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…