Otra Vez

Okay so this isn't actually tomorrow, but better late than never. In real life I am now home for almost a week, looking for a job down in D.C., recovering from jet lag, and waiting for most of my friends to come home. But I want to write about the last few weeks of my adventure, so that's what I am going to do.

After my lovely break with my family, I came home to hear the news my host parents BROKE UP. I was confused at first, and thought maybe something was getting lost in translation, but it ended up being true. I had a few days of class, and then on Thursday I left from Madrid to go to Paris to meet up with my friend from school Emma, who is studying in Manchester.

We met up, took the train into the city, and tried to find our hostel-this was the first time of many we found ourselves extremely lost in Paris. After a few nice people helped us, we found the hostel, checked in, and passed out. We got up early the next day to a great breakfast and ventured out onto the metro to the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful day, and we wanted to hit some of the major tourist spots. We walked to the Arc de Triumf, went up, strolled through some beautiful park, got our first of many crepes, then walked up to Sacred Heart Church by our hostel. It is one of the highest points in the city and had such a beautiful view. We made some dinner from the groceries we bought and talked to some really cool Sweedish girls in the hostel. We took a nap, and went out to a nearby bar for a beer with some guys we met in the hostel as well. Tomorrow would be another early day.

Saturday we wanted to walk around the Luxemburg Park and Notre Dame. We walked down the Seine and got some more crepes! we walked around and explored some of the smaller churches and tried to do some street shopping. We also saw Napoleon's tomb and this cool military museum. Dinner again at the hostel. We also caught the R. Madrid- Barca game with some people from the hostel on TV.

Sunday, we spent the majority of the day in the Louvre. It was as amazing as I expected it to be, and I think I could have spent all day there. We saw the Mona of course, and a lot of famous statues and other paintings. I was surprised there was no line to get in, and it wasn't even that crowded. We walked around after that, tried to see the Catacombs but it was closed, (fail) and decided we would go out to eat as a last night treat. We chose this cool French-Basque style restaurant that was full of young hip Parisians, and they sat everyone like Sardines. They had homemade sangria and some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life. After dinner, we headed to the Eiffel tower to see it at night all lit up. We realized we could still go up, and climbed the stairs to the second tier of the tower. It was so windy but amazing to see all of Paris lit up at night. We ran back to get the metro home and went to bed.

The last day, we tried to go to one of the other museums but it was closed WOMP. So instead, we went to the self-proclaimed world's best falafel restaurant. It was so delicious. We met up with one of Emma's high school friends and got some delicious pastries after. Sadly, it was time to head to the airport, say goodbye and go back to Madrid.
Pictures above!

Delayed Update

I haven't had internet at my casa in a while, so I haven't been able to update my blog recently. Since my last update, so much has happened!
1-Spring Break with mom, dad and chel.- Madrid, Granada, Barcelona, and back to Madrid
2-Paris with Emma for a long weekend.
3- Valencia with some MD friends.
4- Mucho trabajo for class, Premio de Cervantes
5-Atleti Madrid game
6-leaving at the end of the week! AH!

Spring break was great! The family got here smoothly, and I met them at the Alcala train station. I showed them around town a bit, we had a great, big lunch, and they got to meet Espe at my casa. It started pouring, but we had to walk back to the station to go to Madrid. Everyone was super jet-lagged but we got back to Madrid to settle in the hotel. The next day, we went to El prado and Renina Sofia, which were really cool, and then to a great vegetarian restaurant. Saturday, we took a bus to Granada, which Chel and I almost missed! We got to the hotel, which was so SMALL but fine.
The weather was great in Granada, and we all got a little burned. We did a bus tour, and walked around and saw the cathedral which was massive.
The next day was Palm Sunday, so we slept in a bit and went to a procession in front of the cathedral. We walked down to the river, saw some cool shops and ate lunch outside in a plaza by the river. Later, we went to the Alhambra for our tour, only we didn't realize Spain had sprung ahead one hour for daylight savings! Good thing we got their early, or we might have missed the tour. We walked around and saw some of the best views I've ever seen! Later, we walked by and saw a massive procession for Semana Santa, with the hooded people and a giant float. We literally almost got crushed by it! By then, we were all tired so we got dinner by the hotel and went to bed.
Next stop on the trip was Barcelona. We took a flight there which went smoothly, and got to our rented apartment with no problem. We were right by Sagrada Familia, a giant Gothic style church. The apartment was really nice, and we rested that night after a good lunch because we had a long next day. We saw a lot of neat architecture, like Gaudi's Pedrera and churches. We went to Gaudi's park and a bunch of shopping. Everything was so modern and pretty looking.
I'm going to stop now and post number 2 tomorrow!

Fam is coming!

So tomorrow my parents and little sis are coming to Spain! So exciting! I haven't uploaded my pics from Malaga, but I will soon. Malaga was fun because I was with all my friends, and we ate some delicious food, but the people there were weird. Just because I am an American trying to learn Spanish doesn't mean I want to talk to you, creepy Spanish guy. But it was good to get out and travel and see some more of the South of Spain.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in Madrid walking around, and I got my nose pierced! I've wanted it for a while, so I'm glad I finally did it! It will be the best souvenir from Spain for myself. Here are a few pics from Malaga I stole from other people!

Entrega de diplomas

The time has now come-classes at Alcalingua are over! We had a nice little breakfast with some of our teachers, and then we had a cute diploma ceremony at the old universidad. The diplomas had our grade for the three classes averaged out- and I got a 9/10! Not too shabby. I thought I would post a few photos here if you care to see what my teachers looked like. After we got our diplomas we went outside to take pics with our teachers and classmates.

I'm going to Malaga with some girls tomorrow-bright and early! We will be there until Monday morning. I'm excited to explore a new city and have some more warm weather. Malaga is in the southern part of Spain-Andalucia and is a beach town! I can't wait to see the Mediterranean and perfect my Andalusian accent.

It's been really sunny and warm here, and I hope the weather is here to stay! The best thing ever is just sitting outside enjoying a tapa with some friends and loving the warmth and I hope to do that a lot this weekend. The weather says cloudy- but I have faith in the sun.

I need to go to bed to get to my autobus in the morning. 'sta Luego!

Me gustan los long weekends

Last week was our last week for real classes at Alcalingua, so the week was largely spent doing oral exams, reviewing for tests, and taking our final exams. None of them were too hard, and I ended up doing pretty well on both exams. To celebrate, a few of us went out for tapas after class on calle mayor.

Friday I took it pretty easy, and on Saturday I met up with Meg and her friend Amanda and showed them around Madrid! It was cool to see one of my best friends from home here in Spain! We went to El Prado, Starbucks, Sol, Plaza Mayor, El Palacio and Plaza de Espana. It was a really nice day to walk around and I'm glad I got to show them around a bit. After I came back and ate, I returned to Madrid to go to a HUGE discoteca called Kapital. It was so ridiculously nice inside and it reminded me of walking into a really classy prom. There were 6 or so floors and even more dance floors. Everyone was really friendly and we met a lot of cool people to talk to. We left at around 6 to get the morning train back to Alcala, and I took a little nap on the train. My feet were killing me so I took a taxi home and went back to bed right away. I slept for the better part of Sunday.

It was Eugenia's, a girl in my classes, birthday party so a few of us walked to her apartment to celebrate with her. Her and her roomies are all Chinese, and they made some delicious food for us! Definitely the best dumplings I've ever had. It was so nice! Everyone was speaking a hodge podge of languages, but we communicate surprisingly well. I got back at around 10, chatted with my fam and some friends, and got really excited that every weekend from now on is a four day weekend! WOOT.

I went to class today, even though we had nothing to go over. We got back our exams and played Taboo in Spanish. My prof Laura caught me off guard by telling me it was a pleasure for her to read my critique of the book we read. Que extrano!

It's finally getting warmer here, and I wish I wasn't dying of a second-hand smoke cough thanks to the great people of Spain b/c I wanted to go for a run. Here are some pics from when Meg and I went into Madrid. More will probably follow.

Cordoba y Sevilla segundo parte

So last Friday, we left from Madrid at 8:30 AM and took the Ave train to Cordoba. The AVE was really cool and there was barely anyone in our car so we got to all spread out. It only took a little over an hour, and we had a bus waiting for us to take us to Al-Zahara, a really old Arab city that used to be the capitol of Andalucia, which back then was basically all of Spain. It was a bit rainy and foggy, but it added a nice effect to the creepy-ish ruins. Antonio, our guide was really good and made sure to speak clearly b/c the average Andalucian tends to leave out random syllables.

After walking around and trying to imagine how huge the city used to be, we saw a movie in the adjacent museum which reconstructed the city digitally. It was actually pretty interesting. We took a bus back into the main city of Cordoba and had some free time where we ate our bagged lunches and got some delicious gellati ice cream. Then we went with Antonio to the La Mequita, which is a giant church Spaniards made from an old Mosque. It had a lot of empty space where the people used to pray on floor, but then they converted the middle section into a regular Catholic Cathedral.

We got back on the train to Sevilla, which was late, and took the 2.5 hour ride. When we got there, we checked into the hotel and walked to dinner. This dinner was the best dinner I have had in recent memory. It was friday, so I only ate fish, but it didn't matter. We had fried fish, veggies, shrimp, bottomless bread, and some other delicious things. After the huge meal and long day I went right to sleep.

We got up early, had breakfast and took the bus into the historic center of Sevilla. We had a new guide, Francisco who Merce left us with. It was raining, but it wasn't too cold to walk around. We went to Alcazar which is a funcitoning royal palace with moorish architecture and beautiful gardens. Fran talked our ears off, but it was a beautiful place to see and get to explore.

We then headed off to the Cathedral, which is by volume the largest in Europe. There are over a hundred little chapels off to the side, Columbus's tumb, and a huge steeple bell tower. This also used to be a mosque, and then they added onto it when all the Arabs were forced to leave Spain. We climbed up the huge tower to see the view and take some photos, and left for lunch. We went with Merce to get some free paella at this little bar we barely fit into, and then to another tapa place where I had some local tomato soup I didn't care for.

After that, we were left to our own devices, so we split up into a few groups and explored the city and bought some souvenirs. We made our way back to the hotel, got some classy alcohol with the hopes of "botelloning" with later and took a nap. I woke up at around 9 and got ready for dinner. We ended up going to this restaurant where I got some more really good fried fish, and we watched the Real Madrid-Sevilla game on the TV there. Also, they had whole, intact, feathered DEAD birds in the freezer along side the wines. We expressed our interest/concern to our waiter who gladly let me hold/pet one. We headed back to the nearby hotel and kind of relaxed and made drinks before we went out. Some people decided to not even attempt to go out, so four of us had the front desk guy get us a taxi to where we heard was good to go. Calle Beatriz is where all the college kids go out, and we were not disappointing. We saw a bunch of Americans, even people other girls knew from UMD. We basically just went between a few places and met a lot of friendly Spaniards.

Sunday, we were scheduled to go with Merce to the museum of bellas artes. We took the weirdest route to get there, and took this cool tram that cruises down the middle of the street. We also stopped in a random chapel for reasons no one understood. At least I can say I went into a church on Sunday. The museum was pretty cool, and it used to be an old convent.

We were all starving around 2 and we went to another fabulous restaurant with WHAT? more fried food! It was so wrong it was right. The sangria could have tastes less like children's cough medicine but what do I know? We got a bunch of plates to share so we all tried a lot of new things. YUM.

After that we got our bags and headed back to the train station. This time we went straight from Sevilla to Madrid. It went pretty fast, and I was home around 10:30.

That was my weekend! A lot of moving around but so neat and beautiful! I want to go back to Sevilla, it is muy bonita and everyone is friendly. We had a good time trying to perfect the Andalucia accent...no pa'na??

Now its Wednesday, and I still need to load my fotos! On Tuesday in dance class we learned "reggatone" dance which basically was just learning new ways to shake your booty. But still fun. In a little bit I am going to a flamenco show, even though I have a ton of homework and two tests on Friday. Hence, me taking the time to write a lengthy blog entry. OH and Megan is coming on Friday! WOO.

Select fotos will be arriving soon. 'sta luego

Cordoba y Sevilla

This weekend was Cordoba and Sevilla-SO pretty. I loved Sevilla and really hope I get to go back sometime in my life. It rained a lot over the weekend, but it didn't dampen our plans too much. The pictures, from bottom up are the the ruins of Al-Zahara in Cordoba, a statue of some really important Arab guy in Cordoba, la plaza de america in sevilla, la catedral in Cordoba, and the catedral in sevilla. The one in Sevilla is one of the biggest in the world, and both of the Cathedrals were converted from mosques, so they had a cool mix of architecture.

I just wanted to post a few pics here, but will write more about our trip tomorrow, and put up some of my own photos, b/c these are all from other people's collections. I also got some cool souvenirs from Sevilla I'm pretty happy with, and we checked out the nightlife a bit on Saturday night and even saw some people who also went to UMD.

We have our final exams on friday for class, and I did my oral section of my conversation exam today b/c my teacher "randomly" selected me to go second out of everyone. I need to do some work, but will write more tomorrow! Hasta manana mananita.

Retiro

I forgot to mention we went to el parque del retiro too...so here are some pics! it is basically Madrid's version of Central Park. Even though it was kind of cold, it was still cool. There is a glass palace and a lake where people can rent little paddle boats! So cute! I will definitely return here when the weather is warmer.

I'm leaving for Sevilla tomorrow so I will update soon with some stories from Andalucia.

"Sick" week

See what I did with the title there? This week I was both sick (ill) and had a lot of fun (a sick time).

Anyways, Monday I woke up with the worst sore throat so I decided I probably had strep. I had to take a midterm first thing in the morning, so I went to class, took the test, and then went to the doctor. I wasn't really sure how it was going to work here or where it was, but I heard it was really easy to do and close to school. I followed my nose and found the doctor's office, where I was greeted by a friendly nurse who could tell right away I was foreign and had no idea what I was doing. She shuffled me into the office where I saw the doctor and told him my name and address. He wrote it down on one of those big yellow pads of paper and didn't bother checking any kind of ID. I told him what hurt, and the nurse stayed with me because I don't think she was convinced I could understand Spanish.

They started with the most basic questions like, do you eat well? and do you drink enough water? The doctor then looked in my ears and mouth and said I had an infection. He prescribed me some antibiotics and I was on my way. It was all very painless. I left, filled my prescription, and went back home to sleep.

The next few days were uneventful because I wasn't feeling well, but my throat feels a lot better now. The weekend was pretty eventful, we went to Madrid for a few hours after class on Friday because it was so nice out, but then I started to feel sick and had to go back and went to bed. Luckily I felt better the next day, so I went to the Residencia with Kristin and Krissie to get our midterm for our UMD class done. We hung out there for a while, and I hung out with my familia for a while because I was planning on getting up early the next morning.

Sunday, we went to Toledo. We took the Ave from Madrid which was a nice ride. We didn't have much of a game plan, so we basically walked around and looked at the amazing views and buildings that were 500 years old. We also got a great workout going up and down all the hills. We didn't stay that long because the train schedule was kind of weird. We barely made the train back, but it all worked out in the end. The day was super sunny and beautiful, so Hannah and I walked around Madrid with the intention of going to El Prado, which is free on Sundays, but there was a huge line so we peace out and just strolled through the street vendors and looked around. We headed back to Alcala for Celia's birthday party. She's a Chinese girl who is in my classes at Alcalingua and lives with a few other girls from various countries who are also in our classes.

The party was fun, and there was soo much good food! She also has the cutest little dog ever named little cherry! Everyone was really nice, and most people there I knew from school. We all basically spoke Spanish to each other the whole time so we were getting good practice in too! We left around ten that night and I went back to my casa for the first time since 9 that morning. It was a good time and a good weekend!

Now its Monday and I have a lot of work to do for my classes, but I am also excited because we are going to Sevilla on Friday! Its already been 2 months here which seems crazy!

Here are some photos from Toledo and Celia's party

The week I pledged to see Juanes live

This week, in short, I discovered the superiority of Spanish language music compared to songs in English. Besides that, my week went pretty normally. I have no idea why they choose to listen to lady gaga and beyonce when for the most part, they can't understand the words.

Our new (new) Conversation teacher is the most intimidating woman ever. Shes about 6 feet tall and speaks way too quickly and basically gets in your face when she asks a question. So annoying. We don't even know why we had to get a new teacher in the first place! Tuesday we had our first exam, which wasn't too hard but not an easy A either.

On the brighter side, everyone in my class is coming together in hatred for the new teacher, so at least we are not alone. I still love all of my other teachers because their teaching style includes asking you about your life and making us feel awkward while telling stories in Spanish. It makes for funny conversation.

The UMD group is also trying to make it so the program lets us take some classes pass-fail if we wish. Its becoming a big issue because a lot of students think the grades here will transfer as C's and B's instead of the A's that are easy to get in a UMD Spanish class.

After a fairly long week, we went to a Romanticismo museum with Mercedes. Snoozefest. Except we decided to dare each other to touch the antiques while the security guards were not on their "guards". We were all super tired so it was just hysterical. After the pointless museum tour, we got some coffee, went back to Alcala, and ate dinner. Then the girls and I met at Cafe Continental, where we had the waitress Maria, who thought we were locas.

Saturday, three other girls and I hopped on the train and took a day trip to El Palacio Aranjuez, which is outside of Madrid. It was a seasonal residence for the royal family, and it is giant! They have the most beautiful gardens, and two couples were taking their wedding pictures there! It was actually sunny out that day too, so we lucked out! We went in, and all the rooms were so elaborate, similar to the Palacio Real in Madrid. They also had a cool display of clothing worn by the royal family, and the last 5 of so wedding dresses princesses wore. They were all so pretty, and I would love to go back there. We then went to a nearby cafeteria where we each got the special, half a chicken, some sides and dessert. We were all so stuffed and tired on the train ride home!

We tried to go to La Garena, a town nearby Alcala to check out the nightlife, but the bus never came so we gave up and went out in Alcala. We'll try again another weekend.

Just talked to Kath on Skype and saw Harley! So presh. It's been raining here a lot, including today. So after mass, I got some lunch and stayed in and studied and read a bit for our exam tomorrow in grammar class. I'm not too worried about it, pero vamos a ver! I'm happy we have dance class again this week, and just want my test tomorrow to be over with.

Hopefully next weekend we are going to check out Toledo, and who knows what else!
Hasta Luego!

Carnaval in Cadiz

Ok...So it has been awhile! But, I just had a very fun and full weekend in Cadiz, a city in the Southernmost part of Span (Andalucía) where I celebrated Carnaval! The city was beautiful and the people there were very fun-loving but hard to understand! We left from Madrid, and took an eight hour bus ride to Puerta de Santa Maria, where our hotel was located. Carnaval didn't actually start until Saturday, so on Friday the program we went with rented a bar for us, where we had some drinks and danced until the bus took us home at 4:30. The city was totally dead on Friday, because everyone was preparing themselves for the whole WEEK of fiestas in Cadiz.

The trip was through an organized program, and there were students from a bunch of different countries who went with us. A group of Puerto Ricans were sitting with us on the bus and taught us this really funny dance/song they sing to get people around them to dance called the Pelua(SP?) where they basically call people out and tell them to get up and dance. Everyone was so excited for the big weekend fiesta.

On Saturday, we at breakfast at the hotel, took a little nap and then decided to see Cadiz during the day. Thankfully it wasn't raining like weather.com predicted, and the city was totally beautiful. There are a lot of beautiful plazas and buildings in Cadiz, and each plaza had a church and cathedral. Most people were already dressed up in their disguises, and we searched the city for some costumes and then returned to the hotel for some dinner.

After dinner, we got all dressed up in wigs and masks for the big party in the streets. We made it to the bus and everyone was partying and getting all excited for the night. The bus dropped us off and we were greeted by a massive group of people dressed up in groups of various different things. I was impressed by how creative everyone was, and most people carried large bottles (botalones) of alcohol around with them in the streets. Each plaza had a stage where performers were dressed up and played music, usually their songs had satirical and political themes.

Everyone was dressed up in the streets, and many of the bars sold drinks right on the streets. We ventured around to find a place to sit and ended up at a restaurant where it was mostly locals. From there we walked around, stopped in a few bars, got lost, found funny people to talk to, and saw a bunch of performers in the plazas. Although everyone was basically wasted and there were about 5 people per square inch in the plazas, everyone was really nice and no one was out of hand. I don't think the same could be said if Carnaval took place in the US the way it does here.

We ended up at a bar for a while where we talked to this Spanish guy dressed up like a Shepherd for a while about the differences between the US and Spain. All the people at the bar were super friendly, and it was apparent everyone was there just to have a good time.

From there, we left for the bus around 4 am and headed back to the hotel. We woke up by 10:30 the next day for the free hotel breakfast, smuggled a bunch of food for the ride, and even made it to the beach near the hotel for a few photos. We left the hotel around one and made the 8 hour trip back to Madrid. If you know me at all you can guess what I did the whole way back (slept).

I ended up back at my casa around 11:30, watched project runway online, and went to bed. Now it is Monday and pouring rain and I have an examen tomorrow! No es justo. I need to charge my camera but when I do, photos of Cadiz will be up promptly!

El Prado

Above are some photos from our class tour of the University of Alcala- it was really interesting and they even had their own school jail! If you spoke Castellana- A CÁRCEL!

Not too much has happened since my last post, so I will keep it short. On Thursday I got my haircut right after class, and it is so short (for me)! I probably got about 6 inches off in total. I wanted it to be significantly shorter, but I think the language barrier had something to do with HOW short it is. But now, a few days later I decided I really like it, and it cuts my shower time in half.

On Saturday we had a group trip to El Prado, a giant art museum in Madrid. They have some of the most famous works of El Greco, Velasquez, Ribero, and basically any Spanish painter you can imagine. It was really cool to see all of the paintings in their original form, but the place was so big I doubt we saw one tenth of the museum! Its definitely a place I would like to go back to. We then walked to the same restaurant we went to the first day in Madrid and got a great lunch. After that, Krissie Shannon and I walked around Madrid and window shopped until we were too tired to keep walking. After the train ride home, I took a nap, ate dinner and called it a night.

On Sunday I was glad to hear UMD beat UNC in basketball! It sounded like a fun game to go to, and I'm glad our team isn't sucking for once. Apparently the Superbowl happened on Sunday as well, but that's only a rumor that's going around Spain I think. They are getting ready for los carnavales here, and all the little peques (Kids) are going to dress up on Wednesday! Que Guay. Anyways, I have to go because I am headed to my flamenco class!
Hasta pronto!

One month!

It has already been a whole month since we landed in Spain. In some ways it feels like a year ago, and in most ways it feels like I just got here. It is nice to have gotten into a routine and to know my way around Alcala and more generally in Madrid. The weather here is cold but still sunny and beautiful, which is all I really care about. My hermanito is getting better because he is more used to me and doesn't try as hard to get my attention by doing bad stuff. However, he did come into my room today while I was asleep and started turning the lights on and off. Me telling him to dejame (leave me alone) did nothing, so I had to physically usher him out of my room. God bless his grandmother for watching him every night so I don't have to see (or hear) him.

Besides being woken up by a 4 year old, I have a lot to look forward to. Some planned trips I am really looking forward to include a trip to Cadiz for Carneval in 2 weeks and a trip to Sevilla the weekend of March 6. And of course I can't wait for my parents and sis to come over spring break! (Dad- Kath told me you like to read my blog out loud.) This weekend, we are going to El Prado in Madrid and hopefully (fingers crossed) staying in Madrid for a night game of Real Madrid versus Espanyol. We are hoping to buy tickets early that day to avoid online charges and get the best price. But can you really but a price on seeing Ronaldo and Kaka in real life? Probably not.

In terms of school, Alcalingua classes are going really well, though at times they can be really long. Today was our last day of history class with Rafa, one of my favorite teachers I've ever had. He has the voice of a voice-over actor for movie trailers or maybe a sports announcer and at least tried to make learning hundreds of years of Spanish history fun. We have a test tomorrow, which I should probably study for. I think our group will move onto literature for the next two weeks, but we will see on Friday.

So there you have a small life update while I procrastinate reading La moza de cantaro for class tomorrow. Hasta luego! (will update over the weekend) :-)

El Escorial

This weekend was really fun, it was Theresa's bday on Saturday, so Friday we naturally went out and had everyone near us sing to happy birthday to her in Spanish. We tried out our dance moves and found some really good Spanish guy dancers we assumed were gay to dance with. And one had a peg leg?...But I digress. On Saturday, all of the girls on the trip went to a Mexican restaurant on Saturday to celebrate. Delicioso. Chupitos gratis.
Friday after class we went into Madrid with Mercedes to the National Spanish Archeology Museum, where one of the guides chastised us for not partying in Madrid enough. I hate to sound like the stereotypical study abroad American, but the museum was super boring. But after, we walked to a churreria where we got the best chocolate con churros EVER.
Every person I have met here thoroughly encourages young people to party hard on the weekends; and generally giving us the opposite advice an adult would give to a college student in America. Tour guides, teachers, my madre. Going out both nights of the weekend and coming home at wee hours of the morning is not only expected but encouraged.
Sunday, a few of us went to El Escorial, a GIANT palace/monastery/ biblioteca/cathedral outside of Madrid. It was beautiful and interesting, but also huge and freezing. There were a lot of great works of art there, and every king of Spain is buried in the tombs. Its cool because we learned about a lot of the architecture and paintings we found there in our art class, so we knew what to look for. It was a cool thing to do for a day, and the town it is in is so quaint. It really felt like we were on the set of a movie or something with the crazy scenery.
I'm not really in the mood to write a lot right now so I am going to post some photos from Sunday. Hasta Luego.

bailes y cuentos

I'll start out with the bad news: I slept through the Real Madrid Stadium tour I was supposed to go on on Saturday b/c I didn't hear my alarm or anyone who tried to call me. When I woke up and realized I missed it, I was sad/ angry at myself especially because those who went said it was really cool...sigh. Hopefully I am going to a Real Madrid game soon so I can see it for myself! I spoke with some of my friends on skype this weekend and almost everyone is back at school! I can already imagine how weird it is going to be when I go back to UMD for the first time. Everything is so different here...but I guess I have a while until I have to worry about that.

Some good news is I did make it to a mass in a beautiful ridiculously old church on Sunday. Alcala is a world heritage sight, in large part to the church of the plaza de los santos ninos, where apparently two young children refused to convert to Islam and were killed, and are now hailed as martyrs. The streets were filled with people after mass because it was a lovely end of winter day, and I decided to window shop a bit and enjoy the nice weather.

Monday was the usual class schedule, and our culture teacher literally tried to teach us the entire history of medieval Spain in one hour...he was about as successful as you might expect, but still very interesting. I also signed up for a clase de baile on Mondays and Tuesdays at Alcalingua, Mondays we have flamenco and Tuesdays its meringue and other latin dances. Monday I went to flamenco, and our teacher Rocio said she was planning a party for us where she would show us how a real flamenco is done at the end of the semester. She even said some of us might be able to dance with her! Its really fun even though I'm sure we look silly doing it.

Today, I walked outside and was surprised to see some snow on cars! I thought it was getting warmer?! We all scrambled to read one of Cervantes' short stories for class with Mercedes. The story is a famous one about a gypsy who falls in love, but for me it feels like someone asked a 4th grader to understand Shakespeare (I'm the fourth grader). Luckily, it didn't really matter if we read or not because Mercedes took us to the casa de Cervantes which is right by the school, and then to the church of St. Mary where Cervantes was baptized. If anything, it was definitely better than having a real class. A profesora from Maryland came with us on our little field trip and then stayed after class to talk to us about how the program was going for us. We tried to talk to her about some concerns we had, but she was not listening to us at all. We said we wanted more concrete schedules to plan trips around, and she basically called us anal retentive. I'm glad she was so concerned.

Because of our little chat with profesora whatsherface we were late to dance class but it was still fun! We learned some more complicated moves and practiced some old ones too. I hope we can try some of our new moves out this weekend on a real dancefloor!

So now I am back at the casa and just ate dinner. Huevos fritos, jamon y pan. Muy rico. Luckily I don't have too much work so I'm off to read some Dracula and maybe catch up with what is going on in the States.
And for good measure here is a photo of us trying to bust some dance moves over the weekend:

Tres semanas!

This weekI realized I had absolutely nothing to be afraid of coming to Spain. Of course it is a big step to go from the average life of a college student at Maryland to living with a new family in another country, but I couldn't picture myself not being here right now. Its nice to know what to expect from my classes and from the town now.
Today we ended the second week of classes at Alcalingua, which meant we moved from our Art class to a history class today. We had a test in art on Thursday to finish out the unit and it was pretty easy. I'm hoping to go to Toledo soon to see the paintings of El Greco (we learned about him) because it only takes about 30 mins on the train from Madrid! It's crazy how fast time has gone since I have been here. The new teacher seems very interesting, and hopefully I can actually learn something about the history of Spain.
The weather is also improving. Its still cold, but today was so nice I just walked around a bit after lunch taking pictures like a true tourist. Tomorrow I am going into Madrid again to go on a tour of the Real Madrid Stadium! Its not a game, but I think it will be fun to learn more about the team so many people here are nuts about. Its in a really nice part of Madrid so we plan on walking around a bit after...hope it is nice out again!
I'm eating a lot of good food here, the oranges here are soo good. I still have no idea how people are so skinny here, maybe because they all smoke so much? I probably eat half a loaf of bread by myself everyday. This is definitely the place for me.
Here are some of the pics I took of Alcala:
The famous storks that have giant nests everywhere-


Plaza Cervantes-

Me voy a salir esta noche! Hasta luego

El Palacio Real

Hola Amigos! On Saturday the whole group went to the Palacio Real, as documented above. The palace is the largest in Europe, and is in the middle of Madrid. I think it has over 250 bedrooms alone, and only 50 rooms are open to the public. The Royal Family doesn't actually live there, but they use it for ceremonial purposes and such. Our tour guide said Obama was coming for dinner there sometime at the end of May. Each room was so ornate and ridiculously detailed and beautiful. After the tour, some of us stuck around to get some lunch and walk around Madrid for a bit, and I bought a few souvenirs for some of my friends!

I can't believe I have already been here for 2 weeks, but at the same time the disastrous flight seems like it was so long ago (probably a good thing). Everything so far has worked out well, and I am feeling more confident with my speaking now that I know some colloquial vocabulary. Classes are going well, they are not very challenging but I'm OK with that right now. We went out on Saturday, first to a small bar that had really cheap drinks, and then do a larger one down the road where people were dancing. The first bar had a special where you could get a TRAY of 25 mixed shots for 15 euro. What?! As a cultural investigation, we ordered that and successfully drank the cheap alcohol. They actually played a bunch of Spanish music at the second bar which I enjoyed. Spaniards definitely go all out when they go out for the night. I felt under dressed compared to the high-heeled and tights ensembles the other chicas were sporting. I'll have to step it up to fit in here...well maybe when it gets warmer.

Now it is Sunday, and I slept in late and I tried to be a studious person and go to the library, but it wasn't open. I forgot the world shuts down on Sundays here. Its so different from the McKeldin library 24 hour study hours I am used to. So I studied today and walked around the town after lunch. I hope my first FULL week of classes is successful! I am going to a clase de baile tomorrow and a flamenco class on Tues. Should be fun!

Por favor, para el agua!

This entry is going to be short and sweet.

It ended up snowing and raining on Monday, which was supposed to be my first day of class. So, classes were canceled because Spain shuts down when there is an inch of snow. So, I decided to go back to bed for a bit only to be awoken by little Manuel running into my room and flipping my light switch on and off. Que precioso. I decided I needed to see the light of day, so Kristin and I decided to walk around calle mayor. The snow was really pretty, and adults and kids alike were outside playing in it. I ended up finding a really cute winter hat and earmuffs in some small store we went into! Woo!

We stopped into a fabulous chocolateria and churroria where we got delicious hot chocolate and a pile of churros for 2.5 euros. Not bad. The chocolate caliente was more like a melted semi-sweet Hershey bar rather than any kind of swiss miss you get in America. (I said the post would be sweet). It was so beautiful, I wish I took a picture.

The snow turned into rain for the next few days. On Tuesday I realized my grammar teacher's way of getting us to talk is to ask us about our novios, or if we don't have one, our ideal man. Its a bit much, but the Asian girls are hysterical when they talk about their novios back home. There is either a severe language barrier, or they are just mean. My bet is on mean. A bunch of new people came to our class this week so I look forward to more awkward storytelling.

We had to buy (search for) a bunch of books for the Maryland class, and two course packets. They all sound like exciting reading. We did learn that sometime in March we will be going to Sevilla overnight which I am super excited about. There is also a flamenco class on Tuesdays I signed up for I am looking forward to!

I decided to stay in tonight and start some of the massive amounts of reading due next week, and you can probably guess how well that's going. We are going to the Palacio Real in Madrid on Saturday, and I think it will be a good time even if we can't sleep in. I plan to take more pics and buy a new memory card in Madrid, so I will post those in a few days! As for now, I'm off to go read some Cervantes! (and then reward myself by watching millionaire matchmaker online.)

Hasta Luego. (Like I said...short)

Va a nevar en España!

Here are some pics from our first venture to Madrid. The one on the bottom is the ministry of Agriculture, and the one on the top is a building near the puerta del sol.

So Friday was the big day-- the first day of school at Alcalingua! What would I wear?! Would I get lost? Will I make friends?--are all questions I would have asked if I wasn't still super jet-lagged. Instead, I showed up unprepared (sin cuaderno) in a standard jean and tee Mare outfit. Luckily for me, I didn't get lost and everyone is super friendly. Friday was the normal first day of class icebreaking attempt. We all chatted with each other, and all of my teachers seem very nice and helpful. Besides the UMD people, there is a small group of Aussies we have gotten to know a bit and a BUNCH of Asians. A lot of them were here for the previous semester, and have mad Spanish skills. I'm not worried about the academics of it, but I am worried about the Monday-Friday long days, and my ability to stay awake/attentive in class.

After some lunch out in Alcala, I came home where my Spanish Padre insisted on taking me to Alcampo, a nearby Target-like store in a mall. He thought I could look for boots I mentioned I wanted, so I went with him and of course didn't like anything. We picked up some groceries, and got a really good cafe (coffee) I wanted. We came back, and he told me he had a son who lived a few apartments over? Why did I not know you had a son? Apparently, the groceries were for him. We brought them over to his apartment and I chatted with him and his friend. I think he was trying to make us become friends. However, I'm not very friendly and I'm sure his attempt failed.

That night, the UMD kids and I decided to meet up for our first Friday night in Spain. We met at the Cafe Continental, kind of a local joint with a lot of smoke and some great wine I sampled. After everyone got there and we all had a couple drinks, we decided to go somewhere more exciting. We didn't know where that was, but we were going to try. We walked in the general direction of "la zona" where a lot of the bars are, and asked around. We found ourselves at some sort of dance club where I was surprised they even checked IDs. We were so clearly American it was almost entertaining. For a while we were the only ones really dancing, but everyone seemed amused at the sight. It was fun, and we met up with the Aussies from Alcalingua, who were exceptionally drunk. But, fun times had by all. Except for when I went home and realized I WREAKED of cigarette smoke from the bars where EVERYONE was smoking. My lungs are taking a hit just by being in Spain.

Saturday I slept in super late, walked around Alcala to get a better feel for it, and ended the night by watching El Señor de los anillos 3 con mi familia.

Sunday, I met some of the girls on my trip in Madrid. Our objective was simple; to explore and to shop the rebajas. I would say both were successful. We walked around, took pictures, and ended up eating lunch in some really fancy place where I had delicious Sangria and raviolis. So much for authentic Spanish food! I definitely learned my way around Madrid much better, and we successfully navigated the subway. I feel so European! Well not really...but less of a tourist. Everything was going great and then it started snowing! People freak out here when it snows. Literally if there is one inch of snow on the roads no one goes to work or school. After we took the train back to Alcala, I walked to my homestay in the freezing snow where I somehow got terribly lost. I was never scared or nervous, just mad I had to be cold longer than was necessary because of the detour.

Now, I am back and just ate dinner with the padres and Esperanza's (my madre's) four year old son who goes in between his mom and dad's house. Ok so I know he is only four, but I really wish he was less annoying. He never speaks, he only yells at the top of his lungs and repeats the same things over and over. I want to tell him to shut up but that would probably be out of line.

Overall, Spain is snowy and good. I have my first full week of classes starting tomorrow, and I'm curious about the course load. I have a cuaderno now, so I think I should be alright.

the first five days

Hola! It has been five days since I left the USA on the way to Spain, and what a few days it has been! My parents saw me off at Dulles airport, where I was to fly to Frankfurt and then connect on a flight to Spain. I know, the geography of it all makes zero sense but I wanted to take the group flight. After the longest flight of my life (8 hours) where I was luckily able to sleep and watch the movie Fame we landed in snowy Germany. We were delayed in DC due to strong winds, so we run off the plane when we land to connect to the next flight due to take off at 9:10 am. For a second, I thought we were going to miss the flight, but luckily it was delayed half an hour due to the snow. And then it was delayed an hour. And then it was canceled. Frick. So then we heard over the poorly translated announcements we were to go to the customer service counter to see what the airline can do to help us. The problem was, 300 other people had to do the same thing.

So, we waited in line at the Frankfurt airport. For 6 hours. For some reason beyond me, there were only four people working at the desk. We sat on the floor, slept on our bags, and made up games to pass the time. So when we finally got to talk to a real human, they put us on the next available flight, at 5:50. After asking many times, we were assured our luggage would be put on the same plan as us.

Finally, we took this silly German people-mover to the plane from the gate. By this time, almost all of the snow has melted. We finally took off and landed in Madrid around 9pm. As we waited for our luggage to come on the baggage claim belt, we realized our luggage did not follow us, and were resigned to filing claims with the airport for our bags. Somehow, I was not surprised at all by the fact they lost our bags. I was, at this point, much to tired to be angry. We greeted our Resident Director Mercedes, who had a long day at the airport waiting for us, and got on a bus to go to Alcala and have dinner. We went to a great restaurant right from the airport for dinner, even though we were all tired and just wanted to go to bed. There, we met the lucky travelers who took other flights and didn't lose their bags or have to wait in line for a quarter of a full day. From there, we went to a hotel where I have never been happier to lay in a bed.

We got up early the next day for a desayuno and a brief orientation with Mercedes. She tried to teach us the ways of the Madrid subway and bus system, but I doubt any of the info really sunk in. Around 1, we waited in the lobby to be picked up by our host family. Someone in the group described us as "puppies in a pet store waiting to be adopted". This analogy is pretty accurate to how we all felt, hoping to have a family who came on time to get us and give us a good home. Esperanza, my host mom came to get me and we drove to her apartment. The apartment is small, but centrally located and very convenient. Esperanza seems like she really knows what she is doing with hosting students, and wants to have me learn as much Spanish as possible. I then followed the popular pattern of eat/sleep/eat/sleep.

The next day the whole group of us went to Madrid. We took the train in which was about an hour ride, and met Mercedes. We took the metro with her to the puerta del sol, el corazón de Madrid. It was a beautiful day in Madrid and we walked around for hours and had a wonderful 3 course lunch (comida). We walked back to the train station, where we left hopeful our bags would be there when we got back to our casas. When I return to the casa, I learn my bag won't come until Thursday, because Wednesday is a holiday, dia de los Reyes, and no one will be working then. I definitely want to go back to Madrid as soon as possible to hit up the Rebajas (sales) after dia de los Reyes. However, no stores were open on Wednesday either, so I couldn't go out to buy some new clothes like I planned. I'm pretty sure I was seriously starting to smell from wearing the same 3 pairs of socks over again. Oh well.

Dia de los Reyes is like Christmas, where all the kids get there presents from los Reyes. Esperanza's sister and brother came over with their little kids who were all pumped to get their presents. Her brother has 5 year old twin girls who were little divas in the making but so cute. The sang and danced for me and asked me how to say everything in English. They even knew how to sing a Demi Lovato song? I also noticed on the news they use American songs in the background of the news clips. Some commercials are even in English. But most are dubbed over commercials which were clearly originally in English. I didn't think they would care so much about America.

And today, I went to my school, Alcalingua, to take a Spanish placement exam. It was pretty hard considering my last real Spanish test was last year. They they had an oral exam part where you just chatted with someone and they told you where you would most likely be placed. From there, we took a tour of Alcala in the freezing rain and snow. From there, we ran some errands and returned home...where my bags were waiting!! I was so happy to see them. They looked a little beaten up but still intact. I happily unpacked, showered and took a siesta. It is still gross and snowing out, which is what prompted me to write such an extensive blog entry. I was hoping to explore the nightlife, but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow night! I have my first day of classes tomorrow 10-2:45 (aye de mi). I'm excited to meet the other students and see what my schedule is like! I also intend to explore the town more if there is nice weather.

I will post the few pictures I took in Madrid and any others I take ASAP.
Hasta Luego!