Sevilla y Lisboa

Sorrrrrry I haven't written anything in here. But in a way that is good news, as it means I've been busy doing way more fun stuff than writing in my blog.

So two weekends ago, CIEE (my program) took a trip to Cordoba and Sevilla, cities in SW Spain in the province of Andalucia. Naturally they are totally blended together in my mind now, as we went directly from Cordoba to Sevilla. But I will tell you all of what I remember.

Cordoba basically is not that big a place. The river there was as nasty as any I have ever seen (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003). We saw a mosque which had been converted into a cathedral (I'm pretty confident this is commonly referred to as "La Mezquita"). It was cool, but they didn't let us use flashes on our cameras... and thus all of my pictures are blurry! But at least I have something to remember it by. It was an impressive building for sure, but overall Cordoba didn't make much of an impression on me.

Sevilla was much more interesting (possibly because we spent 3 times more time there). There's a cathedral there which is massive (the 3rd largest in the world), with a tower on it called La Giralda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giralda). I took a crapload of pictures from up there (starting here:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632915&id=1107720003&fbid=1257667117615 just keep clicking for more). So that right away was a very impressive part of Sevilla. Then that night we went out to a Flamenco bar (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632920&id=1107720003&fbid=1257667397622) which was pretty sick. At first they were just singing and playing guitar, which was alright, but then this chick got up and started dancing... but not just dancing. FLAMENCO dancing. I cannot do it justice, but look it up on youtube or something... definitely worth watching. Crazy tapping and all kinds of weird movements to an already weird beat... very entertaining.

So anyways, the next day we walked around the city some more, saw some more monuments and a flea market and all that. Then that night we went out to the waterfront (The Rio Guadalquivir, the same nasty river from Cordoba except it wasn't quite as nasty down in Sevilla). I took a few pics (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632928&id=1107720003&fbid=1257667717630), overall it was a very impressive city by night. We hit a bar for tapas, which I must say were not up to par with tapas from Madrid but that's my bias. So then the next day (sunday) we checked out this plaza:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632933&id=1107720003&fbid=1257667957636 and then we headed back to Alcala de Henares!


Segwaying into this weekend...

So this past weekend a group of 5 of us headed to Lisbon, Portugal. This was by far my favorite city that I have been to. Starting here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632938&id=1107720003&fbid=1257668157641 you can see all my pictures from Lisbon, which probably are worth more than anything I could write. But nevertheless, write I will.

So we get in on Friday and we check out the waterfront. BEAUTIFUL. Then we head to the trolley stop, take a trolley like 30 minutes south along the coast and we check out that part of the waterfront, compete with the Monument to the Discoveries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padr%C3%A3o_dos_Descobrimentos for info and http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30633025&id=1107720003&fbid=1257683758031 for my snapshots). 52 meters up. That thing was ginormous, and we climbed all the way to the top for the view. It was insane.

I think later that same day we went to this sacred pastry shop or something, it's like an ancient tradition of a special order of monks, and they guard their recipe for their Pasteis de Belem, which is basically a handheld form of Creme Broulet (or however you spell it). Only 3 people in the world know the recipe. I tasted both the legit version and the ripoff version at another shop... sadly the ripoff was better, but still, I am glad to have tried the original as well. Anyways this is the pastry shop: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632986&id=1107720003&fbid=1257682197992

The next day we scooted around the trolley system of Lisbon. It took us many attempts at boarding the correct trolley (we knew which one we had to take but it kept arriving at our stop completely full, so we took one in the opposite direction until the very last stop on the system, then took one from there back past our original stop and towards our destination), but eventually we found our way to this one flea market, which unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of. But I did buy a sweet Portoguese bracelet, woohoo. After this flea market we were all starving so we headed back to the hostel and made ourselves some spaghetti (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632999&id=1107720003&fbid=1257682718005). in total, 1 euro for each of us. Booyah. (yes I still say booyah.)

That night was Karoake night in the hostel. It was awesome. I took part in Poker Face (Lady Gaga) and Love is a Losing Game (Amy Winehouse). Hostels can be ridiculously fun if they are run the right way... which this one was for sure.

So the next morning was our last in Lisbon. We headed to this thing http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30632731&id=1107720003#!/photo.php?pid=30632990&id=1107720003&fbid=1257682357996 early, before our flight, because I had wanted to see it before we left. So I whined and complained until everyone agreed to get up with me. Anyways it's called the Santa Justa Historical Elevator, totally sick. I got some final pictures (because clearly I hadn't taken enough to that point) and then we headed back to Alcala!


I hope this update has been sufficient, especially given my abscence these past few weeks... listen to me. As if I owe you all anything. Ha!

Well anyways, I'm sure I will be getting back on here soon enough... hopefully with tales of glory from my upcoming trip to Valencia for Las Fallas. Until then... peace out, suckas!

Nada

So it's been a while. Like I said, this blog is going to be inconsistent. Anyways, a brief recap of the recent past:

Thursday the 18th- Atletico vs Galatasaray was pretty fun. It rained a little bit, but I am glad to have had it as my first European football match. The first goal in that game was nasty... here is a link to the highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDoK_O2NIw

Also during that match I learned some very nasty Spanish football songs. I cannot repeat them here.

The following Sunday we hit up the Bernebeu for a classic Real Madrid romping. 6-2 was the final score. Villareal was shamed, except for Marcos Senna, who scored a ridiculous freekick (though it couldn't quite rival Ronaldo's opener...). Highlights: http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/4828945/

That's all for now because this is finals week! I have two tomorrow, so God willing I will ace them. Good luck, and farewell!

The week that was... and the week that shall be.

I was about to start this off by saying "Just got back from Barcelona" when I realized that today is Wednesday, and I got back on Sunday. I don't know where this week went but I feel like it was only yesterday that I was up there! Anyways, let me regale you with stories of the splendor of Spain.

So last Friday (the 12th of February) I got up at 5. I met up with my friends a the train station, from where we caught the 6 o'clock train to Madrid, from where we caught another train to the airport, from where we flew to Girona, from where we took a bus into Barcelona! We finally arrived at 12, so that's 7 hours of traveling before starting the day. But this was only the genesis of a sleep-deprived weekend.

So over the next two days we hit a bunch of sites in the city (if you've never been to Barca, this next part is going to be very boring... just a heads up) including las ramblas, one of the many houses designed by Gaudi, las borajas, the chocolate museum, the Mediterranean Sea, and (my favorite) Parc Güell. Also, I met up with my highschool colleague and eternal foos-enemy, Eamonn Giblin. While we did not make it to the foos tables, we did get to hang out for like 12+ hours so that was sweet. He showed us around the real Barcelona, the side of the city that you don't read about in Time Magazine.

So then Sunday our flight was set to leave from Girona (90 miles from Barcelona) at 6:30 am. Using public transportation, it would have been impossible for us to get there if we left on Sunday morning, so what do we do? We take a train on Saturday night, then stayed up all night in some Irish pub (which had wonderful Mexican food, for the record). While this was the most economically viable option, I don't think I will ever do it again. After a total of 10 hours of sleep over a period of 72 hours (factor in that we were traveling, aka totally wiped out)... I was not in a pleasent mood. It was one of those "I'm so tired I'm literally in pain right now" moments. But this was easily remedied by sleeping all day Sunday! Woohoo!!

Soooo that was how I spent this past weekend. This week has been rather uneventful in terms of social life, probably the most notable thing I've done has been to sign up for two intramural soccer teams (that's right, two), which will be composed solely of Americans, competing against teams composed entirely of Europeans. This will be interesting.

Speaking of footy, this Thursday (tomorrow) me and a bunch of others are heading to a game between Atletico Madrid and Galatasaray (from Turkey) which I am obviously PUMPED about. Then, as if that weren't enough gloriousness for one weekend, we're going to see Real Madrid vs Villareal on Sunday! You know, when life gives you lemons...

I think that's about it for now. Once again I repeat, if y'all have questions do not hesitate to ask!

Peace out, suckas!!

Boo-Hoo

Things I miss the most about the USA:

1. The obligatory but ever true response of friends/fellowship/ACF/CPCC.

2. Mexican food - this is ironic because up until 3 years ago I hated Mexican food. Now I doy cuenta que it's my favorite! They have it here, it's just not at all the same.

3. Being up to date on news- I actually watch more news on tv here than I do at home, but it's Spanish news... i.e. local stuff. Interesting, but I don't hear much about the US unless they're talking about Obama canceling his visit to Spain.

4. Clean sidewalks- Spaniards do not clean up after their dogs, ever.

5. Watching the Superbowl - I missed it for the first time ever : ( Honestly not that big a deal, ever since the real football has become so important to me, the American junk has kind of faded away... I still like it but it's not a priority.

6. The Office - but I'm gonna be in heaven when I get back and have half a season to watch on nbc.com


Things I will miss about Spain come May 7th:

1. Jamon y queso. The other day we were about to eat lunch, and I see a plate of Spanish Tortillas (aka omlettes) on the table, and I'm sitting there praying Lord, please let there be jamon y queso in those. There was... score. Spaniards eat ham/bacon/proscutto (or however you spell it) like we eat pizza. Or hamburgers. A lot, is what I'm trying to say.

2. Speaking Spanish- I'm gonna have to find some friends who are native speakers, cause I didn't go through all this trouble of learning the language just to lose whatever progress I've made!

3. Siesta- why wouldn't I miss 3 hours of rest in the afternoons?

4. Travel- day trips are the bees knees (las rodillas de las abejas). I'm going to miss spending every Friday and Saturday in an unexplored city. Although we could still do Toronto senior year... just sayin'.

5. Cigüeñas- the storks are everywhere in Alcala... I will miss their creepy calls and stoic poses.

típico...

I'm going to walk you through a typical day in Alcala.

I wake up at 7:30. The sun has yet to rise on Spain at 7:30 am, did you know this? Breakfast consists of (every day) tea, pineapple juice (sooo good), milk (semientero, which has no real equivalent in the US... it's like double whole milk, I think), 2 tostados, and cookies (I guess they figure it goes well with the milk?). After breakfast I walk 20-25 minutes to school, right through the downtown area of Alcala. It's a very beautiful place, and every morning I walk through the Plaza Cervantes (http://www.uah.es/grafica/universidad/galeria_alcala/plaza_cervantes.jpg) right as the sun is rising. Pobre mio!

School (http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=30569644&id=1107720003) is a pretty nice place too. It's just a couple streets off of the Plaza Cervantes so really it has to be nice looking. Classes get out at 2 pm every day, which is ace because from 2-5 is siesta, during which you eat an enormous lunch (lunch is the big meal in Spain, whereas in the US dinner is the big one), play guitar, write in your blog, read, run and sleep, not all at the same time, but somewhere in the 3 hour span of siesta. After siesta, typically I will continue doing the same things I was doing during siesta until 6 or 7. Then maybe I'll do some homework before dinner, which is at 9 pm. It took me a while to get used to the time changes for meals (I'm used to eating way earlier) but I think I might prefer it this way. One advantage is that after eating dinner, your body is digesting, which at 9:30/10:00 pm is pretty strenuous for the body to handle... it's easy to just pass right out at 10:30.

But if I don't pass out right after dinner, I typically will watch the news and try to decipher what they are saying. Then comes sleep!


So that's a typical Monday-Thursday. Fridays I have no classes, so weekends are always 3 days... I would walk you through a typical weekend but there really is no such thing. I've done something different every weekend, from traveling somewhere (Madrid, Segovia so far... Toledo, Barca, Lyon, Sevilla and many more to follow...) to "going out" with my Spanish brothers (I use quotes because it's not at all the same concept as in the US. In the US if you are "going out," it's basically inferred that you and your friends are going drinking, correct? Well, in Spain this can be the case but it can mean a lot more activities than just drinking/clubbing. Live music shows, going to the "navi" (basically a warehouse that kids rent out and use as a hangout place) and doing anything there from ping pong to foosball to videogames (though I am awful, the Spaniards destroy me on the xbox), or just hanging around talking).

That's a lot of parenthesis. Anyways my one other point about Spanish weekends is that Spaniards are crazy. They stay out way too late, and I mean way too frickin late. At 4:40 am one time I was like "hey guys, I'm exhausted and I want to sleep. How do I get home from here?" and they were all like "Seriously, dude, it's so early..." So I had to put my foot down and explain that I don't like to sleep all the next day to recover from my ridiculous nightlife habits. Aka I told them I was still adjusting to the time difference...

Such is the life of an uncultered American studying abroad. I have to get going 'cause there's a soccer game on which I do not want to miss but I'll be keeping you posted... If anyone's got questions, ask and I will make sure to responderte!

Peace out, suckas!!!

Interesting article

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/21/haiti-and-the-pat-robertson-paradox/?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F01%2F21%2Fhaiti-and-the-pat-robertson-paradox%2F


I like this article for several reasons:

1. It casts even more light on the monstrous creature that is Pat Robertson.

2. It is evidence that people care about faith, or at least spirituality.

and

3. It was actually very interesting.


I have nothing else to report at this moment.

Hasta luego, papanatas!!

Blogging is kind of like a chore.

I have some free time and I feel bad about not updating on this yet, so... hear you go.

We went to Madrid last Friday for a field trip. I enjoyed it, we walked around as a group and saw where all the museums/palaces/cathedrals are. Madrid is a beautiful city, expensive but beautiful. The day after that my Spanish bro (the one that is my age) was refereeing a soccer match, so I tagged along and tried to communicate with the Spaniard next to me in the audience. I successfully told him the score at halftime, thank you very much, and also I learned that Spaniards love it when people visit their country- this man was very happy to hear that I was studying in his hometown. I think a lot of times we feel unwanted in other countries because we travel around in packs of Americans, speaking our foreign language and looking very intimidating to the locals. Think about it- when you see a pack of Chinese people at college, are you interested in going up to them and welcoming them to the USA? No, you look at them once or twice, which can easily be interpretted by them as us being snooty Americans. Or something along those lines.

Classes here seem to be on the ridiculously easy end of the spectrum. This may be a result of the teachers just trying to go really really slow, as we are all still adjusting to the language change and to Spanish life in general, but either way I'm not working very hard thus far. The interesting thing is that I am learning a ton, in fonetics, Spanish history and culture, or whatever else I study, and I'm really enjoying it. Which leads me to a mindblowing question... why doesn't this happen anywhere else in my life? Why in every other instance don't I learn a lot and enjoy it? And why does it take so much more work to get such a smaller amount of satisfaction? These are questions to which I have no answers, I won't even try.

Such are the woes of my life... outside of schoolwork, my life here has been very social, much more than I thought it would be. I figured I'd awkwardly sit in my room a lot, but I don't! Most of my free time is spent either eating with my Spanish family or out with the other students from my program. So that's good news. Hopefully I can keep the English-speaking to a minimum, so as to learn more Spanish. Given that my whole purpose in being here is to learn the language, I think that's a reasonable aim.

Also, we are supposed to talk in Spanish and only Spanish the whole trip, even to each other within the program. We had to sign a contract and everything, which I intend to take mildly seriously- I'll be the guy who responds to English comments in Spanish.

I don't know how to segway into this next part so I'll just go straight into it: the other night my Spanish brothers were asking me something at the dinner table- "Has visto ______" (Have you seen_____?). I couldn't figure out what they were saying, until finally one of them got a good enough American accent together to stutter "Star Wars?"

(DISCLAIMER: if you didn't already know I am a nerd you are about to find out that indeed I am)

Well, I told them, of course I've seen Star Wars. For one thing my dad loves it, and for another thing I was raised on it. I'm pretty sure I have been both Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker at some point for Halloween. So anyways, after dinner I usually just go straight to bed, but that night we watched Starwars episode III in Spanish, and I gotta tell you, I do not regret it. First of all, I found it hilarious that they called R2-D2 "erre dos!" the whole time. After declining some "hashis" from my Spanish bro, which I can only guess is hash, we got into a discussion of the plot holes within the movie, as well as our moral objections (for example, how can somebody "lose the will to live" when they have two newborn babies to raise?? Madness!).

Anyways, now that you all have had a glance into the past couple weeks for me, it is time that I bid you adieu for the time being. La cena is almost ready and I refuse to be late. ¡Hasta luego y buena suerte!