Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Okay, some positivity.

(even though I still have one more exam...)


Okay. Now that I'm in a better mood, let's discuss some of my accomplishments here in Spain. 


1. I've already mentioned that I'm no where near where I hoped to be language-wise, but I did improve. While improving my language was a goal, it wasn't the most important thing I came here to do. I gave it some effort, not as much as I could have, but as much as I was willing to give, and I have improved a lot. No regrets. I might try to find a few Spanish speaking friends to chat with on occasion, but I will -never- take another Spanish class. I wouldn't have believed how much I could miss science.

2. Speaking of missing science, I have learned that I am definitely on the right path. Sometimes, I would wonder if I was a science major/minor just because I could be. I can handle something like the sciences, so that's what I should do, right? It was worrisome, on occasion. The last thing you want is a midlife crisis when you've gone in debt $35,000 a year for four years. But I -love- the sciences. I gave a presentation yesterday about a new study concerning prehistoric man and how scientists have examined a bunch of skulls of the first 'homo sapiens' that appeared in Africa and have found that they were even more diverse than the humans of the world today, and we have some pretty diverse skulls, as I'm sure you've noticed. Fascinating! I went on and on (it was translation class, so we were allowed to speak in english). It was great. Language is not for me. I could do it (not very well), like I have, but I don't want to. I miss science. I cannot wait to go back to studying it.

3. I have gained my independence (mostly). Okay, right now, there is nothing I want more than to curl up on the couch with Tom or go shopping for domestics with my mother, but I've gone nearly four months without these things and I have survived. I found out that I handle life much better surrounded by my parents, my boyfriend, and my beautiful perros (they had better remember who I am when I get home!). Of course, as far as being independent of my family and boyfriend, I cheated a lot. I spent a lot of time on Skype and emailed them nearly everyday, so I did have their love and support with me via crappy Spanish internet (though, they are dependent on me too, you know, so it wasn't all just me clinging to them). And I kept a very positive attitude until the end at least... kind of had a bit of a breakdown about exams and being here this past weekend, but that was the only time, which is pretty fantastic. I have some independence and I know I can handle anything.

4. Speaking of, I have really gained some confidence. Not with Spanish, but with speaking to people, in general, with just giving up when it needs to be done, with making new friends. I'm sure I still won't be comfortable being stuck somewhere with a huge group of people I don't know, but I at least won't be on the edge, poised like a rabbit, ready to leap out the window at any second. I think I've learned to relax (not when it comes to my grades, obviously, but in every day life situations).

5. I have made some friends. Will I keep them? Tough to say. They are all really nice people, but, really, they're language majors and minors. How much do we really have in common outside of a barroom? Not that you necessarily need more in common than that when you're a college student, but... Maybe I'll try. It may end up being more of a hassle than an enjoyable friendship, as it often does, but maybe not. We'll see... The point is that I did make friends. Most people seemed to like me. There were a few that I didn't really talk with, who didn't really talk to me, but that's typical of life. I felt very different from everyone else here (for many reasons...), but I didn't feel ostracized. Just being liked in general is a very fulfilling accomplishment.

6. Umm... Five is more than enough... 


Well, I have come to Spain. I have overcome the difficulty. I have grown into a more independent, more confident, more outgoing person (I think, anyway). I have had a fantastic time (mostly...) during the last semester of my undergrad. I have encountered part of the person I am striving to be: myself, only better.


Bring on the rest of life!


(And I promise I'll update about Valencia, spring break, Segovia, and the rest of my adventures when I get home!)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

AYA Spain: What I've Encountered...

Some last comments about Spain (while I'm still here) for those of you thinking about studying abroad through AYA Spain.


Will I be able to communicate with my limited Spanish?

Well, that depends, really. I came here with the lowest level of Spanish that you can be allowed to come here with, I just got out of 202 in the fall, and I would have to say that the program should not allow students to come without at least completing either 351 or 352 first. I would -highly- recommend, for those of you looking to come and who have only just completed 202, take either 351 or 352 first. I was completely lost pretty much the entire time I've been here. I can understand  a lot of what my teachers say to me, as they often use worksheets or other visual aids to help you follow along, but anyone else... less than 3/4 of what they are saying. That's enough to get the gist, but not enough to hold a conversation. And I've been here four months...

There are six of us in 351. The one girl had lived in Madrid for a year already and knows Spanish perfectly, but BG wouldn't let her test out of 351 and 352, so she was way ahead of us and doesn't count. Another girl seemed to do pretty well. She had a couple of really close friends (that she was basically attached to the entire time) in the program who are at a higher level than her, so she practices with them and has them to help her out if she's struggling at all. But the other four of us... probably not the best idea for us to be here. One word: struggling. There is a guy who knew a few Spaniards from Madrid and he hangs out with them. He has more trouble in class than just talking to Spanish people, but the grades are one of the biggest things your taking away from the experience.

I'm not saying that it's impossible, but I am saying it makes it much harder than they claim. You will not find the classes easier and you will have to work harder to maintain the grades you get at BG. Maybe I'm being dramatic and they will all give me all A's at the end for effort or something, but looking at the syllabus and what they are claiming to expect, much more effort has gone into these classes than I think I would have had to put into 351 or 352 at BG.


Outside of difficulty, how is school, in general?

School is a 30+ minute walk away. And thank God because you need to get some exercise to counter how much food they give you here (well not all the host families, but mine at least... I'll speak more on that later). You won't want to pay for the bus everyday and you'll get used to the walk. No big deal. The school resembles a middle school more than a university. It's a satellite campus and is located far away from most of the Spaniard students. We have a few Spaniards that take classes in the school, not with us, of course, but in general. They will want nothing to do with you and view you mostly as an unavoidable annoyance. I was totally okay with this. I've found the Spanish youth to be far more immature than, well, the American students that study abroad. Just don't be surprised. If you want to find Spanish friends, you'll need to look in the bars, become a regular at a food or coffee spot, or set up an intercambio, which involves randomly emailing people from a list and asking to hang out with them. Most people found one or two intercambios that they really could spend time talking to. I didn't bother. I just wasn't comfortable with the whole thing. If the school had set something up for us, that would have been different. I don't particularly trust the Spanish, you see.

Classes were all held in the same room in hour and half blocks. If you manage to set up your schedule like mine, you can sit in the same seat for 4 1/2 hours straight. It's not as bad as it sounds. The syllabus for a class was typically midterm, final, big presentation, a few written works, giant final project. Not too bad. Except right now when I have two huge projects and finals looming before me. I'm taking four classes, each with 100% possible grade (of course), so 400% possible total. 105% of the 400% is going to be concentrated into tomorrow and Wednesday of this week. And I need to prepare to go home on Friday. If that's not stress, I couldn't tell you what is.


How did your Spanish improve?

My Spanish improved a lot. I picked up all kinds of new vocabulary. I have much less trouble conjugating verbs, still lots, but much less. I can understand far more than I could last semester. Am I nearly fluent? Not even close. In fact, if fluency is your goal, you need to come for the year because it takes about five months being here before you even begin to think, "Hey, I'm getting the hang of this," according to the year students I've spoken with. You spend at least the first three months walking around in a fog and a state of confusion, or trying earnestly and failing most of the time. I was told three weeks and you'd be fine. I still am not fine. I didn't try as hard as I could have. I didn't get an intercambio, I didn't strike up conversations with strangers on the street, our entire group almost outright refused to speak to one another in Spanish, and I barely spoke with my host family. People get frustrated with you quick. Once they've taken nearly two minutes to help you understand a phrase that takes takes less than 15 seconds to say, they tend to say less and less and less the next time. And the accent is nearly impossible. I had to relearn every word I've ever known. I'm not an audio-learner, you see, which is why I'm not a Spanish major or minor. I couldn't even learn a new word unless I tried to keep the basic sound of it in my head and then looked it up to see how it was actually spelled and to clarify the meaning. My Spanish improved a lot, but I could never walk up to a spanish-speaking person on the street and have a decent conversation. It would be filled with me asking them to repeat themselves and them asking me to repeat myself. Too frustrating to think about.


How was your host family?

I was partnered with a graduate student, who is completely fluent in Spanish and very intimidating. I refuse to speak my crappy broken Spanish in front of her, which makes practicing at home almost impossible. My host mom was fantastic. Sweetest Spanish lady ever. A little odd, but she's Spanish... so what can you expect? She didn't clean as much as everyone else's family seemed to. And she only did my laundry every once in awhile. I would -strongly- recommend bringing two weeks worth of underwear as I did. Most students said that their host moms did their laundry every other day. Sometimes I would wait around for awhile. It bothered me on the level that I couldn't control when my laundry was done - I do my own in the US, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I wasn't happy when I put two pairs of jeans in the basket and didn't see either of them for 4 and 1/2 weeks. I was nearly ready to complain when I got them back. Not sure what happened there. The food is terrible, but it's Spanish food. Bland bland bland and full of disgusting things like beans and ham and sausage. I will never eat beans or tuna again in my life. Three + times a week is far too many for such foods. One girl had a family that had a member who was a trained chef, I believe, and she said her food was amazing. Most people claimed it was hit and miss. But don't think that because you don't like the food you are able to not eat it. You can tell them you don't like it, but that's much harder than you would imagine. And you have no control over your portion size, at least not in my house. She gives you a gigantic plate of food and if you don't finish all of it... you must be ill, or upset, or not like her cooking, or maybe you need to go to the doctor... I've gained so much weight because I'm eating well over 3X what I would normally eat in the US.


Some people lost weight. The girl with the chef in the family, one of the guys whose host mom didn't feed him properly (it's looking like she will no longer be given any students, so no worries there) and a few other people that just learned what exercise was in having to walk everywhere. But the vast majority put on a few pounds at least. And then a few of us, me and my roommate included, put on 10+ pounds and are going to have to go home looking far heavier than we did before we came. Embarrassing... I have recently lost the ability to fit into my jeans. I cannot wait to get home and start eating normal portions at decent times. Explain to me why any culture would think it was a good idea to eat a gigantic meal at nearly 10pm, right before you go to bed. It's madness. 


That's enough for now, I think. 

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Here we go...

I've tried three separate times to write something. I was unhappy with every result. Just know that I'm very busy and am working on getting everything written down. I promise to post when I get a chance... which may be after May 1st.


I'm just not in the mood.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Layout of My Life Until May First

Well, I feel like I've neglected March a bit, so here's another quick update. I would write all about my Valencia trip, but I don't really have the time right now. I am planning on getting up fairly early and trying to go to the Rastro for a bit. Let's hope anyway.


The weather here has suddenly turned to crap. I'm not sure what's going on, but it's definitely not a day where you would want to be outside. I was planning on going to Salamanca today, but after coming down with a bit of a cold and realizing I'd probably be miserable the entire time, I postponed the trip. 


Instead of traveling, I spent the day planning for Spring Break. While I have no day-by-day plans as far as what I'm going to see, I at least have places to stay, transportation (almost), and a good idea of what needs to be done before I leave on Wednesday night. I'm not planning on taking my laptop with me because 1) I am staying in hostels, so it could get stolen; 2) I am going to be traveling a lot, so it could get broken; 3) I think at least London has a different plug type for the outlet, so charging it might be a pain; 4) I'm not checking a bag with any of my flights, so a heavy laptop might cause problems when I'm trying to make weight for a carry-on; 5) etc. It just seems like a better idea to not take it. Most of the hostels that I'll be staying in have computers that you can pay to use, so I can keep up with my email at least. This means no more updates after Wednesday until April 15. Sorry!


I also planned out the rest of my stay, day-by-day. It is as follows (forgive this jumble, but it might come in handy later if you're wondering what I'm up to):

3/29: Rastro, Carrefour shopping, Homework

3/30: School

3/31: Homework

4/1: School, Packing, Leave for Spring Break

4/2-4/3: Rome

4/4: Venice

4/5: Rome (Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican!)

4/6: Rome, Paris, London - intense!

4/7-4/10: London with a trip to Stonehenge and Bath

4/11-4/13: Paris

4/14: Paris, Madrid

4/15: School

4/16-4/17: Salamanca

4/18: Segovia

4/19: Rastro, Valley of the Fallen Monument, Madrid

4/20-4/26: Nonstop studying for finals

4/27-4/29: Nonstop studying and finals

4/30: Packing, Pictures, Partying - Last day in Spain!!

5/1: 18 straight hours of plane rides, connections and layovers, hooray! Also, it seems likely that I will miss my connection back to Detroit, so better add another 4 or 5 hours until the next one leaves (God, I hope not... please pray for me!)


Okay. So that's the rest of my trip in a nutshell. I hoping it goes by quickly, which it really seems like it should from that jam-packed schedule I've set myself. I really really want to see Salamanca and Segovia, so let's hope that leaving them until the last possible minute doesn't come back to bite me.


Well, I should try to get some sleep if I'm going to get up in the morning. I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep, but I'm going to try my best. I hope I feel better soon. I'd hate to spend my entire Spring Break feeling like this.


I can't wait to get home. Spain has been nice, but it's not home.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Granada, Finally

Okay. Granada.


Thank goodness that my teachers make me write two separate essays about each of our trips (really?) so that I can actually remember what we did in Granada. Two weeks ago is a long time ago. So much has happened between now and then that I could have easily forgotten it all. Between my essays and my pictures, I think I can still give a pretty good account of what happened.


To begin:


Our trip to Granada was the last school planned trip of the semester, which means it was also the last time I had to get on that bus for a 6 and some hour drive. Even the thought of the smell of that bus gets to me. It didn't help that during every stop, the bus driver would spray the place down with some kind of chemical cleaner that would try to kill you every time you got back on the bus.


Eight in the morning meeting time in the Plaza Cervantes. I decided that I was leaving early in order to get a window seat on the bus no matter what, but no worries. We left at a decent time and so many people skipped this trip (mostly because it was during Bowling Green's spring break and many people had friends coming to visit them) that I got my very own seat. It was amazing. I curled up in a little ball and slept and slept. I was probably awake for a total of 1/2 an hour on a 6 hour bus ride. 


Our first stop was this little town in Castilla-La Mancha that claimed some kind of fame for something about Don Quijote. I caught a glimpse of some old-fashioned windmills up on a hill, but I was too disoriented to hear the history behind the little town. They kicked us out of the bus and into the cold where I stood in the sun until we were allowed to get back on the bus.


Our next stop was at a rest-stop where we all ate our bocadillos (sandwiches). A couple of the guys thought that they would be manly and try to climb the mountain and that was kind of entertaining. I just sat in the sun. It was amazing. Although I realized that I had forgotten my sunglasses just as I was walking away from the bus, jumped back on to grab them and turned around to realize that the doors had shut on me and I was basically locked on the bus. I called to get the drivers attention as he was walking away. When he opened the door for me, I think he may have been cussing me out (because he's Spanish), but I didn't understand him enough to be sure.


We arrived in Granada and headed straight for La Alhambra. Granada is in the south of Spain, about an hour away from the Mediterranean, so it was fantastic weather. La Alhambra was the last stronghold of the Muslims before the re-conquest by Ferdinand and Isabella when they kicked out all the Muslims in 1492. At La Alhambra, there is a Nazarian (the last reign of Muslims in Granada were called the Nararis) palace that was constructed in 14th century. This place was gorgeous. They had a ton of water and fountains and the like because water was apparently the symbol of purity. And this place had amazing views. 
























Stairway at La Alhambra with water flowing down the railings. I thought it was a fantastic picture and a very unique "fountain".
























View of Granada from La Alhambra. Apparently gypsies live in caves in that mountain. And rebel teenagers hellbent on disappointing their parents.

























Pond in La Alhambra with a bit of a view in the background. I loved the reflection of the building. That's moorish architecture with the arches and patterns.


Also at La Alhambra are the Gardens of the Generalife (and I forget what that means right now). There was a summer home for the Muslim leaders here. But the gardens are just beautiful themselves. In Granada, or just outside of it, is the tallest mountain on the peninsula: Mulhacen. The view of the palm trees in the garden with a background of the snow-covered Mulhacen was an amazingly gorgeous scene. Lastly, we visited La Alcazaba. This is a fortress and is pretty much in ruins. It was fun to climb on though, and we got some great views of Granada and the landscape from the top of the tower. 























There it is. A palm tree and a snow-covered mountain. Beautiful.























Part of the Palace. This is the place that you usually see when people bring up pictures of La Alhambra. You can see why. Gorgeous. Cute little fountains too.


I felt like we wandered around La Alhambra forever. I eventually got sick of taking pictures. It's a hard balance to enjoy something by actually looking at it while you are there and enjoying something through your camera lens in order to have a picture of it for later. When we finally left La Alhambra, we made our way to the hotel. The bus stopped in the middle of the street and we all had to jump off, grab our stuff and run inside. Unfortunately, in my rush, I cracked my head on the luggage compartment of the bus and had to feel unwell for quite a bit after that. I used my break before dinner to hang out with a few people. It was one of the graduate student's birthday, so I went with her friend to the Corte Ingles to pick out a children's book in Spanish that she will be able to use in her classroom. Then we wandered all over the hotel finding the people in our group to sign it. It was cute. I also used this time to allow a girl who began beauty school to cut my hair. She just took off a few inches, but it's still past my chin. I really contemplated getting it all chopped off, really short boy cut hair, which I've always wanted to do, but have never had the cuts, but I thought about how if it looked terrible, everyone would remember me as that girl that got that really terrible haircut. And then someone else mentioned that I'll be graduating soon and I wouldn't want to chance a horrible haircut before graduation pictures. The haircut turned out nicely and I went to dinner. Some people noticed, but most didn't. Everyone said it looked nice though, like you have to when someone gets a haircut.


Dinner was amazing. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet. I loaded two full plates because free food means that you have to stuff yourself past full. It was pretty fantastic. I can't remember everything I ate right now, but I do recall piling on three forms of potatoes. After dinner, we all went out for the grad student's birthday. I had my customary tequila, but I didn't actually drink very much. Alcohol is expensive and it's difficult to order drinks when your spanish isn't great. 


Hour and a half shower because hot showers at 3 in the morning are amazing, then bed. We had a breakfast buffet, which was not nearly as good as dinner buffet, but tolerable. Then we were off to Salobreña, a costal town on the Mediterranean where the Spaniards go on vacation, but the tourists don't. For some reason, we all decided that it would be a good idea to climb a mountain to reach this moorish castle. The climb about killed me especially because I wasn't feeling so great after very little sleep and an hour in that horrible bus. But the view was amazing. The Spanish have a word that means a view of the sea from a mountain: (fondo) acantilado. Acantilado also means cliff, but if you use it with fondo (background), it means a view of the sea from a mountain, basically. And it was gorgeous. I'm going to go with - it was worth the horrible horrible climb to the top, but only barely. Our climb down wasn't nearly as bad, naturally, and we made our way to the coastline. 























My shorter hair, but it's blowing in the wind so it looks bad. This is me and that's the coast. Simple enough, yet gorgeous in every way...


We then found out that we had around five or six hours to do whatever we wanted. I went to a chinos and bought myself a hat. I think it's a fantastic hat, but I might be the only one to think so. I needed to cover my head from the sun either way. I went with two grad students to find some lunch. We finally settled on this place on the sea, like right on the beach with a dock that hangs over the water. We ate inside out of the sun. I got to try gazpacho (cold tomato soup) for the first time in my life - AMAZING - and I ate some paella, which was only so so. The thing I hate about paella is that it's supposed to be naturally colored yellow due to the saffron (I think it's saffron), but because saffron is expensive, they color it yellow with food dye, and because a lot of it is food you handle, your hands get dyed yellow, which makes me very uncomfortable about my insides being dyed yellow too.


Then I sat on the beach. I love the beach, more than any other region. I basked in the sun and tried my hardest to not get burned, which I managed successfully. In fact, I don't believe that I even tanned. I took a break from the beach (it was too cold to swim, in my opinion) to get some raspberry sherbet.


Back on the bus, blugh!, we went back to the hotel to hang out for a bit until dinner. After dinner, the girl who cut my hair straightened it for me. It looked fantastic. I seriously contemplated buying a straightener, but considering that I wouldn't be able to bring it home with the voltage differences and stuff, I decided against it.


We then packed onto tiny buses to visit Albaicín and Sacromonte, old Muslim districts within Granada. There are Arab and Muslim public baths in the area and many churches that were built on top of the places where there used to be Muslim mezquitas (done after the re-conquest of Granada by the catholics). There is also the view of Saint Nicholas, which provided a fantastic view of La Alhambra lit up at night, a view that my camera just couldn't handle. I couldn't figure out how to set it for night pictures...


















La Alhambra, lit up at night from the View of Saint Nicholas. Rough picture, but it was beautiful. I wish I could have gotten the full effect with the camera, but alas...


Then we went to see a Flamenco show. Everyone thought it was absolutely amazing. I thought it was okay. I have very sensitive ears and they were all clapping in this really intense rhythm that hurt my ears. Mostly, I thought the dancing looked angry and very painful. They stomped and stomped and stomped and those women had thighs like a redwood. I had absolutely no desire to learn, though I was one of the only ones. It was interesting and the dresses were beautiful. It wouldn't have looked nearly so angry if they would have flashed a smile or something. Two groups was enough. But it was a fantastic look at a different culture.























Flamenco dancers. Enough said.


After the Flamenco show, I went out with a few people from the group and our group advisors. Everyone was pretty exhausted (the beach 

will do that do you) and no one stayed out very long, except... me and two other people. It was the last night of the last trip of the semester. We were not going to waste it sleeping! We danced like crazy and then decided to head out. I will never miss smelling like smoke. If Wood county has one thing right, it's the public places smoking ban. Well, still not ready to go home, we wandered around Granada for awhile. We decided to chronicle our night by taking millions of photos. We ran across a couple of chairs that someone had thrown away and we used them as props for our picture-taking. It was a fantastic night.


Around 4:30 in the morning, we decided that we were hungry. Not knowing Granada and not knowing where a good place to eat would be located, we stopped 6 different groups of people who pointed us in various directions until we found a guy that mentioned Donar Kebab. We weren't quite sure of the directions, but finally we found people eating Kebabs and we just followed one person after another all of the way to the door of the shop. It was the first time I had eaten a Donar Kebab and it was fantastic. It was like Taco Bell, open when you need it and very cheap, but it tasted a million times better. 


We then made our way back to the hotel for a good two hours of sleep. Sunday morning, we went to la Capilla Real, a part of the cathedral of Granada. The bodies of Isabel and Ferdinand are located here and we got to see their tomb. The alter was kind of creepy with scenes of John the Baptist getting his head chopped off and the other John being boiled alive. We wandered around Granada for a bit more before we got on the bus for our trip home. 


Rather boring trip back. I slept most of the time again. We stopped and

 ate tortilla bocadillos and I had a Fanta límon. I'm not quite sure why they don't sell Fanta as fountain drinks in the states, but I really think that they should. Really. I love Fanta límon, although it is lacking caffeine, an essential for a college student.


Well, that took for absolutely ever. And uploading these pictures is going to take longer. I'll be sure to try to get my trip to Valencia posted soon, but I do have a million things to do. School is rough right now. 

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Things I will and won't miss about Spain

Last weekend, I went to Granada. Tomorrow, I'm going to Valencia for Las Fallas. I don't have the energy to write about my Granada trip yet (it takes a lot out of you to remember these things and put them in order, etc.) and next week is going to be just as busy (if not more) than this week, so look for a post about Granada on Thursday... cross your fingers anyway.


Right now, a quick post to put off packing. I can't imagine giving up procrastinating. I've found it's really for the best. If I work ahead, I go back and edit and revise and drive myself crazy with whatever it is I'm working on. And then I come to loathe whatever it is I'm working on, for taking up so much of my time, for not ever being exactly the way I want it to be, etc. If I took this working ahead approach in everything I did, it's possible, and possibly even likely, that I would come to loathe everything I do. Now what kind of life would that be? No. I'm a procrastinator for life. Let's hope I can get through medical school with this logic.


Time for: Things I won't miss about Spain.

1. The building where I go to school. It was huge lie that we were going to go to the University of Alcalá. The Americans, from Bowling Green at least, are shoved into this tiny school way out in the middle of nowhere. It's also the school where the English-education majors go, I think, as the hallways are decorated with children's books and posters in English. It looks far more like a middle school than a college. And, in order to print, you have to put whatever it is that you want printed on a flashdrive, give it to the librarian (at this excuse for a library building) who prints whatever you want, and then you have to pay five cents a page. I -really- miss Bowling Green, where I can mosey into any computer lab I want, sit down at a computer, print 300 pages of whatever I wish while checking my email or otherwise wasting time on the internet, and then mosey on out. No money, no hassle.

2. Electricity issues. A lot of Spanish lights are on timers, which is a huge hassle when you are trying to use the restroom and the lights go out on you and you can't quite remember where the switch was, so you try to find it without actually touching the walls, because who wants to touch the walls in a public bathroom? I don't actually have a big problem with this. I think it's a really good idea for public buildings and they probably save a ton in electricity costs. The problem is the lack of outlets. We fight over outlets at school in order to plug in laptops and the like. And it's impossible to find them elsewhere. The first day I arrived, I used the airport restroom and I couldn't quite figure out why there were two girls sitting in the bathroom watching a movie on a laptop until I realized that it was plugged into the outlet that they had unplugged the hand-dryer from. Ridiculous.


Things I will miss about Spain.

1. The kids. It's a little depressing when you hear a 5 year old speaking and it's painfully obvious that they can speak Spanish far better than you can, but the kids are adorable. One day, I was walking to school and heard a kid talking. I think he was probably around 7 years old. I wasn't really paying attention to him until I heard him say, "Por ejemplo", which means "for example". At first, I was a little amused to hear a phrase that all of my teachers say and have said for as long as I have been taking Spanish. But then I stopped and thought about it. What kind of kid says "for example"? What kind of 7 year old qualifies his monologue through exemplification? I was a bit blown away, but it's possible that he was just a crazy smart kid. Then, the other day, on the way home from Granada, I was walking through the plaza. It was filled, absolutely filled, with people. They shut down the streets around the plaza on Sundays and everyone goes there (when it's nice out, which it was) to sit and talk. There was a man selling balloons and every available seat was filled. It was nice. Anyway, I was just about to cross the street to leave the plaza when a little girl (I'm going to go with 5 or 6 years old) dashes across the street to reach the plaza, turns around to look at her parents, puts her arms straight up in the air, and yells "LA PLATHA!" (remember that the Spanish lisp, so I spelled it the way it sounded) in the happiest voice. Her father laughed and said, "Sí, la plaza. Yay!" I cracked up. This little girl sounded like she had just arrived at Cedar Point when she was only going to the plaza, which she probably passes everyday on her way to school or something. I mean, yeah, there was a guy selling balloons, but I didn't feel it warranted an arms-in-the-air rejoice. It was adorable.

2. My host mom. She is great. She calls me so many different things that I have trouble keeping up. She usually prefaces it with "AAY!". I believe I mentioned that she calls me "pobrecita" whenever I'm struggling with something (poor little one). She calls me "carino" a lot, which is "loved one" or "darling" or she'll say, "AAY, mi niña!" (my child). Today, I realized that she had been calling me "cielo" for awhile and I only just put together that she was calling me "heaven". But my absolute favorite was the day she called me "brujita" (little witch). I'm not a big fan of the breakfast here. I usually eat cereal, but I'll never really be able to stomach the milk. Usually, on my days off, I'll sleep in pretty late and then stay in my room until it's lunch time. One day, I had to go to the school to meet my partner to work on a project on my day off. I didn't really want to eat any breakfast, so I got ready and packed up and tried to sneak out the door. "AAY, brujita!" She caught me and she wasn't very happy about it. I could only crack up. She forced me to take a roll and a juice box with me when I insisted that I didn't have the time to eat. She's fantastic. 


Well,  I need to pack and then get some sleep. I'm going to be up all night tomorrow night. The city should be one big party. Let's hope because we can't check into our hostel until 9 in the morning.


I'll write next Thursday.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A bit of an update

Today was the 11th of March. It marked the anniversary of the March 11th terrorist bombings of the train here in Spain. If I understand correctly, the train that was bombed was the one that travels through my city, Alcalá de Henares, to Madrid. There is a nice statue by our train station where people lit candles and laid flowers all day. It's been five years and although the whole of Spain didn't feel these attacks quite like the whole of the United States felt September 11th, today is their September 11th.


The weather has been just gorgeous lately. Although it's still a bit cold in the mornings, around 4˚C (39˚F), by the time I head home for lunch, it's around 21˚C (70˚F). Today, the thermometer at the train station said 28˚C (82˚F), which I think may have been a lie because weather sites say that the high today was 71˚F. I've only been wearing my coat in the mornings and it's been fantastic. I'm going to Granada this weekend, and as Granada is in the south, I guess it's supposed to be even nicer (or hotter). Supposedly, our hotel has a pool, so maybe I'll go swimming.


I'm going to get my hair cut this weekend, which I think I may have already said, but I'll be so glad to get rid of it that I'm saying it again. I hate when it gets long and just hangs. Drives me nuts. I've been wearing it up more and more. It'll be nice not to have it hang on my neck as it continues getting hotter.


What else? I have soo much too do. I found out today that my huge essay that's worth a lot of my grade is actually due next week, and not the week after like I originally thought and planned for. So that's going to be fun. At least she pushed it back to Wednesday, when it was originally due Monday, because that just wouldn't have happened. I was going to try to work on not procrastinating anymore, but it's not quite working, so I decided I'll work on it later. I figure that it'll be better to pile everything into one stressful week. Time really flies when you're on a deadline. 


Well, I probably should get something done... Maybe.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Toledo, Spain

























Me and Cervantes in Toledo. Spain really loves this guy. Look at how long my hair is getting. I'm think about getting it cut next weekend, but maybe not.


I'm very tired today, even though I've slept and slept. I guess it was a beautifully gorgeous day, but I stayed inside all day, relaxing and not moving. I haven't even begun any of the projects that I need to finish before sometime in March or before the end of the semester, and there are quite a few that are going to take quite some time. I really need to quit procrastinating and get to work. 


This week went by pretty quickly, thankfully. Friday was 8 weeks in and exactly 8 weeks to go. I'm halfway there and I'm feeling a bit relieved that I'm over that hill. Like I said, I love being here, this has been a great trip, and I don't regret coming at all, but I'm so ready to go home. I'm just getting through the rest of this time be filling it with things that I'd like to get done.


Friday, I went to Toledo with a couple of girls from our group. Getting there wasn't bad at all. A bus from Alcala to Madrid, the metro to a different bus station (we asked information for the correct bus station because my parents told me that Rick Steve's sent them to the wrong bus station), and then a bus ride to Toledo. It was about a 2 hour and 15 minute commute, but it wasn't bad at all. I chatted for quite a bit with one of the girls and I was pretty glad that I went with them on Friday. I was asking around for anyone that wanted to go with me on Saturday, but no one was game and then they asked me to join them on Friday. I hadn't spent much time with either of them, but they are friendly and cracked me up, so a good day over all.


We climbed the huge hill up into Toledo, taking a little bit of a shortcut over the side of a wall. This was after we wandered around for five or some minutes, trying to find an opening in the wall that surrounds the city on the one side that isn't bordered by the river. Making our way all of the way to the main plaza in the city, we went to check out the Alcazar, a huge former imperial residence that is currently closed for renovation. Honestly, it was not that impressive. The streets to Toledo are very narrow and while we walked past it, standing practically right next to its walls and craning our necks up to see it, it wasn't a very impressive building, just long and tall. Later, we took a tour-bus train up along the other side of the gorge and got to see it stand out along the skyline and that was far more impressive.












The tourist-bus train. You really feel a bit ridiculous riding around in it, but most people seemed to be entertained and like I said, I got some great pictures on this ride.


We traversed the narrow, hilly streets towards the cathedral. We managed to get a few nice pictures of the cathedral, but we had the same problem. Standing right next to a huge building only allows you to take in tiny portions at a time, much less impressive, but again we got to see an impressive view from the train.


We headed, then, to the workshop of Mariano Zamorano. He makes his own swords and knives and was, in general, a really nice guy. He showed us his workshop, explained how the swords and knives are made, and let us take pictures with some of his swords. He was really nice and I was tempted to ask him to tell us how he lost some of his fingers, but I thought it was probably pretty obvious and I didn't want to be rude.


At this point, I was starving. I wanted to go into the cathedral, but the girls I was with weren't willing to pay the 7 euro admission fee. So I headed to McDonalds (finally allowed in Toledo after a great struggle), got a cheap meal of nuggets and fries and then went and bought my ticket to the cathedral. They ate their packed lunches and wandered around Toledo for a bit. The church was absolutely gorgeous. I wandered around a bit, following Rick Steve's guided tour. The Transparente, a big hole in the ceiling with amazing paintings and sculptures around it all of the way to the ground was my favorite. Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but I got some nice postcards that had random pictures on them. I hung out in the gift shop for awhile afterwards, trying to figure out which of the 12 booklets that they sold was the one Isha wanted me to pick up for her. Each booklet had  pictures and focused on a different part of the cathedral and I didn't know which she wanted. After calling my mom, who called my brother, two separate times, I settled on the booklet about The Transparente, which I hope is okay. 


In the Catedral of Toledo, there is a gift sent from Toledo's sister city, Toledo, Ohio. I'm a little bit ashamed that they call Toledo, Ohio, Toledo, Spain's sister city because there is no comparing them, at all, but it's kind of nice to be from the sister city of Toledo, Spain. The gift, however, was little pathetic sitting next to all of these gold pieces and the sword of Franco and other ridiculously historical things. It was just a interesting looking piece of glass, which makes sense as we are the glass city, but still... I was just impressed that they agreed to display it in that magnificent church.  


I met back up with my friends and we wandered around a bit more, stopping in at random shops to buy random things. I found a very decent looking set of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza statues for a lot less than I was looking to spend and bought them immediately for myself. They will for sure be a centerpiece in my next place. Those statues were on my list of things that I wanted to get while I was here, as well as earrings from each place I visit. I picked up some really cute flower earrings at a shop off the Plaza. 


After shopping for a bit, we were going to head to the Santo Tomé where El Greco's most famous painting is located: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. However, it was starting to get late and I decided that I absolutely had to take this ridiculous tourist train, which left the plaza every hour. I offered to pay almost half of the fares of the girls to convince them to come with me and it worked. So we went and bought some tickets, climbed on this train and went off. Rick Steve's suggests sitting all of the way to the right and a little ways behind the driver. Apparently, everyone reads Rick Steve's because there wasn't a single seat on the right side of the train open when we went to get on. I had to sit next to this guy (French, I think) and practically lean over him taking pictures. I didn't feel too badly about how rude I was being because his wife, who didn't even have a camera, was taking up the right side of the seat in front of us, which was really crappy and rude. She didn't even have a camera... you'd think she could have sat next to her husband and seen everything just as well, without forcing people to lean over her (and her husband) to get good pictures. But whatever. Here are some fantastic pictures that I got.
























View of Toledo. If we had stopped, I would have been able to get some of the river that's right in front (the wall is coving it), but we didn't. That tall building to the right is the Alcázar. The tower-ish looking thing near the middle is the cathedral. Both far more impressive at this angle.





















View of the Catedral. The weather was fantastic. It was overcast all day, but it didn't rain. Doesn't make for the best picture, but it makes it look interesting.





















A bridge. This picture shows a bit of the river that surrounds Toledo on three sides. A very strategic defensive position.



When we got back to the plaza we were all ready to go to the Santo Tomé for real this time, but it had just closed. I was pretty disappointed, especially because it was my fault that we got on the train instead of going. I had seen it before though, when we stopped in Toledo when I was here in high school, not that I remember it very much, but maybe a little. It was starting to get late and with a two and some hour commute ahead of us, we decided that we had better catch the bus back to Madrid if we were going to make it home on time for dinner. On the way to the bus station, we stopped at the Santo Tomé dessert shop in the Plaza to buy some Mazapan, a famous in Toledo dessert. I bought a piece with some fruit filling and decided that I wasn't really a fan. I was trying to explain why I didn't like it to the other girls and the one said that she thought it tasted a lot like those circus peanuts and I couldn't agree with her more. And I'm not really a fan of circus peanuts. 


Bus back to Madrid, metro to the other bus station, then bus back to Alcala. I talked more with the one girl and learned a lot about her. They both said that they were glad they invited me along, especially because they really enjoyed the tourist train and I demanded that we go. It was a really nice trip.


I think in my quest to make more friends and become way less shy, it would help a lot if I started asking people questions. When you're ridiculously shy, you tend to stay away from people and you definitely don't initiate additional conversation by asking people to talk about themselves. This tends to make people think you're a bit stuck up. It's compounded when I take the approach that if someone wants me to know something about them, they'll tell me. I'm not going to bother them to tell me something when they may not really want to talk about it. If they want me to know, they'll tell me, right? I think this also makes me look a bit stuck up, like I don't care about you or your affairs. I care, I just hate to pry. It also doesn't help that my memory is terrible. If I'm going to start asking people to tell me about themselves, I'm going need to remember it or there is really no point. And considering that I'm still having trouble sorting through the names of the people in our group... Sigh.


Last night, I went out with Dah-veed. He really likes to find random places, excellent hole-in-the-wall places that he will later bring our group to. Usually he wanders around alone, but he invited me to go with him last night and we wandered a bit. I played a bit of pool and, as usually, I began very strong (my first shot, I got two of my balls in, in two different pockets... ridiculous!), and then began failing. We chatted a bit and I found out that he went through BG's computer science program a year ahead of my brother, which he says means that there is probably no chance that they wouldn't recognize each other, but that he's terrible with names, so he couldn't picture him. I didn't drink all that much, but the mixture (wine, beer, and some kind of fruity drink) was probably a really bad idea. I haven't felt very well all day.


It's not helping that we've had tuna for the last three days. I don't mind a bit of tuna here and there, but I'm really not a fan at all and three days in a row is way too many days of tuna. I can't wait for Easter when Carla is no longer not eating meat and we can ease off the tuna a bit. We ate tuna omelette (or is it omelet?) for dinner tonight. Seriously, tuna omelette. Has anyone even heard of such a thing?


Well, tons of homework and no desire to do it. Loading these pictures is probably going to take forever too. I should really get to work on all that.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Resumen - only forever long

I guess a lot has happened in the last week or so. 


Firstly, I would like to say goodbye to my beautifully tilty rat, Mako. She was put to sleep on Friday after many months of a debilitating sickness and over a year of tiltyness. Tom and I bought Mako and her sister, Ami, from a pet store in Bowling Green on February 5, 2007. My brother said that she was given anesthesia so she wouldn't feel any pain and they had her cremated. I'll really miss her. She was adorable. She was my tilty rat.


Saturday, over a week ago Saturday, my parents arrived in Madrid. I waited for them at the Puerta del Sol where their hotel was located and tried to study a bit. An old Spanish man sat down next to me on the bench and began speaking with me. Granted that I only followed about 1/2 to 3/4 of what he was saying, it was a pretty good conversation. He saw that I was studying about bull fighting and launched into this long story about bull fighting back in the day, complete with the singing of songs that they used to sing about various bull fighters and during certain bull fights.


My parents must have walked right past me on their way to the hotel, but we didn't see each other. It was so nice to see them again, and my brother and Isha. We started Saturday with a walk around the Puerta del Sol and then to the Plaza Mayor. Lunch was bocadillos de calamarie, which no one enjoyed, but it was real Spanish food, so it was okay. We then walked to the Parque Retiro. The temperature had to be around or above 60, a beautiful day. The park was filled with people and performers. We took pictures of the flowers and lake and rested in the sun near the pool. After a quick nap in the afternoon, we decided to go get some dinner. That weekend was the weekend of Carneval, the last huge party before Lent begins and Spain celebrates Carneval with style. People dress up in costumes and stay out all night. On our way to the Hard Rock, we ran into a huge gathering of people, all of the way down one side of a main street through Madrid. Apparently, they were setting up for a parade. At the Hard Rock, we were seated near a window and got to watch some of the larger floats go by, including a large dragon that breathed fire and had people on its back. That night, our Pub Crawl was a little pathetic. One of the suggested places was only serving dinner and we couldn't find another, but we had some fantastic sangria nonetheless. 


That night, I was going to stay at the hotel with my family, but I ended up getting kicked out by the hotel staff because we hadn't paid for an extra person. My parents had already gone to bed and I didn't think it was a big deal, as I had originally planned to go back to Alcalá for the night anyway, but after going the wrong way on the metro and then attempting to backtrack, I ended up getting kicked off the metro when it closed down and emerging onto some street in north Madrid around 2 or so in the morning. As I don't understand the bus system and had no idea where I needed to go, I walked around for a bit, getting even more lost, and it really didn't help that I was still a little bit tipsy from the Pub Crawl. I didn't have a map of Madrid on me, so I began relying on the huge metro maps that they have at every metro stop to tell me where I was. When I realized, upon arriving at a stop, that I had walked quite a ways in the wrong direction (further north), I began trying to call people to tell me where I needed to go. No one was available here and I only had a few euros left on my Spanish phone. I didn't have the number to the hotel and I still have no idea how to call information. I ended up getting ahold of Tom's brother who found me on Google Maps and began directing me to where I needed to go, the bus station. It took a good 30 some minutes to get around this huge circular intersection of construction and then be sure I was going in the right direction, which likely adds up to about a $70 phone bill.


I finally found a metro line that I could follow from stop to stop all of the way to the bus station, but I was so far away that it was after 3 by the time I got there. The buses for Alcalá leave every hour on the hour at night, so I would have had to wait for the 4 o'clock bus, which means I wouldn't have gotten back to Alcalá until around 5 and wouldn't have gotten in bed until around 5:30. I was supposed to meet my family back at the hotel around 8 or 9, which means I would have gotten a total of an hour of sleep before I would have to get up and return to Madrid, so I decided to just walk back to the hotel. After 3 hours of being lost by myself in Madrid, 2 hours straight of walking, and 4 in the morning, I was exhausted and drained and emotionally a wreck. I got to the hotel, called my parents from the front desk, we paid the 38 euro to have me stay the night, even though it was already 4 in the morning, and I finally got some sleep. It was a bit of a nightmare, but it wasn't as terrible as it sounds. The walking was terrible, but the streets were filled with people out celebrating Carneval and I didn't fear for my safety at all. I did see at least 3 men urinating on random buildings though throughout the night.


Sunday was another gorgeous day. We slept in quite a bit (I really needed it) and after a slightly disappointing breakfast of McDonald's (the Spanish aren't much for breakfast outside of a cup of coffee), we headed for the rastro, a giant flea-market type held every Sunday near the Plaza Mayor. I was wondering how to get to it from the Plaza Mayor and after asking a man, he said just go down one of those streets and you'll find it. He was absolutely right. It is huge. Streets and streets are filled with vendors and people. It was wall to wall people the entire time. You could barely move, but I thought it was amazing. I bought myself a scarf (bufanda) that I have been wearing ever since. I wanted to pick up some earrings, but I couldn't find anything that I couldn't live without. I'm definitely going to go back at some point to pick up some more things, find gifts for people. My mom went a little crazy buying things, which made me very happy. We both love a deal. After the rastro was another nap, which none of us really took. I stood out on the balcony of my parent's room and watched the people in the Puerta del Sol. The hotel was really fantastic. It had an amazing view of the Puerta del Sol and as it was Carneval and just because it is the Puerta del Sol, there were mariachi bands playing and street performers out, including human statues. 


We headed, on the metro because we were all a little sick of walking and my body was killing me, to the Reina Sofia for the afternoon. We stopped to have lunch first, at Burger King (again disappointing, but there wasn't a good, available restaurant within sight, though I have since learned that we were not too far away from the Bohemian district and could have had some Indian food), and then headed to the Reina Sofia, which just so happened to be closed by the time we got there. I was a little disappointed because, with midterms and everything else going on that week, I wasn't going to have time to come back to Madrid to see the Reina Sofia before my family left. But, undeterred, we headed to the Prado, and considering that this would be my third visit to this museum (fourth in my lifetime), I was more than prepared to lead a guided tour. My mom was pretty excited to see so many of the paintings that she had studied in her History of Western Art Class and dad got bored and left to smoke a cigar in the sun. It was a pretty good visit overall. 


We were all pretty exhausted by this time and my brother wasn't feeling too well. After a quick stop at the Corte Ingles for some snacks (cheese and crackers), we headed back to the hotel to pass out in my parent's room. We all watched a movie dubbed in Spanish (I was so proud of them all) starring Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood, which I have since learned was called "Perfect World". I slept through the majority of it and I wasn't all that impressed, but everyone else (except my brother, who I think slept through all of it) seemed to really like it and expressed interest in seeing it in English. My brother went to bed while my parents and Isha and I went to an Italian place near the hotel to have some pizza. It definitely wasn't the best pizza I've ever had and it couldn't compare to Marco's Pizza, but it wasn't bad and hit the spot quite nicely. And, we finally learned how to ask for water without receiving bottles of water that you have to pay for.


After dinner, my parents helped me to find the bus station so I wouldn't have another night of aimless wandering in Madrid. I barely made it onto the midnight bus (seriously, it left in less than a minute after I had sat down) and I got back to my piso around 1am, where I commenced studying for the midterm I had the next day. Endlessly exhausted, I studied my heart out until Tuesday morning. My family had gone to Toledo on Monday while I was at school (I really wish I could have gone with them, spent more time with them) and the plan for Tuesday was to come see Alcalá. I met them at the train station around 10:30 or so and took them to see the big sights of Alcalá (nothing really amazing, I promise). We walked around the plaza for a bit, went to the house where Cervantes was born (though we didn't tour it, not really worth it), then to the church. Returning to the plaza, we still had a bit of time before we were going to meet my host mom, so I took them to buy almonds from the nuns that you aren't allowed to see, except for an eye apparently. We all munched happily on delicious sugar coated almonds (these things are amazing, I promise) and I took them to the Chinos by my house. My dad got a pair of sunglasses (he had broken his) and my mom bought some washcloths because they don't provide washcloths in Spain (Europe, I think). Then it was time to meet my host mom.


The meeting went extremely well. Much better than I had hoped. I was very worried about translating properly and expected that there would be many moments of absolute uncomfortable silence, but it wasn't bad at all. So much can be communicated with simple hand gestures and my host mom was just fantastic. Everyone was very relaxed. She put out food for us to eat and handed out beer and drinks. She forced my brother to have a second beer after he had finished his first, which made me so happy because then they could see how she forces me to eat all of the time. My host mom called me a "good girl" numerous times and we discussed me, Spain, the people, impressions. It was a fantastic meeting.


After the meeting, we decided to head back to Madrid, where the scene is a bit more lively. Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned. I had bought a bono-tren, which is a ten trip train ticket from Alcalá to Madrid or Madrid to Alcalá. I had used it once to get to Marid when my family came, left it with them to bring the four of them to Alcalá Tuesday morning, and then the five of us used it up on the way back to Madrid. Now, Alcalá is the only train station that I've encountered that doesn't require you to show your ticket upon leaving, so my brother, who had the ticket had no idea that he was supposed to keep it, and being that there were no more trips on the ten trip ticket, he threw it away. I didn't think to tell him to keep it. When we got to the train station and we all realized what happened, I thought, "no big deal, they'll just open the gate and let us out". As I went to find someone to open the gate for us, I passed a gate that was already open and thought that we could all pass through without problem. However, it closed behind me and I was stuck outside while my family (who all speak less Spanish than I do, were stuck inside). So I found a guy who told me that he couldn't open the gate and led me to another guy who apparently could. However, because we didn't have proof that we had only come from Alcalá and not from some place far far away, the man insisted that we pay the maximum fee to travel on the trains: 10 something euro a piece. I was very very angry to say the least. I had paid for the ticket. No one was cheating anyone and it was a simple mistake through miscommunication. Why should we have to pay 10 something euro a piece for a 2 euro 50 train ride? I was all ready to get back on the train and travel back to Alcalá for 45 minutes, buy a new 10 trip ticket for 17 euro, and come back, saving us all 20 some euro and having an extra 5 trips on top of it, but my parents wouldn't hear of it and they paid the money. It was all very ridiculous and I was very upset about the whole thing. I still am, kind of.


Well, after that debacle, we went to find an Irish Pub in order to eat our lunch. Unfortunately, or fortunately because it was all very interesting, that night was the night before the Real Madrid-Liverpool soccer game and those Europeans love their soccer. The Irish Pub was not serving food at that time because they were expecting a large crowd of drinkers that night. We decided to eat in the Plaza Mayor, outside, instead. The food wasn't too bad and it was a really nice experience. I was glad to have gotten to eat in the Plaza Mayor without having to pay the bill.


I headed back to Alcalá after that because I had three exams the next day and needed to get really serious about studying. I studied and studied and studied and dropped into bed completely exhausted, only to get right up and take exam after exam after exam. The school day finally ended and I rushed, bookbag and all, to the train station to get back to Madrid. I arrived around 7pm. My family had gone to the Reina Sofia that day and had split up. I hung out with my brother and Isha until my parents got back and then we went to find a masquerade mask for Isha, had a drink at a bar, and went to dinner at a place that I forget the name. I had some kind of pancake filled with something I forget, a word I didn't know, like corquette or something and it was absolutely terrible. Isha and my dad had ratatouille, which I had never tried before and decided that I kind of liked. Jimmy had some spinach-manacotti type dish and my mom had a salad. Overall, some people were happy and others weren't, but we ate everything and even had some dessert: the best vanilla ice cream  I think I've ever had with raspberry sauce. Amazing. We made our way to the plaza mayor for a drink, but we chose this place that must have been closing because it had the strongest lysol smell ever and it made my drink taste awful. 


We called it an early night because they had to leave in the morning and we paid the 38 euro again and I stayed at the hotel. In the morning, we got some breakfast from a small cafe by the hotel, packed everything up, and headed to the airport. I went in a taxi with my mom and dad while my brother and Isha took the metro. It was a sad leaving. I wished they could have stayed a bit longer, at least another day after I finished my exams, but they couldn't. I took the metro back to the train station and the train back to Alcalá and then I collapsed in bed. I was exhausted after such an emotionally charged week of exams and my parents and traveling and getting lost. I slept for a few hours until it was lunch time and then after lunch, I still felt tired, so I went back to bed. Next thing I knew, my host mom was knocking on my door telling me that it's dinner time. I was astounded. I had napped for 7 hours in one day! And I felt like I could still sleep!


Friday, I went running with my roommate. She destroyed me. She was like, "Let's jog really slowly" and then took off. I was dying. We managed to get lost in some back park near the river and it was a nice hike all of the way around the southern end of Alcalá. I think we walked for a good hour and a half. I'm sure getting a work out here. My brother said that he lost 3 pounds with all of the walking that he did. I haven't seen a scale since I left the states though I can't imagine that I lost any weight with all the food that I eat, especially right before bed. 


Saturday, I got up early with my roommate and we went to this place called El Pardo, where there is a palace where Franco used to live. My roommate wanted to go because her family name is Pardo. It didn't take long to get there and it was relatively inexpensive, less than 4 euro total. Unfortunately, the palace was closed for a state function, so we didn't get to tour it. We then walked 1 km uphill to the Pardo church. It was not as grand as most of the churches that I have seen here, but it was very solemn and felt much more "religious" than the tourist filled churches I've seen. 


We walked back down the hill only to learn that the mountain that we wanted to see was back up the hill, so we made the trek again, only farther and came to a nice park area. I think it might have been one of the national preserves. We found this little area that had a bunch of goats and I got to pet a few. Goats can be adorable. 


After walking around for a bit more (my legs are going to be amazing), we headed back to Madrid where we found an Indian food restaurant. I was horribly disappointed with how not spicy this food was. Indian food is supposed to "melt your face off" (according to Isha) and this was like rice pilaf. Barely even any flavor! So we asked the server if he had some spicy sauce and he brought out this stuff that was like a kick in the face. One drop of it was more than enough to keep me chugging water. It was amazing. It was the first intense spice I've had since I've been here. After Indian food, we headed to the Plaza de España. In this plaza are giant statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Carla and I took all kinds of pictures on them, but I forgot my camera, so they are all on here camera, which I'll need to borrow at some point. I ended up climbing up on Sancho's donkey and getting a picture. I can't wait to see it. How fantastic is that?!


Sunday was a very lazy day. I got up a little late, opened the door to my room, and found a bunch of men milling around the piso. Apparently, they were changing the windows on the back patio, but it was unnerving enough to keep me shut in my room all day. My host mom was very upset with me because I left the house so little this weekend. She says that I need to hang out with friends and spend time having fun like young people should do. She's convinced that my parents coming and going made me really homesick and now I'm shutting myself away, which isn't really true. I'm just very very tired. I still don't think I've recuperated from this last week. 


I might run again tomorrow. If I can. I plan on completely filling my time until it's time to leave. I have already planned a trip for every weekend, as follows: Toledo, Granada, Valencia, El Escorial/Salamanca, two weeks of Spring Break (Rome, Paris, London), Segovia, and some beach somewhere to study for finals (maybe Cadiz or Ibiza). And then I have a million final projects to finish before I can even begin to think about studying. 


Well, I seriously can't write anymore, though I do have more to say. I might write again when I'm procrastinating tomorrow. It will definitely happen (procrastinating, I mean).


Sorry about no pictures. I'll have to steal them from my mom and Isha and Jimmy when I get a chance. Someone remind me to ask my mom to upload them to my computer when she's feeling better. The flight killed her ear. Also, there is no way I'm going to check this for typos. It took absolutely forever to write.