Wow! Sorry guys! Last Thursday the computers crashed at the internet cafe, and we have been out of town all weekend, and we were too busy yesterday to stop by! I think I might have forgotten half of the things that have happened since my last update, but I´ll try to remember as much as possible.
Well, last Thursday was the final day of classes, and we took this killer Art History final that I´m pretty sure I made like a 3 on. A group of us got together to study all Wednesday afternoon, but I can´t really tell if it helped. Not to mention that we took a study break Wed. night to go see Ocean´s 13- in ENGLISH! 2 hours of George Clooney and Brad Pitt in a language I understand perfectly was just the pick me up I needed. Also on Thursday, we watched that crazy Pedro Almódovar film Habla con ella that Srta. Crowell took us to see at the Stevens Center sophomore year in high school... I could appreciate it a little bit more here 5 years later, but it was not my favorite thing ever.
Thursday night a small group of about 10 to a dozen of us went out to walk around and hang out to celebrate classes being finished- plus we got to sleep in the next morning! Yeah! We met this crazy homeless guy in a park that was absolutely hilarious, and surprisingly brilliant, he knew a ton about English literature. Who would have guessed? Friday involved lots of sleeping. Ashley and I met up with Las Chicas to go shopping in Barrio del Pilar where Kimber lives, because they have a huge mall. I finally got to go to El Corte Inglés, which is kind of like a Spanish Macy's except way more awesome. After that we met up with Mavi and El Chico at the theater for Ana´s play. It was pretty weird, but entertaining at just how bizarre it was! There was not a lot of dialogue, and the spoken words in the background music were in English, but it was sort of fluffy abstract phrases that I think were supposed to be "deep", but actually didn´t make any sense. Then Mavi took us to this nice Italian restaurant near the apartment that was AMAZING. Seriously, I´m going to look like a beached whale when I get home because of all the incredible food here. Minus gazpacho and the 800000 lbs. of ham that Spaniards consume on a daily basis.
Saturday the entire group left with our professors on a bus to spend the weekend up north and travel, which was probably one of the highlights of my trip so far- not that it hasn´t ALL been incredible. We first stopped and saw this old monastery in this tiny town, (built around 900 AD) and it was absolutely beautiful. I just love the Spanish countryside. It´s a lot like North Carolina sometimes, except with a bigger variety of vegetation and wildflowers, and with ruins of castles and churches perched on top of hills and whatnot. We stayed the night in a microscopic mapdot of a place called Ambasmestas, in a NICE hotel, and that night we trekked up the hill from Ambasmestas to attend this crazy Summer Solstice festival... it was one of the weirdest events I have ever been a part of, but super fun nonetheless. The next morning we changed locations and went to some old Roman gold mines called Las Médulas, which looked similar to something you´d see at the Grand Canyon. Tons of huge caves and mountains and just awesome. I was so tired from all the hiking, though! I can´t wait to get home and show everyone pictures so you can understand what I´m talking about! Hahaha! We arrived that afternoon in a town called Molinaseca where there were 2 places to stay- a hostel, and a Casa Rural (house). Guess who was awesome and got to stay in the house? That´s right- this chica. Over the weekend we kind of formed a "group" of Ashley, myself, Kimber and Amanda, and Brett and Miguel. I feel very blessed to be able to hang out with this group because I think we are all kind of on the same page about a lot of things. We had the entire Casa Rural to ourself, and it was beautiful. If I ever build my own home, it is going to be full of Spanish tile and huge opening windows with balconies, just FYI.
Finally, we spent Monday in León, but I think by then everyone was a little bit tired and grouchy. It didn´t help that the wind was pretty chilly. We walked around for a while though, and then we all had lunch together at this really nice place. It was also the first place we ate as a group where they didn´t shove ham by the platefull at us- hallelujiah! If I never eat ham again it will be too soon. The dessert was also sent from God himself, some kind of cakey thing called San Marcos. Yummy!
Yesterday (Tuesday) Ashley and I went souvenier shopping at Plaza Mayor one last time, and I was beginning to freak out because I couldn´t believe that it was almost time to go. I still can´t believe it. This time two weeks ago I was ready to be back in the US, but now that it´s actually time to leave, I´m kind of bummed about it. I have missed my family and friends (aka anyone reading this), being able to drive, and fabric softener... but I have this big fear that there is so much in Spain that I haven´t experienced. ¡Que lástima!
Yesterday afternoon, Mavi picked us up after work and drove us to El Escorial, which was the giant palace/church/monastery constructed by Felipe II of Spain. It kind of reminded me of the castle from the movie Ever After, except for the fact that El Escorial is surrounded by mountains! After that we went to Valle de los Caidos, where the big mausoleum to Frederico Franco (dictator of Spain during the 1930´s until... errr... sometime) and this HUUUUUGE cross on the side of the mountain stands. It was almost completely vacant, as Franco is not so popular, but amazing to visit nonetheless. I think Mavi thought we were weird for wanting to see it though. That night we got ready in a flash and went with the class to the National Ballet of España, which is not at all what Americans think of when you hear the word "ballet". A lot of it was Flamenco-style dancing, and it was amazing and elaborate and highly entertaining. Flamenco might be my new favorite thing ever. If only I was talented enough to actually dance like that! After that a group of us went to a nice restaurant where I had the BEST PIZZA EVER OF MY LIFE. I will probably dream about this pizza every night for many years to come. Seriously amazing.
Today we all met up with Nacho, Benito, and Andrés at the park and hung out and filled out course evaluations and it really hit me that the trip is over and we leave EARRRRRLY tomorrow morning. Everyone is going out tonight one last time, though, so I will probably be doing a lot of snoozing on the airplane. Mom and Dad, don´t forget- La Carreta and sweet tea tomorrow night!! ;)
Well, that is the short (haha.. yeah right who am I kidding?) version of my amazing last week in Spain. Sorry it´s been so long! Pray for a safe trip home and I will see you all very shortly!
Un abrazo muy fuerte,
Erin
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
¿como se dice "ghetto"?
This is going to be a long one, you might want to grab a refreshing drink and make sure your seat is comfortable...
Friday morning, we departed on our first long weekend trip that we planned all by ourselves. Almost everyone was going to Sevilla at some point, so we started out on the same train- a high speet bullet train called the AVE. We left from Atocha station here in Madrid, which was exciting to me because in Spanish classes in high school, Atocha was always referenced on listening exercises- ¿A que hora salió el tren desde Atocha? (Side note: America needs a bullet train system!)
The 4 traveling in our little group, Ashley, Audrey, Corinne, and myself, took the AVE all the way to Sevilla and saw another classmate by himself at the station, so we all decided to leave together. We couldn´t all fit into one taxi, so we rode the bus to the hostel. The only problem was that we got on the bus going in the wrong direction, so for 1€ we ended up getting an hour long scenic tour of Sevilla´s "hood". At one point, the driver even stopped the bus and got off... I was a little concerned for my life at that point. Hahaha. Finally, after that little adventure, we found our hostel, which was super clean and nice, filled with students and the occasional grungy backpacker--although we experienced some of that "customer service" that seems to be prominent in Spain-- aka "they'll get to you when they get to you and no sooner." I think I heard more English being spoken in Sevilla than Spanish, however.
Speaking of which, late Saturday night we were walking around the town to try and find a certain Flamenco place (Flamenco in itself, at that point, was seeming more like a running joke that native Sevillans kept up with the tourists- kind of like snipe hunting in the US) I suggested that we stop and ask this girl I had heard speaking in English about Flamenco outside a restaurant we had just passed. When we backtracked, I heard Audrey say ¨Hey, don´t I know you?¨to the guy outside the restaurant. As it turns out, this guy, apparently a former Appalachian student, has been living in Spain for about a year, and we just happened to encounter him in the street that night! How crazy is that? We took pictures to doccument the occasion.
Anyway, the cathedral in Sevilla is one of the largest in the world and even holds a Guiness record for largest cubic footage. We were able to climb the belltower to get some amazing views of the city, and the bells sounded while I was up there, which caused everyone to jump because of the sheer volume! There is a monument in this cathedral that supposedly contains the remains of Christopher Columbus, but there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the facts.
Later Friday night we saw multitudes of well-dressed people flocking towards the cathedral for a wedding. I can´t even imagine what it would be like to be married in a church like that, or not to mention, how much it would cost!!
On our way back to the hostel that night, I was finally on the receiving end of civilian paranoia- when waiting to cross the street, a man in a car stopped at the same intersection locked his doors- and we heard it! I always worry when I´m driving around Winston that the newspaper salesmen/homeless people/pedestrians can hear me lock my car doors and will get sad about it, and wouldn´t you know, you CAN actually hear it. Hahaha.
The next morning (Saturday) the 4 of us took a bus the 3 hours through fields of sunflowers and mountains covered in modern windmills to Tarifa, the sourthernmost point of Spain, and more importantly, the beach! It was a pretty picturesque coastal town, and very old and full of history. The Atlantic glistened shades of blue and green on our right, and the Mediterranean on the other, connected by the Strait of Gibraltar. The most exciting part for me was the fact that we could see the Moroccan coastline fairly clearly!! The one thing I learned, however, is that SPF 30 just doesn´t cut it when you´re only 15 kilometers away from Africa- to say I´m a little burnt is an understatement- but it HAS improved since Saturday!
Leaving, we made it to the bus stop around 5, but the bus didn´t show up until almost 5:30 (it was supposed to leave at 5:10) and I tried not to worry, especially because Ashley was freaking out enough for all of us! There was a younger Spanish guy at the stop too, who told us he was waiting on the bus to Sevilla as well and tried to assure us that we hadn´t missed it.
Sunday we woke up early (again.. sigh) to catch the train to Córdoba, mainly to see the world-famous cathedral there, reconstructed by Christians centuries ago from what used to be a mosque. (Spain has a lot of these). We hadn´t thought about the fact that on Sunday, it would be closed for mass services! Ooooops. After that we went to this house/museum hybrid in the Jewish quarter, which I blame on the fact that we were bored and it smelled really good inside- like oranges and cloves! Instead of the advertised "guided tour", it ended up being 40 minutes of listening to this guy talk in Spanish about things that only other Jewish people could appreciate- it was pretty ridiculous. We recovered by leaving and hitting up a very traditionally Spanish eatery- Burger King. Sundaes here (like ice cream sundaes) are called "Sandys" (say it with a Spanglish accent and it sounds more like sundae), which we ordered in Spanish, which pretty much cracked me up.
After returning to Madrid, we were super tired but stayed up to watch the final fútbol match (I will never be able to call it "soccer" ever again after being here) of the season for Real Madrid, which was also the La Liga championship- and more significantly for Ashley and I, the final game for David Beckham. (que triste.)
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were at the game, accompanied by Beckham´s wifey- my favorite former Spice Girl, Victoria. I can´t even describe how deep the obsession with fútbol runs in Spain. After the game ended, almost immediately we could hear fireworks and people yelling and cheering in the streets, little kids singing, and drivers honking their horns all in time, late into the early morning hours. Colin (aka "El Chico" thanks to Esperanza the Crazy Maid) had gone out with some other people to watch the game and celebrate, and showed us some crazy pictures of people waving flags and jumping around and climbing on top of statues in plazas and the metro exit signs. Unfortunately, our poor little Chico got his wallet stolen out of his pocket while in the crowd (my favorite Spanish word ever is the word for crowd: muchedumbre). His pickpocket was not as dumb as mine had been, however, and by the time he got back to the apartment and called his dad to cancel his debit card, his bank account had been drained. I was so sad for him! Mavi couldn´t believe one of us had been robbed again- I thought she was going to faint.
Last night I went to Reina Sophia to see the Guernica, Picasso´s huge famous mural about the air raid on the small Spanish town with the same name. It was pretty exciting. Tonight is the big birthday party with all of Mavi´s family, her kids, and their significant others, and I´m so excited! Tomorrow is Mavi´s birthday, and the three of us are going to go buy her a present tonight. (at VIPs... holla. haha)
Okay, I think I´ve talked enough and the internet café man didn´t go on break just for my sake, so I ought to get going. Hope you are all doing really well! Thanks for the emails, and I apologize for not being able to respond individually!
Erin
Friday morning, we departed on our first long weekend trip that we planned all by ourselves. Almost everyone was going to Sevilla at some point, so we started out on the same train- a high speet bullet train called the AVE. We left from Atocha station here in Madrid, which was exciting to me because in Spanish classes in high school, Atocha was always referenced on listening exercises- ¿A que hora salió el tren desde Atocha? (Side note: America needs a bullet train system!)
The 4 traveling in our little group, Ashley, Audrey, Corinne, and myself, took the AVE all the way to Sevilla and saw another classmate by himself at the station, so we all decided to leave together. We couldn´t all fit into one taxi, so we rode the bus to the hostel. The only problem was that we got on the bus going in the wrong direction, so for 1€ we ended up getting an hour long scenic tour of Sevilla´s "hood". At one point, the driver even stopped the bus and got off... I was a little concerned for my life at that point. Hahaha. Finally, after that little adventure, we found our hostel, which was super clean and nice, filled with students and the occasional grungy backpacker--although we experienced some of that "customer service" that seems to be prominent in Spain-- aka "they'll get to you when they get to you and no sooner." I think I heard more English being spoken in Sevilla than Spanish, however.
Speaking of which, late Saturday night we were walking around the town to try and find a certain Flamenco place (Flamenco in itself, at that point, was seeming more like a running joke that native Sevillans kept up with the tourists- kind of like snipe hunting in the US) I suggested that we stop and ask this girl I had heard speaking in English about Flamenco outside a restaurant we had just passed. When we backtracked, I heard Audrey say ¨Hey, don´t I know you?¨to the guy outside the restaurant. As it turns out, this guy, apparently a former Appalachian student, has been living in Spain for about a year, and we just happened to encounter him in the street that night! How crazy is that? We took pictures to doccument the occasion.
Anyway, the cathedral in Sevilla is one of the largest in the world and even holds a Guiness record for largest cubic footage. We were able to climb the belltower to get some amazing views of the city, and the bells sounded while I was up there, which caused everyone to jump because of the sheer volume! There is a monument in this cathedral that supposedly contains the remains of Christopher Columbus, but there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the facts.
Later Friday night we saw multitudes of well-dressed people flocking towards the cathedral for a wedding. I can´t even imagine what it would be like to be married in a church like that, or not to mention, how much it would cost!!
On our way back to the hostel that night, I was finally on the receiving end of civilian paranoia- when waiting to cross the street, a man in a car stopped at the same intersection locked his doors- and we heard it! I always worry when I´m driving around Winston that the newspaper salesmen/homeless people/pedestrians can hear me lock my car doors and will get sad about it, and wouldn´t you know, you CAN actually hear it. Hahaha.
The next morning (Saturday) the 4 of us took a bus the 3 hours through fields of sunflowers and mountains covered in modern windmills to Tarifa, the sourthernmost point of Spain, and more importantly, the beach! It was a pretty picturesque coastal town, and very old and full of history. The Atlantic glistened shades of blue and green on our right, and the Mediterranean on the other, connected by the Strait of Gibraltar. The most exciting part for me was the fact that we could see the Moroccan coastline fairly clearly!! The one thing I learned, however, is that SPF 30 just doesn´t cut it when you´re only 15 kilometers away from Africa- to say I´m a little burnt is an understatement- but it HAS improved since Saturday!
Leaving, we made it to the bus stop around 5, but the bus didn´t show up until almost 5:30 (it was supposed to leave at 5:10) and I tried not to worry, especially because Ashley was freaking out enough for all of us! There was a younger Spanish guy at the stop too, who told us he was waiting on the bus to Sevilla as well and tried to assure us that we hadn´t missed it.
Sunday we woke up early (again.. sigh) to catch the train to Córdoba, mainly to see the world-famous cathedral there, reconstructed by Christians centuries ago from what used to be a mosque. (Spain has a lot of these). We hadn´t thought about the fact that on Sunday, it would be closed for mass services! Ooooops. After that we went to this house/museum hybrid in the Jewish quarter, which I blame on the fact that we were bored and it smelled really good inside- like oranges and cloves! Instead of the advertised "guided tour", it ended up being 40 minutes of listening to this guy talk in Spanish about things that only other Jewish people could appreciate- it was pretty ridiculous. We recovered by leaving and hitting up a very traditionally Spanish eatery- Burger King. Sundaes here (like ice cream sundaes) are called "Sandys" (say it with a Spanglish accent and it sounds more like sundae), which we ordered in Spanish, which pretty much cracked me up.
After returning to Madrid, we were super tired but stayed up to watch the final fútbol match (I will never be able to call it "soccer" ever again after being here) of the season for Real Madrid, which was also the La Liga championship- and more significantly for Ashley and I, the final game for David Beckham. (que triste.)
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were at the game, accompanied by Beckham´s wifey- my favorite former Spice Girl, Victoria. I can´t even describe how deep the obsession with fútbol runs in Spain. After the game ended, almost immediately we could hear fireworks and people yelling and cheering in the streets, little kids singing, and drivers honking their horns all in time, late into the early morning hours. Colin (aka "El Chico" thanks to Esperanza the Crazy Maid) had gone out with some other people to watch the game and celebrate, and showed us some crazy pictures of people waving flags and jumping around and climbing on top of statues in plazas and the metro exit signs. Unfortunately, our poor little Chico got his wallet stolen out of his pocket while in the crowd (my favorite Spanish word ever is the word for crowd: muchedumbre). His pickpocket was not as dumb as mine had been, however, and by the time he got back to the apartment and called his dad to cancel his debit card, his bank account had been drained. I was so sad for him! Mavi couldn´t believe one of us had been robbed again- I thought she was going to faint.
Last night I went to Reina Sophia to see the Guernica, Picasso´s huge famous mural about the air raid on the small Spanish town with the same name. It was pretty exciting. Tonight is the big birthday party with all of Mavi´s family, her kids, and their significant others, and I´m so excited! Tomorrow is Mavi´s birthday, and the three of us are going to go buy her a present tonight. (at VIPs... holla. haha)
Okay, I think I´ve talked enough and the internet café man didn´t go on break just for my sake, so I ought to get going. Hope you are all doing really well! Thanks for the emails, and I apologize for not being able to respond individually!
Erin
Thursday, June 14, 2007
una lastima
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Justin Timberlake. Antonio Banderas. Here in Madrid yesterday morning. Totally would have skipped class and suffered the consequences of going to Plaza Mayor for a celebrity sighting.
I mean, what?
That´s really all I had to say. Email me if you can!
PS Happy early Father´s Day :)
Justin Timberlake. Antonio Banderas. Here in Madrid yesterday morning. Totally would have skipped class and suffered the consequences of going to Plaza Mayor for a celebrity sighting.
I mean, what?
That´s really all I had to say. Email me if you can!
PS Happy early Father´s Day :)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
make your best ugly face!
This journal entry is dedicated to Courtney Latta and Lindsey Foss.
Yesterday morning on the Metro, I was reminded of a conversation that Courtney, Lindsey, and myself had probably over a year ago. We were laughing about how, to avoid people staring at us, trying to kidnap us, etc. we would make an "ugly face" to deter the offender. Apparently, blatantly staring a hole into someone else is socially acceptable here in Espain, and it´s beginning to make me really uncomfortable, because I never can tell why people are glaring at me, or what I´m wearing, or what shoes I have on... oh well. I thought of that whole "ugly face" theory of Courtney and Lindsey´s and had a good belly laugh about it. I may start using it here soon.
Yesterday afternoon, Ashley and I and two other girls from the program went back to the Museo Thyssen for the opening of a Van Gogh exhibit. The exhibit showcases the final over 70 works of Van Gogh during the last 70 days of his life, as well as a few comparable paintings by Cézanne and Pisarro. They were mostly landscapes, but really beautiful nonetheless. This afternoon we´re going to the Museo del Prado, which is probably one of the biggest collections of classical artwork in Europe outside of the Louvre- couldn´t be more excited! All that´s left now is next week´s visit to the Reina Sofia (modern and contemporary art, AKA Picasso) to make my artistic pilgrimage complete :)
This weekend, everyone is going on independent journeys to Andalucia ("the south")and there is a group of 4 of us taking the high velocity train to Sevilla for 2 nights and staying in a pretty cool hostel there. On Saturday we are taking a bus to Tarifa, which is the southernmost point of Spain, where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet, and the African coastline is visible on a clear day. I can´t wait! We´re also stopping to see the world famous mezquita de Cordoba on the way home on Sunday. Please pray for our safety on this trip!
[Insert comment about Colin here because he is reading over my shoulder and feeling dejected that I have not written anything about him.]
Love you all!
Erin
Yesterday morning on the Metro, I was reminded of a conversation that Courtney, Lindsey, and myself had probably over a year ago. We were laughing about how, to avoid people staring at us, trying to kidnap us, etc. we would make an "ugly face" to deter the offender. Apparently, blatantly staring a hole into someone else is socially acceptable here in Espain, and it´s beginning to make me really uncomfortable, because I never can tell why people are glaring at me, or what I´m wearing, or what shoes I have on... oh well. I thought of that whole "ugly face" theory of Courtney and Lindsey´s and had a good belly laugh about it. I may start using it here soon.
Yesterday afternoon, Ashley and I and two other girls from the program went back to the Museo Thyssen for the opening of a Van Gogh exhibit. The exhibit showcases the final over 70 works of Van Gogh during the last 70 days of his life, as well as a few comparable paintings by Cézanne and Pisarro. They were mostly landscapes, but really beautiful nonetheless. This afternoon we´re going to the Museo del Prado, which is probably one of the biggest collections of classical artwork in Europe outside of the Louvre- couldn´t be more excited! All that´s left now is next week´s visit to the Reina Sofia (modern and contemporary art, AKA Picasso) to make my artistic pilgrimage complete :)
This weekend, everyone is going on independent journeys to Andalucia ("the south")and there is a group of 4 of us taking the high velocity train to Sevilla for 2 nights and staying in a pretty cool hostel there. On Saturday we are taking a bus to Tarifa, which is the southernmost point of Spain, where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet, and the African coastline is visible on a clear day. I can´t wait! We´re also stopping to see the world famous mezquita de Cordoba on the way home on Sunday. Please pray for our safety on this trip!
[Insert comment about Colin here because he is reading over my shoulder and feeling dejected that I have not written anything about him.]
Love you all!
Erin
Monday, June 11, 2007
fish cake
Hola a todos-
So right now I´m sitting here recovering from the first really terrible meal I´ve had here. On the menu: Leftover mushroom ravioli, and something orange and potent that the housekeeper described to us as "fish cake." Oh, and yogurt. That´s all. The orange fish cake tasted about as bad as it sounds like it would taste. You should have seen the faces we were making! It was hilarious. We were trying to sneak back in the kitchen when the housekeeper wasn´t looking to dump it in the trash. Esperanza couldn't describe to us what it was at first, and so we thought it was pumpkin or yams or something (because of the neon orange color!)... no such luck.
Toledo on Friday was fun, the weather was HOT! Toledo was a lot like Segovia, but bigger- and the views were amazing, as always. We didn´t get to tour the Alcázar (castle) here, but did go into the cathedral and also a synagogue. The cathedral was huge, and beautiful (but crowded full of rude French tourists). I think I may have said this before, but the Spanish feel about the French kind of the same way we feel about Canada... they just kind of sit there and do nothing too important.
Colin went to Barcelona this weekend, so it was girls´ weekend with Ashley, Mavi, and I- even though Ashley and I slept most of Sat. and Sun. morning and Mavi went back to the mountains to work in her garden. We booked a hostel in Sevilla for the weekend over at Audrey´s on Saturday afternoon, and then met her and 2 other students for a jazz concert that night. We almost missed the last metro train home- everyone in the metro station was SPRINTING towards the platform, and I was attempting to run as well, (although in heels it wasn´t working out so well... oh the stories my blisters could tell) but we finally made it home without having to take a taxi! Sunday afternoon Ashley and I went and toured the Real Madrid soccer (fútbol!) stadium, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. It was HUGE, but probably one of my favorite activities we´ve done so far- we toured the seats, went down near the field, in the trophy museum, and in the visitor locker room. I wish we could go to a game! Breathing the same air as David Beckham- definitely worth ten Euros!
Then, last night, Mavi took us two to a movie, which was relatively terrible, but it was cool to experience Spanish cinema nonetheless. At movie theaters in Madrid, your ticket has an ASSIGNED SEAT! I can´t imagine having assigned movie theater seats at home. The theater itself was also much smaller. On the way to the theater, (we walked to Cuatro Caminos) I SWEAR I saw the man who swiped my wallet- maybe it wasn´t him, I don´t know, but it sure looked like him. This man that I saw was standing in a little alcove on the front side of a building in a cardboard box hanging up clothes. It was weird. I will be very happy to return to Winston-Salem life after being here!
Well, the internet café is crowded and there are angry looking Spanianrd schoolchildren breathing down my neck waiting for a computer, so I will wrap this up and hopefully write again tomorrow or Wednesday.
Erin
So right now I´m sitting here recovering from the first really terrible meal I´ve had here. On the menu: Leftover mushroom ravioli, and something orange and potent that the housekeeper described to us as "fish cake." Oh, and yogurt. That´s all. The orange fish cake tasted about as bad as it sounds like it would taste. You should have seen the faces we were making! It was hilarious. We were trying to sneak back in the kitchen when the housekeeper wasn´t looking to dump it in the trash. Esperanza couldn't describe to us what it was at first, and so we thought it was pumpkin or yams or something (because of the neon orange color!)... no such luck.
Toledo on Friday was fun, the weather was HOT! Toledo was a lot like Segovia, but bigger- and the views were amazing, as always. We didn´t get to tour the Alcázar (castle) here, but did go into the cathedral and also a synagogue. The cathedral was huge, and beautiful (but crowded full of rude French tourists). I think I may have said this before, but the Spanish feel about the French kind of the same way we feel about Canada... they just kind of sit there and do nothing too important.
Colin went to Barcelona this weekend, so it was girls´ weekend with Ashley, Mavi, and I- even though Ashley and I slept most of Sat. and Sun. morning and Mavi went back to the mountains to work in her garden. We booked a hostel in Sevilla for the weekend over at Audrey´s on Saturday afternoon, and then met her and 2 other students for a jazz concert that night. We almost missed the last metro train home- everyone in the metro station was SPRINTING towards the platform, and I was attempting to run as well, (although in heels it wasn´t working out so well... oh the stories my blisters could tell) but we finally made it home without having to take a taxi! Sunday afternoon Ashley and I went and toured the Real Madrid soccer (fútbol!) stadium, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. It was HUGE, but probably one of my favorite activities we´ve done so far- we toured the seats, went down near the field, in the trophy museum, and in the visitor locker room. I wish we could go to a game! Breathing the same air as David Beckham- definitely worth ten Euros!
Then, last night, Mavi took us two to a movie, which was relatively terrible, but it was cool to experience Spanish cinema nonetheless. At movie theaters in Madrid, your ticket has an ASSIGNED SEAT! I can´t imagine having assigned movie theater seats at home. The theater itself was also much smaller. On the way to the theater, (we walked to Cuatro Caminos) I SWEAR I saw the man who swiped my wallet- maybe it wasn´t him, I don´t know, but it sure looked like him. This man that I saw was standing in a little alcove on the front side of a building in a cardboard box hanging up clothes. It was weird. I will be very happy to return to Winston-Salem life after being here!
Well, the internet café is crowded and there are angry looking Spanianrd schoolchildren breathing down my neck waiting for a computer, so I will wrap this up and hopefully write again tomorrow or Wednesday.
Erin
Thursday, June 7, 2007
la policia: a lesson in irony
First off, let me just start by explaining that Spain (or at least Madrid) has four rush hours, instead of just two. First, in the morning, when everyone is going to work. The second, is between 1pm and 2pm, when everyone (school children included) goes home for a few hours to have "la comida" (trans: a big lunch) and a siesta. All the stores and restaurants close. Then, the next rush hour is around 4 or 5 when everyone goes back to doing whatever. The final rush hour is between 7 and 8, when people finally come home from work and/or are going out to eat and run errands and such.
That being said, we had just been on a group visit to the Museo Thyssen in one of the more central parts of town to take a tour of the private art gallery. It was rush hour number 4, and several classmates and I squeezed (literally) onto a jam-packed metro train. It was uncomfortably crowded, and I noticed a dirty, smelly man standing reeeeeeeeally close to me. I had one hand in the air clutching the handle thingy so that I wouldn´t fall over, and the other arm awkwardly positioned across me. The dirty, smelly man continued to stand uncomfortably close to me, but as the train was so crowded, there was really nothing I could do about it. I tried to back up-- DirtySmellyMan followed suit. He had elbowed me in the chest once, which I assumed was an accident (I thought maybe he was drunk, or insane) but then I noticed that his arm was right up against my body and I thought Oh no, this man is trying to molest me on a crowded Metro and I can´t move and I don´t know the right vocabulary to yell out what is happening in Spanish!! I should have tried harder to get away from him at this point, but it´s one of those strange things where you are never really sure what you should do until way after the fact. He was wearing a rumpled orange and white fleece jacket that had obviously seen better days (this should have been my second clue, as it was about 85ºF outside and approximately 9999999ºF on the Metro) and his arm was inside his jacket and dangerously close to me. As we approached the next stop on the route, he moved forward again and I looked down as the doors opened and realized my bag was unzipped, and I´m sure a few choice words escaped my mouth. I looked up in time to see the man staring directly at me (ew, ew, creepy, I´m having chills right now just thinking about it) and shove something (aka my wallet) in his tacky cloth man purse. The doors shut and I was left standing there, walletless, dumbfounded, as several people close by recognized the look on my face and kind of just shook there heads and muttered how awful it was.
To make a long story just a little bit shorter, when I returned to my casa with Ashley, (who had been pressed against a wall on the opposite side of the train and not seen what happened) I called Dad to cancel my credit card (really the only important thing in my wallet) and after comforting me and letting me finish bawling my eyes out, Mavi telephoned Nacho and Benito, the directors/professors of the ASU program. Mavi and I then rode a bus to a local police station, where I had to use Mavi´s somewhat limited knowledge of English, coupled with my spotty Spanish, to file a denuncia, which is basically a police report. Which I now have a copy of as a souveneir! Dad said that the bank put a fraud alert out in case DirtySmellyThief tries to use my card again. As far as cash, there was only about 15€ in the wallet, along with copies of IDs. I honestly think I'm most upset about the fact that he stole my wallet, which I had purchased for the purpose of wearing around my waste so that people COULDN´T steal my money. We had all become just a little too comfortable waving our bags around and not being alert enough as we went through town, and however ironic it is, I suppose it is a lesson I needed to learn. Except now I have to buy a new traveller´s wallet!
Other than yesterday´s stressful adventure, things here are as good as ever, although we did have our first test and assignment due today. Mavi´s oldest daughter Elena came back the other evening to have dinner with us again, and she´s pretty much awesome. She may or may not take Ashley (and me, the spectator) to the driving range sometime next week! We decided not to go to Barcelona this weekend, which is a big relief to me because we have time to explore the city here a little bit further, not to mention catch up on sleep! Tomorrow we have a day trip to Toledo, the original capital of Spain, and are also trying to finalize plans for the long weekend in Andalucia and Sevilla- stressful! But I´m excited about possibly getting to go to a Mediterranean beach!
Well, this has gotten pretty lengthy, so I will wrap things up for now. I don´t know if I will be able to write again until Monday, because the internet places are closed on the weekends. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel on our day and weekend trips, and especially now that ETA has broken their cease-fire agreement. They don´t target regular civilians, but our apartment is adjacent to a couple of government buildings, so just pray that the organization is doing nothing more than making idle threats- or else pray that they will just go bother the French and ask them for independence and leave Spain alone for a good long while!
Hasta luego,
Erin
That being said, we had just been on a group visit to the Museo Thyssen in one of the more central parts of town to take a tour of the private art gallery. It was rush hour number 4, and several classmates and I squeezed (literally) onto a jam-packed metro train. It was uncomfortably crowded, and I noticed a dirty, smelly man standing reeeeeeeeally close to me. I had one hand in the air clutching the handle thingy so that I wouldn´t fall over, and the other arm awkwardly positioned across me. The dirty, smelly man continued to stand uncomfortably close to me, but as the train was so crowded, there was really nothing I could do about it. I tried to back up-- DirtySmellyMan followed suit. He had elbowed me in the chest once, which I assumed was an accident (I thought maybe he was drunk, or insane) but then I noticed that his arm was right up against my body and I thought Oh no, this man is trying to molest me on a crowded Metro and I can´t move and I don´t know the right vocabulary to yell out what is happening in Spanish!! I should have tried harder to get away from him at this point, but it´s one of those strange things where you are never really sure what you should do until way after the fact. He was wearing a rumpled orange and white fleece jacket that had obviously seen better days (this should have been my second clue, as it was about 85ºF outside and approximately 9999999ºF on the Metro) and his arm was inside his jacket and dangerously close to me. As we approached the next stop on the route, he moved forward again and I looked down as the doors opened and realized my bag was unzipped, and I´m sure a few choice words escaped my mouth. I looked up in time to see the man staring directly at me (ew, ew, creepy, I´m having chills right now just thinking about it) and shove something (aka my wallet) in his tacky cloth man purse. The doors shut and I was left standing there, walletless, dumbfounded, as several people close by recognized the look on my face and kind of just shook there heads and muttered how awful it was.
To make a long story just a little bit shorter, when I returned to my casa with Ashley, (who had been pressed against a wall on the opposite side of the train and not seen what happened) I called Dad to cancel my credit card (really the only important thing in my wallet) and after comforting me and letting me finish bawling my eyes out, Mavi telephoned Nacho and Benito, the directors/professors of the ASU program. Mavi and I then rode a bus to a local police station, where I had to use Mavi´s somewhat limited knowledge of English, coupled with my spotty Spanish, to file a denuncia, which is basically a police report. Which I now have a copy of as a souveneir! Dad said that the bank put a fraud alert out in case DirtySmellyThief tries to use my card again. As far as cash, there was only about 15€ in the wallet, along with copies of IDs. I honestly think I'm most upset about the fact that he stole my wallet, which I had purchased for the purpose of wearing around my waste so that people COULDN´T steal my money. We had all become just a little too comfortable waving our bags around and not being alert enough as we went through town, and however ironic it is, I suppose it is a lesson I needed to learn. Except now I have to buy a new traveller´s wallet!
Other than yesterday´s stressful adventure, things here are as good as ever, although we did have our first test and assignment due today. Mavi´s oldest daughter Elena came back the other evening to have dinner with us again, and she´s pretty much awesome. She may or may not take Ashley (and me, the spectator) to the driving range sometime next week! We decided not to go to Barcelona this weekend, which is a big relief to me because we have time to explore the city here a little bit further, not to mention catch up on sleep! Tomorrow we have a day trip to Toledo, the original capital of Spain, and are also trying to finalize plans for the long weekend in Andalucia and Sevilla- stressful! But I´m excited about possibly getting to go to a Mediterranean beach!
Well, this has gotten pretty lengthy, so I will wrap things up for now. I don´t know if I will be able to write again until Monday, because the internet places are closed on the weekends. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel on our day and weekend trips, and especially now that ETA has broken their cease-fire agreement. They don´t target regular civilians, but our apartment is adjacent to a couple of government buildings, so just pray that the organization is doing nothing more than making idle threats- or else pray that they will just go bother the French and ask them for independence and leave Spain alone for a good long while!
Hasta luego,
Erin
Monday, June 4, 2007
¡déjeme en paz! - the beginning of the rude way
I love hearing the way that non-native speakers of English word certain phrases and expressions, for example, the title of this entry, where my professor was saying that using the expression "leave me alone" was borderline rude, thus "the beginning of the rude way". Too cute!
This past weekend was absolutely crazy, and it might take me a few more days to recover. Friday we went to Segovia, which is across the Sierra Guadarrama from Madrid, about an hour and a half away. The town itself is much older than Madrid, and had several sights to see- Roman aqueducts, a castle, and a cathedral, to name a few. We spent the whole day there, and we were lucky, because the weather was fantastic. I can´t wait to be able to show everyone pictures, because there is really no way I can describe it on here. I also took some illegal video footage of the cathedral- I mean, what? So, that will be exciting to see.
We returned to Madrid around 7:30 on Friday night, and almost the entire group made plans to meet up in the center of town around 11:30 to go dancing. I know that seems extremely late to start out, even for a weekend, but dinner here usually isn´t over until 10ish, so it was actually perfect timing. The Madrileños are very snazzy dressers and so I feel that I need to dress up as well, but after so many hours my heels were giving me the worst kind of blisters, so Ashley and I got a taxi back to our apartment (the Metro stops running at 1:30.. I will just let you estimate what time it was.) It was a long day and night, but it was worth it, and it was a lot of fun to spend time with everyone in the program all day long. I´m sure people have their differences but for the most part, everyone gets along well.
The next afternoon we went to Parque del Retiro and walked around, relaxing in the sun and taking pictures. We were going to get ice cream, but it was like 3€ for a popsicle. Oh well! That night we were so tired that we watched TV until dinnertime, and after dinner Mavi and I watched a movie. Then I went straight to bed!
Yesterday, (Sunday) Mavi drove the three of us (Ashley, Colin, and myself) up to her mountain house in the Guaderramas. It was this awesome little octagon-shaped house with a wood stove in the middle (which was good to have, because it was SO COLD!). She took us (And Timi, of course) hiking up the mountain for about 6 hours, which was exhausting, but so worth the incredible views and getting to see the Roman roads at the top. Once again, pictures are not sufficient to describe the trip!
Today classes started again, and they weren´t too bad, but I keep forgetting that I have homework to do that´s due Thursday so I´d better get on that. Tomorrow we´re going to the first of 3 museums, which I am looking forward to. Several students are going to Barcelona this weekend, but there is a tiny handful of us trying to go to Salamanca instead. (Barcelona by bus is just too much for me to handle. haha)
Well, I need to go meet Ashley at the Metro station so we can meet up with a few other people to go shopping- FINALLY! ;) Have good days! I enjoyed all the emails that I got, so keep it up! :)
Love,
Erin
This past weekend was absolutely crazy, and it might take me a few more days to recover. Friday we went to Segovia, which is across the Sierra Guadarrama from Madrid, about an hour and a half away. The town itself is much older than Madrid, and had several sights to see- Roman aqueducts, a castle, and a cathedral, to name a few. We spent the whole day there, and we were lucky, because the weather was fantastic. I can´t wait to be able to show everyone pictures, because there is really no way I can describe it on here. I also took some illegal video footage of the cathedral- I mean, what? So, that will be exciting to see.
We returned to Madrid around 7:30 on Friday night, and almost the entire group made plans to meet up in the center of town around 11:30 to go dancing. I know that seems extremely late to start out, even for a weekend, but dinner here usually isn´t over until 10ish, so it was actually perfect timing. The Madrileños are very snazzy dressers and so I feel that I need to dress up as well, but after so many hours my heels were giving me the worst kind of blisters, so Ashley and I got a taxi back to our apartment (the Metro stops running at 1:30.. I will just let you estimate what time it was.) It was a long day and night, but it was worth it, and it was a lot of fun to spend time with everyone in the program all day long. I´m sure people have their differences but for the most part, everyone gets along well.
The next afternoon we went to Parque del Retiro and walked around, relaxing in the sun and taking pictures. We were going to get ice cream, but it was like 3€ for a popsicle. Oh well! That night we were so tired that we watched TV until dinnertime, and after dinner Mavi and I watched a movie. Then I went straight to bed!
Yesterday, (Sunday) Mavi drove the three of us (Ashley, Colin, and myself) up to her mountain house in the Guaderramas. It was this awesome little octagon-shaped house with a wood stove in the middle (which was good to have, because it was SO COLD!). She took us (And Timi, of course) hiking up the mountain for about 6 hours, which was exhausting, but so worth the incredible views and getting to see the Roman roads at the top. Once again, pictures are not sufficient to describe the trip!
Today classes started again, and they weren´t too bad, but I keep forgetting that I have homework to do that´s due Thursday so I´d better get on that. Tomorrow we´re going to the first of 3 museums, which I am looking forward to. Several students are going to Barcelona this weekend, but there is a tiny handful of us trying to go to Salamanca instead. (Barcelona by bus is just too much for me to handle. haha)
Well, I need to go meet Ashley at the Metro station so we can meet up with a few other people to go shopping- FINALLY! ;) Have good days! I enjoyed all the emails that I got, so keep it up! :)
Love,
Erin
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