Quick Tidbits

1. last night i went to a spanish discoteca (mostly spaniards and spanish music instead of more international music and international people). at one point in the night they played "follow the leader" by the soca boys!!! i got sooo excited because it reminded me of puerto vallarta cerca 2000. the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! we don't need no water, let the mother fucker burn! burn! burn! anyway, the spaniards were really into it and basically started line-dancing.

2. after spending the past weekend in france, i realized that french men are exponentially more attractive than spanish men.

3. thursday i'm done with classes for winter break! in a week i'm going to london!!

4. i eat a lot of dried fig and cheese sandwiches.

5. if i buy a baguette in the morning, it's gone by the time i go to sleep.

6. i still procrastinate heavily.

7. i got really into the t.v. show Dexter

Recent Travels and Turkey Day

Belgium, Netherlands, Thanksgiving, and Paris. Long Overdue Post

My last post ended seeing me on my way to Brussels, and it’s now been almost a month since the last post so quite a bit has passed. I’ll pick up where I last left off…

(+) 3 tapas: Brussels 24-hour adventure
While it was a bit of a trek getting to Brussels, it was completely worth it. Once I reached the city I wandered around by myself for about 6 hours without a map or a guidebook, which led to quite an interesting experience. As I searched around for 2 hours for a place to eat, I stumbled upon some pretty amazing sites. The whole city was entirely charming and beautiful. I was able to see the Bours, Saint Catherine’s Cathedral, the Grand-Place (city hall and world heritage site), a really cool derelict church, a courtyard that people don’t often go to because it’s out of the way, but very beautiful, and the major shopping area. I sampled some Belgian cuisine for lunch at Fritland, trying the beef carbonnade, Belgian fries, and a Jupiler beer. I also sampled quite a few dark chocolates from Leonidas. Eli finally got out of class and took a train over to Brussels, so I was able to meet up with him and our couchsurfing host, Jack, about 7 hours after my tour of the city. The three of us, and Jack’s girlfriend, went out to dinner then hit a popular bar for drinks. At this bar I was able to try my first Westmale, a true Belgian beer! The next morning before leaving I acquired my final treasure on the hunt for Belgian cuisine and had a scrumptious Liege waffle before boarding the train to Amsterdam!!

The Grand-Place, lit up at night!

(+) 2 tapas: Amsterdam 24-hour adventure
Awesome, beautiful, picturesque. Eli and I walked around a bit, Eli acting as tour guide since he’s been lucky enough to visit a couple times. The first day we hit most of the main sites, Dam Square (?), flower market (not so impressive), Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijksmuseum. At the Van Gogh Museum we got to see an art piece titled “For the Love of God”, which is this amazing platinum skull encrusted with over 8,000 diamonds!!! It was magnificent and beautiful but totally ridiculous and costs over 15 million GBP to produce. Later that night Eli took me through the Redlight District which was a complete, inescapable shock. Someone also offered us cocaine, which we politely declined. That night we had an awkward and uncomfortable couchsurfing experience, which is the reason for Amsterdam only receiving 2 tapas. The next day we hurried our asses out of that place to explore the rest of Amsterdam. We went to the Albert Cuyp Market, then the Anne Frank Museum (which we unfortunately did not have time to go into due to the long line and time constraints of travel). Instead I took lots of pictures from the outside and lots of pictures of dams in adorable Amsterdam. Then we walked over to Eli’s favorite pancake house, which turned out to be amazing. It was basically a closet at the top of really steep stairs, but turned out to be a hidden treat! After the pancake we left to go to Maastricht, and I was sad to leave, but am sure I’ll go back someday.
Just another dam, and me...

(+) 3 tapas: Maastricht by night
We got to Maastricht at about 6pm due to having to change modes of transportation 3 times because of train work :( boo. Eli made dinner for me and Josh (his older brother), we played a few drinking games, tried to rally the troops to go out, and eventually wandered from bar to bar in the little Dutch town. We had a great time going out, but I unfortunately had to wake up at 6am for my flight out of Eindhoven and hadn’t gone to bed until 4am. It was totally worth it being able to have fun with Eli and Josh and to explore Maastricht’s nightlife.

Josh, me, Eli

A few weeks later…

(+) 2 tapas: Thanksgiving, Spanish style
The UC coordinators here in Madrid organized a fancy sit-down dinner for every UC student studying in Madrid. This was interesting, it being the first time the year students got to meet and mingle with the semester students… which never really happened anyway, even after the large amounts of alcohol consumed by everyone. We ate some delicious food, even if it wasn’t as “traditional” as promised, and played some trivia games. I won a cookbook all about potatoes. I was really happy until I discovered that all the measurements are in Spanish, which means they aren’t actually measurements at all, but rather sizes to eyeball. Afterwards everyone went out and had a good time celebrating our holiday of family and gluttony!

(+) 2 tapas: Thanksgiving no. 2
Tina, one of the girls here for the year, invited everyone over for a second, more traditional Thanksgiving at her house. Everyone brought their own special dish (I brought Gung Gung’s candied yams), and Tina took care of the Turkeys. My low expectations for university students’ cooking were greatly exceeded, and the dinner was a complete success, as I left over-stuffed, happy, and tired.

(+) 2 tapas: Thanksgiving no. 3
Susi decided to make a Thanksgiving dinner for her roommates (2 French girls, a Spaniard, and Belgian) and invited me over to enjoy it! She whipped up a delicious meal which ended with Nico’s guest (an Argentinean bard) singing songs to us accompanying his voice on guitar. Que divertido!

And another week later… I will try to be brief, but we’ll see how well I’ll do.

(+) 4 tapas: Paris!!
Day 1: In the morning Jen (cousin, host, tour guide extraordinaire) and I visited mom’s recommendation for a good macaroon: Laduree. First real, French macaroon - very delicious, very expensive. Next we walked around the St. Germain area where I picked up my first real, French crepe. Also delicious. We then wandered over to the Notre Dame cathedral, explored the inside, and took lots of pictures. Next we walked over to the Louvre and took more pictures outside before we had to go back so Jen could get ready for work. After some napping I then walked over to the Eiffel Tower, about a 25 minute walk from Jen’s apartment, and basically took it all in for an hour. I got back to Jen’s at about 830 when she was done with work, and we went over the Champs Elysees for more sightseeing (Arc de Triomphe) and dinner. We ate at Leons where I tasted my first real, French “moules et frites” – mussels and fries.

Macaroons from Laduree, mmmm.

Notre Dame, crepe in hand.The Louvre

The Eiffel Tower sparkles at night! (It's lit up blue as the current host of the EU)

Champs/Arc combo in the middle of the intersection!

Day 2: In the morning we went far north to go see the Sacre Coeur. After lots of picture-taking, tourism, and exploring of the area, we went to Le Bon Marche for lunch. Again, we went back to Jen’s before her work and took another nap. After I woke from my nap I met up with my friend Jenna (who’s studying in Granada but happened to be visiting Paris at the same time) at the Louvre. Being Friday night after six, we were able to enter free as students. Exploring the Louvre felt like reliving AP World History in high school because I was able to see all these things that I had learned about then, like the Code of Hammurabi and ancient Egyptian society. I also got to see the famed Mona Lisa, which was exciting but definitely overrated.

At the bottom of the Sacre Coeur

Me and Jen in front of the Sacre Coeur. Other tourists just take crappy pictures.

Day 3: I woke up early to go visit the Palace of Versailles. I was really excited for this visit because I’d wanted to see it since learning about it during that AP world history class. The Palace was also set up with Jeff Koons’ pop art exhibit. The palace was amazing, beautiful, and extremely gaudy and I really enjoyed Koons’ art displayed all around the palace. The fabled gardens were larger than I had imagined, I only wished it were a warm summer day rather than a really cold, wintry one so that I might have been more willing to spend the afternoon there rather than leave after seeing what I thought was “enough”. The rest of the afternoon resulted in a failed attempt to check out the catacombs, and instead investing in some scrumptious looking pastries. That night I met up with Zoe (one of my best friends from high school, studying in Paris for the semester) and we went out to dinner in the Odeon area. It was great to see her and sample real French food together (i.e. escargot, a little too earthy for Z).

Jeff Koons' "Balloon Flower" in the middle of the courtyard in front of the palace.

Side of the palace from the gardens

The gardens of the palace

Day 4: The first Sunday of every month most of the museums in Paris are open for free. Jen and I took advantage of this and went to the Rodin Museum where I got to see the Thinker and the Gates of Hell. After the Rodin we strolled (and by strolled, I mean we took a lengthy walk) over to Angelina’s, mom’s other recommendation for great hot chocolate. Definitely some of the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. We then walked through the Tuileries, which are pretty unimpressive in the winter, on our way to the Musee d’Orsay. Unfortunately the line on this particular free-Sunday was the size of a line for Disneyland, so we skipped it and went to la Marais, which is the Jewish quarter of Paris. We pretty much walked around and window-shopped for the rest of the day before getting one of the most delicious pita/falafel/kebabs I’ve ever had. After that we went back to Jen’s where I proceeded to pack up for my loathsome departure.

Cousin Jen and 'the Thinker'

The Rodin Museum - how cool would it have been to live here???

Paris was beautiful and amazing, filled with delicious food on every corner and beautiful architecture on every block. I was sad to go, but somewhat relieved to get back to Spain where the food is much cheaper and the people speak a language I understand. I’m excited to go back to Paris in the summer with my sister!!

P.S. My personal thoughts on the French public transportation system (RER, underground, train, tram): goddamn awful. Awful design, awful people who work for it, confusing signs and network.

Halloween and Zoe’s Visit

(+3) tapas: October 31, 2008 - Espanish Jalloween madness
This year Halloween fell on a Friday and my roommate Nora (the other American) was convinced from the day I moved in that we would have a party. Of course, the boys were 100% down for the fiesta even though it isn’t their “get trashed and dress slutty” holiday. Together we managed to buy tons of booze, snacks, candy, and decorations (some of which Txema’s uncles brought back for us from China). We enforced a strict dress code and invited as many people as we could think of. The result? Success!! All my roommates impressed me and dressed up, as well as got into the holiday spirit of having fun. They really know how to throw a party. Our flat was filled with about 50% Americans and 50% mixture of internationals. In true American style, most of my friends (and some of Nora’s) ended up either throwing up or getting too drunk for their own good and leaving by 3am. That left pretty much all the Europeans at our flat, ready to go to a club at 4am. Everyone seemed to have a good time and really enjoyed themselves, and I’m proud to say that my roommates and I threw a kick-ass housewarming party!!
The flatmates! Nora (magenta from Rocky Horror), Pablo (skeletal Joker), Iñigo (still not really sure, he bought that costume night-of from a drugstore), me (Gogo from Kill Bill), Txema (super-skeleton, made in China).

The Boys, plus Iñigo's friend Fernando.

The girls, in character, even after Pablo told us to "make love to the camera".

(-1) tapa: Halloween aftermath
The next day our flat was a complete mess. The ground in every room was sticky from spilled alcohol and too many shoes. There were cigarette butts, cans, empty bottles, and trash of every kind in every nook and cranny. Someone threw-up what can only be described as digested chocolate onto my bathroom door/floor/wall. Someone, not yet sure who…, decided it would be a good idea to steal break the glass covering the fire extinguisher on the wall on our floor… and replace the device with a pumpkin. Thanks, now we have to pay to replace the extinguisher. Oh and we got in trouble with our landlord, neighbors, and building president. Luckily that can be remedied with a little bit o’ wine and some good ol’ American smiles :D

(+2) tapas: Nov 6 – 8, 2008 – Zoe comes for the weekend!
Zoe, one of my best friends from high school, is studying abroad in Paris for the semester and hopped on a plane to visit me here!!! For breakfast we attempted to make French toast caramelized in brown sugar. That turned interesting real fast, but wasn’t a complete failure. We then met up with her friend Sam, another girl studying in Madrid with Colgate’s program. We went to Sol, on a mission to show Zoe around, but ended up at a bar with Chelsea when it started to rain. Zoe got to try her first Spanish sangria and tapas while we waited the rain out for a couple hours. I then went to my friend Jami’s birthday surprise dinner at a THAI restaurant (oh thank Thai heaven for spicy, delicious food) while Z&S went elsewhere. We met up again later at my apartment and spent the night dancing away at a discoteca. The next day Zoe and I walked around old Madrid, I got to show her the Opera house, the Royal Palace, and the church next to the palace. For some odd reason there was a parade of people in some weird costume, a choir outside the church, a huge display of flowers, and the church was completely open for free visits. Naturally, Z and I took advantage of this and went inside. I still have no idea what the hubbub was about. Then we walked over through La Latina to the Plaza Mayor, where AGAIN there was a great hubbub. Still, not a clue. We had a miscommunication with Sam and she ended up going to the Prado without us because we couldn’t get a hold of her. When we finally met up, our stomachs were growling so we set out for some delicious all-you-can-eat sushi. That was the first time I’ve had sushi since august, and ohhh it felt so good. We saw “Burn After Reading” later that night and I wasn’t impressed. The next day I took Zoe to the Rastro (flea-market), but things took a turn for the worse when she discovered her camera missing :( , so we returned home and relaxed before her flight back to Paris. I was sad to see Zoe go after such a short weekend, but it was so good to see a familiar face here in Madrid. I can’t wait to see her in Paris in December!

And what’s up for this weekend? Brussels, Amsterdam, Maastricht, oh my!

First 2 Weeks of Real Life

If you don’t like public rants about why Spanish uni sucks, then don’t read the first entry, entitled: Universidad. If you like me, read the rest.

(-) 3 tapas: Universidad
I have now officially finished my first 2 weeks of classes and have discovered that hating school is not specific to the American system. University here is so unbelievable frustrating. First off, we received no direction in picking our classes. Each facultad has a different system for posting classes. Facultads are basically the different schools (i.e. facultad of history, or facultad of economics). The Spanish are incredibly disorganized, and it was so difficult to find classes because I’m taking classes in two different Facultads (one in Econ, one in Information). I visited about 8 different classes, originally trying to keep my schedule to Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday only, but that didn’t work out. After trial and error I finally got my schedule to work out and now have class Monday-Thursday. Secondly, it is really difficult to understand some of the professors, and impossible to understand any of the students. In addition, the professors don’t assign homework, but then they talk about these “trabajos” we have to do, but don’t tell us how long they are supposed to be or when they are even due. They give absolutely no explicit direction whatsoever. Very different from the American system, and very, very frustrating. Luckily, Spanish people are so far really nice, and I’ve been able to ask some students in my classes for help just understanding what the professors want from us. Lastly, a lot of the classes (aka all) use the virtual campus to matriculate and to post the course description and other class goodies. We cannot access virtual campus until we are officially registered, which will be who knows when, thanks to the very disorganized and unhelpful UC-center at Complutense. Thus, I had no idea when my Historia del Grafismo Espanol class changed to Intro to Grafic Design instead. The only good thing about school is that, generally, the Facultads have kickass food for cheap.

Official classes: Economía del Desarrollo, Estructura Económica Mundial, Introducción al Diseño Gráfico (Historia del Grafismo Español), y Relaciones Internacionales en los medios audiovisuales.

(+) 1 tapa: Sometimes my Spanish seems like it’s getting a lot better.

(-) 1 tapa: Most of the time my Spanish is still just really shitty.

(+) 2 tapas: tutoring
I started tutoring Susana’s coworker, Alejandra, in English. It’s super fun and Alejandra is a great “student”.

(+) 4 tapas: Matt and Ivy’s visit to Madrid!! (in brief)

Matt and Ivy are two of my friends from UCSD who are studying abroad in Barcelona for the semester. I got to see them back in August when they first got to Spain, but only briefly. They decided to come back to Madrid for some awesome Katy-time and to experience this great city.

Day 1: Beautiful, clear, warm day in Madrid. Chickpea and spinach stew for breakfast/lunch --> Metro to Sol where we found a Haribo candy store and picked up some goods --> Mini walk around Sol --> Back to Sol for pastries at La Mallorquina --> Walk to Plaza Mayor, sit in Plaza Mayor and listen to some street performers --> Go up to my friend Barton’s apartment for the first time who lives IN Plaza Mayor. Amazing views from his apartment --> Walk to the Prado to view some Goya, El Greco, and Velazquez --> Go home for some pasta dinner --> Unsuccessfully go out, but still have a great time!

Day 2: Pure awesomeness on a melancholy, gray day. Metro to Sol to get more pastries and coffee at La Mallorquina --> Walk from Sol to the botanical gardens at Retiro. Pretty flowers, pretty greenery, cool mini-museum --> Walk from botanical gardens to Vertical Gardens nearby. Basically a giant wall covered with different kinds of green plants --> Go inside to the Caixa Museum next door to the vertical gardens --> Check out the floor dedicated to the exhibit of Charlie Chaplin. Pretty cool, learned new things about Charlot (who looks mighty different without that little moustache of his) --> Walk from Caixa museum to Retiro park. I had never entered on this side, but it was incredibly gorgeous. Lots of greenery, lots of trees, lots of grass, lots of leaves fall, lots of Autumny feeling --> Somehow navigated our way to the pond/lake thing in Retiro where we rented a boat! --> Row-boat adventure in the pond at Retiro!!! --> Walk from Retiro to Chueca for some cañas and tapas at El Tigre --> Go from El Tigre back to Sol to the bar Dubliners to watch Real Madrid play Atlético Madrid (super exciting game) --> Go home to prepare to go out for another somewhat unsuccessful night.
Oh well, Day 2 with Ivy and Matt was definitely one of the best days I’ve had yet in Madrid. Visitors are fun because it gives me the excuse to act like a tourist and do all the touristy things I wouldn’t do normally.

Vertical gardens on the right, Caixa Forum (museum) on the left.

Matt, me, Blake looking out over lake in retiro.

Me and Matt having a blast chasing the Soltar boat around the lake.

Oh ya, I also officially LOVE Madrid :D

10 Day Vacay

We had 11 days off between the end of ILP and the official start-date of university (Sept 20 – 30) at Complutense. Susi and I decided to venture around the Iberian Peninsula by bus. We ended up going to Córdoba, Sevilla, Olhão (in the Algarve – southern Portugal), and Lisboa.

(+) 1 tapa: Córdoba
Saturday night, after finishing finals, Susi and I took the redeye bus to Córdoba. It took about 5 hours, so we arrived around 6am. Because of this, we walked over to the closest park and took a nap until the city actually woke up. We walked over to “Old Town”, which is actually the only part of the city which is historically preserved. The rest of Córdoba is modern and completely normal. I think it’s funny because the Jewish quarter of Old Town is called “la Judería”, which makes it seem like a business where they make Jews (like a panadería – a bakery, a pastelería – a pastry bakery, a zapatería – a shoe store, etc). Anyway, while we were in Córdoba we visited all of the Jew quarter, the synagogue, the mosque (la Mezquita, which is now a Roman Catholic cathedral), and the Alcázar. We also went to a restaurant that Rick Steves recommended, and it turned out to be pure shit. That was the last time we took food advice from him.

One of the many fountains inside the Alcazar.



I think this is my best shot of the arches and columns inside the Mezquita.


(+) 3 tapas: Sevilla
Sevilla was AWESOME. After braving the pouring rain in Córdoba, Susi and I hopped on a bus to Sevilla and got there around 8pm, when Susi’s friend Juan Ignacio picked us up from the bus station. He took us back to his house, just outside of Sevilla, and we got to stay in his guest house! We met his amazing parents, and his younger brother, and ate some delicious food. The highlight of Sevilla was probably all the amazing food we ate, both while we were out and the food his parents fed us for dinner. Our host dad even made us the most gigantic vat of scrumptious paella!!! Everything we ate in Sevilla was incredible, it was definitely nice having the insiders tour of Sevilla. Since we were staying there for 3 days, we were able to take our time with the sites. Each day we would go see something, go eat delicious food, then go home and take a nap. We saw the cathedral, the Alcázar and its gardens, Italica (ancient ruins outside of Sevilla), Plaza España, and pretty much all of Sevilla. Juan Ignacio’s friend also acted like a tour guide to us because he knew so much about Sevilla’s history that we basically got our own private tour of everything. It was beautiful and we ate really well, so Susi and I loved it!

The cathedral, view from about half way up the tower.



Inside the Alcazar.




Ancient coliseum inside Italica, ruins outside Sevilla.



Me, Jose Alberto (our 'tour guide') and Susi in the Plaza Espana.



(+) 1 tapa: Olhão
After Sevilla we took another redeye bus over to the Algarve. We ended up staying with this crazy guy named Hugo who has been a member of CouchSurfing.com for 2.5 years. In those 2.5 years he has hosted over 200 PEOPLE!! That pretty much means he only has a couple days to himself every month. Anyway, that day we went to Ilha Farol which is one of the islands off of the coast of Olhão. We got there kind of late but it was beautiful and it seemed like we had our own private beach. We were enjoying it until we got cold and had to wait an hour for the last ferry back to the mainland, but we managed to pass the time by my reading out loud to Susi from the book Blink. That night Hugo took us, and the two other couchsurfers who were simultaneously staying with him, to this restaurant only a stone’s throw away from the ocean. It was delicious seafood, as Olhão is mainly an old fisherman’s town. The next day Susi and I walked around town and then left mid-afternoon for Lisboa.

Sunsetting, looking out towards the islands from Olhao.




(+) 4 tapas: Lisboa!!
For our 4 nights in Lisboa Susi and I stayed in the apartment of these guys from Couchsurfing.com. Only one of them was home for the weekend though, but we didn’t really see him much either. On our first day in Lisboa we walked around our neighborhood, the Alfama, which is the old Arabic quarter of the city. We went to the bakery for breakfast and experienced our first god bread: sweet bread baked with coconut shavings and powdered sugar on top. We saw the Sé, which is the old, large cathedral, chanced upon a farmer’s market/street fair, saw the pantheon, and then walked into downtown. Afterwards we took the bus over to Belém and saw the Jéronimos Monastery, as well as the Tower of Belém. After missing the last tour for the Tower, we ended up crossing the street to get some delicious Pasteis de Belém, which is basically a puff pastry filled with custard and topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. DELISH.

Tower of Belem.

The next day we took a daytrip to Sintra, a UNESCO world heritage site. We took a bus from Sintra to the nearby town of São Pedro where there was a huge farmer’s market going on, and we bought a giant loaf of god bread for the next day, and then made ourselves sandwiches with fresh bread, fresh cheese, and dried figs from the market. We took the bus back to Sintra which was so fun. The streets in Sintra are super narrow, and the city is on a hill, but this didn’t phase any of the bus drivers. Instead, they tore down the hill on these huge busses, making it feel like a really unsafe but fun rollercoaster! Back in town we walked around a little bit, saw the Palace of Sintra which is actually pretty unimpressive, and then took a tour bus around to see some other sites. The tour bus (another awesome rollercoaster ride) took us up to the Castle of the Moors. This castle was really cool because it’s built into the hillside and has beautiful views of Sintra. You can’t even see the castle because the walls are all stone, but covered in ivy and moss, blending in to the mountain. After, we caught the bus up to the Palace de Pena, where we ended up missing the last tour by 5 minutes, AGAIN. So we ended up taking the train back to Lisboa to eat and sleep.

Archway in the Castle of the Moors.

Our final full day, Susi and I took another daytrip to Cascais, a beautiful beach town just outside of Lisboa. There, Susi and I managed to get our hands on our first Indian food since being in Europe, and ate it on the beach. The food was so good, and it really had me missing Bombay Garden back at home. We stayed on this tiny beach for the rest of the day, laying out, relaxing, and swimming in the freezing cold water. It was wonderful to have such a relaxing day after spending the previous 9 days walking around sight-seeing in every city, non-stop. That night we returned to Lisboa and one of the roommates had come home from his backpacking trip, so we cooked dinner with the two guys in the apartment. We had a lot of fun with them, and we learned about a lot of new music as well as new things about Portuguese culture.

Beach in Cascais. Its actually beautiful, minus the row of cigarette butts left by the high tide and the swarm of locusts over the water we were swimming in.

Our last day we went to Belém again to get more pastries!! Then we went straight from there to the airport. We had amassed 7 bottles of wine on this trip (1 for each of us from our host dad in Sevilla, 2 bottles in Olhão, Susi’s 2 bottles of Porto, and my 1 bottle of Ginja – a cherry liquor with actual fruit inside the bottle). We ended up wrapping these bottles up in towels and the Asterix sheets Susi had acquired, and then stuffed them all into her bag. Then at the airport we had to check the bag and had them put some “fragile” stickers on it, and then just prayed to Dionysus that our luggage would make it back to Madrid safe. We also ended up sitting on the plane next to this French guy we had met on our first day in Lisboa. Finally we made it back to Madrid to find our wine bag safe and unscathed!!! This was a true testament to the fact that the trip was a total success. :D

Links to my photo albums on facebook:

Cordoba: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006246&l=1a3a1&id=1064550102
Sevilla: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006250&l=3d681&id=1064550102

Portugal: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006253&l=f6cf6&id=1064550102

Now back to reality…

Final weeks of ILP: Recap

Alright, so it looks like the last time I wrote was 2 weeks before the end of the intensive language program. Well those 2 weeks were mostly eventful, minus the grueling and painful classes every day. But here’s a brief entry about everything eventful that I can remember:

(+) 2 tapas: Mabi turns 20!
On the eve of Mabi’s 20th birthday we all went out to a bar and then a discoteca where we all enjoyed ourselves and danced the night away!

(+) 5 tapas: La Noche en Blanco
La Noche en Blanco is part of the European White Nights celebrating contemporary art from 9pm until 7am the next morning! In summary, it basically consisted of hundreds of different kinds of art, all on display for free (including museum tours), and tons of people who flooded the streets of Madrid. You can all read about it here:

http://lanocheenblanco.esmadrid.com/lanocheenblanco/en/lanocheenblanco

I was very lucky and got to see some amazing things. The first place I went was to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, where Real Madrid CF plays. They had opened their doors for a free tour of the stadium, and hundreds, maybe thousands of people showed up to get a free glimpse.

Sarah G. and me on the field!!

Sarah, Blake, and me just relaxing on the bench :)

Right next to the stadium was a performance of vertical theater. After our tour of the stadium, we went to watch these actors perform a show on the side of what looked like stacked containers (the kind carried on cargo ships) instead of performing on the side of a building. They were all strapped into harnesses and performing and dancing horizontal to the ground!! As you can imagine, it was pretty awesome.
After watching the vertical performance for a few minutes we left to hunt down our next art piece. We showed up at the Palacio Real to find out that there was a line for a tour of the palace kitchens. We immediately jumped in line, only to wait for another hour to get inside, but it was worth it. The kitchens were HUGE and Sarah said it felt like being in the movie Ratatouille. The only bad part of the tour is that we were hungry and there was lots of real food out, but we weren’t allowed to touch any of it because it was on display.
The GIANT stove top in one of the kitchens.

When we walked out of the palace we ended up in front of a giant art installation. Here, Lancome had sponsored this art piece that was basically a giant ruby squirting perfume every few minutes. We jumped over the velvet ropes to score this awesome picture! Rachel, me, and Sarah standing in front of the ruby, spraying its poison into the wind.

Once we had successfully taken our picture, Sarah and I took about a 15-min walk to this enormous light installation I really wanted to see. The walk was definitely worth it. It was the giant field covered in thousands of spheres of light. When we got there they were all different colors, then all of a sudden they went off and we were scared that the light show was over. But then they went back on, but this time all in the same color, and they started changing colors together all through the colors of the rainbow. It was amazing, like watching a real-life screen-saver.

We finally ended our night by meeting up with some other girls for some chocolate and churros at 4am. We went to this place called San Gines which is supposedly very famous for their chocolate con churros. We actually had to wait in line, and there was a bouncer! Luckily he thought we were cute (:P) and put us at a table behind the velvet ropes instead of making us stand like some of the other patrons!! It would have been a great way to end La Noche en Blanco.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the end… Apparently taxis in Sol (downtown) don’t like to take fares that are going outside of the immediate neighborhood. We literally tried to get a taxi for 30 minutes and ended up walking all the way from Sol back to our colegio mayor, which took about 1 hour. Not fun. As soon as I got to my room, I threw my shoes off and layed down to think about all the amazing stuff I was able to see, before I promptly passed out. La Noche en Blanco, or rather the European White Nights, is probably one of the coolest and greatest events EVER!!

(+) 2 tapas: Mexican Independence Day!
September 15th a huge group of us went out in search of a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Mexican Independence Day (apparently you’re supposed to party and celebrate it at midnight – aka 12:00am September 16th). We ended up eating amazing food. I shared a rockin’ platter of nachos with two other girls, as well as a dish of enchiladas con mole. Both of these things were amazing, and most of us Californians had been craving our much-missed Mexican food. Although Mexican food here is super expensive, this stuff was totally worth it.

(+) 1 tapa: End of ILP!
Friday, September 19th was the day of our finals, aka the day of FREEDOM. I am soooo thrilled to be done with that course.

The very next day I moved all my things into my flat. My room is decent sized, with a bed, desk, armoir, nightstand, and interior window. My bed has slats for the mattress that are too big for the bed, so I always run into them and get bruises. Oh well, my apartment is huge (but old and falling apart), and I share it with 3 Spanish guys (2 from Bilbao, 1 from Pamplona) and an American girl (an ’07 Tulane graduate!). My flat-mates are all really awesome but I didn’t really get to talk to them because I left that very night for my travels and didn’t even sleep in my own bed!

On to my travels the very next day…

4 Day Weekend and not much to do…

As I said before, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of specific days, times, and events. So these are the highlights, or at least everything I can remember that’s worth talking about. We had a 4-day weekend this past weekend because there was a holiday on Tuesday, so we got Monday off as well.

(-) 5 tapas: school
ILP sucks so much. Last week we had 5 consecutive days of classes, so I subtracted one tapa for every day. I still can’t manage to stay awake, especially since I have a sugar crash from breakfast everyday around 11.

(+) 2 tapas: Susi’s Birthday
Since Sept. 3 was Susi’s 21st birthday, a bunch of us went out to celebrate. We tried going to this bar but it was super packed so instead we went to a restaurant where we got 9 pitchers of sangria and about 5 raciones (plates a little bigger than tapas). Everyone had such a good time that some didn’t even go to school the next day! Also, Chelsea showed up and I finally got to see her for the first time in Madrid. After the restaurant, people split off, so Chelsea, Susi and I went back to the bar (El Tigre) that was packed earlier. This time it was almost cleared out so we were able to get cañas and huge portioned tapas! We were so impressed that we made a trip back to the same bar only a few days later for even more tapas!!

Me, Chelsea, and the Birthday girl with her birthday crown!!

(+) 2 tapas: Joy with Chelsea!
Friday night was the beginning of the four day weekend for us UCers. Most people left to explore Spain and Portugal, but I stayed behind to play in Madrid. I joined Chelsea and two of her new friends for the night. We went to a discoteca in Sol called “JOY” at 2:30am and stayed until the metro re-opened at 6:30am. It was tons of fun dancing to all different kinds of music, but mostly European techno junk, all night! Unfortunately by the time 5am rolled around we were all sort of grumpy, tired, and hungry. Now we know next time we should take a nap before going out until the sun rises.

Che and me before going to Joy

(+) 1 tapa: catching up on sleep
I spent most of Saturday and Sunday getting the sleep I missed from going out all night. Woohoo

(-) 1 tapa: Apartment hunting
Apartment hunting sucks more than it does in San Diego.

(+) 1 strangely flavored tapa: Daytrip to Segovia
This was probably the oddest day of my extended weekend. 5 of us girls that were still here decided to make a daytrip to Segovia and we were supposed to meet at 7:30am at the cafeteria. I went down only to find out that it wouldn’t open until 8:30 because of the holiday, and ended up lying in bed, awake, fully clothed, for an hour. We didn’t even leave the bus station in Madrid until 10:30, even though our original plan was to leave by 9:30. Once we got to Segovia we went straight for the Roman Aqueduct and took lots of touristy pictures. After doing that we didn’t really know what else to do so we just took a lot more random pictures as we walked towards the city’s Plaza Mayor. Once there we found the beautiful Cathedral, attempted to go inside, found out we had to pay for entrance, and just decided to leave Segovia instead. Mabi, angered by the entrance fee, renounced her religion (Catholicism) on the spot. I led us in the wrong direction, but almost to the Alcazar, but we were too hungry to do anything so we just walked until we found cheap food. After eating we took the 1.5hr, 12Euro bus ride back to Madrid. We left thinking Segovia was a beautiful city, but we were mostly unimpressed because it was so small and sleepy. We stopped in a pastry shop right when we got back to Madrid, and it immediately started pouring. We were only about 10min walking from our dorm, but instead we opted for a taxi ride so we wouldn’t get wet. By the time dinner rolled around it seemed like we hadn’t even gone to Segovia, and we concurred that it was in fact one of the weirdest days/daytrips any of us could remember. That night was also the craziest thunder/lightening/hailstorm ever!!!!

Segovian Aqueduct

Me, Susi, Ariel, Natasha: boyband pic atop the aqueduct

Susi, me, and Natasha outside the Cathedral

Natasha (who never made it into the air in any of the pictures), Mabi (who worked really hard to get up), me, and Ariel (who usually made it jumping in the frame).
One of the many, many attempts at a jumping picture while we were wondering what to do with our time in Segovia. This was the closest we got to all being in the air at the same time.

Spanish Oddities and Other Thoughts on Life

(+) 1 tapa: Spanish hairstyles
While seriously ugly and clearly lacking good judgment, men run amok in this city with the most absurd hairstyles. There’s the regular mullet, the rat-tail, the dread mullet, and the single dread rat-tail. I have also seen the occasional single dread on a few women as well. This only received a plus because I enjoy a good laugh every time I see one of these.

(-) 1 tapa: Gold diggers… the gross kind
For some reason men and women alike think its socially acceptable to pick their nose on the metro, in the middle of the street, waiting at a streetlight, inside a bar, etc. They just go straight for the gold without any second thoughts. BLECH

(-) 1 tapa: Small apartments
Apartments here are tiny, rooms akin to walk-in closets in the states.

(-) 1 tapa: Lack of personal space
While I generally don’t mind people getting too close to me in line or touching me for emphasis during conversation, I truly cannot stand being grabbed and groped by men in bars/clubs.

(-) 1 tapa: Normal eating hours
Breakfast at 8am, lunch at 2:30pm, dinner at 9pm. It’s not so much the hours I mind, it’s the fact that Spaniards don’t snack, thus leaving me extremely hungry and irritable in those hours between meals.

(+) 1 tapa: Late dinners
Like I said before, I don’t mind eating late. In fact, I embrace it. It reminds me of living in San Diego and waiting until the last minute to eat. And it also reminds me of home, when we don’t sit down for dinner until very late due to bad planning.

(-) 1 tapa: lack of sleep
The only down side of eating so late is that I don’t get to sleep until late. And if I have to eat breakfast at 8am, then I get very few hours of sleep. I don’t understand how Spaniards function like this, but hopefully I’ll acclimate.

(-) 1 tapa: the weak $
Even though the dollar has been appreciating these past couple of weeks, it still SUCKS. The reason I don’t really eat between meals is because I don’t want to spend money on over-priced food when I’ve already paid for the meal plan at my dorm. I’m also very tempted to buy so many clothes here, but need to save my money for more important things, like travel and rent.

(+) 1 tapa: IVA
IVA = VAT = sales tax. While IVA is extremely high (something like 16%), I learned that if I save my receipts I can be refunded at customs when I eventually leave the country!

(-) 1 tapa: blog upkeep
I’m already disliking this blog business. It’s already become somewhat of a chore, but alas I know I’ll benefit from having written it all down once I leave this fabulous country.

(-) 1 tapa: my internet connection
My computer LOVES to HATE internet connectivity. It once again has become allergic to wireless internet. In San Diego it hated to function, at home it rarely connected, and now here in Madrid it refuses to let me have access even when everyone else in the entire building has access. I’m never buying an HP computer again.

(+) 1 tapa: vinegar
Since all the food in the dorms is composed of salt, ham, and potatoes, vinegar has become a lifesaver. It transforms the food and makes everything taste better, or just tolerable.

First WHOLE Week in Madrid

First Week: (+) 4 tapas

(-) 2 tapas: School
Monday we had placement exams and I ended up in the middle group, which was lucky because the cost of our books was at least 10 Euros less than the other groups. As of now I’ve already had 5 days of classes and am already bored out of my mind, can barely pay attention, and fall asleep by the 3rd hour. Oh well, at least my Spanish is improving?

(+) 2 tapas: Shopping, Spanish style
This past weekend I went shopping with Mabi and Natasha on the popular street Calle Princesa. We pretty much stopped in at every store because everything looks good and new and fun. I pretty much died inside Zara and wanted to build myself a home there. Spanish Zara > poor imitation U.S. Zara.

(+) 1 tapa: Parachute Pants
Apparently parachute/Hammer pants are alive and kicking here in Madrid. And they rock.

(-) 2 tapas: Apartment hunting
… sucks. Mabi and I went to see a couple apartments, got lost more than once, only to stumble upon closets worth 350 Euros/month. Then we got on the one metro line that was under construction for the month and had to take the most roundabout trip to meet our group for class, including 4 different metro lines and 45 minutes of lost time, which leads me to…

(+) 1 tapa: Madrid city tour
Mabi and I ended up being one hour late for our class tour of Madrid because of our Great Metro Ride of 2008. We met up with her group (mine was long gone) and missed pretty much everything about the history of Medieval Madrid but just in time for the walking part of the tour. Then we all met up and got sangria (which I couldn’t drink) and tapas (which I inhaled) with the teachers.

Kilometro 0 in Sol, where all distances in Madrid are measured from (i.e. Madrid to Barcelona)

(+) 1 tapa: Finding out I have 2 left feet
Some girls and I went out salsa dancing in Sol. It was very interesting due in part to the variety of characters we met and the dancing we explored. I was pretty sure I knew how to salsa after taking lessons in P.E. in middle school, only to find out I was sorely wrong and actually SUCK at dancing. I actually head-butted some poor man! It is quite possibly the hardest dance I have ever tried. Nico and Ariel, on the other hand, turned out to be pure geniuses at it and had the boys after them all night. In spite of my total lack of salsa coordination I still had tons of fun and also mastered the basic Merengue step. Now I know I am definitely never going dancing with my grandparents!

The salsa girls and 2 strangers we danced with at the club.

(+) 1 tapa: Finally meeting Nacho
Friday night everyone in the EAP group got dressed up to go

to this big club called Kapital. I invited Nacho, Jessica’s coworker’s cousin’s step-son (yeah, interesting connection), and I finally got to meet him after the numerous emails we had been sending back and forth. Unfortunately the bouncers at Kapital decided to be complete assholes that night and carded about ¼ of the group, and didn’t accept my international student id card as official identification, even though a few others used the same ID but weren’t carded. Instead, 4 others stayed with me and we went bar hopping nearby and were offered tons of free chupitos (which I also couldn’t drink).
Nico, Steph, me, and Mabi in front of the Banco de Espana.

Nacho 1 (Nico's friend), Natasha, Mabi, me, and Nacho 2 (my friend). He and I decided to make silly faces. I personally believe we made the picture better :D

Nico, Mabi, Natasha, and me in front of some really pretty hotel.

(+) 2 tapas: Sergio Ramos
… is really hot. We watched him play for Real Madrid in a sports bar near the colegio mayor. Fun times.

These days are passing by pretty fast, and I haven’t been able to keep track of time, or when any of these events happen. When I name days, it’s just a guess because I really can’t remember specifics at this point. All I know is, Spain is very interesting… read next post to understand why.