Birthdays and Pot-Lucks

Being back in Madison has been really nice, but I'm itching to be on the move again. Sadly I don't think that's going to be possible for a very long time...a long time being until May 2013 when I graduate. That's right folks I'm going to be here another year. I am currently, secretly hoping to study abroad again next fall to help make the process more tolerable...but we shall see. This first semester back had a lot of ups and downs. The downs being all my classes made me miserable, the ups being that I had the best roommates ever. Recently we had a string of B-days: Ben's, Eduardo's, and Willa's. I baked some cakes and (attempted) some surprises. It was a lot of good fun. We also have gotten a reputation for being the "pot luck" party people, but what a good reputation to have!

The perfect storm

It's been a while that's I've been in the US. It's been pretty okay. Spent some time in Oshkosh. Spent some time boating with Meg. Spent some time in Chicago for Lollapalooza. Now I'm home again and ready to keep cleaning. I should put a picture of my room in the next post so you can see what's happened since returning. It's a disaster, but I'm getting there.

Lollapalooza was amazing this year. Kristin and I spent most the time in Perry's tent, which is mostly tecno music, but it was sooooo fun. I saw a lot more drugs this year than in the past, but it might just have been that there is always that much at Perry's. We were happily drug free, and danced ourselves into a high.

WWOOF

Ben and I went to Portugal to participate with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and work on a farm for 10 days. Well to put it shortly, we failed. We left the farm after 5 days. Let me explain. The truth is that, the farm didn't really have much for us to do. We mostly just weeded for about 4 hours a day maximum and spent the rest of the time bumming around. I know that sounds fabulous, but we were also staying there for free and eating for free. We felt like huge moochers. So we decided to go be bums on our own dollar (maybe a bad decision...but one that made me feel less like a dirt bag). In retrospect, I think we should have stayed at the farm longer, but we had already made the decision and committed, so we left.

The farm was really interesting though. It was three Germans, who had moved to Portugal to live on a farm. All the people/friends that came over to the house were Germans. It was like going to Germany and Portugal at the same time. Our hosts were probably some of the most bad-ass Germans out there. They all rolled their own cigarettes, listened to punk and heavy metal music, and were very chill. It was quite the experience. Ben and I had our own apartment adjacent to the main house. Ben got eaten alive at night, and by the time we left, he looked like a leper. He counted his bug bites on one hand and had 22. I think I had 2. He also had sun rash, and we both had sun burn. I think he definitely got the worst of it, but he handled it really well--only minor complaining! I would like to WWOOF again, but I'm sure if I do it in the US, I would actually be expected to pull my own weight.

Anyway Ben and I packed up and headed for the nearest city Aljezur, a beautiful beach town on the west coast. We stayed there for a night and then headed to Lagos for two nights and then to Faro for another three nights. We pretty much did the same thing everywhere. We went to the beach. We got weird sun burns. We ate sandwiches. We drank beer on terraces. It was pretty great. Very chill.

Barco de Ávila

Kristin and I went to the pueblo of our intercambio (language exchange partner) two weeks ago, which is in the charming mountainous, river town of Barco de Ávila two and a half hours by bus to the north west of Madrid. It was the perfect weekend getaway. We stayed with Isabel's family, who has two houses, so we had our own house just for the girls! It was an absolutely beautiful town. There is a river that runs through the province and with the mountains all around, the scenery was a very welcome change from the city. We were pampered Spanish family style, which means we were fed and cared for and not expected to do anything, no matter how hard we tried. Ben and I got back from Portugal yesterday, I will update you all on that later because I am leaving with krisitin to go to Ciudad Real in two hours to have some more quality Spanish family time aka doing nothing and eating!

You say you want a revolution?

Well life has been crazy these past few weeks. In classic Spanish style, I did minimal work all semester so that by the last month before finals I had/have no time to do anything. Not good student behavior. (sorry mom and dad). Everything is getting done, it's just a tid-bit stressful. I still have three finals left, and probably should be working on papers right now, but I'm taking a rest day....

Any way some interesting things have been going down. The San Isidro festival was a few weeks ago and there were free events all over Madrid. I went and saw fires on the river, a show for little kids (which I of course enjoyed too much), and a dancing event. It was really pleasant and fun.

We also had a 'graduation' ceremony for our program. Our 'diplomas' said they had no academic value. haha. It was a really fun event though. We got to socialize with the whole group and say goodbyes and such. It was really nice.

I don't know if you saw in the news, but Spanish elections were last weekend and the Spaniards are very disillusioned with their government so there were huge peaceful protests in the city center. We went and checked it out one day, and it was really cool. It was surprisingly well organized, it had food, water, tents, a medical tent. It was amazing, and the vibes were also amazing. Sadly the elections went on and had outcomes that were not surprising. We'll see if changes are made though.

Los Padres Part 2.

I think it's been about two weeks since the parents left, so probably about time to wrap up that trip. We were left with four more days. Three of travel and an early departure on the fourth day. On Monday we went to Salamanca. It turned out to be a very pleasant trip. Mostly because I could take less of the 'leader' role, since I knew just as much about Salamanca as my parents. It was fun to take a little trip and stay in a hostel though. Salamanca was another Spanish city, in the typical sense. It's mostly a university town, but is has a cathedral to visit, a Roman bridge, etc I really did enjoy the Cathedral (considering I've now seen about A MILLION). This one was good for two reasons. ONE: it had a dried up arm of a saint in it. TWO: they did renovations of the cathedral in the early 90s and they snuck in an astronaut to the facade. It was pretty entertaining to see that anachronism, and very worth the 15 min search we did looking at the wrong door. I have to say though that my favorite part of the trip might have been at night in the hostile sitting with my parents watching Boondock Saints dubbed in Spainish in the lobby with the volume turned down, and flipping through Spanish gossip magazines that were left for guests. It was great.

The last full day in Spain we went to el Escorial to see a giant compound made a very long time ago. I realize that is the worst, most unsatisfying explanation ever, but google it if you want to know more (what a bossy/lazy blogger I am!). I think by that point I was so tired my enthusiasm was just gone. I did enjoy it though. It had a lot of artwork and replicas of painting that are in el Prado, which was exciting that I recognized them. It made me feel cultured. The monastery (the big compound) is in a big park in the mountains. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the walk up to the monastery.

On our last night in Madrid we went to the great Alcampo to do some shopping and then went and smoked hooka at a hooka bar with Kristin. Dad didn't like it, but I think mom did. I do have photos, but I got the impression that it was unwanted that they get published to a public space. I will show them to you anytime you want though when you see me next :)

Mis padres están parte 1

Happy Easter! I hope you all didn't eat as much candy as I did! My mother brought some Easter candy from the states, and now I feel gross, but it was great! The rents have been here for a while now. We bummed two days in Madrid (well there was really very little 'bumming' going on) spent one day in Segovia, one in Toledo, today in Madrid, and we are going to Salamanca (the city not the barrio) tomorrow. We went to a bull fight today. It was horrible. I know that I should have been fully aware of what I was getting myself into, but I wasn't ready for it. We were too close, and it was too painful to watch, but watch I did. And of course, I documented it. Photographing it was actually easier, b/c it removed me from watching it in real life. You could see the bull getting crazier by the minute, blood shining on it's back. The way it works is that a man on a horse stabs it to get the blood flowing. Then a few matadors stab it with decorative daggers and then the matador shoves a sword all the way in it's back. After if staggers to the ground another matador comes and cuts it's spinal cord to make it more "humane" so the bull doesn't feel it (granted this is at the END). Also, it consisted of 6 fights/kills, so I got to watch various bulls being killed and then dragged off the stadium by three horses. We did leave before the last one though. I understand this is a necessary cultural experience in Spain, but it is an experience I have no desire to have again. I spent most of it crying. It really was that bad. Just looking at the bull, in it's confusion and stress and fear. It's really awful to watch in real life.