Oh how time has flown....

Well we´re down to the last few weeks in Madrid. I really can´t believe how quickly time has gone by. As we´re starting to reminisce about how amazing these past 4 months have been it was only appropriate that we were visited by 2 former study abroad students. Two weeks ago Heather rubia (blonde), and Heather morena (brunette) came to Madrid. They were former USC students who had stayed in our house 20 years ago! 1992!! They still keep in touch with my family and they came back to do the Madrid marathon and 10k. We met Heather la morena when she came over to visit Lidia and Alberto. Lidia had told us all about her and talked so highly of her, and she lived up to all of it. She was one of the nicest people I´ve met, but also fun, down to earth, and entertaining. Since I was going to run the 10k as well I told her that we could all go to Casa de Campo together the next day to pick up our race packets. The next day when we went to go pick up our stuff we met Heather rubia and her friend Kathi who had come with her. Heather rubia was crazy just as everyone had told us.... she was full of energy and always talking, I guess just like she was when she lived here! We ended up spending most of the day with them sharing stories of our times studying abroad. Even though it was 20 years ago we had many similar stories but it was also really interesting to see how things had changed. That afternoon we brought the Heathers back to our house to see the rest of the family. The whole family was there to see them! Lidia, Alberto, our host brothers Cristian and Francisco, and Francisco´s wife, Sonya, and son, Albertito. They were so happy to see the Heathers. It´s funny to think that when the Heather´s were here the boys were all teenagers and Crisitan was only 10! So for them the Heathers were like older sisters when they lived here. They had a totally different living experience than us.

our brothers, Cristian and Francisco, and yes usually when we´re with them we´re cracking up laughing

That night Madrid played Barcelona so we went over to Cristians apartment to watch the game. Even though they are older than us they always try to include us in their plans and their friends are always try to make us feel included. It´s fun going over there because we are forced to speak Spanish (even though I found out most of the speak excellent English!!)

Sunday morning was the marathon and 10k. Heather rubia, her friend Kathi, and I were all running the 10k while Heather morena was running the full marathon. The weather was perfect and the course was really nice. I´ve decided I would like to come back and run the full marathon sometime because the course takes you all over the city and through all the major sites. But I guess the 10k was good enough this year :)

running around Real Madrid stadium

Cibeles at the start

one of the better race bags i´ve gotten! i sweet shirt and a coffee mug!

After the race we met up with the Heathers again and went out for dinner and churros!! Alexis and I loved spending the weekend with them and talking with them. They are all extremely successful and independent women and it was awesome to get to spend a weekend with them.

Heather rubia, Kathi, Alexis, me, and Heather morena celebrating after the marathon

I have less than 2 weeks left in Madrid and I really can´t even tell you where the time has gone. My friends and I are desperately trying to fit in everything that we´ve wanted to do but have put off one time or another while still trying to finish final papers and ¨study¨ for finals. We´re going to museums, parks, exhibitions, everything.Last night I went to an Atletico game, today we´re going to a few museums, and this weekend I´m going to the Tennis ATP open in Madrid. We are trying to make the most of our last week here, spending as much time with the people we´ve become such good friends with.  We´re all sad to leave but a little happy to come home. But at least for now we´re going to make this last week together count.

Vamanos a Portugal!

The week after we came back from spring break our program went on a trip to Lisbon, Portugal. We left Thursday morning and made our way to Extramadura, a region in the west of Spain. We stopped at Trucillo for lunch and then at Marvao to see a castle that resided on the border of Spain and Portugal and to spend the night.

Friday morning we made our way into Portugal and stopped at Sintra, a town an hour outside of Portugal. We did a walking tour of the city before we made our way to Lisbon. Friday night in Lisbon we were free to do as we pleased but it was pouring so we didn't get to explore much of the city.

Sintra, Portugal

Saturday morning we had a tour of the city where we walked the old city and drove to Belem. In Belem we visited a monastery which held the body of Vasco de Gama! Belem is also known for its pastries and the pastry shop, Pasteis de Belem. The pastries are like little cheesecake things in a pastry dish. Its very hard to explain but they are famous for it. I talked to the security guard in there and he told me that they made over 9 million a year! They also have a shop in Queens.

nom, nom, pastries!

paino!!

Saturday afternoon we had free to do as we want and while a lot of people went back to the hotel to take a nap, my friend Rachel and I ventured across the city to the modern part of the city and took a cable car ride along the river. There was also a park that had giant outdoor musical instruments that we had fun playing with while it was pouring out. Unfortunately the whole weekend the weather kind of sucked with all the rain and wind, but we tried to make the best of it.

SUNY Albany Spring 2012

Food Blackout.... I left my heart in San Sebastian

So after our trip to Finland we came back to Madrid for a day before we were off again. This time we were off to Pais Vasco (north of Spain) and San Sebastian with our friend Rachel. We had three days in San Sebastian and might I say this may have been my favorite 3 days of all.


We arrived in San Sebastian late Thursday afternoon and found our quaint little hostel. The weather was kinda bad (rainy and cool) so we figured we would just walk around a little instead of going to the beach. We walked up this mountain where there was a giant Jesus figure (like the one in Brazil). I guess we found Jesus hahaha :) After that we went back to the hostel where we met these 3 boys from the UK, a boy from Florida, and 2 Turkish girls and decided to all get dinner together. San Sebastian is famous for their pintxos. These are small plates (more elaborate than the usual Spanish tapa) that you order at a bar and eat standing up. Luckily for us, the kid from Florida was actually living in San Sebastian and working as a chef so he knew exactly where to take us and what to order. That night we only made it to one bar but we ate plenty there with Sean telling us how each one was made. I'll put up pictures in a moment.

The next day we walked through the city and el paseo de la playa. San Sebastian has 3 beaches right in a row. A popular thing to do is to walk along the beaches from one end to another. At one end they have huge iron structures jutting out into the water which are pretty awesome. They also have a cable car which takes you up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. The weather still sucked that day but we really didn't care at that point because we just absolutely loved the city. The city has a French influence in the architecture and is completely unique in Spain. Just everything about the city was gorgeous. I couldn't get enough of it. I really think it's one of Europe's secret treasures.

 in <3 with San Sebastian

That night we had pintxos again. As well as Saturday. Actually all we did Saturday was walk around and eat. We couldn't get enough of the pintxos. I think that was some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life and I barely spent 20euros a day! I would go back here in a heartbeat especially once the weather gets nicer.


and now for only a sampling of what we ate:
on the left is squid fried in it's own ink and battered
the middle is a kobe burger on a ketchup infused bun (i ate 4 of these in 3 days, they were incredible)
on the far right is rabbit
and the dessert is some caramel chocolate and licorice thing (i don't remember really)

other stuff we had was pig's ear, cow cheek, goat cheese and plum sauce, duck, chicken's hearts, risotto, cod, and more that I can't even remember, we ate so much (food blackout). It was all incredible.

Spring Break and Snow?!

Oh yes it's been a while, I know. My apologizes.

Last time I wrote I was in Helsinki and just leaving for Tallin. Well our trip to Tallin was a success (except me forgetting my camera and Alexis forgetting her camera charger- luckily Rik came fully prepared!). The old medieval town is so cute and for us was really interesting because it's so different that southern Europe which we're used to. We ate some interesting Russian food as well, pickles and honey! It was good! 

We were back in Helsinki for a couple more days. We spent most of the weekend walking around getting to know the city and eating. Eating food we cooked, that Laura cooked, that we bought, we really didn't care. That was the first time we had a kitchen readily available to us and we were really excited. We brought kraft mac and cheese from Madrid and made it there! 

Sunday we went to Porvoo, which is a town outside of Helsinki. Because it was Sunday a lot of stuff was closed but it was still nice to walk around and do a little shopping. On Monday we went to an outdoor museum where they had recreated an old Finnish village. No one was really there because it had just started to snow and the museum is pretty dead in off seasons. But it was still fun to walk around and play in the snow! I made a snow angel and Alexis decided to clean the trees of snow, for some odd reason. 

With the snow the village looked really picturesque. It actually was a perfect time to visit because it was really pretty in the snow.

Even though the weather wasn't the greatest we had a great time in Helsinki. Rik and Laura were amazing hosts and great cooks! We really couldn't have asked for me. It may have been an odd spring break but definitely worth it!

Update

So I don't know how many of you noticed (i know aunt Kathy did) but yesterday was la huegla general in Spain, or general strike, where the whole country was supposed to go on strike. This is not the best situation to be on when you're an American student studying in a country that's going on strike but luckily we are all traveling and out of Madrid. So no worries. But we have been reading the papers and watching the news and it looked like yesterday everyone started a protest in la Sol but according to our friends fom Madrid it wasn't as bad as last year and it wasn't really a big deal. So there, nothing to worry about. Besides that I'm in Helsinki right now and we just got back from Tallinn today. Northern/eastern Europe is very different from the Europe we've been traveling around but it's very interesting. We have plenty more to explore too. To get here we took Lufthansa airlines. At first we had some issues with that because we happened to fly on the German strike day and as Lufthansa is a German airline there were a lot of cancellations and delays. So after we couldn't get a hold of anyone Monday night and had a stressful night back and forth on the phone we finally got a new flight Tuesday morning. Trying to do all that becomes much harder when you don't have a reliable phone and you're constantly getting recordings in Spanish. But alas we were off and can I say the Germans really outdo themselves with their airlines and airports. On the flight we got free food, an entire meal! And free drinks ( free food on both flights!) and in the airport they had free coffee! Just overall it was an amazing flying experience. On our flight from Munich to Helsinki we sat next to this girl about our age. Towards the end of the flight Alexis asked her about her bag and they started talking. She said she was from Madrid and was going to visit her brother who is studying in Helsinki. When we told her we are from new York she immediately said I love new york! Me, assuming she meant new York city like everyone else, kind of drifted from the conversation because I didn't really care, but then she said "yeah I studied in buffalo last summer I loved it!" that got my attention really fast. Turns out she studied at canisius college! This isn't the first time wwe've run into someone who has connections to home or knows someone we know. As far away as we are from home I feel like we're constantly meeting people who know people we know or are from the town over or some weird connection everywhere we go. Turns out its just a small world after all.

Holidays!

Hello!

I just thought I'd write a short little post because I probably won't be able to write anything again until Easter. We have our spring/Easter break this week and next week, yes that is a full TWO weeks!! plus if you count Thursday- Sunday of the previous week its 18 days of no class. This is the time we are all traveling a ton. My friends are going to Rome, Greece, Budapest, Switzerland, Prague, France, I don't even know. We all seem to be crossing Europe over the next three weeks each on our own adventure. My roommate and I will be going to Helsinki, Tallin, and San Sebastian. Really random, I know. We will be visiting my uncle in Helsinki, Finland for a week where we'll take a ferry to Tallin, Estonia for 2 days (I know, who goes there? totally awesome!). When we get back we are going to Pais Vasco, which is in the north of Spain, to San Sebastian where we have a hostel right on the beach. A nice, relaxing vacation.

For the past couple days we've just been chilling in Madrid as everyone starts to leave on their vacations. Actually right now there are only 4 of us left in Madrid, and after tomorrow only 3. I'm taking this time to go back and do some of the touristy things again, like go to the Prado and walk through the city. We've also been spending a lot of time at the park because it's been soooo nice finally. Even though it's been so warm Spain is a funny country. People don't wear shorts, and they like to wear their winter jackets when its 70F outside. I'm definitely getting used to all the stares I get when I walk outside in shorts and a tshirt from Spaniards who probably think I'm crazy (but really they are and they are going to overheat and pass out, so ha). Never ceases to entertain me.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and I will update you all about my fabulous break when we return. Besos!!

¿Por qué no, Dúblin?

Top o the mornin´ to ya! As you may guess this weekend I went to grand ole Ireland. Part of the reason I went was obviously for St. Patrbrick´s day but I also got to visit my friend Callan from UB, who´s studying in Dublin (free place to stay, yay!)

My roommate Alexis and I arrived in Dublin early Thursday afternoon. We were met at the bus stop by Callan and our other friend Katie who was visiting Callan on her spring in the states. After dropping our stuff off we immediately set off to the Guiness factory. The Guiness factory was really interesting and you get a free pint with each ticket! What a great way to start our trip off in Ireland!

Friday Callan and Katie went on a trip so it was just me and Alexis left to explore Dublin. We started the morning off with an American breakfast. This may have been the most exciting part of my day because I got to have waffles!!! You need to understand that in Spain all we have for breakfast is cafe and toast. That´s it. So when I had waffles I was in heaven. The rest of the afternoon we spent walking around the city of Dublin. Dublin is such a small city that I knew my way around by the first day. (As a side note, if I get anything out of this trip it´s that I am an all star navigator and can basically get you anywhere with a map and my superb internal sense of direction, just sayin).

Saturday was the day, St. Patrick´s day!! We got up early (well early for us Madrid people who never see the sun before 10am) and decked ourselves out in our St. Patrick´s day apparel and set off for the parade. We got there around 10:45am and it was packed even though it didn´t start until 10:30. We walked around until we found a decent spot behind some old people who happened to be really short/ leprechauns so we could see over them. I managed to weasel my way towards the front however by the start of the parade which was awesome because I actually knew people in the parade! What a random coincidence that my cousin´s dance team from Texas and my friend in the Notre Dame marching band were both in the parade the year I went to Dublin for St. Patrick´s day. Even though I didn´t get a chance to catch up with them it was really exciting to see them in the parade! The theme of the parade was science. It was kind of odd, actually really odd. Callan and I both agreed that we think the Buffalo parade is more ¨Irish themed¨ but this parade was still awesome, the costumes and floats were incredible.

Sunday Alexis and I went on a New Europe free walking tour. Now if anyone is traveling abroad I highly recommend these tours. I went on them in Sevilla and Granada as well. They are free walking tours, usually promoted by the hostels, that usually last about 2 or 3 hours and take you all over the city.

For me the best part of the trip was Monday when we went out of the city to Kilkenny and Glenalough in the Wicklow Mountains. Seriously everything in Ireland is GREEN!! It´s just like you imagined, and there´s cows and sheep grazing in the fields! We loved every minute outside of the city and wished we had done more but overall our trip to Ireland was grand! And I would love to go back.

Feliz Cumple a Mi!

So this weekend my friend David and I had set our on a goal to find small Spanish bars that play live music. Luckily I have an awesome host brother who knows a ton of them. Thursday night we went to this place called Honky Tonk. Yes, Honky Tonk. We were confused too, especially when that night a cover band of the Beatles was playing. They were actually pretty good and we think we were the only Americans there (which we often like to be). Friday we hit up another bar called Barco where a Spanish rock band was playing called Ginko Balboa. I'm not sure if they were local but everyone seemed to know the band. Obviously it was all in Spanish so we really didn't understand the music but we had a really great time. We are hoping to find a couple more spots with live music before the end of the semester.

On Saturday a couple of us decided to go into the mountains north of the city for a little leisurely hiking. it was more nature walk than hike but it was fun to get out of the city for a day.

And then on Monday it was my 21st birthday!!! My host mom made a huge lunch for me! If you can see in the right corner that is avocado, chicken, a little bit of mayo, and cilantro. YUM!

Then of course because it was my birthday class was canceled so we went for a nice walk in Retiro because it was about 70F and the flowers are starting to bloom!

 And then ended the night at "Mi Ciudad" a super cheap, but super good taco place!!

Best friends on my birthday! Thanks guys!

And now we're off to London tomorrow to go visit the sassy Callan Jackson and celebrate St. Patricks day!!! Vamanos a Dublin!

Friends, Fun, and Sun

The first thing I would like to say is that it has reached 70F here!!! I am so excited!

So this past week has been pretty chill. The only really crazy thing that happened was last weekend a famous Italian house dj duo came to one of the clubs in Madrid. Now usually house music and dubsteps not my thing, but all my friends were going and it was just a great time. There dj's were Crookers, Kill the Hipsters, and Mixtape (if anyone has any idea who they are) and I really enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. There were 10 of us that went and we had a great time. They literally spun until Sunday morning, meaning we ended up sleeping all Sunday afternoon. Oops!! But that's the Spanish thing!

The rest of the week was pretty chill. We had exams at the beginning of the week but luckily they were pretty easy. Last night we went to this chill bar that my host brother told me about. My friend and I were just looking for a bar that had live music and when I went to go google some options I came up with one and looked who was playing that night only to see that it was a cover band of the Beatles. So obviously we went there. They were actually pretty good, and it was a small place not really on the map or known by everyone.

Because it's been so warm we've all been spending as much time as we can in Retiro just laying out. The one thing I am so grateful about being here is that I actually have the time to just relax in the park. We'll go there for 2 or 3 hours and just sit and read, nap, listen to music, whatever. And even better, I'm walking everywhere now. We live the farthest out of everyone from most stuff so even to the park its about 40 min walk, but because it's so nice I don't care. I love how I for once have time just to chill and take the time to not worry about doing a million things.

Procrastination at its best....

So i decided I'd write another post instead of studying for my midterms, procrastination at it's best. And yes I have midterms, I actually do a little work here and go to school. I know, I was surprised too. Anyways I have midterms on Monday so basically I'll study a little everyday until then. (yes that's really all I need to do here, this is not UB).

This week I think has been the turning point for weather in Madrid. What a lot of people here say is that they have 2 weeks of spring, then summer. This may be the 2 weeks of spring. Its about 60F here and I'm loving it. Dresses and tights everyday. Actually I've been wearing a lot of tights and shorts, I know that's weird but it's the European thing to do. I thought I'd try it and blend in with the natives, and it's surprisingly comfortable. I just want to know if its going to become popular in the US.

Anyways, since it's been so nice I've been running outside a lot. Tuesday I ran all the way to Retiro (the "central park" of Madrid). It's about 20minutes away from my apartment straight down a huge street in the city. People looked at me funny because like I said before no one runs on the street here but I just embraced it. I wasn't going to take the metro to go run.

Today, my friend and I found another park thats fairly large but a lot closer to our houses. For some reason we decided to kill ourselves with a workout today when we came across and empty futbol (soccer) field. We may have been slightly crazy when we decided to run up and down the bleachers and do line sprints and an ab workout. Not really sure what made us do that but a siesta for sure is in order after this.

Even though we have midterms next week, one of the biggest weekends will be this weekend for us. That's because this Italian DJ duo is coming to Madrid and DJing in one of the clubs here. I have no idea who it is, but everyone in my program is going so it's going to be a great time!

And my birthday is coming up soon!! soo festivities all around!

Well maybe now I should crack open a book.... or take a siesta.

Homeless, Vale Vale.

This past weekend 5 of my friends and I went on a whirlwind adventure through Andalucia, Spain. Andalucia is in southern Spain and is known for its warm weather, flamenco, muslim influence, and paella. There's 3 main cities: Córdoba, Sevilla (or Seville in English), and Granada. We had 4 days.
Our story starts last Wednesday evening after art class. At 11pm I left to go meet my friends Amanda and Maureen who live about 10 minutes away. I met them at the metro and proceeded on to the bus station. At the bus station we met our friends, Eva, Liz, and David. Poor David was the only boy on this trip with 5 girls. Our first bus was to Córdoba and left Madrid at 1am. It was about a 5 1/2hr drive. I´ve learned that I can basically sleep anywhere, so I didn´t have much of a problem because I basically slept the whole way, but some other people did. We got to Córdoba at 6am. When we were packing we had all seen that the weather had been really nice, about 60F, so we all left our winter jackets back in Madrid and packed pretty light. Well that was a big mistake. Getting in at 6am, nothing was open and it was freezing. Also, no public transportation was running. Basically we were homeless, there was literally nothing we could do except sit in the bus station for an hour until a cafe opened up.

My friends, Liz and Amanda being homeless

Once things began to open up, we were able to get around the city. Córdoba is small enough that you really only need a day to go to. The only big thing you really have to see is La Mezquita. La Mezquita is a cathedral that was converted from a mosque, so it has the architecture of a mosque but the religious relics of a Christian church. Kinda odd.

After we had the best pizza I´ve had in Spain so far for lunch, we got onto the bus to head to Sevilla.

When we arrived in Sevilla we went straight to the hostel. As this was all of our first hostel experience we weren´t sure what to expect, but it was great! They even had free sangria and tapas!

Friday morning we got up bright and early to rent bikes and explore the city.

 That afternoon we meet up with David at the cathedral. This is the view from the bell tower.

After a quick but enormous lunch, we went on a tour sponsored by the hostel which took us through the city teaching us about the history. It was all very interesting because Sevilla was a battleground for years between the Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

That night we meet some people at the hostel who were also on the tour. Hostels are interesting because at least for us, all of a sudden you´re surrounded by English speakers. We met a guy from Austrailia and a guy from Florida. The Australian was very interesting. He was just traveling around Spain by himself visiting some friends along the way. He will be in Madrid this weekend so we will probably meet up to show him around.

Saturday morning we got up really early to go to the Alcázar gardens. We only had an hour to spend here and we all wish we could have spent more. But unfortunately, the bus to Granada awaited.

We were only able to spend Saturday night in Granada but in that night we went to la Alhambra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra) and a flamenco show. We opted to go to la Alhambra at night because it was just the most convenient and because we heard it was very nice then. The pictures unfortunately didnt turn out well but the personal experience was so worth it. The architecture of the palace is absolutely stunning.

Sunday we went on a hostel sponsored tour of Granada and went shopping a little. Because Granada is so far south and it was a previous Arabic city, there is a large Arabic/Persian influence in the city, so there were many cute stores and food shops.

Unfortunately the weekend had to end and we were back on the bus to Madrid. When I decided I was going to study abroad in Spain I had an option for programs in both Sevilla and Granada. Maybe its because we only spent 4 days there but I´m so happy with my choice of Madrid. I loved Andalucia but Madrid is the place for me :)

2 jobs, now 0

So maybe the 2nd week of classes I heard about a job babysitting a 5yr old girl in English. The mother had come to my school looking for a female American student to babysit/teach English. I immediately took this opportunity and got a hold of her and ended up meeting her a few days later. The couple was a nice couple who lived on the outside of the city. She was a doctor and worked in Toledo. They had 2 kids, Julia, 5 and Jorge, 1. They wanted me to spend 2hrs twice a week babysitting Julia only in English. Julia was learning English in school, but at this age she really didn't know much. I really enjoyed going there because sometimes I'd go to the market with her mother and go shopping with them. It was a way to experience Spanish family other than mine. The mother also spoke pretty good English, so she'd often use me to practice her English. Julia on the other hand did not know much English at all, she was only taught by learning American songs, so trying to babysit in English was difficult and I ended up using a lot of Spanish. After 2 weeks, her parents thought it really wasn't worth it because she really didn't know enough and let me go. So there went job #1.

Job #2 was with another family way way south of the city. Their daughter, Sandra, was 12 and she was basically fluent in English, French, and Spanish (the US seriously needs to work on their language educations, so many kids here know 2 languages). They hired me to come over and talk with her once a week to practice conversation and help her with any homework. The family was really great and neither parent spoke English so I got to practice my Spanish as well. But after a week they told me that she was in something else (I really have no idea because they told me in Spanish and I had no idea what they said really). Anyways they didn't need me. So there goes job #2. So now I'm still looking for work, so who knows.

Last night, my friend and I went to Future Islands concert here in Madrid. It was awesome. Its entertaining to watch and listen to Spanish people at a concert where they sing in English. They really have no idea what they are listening too.

Speaking of music, the past couple nights I've been hanging out with my host brothers and just playing music and trading music. We all pretty much have the same taste in music and its fun to share with them bands that are popular in the US that I know and bands they know in Spain. Basically they are "Paul in Spain." They pretty much convinced me to try to make it to Primavera Sound in Barcelona the day before I leave. 

Nothing planned for this weekend, except trying to drag my butt out of bed to make it to el Rastro, the giant flea market, on Sunday. I've been here for a month and still haven't been there :(

But I did just book a trip to Andalucia for next weekend!! Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada!!! Bring on the sun finally!!

Mind the Gap

So last weekend my roommate and I went to London. Her father met us there for her 20th birthday and he actually booked us a really nice hotel room in the hotel he was at, which I only had to pay as much as a hostel would cost for those 3 nights. It was a sweet deal. The hotel was awesome, right in the middle of everything.

We arrived Thursday morning, so by the time we got settled and checked in it was Thursday afternoon. Even though I've only been in Madrid for 3 weeks there was a bit of a shock going to an English speaking country. Right as we got off the plane a man asked us if we were non-UK passports. I responded with "Si" and then realized he had just spoken English to me. I kept expecting to hear Spanish and it was so odd to see and hear every thing in English. In Madrid we are so used to no one understanding English that we can basically get away with talking on the metro and no one over hearing us, so we can comment on people around us. We did that in London and forgot everyone on the metro could here to the stupid stuff we were saying.

Since we were starving we decided that the first thing we needed to do was to get fish and chips of course. YUMMY! Clearly I've changed because I used to never eat seafood, period. Now I eat almost all of it (except shrimp, or "gambas" in spanish). Anyways, of course the fish and chips were amazing. That afternoon we went and did some of the free turisty things. We went to Big Ben, Westmister Abbey, saw the London Eye, and walked through Parliament and the House of Commons. The House of Commons was really cool because you could sit in on the meetings.

 Westminster Abbey

 Big Ben

London Eye

As you can see, I'm rather bundled up. That's because it was freezing! Maybe 25F?? Much colder than Madrid, and we were not prepared. That night we walked around Picadilly Circus, which is London's version of Times Square.

Friday we woke up early because we were going to do a bunch of sites. That day we went to Paddingston station, and also went by the London Olympic Stadium. In the afternoon we went to Portobello Market, which is like a street market with food, clothing, and antique shops. We spent a while here and also had fish and chips again because it is so amazing. That night we walked around looking for Kensington Palace in the freezing cold only to find that it was close. Lame. Late that night we went to see Chicago because we managed to get really cheap tickets that afternoon. I may have seen the movie at some point but I really don't remember, so I had some idea of it, but either way it was really good!

Abbey Road

Saturday was the longest day ever. We went to the Tower Bridge, Shakespeare Globe, Buckingham Palace, Abbey Rd, Platform 9 3/4, the London Tower, and St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a very touristy day but well worth it to see the sites of London. That night Alexis's dad bought us tickets to a comedy show. While we were at the show it started to snow, a lot. So much that the stupid tube closed and no taxis's were running. Buffalo clearly needs to off a "How to Handle Snow for Dummies" class because London clearly did not know how to function. We had to walk back to the hotel in the snow, about a mile away. 

Because of the snow, our flight ended up being delayed the next day. On top of that, we had no way to get to the bus to take us to the airport. It was all a big mess, but at least we finally got back. Which at that point, we passed out until 10pm when we went out for the Superbowl (which was on 12am-4am my time). One crazy weekend. 

Platform 9 3/4

Final thoughts on London: it was an interesting city but I wouldn't go back. I'm glad I went once and saw what I did but by Sunday I was so happy to be back home in Madrid, London really cannot compare. Oh and the Great britain pound sucks and I lost so much money in the exchange. Didn't like that.

PS> Aunt Kathy- I hope you can add this to your collection. Looks like they weren't very popular seeing as I bought this for 1GBP.

Las Meninas

It's been a crazy week, probably because we're just getting into the swing of things. So sorry if this is a loooonng post.

Well since it was our first real weekend (full weekend not jetlagged) in Madrid, we partied like Madrileños do it, let's just leave it at that. And I had my first churos and chocolate! YUMMY!

Sunday night was also the AFC and NFC championship games. There's a bar here that played the entire game even though it was Sunday and they were supposed to close at 2am. Don't forget, I'm 6 hrs ahead so that means the Giants game started at midnight. I think all but 3 of us live in the NYC/NJ area so for the most part are Giants fans, so it's been kind of crazy. Obviously because I hate the Patriots I am a Giants fan, plus it's really fun to say in Spanish (and the only one that has more of a translation), "los Gigantes." Next week it looks like the superbowl is going to start at 2am... that'll be interesting.

Tuesdays I don't have class so this past Tuesday I decided I would just take the metro to a random stop across town and just get out and walk around. I did this and got really really lost, but it was cool nonetheless. I walked around for about 3 hrs and here's a bunch of observations I have about Spain and it's people.

• everyone walks EVERYWHERE, even old people which is adorable when they walk together, like two old men or two old ladies or old couples
• everyone walks everywhere but takes the escalator over stairs, its weird
• dogs walk without leashes and they are really well behaved, however they do not want anything to do with humans
• street signs are not clear or directional like north, south, etc

There was more but I can't think of it now. Anyways that was a fun way to explore the city.

Wednesday was the 2nd game of Barca/Madrid. A bunch of us went out to a pub to watch the game to get the "real Madrid futbol experience." It really was a great game, but they ended up losing.

Yay Madrid! at least at first. 

My roommate Alexis and our friend Christian

Thursday was probably my favorite day of the week. For my art history class we went to El Prado Museum. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's like THE museum in Madrid. Like the Louvre of Spain. We primarily went in to look at the paintings of Goya, which was awesome because that's who I've studied the most out of all my Spanish art years. Surprisingly everything I've studied about his paintings I remembered and it was amazing to see all his work in person. His painting "The 3rd of May" was the painting I wrote a paper on in high school. Seeing it in person was amazing. The best part of the day however was when I found out "Las Meninas" by Velazquez was in the Prado. Even though it wasn't part of our lesson plan my professor took us over to see it. I never thought I would really care about art until I stepped into that room and saw that painting. Another guy in my class who had studied Spanish art as well and me just stared at it. We couldn't believe that we were actually standing in front of Las Meninas. I never thought I'd care that much about art. But it's just incredible, I don't know how many times I've seen that painting in class, I could analyze that thing from top to bottom, and to actually see it in person. I didn't know what to say.

Las Meninas

By the time we were done we were starving so I didn't get a chance to walk through the rest of the collection. However, this will be a place I will spend an entire day in the near future.

Friday, we went to El Escorial. El Escorial is  a GIANT monastery and summer palace to the ancient royal families. It's about an hour outside of Madrid so a couple of us took a train out there for the day to walk around. There were a lot of art and architecture exhibits that were fun to explore, but really the main attraction was the palace. It was just gorgeous and enormous!!

El Escorial

There was a lot of exploring this week of the city and lots of fun! Next week Alexis and I are off to London at the end of the week. We have almost all of our trips planned: London next week, Dublin for St. Patricks day, Helsinki in the end of March beginning of April, and looking at planning a southern Spain (Cordoba, Sevilla, and Granada) trip at the end of February? Gotta make the most of this!

I really just want to sit on the throne....

I have been in Madrid for 1 week today. It´s crazy because I feel like I´ve been here for so long, but at the same time I feel like time is slipping away (even though I have 4 months). This week we started classes. I am taking a poetry, grammar, colloquial Spanish, and art history class, all in Spanish. The poems class sucks, but it would in English too, but that's a class I need to take so unfortunately I will have to stick with it. All the other classes are pretty good and the professors are great! We only have class on Mondays and Wednesdays but those are usually long days. I think I'm going to start an internship soon where I go to a school and help teach English to K-12 kids.

The rest of this week has been pretty slow. For some reason Madrid makes me very tired. It could be because walk EVERYWHERE or I eat like half a loaf of bread a day and have just carb overloaded. Possibilities. I could literally sleep forever and I've been very lazy this week. I have been running in the park around the corner from me which has been nice. People don't run on the streets here which is kind of weird but there's parks all over. They all are dog parks. Tons of people have dogs here and all of the dogs are very well trained. Most of the time they will walk without a leash, its rather odd. The dogs don't really seem interested in people though. They won't come over to you or chase after you but they're not afraid of you either. I've had to hurdle many small dogs while running because they just leisurely walk in front of you.

Last night was the Barcelona v. Madrid game. For people who may not know this, that game is like the superbowl for Spain. Literally no one is on the streets, everyone is watching it. We stayed home to watch it with our host brothers, Cote and Christian and their two friends. Just as a side note, we had hotdogs (boiled maybe? not really sure) with guacamole and tomatoes, you should all try it, it was really good (besides the not grilled hotdogs part). Anyways, Alexis and I are Madrid fans (I guess only because we live here and Ronaldo is rather good looking). My family is all Barca fans because Cote used to play on a semi pro team for Barcelona when he was younger, so although they live in Madrid they are huge Barca fans. That was a very interesting game to watch. I learned "men and their sports" holds true anywhere in the world. I could not understand barely anything they were going back and forth about. They talked so fast and used so much Spanish slang that I was lost. But they atmosphere was still fun. They all gave Alexis and I a hard time about liking Madrid, until Ronaldo scored the first goal. Then they shut up, only until Barca scored 2 unanswered goals and won :(

El Palacio Real

La Basilica

El Palacio Real from the other side

Today we went to the Palacio Real or Royal Palace. For my art class we have 1 day of class and then spend the other day touring various museums or other parts of the city to see what we have been learning in class. I'm really glad I'm taking that class because we basically go on guided tours with the best professor ever to places in the city I may or may not have the chance to visit. The Palace is incredible and I guess is the largest in Europe. Its is rococo architecture so the insides a bit guady and tacky but the majesty of it is incredible. Across from the Palace is a basilica which was actually built in the 20th century but more or less reflects the architecture of the Palace.

We're staying home this weekend so I'm looking forward to exploring the city a little more and of course do some shopping :)  just kidding dad!! maybe :)

This is not America

So this was our first weekend in Madrid. Friday we had some more orientation stuff and got to pick our classes. For all of you who keep asking, yes I am taking all my classes in Spanish. I have to take 4 classes so I just signed up for a bunch and will decide which ones I'm taking tomorrow on our first day.

My roommate Alexis!

Friday night a bunch of us decided to go out. My roommate Alexis and I first went to one of our host brothers apartment to met him and his friends. They really didn't speak English so I definitely got to practice my Spanish talking to them. That went interesting. So far the Spanish has gone pretty well and I can get by but I definitely need a lot more practice in conversation. After Christian's we went to met the others in the program at this bar called Dubliners. For some reason I've noticed the Spaniards really like Irish pubs. Dubliners is clearly some place that Americans and other foreigners go to when they are in Madrid as most of the bartenders spoke English. It was packed, as were the streets. Madrid is a very busy city at night. Spaniards enjoy being out really late and the streets are always packed. Dubliners was fun but we knew we had to get up early so we didn't stay out to late. 

Saturday morning we left for Toledo. Toledo is a very historic city and is a mix of Christian, Muslim, and Hebrew culture. Everything there has such history. We visited the Santa Maria Cathedral and a few other museums. On our free time there a couple of us walked around and wandered into the actual village of Toledo where everyone lives. We all were just in awe of this town. There's nothing like that in America. We were walking where people had walked hundreds of years ago, you don't get that in the US.

la catedral

Toledo

Later that day, Real Madrid was playing so my roommate Alexis and another guy in our group went to another Irish pub to watch the game. Real won 2-1. 

This morning I decided to explore the area around where I live. We live in an apartment in a residential area of the city. I found a park literally right around the corner from our apartment. There were a lot of families and dog walkers and runners! It definitely looks like a place I'll be running. 

It's so weird that classes actually start tomorrow. Like I'm here to actually work. We'll see how that goes.