Paradise in Portugal

This past weekend, a few friends a I went to Portugal through "WeLoveSpain" which is basically a travel agency for students studying abroad. We left on Friday morning and got the Albuferia about two hours later. It was a perfect day so after checking into our hotel (which was very nice), we headed to the beach for the afternoon. That night we got some pasta and made dinner in our kitchen. I was rooming with Lauren and Emily and then our friends Tori and Danielle joined us for dinner too. That night, we went out with everyone who was on the trip to three different bars. They were all a lot of fun, good music, close to the hotel, and we just felt safer overall since the people in charge of the trip were the ones to find everyone and say "Meeting outside in 10 minutes to go to the next place".

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was the biggest breakfast I've had since being here. Scrambled eggs, cereal, toast, etc. A nice break from the small Spanish breakfasts. That day we went to Lagos. Our first stop was Ponte de Piedad. It was a gorgeous lookout with lost of cliffs. We ended up spending the day on the beach near the cliffs. It was a lot cooler that day, but still warm enough to be in a swim suit for the majority of the time.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at "El fin del mundo" or "The End of the World" aka what people used to think was the end of the world. Again, it was a very pretty area, but by that point, we were all very very cold.

That night we attempted to make Mac n cheese by melting cheese with milk on the stove and adding it to some pasta. Unfortunately, we failed, but it made for an entertaining hour or so. And we still ate it. We had another night out and a few different bars from the night before.

Tori, Lauren, me, and Danielle

Sunday, unfortunately, was very very cold and a bit rainy. We spent the day in town doing a little shopping and then sat in a nice restaurant for an hour or so before heading out. All in all it was a very good trip. It was nice to be in a place where we weren't rushing around to get to museums or trying to figure out the metro etc. I've missed seeing nature type sights too so it was a very good break.

On Thursday I'm headed to Morocco with our program. They split us up in two groups so the first half of the alphabet already went and have given us a lot of tips about bargaining in the markets, how much money to bring, what shoes to wear and etc. I think it will be a really fun trip because, again, we don't have to spend time figuring anything out since it's planned by our program. We'll leave early Thursday morning to take a bus to the water and then we'll take a boat over! When we get there, we're going to be in safe areas as well as have a security guard with us, so no worries!

Halfway Done?

Hard to believe, but it's true. Today marks the exact middle of my trip. 9 weeks in, 9 week to go. I think I'm in a good place right now though when I think about being halfway done. I'm not feeling terribly sad that I only have 9 weeks left and I'm not feeling like I'm ready to go home sooner. I'm excited to go home and see everyone, but I'm also excited for everything that's coming before. I think that's a good place to be.

As I said in my last post, midterms happened last week. They went pretty well, but I'm still glad their over. Not nearly as hard as Madison exams where you have 150 pages of a book to basically memorize, but it's all in Spanish, which makes the 60 pages or so a little more difficult to solidify in my mind. I think my Spanish overall has been getting better but not as much as I thought it would. Still time to fix that though.

After exams, a group of five of us celebrated by going to Paris!! To start, you definitely need more than 48 hours in that city. It is amazing. We got there on Friday and after settling into our hostel, we went straight to the Louvre (for free too!). We saw the Mona Lisa, some of Michelangelo's work, and a lot of new pieces that I really enjoyed.

Then we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night, even though it was raining. The best word I can find to define that night: enchanting. I didn't expect it to be as impressive as it was. I've seen x number of pictures of the Eiffel Tower so I guess I thought I'd seen all there was to see of it? I'm not sure. All I can say is that I was wrong. It was amazing. We grabbed some nutella-banana crepes and hung out taking pictures for probably close to an hour. This is in tie for the number one moment of Paris.

Delicious crepe.

 

The next day, after navigating the metro, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and saw the Opera Garnier (Phantom of the Opera). Then to the Musee de L'Orangerie, which is what the Eiffel Tower is tied for first place for the best moment in Paris. The museum has two oval rooms that are two different scenes painted by Monet, "The Water Lilies". One is full of his famous water lilies and the other includes weeping willows. However, before you enter to the rooms, you go through a white room that has nothing in it and was designed by Monet as a decompression space between "the city's agitation" and his work. I love Monet and walking in there was an amazing feeling. The way he created this peaceful environment was completely unexpected and great. We were there for about an hour. There was more art downstairs as well that we were able to see. But those rooms are another new happy place to go to when feeling stressed, that's for sure. 

  

After that, we headed to the Notre Dame. Another breathtaking place. There is so much history there that you just get this overwhelming feeling when you walk in. Even sitting outside eating our croque monsieurs was amazing. Unfortunatley we didn't go up the towers. It was very cold (in the 40s) and we were not dressed appropriately and the line was very long. Guess I'll have to save that for the next trip :)

My friend Rosie (who is studying in Paris!) and I

Then we walked around for a bit, stopping for more crepes, and went to Shakespeare and Company which is a bookstore that housed writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemmingway back in the day. We then went to the Montmartre area and saw the Sacre Coeur which is another beautiful basilica. Right outside it was a great view of the city.

That night we went to a nice dinner with my friend Rosie from Madison who is studying in Paris. We had also gotten to see another friend of mine who is studying there as well on Friday. Rosie then showed us the Moulin Rouge, Hotel de Dieu, the Bastille Prision, and another wonderful crepe stand. The next morning we ended our trip with another visit to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately we had to leave before the lift was open to go to the top, but I guess that will be another thing to look forward to next time :)

Au revoir/Hasta luego!!

Learning in Class?

I had a very relaxing, family weekend, and that will be the same for the next week or so. Next week we have midterms, so I'll need to be actually studying unlike the past month. Crazy that it has already been a month that I've had actual classes. I have learned a number of things however, many outside of class:

1) Spain living (as expected) is very different than American living. Although I've gotten used to eating a tostada (basically toast, sometimes with meat on it) at 10am, a bigger lunch at 3:30pm, a snack at 7pm (sometimes not even necessary), and a smaller dinner at 10pm, there are some things that strike me as even more different. For example, there is siesta time. It is usually between 3-5:30 or so. Obviously this sounded amazing when coming over, and still is an enjoyable time; the whole city basically shuts down. I forget that occasionally and find myself planning to run a quick errand after my 4:30 class, but unfortunately that is never an option. In general, it seems much more laid back here which on one hand is great. They really enjoy life and don't have to make time for family, fun or anything else. Enjoyment is number one on their list. And that is great. But on the other hand, they are going through a major economic crisis right now and sometimes I can't help but think that they could maybe be doing more. I'm probably out of place by saying that, but the time that is spent on some things I can't help but wonder if it really needs so much time. I am in no way judging, since I am living this way as well and enjoying it, but it's just interesting to compare. All cultures have their strengths and weaknesses, my own and the one I'm living in now included.

2) People are more similar than they are different. Coming here, I thought I would be thrown into this totally different world, which in some senses I am. As I said, the lifestyle and culture are very different. I had also thought that the people would be very different, more proper due to all the style tips I got before I left about not bringing too many t-shirts or sweats. But in reality, everyone here is just living their lives like everyone at home. They just have different hobbies, different histories, different upbringings, and speak Spanish. Listing it out makes it seem pretty different I guess, but it seems like lives everywhere follow the same basic strategic plan: you're born, learn to walk and talk, go to school, learn about your country's history, go on field trips, find your hobbies, etc. The steps are more similar than I had thought. I was surprised when I wasn't faced with the shock of how different life was or the feeling of intense homesickness that I had prepared myself for. At first I took that as a bad thing. I didn't think I was living in the culture enough, not putting myself out there enough. Then I thought, I'm in Spain, not seeing my family or friends for over four months, living with a family I didn't know the names of until two days before I moved in. I think that's pretty out of the box. So then I got to wondering why I wasn't homesick or anything, and I realized it was because everything was already a little bit familiar. My host mom is still a typical mom making sure I have sunscreen, my 10 year old sister Paula is still a typical 10-year-old, I still attend a university although they may grade differently and speak in Spanish, and I've still found friends that I like to do things with. I think that I was so focused on finding the differences that I was almost disappointed in myself when I could only find a few. I didn't realize that it was because there are so many similarities in the people who are simply living in a different culture. There are definitely differences, don't get me wrong, but the regular phrases such as "boys will be boys" and "mother knows best" still stand here.

3) Retention of imagination is very very necessary. A few weeks ago I spent the day with my 10-year-old sister Paula. The things she would find for us to do were numerous and I'm sure she didn't even pull out all the stops. Putting on plays, doing science experiments, drawing, singing, and a lot of dancing just highlight some of what we did. There was a TV show or two in that mix as well, but I got to thinking about how these were things that we would do as kids as well and how now, TV, the internet, cell phones, Facebook, etc. seem to dominate our lives. Not that technology is a bad thing, I love it, but the ability to entertain yourself without it may seem impossible to some. After that day, yes I still watch some TV shows online and yes I still have a Facebook account, but I've also spent more time sketching, more time outside even if it's just to go for a walk, and more time talking with people than I had been since I'd gotten here. Technology can be and is a great thing, and the people who came up with it all had amazing imaginations. I do not think it was even close to their intentions to take away our imagination with theirs, so being aware that imagination needs to be kept intact is important to have in the back of my mind.

4) Something that I've learned from an actual class is the reason why we English speakers have such an issue pronouncing the "rr" in Spanish words. For the most part, we suck at rolling our r's. My "Phonology and Phonetics" class has taught me why. In our mind, we have abstract symbols that we associate with sounds. These symbols are different in every language and we learn them at a young age. There are also slight changes made in these symbols that we still somehow relate to one thing in our mind. For example, the "a" sounds different between the words "cat" and "have", yet our mind still knows it is an "a". Well, in Spanish, there are two different abstract symbols for the sound "r" and the sound "rr". In English, we only have "r". We also have an abstract symbol for "th" in our minds whereas they do not in Spanish. There is a significant difference between "then" and "den", but for them, "dedo" and "detho" will have the same meaning in their minds. Maybe that's just me being a nerd, but I think that's interesting. Guess it's good I like and am learning in, at the least, one class!


Something else I've learned is that I am a pro procrastinator over here, even more so than in Madison. So with that, off to finish my homework I go!

Barcelona: Words Cannot Describe.

If you are ever in Spain, Barcelona is a must. I knew this coming into the trip because that is one of the places we went in high school, but after this trip, I can say for certain that it is in my top 5 cities in the world.

We, my friends Jessica and Emily and I, left on Thursday night after class, so our flight got in around 8. Our hostal was right off of Las Ramblas, a pedestrian path that leads from the Columbus Monument near the Mediterranean Sea to Plaza Catalonia. It is lined with cafes, trees, human statues, little kiosks set up selling different things depending on which area you're in: flowers, animals, art, etc. Needless to say, we were in a great location. That night, we just got settled and had dinner of tapas so we would be able to wake up early-ish the next day.

Friday we went first to La Catedral de Canta Cruz y Santa Eulalia de Barcelona which means the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. This saint was 13 when she died, and there is a courtyard in the church where there are 13 white ducks to remind visitors of her age. Her crypt is also underneath the altar. It was a beautiful gothic church that had a great view from the top.

The Cathedral (under construction)

Saint Eulalia's Crypt

A few of the ducks in the courtyard

Inside

One of the views from the top

After that, we went to the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, or the Muesum of the History of the City. This museum held the archeological remains of the ancient city Barcino, where Barcelona came from. The remains go back to the first century AD. We saw where people used to do laundry, the fish factory, and the winemaking facilities. It was crazy to think of all the history there and how people were there however many years ago, dyeing clothes, making wine. Boggles my mind.

Tinted blue from the dye that was used

Ruins

The wine facilities. Really interesting to hear how they made it.

We stopped to get lunch, which was very good (paella) and then took the metro to the Arc de Trimof. It lead into a really pretty sitting area, which was the start of the Parc de la Ciutadella. In a more central area, there was the Casacada Mounumental fountain which was designed in part by Antoni Gaudi. There were also many random art piece such as the elephant!

Arc de Triomf

Cascada Monumental fountain

Random huge elephant

Another area in the park.

Then, since it was a nice day (about 65 so still a little cool to swim), we went by the port and hung out near the water. The Columbus Monument was right there too so we got to snap some pictures there. After that, we walked down Las Ramblas back to our hotel to take a quick break before our next outing. That next outing was maybe the best part of the trip (tied with La Sagrada Familia).

We took the metro up to where the Olympic Stadium was in 1992 and saw the tailend of the sunset. It is on higher ground than the rest of the city, so there was a pretty awesome view. After that, we were heading back to another metro station when we stumbled across La Font Magica, which was pretty much magic. There was an amazing fountain light show. The first song was, of course, My Heart Will Go On. It went on for about ten minutes with different songs and then there was a second part which had a lot of American music. It was amazing. I took videos so if anyone is interested, let me know.

View. The big thing in the middle is La Sagrada Familia

Sunset! The tower on the left is the Montjuic Telecommunications Tower

Just one of manyyy of the fountain pictures.

On Saturday, we went to La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell. But we'll start with La Sagrada Familia, tied for number one with La Font Magica. I knew coming into this trip that La Sagrada Familia would be the main attraction for me since I've been there before. It is a church that has been in construction in 1882 and is expected to be finished in 2026 and is designed by Gaudi. The stain glass and architecture in the church, as cliché as it sounds, literally takes my breath away. I was a major nerd this time and got one of the audio guides, but it was well worth the €3.50. It explained everything in the church and let me tell you, everything possible has meaning and most of it relates back to nature. There are going to be three facades. The Passion façade is done which represents the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It’s been done since 1986. The Nativity façade is all about the birth of Jesus and the main events in the lives of the Holy Family. The final one, the Glory façade is still to be built. It will be the main façade of the church. We took the lift up to the top and got another amazing view. Then we took this spiral staircase down the tower which had no railing. Even I was feeling a bit uneasy. My mom and friend Natalie would not have done it for about anything.

Nativity Facade

Passion Facade, artistically the opposite of the Nativity Facade

Inside

Love it.

Seriously, so many pictures of stain glass

Obsession.

View of the Montjuic Tower

Can't really tell, but the sea is there behind all the buildings.

To end the day, we went to Parc Guell which was completely designed by, you guessed it, Gaudi. This is another place that I've been to, but in high school we went through the park pretty quick if I remember. There is a lot of neat, different architecture and at the highest point, el Turo de Les Tres Creus, we had another pretty view. Would have been a very nice place to watch the sunset had it not been so overcast.

Pretty sure I'm sitting in a similar spot in our class picture

Jessica and I in a random area.

Hall of On Hundred Columns

Placa de la Nautralesa

Part of the bench. The entrance to the part is where the tower is.

On el Turo de Les Tres Creus

As if we hadn't seen enough, on Sunday we went back to the Olympic Stadium so we could actually go inside it. We also went to the National Art Museum of Catalonia where we saw a lot of neat art, mostly by artists I had never heard of. The building itself was gorgeous.

Inside the stadium!

Emily and I right outside of it.

The Art Museum. Gorgeous

To end our trip, we spent the afternoon walking on Las Ramblas some more, checking out the jewelry fair that was going on, and giving our feet a rest. My feet definitely hated me by the end of the weekend, but it was well worth it!