I’m worried that writing about my Italy trip in November won’t do it justice, especially because I waited so long to write about it, but let me start of by telling you that it was amazing. If I had to pick one favorite trip I’ve done so far during my year abroad, it would be this trip. Italy is beautiful, I loved being able to practice my limited Italian abilities, the food was to-die-for, the people were friendly… Fantastic trip.

I went with three fellow EAP-ers, Jen, Rances, and Sarah. Though Italy was the #1 country I wanted to see while in Spain, we hadn’t even originally planned to go to any of these cities (Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Lugano, and Milan) but really just wound up there after following the best deals on flights, hostels, trains, etc. But it worked out perfectly.

On Thursday morning, we met up at Sol and took a taxi together, then flew to the Milan Malpensa airport, an airport about an hour, took a bus to Milan (I bought the tickets in Italian! How exciting it was to actually utilize this language I had only used in a classroom setting before!), and then, after some confusion with tickets and help from a friendly man working for Trenitalia, we took a train to Levanto, a small, adorable seaside town north of Cinque Terre, on the north-western coast of Italy, that had been recommended by our friends Connie and Ariel. The train itself was pretty cool because we had our own little compartment that reminded us of Harry Potter (ha, I think everyone in our generation gets reminded of Harry Potter by everything), especially when they came by with the little snack trolley. We were greeted by rain, but it cleared as we made our way to Levanto, giving us a gorgeous view of Easter Egg-colored houses stacked on green hills facing the bright blue Mediterranean Sea. If the only time I got to spend in Italy was that train ride, I still would have been content.

Northern Italy, as seen from the window of our train.

We got to Levanto and found our way to the hostel, despite having no map and no idea where it was located, stopping to look out at the ocean on the way. The hostel, a converted 17th century monastery, was very cute, and we ended up having the room to ourselves the first night there. After checking in, we found a bakery where we bought pizza and focaccia for lunch. SO delicious, and it was only the first of many fabulous meals. Then we explored the town until it got dark and rainy, seeing castles, churches, plazas, playgrounds, and beaches, and having our first taste of real Italian gelato. Because it was raining, we were tired from getting up at 4am, and there wasn’t a lot to do in Levanto at night, we bought some groceries, made sandwiches in our hostel, and went to bed ridiculously early, like at 7:30 or something.

Arriving in Levanto.

In the hills of Levanto.

Jen, Sarah, and me eating our first gelatos.

The next day, we were lucky enough that the rain subsided, and we bought a Cinque Terre pass, which gives you unlimited train rides and path access from Levanto to the five towns of Cinque Terre to La Spezia and back. Let me explain first that Cinque Terre, which translates to “five lands,” is not one city, but rather a group of five small coastal towns connected by hiking paths. We took a train to Riomaggiore, the southernmost of the five towns, where we walked around the town. Cinque Terre doesn’t have a lot of attractions or museums, so visiting it is all about wandering around and just looking at the beautiful (and it really is extremely beautiful) scenery. Each of the five towns is pretty similar to the others, and they all feature pastel houses nestled in the hills, with tiny (too small for cars, often) cobblestone streets running through them, beaches, and lots of views of the coast and the ocean.

Riomaggiore.

We next “hiked” to Manarola. I put that in quotes, because the first stretch of the hike really isn’t much of a hike but rather a nicely paved path (though later on we did more actual hiking). The first path is called the Via dell’Amore, the Road of Love, and it is pretty much the cutest thing ever. The walls and rocks are covered in graffiti featuring love quotes or names of couples, and people attach padlocks to the fences and rocks as a symbol of their love.

Locks and graffiti on the Via dell’Amore.

Manarola was equally beautiful. There, we got exhausted climbing really high into the hills, and then we came down and had lunch in a super cute (I know I keep using words like “cute” and “adorable,” but they fit Cinque Terre so perfectly!) restaurant, where Rances and I had pizza and Sarah and Jen had pasta. If you thought Italian food in the U.S. was good, just wait until you try real Italian food. And I don’t think this is even an area really known for its cuisine. We had gelato for dessert, of course, and then we hiked up to a beautiful cemetery. I’m really not a fan of cemeteries, and, in fact, I was deathly (ha, pun) afraid of them when I was younger, but Italian cemeteries are filled with fresh, fragrant flowers, and the graves all have photos of the deceased person. Plus, this one was overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Manarola.

Sarah, me, and Rances at lunch.

Looking back on Manarola. Gahhhhh isn’t it amazing?

The hike to the next town, Corniglia, is a long one and ends in 382 steps, which, let me tell you, is exhausting. I suppose hiking Cinque Terre isn’t for the faint of heart (not that I’m much of a hiker), but it’s definitely the best way to see Cinque Terre in my opinion, because of all the beautiful coastline sights you would miss by train. And going in early November was perfect, because it was still warm enough that we were comfortable, but there were very few tourists there, so we basically had the trails to ourselves. Anyway, in Corniglia we visited a cute little wine shop where the owner let Sarah tasted and bought some wine, we wandered through the cobblestone streets like we did in each of the towns, and then we headed for the next town, Vernazza.

Saying goodbye to Corniglia.

The hike between Corniglia and Vernazza was the longest and most nature-like (more dirt paths, hills, and trees), and we made it to Vernazza just as the sun was setting, so we sat and watched the sun set over the ocean. Because it was now dark and cold, and because the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso was supposedly even longer than the others, we took the train for the last stretch. Monterosso is more built-up than the other towns, but it’s still cute, and we stopped and had drinks in a café, then took the train back to Levanto.

Entering Vernazza. I’m sad the lighting was such that most of my pictures here didn’t turn out well.

Back in Levanto, we ate dinner at a restaurant across from our hostel, where we each tried different kinds of pasta (I had gnocchi in a cream sauce, so good), and Sarah even got a free meal because they brought her the wrong (yet equally delicious) pasta. At the hostel, we discovered we no longer had the room to ourselves and ended up talking for a while to two American girls who were studying abroad in Rome. Hearing about their program, in which they were housed in a nice hotel for the semester, were given vouchers to use at cafés, had weekend excursions planned for them, and took classes with only Americans, made us realize just how much of an immersion program our immersion program really is, and, while I’m sure they had a great time in Rome, I’m really glad to be seeing Spain the way we are. Anyway, we called it an early night again so we could leave the next morning for Lake Como.

But this post is already really long, because I love talking about our Italy trip, so more on Lake Como, Levanto (Switzerland), and Milan later. As you can tell, I went kind of picture-crazy in this post, but I wanted to post even more, because it was all so beautiful. Make sure you check out my Facebook album if you haven’t already. Those photos don’t do it enough justice, really.

I’ll leave you with one piece of advice: GO TO CINQUE TERRE! It’s probably in my top 5 favorite cities (well, it’s a group of cities, but you know) in the world. I fell completely in love with it. I had heard before going that it was great, but it exceeded my expectations. Everyone who goes to Italy sees Rome, Venice, and Florence, and Cinque Terre is pretty popular too, but I think it sometimes gets overlooked, and it really shouldn’t, because it’s an amaaaazing place. Can you tell I kind of liked it just a little bit?

1 comment »

Hooray, a new layout for the blog! I still liked the appearance of the old one, but it wasn’t compatible with a lot of screen resolutions, and the black on bright red text was probably rather difficult to read for some people, so this one, though a bit boring, should be better for those reasons.

I’ve also added a random photo widget to the sidebar (click on the image to see a larger version), fixed comment formatting, solved a few little bugs, changed a couple of other things, and may soon be adding my Facebook photo galleries to this site so you don’t have to go to Facebook to see them (although since almost everyone who reads this is on Facebook anyway, I’m not sure that matters).

Let me know if you see any problems I may have missed. Is this one easier to read for you guys? Does it show up correctly in your browser?

2 comments »

Miraculously, I made it through finals. They were undoubtedly the hardest/most stressful set of finals I’ve ever had, but the actual tests ended up being better than I expected, and, as of about a week and a half ago, I’m done! The fun (read: not-so-fun) thing about my Spanish university is that, like much of Spain, it’s not really a fan of technology, so instead of the handy method of posting grades online, the professors put up lists of grades (often not even typed but handwritten) which may be found near the classroom or the professor’s office but may also not be in any logical location, so figuring out how you did on your exams, evidently, is more difficult than taking those exams. However, I guess two of my professors are abnormally high-tech, because I found one grade on Campus Virtual (Complutense’s site where some professors post class material, forums, etc.) and another got emailed to me. I’m still trying to hunt down one of my grades, and that happens to be in the class I was most worried about.

But I am pleased to say that I got a sobresaliente (the equivalent of an A) in Psicolingüística and Sintaxis histórica (my Sintaxis histórica professor even emailed me to congratulate me on doing so well in a class that’s difficult even for Spanish students!) and the equivalent of at least an A- (I say “at least” because there’s a rumor EAP will curve some grades, but an A- is perfectly fine) in Comunicación interpersonal, which is very exciting, because I had prepared myself to get C’s since my classes were so hard (mostly just because they’re conducted in Spanish) and grading here is very different.

And now second semester has started up (they really aren’t big on giving us long breaks here), and I had my second day of classes today. I’m still trying to figure out which classes I’ll stick with, but so far I’ve attended Hipertexto y multimedia (Hypertext and Multimedia, basically about how to design user-friendly websites), Diseño y programación en internet (Internet Design and Programming), Psicología aplicada a la comunicación audiovisual (Psychology Applied to Audiovisual Communication), and Nuevas Tecnologías Audiovisuales (New Audiovisual Technologies). I think I’m keeping three of those but will hopefully be replacing Psicología aplicada a la comunicación audiovisual with Antropología de género (Gender Anthropology), depending on how that class goes when it starts this week or the week after (another fun thing about this university: no clear start dates for classes). I’ll probably only have class Thursdays and Fridays, not starting until 1pm, plus maybe one class on Wednesdays at 5pm, which is a very good deal.

Between finals and the start of second semester, my mom and my aunt Valerie came to Madrid to visit me! I showed them the most interesting parts of old Madrid, ate lots of tapas and other good food, went to Toledo, Chinchón, and Alcalá, watched the Olympics, saw a Carnaval parade, visited free museums, and generally had a very lovely time with them here. Having had my dad, Andrea, Ean, Dylan, Sara, Rachel, Michael, my group of Prep friends, my mom, and Valerie visit throughout my time here has been wonderful because it’s great seeing family and friends, of course, and also showing them Madrid makes me appreciate this city even more.

Plaza Zocodover in Toledo.

My mom and I in Retiro.

Six months ago today, I was on a plane to Madrid to begin my year abroad. It’s kind of crazy six months have already passed. Before coming, a lot of people had told me that you really start feeling more comfortable around the end of the first semester (which is why I chose to stay for the whole year rather than just a semester), and that’s proving to be true. I’m feeling less homesick and more in love with Spain than ever, and I know my last four and a half months here will be amazing (and will unfortunately fly by way too fast).

For those of you using Internet Explorer, does the comments page look funny (as in it doesn’t fit the rest of the layout but rather is a simple yellow background) to you? Does it allow you to comment? Grr, I always have issues with Internet Explorer. (Edit: Aha! Michael figured it out! It should be fine now.)

One of my “new semester resolutions” is to meet more Spaniards. Another, I’ve just realized, will be to update this thing more often. I still have all my fantastic November and December trips to write about, and I hope to start writing more about everyday life. Love you and miss you all!

5 comments »

I’m back to write about day trip #2! I can’t believe I’m still four months behind when it comes to writing about my trips, but at least I’m slowly catching up.

This was a short trip, and, honestly, there’s not all that much to say about Aranjuez, so this won’t be a long post.

Aranjuez is a town within the Comunidad de Madrid (as I explained in my last post, comunidades autónomas are like states, so it’s in the “state” of Madrid). Jessica (Leng, as I have to specify since I have too many friends namd Jessica here) and I took the Renfe train there one afternoon.

Aranjuez’s biggest sight is the Palacio Real (royal palace), which apparently is an alternate residence for the king of Spain. By the time we arrived, tours had ended, so we wandered around the grounds, which included pretty gardens full of ponds, plants, fountains.

Me in front of the Palacio Real.

Me in the gardens of the Palacio Real.

From there, we went into the main part of town and visited a few chino stores (Have I explained “chinos” yet? I don’t think I have. Chinos, or bazares, are basically small cheap shops, named that because they’re usually run by Chinese people and Spaniards make little effort to be politically correct, that carry everything you could need, kind of like 99-cent stores except not everything costs 99 cents. I love them.), laughing at all the products written in Engrish.

My favorite Engrish product. I don’t know why I didn’t buy it.

We then walked through town a little more before heading back on the Renfe. Nothing too thrilling to see, so if you’re in Madrid, honestly, Aranjuez can be passed up, but it was a pretty town, and I always have a ton of fun with Jessica, so I enjoyed it.

In other news, finals! It’s finals time! I’ve been freaking out about it for weeks, because taking finals in Spain in Spanish with all/mostly Spanish students is very daunting, but now that it’s actually here, it’s not too bad. I’m already halfway through, and the first two were fine. I think I did well on the first one (we were given the potential essay questions in advance, so I was well prepared), and I’m proud of myself for simply surviving the second one since the material was really difficult.

I’m very much looking forward to being done with finals. I’m going a bit insane being cooped up inside all day when I could be out exploring marvelous Madrid, and I’m excited to be rid of stress and start next semester since I think I’ll enjoy my classes more. Plus, my mom and Valerie will be here two days after finals are over, and in March begins a long string of awesome trips! Four days, and I’ll be done. That’s not too bad. I can make it!

1 comment »

One of the cool things about living in Madrid is that there are a bunch of nearby history-filled cities that are only an hour or two away by bus/train, making for some awesome day trips. I haven’t been to most of these cities yet, but in October, I visited Segovia and Aranjuez. Aranjuez will be my next post.

Segovia is located in the comunidad autónoma (think of comunidades autónomas as the Spanish version of U.S. states) of Castilla y León, while Madrid is in the comunidad autónoma of Madrid (creative, I know), but the two are only about an hour apart. The city is very ancient, cute, and small, and it’s fun to walk around.

I went with three of my EAP friends, Connie, Jen, and Diana, and we took a morning bus from Madrid and then spent our morning and afternoon exploring Segovia. One of Segovia’s most important monuments is the Roman aqueduct, which  was built in the first or second century AD and still stands (and is pretty cool-looking).

Aqueduct!

Me with the aqueduct.

From there, we climbed to the top of the aqueduct and explored the old city. We came to the realization in Segovia that many of our trips are really just extravagant Facebook photoshoots. Seriously, we all take a million pictures and are constantly saying things like, “Ooh! Get one of me standing here! That will look awesome!” So that was a big focus of our day. And there are definitely cool photo opportunities in Segovia!

We walked through the city center and saw the cathedral (but didn’t want to pay to go inside), which was really pretty from the outside, and then we went to the Alcázar, my primary reason for wanting to visit Segovia. See, Walt Disney based the design of the castle in Sleeping Beauty on Segovia’s Alcázar, and Disneyland’s castle is based on the Sleeping Beauty castle, so it was like taking a pilgrimage to the real life Disneyland! And since most of you know how huge of a Disneyland fan I am, that was pretty awesome.

To be honest, it doesn’t look quite the same (I think it looks more like it from the other side, which we didn’t go to), but it was still pretty cool and fairy-tale like.

Me in front of the Alcázar.

The more Disney-ish side. Not my photo, of course.

Connie and I paid the entrance fee to go inside, while Jen opted to pay for just the tower, and Diana hung out outside. In some ways, it looked like your typical Spanish fancy building (ornate ceilings, old paintings, armor), but it also was very stereotypically castle-y, which was fun.

Making a wish in the fairy tale-like wishing well.

Connie, Diana, Jen, and me exploring the city some more after visiting the Alcázar.

That was about all there is to see in the town, so after a bit more wandering, we had lunch at a bakery and relaxed there for a while before heading back on a bus back to Madrid.

As great as Madrid is, it’s always fun to get out of the city for a day, and Segovia was a really fun city to visit. Excellent day trip. For the rest of our Segovia “photoshoot,” check out the photos on Facebook.

2 comments »

As first semester is finishing up, travel plans for next semester are falling into place, and it looks like I have plenty more amazing travels ahead!

• My mom and Valerie will be here in mid-February (after finals), and we plan to take a few daytrips to cities near Madrid, like Toledo, Segovia, El Escorial, etc. The only nearby cities I’ve seen so far are Segovia and Aranjuez, so it will be awesome seeing more of the area.
• Connie and I are going to Valencia in mid-March for Las Fallas, the city’s major festival. I have yet to see Valencia (which I hear is really nice), and it will be super cool to be there for Las Fallas.
• For the first half of spring break, Connie and I are taking a trip to Andalucía. We’ll start out in Sevilla, one of the best places to visit during Semana Santa, or Holy Week, because of all of its processions and celebrations. Then we’ll go to Málaga, which also features Semana Santa celebrations and is on the beach, woot, followed by Nerja, a beachtown I visited in 2006 that I remember really liking, and Frigiliana, a gorgeous small town in the hills filled with whitewashed stucco houses that I fell in love with in 2006. I’m very excited because Andalucía, to me, is the “real” Spain (perhaps because it was the Spain I was introduced to in 2006), I love its culture, Semana Santa will be really interesting, it will be nice to be along the beach, and we found some good deals on transportation/hostels.
• After Andalucía, we’ll come back to Madrid for a few days and then take off for Italy! We’ll fly into Bologna and from there see Florence and Venice. Easter and the day after Easter are big days there, so we’ll get to see that. I loooved Italy when I went in November, so I’m psyched to go back.
• The following week, Ariel, Connie, and I are going to Amsterdam (as well as The Hague, probably). Very cool.
• I haven’t made plans or talked to anyone yet, but I’m hoping to take a daytrip to Sevilla for Feria, the city’s giant fair. It’s one of the things Sevilla is most known for, so I’d love to see it.
• We’re currently trying to arrange a trip to Mallorca for my birthday weekend. The flight would be inexpensive (less than 30 euros roundtrip), and it would definitely be fantastic to spend my 21st birthday there, because it looks gorgeous. So even though I miss out in that 21 isn’t a big milestone in Spain, how many people can say they spent their 21st birthday in Mallorca?
• There are flights to the Canary Islands for about 16 euros roundtrip, so I’m hoping to squeeze that in some time.
• Possibly a Prague/Budapest/Vienna trip in June before finals. That trip is in the early planning stages, but it’s a definite possibility. I’d very much like to see some of eastern Europe while I’m here (okay, some people consider that central or east-central Europe, but close enough).
• No plans at all yet, but I know I need to go to Barcelona before I leave, and it’s pretty easy to get to from Madrid.

So, yep, very exciting! I’ve found that I really, really enjoy planning trips (researching the cheapest options, finding the best hostels, fitting it all together like a puzzle), so it’s been a pleasant distraction from the stress of finals (ahh, finals!).

2 comments »

Okay, I’ve decided the best way to catch you all up on my past few months here is to go through my pictures (most of which you’ve probably seen on Facebook already) and write about the events I haven’t yet mentioned. I laugh at past me for thinking I’d actually update this thing daily and keep you up to date on everything that happened. Prepare yourself for an obnoxiously long post.

In early October, the host of the 2016 Olympics was announced, and the final four were Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Chicago, and Tokyo. Madrid went crazy at the prospect of hosting the Olympics, and the entire city was filled with banners and signs supporting Madrid as a 2016 candidate city, many of which featured the city’s candidacy logo (a multicolored handprint) and read, “Tengo una corazonada,” (”I have a feeling,” although I think it might have also been playing on the fact that corazonada is similar “corazón,” heart…or maybe that’s just how I interpreted it since I didn’t know what “corazonada” meant). On the day of the announcement, there was a huge celebration in Plaza de Oriente, the plaza across from the Palacio Real, and therefore just down the street from me. The photo above is early in the day, before most had arrived, but, by the end of the day, the entire plaza was filled with thousands of Madrileños anxiously awaiting the announcement. Tokyo was eliminated, and then Chicago, leaving it down to Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. In the end, Rio de Janeiro was chosen, leaving Madrid disappointed, but good game, Madrid. It was amazing seeing the city pull together with such excitement for this event, and I loved being part of the crowd.

On October 23rd, I got to see my favorite Spanish musical artist, Amaral, perform live in concert. I went with Jessica, her friend from her program Emily, and her friend from Vassar Allison. Amaral isn’t popular enough in the U.S. to tour there, so, ever since discovering them (them? her? It’s technically a musical duo, but the star is the singer, Eva Amaral), I’ve dreamed of coming to Spain and seeing them in concert, and finally my dream came true! The concert was at Teatro Circo Price, a circus arena that’s also used frequently for concerts. It was a really neat venue, small, round, and pretty intimate, and even though we had seats in the back (like, literally the last row), we were on the side close to the stage and the “back” wasn’t too far away, so it was awesome. She/they sounded amazing, and there’s something really, really cool about singing along at the top of your lungs to your favorite songs being performed live with your best friend in Spain.

Our Halloween feast.

Halloween may not be as big of a deal in Spain as it is in America, but it’s still celebrated somewhat. Lots of discotecas throw parties, a few stores have decorations, and you can see some people walking around in costumes. Halloween itself was kind of lame for me. Jessica and I were going to go to an Irish pub, because they’re known for celebrating Halloween in Madrid, but she wasn’t feeling well, so I spent the night at home after spending way too many hours shopping with friends in the afternoon. But the day before, Jessica, Emily, and I spent the day visiting various cafés, and then Jessica came over for a Halloween sleepover. We bought €12 (roughly $18) worth of candy, made spaghetti, and watched Halloweentown and the Halloween episodes of The Office, Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Halloween itself may have been lame, but Halloween Eve (All Hallows’ Eve Eve?) was super fun.

I mentioned already that my dad, Andrea, Ean, Dylan, Sara, and Rachel came to visit me the week before Thanksgiving. It was wonderful seeing them and showing them around town. They rented an adorable apartment, I got to eat lots of American food (because we had meals at McDonald’s, Foster’s Hollywood American Restaurant, Hard Rock Café, and TGI Fridays), which I had missed, and we went to Parque Warner, the theme park just outside of town that used to be owned by Six Flags so therefore is fairly similar to it. There was a Hollywood-themed land, an area that I guess was supposed to look like New York, and an old west-themed land, so it was hilarious seeing Spain’s take on America (and going to “Hollywood” kind of sort of made me feel almost like I was at home).

After they left, we had a big Prep (plus honorary guests) reunion when Claire, Patrick, Austin, and Michael came to Spain, and Sara came up from Córdoba to join Jessica and me. I loved seeing all of them, and we celebrated Thanksgiving together. We may not have had a very Thanksgiving-y Thanksgiving, but it was probably one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever, and I spent the whole day feeling extremely thankful for everything. And the night before Thanksgiving, my EAP program hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve never been a big fan of that holiday, but the dinner made me miss it a bit, mostly because Spanish Thanksgiving really just isn’t the same. The food was good but not very American. But it was nice being reunited with all the EAP-ers I hadn’t seen since ILP.

My Ecuadorian roommate told me Christmas isn’t quite as celebrated or beloved in Spain as it is in the western hemisphere, and I think she’s right. Madrid decorated itself with tons of lights and Christmas trees (well, light trees — there was only one real tree, weirdly), the Corte Inglés (huge department store) was filled with decorations, and there were Christmas markets all around town, but there wasn’t quite as much as there is in the U.S. I know a lot of people criticize the extent to which America goes crazy with Christmas, but I missed it. The main thing I noticed was how few places played Christmas music. The only place I heard it in public (in Spain, that is, because Belgium and Paris were better) was in Starbucks, and I’m sure that’s only because it’s an American company. Perhaps KOST goes a little crazy playing all Christmas music all the time starting in mid-November, but Christmas just isn’t the same without the music. I did, however, really enjoy the lights, and it was cold enough here to actually feel like winter (gloves, coats, even some snow!), so that was nice. There was also an ice skating rink set up near my apartment, which I went to with Jessica, Connie, and some of Jessica’s program friends and really enjoyed.

So that pretty much brings me to Christmas break. In the mean time, I visited Segovia, Aranjuez, Italy (Cinque Terre, Lake Como, and Milan), Andalucía (Córdoba and Granada), Morocco (Ceuta, Tetuan, Tangier, and ChefChaouen), Andalucía again (Sevilla and Granada), Belgium (Brussels), and France (Paris and Versailles), all of which were wonderful and will get their own entries soon.

If you haven’t seen them already, more photos of the first four months in Madrid can be seen here and here. In conclusion, the first part of my stay here has been amazing, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of my time here.

No comments »

Well hello there. Another insanely long period without updating, and I still haven’t posted about most of the trips I took this semester. I’ll get to it soon!

I’m back in Madrid after spending just over two weeks back home in California. I really missed California, and being back there for Christmas break showed me just how justified I had been in missing it. California in general is amazing with its wonderful weather, beautiful sights, and fun places to go, but, to add to that, it’s home, and, well, there’s no place like home. Seeing my friends and family again and visiting all my favorite places was fantastic. I just wish I hadn’t spent the majority of break being future-homesick. I mean, I’m really, really glad I’m spending the entire school year in Spain, and it’s nice being back here, but I wish I could have had a little more time at home. Or, actually, what I really wish is that teleportation would be invented now so I could go home whenever I felt like it and then come back to Spain whenever I want after I leave.

Finals are coming in a few weeks, and I’ve been kind of stressed about that, even though there’s not much I can do for now to prepare. It’s just hard that I have no idea what grade I’m getting in any of my classes, so I could honestly end up with Fs or As in all of them, and that’s scary. And I don’t know how Spain’s grading system will translate to American grades, so it’s possible my professors give me 7s, considering that a good grade, and it translates to a C or something. Grr. I mean, okay, I just have to keep reminding myself that even if I don’t do as well in my classes as I hope, in ten years, when I look back on this time, the experience of living in Spain, not the grades, are going to be what I remember. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying hard in my classes. I really am. It’s just that I don’t feel like I have a lot of control over my grades, and I need to stop getting stressed out about that.

I’d really like to skip ahead a month, because, in a month, I’ll be done with finals, my mom and aunt Valerie will be visiting, it will hopefully be less cold, and I’ll be ready to start my next semester. I’m excited about next semester. I haven’t figured out all my classes, but I only have to/can only take two that will count toward my major, which means I get to take two classes completely of my choosing, and I think I’ll take two web design classes. AWESOME. The other two will be Communications classes, one mass communication and the other interpersonal. The interpersonal one will most likely be a gender anthropology class. Aaand, it looks like I’ll only have classes Thursdays and Fridays (possibly one class on Wednesdays), which means more long weekends and lots more traveling!

And speaking of travel, I’m going to Amsterdam April 11th through 14th! My friend Ariel and I booked our flights and hostel the other day, so that should be great. And Connie and I are working on planning our spring break, which will hopefully be split between Andalucía (Cádiz, Sevilla, and Málaga, hopefully, so we can check out all the Semana Santa, or Holy Week, stuff) and Italy (Bologna, Venice, and Florence). I’m pretty sure planning trips has become my new favorite thing in the world. I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m back in the U.S. and can’t fly off to another country every weekend.

It’s weird having a weekend with nothing to do since for the month or two leading up to Christmas break, I had every weekend completely filled with visitors or travel. I’m kind of bored, so hopefully I can get out and do something with friends. I’ve somehow wound up back on California time apparently, which means I couldn’t go to sleep until around 7am (and then kept waking up) and slept until about 7pm. Maybe I’ll take advantage of all this free time to write about some of my trips. We’ll see.

2 comments »

¡No estoy muerta! I’m not dead! I’ve just been terrible about keeping up this blog, and I apologize for that. I can’t believe it’s been a month and a half since my last entry.

Life in Spain continues to be amazing. I’m enjoying my classes (more or less), meeting new people, having fun with friends, and traveling like crazy. Since my last entry, I went to Italy, where we visited Cinque Terre, Lake Como (from Lake Como we took a short trip to Lugano, Switzerland), and Milan), as well as Córdoba and Granada (I lived in Granada for a month in 2006) in Andalucía, the southern region of Spain. Both trips were absolutely amazing, and, don’t worry, I will eventually be doing full updates about them.

I also had my dad, Andrea, Ean, Dylan, Sara, and Rachel visit me, which was great, and then Claire, her boyfriend Patrick, Sara, Austin, and Michael were in town for Thanksgiving. Having Jessica, Sara, Claire, Austin, and me reunited in Madrid was very, very cool, because we’ve been close friends since middle school, and now here we are, years, later, hanging out together in Spain!

Tomorrow I leave for Sevilla, and from Sevilla, Sara, Jessica, and I go to Morocco where we’ll spend three days. Morocco! Africa! How epic is that?! And after Morocco, Jessica and I are spending a day in Granada.

We get back to Madrid early Wednesday morning and then Jessica and I leave for Brussels, Belgium Thursday morning! We’ll spend two days there and then fly back Saturday morning. Then, the following Thursday through Sunday, Sara and I are going to Paris! And the next Monday, I fly home to L.A.!

GAH MY LIFE IS SO AWESOME. SO AWESOME I MUST BREAK OUT INTO CAPSLOCK. ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Madrid is also lovely right now because they’ve put up Christmas lights all over the city, as well as little Christmas fairs, ice skating rinks, and other fun things.

I need to get back to packing for my trip this weekend, but I’ll try to get better at updating this thing! I still haven’t written about my daytrips to Segovia and Aranjuez, and I planned out an entry talking about the differences between American and Spanish universities, plus I need to talk about Italy and Andalucía, and then I have these fantastic upcoming trips to talk about. I’ll get there eventually!

2 comments »

Today marks the two month anniversary of my arrival in Spain, and, in some ways, it feels like I’ve been here forever, while in other ways, it seems like I’ve been here no time. The second month was, for the most part, much better than the first, I would say. The weather is significantly better (some might argue that sun > rain, but I argue that cool temperatures > ridiculous heat, so the current weather wins by a landslide), I’m much more comfortable with my surroundings, I’m living on my own instead of in the colegio mayor (which also means my food is way better than the awful stuff they had in the dining hall), I prefer my regular university classes to our ILP classes, and did some excellent traveling, including my trips to Portugal and Ireland and day trips to nearby cities Segovia and Aranjuez.

I still definitely feel like a foreigner, but I suppose it takes more than two months to get past that (especially since we were kind of isolated at the colegio mayor the first month). Before coming, I expected all the Spanish I ever knew to come back to me after the first week or so and then to have no problems communicating, but there are still definite language barriers. I mean, I can communicate well enough to get everything I need done, but I still feel like I have to ask people to repeat themselves a lot, and it’s a bit difficult having all my classes in Spanish. I understand most of what the professors say, but you know how when you’re listening to people speak your native language you can kind of zone out for a few seconds and still get what they’re saying? Yeah, I can’t do that with Spanish, and it’s hard to stay 100% focused for a monotonous hour and a half lecture. And it’s a bit scary knowing that I’m surrounded by native speakers who catch everything the professors say, especially because, from what I hear, a lot of grades are curved. It’s also a bit difficult taking classes about Spanish linguistics when those classes require in depth knowledge of the language, but they’re interesting, so I think it’s worth it. And my Spanish will improve the more I’m here, so classes will get easier. I just really need to start finding more people to talk to in Spanish, because I honestly don’t really use it as much as I should be on a daily basis.

I’m really loving living on my own. Well, not on my own exactly because I have roommates, but you know what I mean. I love having my own schedule, making my own food just how I like it, and generally feeling independent. Living in college dorms isn’t quite the same as fending for yourself (and, okay, I guess I’m still not totally fending for myself since I don’t have to work to get by), so this is a very fun experience. And if I can do it just fine in a foreign country, it’s going to seem super easy back in the U.S. Actually, that’s kind of a theme that runs through everything I do here. Going back to the U.S. will make so many things seem so much easier.

Speaking of going back to the U.S., I’m really excited that I’ll be going home for two weeks over Christmas break. I’m not homesick, but I still really look forward to seeing everyone and experiencing the things I’m missing out on like certain places and restaurants. I’ve already started making a list of things I have to do while I’m back. But I’ve also started realizing how much I’m going to miss Spain when I leave here at the end of June. I know, I still have eight months left, so I don’t need to worry about it now, but if I was that nostalgic for Spain after going in 2006, it’s going to be insane this time around. But, yeah, we’ll worry about that much later. My time here has barely started.

Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts on having been here for two months. ¡Hasta luego!

4 comments »