Day 15: Saturday was nice and relaxing. We got to sleep in and went to Pizza Jardin for lunch with a group of people who were staying in town: Megan, Arianna, Stanton, Will, and some others. The pizza was delicious. Afterwards, Megan, Arianna, and I went to the fountain at the park to layout, which was fun! I wish we had a park like it in Georgia, its gorgeous! People over here get to lay out super late because the sun doesn’t go down until about 9:00. After laying out, I was able to get in a siesta, dinner, and a run before going out. We went out with six girls down to Sol: Megan, Arianna, Chelsey, Tamra, Kathryn, and I. Two good clubs we found were Cocoa and Moondance, but all the drinks are really expense in the clubs, so we try to go content. Also, a lot of people are walking around Sol trying to get you to come to their club or bar and giving away a “free drink” or other promo, which is cool for your first drink. We met a group of guys who were from Italy, but in Madrid for a bachelor party. They were wearing GAME OVER t-shirts and came to Cocoa with us for the end of the night. At 5, we took the bus home and when we got off, a sketchy group of Spanish guys followed us to the colegio. We had to buzz the guard a million times before we were let in and after he let the guys in too. He had to chase them out and called the cops on them because they were being so rambunctious. They were trying to jump the gate and we watched off the third floor balcony. It was a fun night.
Day 16: Sunday was a pretty good day also. I slept in until 2 and went to Burger House for lunch (the delicious American place). That Sunday afternoon, we took the metro to the bullfight. It was really an awesome experience. I thought it was cool but there were some girls in the group were a little queasy and one girl in our group, Victoria, fainted. Luckily one of our teachers was there with her family and was able to help. We got yelled at as we left the ring because people aren’t supposed to leave the arena when the bull is in the ring. The group left after the second one, but the second bull was very wild and hurt the matador pretty badly. Afterwards we went to an all you can eat restaurant in Sol… not worth it. But I really enjoyed the bull fight.
Day 17: Monday we went back to school. Just a regular school day. That night I was planning on going to wine with Dani and a group of people, which we did, but afterwards when a group walked by who was going out I hopped up and went to the Moondance club with them that night. It was a crazy Monday night. Met some people from D.C. My white shoe broke and I couldn’t find anywhere else to buy one, so I walked around the club barefoot all night. Disgusting. When we got home, at 2:55, made curfew, Jacqui came to my room and stunted me up through my window onto the roof. We broke my wall. It was a really fun night.
Day 18: On Tuesday we ha a field trip and our teacher had told us we had to be ready at 9, but at breakfast, she told us it was actually 10. We walked to the American Museum, but luckily we didn’t have a tour guide so we only had to stay as long as we got our info to write our paper. It was a quick trip. I went back to the colegio and slept until lunch…. 2:00. After lunch, Megan and I went shopping and I spent so much money and it was so great! Got a ton of new clothes. Good day.
Day 19: Wednesday was another school day and I had two presentations due for both of my classes. They were over the same topics so I just printed off my paper twice and presented it twice. I hope that’s not against the code of conduct…? Wednesday afternoon we went rowing at Retiro Park until dinner. I got a boat with Christina and Brittani, which was a lot of fun. Gorgeous park!! Wednesday night I had to do my cism/computer class, which I wasn’t able to do any of the access work (half of the class), but I think I at least got a C in the class because I did so well on the tests. The week flew by.
Day 20: Thursday I had to be at my field trip at 9 and we went to El Pais, the newspaper-manufacturing place. Learned a little bit about how they write the paper and the history of it. When we got back to the colegio I grabbed my bag for the weekend and got on the bus for Portugal. I’m sitting by Dani right now and we are each listening to one of the two headphones for my ipod. I’m really excited for Portugal, even through this eight-hour drive. It’s going to be really nice to stay in the same hotel for the whole weekend. Portugal is an hour ahead of Madrid. When we got there, we ate dinnerin the hotel and we had cod. Afterwards, we went out to a place in Portugal calle El Barrio Alto. It was fun, but I was so tired, I only lasted until about 2.
Day 21: On Friday, we had to be at the buses by 9 for the tour of Portugal. Some of the things were cool and we got some nice scenery shots, but I was really tired and did sleep a little bit on the bus. Afterwards, we were dropped off the bus at a good place to shop and Dani and I ate lunch at The Cool House. Italian was good. We shopped and of course I bought some new clothes, and then we walked home, which took a while. I went for a run down a main road bfore dinner and that night we went to a dinner to watch fado, a guy play music. There was lots of red wine, really fun, bun we went home after it… orbably about 1. I roomed with Dani, Lauren, and Lena for the weekend.
Day 22: Saturday was beach day! I feel lost without having a week at the beach this summer. We took bus about an hour, stopping at some nice places along the way. We got to the beach at about 1 and ate at an Indian Italian place (Me Jacqui Dani Christina Megan etc). Really delicious food. We went to the beach, which was again acceptable to go topless. There was a really high cliff there that we jumped off, which was dangerous but fun. I only went once. The water was COLDDD! Afterwards we took the bus back, stopping at a castle for pictures. We got home and ate chicken at the hotel. That night we went to a really cool place, but it had a 12 euro cover (18 dollars) so only half of us went in. We didn’t know the cover went towards drinks. So the rest of us walked around for a while and a group of us ended up at barrio alto (Christina megan marymichael wes). It was fun, but once again I was so tired I only made it til 3. I feel asleep in the cab ride home.
Day 23: We had to be back at the bus at 10:00 and started our journey. We stopped for lunch at a really cute place, that took a while. I had a cold cut appetizer and pork chops for lunch. We are back on the bus watching Vicky Christina Barcelona… same movie we watched last bus ride. I am getting sick and getting homesick. Not enough sleep. Thanks for reading ☺ Went to McDonalds for dinner!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Jumping Out of Planes
Day 12: Wednesday was a school day. I had tests in both of my classes and we also have group meetings Wednesday’s at 3:30. They served squid for lunch, which was interesting. It tasted alright, but it was cooked in black sauce that looked like tar. They also had some potato wedge pasta plate. I got stamps Wednesday, so hopefully I’ll get some postcards sent sooner or later.
Day 13: Thursday’s field trip this week was to the Prado museum in Madrid, that holds many paintings from famous artists throughout the centuries. It was cool and all of the paintings had different representations through every little detail. Afterwards, a lot of people left for the field trip to North of Spain, but Meghan and I stayed behind because we were late on signing up and there was only one seat left. We went souvenir shopping, took the metro BUS for the first time, and took the metro. Meghan might say that I got us lost on the way home, but I’d say we were just taking the scenic route. We started a count of how many Spaniards yelled out the window at us (may not have been in the best part of town). We still made it to lunch in time and afterwards, a group of us went down to the theatre to get Harry Potter Tickets for the midnight showing that night (Me, Meghan, Chelsea, Cathryn, Arianna, Tamra, Nick). After the metro and two metro transfers, we found the theatre and found out it was closed… we came back and bought the tickets online and had the best siestas of our lives. After dinner, I went for a run in the gorgeous park, and everyone met to go see the Friday 12:15 am Harry Potter movie. Apparently, in Spain, when they list 00:15 under Friday it is understood that it actually means the Saturday morning, so when we showed up, you know all the crazy Americans were there furious. It sucked because we thought we were seeing the movie six hours earlier than the US, but culture differences changed our plans. So that night we went to Dalai bar for a little bit, but called it an early night.
Day 14: Got to sleep in today, because I had no morning plans. I woke up at about 11:00 and Meghan and I headed to the metro station at 11:45 to go SKY DIVING!! We had to take metro and the bus on the way their, and the language barrier was difficult. Had a ham and cheese croissant and ice cream for lunch (the usual here) at the bus station. It was about an hour and a half bus ride and everyone siestaed the whole time. The way Spaniards interact is a lot different than Americans. They are much more physical with each other than we are. After we were sitting, a man got onto the bus that knew the guys in the seat in front of us, and was rubbing up against him in his greeting hug. It was funny. In the bus station, I went to the bathroom and the stall said, “When was the last time you did something that made you feel free?” It was a sign. The whole bus ride, they were playing songs to just tell us to go skydiving, like Freefalling. We finally got off the bus at this deserted little town and were a little worried. We got some directions from construction workers who spoke no English, but finally found the place after walking around the town and down a dirt road. When we got there, we went to check in and the credit card machine had taken my credit card but declined Meghan’s card, so we tried a million cards, but the machine was broken, so we had to get a guy to take us into town to withdrawal money. Meghan took out 300 Euros from an ATM and the 300 Euros never came out, but were deducted from her account…. It was a rough money day, needless to say Lillo, Madrd isn’t a very big place. We finally found a machine that worked, but it was a major CF. When we got back everything went well and we put on our jump suits and nice gear caps to get ready to go. The nerves really hit you when you start getting suited up. Before I knew it, we were getting in the plane to go. The plane was TINY and there were about nine people in squeezed in it. I was on the bench and Meghan was on the floor right next to the door that was being flung open a lot during the elevation up to the right height. We were sitting right in front of the instructor we were jumping with and they were getting up buckled together as we got higher. I started having a panic attack as the plane kept getting higher. When it came time to jump we sat on the edge of the plane, with legs together, tucked under the plane. We kind of just fell out of the plane and were free falling for about a minute, which I think was definitely the coolest part of the jump. When we got a little bit closer, my instructor, Tomi, pulled the parachute and we slowly (5 minutes slowly) lowered to the grounds. For me, it was pretty painful because my ears popped the whole rest of the way down and I got dizzy. To land, I had to stick my feet out in front of me hand hold my legs up as high as I could. It was really hard to do with the air pressure and the harness on. It definitely took me some recovery time after we got back to the land, but Meghan was on an adrenaline rush and needed no recovery at all. We got our photos and videos that were AWESOME and Tomi was our taxi to the train station. Skydiving was definitely a GREAT experience. I’m really glad I did it in Spain, we had wonderful instructors, and I got to check it off my bucket list. It is definitely something I probably will never do again. We took a train back to the metro, which was about an hour and a half before the metro rides. It was a super long day and we were glad to be back in Madrid. For dinner, at about 9:30 we found a delicious American restaurant where we got chicken sandwiches and fries, and they even had ketchup on the tables. We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter Friday night to make up for our “cultural miscommunication” the night before. Even though we weren’t the first ones to see it, the movie was great!!! It was a great way to wrap up the Harry Potter series. We walked home from Sol, where the theater was, because the metro was already closed and got home at about 4 am. Great day!!
Day 13: Thursday’s field trip this week was to the Prado museum in Madrid, that holds many paintings from famous artists throughout the centuries. It was cool and all of the paintings had different representations through every little detail. Afterwards, a lot of people left for the field trip to North of Spain, but Meghan and I stayed behind because we were late on signing up and there was only one seat left. We went souvenir shopping, took the metro BUS for the first time, and took the metro. Meghan might say that I got us lost on the way home, but I’d say we were just taking the scenic route. We started a count of how many Spaniards yelled out the window at us (may not have been in the best part of town). We still made it to lunch in time and afterwards, a group of us went down to the theatre to get Harry Potter Tickets for the midnight showing that night (Me, Meghan, Chelsea, Cathryn, Arianna, Tamra, Nick). After the metro and two metro transfers, we found the theatre and found out it was closed… we came back and bought the tickets online and had the best siestas of our lives. After dinner, I went for a run in the gorgeous park, and everyone met to go see the Friday 12:15 am Harry Potter movie. Apparently, in Spain, when they list 00:15 under Friday it is understood that it actually means the Saturday morning, so when we showed up, you know all the crazy Americans were there furious. It sucked because we thought we were seeing the movie six hours earlier than the US, but culture differences changed our plans. So that night we went to Dalai bar for a little bit, but called it an early night.
Day 14: Got to sleep in today, because I had no morning plans. I woke up at about 11:00 and Meghan and I headed to the metro station at 11:45 to go SKY DIVING!! We had to take metro and the bus on the way their, and the language barrier was difficult. Had a ham and cheese croissant and ice cream for lunch (the usual here) at the bus station. It was about an hour and a half bus ride and everyone siestaed the whole time. The way Spaniards interact is a lot different than Americans. They are much more physical with each other than we are. After we were sitting, a man got onto the bus that knew the guys in the seat in front of us, and was rubbing up against him in his greeting hug. It was funny. In the bus station, I went to the bathroom and the stall said, “When was the last time you did something that made you feel free?” It was a sign. The whole bus ride, they were playing songs to just tell us to go skydiving, like Freefalling. We finally got off the bus at this deserted little town and were a little worried. We got some directions from construction workers who spoke no English, but finally found the place after walking around the town and down a dirt road. When we got there, we went to check in and the credit card machine had taken my credit card but declined Meghan’s card, so we tried a million cards, but the machine was broken, so we had to get a guy to take us into town to withdrawal money. Meghan took out 300 Euros from an ATM and the 300 Euros never came out, but were deducted from her account…. It was a rough money day, needless to say Lillo, Madrd isn’t a very big place. We finally found a machine that worked, but it was a major CF. When we got back everything went well and we put on our jump suits and nice gear caps to get ready to go. The nerves really hit you when you start getting suited up. Before I knew it, we were getting in the plane to go. The plane was TINY and there were about nine people in squeezed in it. I was on the bench and Meghan was on the floor right next to the door that was being flung open a lot during the elevation up to the right height. We were sitting right in front of the instructor we were jumping with and they were getting up buckled together as we got higher. I started having a panic attack as the plane kept getting higher. When it came time to jump we sat on the edge of the plane, with legs together, tucked under the plane. We kind of just fell out of the plane and were free falling for about a minute, which I think was definitely the coolest part of the jump. When we got a little bit closer, my instructor, Tomi, pulled the parachute and we slowly (5 minutes slowly) lowered to the grounds. For me, it was pretty painful because my ears popped the whole rest of the way down and I got dizzy. To land, I had to stick my feet out in front of me hand hold my legs up as high as I could. It was really hard to do with the air pressure and the harness on. It definitely took me some recovery time after we got back to the land, but Meghan was on an adrenaline rush and needed no recovery at all. We got our photos and videos that were AWESOME and Tomi was our taxi to the train station. Skydiving was definitely a GREAT experience. I’m really glad I did it in Spain, we had wonderful instructors, and I got to check it off my bucket list. It is definitely something I probably will never do again. We took a train back to the metro, which was about an hour and a half before the metro rides. It was a super long day and we were glad to be back in Madrid. For dinner, at about 9:30 we found a delicious American restaurant where we got chicken sandwiches and fries, and they even had ketchup on the tables. We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter Friday night to make up for our “cultural miscommunication” the night before. Even though we weren’t the first ones to see it, the movie was great!!! It was a great way to wrap up the Harry Potter series. We walked home from Sol, where the theater was, because the metro was already closed and got home at about 4 am. Great day!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Finally Time to Relax!
Day 10: It was nice to be back in Madrid on Monday. I had classes until 2, ate some lunch, and got in a quick nap. Monday afternoon we took the Bernabeu Tour of the Estadio Santiago(Madrid soccer field), which was cool. We got to see some trophy cases, go on the field, and check out the locker rooms. Right outside the soccer stadium was an area where a lot of tents were set up and drinks and cheese were sold. We had some red wine. Dinner last night was cheeseburgers, and even though I don’t like cheeseburgers, I had one to get in the American craving. Last night we went to a bar to the right of the colegio called Campus. It was fun and nice because it was so easy to get there. I think we might go back for karaoke Thursday. My parents are finally back in America so I was able to skype them, which I loved!!!
Day 11: I took Tuesday as a much needed break day. Woke up at 11 and went for a run, but it didn’t last long because of the heat. The park here fills up at about 9:30, because it is too hot to run any other time! I went to the store and walked around a little this afternoon with Megan and Christina, and was able to take a GREAT siesta today. About to go to dinner at 8:30, and planning on taking it easy for the rest of the night. Relaxing day!
Day 11: I took Tuesday as a much needed break day. Woke up at 11 and went for a run, but it didn’t last long because of the heat. The park here fills up at about 9:30, because it is too hot to run any other time! I went to the store and walked around a little this afternoon with Megan and Christina, and was able to take a GREAT siesta today. About to go to dinner at 8:30, and planning on taking it easy for the rest of the night. Relaxing day!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Andaluvia: Southern Spain LONG Weekend Trip
The first weekend here I did one of the excursions through the program with about 30 other of the students in the group! It was VERY well organized. I'm still running low on sleep. Also, I'm not sure how to get my pictures on my blog but I'm trying to stay on top of it with putting them on facebook and updating the blog at least once or twice a week!
Day 4: On Tuesdays and Thursday we take field trips to different places in Madrid. Today we took a field trip to the mosque and cultural center for Madrid. It was okay. Afterwards, a group of us went to McDonalds, which was delicious! We took a bus tour tonight of Madrid which was pretty but 4 hours long…. I am staying in tonight and catching up on A LOT of sleep! I’ll try to be good about writing in the blog!
Days 5: Wednesday went well. I had my first test in Spanish and the school day was pretty long, but it got better. We had a hall meeting and learned about the weekend excursion. I’m on the bus writing right now. Wednesday night we went to tapas and sangrias at 6 and my friend Dani and I went to walk around Madrid afterwards. She is from GCSU. We were only planning on being out for a few minutes, but went to this awesome park I found and ended up just staying out for the night. It was really relaxing and we went to a bar at Sol called Bourbon café. We made friends with a group of the natives witch was cool, even through the language barrier. We ended up not coming home until 2:30… early next morning.
Day 6: Today is Thursday and this morning we had a field trip and had to pack for the weekend by 8:30. Breakfast was at 8. I woke up early this morning so I could get a run in before the weekend trip; the morning came early. This morning’s field trip was to Alcala de Henares, the birthplace of Miguel Cervantes, the writer of Don Quixote. It was a pretty cool place and we got lots of pictures. Right now we are on the bus to the South of Spain trip to Grenada, which is supposed to have the best night life in Spain. Tonight we are going to see the flamenco dancers show and we are even going to dance with them. Tomorrow we’re going to the beach in Grenada, which should be really pretty. I’m really excited for it. We got into Grenada and went to the “eighth” wonder of the world, La Alhambra. La Alhambra is a palace and garden and it was huge. The gardens were really pretty and you could see the entire city from the views. The palace had Arabic architecture, but now belongs to the Christian people. Afterwards we went to the hotel where I roomed with Megan, who goes to Georgia. It was so nice to be in a hotel for a change, because we’ve missed the nice large showers and the bed was great. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel with the group and had pretty good food, very authentic. Potatoes are very popular in Spain. After dinner we took five minutes to change and then hopped on buses to go to a “cave” in Grenada to see the flamenco dancers. The dancers have a different look to them than the Spaniards. The dancing was good, it was a lot of stomping and the performers had on nice costumes. After the performance, we got back on the bus at midnight to go back to our hotel area to go out, but found out we were going on another tour. We ended up getting drinks at a place with a gorgeous view of all of Grenada, which was unreal. One teacher, Cristobol, who’s from Grenada taught us how to take a shot in Spain. Arriba, Abajo, Al Centro, Al Dentro. He’s a real good time guy and is always willing to go out with us and show us the good bars. Last night we ended up calling it a night at about 1, thankfully because I was exhausted. I finally caught up on my sleep!
Day 7: We left Grenada. We woke up this morning and ate breakfast at the hotel. Our excursion leaders put backpacks in our room with shirts and hats for us, which was a surprise. Breakfast was good. Right now we are on the bus on our way to Cordoba. They say the best thing we are going to do here is get to experience life with the local families. We are eating lunch with a family and they are cooking for us. First thing we did today was take a tour of an olive oil factory. It was really cool. I learned that people here consume as much olive oil as they do beer. We got to try the oil and buy some for ourselves. Next we went over to a little village where we got a small tour and went to a café where we got to try the signature drink, which was regular wine mixed with dry wine and was extremely strong. There were a lot of old men there and one of them brought down a scandalous cane that had a stick that popped out in a private part when the cane was hit on the floor. Haha. (diction by Megan) Afterwards, we split our 36 people into 3 smaller groups and e ach group got to go to a local house and the mom of the house served a delicious lunch. When we were eating lunch we could look out and have an outrageous view of the lands. To drink at lunch we were served white and red wine and water. We were served a lot of courses: breads, meats, salad, and cheese, then potato salad, mushroom chicken, potatoes, pastries, coffee, and homemade liquor. It was delicious. A guy with us on the trip, named Stanton, keeps us laughing. We headed to Malaga and finally had some down time, so we went to the beach. The Mediterranean Sea was super cold, but it stays sunny very late, like 10. About a quarter of the girls there were topless, which was pretty interesting. People buried me in the dark sand. My friend Dani and I got hair wraps for really cheap haha. The lady that did our hair spoke a little English, but she was from Africa. We were trying to find where to buy tampons and she thought we were looking to buy sex. That night we grabbed a bite to eat on the strip along the sea. We found a cool marina area and walked through it to the nightlife. My girl Megan met a nice manager of Morocco’s bar and got us the hook up. It was fun and pricey. Afterwards, Dani and I got some late night food. The hotel we stayed at was nice, but unfortunately we were only there from 5 pm to 10 am, so not too many great pictures.
Day 8: Today we got on the bus at 10 and drove an hour to Puerto Banus. It is the wealthy area of Southern Spain, with lots of boats and great expensive shops. We stopped for an hour and walked around with cameras. We got a two hour stop on the way to Sevilla to a place called something al tun. On the way to it, we saw so many windmills! Lunch at the tuna place was slow and I wasn’t in the best mood for it, but afterward Dani and I got delicious ice cream and the night went up hill from there. Afterwards we bussed it to Sevilla. It was nothing that I had expected. It was really large and they had sidewalks. At the hotel, my friends and I got split up into different rooms because some other pairs of two people were quicker to grab keys. It was pretty upsetting. The hotel had the pool on top of the building and there was a bar up there too. Mojitos are my favorite and a lot of places here have mean mojitos. Haha. That night, everyone was crashing, but I had energy for a night out in Sevilla. I finally convinced a few people that it would be worth it to come out and it definitely was. Sevilla has a gorgeous nightlife because it is all located along a river with pretty scenery. At one point of the night we had a few sangrias and cervezas outside overlooking the river. Also while we were out, we went to Paseo de la Castellana, a white, large passageway that you take an elevator to the top and are able to see the entire city of Sevilla as you take a path at the top. A bar we went to had a line of about ten license plates and one was from Georgia, which was really cool, so of course we had to take a shot under it. Another thing I liked about Sevilla, was that we had free wifi in the hotel lobby, I needed a connection to the world. I think when I get back to Madrid I am going to finally buy my sim card for my phone, because I miss my family and friends!
Day 9: Morning came quick today. We left the hotel at 8:45 because we had a tour set up to take at 9:30 of Alcazar, which is kind of a big deal. Alcazar is a lot like La Alhambra, being a Christian palace using Arabic architecture. It was gorgeous, but I wouldn’t quite compare it to La Alhambra. The significance of the palace was that it dated back to Christopher Columbus. There were a lot of ceramic tiles and very cool tapestries. I saw a Peacock and the peacock’s babies, which was pretty interesting. We went to Cordoba today and had the privilege of getting some good American Burger King. I think fast food tastes so much better over here! We walked through the Jewish quarters and shopped around in all the little tiendas. We then proceeded to take a tour of the Mosque of Cordoba, which was magnificent. It is known for its red striped arches and people typically think of them when they’re thinking of the city. When we were in Burger King, a gypsy came up to us asking for money with her four year old daughter and we denied it, but a mom inside bought her food, really sweet, but an hour later she was begging again ☹. I’m so excited to get back to Madrid because I need a break from a group to be by myself for even a minute and I can’t wait to go for a run tonight! I am working on posting pictures on here, but having little success. I am putting them on facebook. Thanks for reading ☺
Day 4: On Tuesdays and Thursday we take field trips to different places in Madrid. Today we took a field trip to the mosque and cultural center for Madrid. It was okay. Afterwards, a group of us went to McDonalds, which was delicious! We took a bus tour tonight of Madrid which was pretty but 4 hours long…. I am staying in tonight and catching up on A LOT of sleep! I’ll try to be good about writing in the blog!
Days 5: Wednesday went well. I had my first test in Spanish and the school day was pretty long, but it got better. We had a hall meeting and learned about the weekend excursion. I’m on the bus writing right now. Wednesday night we went to tapas and sangrias at 6 and my friend Dani and I went to walk around Madrid afterwards. She is from GCSU. We were only planning on being out for a few minutes, but went to this awesome park I found and ended up just staying out for the night. It was really relaxing and we went to a bar at Sol called Bourbon café. We made friends with a group of the natives witch was cool, even through the language barrier. We ended up not coming home until 2:30… early next morning.
Day 6: Today is Thursday and this morning we had a field trip and had to pack for the weekend by 8:30. Breakfast was at 8. I woke up early this morning so I could get a run in before the weekend trip; the morning came early. This morning’s field trip was to Alcala de Henares, the birthplace of Miguel Cervantes, the writer of Don Quixote. It was a pretty cool place and we got lots of pictures. Right now we are on the bus to the South of Spain trip to Grenada, which is supposed to have the best night life in Spain. Tonight we are going to see the flamenco dancers show and we are even going to dance with them. Tomorrow we’re going to the beach in Grenada, which should be really pretty. I’m really excited for it. We got into Grenada and went to the “eighth” wonder of the world, La Alhambra. La Alhambra is a palace and garden and it was huge. The gardens were really pretty and you could see the entire city from the views. The palace had Arabic architecture, but now belongs to the Christian people. Afterwards we went to the hotel where I roomed with Megan, who goes to Georgia. It was so nice to be in a hotel for a change, because we’ve missed the nice large showers and the bed was great. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel with the group and had pretty good food, very authentic. Potatoes are very popular in Spain. After dinner we took five minutes to change and then hopped on buses to go to a “cave” in Grenada to see the flamenco dancers. The dancers have a different look to them than the Spaniards. The dancing was good, it was a lot of stomping and the performers had on nice costumes. After the performance, we got back on the bus at midnight to go back to our hotel area to go out, but found out we were going on another tour. We ended up getting drinks at a place with a gorgeous view of all of Grenada, which was unreal. One teacher, Cristobol, who’s from Grenada taught us how to take a shot in Spain. Arriba, Abajo, Al Centro, Al Dentro. He’s a real good time guy and is always willing to go out with us and show us the good bars. Last night we ended up calling it a night at about 1, thankfully because I was exhausted. I finally caught up on my sleep!
Day 7: We left Grenada. We woke up this morning and ate breakfast at the hotel. Our excursion leaders put backpacks in our room with shirts and hats for us, which was a surprise. Breakfast was good. Right now we are on the bus on our way to Cordoba. They say the best thing we are going to do here is get to experience life with the local families. We are eating lunch with a family and they are cooking for us. First thing we did today was take a tour of an olive oil factory. It was really cool. I learned that people here consume as much olive oil as they do beer. We got to try the oil and buy some for ourselves. Next we went over to a little village where we got a small tour and went to a café where we got to try the signature drink, which was regular wine mixed with dry wine and was extremely strong. There were a lot of old men there and one of them brought down a scandalous cane that had a stick that popped out in a private part when the cane was hit on the floor. Haha. (diction by Megan) Afterwards, we split our 36 people into 3 smaller groups and e ach group got to go to a local house and the mom of the house served a delicious lunch. When we were eating lunch we could look out and have an outrageous view of the lands. To drink at lunch we were served white and red wine and water. We were served a lot of courses: breads, meats, salad, and cheese, then potato salad, mushroom chicken, potatoes, pastries, coffee, and homemade liquor. It was delicious. A guy with us on the trip, named Stanton, keeps us laughing. We headed to Malaga and finally had some down time, so we went to the beach. The Mediterranean Sea was super cold, but it stays sunny very late, like 10. About a quarter of the girls there were topless, which was pretty interesting. People buried me in the dark sand. My friend Dani and I got hair wraps for really cheap haha. The lady that did our hair spoke a little English, but she was from Africa. We were trying to find where to buy tampons and she thought we were looking to buy sex. That night we grabbed a bite to eat on the strip along the sea. We found a cool marina area and walked through it to the nightlife. My girl Megan met a nice manager of Morocco’s bar and got us the hook up. It was fun and pricey. Afterwards, Dani and I got some late night food. The hotel we stayed at was nice, but unfortunately we were only there from 5 pm to 10 am, so not too many great pictures.
Day 8: Today we got on the bus at 10 and drove an hour to Puerto Banus. It is the wealthy area of Southern Spain, with lots of boats and great expensive shops. We stopped for an hour and walked around with cameras. We got a two hour stop on the way to Sevilla to a place called something al tun. On the way to it, we saw so many windmills! Lunch at the tuna place was slow and I wasn’t in the best mood for it, but afterward Dani and I got delicious ice cream and the night went up hill from there. Afterwards we bussed it to Sevilla. It was nothing that I had expected. It was really large and they had sidewalks. At the hotel, my friends and I got split up into different rooms because some other pairs of two people were quicker to grab keys. It was pretty upsetting. The hotel had the pool on top of the building and there was a bar up there too. Mojitos are my favorite and a lot of places here have mean mojitos. Haha. That night, everyone was crashing, but I had energy for a night out in Sevilla. I finally convinced a few people that it would be worth it to come out and it definitely was. Sevilla has a gorgeous nightlife because it is all located along a river with pretty scenery. At one point of the night we had a few sangrias and cervezas outside overlooking the river. Also while we were out, we went to Paseo de la Castellana, a white, large passageway that you take an elevator to the top and are able to see the entire city of Sevilla as you take a path at the top. A bar we went to had a line of about ten license plates and one was from Georgia, which was really cool, so of course we had to take a shot under it. Another thing I liked about Sevilla, was that we had free wifi in the hotel lobby, I needed a connection to the world. I think when I get back to Madrid I am going to finally buy my sim card for my phone, because I miss my family and friends!
Day 9: Morning came quick today. We left the hotel at 8:45 because we had a tour set up to take at 9:30 of Alcazar, which is kind of a big deal. Alcazar is a lot like La Alhambra, being a Christian palace using Arabic architecture. It was gorgeous, but I wouldn’t quite compare it to La Alhambra. The significance of the palace was that it dated back to Christopher Columbus. There were a lot of ceramic tiles and very cool tapestries. I saw a Peacock and the peacock’s babies, which was pretty interesting. We went to Cordoba today and had the privilege of getting some good American Burger King. I think fast food tastes so much better over here! We walked through the Jewish quarters and shopped around in all the little tiendas. We then proceeded to take a tour of the Mosque of Cordoba, which was magnificent. It is known for its red striped arches and people typically think of them when they’re thinking of the city. When we were in Burger King, a gypsy came up to us asking for money with her four year old daughter and we denied it, but a mom inside bought her food, really sweet, but an hour later she was begging again ☹. I’m so excited to get back to Madrid because I need a break from a group to be by myself for even a minute and I can’t wait to go for a run tonight! I am working on posting pictures on here, but having little success. I am putting them on facebook. Thanks for reading ☺
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Start of the Journey
Day 1: I am doing study abroad in Madrid, Spain for July this summer with 90 other students from different colleges in Georgia. I’m going to use the blog to tell about the different places I visit and differences between cultures. I probably won’t write in it everyday, but am going to try a few times a week. We arrived in Madrid on Saturday night exhausted after a 9 hr and a 2 hr plane ride, but didn’t get much sleep. I knew a few of the people coming on the trip, but have met a ton of really nice people too. We are staying in a place called the colegio, which is run by nuns and a gorgeous place. I got a room on the top floor and the stairs are a good workout every time I want to come up. Madrid is six hours ahead of Georgia so it was a difficult time change. We do things as a group, but they also give us a lot of time to explore in little groups. A few of us went to a little restaurant to get Sangrias and dinner to celebrate our arrival. The exchange rate here is awful. For 1 euro, you pay 1.66 American dollars. It makes you spend money much quicker than you think. Every July, Madrid hosts a HUGE gay pride parade so at the plaza and we took the metro to check it out. The metro here is a lot more complex than Marta. The gay pride parade was crazy. Groups had made float and there were bands playing. There are no open containers laws in Spain haha. It was really cool.
Day 2: Sunday morning we took buses to Toledo, a really pretty city about an hour and a half away. It was gorgeous and very historic. Got some pictures. We had a tour guide for a few hours and then got a few hours to explore for ourselves. There are a lot of cathedrals and museums there and it is all centered around a really pretty “square” area. That night, as a group, we went out for tapas and sangrias in area in Madrid called Sol. It was really fun and Sol was awesome. There is so much shopping and they also have a lot of the same stores we do, which surprised me, like H&M and Zara. A lot of Madrid is centered around Sol and it’s a big walking place. We got home late and everyone had to due homework Sunday night for classes that started the next day.
Day 3: Monday morning came quickly. The colegio serves us breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Friday. They serve each meal for an hour. We got breakfast at 8:30 and classes started at 9. I am taking Spanish conversation from 9 to 11:15 and Spanish 4 from 11:45 to 2. Lunch is not until 2 because they are used to eating a lot later than we do. Dinner does not start until 8:30, but I slept through it on Monday. We went back to Sol to go shopping on Monday afternoon. In the square at Sol people dress up as statues. The best one was a guy who painted himself and put his head in a baby’s body. To celebrate Fourth of July, we went with about twenty people from the group to a bar called Cave bar, which was really fun! The drinks are large but expensive. Stayed out way too late! In the colegio, the nuns lock the gates at 3, so we have to be back by then during the weekdays, and we barely made it. We also went to a club on the way home and took pictures in a European photo booth, which was fun.
Day 4: On Tuesdays and Thursday we take field trips to different places in Madrid. Today we took a field trip to the mosque and cultural center for Madrid. It was okay. Afterwards, a group of us went to McDonalds, which was delicious! We took a bus tour tonight of Madrid which was pretty but 4 hours long…. I am staying in tonight and catching up on A LOT of sleep! I’ll try to be good about writing in the blog!
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