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.