonderful end to a fabulous day.

Day 3

In the morning, we ate breakfast and said tearful goodbyes to our host families. Then we were off to a local market, where we saw all sorts of produce, including live chickens, and recently slaughtered meat. Nothing quite like seeing a sheep's head lying on the ground. The most entertaining part of this was the donkey parking lot. Yes, you read that correctly. Check out the pic to the right.

After a snack, we got back in the van to return to Marrakech for an afternoon of sightseeing and shopping. Katy, our program leader, was awesome. She took us to another women's cooperative, where I was able to buy the majority of my gifts at a good price. She also took us to see a palace and had just the right balance of giving us a bit of a tour and letting us wander on our own. The rest of the day we had free to shop.

Let me say this. Most people would say that you can get things very cheap at the markets in Morocco. I would say that this is true IF YOU ARE AN EXPERT BARGAINER. These vendors have been doing this for years. It is hard to say which they enjoy more: completely ripping off a tourist or getting a good fight from one. Although it was quite intimidating, I am proud to say that I bought my last remaining gift at a reasonable price, after talking the guy down 320 dirham (about $40 less than the original price). We ate dinner at the hotel and then had a re-cap session on the roof, talking about what we had learned.

So what did I learn? Several things. Firstly, you don't need a lot to be happy. Plain and simple. Secondly, open-mindedness does not mean believing that everything is true or right. It does not mean being unsure of what you believe. Open-mindedness is the willingness to evaluate your beliefs and to change them when appropriate. It has nothing to do with the strength or non-inclusiveness of the belief system itself. At least, that is my opinion. I could probably list some other things, but then this blog would turn into a novel about Morocco. So if you want to know more, make sure you ask me and I will be happy to oblige.

This week, alas, is my last week in Barcelona. I have final exams and such coming soon. Dare I mention home at this point? I will be coming back on December 28th. But not before I hit up Florence and Paris! So stay tuned!

Besos!

Shades of Rose

This past weekend, I stepped out of Spain for the first time since I have gotten here, and into Lisbon, Portugal. To put it simply, it was absolutely beautiful there and I had a lovely time. In fact, it is probably my top trip since I have come to Europe.

My flight left on Thursday afternoon without mishap and I arrived in Lisbon in the evening. In addition to dealing with a significant language barrier for the first time in my travels, this was also my first solo trip. Nothing like doing all of your firsts at once. I managed to get myself onto the correct bus, but then got lost when it came to the tram. I got a taxi and, to my relief, the driver was an Irishman and spoke English. Actually, he was so reassuring that I started to become worried. He kept saying, "Doun't worry, sweethaht, I'll git yeh there in a jiff." After he repeated this several times, I started to wonder if I was actually being kidnapped. It didn't help that the Alfama Patio Hostel is in a very old part of the city that does not seem to be safe when you first drive through it. Praise the Lord, he really was just a nice man and I got to the hostel with no trouble.

I didn't do much Thursday night except for talk to my family for Thanksgiving, which was actually no small thing. It is hard to convey this across the Internet, but it was completely wonderful to see everyone via Skype and it really uplifted my spirit.

Friday dawned and I was up bright and early. After a wonderful breakfast at the hostel, (hard-boiled eggs and pancakes!!!) I set off with my list of things to do.

The highlight of my day was definitely the Castle (picture to left). This is Portugal, which means there is nothing blocked off, there are no side railings on the steep stairs up to the towers, and there are no guards telling you "you can't go up there." So I climbed all over everything. Of course, the views were incredible. And there were peacocks wandering around!

On Saturday, I decided to go on a day trip to Belem, which is a town about 25 minutes outside of Lisbon. First, I hit up the Feira de Ladra, the "thieve's fair," where I bought two much-needed leather belts and a fabulous leather purse. When I walked back to the tram stop, I ran into the two American girls and the dude from New Zealand who I had met at the hostel the night before. The Kiwi ended up accompanying me for the day in Belem, which was great. We got along famously and it was nice to have some company. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we walked along the coast and then went to get some of the famous Portuguese pastries that Belem is known for. The shop there has been running since 1837 and one bite of their signature pastry makes you understand exactly why they have been in business for so long. It was delicious. Tired and satisfied, we hopped back on the tram and returned to Lisbon. The picture above is the Tower of Belem, and the picture below is me at the top!

But the day was not over yet! Saturday night was a free BBQ with homemade sangria and a live DJ. Spontaneous salsa dancing, delicious food, and then suddenly, a blackout! But that didn't stop the fun. Martin from Ireland picked up his guitar and we had a sing-along by candlelight. I learned that the only truly international songs are the following: "One Love" by Bob Marley, "I Want to Hold your Hand" by the Beatles, and "La Bamba" by who knows who. The DJ then invited us to his club in Barrio Alto, so we went off to dance the night away.

On Sunday morning, I did a last bit of furious sight-seeing by going to the Tile Museum and then up to the Chiado neighborhood. I absolutely loved the tiles in Portugal. To the right is one of my favorite patterns that I saw.

One of the other amazing things about Portugal was the colors the city. (Yes, now I explain the title of the post). When you looked out over the city, all the rooftops were rosy red. The streets were full of muted yellows and blues. In the churches, the marble seemed to have a rosy tint.

Don't worry Lisbon, I will be back.

La Sagrada Familia aka reverting to being a tourist in Barcelona

Today, I decided that it was high time for me to go and see La Sagrada Familia. (Please excuse the bad pun). For those of you who don't know, La Sagrada Familia is a very large church in the center of Barcelona designed by Gaudi. It was started in the 1880s and is still in construction. Gaudi's plans were for an absolutely enormous structure, with around 16 towers and multiple detailed facades. Unsurprisingly, Gaudi died before the work was finished, but he left enough sketches and small-scale plaster models for the building to continue far into the future.

After seeing so many Roman and Gothic-inspired churches throughout Spain, La Sagrada Familia is a breath of fresh air. It is certainly majestic, but also whimsical, colorful, and airy. A church structure that actually encourages joy. How novel!

I climbed the tower on the side of the Passion facade and was able to get a beautiful view of all sides of the city...and of the construction on the building. There were a few aspects of the building that I really enjoyed. The style of the various sculptures is really cool - very square and sharp, but still conveying emotion and movement.

I also loved the ways that the stained glass windows inside the church throw color on the walls. I have posted a few more pictures below.

Overall, it is a really cool building and I am glad that I reverted to being a tourist today to check it out.

The Dali Museum

This past Friday, we had a trip to the Dali Museum in Figueres and then a tour of Girona. As of now, Dali and Picasso have become my all-time favorite painters. I went to the Picasso Museum expecting Cubism, and came out understanding the breadth of talent that Picasso truly had. In the same way, I went to the Salvador Dali museum expecting Surrealism. What I saw was a genius of an artist - a sculptor, a decorator, a animation creator, and a designer. Dali has a huge breadth to his work and he was extremely creative! He was also very eccentric. Many people thought that he was certifiably crazy, but I am not so sure. He was always acting his persona in public. It is hard to know how he was in private, with just his wife Gala.

Above and to the left is a painting that Dali did on a very small doily. It is very tiny and it's a good demonstration of Dali's attention to detail with his work. Can you see the grasshopper? How about the fish? And the ant? The woman's face is his wife Gala. He used her as a model for much of his work. To the right is another painting that I really liked.

Check out this funky sculpture!

The components of the face, above and to the right, are actually life size objects set up in a room. The lips are a sofa. The eyes are paintings on the wall. When you climb up some stairs and look through the lens, it turns everything into one cohesive 3D face...of the American actress Mae West.

So basically, I loved almost everything that I saw in the Dali museum. I wish I could go back there and spend a bit more time looking at the paintings, but alas and alack, that will have to wait for a different trip to Europe.

After we finished with the museum, we took the bus into Girona. We had a brief guided tour of the city, where we learned about the Cathedral and got taken into some neat places with cool views.

The one other highlight of this trip was that I got to eat a very American style chicken sandwich and it was quite satisfying.

And that's it.

Besos!

San Sebastian y Bilbao

Last weekend, I took a trip to the north of Spain with my friends Jake and Kelly. We had a fabulous time exploring San Sebastian and Bilbao. Here's the story:

San Sebastian

We got on the bus very late on Thursday night and arrived 7 hours later in San Sebastian. Upon discovering that our hostel did not actually have 24-hour check-in, we chilled in a bar from 6:30 am until 9 am. This ended up being a great time for us to get to know each other a bit better. Once we dropped our backpacks at the hostel, we set off to explore the city. San Sebastian is in the shape of a horseshoe, with a small mountain at each end and with beaches curving around to connect them. We set off immediately to climb Mt Urgull. It was a GORGEOUS day, bright, sunny, and surprisingly warm. After hiking around for a bit and seeing the beautiful vista, we then proceeded to the center of town for lunch. The place we chose turned out to be great. Jake was brave enough to try squid in ink! Satisfied, we proceeded to walk along the beaches until we got to the other mountain. At this point, the temperature had reached 25 degrees Celsius...which is quite hot for November! I stuck my toes in the water. Ahhh. Once we reached the other mountain, we took the funicular up to the top. On the way, we met a kind couple from the area who gave us the names of some tapas places to check out. At 6 pm, we finally returned to the hostel for a very much-needed nap before dinner.

A word about language:

El Pais Vasco (the Basque country), has its own language, which is called Euskara. Euskara is not at all related to Spanish. In fact, it is not even a Romance language. It has been around since at least 1000 BC, although historians have not been able to put a definite date on its development. The oldest written samples of Euskara are from Roman times. When we arrived, we went to the tourism office to find a map of the city. They gave us a multi-lingual phrase book with a bunch of useful words in Euskara. It only took us a few glances to realize how unrelated it is to both Romance and Germanic languages.

For example:

Please (English)

Por favor (Spanish)

Si us plau (Catalan)

S'il vous plait (French)

Per favore (Italian)

Mesedez (Euskara)

No (English)

No (Spanish)

No (Catalan)

Non (French)

No (Italian)

Nien (German)

Ez (Euskara)

Anyway, this little phrase book came in handy and we tried out our Euskara wherever we went, sometimes with hilarious results.

Okay, so we have just had a rest at the hostel, remember? At around 8 pm, we went out for pintxos, which are little appetizers. The pintxos culture here is quite strong. On the weekends, the bars are hopping with people. The idea is to order just a few pintxos at each place and to stay on the move. We had all sorts of things, but the real stand out for me was the foie gras at La Cuchara de San Tomas. Let me tell you, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten. We ate sheep's cheek, mushroom risotto, salmon with anchovies, you name it. And it was all delicious.

Bilbao

We took an early morning bus to Bilbao on Saturday. It was another beautiful day. I actually did not like Bilbao as much as the other cities I have been to in Spain. It is kind of a strange city. However, the thing that made it worthwhile was the Guggenheim Museum. We were there for almost 3 hours, and justifiably so. Why the architect chose to stick this museum in Bilbao, I am not sure, but there it is. This museum does not just contain art, it is a work of art itself. The building is fascinating. But the true highlight was Richard Serra's huge steel sculptures. This guy is a genius. The sculptures were so huge that you can walk around and through them. I am not sure I can explain anything about this, so it is worth a google. And that was pretty much what we did in Bilbao. Oh, and we ate more wonderful food.

Since I had not yet replaced my camera, I have no pictures of San Sebastian or Bilbao. However, if you look on my Facebook wall, I have been tagged in several pictures with Kelli and Jake, and my current profile picture is of me playing on the beach in San Sebastian.

And that's the update!

Besos!

Keeping the Budget

Sometimes, I get a little worried about how much money I am spending here abroad. It is kind of weird you know, I am just going through it at an astonishing rate. Traveling almost every weekend really takes money! It is also something that I don't do nearly as much at home.

However, the good news is that I did a thorough analysis this morning of my spending, and I have actually been doing quite well with my budget. I am right on track! I have spent a bit more on travel than I expected, but I have also spent less money day-to-day here in Barcelona. So I have upped my travel budget and lowered by day-to-day budget for the remainder of the trip, and I am confident that I will not come back penniless.

The most fascinating thing to me is that I have never been good at meticulously recording everything I spend. However, I think that I have sort of an innate sense of how much money I am spending. I just praise the Lord that he has given me this ability to keep a firm handle on my finances without having to be too neurotic about it. I am truly thankful.

Besos!

comment concerning last post

I apologize for the photos below getting all out of sync. They were fine in my draft!

Besos!

Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba

Hello readers!

FINALLY, I have had some spare seconds to post. Well, actually, its more that I decided to ditch my homework for tonight and do this instead. No worries, I don't have anything due tomorrow that I haven't finished. Wednesday is another story.

So, I am going to try to make this concise as possible by splitting it into easily readable sections.

My Travel Companions

I originally planned this trip by myself, but ended up with 3 other friends - my good friend from the Arcadia program Kelsey, a Swiss-Spanish guy Etienne, and an Italian guy Vincenzo. I had actually never met Etienne or Vincenzo before the taxi to the airport, but they both are believers, which made me feel confident that it would be fine. And it was! The guys were great - they took good care of Kelsey and I, and vice versa.

Sevilla

Sevilla was our base of operations for the weekend. We stayed in a great Hostel called Oasis Backpackers. The place was great, but "oasis" might be going a little far. There was major construction going on in the plaza where the hostel is located, which meant lovely banging and drilling accompanied our mid-day siestas. Sevilla is a small town, so we could walk everywhere. The highlights were the Cathedral and the Alcazar. The Cathedral is HUGE and very beautiful.

Right next to the Cathedral is La Giralda, which is actually a tower that was built during the Muslim occupation of Spain in the 12th-ish century. Check out the view of the city from the top!

Another awesome place in Sevilla was Plaza Espana and the Parque Maria Luisa. On my last day there, I rented a bike from the hostel and went for a ride on my own down by the river and around the park. It was quite relaxing.

Two more highlights from here. Firstly, we got a recommendation for a good lunch place from the woman working the reception at the hostel. We decided to head there for lunch, and of course, it ended up being a solid 35 minute walk. The lady had told us to order "superserrano" for lunch and so we did. It was grilled chicken sandwhich with some sort of garlic mayonnaise sauce, roasted green pepper, ham, and tomato. Let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS. The total bill came to 16 euro - small cities are the best.

And lastly, I got to see flamenco! I read about this bar called La Carboneria, which has free live flamenco performances from local groups every night. It's not guaranteed that they will show up and who knows what time it will happen. Vincenzo and I got to the bar at about 15 min to 11:00 and ordered sangria. Right at 11, a woman and two men come out and take their seats. The music is simple. One guy playing guitar, the other guy singing from his very soul and clapping in rhythm, the woman clapping as well. The music reaches some sort of unspoken climax and the woman leaps up from her chair and begins to dance flamenco. Flamenco is unlike anything I have ever seen. It is not elegant or graceful, it is soulful and powerful.

Granada

We left for Granada early Sunday morning, at 6:00 am. The guys had the great idea of renting a car, which served two purposes. It was way cheaper and we got there faster. The main reason to go to Granada is to see the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a fortress combined with two castles. It was also originally built by the Muslims and was expanded over the centuries. As you can see from the picture, it is absolutely enormous!

This pic was actually taken from La Mirador de San Nicolas, a church with a beautiful view of the whole city. It was a cloudy, wet, and freezing day - don't let my happy smile fool you!

Cordoba

Monday morning brought the trip to Cordoba. This was originally unplanned, but I am so glad that we decided to go! Cordoba has the singular La Mezquita Catedral. Yes, that is really the name. It was originally a church, then it became a mosque, then back to a church. The only thing that the various rulers had in common was that they made it even larger. According to my art history teacher, in Cordoba, when a child is being bad, it is common for the mother to say, "Go and count the columns in La Mezquita. You can come back when you are done." This picture should help you understand why this is apropos.

The other highlight of Cordoba for me was the Alcazar. (Yes, these people were not very creative with names.) I will let the picture speak for itself. It was an absolutely balmy day, really incredible!

Overall, the trip was great and we all got along fabulously.

In further news, Wednesday night I will be attending my first futbol game (that's soccer). On Thursday night, I leave for a weekend trip to the north of Spain - San Sebastian and Bilbao!

Besos!

To be continued...

Dear readers, I just got back from a weekend trip to Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba. I left right after the majority of my midterm exams were over and then came back on Tuesday night with another exam this morning. So, the long and short of it is that I have not gotten the spare second to post about my adventure, nor have I downloaded my pictures onto my computer. I would like to post with the pictures added in because I think it is more enjoyable that way. So. Please be patient until this weekend and I promise that the resulting posts about my trip will be much more colorful.

Just to give you a tidbit....what do you get when you throw together two American girls, a Swiss-Spanish guy, and a crazy Italian?

You'll just have to see won't you. :)

Besos!

Random Story

I just thought I would post this story because I thought it was hilarious. So, this past weekend, I think it was Sunday, I was sitting in a cafe near my apartment. It actually happens to be called "Cafeteria Groins," which is quite hilarious. It also re-assures me that I do not live in a touristy area. Anyway, so I am enjoying my meal and a San Miguel, looking at the diners around me. My attention immediately focuses on these two quite elderly ladies sitting at the table to my front left. These ladies must have been at least 85. They were sipping their dessert wine when one gives the other a small package wrapped in plastic. I am not sure if this was a gift, or something that they got for free (you never quite can tell with old ladies of this sort). Anyway, it was clearly a jar of jam and one of those cheapo memo pads shrink-wrapped together. These things cannot wait and so the old lady preceded to open it. Or at least attempted to. She first tries to open it with her fumbling fingers, but is unable to do so. "Give me your spoon" she says to her friend. With the spoon, she manages to pierce the plastic a bit, before getting the spoon tangled up in the plastic. But the old lady is not stymied for long. She rummages in her bag and pulls out a pair of scissors. The kind that goes on a keychain that you can fold and unfold. I watch in horror as she attempts to fit the scissors onto her fingers to use them. That too fails.

At this point, I am about to jump out of my chair and offer to open it myself. I mean, how much more of this arthritic struggle can I watch? And then finally, SUCCESS! The old lady manages to rip the plastic and out tumbles the jar of jam, the notepad, and the now slightly-bent spoon. These items dually inspected, they are placed into the abyss of her black bag.

Some things are universal.

Canyoning in the Pyrenees

What a fabulous day! My long-anticipated excursion in the Pyrenees finally arrived. Here is the back-story. I was looking around for some sort of hiking/active fun thing to do in the Pyrenees mountains. They are right around the corner here. As I was surfing the Internet, I stumbled across a company called Spanish-Trails, based in Barcelona. They offer all sorts of day trips and one of them is their Canyoning day trip to the Pyrenees. One minute into reading the description, I was hooked. "Canyoning" is the term for traveling in canyons using a variety of techniques such as climbing, jumping, swimming, and rappelling. (Thank you, Wikipedia). After quite a bit of marketing, I had 5 other ladies in the Arcadia group agree to come on the trip.

So this morning, bright and early, we met our guide, Siska, and drove out to the town of Baga, only about 20 miles from the French border. The scenery was breathtaking!

We arrived in Baga and had some hot chocolate and croissants before meeting up with our canyoning guides, Chavi and Manuel. Chavi warned us that the water would be cold and even gave us some other excursion options that we could do instead. But we were there to canyon, and canyon we did.

The equipment loaded into the vans, we drove up to the top of the canyon. Then it was time to get out of the van on the side of the road, strip down to bathing suits, and put on 5 mm wet-suits. They were attractive, let me tell you. We suited up with helmets and harnesses and then hiked for 10 minutes up to our first descent.

Which one am I?...the one on the far right!

Oh, and if you are observant, you may have noticed that there are only 5 of us total, instead of 6. One of the girls is very sick and was unable to come.

And this is where the fun started! (see picture to the right) That first descent was so tame compared to the rest that followed. We were not only rappelling through the pounding water, but also sliding down waterfalls, scrambling over rocks, and swimming through pools. It was so cold!!! The water was up to our necks at the bottom of some portions of the falls and we got soaked through and through. I loved every minute. Well, almost every minute. There were a few moments in which I thought I was going to get hypothermia and freeze to death. Chavi and Manuel were awesome guides, being patient, but also pushing us to climb faster. Not to be prideful, but I think that they were a little surprised at how determined and persevering we ladies were. It was definitely a challenge and I felt so victorious when we finally reached the end of the trail.

Hopefully, I will be able to post a picture of me descending soon, its on someone else's camera....

I would love to go on another waterfall rappelling trip soon. Where? who knows?!

Besos!

All About Madrid

Hey y'all. Want to hear about Madrid? Here it is:

The Trip:

We left quite early on Friday morning to catch an 8:30 am plane to Madrid. Nothing interesting here, except that I got patted down by airport security for the first time. And they analyzed my shoes with this shoe analyzer machine. And my belt got caught in the x-ray machine, in between the rubber flaps, and it took them way longer than necessary to get it out. Good times.

Friday:

So immediately after we step off the plane, we are whisked off to a tour of the Retiro Park and then the Prado art museum. The park was very beautiful and there were a lot of pretty fountains and such. We stopped by the Palacio de Cristal:

After a pleasant stroll, we arrived at the Prado. While I realize that this museum is supposedly wonderful, it was a bit awful. The tour guide was very difficult to understand. I didn't like the paintings she picked, with the exception of Las Meninas. Do I need to see Goya's dark period? I don't really appreciate cannibalism, even as an "art form." After two hours of traipsing around the museum and only seeing about 6 paintings, we were finally set free.

My friend Kelsey and I decided that with our limited amount of time, the best way to get around Madrid would be to take the bus tour. So we did. It was a beautiful day, although a bit brisk. Sitting at the top of the bus is a great way to see all of the city in one go, especially the architecture. It also helped us get an idea of what we wanted to do and see on Saturday afternoon.

After a brief rest at the hotel, I went out to get some tapas with a group of friends for dinner. It was quite nice.

Saturday:

We woke up bright and early to head to the Palacio Real. This is one of the highlights of my trip to Spain so far, for sure. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures in the Palacio Real, so I don't have any to share. To sum up, it is one of the most luxuriously, beautifully decorated buildings I have ever seen in my life. I don't think I could live there because it would be too overwhelming.

After an excellent guided visit of the Palace, we went to lunch at a restaurant. The food was typical for Madrid, and very good. After this, we headed out for some shopping. In the evening, I went to visit the Reina Sofia, another art museum which was right next to our hotel. This was a highlight, because they had La Guernica by Picasso. Not only that, but they had all of his pre-sketches and some photos of the work in progress. The other cool thing about the museum was it had a third floor with a huge terrace, made of glass. I happened to explore it just at sunset, and it was awesome to see the city starting to light up.

Later on that evening, I had yummy chicken paella for dinner and we went on a quest to find the best churros with chocolate in Madrid. And they were delicious! 1 am rolled around, time to go to El Kapital and dance the night away!

and then on Sunday, we came back to Barcelona.

That ends the tale of my last trip.

Besos!

Forecast for this Week: Severe Storms of Homework with a chance of Torrential Lack of Sleep

My dear readers,

I had a wonderful time in Madrid this past weekend, and I do want to tell you all about it. However, I am currently quite occupied by homework and studying. Once the coast clears, I will be posting about my Madrid adventure.

Besos!

The Daily Slog

I am posting simply because I had quite a terrible day. We had an intercambio (exchange) this morning with Spanish students who are studying English. They told us about various holidays and we told them about Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Superbowl Sunday, etc. We were supposed to be there at 10:00 am and I figured the place was relatively close to the Arcadia Center. I woke up a bit late and at 9:15 am, I pulled up the map that they sent us so that I could glance at where the school is located. Shoot, it's like 15 blocks away from the Center....and i don't think changing metro lines will get me there any faster. Leaving, now. Long story short, I made it at 10:03, quite out of breath and a bit disheveled.

The intercambio lasted until noon and then i had my usual hour to get a snack before art class at 1. I decided to read over my assignment for my class at 6 and was quite unsatisfied with my work and wasn't sure how to improve it.

Then comes art class, and at this point, I am a full day behind the rest of the class, being a slower sort of artist.

A harried trip to the Pharmacist to get some antibiotics to kick the congestion in my chest and then back to the Arcadia Center to try to make end-of-semester plans with a friend...a whole story unto itself. At 5 pm, I finally got a chance to look over the assignment again and I managed to make some changes to it before printing it and hustling to class.

Women writer's class consists of the professor calling on people randomly and having them read out loud their written responses to questions she has given us about today's particular text. This can be very interesting, it can also be EXTREMELY PAINFUL. This depends on the quality of work and the person's ability to speak Spanish correctly. Today, there was a girl who had basically paraphrased the entire text for her assignment. And paraphrase is generous, she had lifted entire sections of the text into her writing. And it was 3 pages long. And she read the WHOLE thing, out loud.

Only one thing remains clear in my brain - I could use some cafe con leche.

Besos!

Roadtrip with the Parental Units

You may have noticed that I have not posted in 9 whole days! (Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new record.) Don't blame me, it's my parents fault. I had to be a busy bee and work really hard this past week so that I could be free of homework-related worries for the weekend's epic road trip adventure.

Dad had a medical conference in Valencia and so he and mom took the opportunity to stop by Barcelona before heading back to the States. It was very wonderful to see them. This is the longest that I have been away from home and I am really glad that they were able to come over here.

So what did we do? During the week, we had lunch, went out for tapas, went to Ciutadella Park and the Picasso museum, and had dinner with my host family. The Picasso Museum was one of my favorite art museums I have ever been too. It was laid out in chronological order. I really didn't know that much about Picasso. It turns out that he was an amazing painter with a huge talent in a lot of different styles (not just Cubism). He also had a fabulous sense of humor. Want proof? Check out his series of Cubist, tongue-in-cheek paintings of Las Meninas, a famous painting by Velazquez.

Mom found this restaurant called El Singular to take out my host mom and host sister. There is nothing quite like this kind of dinner. It is just impossible to predict how its going to be. Despite the slight language barrier, we had a wonderful time and I was so happy that my parents could meet my host family. I think my mom was especially glad (and a bit relieved too I suppose). With the foundation of the Lord's blessing, it is amazing what excellent food and laughter can do.

And then it was Saturday! We set off on the road for Zaragoza, a city 3 hours to the west of Barcelona. We drove almost straight through and arrived in the early afternoon. One comment here, the rest stops in Spain are quite nice. They have a whole cafe/restaurant thing where you walk through with a tray to get your snacks, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and cafe with milk and sugar. Don't forget a few bottles of wine!

ZARAGOZA:

I really liked Zaragoza. We were in town for the kick-off of the festival of El Pilar. Our hotel was facing the plaza, which was very nice. When it was pouring rain, we got to sit by our balcony windows and watch the parade and other festivities while staying dry and relatively warm. It was freezing! The festival was very family-oriented and there were lots of little kids and an enormous amount of young people. It was amazing. The parade trouped by, each neighborhood having their own flag, little marching band, and costume. We also got to check out a local artisanal flea market and bought some wine from a local, family-owned winery as well as honey and other yummy things. As far as food, I have to say the highlight was Sunday afternoon. We were hungry, I wasn't feeling good, and we weren't sure where to go. Everyplace seemed so crowded. Finally, we saw all these people eating pieces of bread topped with steaming, butter-drowned mushrooms. Dad pushed his way up to the front of the bar, fighting for a spot like a native Catalan, and ordered 3. We trooped out onto the street with everyone else, holding the mushrooms on a wooden plate. They were messy, buttery, salty, hot, and delicious. Good one, dad.

MONTBLANC:

We got into Montblanc around 5:30 pm on Sunday. Dad managed to fit the car up the narrow streets with barely inches to spare and we checked into Fonda Cal Blasi, a local B&B. After arranging for dinner at 9, we set off to explore Montblanc. The city is just chock full of medieval structures. We turned the street corner and we confronted with a beautiful church. Continuing farther up the path got up to the very top of the town, with an incredible view - a huge rainbow over the valley! We made our way around the walls, most of which are still completely intact. Dinnertime brought excellent food (since everything from Catalonia is the best! ;) and a lesson on how to make pa amb tomaquet (bread with tomato spread, very common in this region). This morning, we made a quick trip to the Monastery of Poblet before heading back to Barcelona.

So that was my crazy and wonderful weekend! Tomorrow, I have no school, since it is a national holiday (yup, another one, they come in spades around here). Homework time! I gotta be on top of things because this weekend is Madrid!

Besos!

Tarragona, Torres Winery, and beach surprises!

On Friday, we went on a trip to Tarragona, which is about an hour south of Barcelona along the eastern coast of Spain. The day was split into two parts. First, we visited a whole bunch of Roman ruins (although they don't really count as ruins since they're mostly intact). Almost the entire wall that surrounded ancient Tarraco is still standing and many of the buildings are as well. Interestingly, modern-day Tarragona is a thriving city and plenty of people live there, living in the old walls and with all of the ruins right at their doorstep. The most interesting thing that we saw in my opinion was the Roman amphitheater with a church built right in the middle of it. During Roman times, Christians were persecuted and killed in the arena as a sport. When Christianity took hold, the practice of was outlawed and the church was built to commemorate the Christians who were killed.

After we toured around, we got some free time. Beach time!!! the water was beautiful and I was kicking myself for not bringing my swimsuit. But we only had 45 min there anyway, which is not a lot of swim time considering that you have to be wet and salty for the bus ride home.

We jumped back on the bus and headed to the Torres winery. Now, this was something. First, we got to watch a video. Not a video on wine-making, a promotional video extolling the greatness of the Torres tradition. Then we troop into this room and they showed us this weird, modern video that was supposed to fill our senses with the seasons of grape harvesting. To say the least, it was rather strange. We are then escorted outside and get into this little tram which takes us past the grape vines, trucks filled with grapes, and around the newest wine aging facility (which looks more like a modern house than a facility). It even has the Torres family statue, called "La Familia." How original. I don't think the comparison to the Sagrada Familia was unintentional either. Then these doors open and we are taken into pitch blackness. The tram halts and these screens appear, and another whole video about the sanctity of the Torres tradition plays. As the finale, the screens roll up and reveals the hundreds of barrels of wine. (It is now apparent that we are in the cellar). After this, we get back on the tram and eventually roll back to the main place where we taste some wine, which was fairly good. I really could not get over how extremely ostentatious the whole thing was. It was quite amazing.

And lastly, today I went to the beach! It was such a nice day and the water was perfect. :) And surprise, there was an airshow. So I got to sit in the sand and see all sorts of cool planes doing tricks. And then I went for a swim and there were 4 jets doing tricks in unison and they dropped fireworks! I don't know what the deal is with Barcelona and fireworks, but I have now seen at least 5. Awesome!!!

A quick note: I know I write a lot of positive, fun things on this blog. Don't get me wrong, there are days when this is really tough. When I don't want to speak Spanish any more and I just want to come home. However, I am using this blog to help myself keep a record all of the awesome things that I have done - kind of like a reminder to myself that for every difficult moment, there is a wonderful moment.

Besos!

La Huelga and more

If any of you watch international news, you may have seen footage of massive rioting going on in Barcelona yesterday. Yes, I am alive. September 29th was a general strike day and there was quite a lot going on in Placa Catalunya, which I actually walk through almost daily. Our classes were cancelled that day and we were told to keep mostly inside and away from large, boisterous crowds. In reality, most of the car burning, rock throwing, window breaking, and stealing was done by a group here called "Anti-sistema." You got it, they are an active anarchist group in Spain and apparently protest and cause a ruckus at just about any opportunity. According to my history of Catalunya professor, it is not clear exactly what their political platform is. I suppose it is a bit difficult to be a cohesive organized group when you are fighting against structure and organization itself. Anyway, this was apparently one of the more violent strike days that Barcelona has had in the past few years. What did I do? Tons of homework.

And now a quick note about language barriers. Having a good sense of humor is absolutely essential in living with a host family. A few days ago, we all had a good laugh when I stated "Estoy perdiendo pesetas de caminar," attempting to say "I am losing weight from walking." However, the word for "weight" is actually "peso." "Pesetas" are the former Spanish currency that were replaced by the Euro. So I actually said, "I am losing money from walking."...which makes no sense at all! Once we had all laughed about my mistake, I corrected my statement to be "I am losing weight from walking and money from shopping!"

This evening, my host sister Ana pulled out a tub of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting to eat with some cookies. Ana is allergic to milk, and so she bought the frosting in place of chocolate sauce. However, in typical American fashion, the tub had a line that read "May contain traces of milk products." Ana asked me what this meant. Does it have milk in it or not? Ummm...well. See, sometimes, the same machines may have been used to make different products so it might contain the tiniest bit of milk, but probably not. And companies have to put that on there to protect themselves from being sued. This explanation is really helping right? That is correct, I can't tell you for absolute sure whether or not it has milk in it. And yes, Americans are the slightest bit crazy.

I am happy to report that Ana tried it and that she is perfectly fine.

Oh life...

Besos!

Backtrack - Sept 22

I thought I would post something I wrote from Sept 22:

I went to the Museum of Chocolate this morning. Of course, I got lost going there, but I have just

resigned myself to the fact that I will need to ask about a million people for directions whenever I am going to a new place. At least I can understand what they are telling me. I realize that I am used to the more linear street system in Philly as opposed to the more circular one here. Since it is a very old city, it has sections with tiny, tiny spidery streets and it only takes about 5 seconds to get totally off the beaten path.

Once I made it there, the entrance was only 3.85 euro and the entrance ticket is a bar of dark chocolate. Yum! Most of the information about the history of chocolate, I already knew. What was really cool was the chocolate sculptures/creations that they had on display (as pictured above). They had everything! There were some funny things -- a big Easter egg with the pope's face on it and a re-creation of the Pieta. After I was done the exhibit, I went out into the little courtyard they have which sits in between the Museum and the Chocolate Confectionary School that appends the museum. The school's kitchen has glass walls, so you can look at all the students (aka attractive European boys) scurrying about in their chef hats creating various chocolate things. I then sat at the cafe and had a cup of chocolate (of course).

La Merce Pictures

Note: These pictures will be more interesting if you read my post about La Merce first and then look at the picture posts.

Me and two friends at a concert...the stage is that blue glowing thing to the top right.

El Correfoc...it's coming!

Okay, now is the time to start screaming!

(p.s. - they came closer than this, but i decided that taking pictures might put my hand in danger of being burned, so i didn't)

(p.p.s. - there are plenty of Youtube videos of this event, check it out!)

La Merce Pictures

Castellers - perfectly safe! ;)

Castellers - 5 levels tall!

Castell de Montjuic

On my way up to Montjuic in a cable car (my friend Kelsey is taking the pic)

The Always Drinking Marching Band