como locas por la vida

this weekend was awesome!

friday for catherine's 21st birthday we went to the zoo! i loved seeing all the animals and letting the ecology geek inside of me come and and tell my friends all about the creatures we encountered. we saw a dolphin show, a sea lion show, and animals from all over the world (including flamingo, kangaroos, koalas, pandas, tapers, and anteaters)! after that we went to the shopping district (gran vía) and hung out at starbucks for a while before heading to el cine to see revolutionary road (very good but very intense and sad). we went home to rest and grab dinner before heading out to get catherine her first 21-year-old drink! we ended up at a mexican bar and she sipped a margarita while i guzzled down my virgin strawberry daiquiri.

saturday we woke up early to catch a train to segovia. it was so beautiful! we walked under the ancient aqueduct, wandered through the plaza mayor and all around the gothic cathedral, and went to the alcázar, the castle and defense fortress. before going inside we climbed down the cliff it rests on to get a view of the front of this ship-shaped building. it was beautiful! this is probably my favorite castle. it is the model disney used for sleeping beauty's castle, which is the castle in disneyland!

we then climbed back up the cliff to enter the castle filled with murals, tapestries, and knights in shining armor! it was classic. then we climbed to the top of the tower (between segovia and all of the metro stations i think i did more stairs this day than in my entire life combined...) and got a beautiful view of the city and the countryside. it was a great trip.

sunday i stayed in my house all day, not even bothering with hair or makeup. it was so nice. i slept in till almost 12, ate, did homework, skyped my family, took at nap, did homework, ate, and went to bed. i really needed that day of rest...

now i've got a busy 4 days of school and work before emily and mom get here!!! i'm so excited to see them - it's going to be another great weekend :)

pics of all of these various adventures are now of facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2170626&l=8505a&id=220245

pasos de gigantes

things in madrid are going well. i've finally settled on my classes - after testing out everything, i ended up with exactly what i thought i'd take before leaving the states. my spanish class is lots of busywork, but i suppose it's important. my flamenco class is a lot of fun, but much harder than it looks. bioethics is actually really interesting despite my slight fear of philosophy - i think it's going to be good to think about these things. the women in art class is great. there are only 4 of us in it, and the topics are fascinating. so far we've compared Eve and Mary as opposite figures.

last weekend i went to the parque del retiro with alex and we had fun walking through the beautiful nature and then paddling on the lake. later jessica and i went to a movie, which was a fun experience despite not liking the film much. it was a spanish movie that was pretty depressing, but supposedly it's a work of art here. then we went out for churros con chocolate - one of my favorite treats here! it's the same churros you can find around the US, but without cinnamon or sugar. instead their just plain, but you dip them in hot chocolate, which here is much thicker and richer than in the US, almost like a syrup.

the next day we went to the rastro, this big outdoor market/fair that happens every sunday. there were a lot of handmade crafts there for pretty good prices: scarfs or earrings for 2-3 euros, clothes, handbags, and other little trinkets. there is no bargaining, except with the gypsies over the price of a pair of underwear...

this week i'm having fun with my classes and just hanging out with friends. i really am enjoying my classes here, even the homework despite the fact that none of them have to do with my major. it's a nice break i guess. after classes today, alex, catherine, amy, and i went to find la biblioteca nacional (the national library). after an adventure getting lost on the metro (thanks to alex's directions) we found our way to the big, beautiful building. we could get in to any of the collections, but there was a neat museum showing the evolution of writing (from cuneiform and hieroglyphics to modern latin and asian languages). there were also artifacts of our evolving technology - from papyrus and handmade paper to flop discs, cds, and flash drives.

later we grabbed some tortilla española (spanish omelette - eggs with potato) and headed back for obama's inauguration - definitely the highlight of my day! we made our way from the school to a nearby hotel were "democrats abroad" was holding their viewing. we found ourselves in a room surrounded by people speaking english and eating popcorn and cheetos :P silly americans. it was awesome though! we got to watch the 44th president of the united states, the first african american president, the first president i voted for, and the president who promises to bring much-needed change to our country, take office.

although he stumbled over his oath (i hear thanks to an incorrect dictation by the chief justice) he delivered an inspiring speech. it was well written (sharing some rhetorical devices with MLKjr's "i have a dream" speech - thanks ms. seitz for making me remember that...) and spoke to everyone in the world, not just in america. it was really neat to watch it with some many other americans in madrid, doing the same thing i am.

for now i'm going to get some sleep before my flamenco class at 9 mañana. new pics are up on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2169074&l=41a25&id=220245

hasta luego!

pipiripipipi

the title is from a song santi, our director, taught us one of our long bus rides. apparently it's a spanish classic!

over the weekend we stayed at what just might be the nicest hotel in spain. we're in the city of nerja, right on the mediterranean sea. today we had a class on the history of spain in the morning, then in the afternoon we had free time. i explored the small city with some friends, wandering the narrow streets surrounded by tall, white buildings. we met on the beach for a delicious lunch of authentic paella (they even made me a vegetarian one!) but not before splashing around the in the blue-green water at our feet. we climbed rocks, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed the first day with weather warm enough not to have to wear a hat and gloves outside.

after lunch a few of us walked around the city a little bit more and found a new lookout on the sea with a nice view of our hotel. we returned for our afternoon culture class, which was a trip up in the mountains to the town of frigiliana, a pueblo blanco. it had more narrow streets and beautiful buildings that are now painted white to keep cool in the summer, but were originally covered in cal (lime from limestone). we climbed up the steep streets until we were above the city, then kept climbing until we were in a small, short forest on top of the mountain. we had a beautiful view of the city with the sun setting over the mountains around in and the mediterranean peeking through on one side. on the other side of our mountain were the sierra madres real, the mountain range in southern spain. que bonitas!

the next day we went to granada to visit the alhambra - the citadel, palace, mosque, church on a hill in the mountains. it was so beautiful! (pics are on facebook or the link to the right.) it was a great building originally built by the Muslims that entered spain from africa, but was later remodeled by the Christians after the inquisition. the buildings are amazing themselves, and they are surrounded by beautiful gardens. i think they might have been a little bit more beautiful in the spring or summer, but what we did see was still pretty neat.

granada, and all of andalucía for that matter, was long controlled by the Muslims and thus has a great african flavor. after the alhambra and a visit to the catedral, we had a free night to find our own dinner and explore the freezing cold city. alex, jessica, catherine, amy, and i found a small restaurant where we had the traditional tortillas españolas (potato omelets). afterwards we searched and searched for the flamenco bars we had heard about, but eventually the cold won over and we decided to call it a night.

Now we're in Madrid, living with our host families and taking classes and the Instituto Internacional. The classes are great so far, but I'm still trying to decide which ones to take. I got a huge green skirt to wear for my flamenco class! My host mother is very nice and makes delicious vegetarian food - even better than the restaurants we've been eating at (ok, some of them weren't hard to beat). She has 3 children, one of whom is 18 and still lives at home with us. She's a senior in high school, preparing to take their equivalent of the SATs (go Emily!) We also have a perrito (little dog - don't forget to roll the "r") named Nena, who miraculously I am not allergic to!

for now, we've got a few more orientation events - exploring old madrid tonight, and a tour of the prado museum tomorrow. my friends and i are trying to figure out where we want to travel on the weekends. if you have any suggestions or know cheap places to stay let us know! hope all is well with all of you :)

as the plane was touching down

it's so weird to be writing in english! i've been speaking spanish with only rare english interruptions for the last day and a half, and already i'm improving a lot. right now we're on the bus, it's dark and rainy, and everyone is sleepy. in fact my should is serving as a rather uncomfortable pillow for alex right now.

yesterday i arrived at the madrid barajas airport to find that the people i was supposed to meet with to share a cab were not there, so i took a cab by myself. this wasn't a big deal, except that it was all in spanish and i really wasn't prepared for that. but it went fine. after a quick trip to the internet cafe to let my family know i was alive, i crashed in my hotel room for a 2 hour nap. when i woke up i decided to go cell phone shopping. i went to 3 different stores asking for what i needed, with my shyness slowly eroding at each store. finally i found the card i needed for my phone, and the courage i needed to actually use my spanish! the plan i got is much cheaper for me to call internationally than locally, which is good because internet is not a reliable way to communicate, at least not yet. if any of you feel like chatting my let me know and i'll send you my number, or if it's cheaper i can give you a call. just keep in mind i'm 9 hours ahead of california...

at 6 we all met for an orientation meeting, followed by dinner. alex's plane was late, but she still made dinner. the program has actually been very accommodating of vegetarians - actually letting us tell the servers and then getting the food we need, which is more than i expected. however spaniards are still trying to comprehend this whole vegetarian thing. from what i've heard, they're getting better - right now it means the only thing we can eat is egg. so far i've had tortillas, which are basically omelets with either potatoes or nothing inside. today i also got mushrooms and tomatoes, so it was a relatively balanced meal. there's wine with every meal, which i have yet to try, but we're in andalucía now so i know the sangria's coming! ;)

today we woke up, ate a quick breakfast, and hopped on the bus. the landscape was very flat and dry, but we did see some of don quijote's windmills. we also had a lesson on pronunciation and vosotros, making are spanish true to spain. santi (santiago, the director) gave a humorous, yet long, lesson. we traveled about 5 hours south of madrid to the city of córdoba. it was the first capital of spain and at one time the largest city in europe with over 1 million people (it was large then anyway).

interruption: it's snowing!

anyway, the province we're in is andalucía, the southern most province of spain. it was originally developed by the moors who invaded from africa (which is only about a 10 minute boat ride from gibralter) they settled córdoba and built a beautiful mezquita (mosque). as the city grew, each new caliphate>>>??? had to add his own addition to the mosque. it grew to be the second largest in the world, second only to the one in damascus, which was the motherland so they couldn't really outdo that one. the moors conquered the entire iberian peninsula in ridiculously short amount of time. then the catholics took hundreds of years to undo it, eventually making their way to cordoba and converting the mosque in a cathedral. but rather than undo all of the beautiful architecture, they just built their cathedral right in the center of the main hall of the mosque. as we toured through this incredible building we got to see both the Islamic and Christian influences right next to each other. it is still a functioning cathedral, with the beautiful fountains used for washing one's feet before s/he entered the mosque.

later we walked through the streets of córdoba to the sinogoga (synagog). in stark contrast to the mosque, it was a tiny box with two small apses that the Christians had added when they took over. the cobblestone streets of córdoba were very narrow with tall white buildings adorned with tiny balconies dripping with vines. it was adorable. there were also many dove fluttering around. renata, our general organizer, told me a neat story about them. she said there was a ruler in the city who insisted that all of the buildings be white. the white is to stay cool from the hot summer sun, but during this ruler's time there was a lot of disease in the city and he believed the white buildings would keep things more clean and pure, so he insisted they be repainted every year. as a result of the white habitat, many animals evolved to be lighter - including the pigeons, and thus all the doves.

now we're on our way to nerja, to spend a couple nights on the beach. i think it's a little cold to test out the mediterranian waters, but it's still going to be a neat place to stay. (in case you happen to be looking at a map, nerja is near málaga.) after that we go to granada, the place i have been looking forward to the most due to its magnificent alhambra - the citadel/palace/mosque/cathedral/fortress/gardins on a hill. i've done numerous spanish projects on the maravilla (wonder) and i can't wait to actually see it!

i haven't found out much about my host family yet, except that i have quite a long commute to the institute for school everyday. oh well, if the family is good it will be worth it. i also found out that our bing trip will be to extremadura, the south eastern province of spain, right next to portugal. but for now i'm just going to enjoy this educational vacation in andalucía!

hasta luego!