Paris

I officially have one week left here in Spain. Unfortunately I also have five exams to worry about this week, but I'm not going to let that slow me down! I spent my second to last weekend in Paris. Me and Sondee flew out Friday afternoon and arrived in Paris that evening. We took a train into the city and then my friend Amanda met us and helped us find our hostel. Our hostel was....interesting. The rooms didn't come with sheets but you could pay to rent them (which we immediately did). After we found our room and dropped off our things we went to the Latin quarter to get dinner. We found a crepe/sandwich stand. I had a delicious panini and Sondee had a crepe. Then we took our dinners down to the river and sat and ate. It was a beautiful night, but much chillier than in Madrid. We walked along the river a little and then walked over to the Louvre to see it all lit up at night. Then we found the metro and went back to the hostel to get some rest. Saturday morning we got up bright and early and tried to find breakfast. Apparently our hostel didn't provide breakfast even though it advertises that it does. We walked all around but nothing was open. Apparently the French don't get up super early on Saturday mornings. We ended up eating at McDonalds which was kind of a let down. Then we found a grocery store and bought picnic supplies. We took a train to Versailles and spent all day exploring the palace and the gardens. We ate our picnic lunch (bread, wine, and cheese) in the gardens and planned to go to a garden show, but it started raining. We got pretty wet but we decided to stick it out and see the rest of the things we wanted to see. I mean, how often are you in Paris? When we had seen what we wanted to see, we took the train back into the city and headed to the Eiffel tower. We took lots of pictures and then waited in line to go up to the top. Last time I was in Paris, we didn't go up the Eiffel tower so I was really excited. It was a lot of waiting but definitely worth it. As we waited, the weather changed and the sky got nice and blue so we could see everything from the top. Then we met up with Amanda again to have some dinner and crepes for dessert. We went to a nice little restaurant for dinner and then went to Amanda's favorite crepe stand. I got a nutella crepe and it was AMAZING! Then we strolled around a bit and saw some break dancers on the street. We left Amanda and went back to the hostel to sleep. The next morning we got up super early again to get to the Louve when it opened. We found a bakery nearby and got some breakfast. It turns out the line is very short on Sunday morning so we didn't have to wait at all. We went to buy tickets and discovered that our European ID's get us in for free! We saw all the important things and then left. We had to take a bus to the airport because we were flying out of an airport that is REALLY far from the city. The bus company says to get there 3 hours before your flight so we did. We got on a bus and were on the way to the airport when the bus slowed down and then eventually stopped. It was dead. The accelerator didn't work. They sent another bus but I was slightly frantic. I had an exam today and really didn't want to be stuck in Paris. The bus came in time though and we made our flight. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home. This traveling stuff is hard work! Today I had my first exam. Now I just have to make it through 3 others and a final paper and I'm home free! I am going to try to cram as much fun and culture into this last week as possible. I'm sure it will fly by.

Sevilla and Cordoba

This past weekend we had our final AYA trip. We took the AVE train to Cordoba on Saturday morning. I LOVE the AVE. It is so fast and so comfortable. They showed High School Musical 3 on the train so I thoroughly enjoyed my ride. When we got to Cordoba, we went to lock up our things in a locker. Later that day we were going to Sevilla to spend the night so we had our luggage which we didn't want to carry around all day. On our way to the bus station to lock things up we ran into Kirsten, a girl from Ripon who is studying in Sevilla! I couldn't believe it! She was in Cordoba for the day to see the Mezquita, which is what we were going to see as well. She tagged along with our group so I got to catch up with her a bit which was nice. It sounds like she is having a good experience here in Spain but quite different from my own. It's interesting how different two different cities can be. We went to visit the mezquita which is a masque and a cathedral. The history goes like this. There used to be a catholic church here but later the land was bought by the Moslems and a masque was built where the church had been. The arquitecture is amazing. Later, during the reconquest of Spain, the Catholics tore down every place of worship that wasn't Catholic and built a church on the holy land. In Cordoba, the mesquita was so beautiful and arquitecturally impressive that the Catholics decided to keep it and build their cathedral inside. So now it is a huge mix of Catholic and Muslim arqitecture and symbolism. We spent a few hours wandering around and being amazed at the greatness of the monument and then went back to the train station to catch our bus to Sevilla. This train wasn't an AVE, but I still enjoyed it.

We got to Sevilla in the afternoon, checked into our hostel, and explored the city. We saw the site of the 1929 world's fair where there is an artistic representation of each province in Spain. We found all the places we have visited and took pictures of them. Unfortunately, Madrid is under construction. Then we wandered through the park and by the river. We saw the bull rink and the cathedral from the outside. The city is beautiful with white buildings and narrow windy streets. For dinner, we went tapa hoping with our director. She studied abroad in Sevilla when she was in college so she knew all of the best places to go. We got to taste lots of different tapas and I found some new favorites. Our tapa hopping lasted pretty late so we went right to sleep when we got back.

We woke up Sunday to the sound of rain. Boo. Our morning plans consisted of a tour of the Alcazar, an ancient residence of the king. The most impressive part of this site is the gardens. We went despite the rain and had a really fun time. We trudged through the mud to see the flowers and a peacock! We even found a labyrinth in the gardens and got lost in it. After that we were cold and wet so we went out for coffee. We walked around a bit and met for lunch. Our director took us to a really good restaurant for a big sit down lunch. I had ravioli with spinach sauce and it was heavenly. We all got to order a dessert after lunch. Little did we know, the desserts were culinary masterpieces. I got cheese cake which was the most simple thing on the menu. Other people got Venetian crepes, Spanish pastries, or elaborate pies, cakes, and tarts. We were stuffed. We had the afternoon free so me and a couple other people went to the cathedral. This is the third biggest cathedral in Europe. The main alter is the biggest in the world. It is 64 feet high and all gold. The organ has 700 pipes. It was pretty impressive. But the most impressive part of all was the bell tower. You can climb to the top and see all of Sevilla. It has ramps instead of stairs because it was originally designed to accommodate a horse and rider so they could go to the top and ring the bells. In the courtyard of the cathedral there is a orange garden where oranges are grown to make marmalade. The marmalade made from these oranges is sent to the queen of England each year as a gift. After our visit to the cathedral we did a little souvenir shopping and headed back to our hostel to pick up our things before going to the train station.

Despite the rain, we had a pretty great weekend. We all noticed how much has changed since our first trip together. We were virtually strangers and really stuck with the people from our own school. Now we're all friends and get along really well. Three weeks from today I will be on a plane home! It's sad to be leaving, but I am getting ready to see my family and friends again. And I am definitely ready to be done with classes! I have a four day weekend coming up with no plans so I'll let you know what I find to do. There is so much to do around here I'm sure it wont be a problem at all!

Real Madrid

The other night I went to see a Real Madrid soccer game. I have to admit, I was hesitant about going since I'm not too into soccer, but I am so glad I went! I met my friend Kara at the metro station and as we walked towards the stadium there were people everywhere. Everyone was wearing Real Madrid scarves and carrying flags. Also, everyone had a plastic bag with their dinner in it. No one told me to bring dinner! I ate at home before I left! We got to the stadium and met up with a couple other girls. We found the right entrance and went to our seats. Our seats happened to be the very last seats in the entire stadium (it holds 80,000 people) so it was a long walk up. The game was super exciting. We were playing against Getafe which is where my school is so I figured I'd be happy no matter who won. Although I didn't pay that much attention to the game, I am aware that we won at the very last minute! It was really fun to see how much people got into it. Soccer is a huge part of the culture here people have a lot of pride for their teams. ´Here are some pictures. Sorry everyone is so tiny, we were pretty high up!

Easter in Rome

Last Friday, I got up at the crack of dawn and flew to Rome to meet Emily. I was convinced we would never find each other but as I was walking to our hostel, there was Emily sitting on the steps of a church! I was so happy to see her. We couldn’t check into the hostel until noon so we walked a few blocks to get our first glimpse of the coliseum. Wow. It is impressive. Then we walked to our hostel and got all settled in. The hostel only had three rooms and ours was the only private one. We had to share a bathroom with everyone. It was kind of like staying in someone’s apartment but it was really nice. Emily was really tired but we decided to go out and explore to help keep her awake. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and some other monuments and fountains. We stopped for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant where we could eat outside and enjoy the sunny, 70 degree weather. We ate some gelato at a famous gelateria where they had over 100 flavors to choose from! That night we ate at a little restaurant near our hostel and went to bed pretty early.

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch a bus to the Vatican. We knew there would be a line to get into the Vatican museum so we wanted to get there right as it opened. We had a little trouble figuring out how to buy bus tickets but we did a lot of gesturing and pointing and figured it out. When we got to the museum, the line was very short and we got in right away! We saw tons of art but most importantly we saw the Sistine chapel. It was absolutely beautiful. We stood and stared for quite a while. We had a guide book and I read aloud the information provided. After that we went to the Vatican post office to send a postcard that will be postmarked from Vatican City. We went over to St. Peter’s Basilica but the line to get in was waaay to long so we just looked at the outside. That afternoon we went to the old Jewish quarter and lost ourselves in small, windy streets. We stopped to have lunch on a sunny terrace in a plaza somewhere. Then we saw the roman ruins including the roman forum. We visited a few churches to see the art but couldn’t stay long as all the churches were preparing for Easter Sunday. After our legs were sufficiently exhausted, we went to a grocery store and bought dinner and food for the next day. We weren’t sure what would be open on Easter and didn’t want to starve. We ate in our hostel and planned on going back out for ice cream but Emily fell asleep about 5 seconds after dinner. She was still on New York time I think!

Sunday morning we headed back to St. Peters to see the Easter mass. We had no idea if we’d be able to get in or not but when we got there a nun was handing out tickets so we took some and went on in! We found a seat on some stairs and waited for the Pope to arrive. The mass was in Latin and very far away so we didn’t stay the entire time, but it was really cool to see how many people were there and to see the Pope. We were freezing so we went to get some hot chocolate and coffee. Apparently the coffee in Rome is tiny! I have never seen such a small cup of coffee in my life but Emily seemed satisfied. From there we went to the flea market that is held in Rome every Sunday. It is a lot like the flea market in Madrid. Some things are used, some are new. Some are very practical and some are completely useless. We didn’t buy anything but it was fun to walk around and see. Then we had a picnic lunch in the park. After lunch we walked to the church that has the Bocca della Veritá. We had to wait in line to get our picture taken but it moved quickly and was worth it. We examined the ruins more closely and then went back to our hostel to pack and get ready for our flight to Madrid. We had our last dinner out at a little outside restaurant we had been eyeing up all weekend. It was beautiful and delicious. We walked over to see the Trevi fountain lit up at night and got some gelato at a small shop near there.
Monday morning we got up and took a bus to the airport to catch our flight to Madrid! Emily and I did touristy things in Madrid all day Monday while the weather was beautiful. Tuesday and Wednesday it rained so we had to try to find inside things to do. Tuesday Emily came to school with me and we went to the infamous sandwich shop. Wednesday Emily went to the Prado while I was at school and we met later for tapas. Today I had to say goodbye and it was hard but we really had a great vacation together. Now I have one month left in Madrid before I come home for the summer…and boy will it be a busy one. I still have a trip to Seville and a trip to Paris planned as well as three class field trips and tons of tests and papers. I know this next month will fly by so I will try to take advantage of it!

Semana Santa

I've been enjoying the sun and the beach for the past 6 days. Last Friday I left for the South of Spain to spend my spring break. My friend Sondie was able to transfer her parent's time share to a little city near Malaga and they let us all go stay there for the week. We took a 6 hour bus ride down and it was delayed at every point possible. We got into Malaga pretty late and had to take a taxi to our resort. We went to sleep and the next morning got up early to enjoy the sun. We layed out by the pool, explored the town a little, and had lots of fun cooking in our very own kitchen. We made a big dinner Saturday night and sat outside on the patio eating and talking. Sunday we headed to the beach and spent the majority of the day relaxing next to the ocean and eating ice cream. That evening we made a mexican feast and later that night Christy got there! Monday, me and Christy went into Malaga to see some of the processions for Semana Santa. Sondie wasn't feeling too well so her and Kara stayed behind and rested. Me and Christy had a great time. It was so interesting to see the celebrations. The entire city came out to watch hundreds of people dressed in robes resembling the KKK walk down the middle of the street carying these floats. Some of the floats needed up to 150 people to lift them! We had to get there pretty early to get a good spot, but it was definitly worth it. Tuesday we were supposed to go to Gibralter for the day on organized excursion with our resort. They called Monday night and told us there weren't enough people and the excursion was canceled. I was bumed but we decided to go to a beach instead. The resort people recomended one of the best beaches on the costa del sur and even drove us there in the resort's mini bus. The wind was pretty intense that day but we found a good sunny spot and stretched out our blanket. Later, I went for a run and got really lost in these hilly neighborhoods. I got a good little tour of the town! Late Tuesday night our friend Ryan was getting into Malaga and was going to stay at our resort for the night. We were all exausted but managed to stay awake until he got there. Our mini bus driver from Tuesday recomended that we go to a little town not to far away called Mijas Pueblo. We had nothing to do Wednesday so we decided to check it out. We had to take two busses to get there and it took forever...but it was so beautiful. The town is exactly what you think of when you think of Spain. There are white washed buildings and donkeys on the streets. It is built into the mountains and the views are spectacular. We spent all day walking around and looking in museums and at the views. Then we went back to our room and freshened up for a dinner in town. We ate at a Mexican restaurant that was not nearly as good as when we cooked Mexican food for ourselves. This morning I left at the crack of dawn to catch my bus back to Madrid. This city is compleatly empty. Everyone is on vacation somewhere warm! Tomorrow I leave at 4 in the morning to go to Rome to meet Emily! I'll fill you in when we get back!

Barcelona

We had no school Thursday for father's day and I didn't have any classes on Friday so I spent my long weekend in Barcelona! I absolutely loved the city. It is so beautiful and there is so much to see and do. Sondie, Christy and I decided to take the AVE train which is super fast rather than fly Ryan Air again. It was a very positive experience. Thursday morning we met at the train station and easily got our tickets and found our platform. Christy ended up having to take a later train because her ticket reservation had some problems. Me and Sondie were in different cars of the train so we set a meeting time for breakfast in the cafateria car. I loved being able to see the country as we rode. Trains are also nice because you can walk around if your legs get tired of sitting. While we ate, we looked at all of our tourist guides and maps and books to make a very detailed itinerary. There was so much we wanted to do so we really had to be organized. We maped everything out so we could maximize our time sightseeing and minimize our time traveling. When we got to Barcelona, we met our friend Katie who flew in that same morning. We went to our hostel which was super nice. There were 5 beds and our own bathroom. The kitchen was down the hall and was basicly ours since we were the only ones staying there. We droped our stuff and headed out to see the city. Our first stop was Casa Batllo. This is one of Gaudi's creations. We took a audiogude tour of the house but the best part was the roof. You could see the entire city from there! We ended up staying there for quite a while so once we left we were kind of hungry. We found a restaurant called Obama's, so of course we had to check it out. We ordered tapas and relaxed a little. Then we went grocery shopping and walked around Las Ramblas until Christy's train arrived. We took her back to the hostel and got her all settled. Then we decided to walk down towards the water via Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is a street full of people, performers, and stores. When we got to the port, we saw a girl who is in Madrid on our same program! She was in Barcelona visiting her boyfriend. They recomended a good Mexican restaurant for us so we went. I have been craving Mexican food for quite some time so I was pretty happy with this decision. We had a nice huge meal outside on the tarrace. By the time we got back to the hostel it was close to midnight and we were exausted. We decided it made more sense to stay in and sleep so we would be ready for our big day on Friday.



Friday started out with a big American breakfast that we cooked in our kitchen. Then we set out to see the Cathedral of Barcelona and the whole gothic neighborhood. We made our way to the Picasso Museum which I really enjoyed. Some of his young paintings are there as well as his interpretations of Las Meninas, which were my favorite. Then we headed over to the Chocolate museum. It was basicly a historical look at how chocolate came to Barcelona. There were a ton of sculptures made of chocolate and I thought it was pretty great. After sampeling some chocolate we walked to a huge park to have our picnic lunch we brought. At the entrance to the park there is a giant arch named the Triumphal Arch. The park also has a zoo, a museum, and lots of fountains and paths to walk on. We walked until we were too tired to walk anymore. Then we went to Montjuic which means "Mount of the Jews". It is a part of the city that overlooks all of Barcelona. Our plan was to spend a good half of the day there but everything we did took longer than expected so it was already getting dark when we got there. Oh I almost forgot! We took a funicular up the mountain which was like a metro but above ground and going up a mountain. I was pretty excited by it. When we got there we walked around looking for the Poble espanol which has immitations of all of the villages in Spain. You can look at the arcitecture and they sell traditional things from each place. On our way there, we saw the magic fountains. My tour book talked about a water and light show at the fountains on the weekend nights. Of course we had to stop and watch. It was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. There were huge sprays of water in all different colors to choreographed music. It really was magical! By the time we got to Poble Espanol it looked pretty closed. We decided not to pay to get in since it wouldn't be open for long. We went back down the mountain and had dinner at an italian restaurant close to Las Ramblas. Then we went back to our hostel and changed for the night. We had plans to meet up with Jennette, the girl from our trip. She was going to take us to a discoteca on the port. We went and met her but found out that the discoteca was at capacity already so we couldn't go in. It was probably for the best since it was already almost 1 in the morning!

Saturday we got up bright and early for another day of tourism. We went to Segrada Familia first because we knew there would be lots of people there. We were right! We waited in line for quite a while just to buy our tickets. I think it was definitly worth the wait. Segrada Familia was started by Gaudi in 1883. He continued working on it until his death in 1926. This is said to be his greatest work. The church is still not nearly finished, but other people have continued working off his plans and it has made considerable progress. They are expecting to work on it at least another quarter century. The church was so different from all of the other cathedrals and churches we have seen. Gaudi's style really shines through. In the basement (which will eventually be the crypt) there is a musuem with models of what it will look like when its finished. I guess now I have a reason to come back in 25 years! After Segrada Familia we headed over to Park Guel, which is Guadi's famous park. He intended it to be a gated residence for rich people but at that time the wealthy wanted to live in the city, not on the outskirts. So now it is an amazing park. This is definitly what I think of when I think of Barcelona. It has the curvy mosaic benches and lots of green space for lounging. We ate lunch in the park and hung out there a while. Then we went to Casa Milla, another Gaudi designed house. This house is so interesting. There are 33 chimnies and the view from the roof is unreal. The house was built as an apartment building with two residents on each floor. One of the appartments is still intact with furniture and everything so you get to tour that. They give you a headset that tells you information as you go. I was fasinated by the entire thing. Casa Milla is very close to Casa Batllo, which we saw on the first day. We decided to walk past it on our way home so we could see it at night. It was beautiful! I'm glad we toured it during the day so we could see Gaudi's use of light on the inside, but it was good to go back and see the night effect too. Then we went back to our hotel and changed into something a little nicer. Our teacher recomended a nice restaurant to us so we were going to check it out. Amazingly, we found it and got a table. It was really late, even for Spain time. We ate a delicious meal except I had a little problem with ordering. There were no vegetarian options on the menu so I was asking the waiter the ingredients of many of the dishes. I have a hard time with food words because they always use very flowery words to make it sound better. I miss heard him and tried to repeat what he had said but accadentally said something very vulgur! I didn't even know that it was a bad word and I didn't understand why he was looking at me so strangely. My friends are taking a coloquial Spanish class and they told me later that I was not saying rabit, but instead a bad word for a female body part! I was so embarased! We made it through the rest of dinner without any drama. After dinner we went to meet up with Jennette since Friday night fell through. Her boyfriend knew of a bar with very extravegant drinks so we went to check it out. There were hundreds of drinks listed on the wall and they all had wild names... we opted for the Harry Potter. There was an orange slice and they put sugar and cinnamon on top and set it on fire! The cimmamon sparked like a magic wand!. It was pretty exciting. Then we went back to the hostel to sleep.

Sunday we got up early and cleaned before checking out. We went to the train station and back to Madrid. Our train experience was just as possitive except that there were no people on the train when we got on so we just sat together. We didn't realize that the train makes 4 stops and we were in someone's seat at the next stop. By that time someone was in our real seats so we just choose some other ones. But at the next stop these people came! We ended up moving about 4 times. It felt really good to be home. I was pooped! I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and school work. On that note, I'm going to go do some reading!

Prince Felipe

Me and my senora have been talking a lot lately and getting along really well. Yesterday she asked me if I wanted to go out for lunch with her and her friend. I said yes, and we went to a small pueblo outside of Madrid to their favorite resturant. It is famous for rabbit, which did not thrill me. I had some delicious grilled vegetables thought. My senora and her friend split a rabbit (ahhh!!!). It was nice to have the traditional long Spanish lunch. We sat around eating and talking until almost 5:00! Then we went to do a little shopping. My senora picked out a bunch of clothes for me to try on. I ended up with a really cute beach dress and a shirt. It was good to hang out with an adult for a change. I get so used to being with people my own age that I forget how nice it is to talk to grown ups.

Today I had a four hour art class in the Prado. We were having double class to make up for next week when we have a four day weekend. When we got there, there were tons of police. I asked my professor why there was so much security and she didn't know. It took us forever to get in and security was extra tight. While waiting in line for the metal detector, we found out that the Prince and his wife were expected at the Prado this morning! My professor wanted to continue with class, but we were all pretty excited. As we walked to go see Velazquez's work, the security woman made us move to the side because the prince (and about a million reporters and security people) were entering! We got to see them walk by! I know it isn't much, but I saw the future king of Spain! After that we had to continue with our VERY long class. I have been to the Prado three times now, and there is still so much left for me to see! This afternoon it was about 72 degrees so I did my homework outside on our patio. Then I went for a nice run in the park. I am definitly not missing the cold, that's for sure! Well, that's all for now!