Barcelona

I just got back from my last excursion in Spain before I head to London. I absolutely loved it!!! I think Barcelona was a great city to end with. It was almost like a big summary of everything in Spain. The art museums we visited contained a lot of the art that we have been studying in my art history class. Previously, I thought the class was kind of boring, but after seeing the actual paintings, it completely changed my mind. We also visited a lot of work by Gaudi. I've decided that Gaudi's work basically defines Barcelona. You can visit one park, but the Parc Guell is better. You can see one cathedral, but the Sagrada Family is better. You get the point? The Parc Guell was beautiful and the Sagrada Familia was by far my favorite cathedral. I would love to return in 2030 to see the finished product when it is complete. On Friday night, we went to a tapas restaurant that we learned about in class while watching "On the Road Again" with Anthony Bourdain. It was called Inopia. On the show, Tony and Gwenth Paltrow went to the restaurant and tried pretty much all the different tapas...so we decided to do the same (well, not all of them). We actually saw Gwenth's picture on the wall from when she was there. Then, on Saturday night we went to a music and light show at the fountain outside of one of the museums. It was the perfect way to end our stay in Barcelona; the colorfully lit up fountain in the dark was beautiful.

Here is the link for most of my Barcelona pictures. Enjoy!


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021363&id=1169550264&l=f2a0c70088

This past weekend I went to Andalucia with some of my classmates. My first impression was that it was very hot. Despite the heat, I had a great time and absolutely loved it! We went to the Alhambra in Granada and encountered the absolute best ice cream place on our walk home. The Alhambra was goregous. It is huge; therefore, required a lot of walking, but it was definitely worth it. My favorite part was the gardens and the big fountain/pond inside the Palacios Navaries. After Granada, we went to Sevilla. Sevilla was definitely my favorite city. The old streets and colorful buildings were very unique and I didn't feel like I was actually walking in such a big city. On Saturday night, we went to a flamenco show. It was the second flamenco show I've seen and I really enjoyed it. The male dancer was amazing! His feet moved so fast! On Saturday, we also went to the Plaza de Espana and rode bikes in a park. Then on Sunday we visited the Alcazar Palace and gardens, the torre del oro, cathedral, and la giralda. I actually liked the Alcazar Palace more than la Alhambra. It was smaller, but I thought it had more color to it and the fountain in the garden that came from the roof of the building was very impressive considering it was built way before indoor plumbing! The Giralda and the torre del oro had the best views of the city and were the perfect spot to take pictures of the city (and to rest after the long climb to the top). Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun and definitely worth the long bus ride!

Pictures of Andalucia (Granada and Sevilla)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020851&id=1169550264&l=866d2748e7

Pictures from Pamplona and San Sebastian
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020849&id=1169550264&l=bfbdfe3b78

San Fermin

This past weekend I went to Pamplona to celebrate San Fermin, which is a week long celebration known for the running of the bulls. It was an amazing experience and I had so much fun with all my friends. The streets are literally packed with thousands of people...where drinking is the number one choice for entertainment. We spent the night sleeping on the grass in a park and against a railing once we found our spot for el encierro (the running of the bulls). I posted the video from our spot on my class blog and another classmate posted her video from their seats inside the actual stadium where the "baby bulls" are let out for people to tease.

The next day on Saturday, we managed to convince the people at the bus station to change our tickets so we could take an earlier bus to San Sebastian. San Sebastian was absolutely gorgeous! It is known for one of the most beautiful beaches in Spain, Playa de la concha. We spent all of Saturday and Sunday just laying on the beach and walking around the town.

One of our recent homework assignments was to cook an American dish for our family or help them prepare a meal. I decided to attempt cooking something for my family. My family only has a stove with two burners. No oven. No microwave. No microwave oven. It was definitely an interesting task. My senora had to help a little with using the stove, but other than that it was a great experience! From shopping in the market and trying to figure out how to ask for ground beef in spanish to learning that they measure everything in kilograms and 2 kilograms is a lot of meat, I was able to learn a lot and have a lot of fun. My senora actually taught me a few tricks in the kitchen as well. (They really don't like to waste any food!) I made meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a fruit salad. I had to cook each dish separately on the stove, but it worked out fine. It was kind of like cooking hamburgers because each piece had to be cooked separately. Needless to say, the dinner turned out to be a success and my family and the two other girls who live in the house enjoyed it!

my senora, jessie, & christina

Carla, my senora's 3 year old grandaughter...she was watching me cut up all the fruit

weekend in Portugal

So far, I have enjoyed my first week in Salamanca. I moved into an apartment with my senora and her husband. They are both about 60 years old or so. They have grandchildren that visit almost every day. Both girls that are 1 and 3 years old. Super cute! I have yet to take pictures of mi casa, but hopefully will this week because I have to cook an American dinner for mi familia as a homework assignment. I think I'll be attempting to cook meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Problem is, they only have a stove top. Needless to say, for those that know me, I'm not the best cook; this should be interesting.

This past weekend I went to Lisbon and Cascais in Portugal with a few of my friends from school here. We spent the night in a very nice hostel on one of the beaches in Cascais. Cascais (pronounced Cash-kye-sh) has some of the most beautiful beaches in Portugal. We had a great time and enjoyed the fourth of July by cooking hotdogs on the beach with our friends in the hostel and watching some fireworks that were being lit off near by. We got really lucky and met some great people at the hostel. One guy was from Canada and another from Chicago. The owners spoke English, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese and were super nice! Before we left Portugal, we spent most of our last day in Lisbon. We visited the Castelo de San Jorge that has one of the best views of the city. Lisbon was a very nice city, but like Portugal, in general, it really depends where you go.

Here is a link to view all of my pictures from Portugal:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019718&id=1169550264&l=4d39ba7cfb

Along with a link for the pictures in Madrid:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019088&id=1169550264&l=a48bec3fad

And Toledo:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019091&id=1169550264&l=8ecb28e5e8

Below are also a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend...

Cascais

El castelo de sao jorge

Lisbon

first week in Madrid

Ok sorry it has taken an incredibly long time to post something. The internet in our hotel hasn't been very good. So far, Madrid has been a lot of fun. There have definitely been some cultural things that have been weird to get used to. For one, the service in restaurants is much different than at home - it is slower - because no one is in a rush to be anywhere. You actually have to ask for your "cuenta" (bill) when you are ready to leave. It's also nice because you don't have to tip! Our class is done by one o'clock every day, so we have all done a lot of site-seeing. I'm pretty sure I have shin-splints from all the walking we've done. It has to be about a half mile we walk to class. Madrid is very pretty though and I actually like the walk. The streets are very clean and you see a lot people out with their dogs. Nothing like Chicago. In the plazas, the owners literally let their dogs off leashes and they run around until the owners find them when they are leaving. We had a few dogs over at our tabel the other day! Also, when people walk in the streets the will stop right in front of you to have a conversation with some one. La plaza del sol has been under construction, so the sidewalks have been pretty crowded.

Below I have posted a few pictures from this past week of some of the places we have been. In most of the museums and some of the cathedrals we aren't allowed to take pictures, but I bought post cards with pictures of the inside instead! Enjoy!!

inside la Iglesia de San Tome in Toledo..this is El Greco's most famous painting (We also went to El Museo del prado en madrid and saw painting by el greco, goya and las meninas by velazquez)

inside La Catedral Primada in Toledo

Toledo

Tapas!! this was fried calamari

inside of La Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena (my favorite cathedral so far..very colorful. It was built in 1993.)

outside of La Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena

El Palacio Real (just as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside!)

first post?

Okay. So, I've never had a blog before and this is all very new to me. I'm sure it will take me a while to figure everything out (kind of like when you first get a facebook and you have no clue what you're doing...that's pretty much how I feel).

Aside from that, I finally realized today that in a week I will be leaving for Spain. I haven't gotten nervous yet, but I'm sure once I'm in the airport, by myself, waiting to board the plane, the nerves will hit me. Other than that, I'm really excited! I've always wanted to study abroad in Spain and I'm hoping this will turn out to be a great experience. I'm most looking forward to living with a host family. When I was in third grade, we had an exchange student from Spain and I always thought it would be really cool to live with another family in another country for a while. The only thing I'm worried about is saying something wrong in Spanish and embarassing myself infront of my family. However, that is part of the reason I chose to study abroad...so that I could improve my communication skills. Anyways, I'll be posting again soon before I leave!