Me voy muy pronto!

Well, I didn't even have time to procrastinate, so this is coming quite a bit later. Just so you know, I finished my project in time to do my 40 min. presentation, but my professor very kindly and sweetly a.k.a. bluntly told me I could have back my very thin 10 page single-space paper so that I could add more. How much more????? I haven't the slightest idea, but more I will add. (just in case you had any doubts, it is of course in Spanish).

So the promised stories in short form, because I need to keep packing for Italy (Yes, I leave for Italy at 6am tomorrow!!!! but it is 9:30pm now and I don't expect to sleep...at all)

KP and I were heading out to an Erasmus potluck a few weeks ago, when suddenly I found myself screaming and wet. I don't know if you know this, but Spaniards like to throw DIRTY water from their THIRD/FOURTH/FIFTH/ETC windows, apparently without seeing if anyone is in the street. I then spent the rest of the evening waiting until I could go home and shower. Also, we missed the potluck part of the party and I spent the whole evening carrying around a loaf of corn bread. I got looks, and comments. It was special.

Here is another fun story. Laura (no I have not started talking in the 3rd person, roommate Laura) had her friends, who have small children, over to make Christmas cookies. I was still working diligently on my presentation and was therefore shut in my room. I decided to go for a run, so I did something I had never done before. I attempted to lock my room door. I did this because I could hear the small children screaming and running around and thought that I would rather not have them burst in on me whilst I was naked. So, five min. later, ready to go for a run I found that the lock would not budge. I tried to jimmy it open for another five minutes, when Laura came to my door to introduce me to her friends. Well, clearly she discovered the door was locked and unable to be opened. The next series of events that ensued were very...filled with excitement. After a brief attempt to break the door handle off, Laura's friend started ramming the door with his body. Like in the movies. He yelled "cuidado" (careful) and I huddled in the corner of my room to avoid being impaled by a door, a man, and/or flying wood chips. When the door finally opened there I was in the corner, probably looking distressed, and he said "encantado" (pleased to meet you). The little girls came running into my room and were crawling on everything, while their parents coerced them to speak with me in English. I went to the bathroom and while in the bathroom, I hear the little girls saying they want a picture with 'the other Laura', I finish peeing, get my picture taken, and go for a run. I now have a green blanket taped to the top of my door frame as a door.

I've included pictures of Madrid with it's Christmas decorations.

Also I went to Bishopsteighnton for Christmas. It was the best Christmas I could have hoped for in lieu of going home! It was fantastic to see family I hadn't seen for a very long time, and I even got some presents to my surprise. I felt very blessed to be there! Pics included. The rocky stuff is Dartmoor, and the little person on the big rock is Robin.

This is a long winded one, hope it isn't too boring!

No hay puente en cataluña este finde, no hay puente

The usual crew and I went to Barcelona a weekend ago. It was great! Barcelona really is a gem. I loved being on the water, and chilling on the beach. As usual, we took it pretty easy. I don't think we are the best tourists. As in, we don't try to pack in as much as we can, and see everything. We just sort of chill and meander. Which I really like. The exciting thing about this trip was that we didn't have a private room in the hostel. It was a mixed dorm of 8. KP found this irritating at times, which is understandable, but it was ok. I do prefer private rooms. The breakfast was BA though. Fresh fruit!

So instead of bore you all to death, I will just upload photos and you can see everything we saw, with the Gaudi architecture highly featured. Notice the difference between the front and back of the Sagrada Familia, one side that Gaudi was alive for and the other side done by architectures after his death. A delicious market, that also is apparently well know for prostitution (we found this out after returning to Madrid). Park Guell, Ben & KP being cute, the olympic park at night, and, because I know you all miss me so much, my beautiful face!

Ok, I miss you all too, and wish I could see your beautiful faces!

Next installment (which will probably be soon because I have a lot of procrastinating to do this week) you can look forward to stories of:

An unexpected shower, a broken door, & a city ready for Christmas.

Cordoba, a WIP family vacation

The whole WIP group (almost) went to Cordoba together last weekend. It was actually a lot of fun being with the whole group again.

Cordoba is known for the Mesquita, which means mosque, also which is now actually a Catholic church. The Catholics a couple hundred years ago after the reconquest of Spain decided to put their church right smack dab in the middle of the mosque. It's a huge place and the church portion took up about a fifth of it. It is an interesting mix, but it is a stunning place.

We also went to Arab ruins outside the city. It was my favorite part. We were outside in the fresh, fresh air that I miss so much when I'm in Madrid. I was so happy, it was green lush and beautiful! (the ruins were cool too)

Portugal: Lisboa/Sintra

Portugal was quite the experience! I don't even know how to start. I guess I will start from the beginning...because that's a very good place to start.

The trip started with -The Bus Ride From Hell-. A night bus, which is already bad, but on top of that two stale beer, B.O., piss smelling drunk men sat behind us. They were emitting the sort of smell that keeps you awake. When we did manage to fall asleep, one of the men reached around Kristin's seat and grabbed her arm, she punched me in the arm to wake me up, and we didn't really sleep after that.

We were also Couch Surfing for the first time in Lisbon. When we got to our couch surfing host's home after waiting for the metro to open, we just wanted to sleep. He had a full house of Couch Surfers already so we were forced to go out and about in the city. It was a day of drowsy tourism. To put it simply-we were unhappy, tired, and didn't speak a lick of Portuguese. We had thankfully asked Ilmer (our couch surfing host) for a few words, so we felt a little better. There is something horrible about being the ignorant American tourist-which we definitely were being.

So did we end up hating Lisbon--->NO

What saved it?

ILMER!

Seriously, without couch surfing I don't think we would have liked Lisbon as much as we ended up liking it. That first night we went to a Couch Surfing dinner and met lots of great people. The next day he took us to a traditional Portuguese music performance: Fado, and after we were invited to a friends house for dinner. He cooked us two traditional Portuguese meals, and pointed us to all the right pastry shops!

We also took a day trip to Sintra. There is a castle there that the Disney castle is supposedly based off of. It was a really cool castle. It felt much more cozy than any other castle I have been in. Sintra was like a fairy tale land. It was rainy and foggy the day we were there, but the fog gave it an enchanted, magical feel. It was beautiful.

Some things I learned from this trip:

1. Do some research before showing up in a city (ok so I guess I knew that before I left, but hopefully I will actually do it now)
2. DO NOT TAKE A NIGHT BUS!
3. know some key phrases in the native language of the country you are going to before you leave

singing in the rain

Spain seems to be the land of puentes! (for you non-spanish speakers a puente is a holiday). Last weekend we had a puente on Monday and didn't have classes. This week there is one on Tuesday so we don't have class on Tuesday OR on Monday. Last weekend I went to San Sebastian as I am sure I have already mentioned. I FELL IN LOVE! As you can see in the pictures it is a beautiful beach town. It felt fresh, and made me never want to leave. We also went to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim. It was one of the neatest museums I have been to. You can see we went on Halloween-- we are rocking the lumberjack look in front of the museum.

I can't wait to travel to more cities on the water! Luckily I am going to Lisbon this weekend, so I will get to again!!!!!!!

I am going to be couch surfing in Lisbon. I am REALLY excited. I think it is going to be a great experience and I will start to get a feel for what it's all about. Good-golly Spain is great isn't it?

Ok it really is, but here are some things about Spain that may be...not so great or at the very least interesting. There are LOTS of dogs here in Madrid. One thing all dogs have in common is.... THEY POOP. One thing all dog owners don't have in common is that....THEY DON'T PICK UP THEIR DOG'S POOP! Seriously there is dog poop everywhere. You always have to keep an eye to the ground to ensure you don't get a foot full.

Also Madrid is a city of dumpster divers. No joke. Almost every garbage I walk by, there will be someone looking in it, opening it to look in it, taking things out, or closing it. These are not homeless people or hippies. It's everyone! Maybe Spaniards are very serious about the "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle"...

Time here is moving extremely quickly. I have already been here 9 weeks! I think it will be June before I know it!

Poco a Poco

I am finally well! No more illness for a long time I hope. I am still tired, but that is because it's hard to sleep as much as I would like and do everything I want to do. I'm sure I'll catch up on sleep sometime this week. I better because I am going to San Sebastian this weekend in país vasco, which is the northern part of Spain. I am really excited. We (ben, kristin/KP, and kristen) are going. I am bringing a beard along so that I can dress up for Halloween as a lumberjack! YEAH!

I am taking a course this week on how to teach English as a second language because I have started teaching English as a second language, and I HATE IT! I have no idea what I'm doing, one of the kids is a little...poopy-head, and I didn't realize 45min could feel like a lifetime. BUT I am making bank. Six and a half hours of work=100 euros baby!

Going to el Prado today. FINALLY!

Aullidos

Hola guapos! So I have done a lot since the last time I wrote. For starters we had an extended two weekends ago, so we went to the parade that was going on. It was mostly military and we couldn't see anything. The most exciting part was the end when government officials started driving past in their cars to wave. At first I though the crowd was excited and happy, then I saw people whipping the bird to the cars as they went by. They were excited--not happy. It was like a well controlled riot. People just wanted to express their opinions and they sure did!

This past weekend I went to a play that my theater professor recommended "aullidos". It was a show done with life size puppets that were very realistic. It was weird and AWESOME!

Ben and I also took a day trip to Arajuez on Saturday, a city just outside Madrid that has a palace and gardens. It used to be a royal get away. I couldn't take pictures inside, which is a shame because there was a porcelain room that was really impressive. The walls were covered with porcelain figurines and decoration. There was also a BA smoking room in an arab styling.

I included a pic of the fly-by during the parade, and some in arajuez.

Peanut Butter

Ladies and gentlemen we have natural peanut butter!!!! Ben, Paula, and I went shopping today. We went to a mall in the northern part of the city and found the Spanish Walmart >>> Alcampo. It has everything! Including the much desired and quite rare natural peanut butter. I also got two sweaters for a good price so I can stop freezing my butt off. Overall it was a great day!

We also had a culture shop workshop today, which I was dreading as another program time-waster. It actually turned out to be really interesting and the woman who spoke to us was very dynamic. I don't think I am suffering from culture shock yet, but a few more days without peanut butter and I'm sure I would have been done for!

Yesterday I did the faux pas of having guests over to the piso, but it was worth it. We (Paula, Ben, Kristin, and I) did an American dinner of hamburgers and diet coke. I love hosting things, it's too bad Spaniards don't.

No pics today. lo siento hombres.

Do it like a mom!

This past weekend was my first "backpacking" trip in Europe main. Ben, Kristin, and I went to Granada. It was absolutely amazing! We had a final before leaving, and almost missed the bus. Ben booked a hostel right across from the Alhambra which meant we had to walk up a huge mountain (maybe an exaggeration) at least twice a day. It was worth it! Our room was small, but we had our own toilet and shower. There was also a solarium on the roof and a pool (that was WAY to cold to swim in).

The only 'attraction' we planned on seeing was the Alhambra. It was astounding, built in the 8th century after the Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula it is an architectural work of art. Beside the Alhambra, we really just enjoyed walking around the city and seeing a different part of Spain. There is a lot more Arabic influence in Granada, which I really enjoyed. I even spoke a tiny bit of Arabic, which was fun.

The pictures are from around Granada. Kristin in the Alhambra garden, some cool graffiti, inside the Alhambra, and MARLA BROWN!

Marla Brown came to town

I had a lovely weekend with my good friend Marla Brown, who came to visit from Granada! I am planning on returning the favor, and visiting her this weekend. I have a lot of photos for you all today of me standing in front of monuments. How intriguing they are! It's me in front of an arch, me in the Campo del Moro, me in a boat! Marla and I rented a boat in the Retiro park. There is a little lake and we rowed around for half an hour. Not to sound too conceited but I was pretty much the best rower out there!! No doubt. We also got a few picture of us pig riding--not the same as riding the pigs at Bridget's farm, but I still reminisced.

It was a really good weekend.