romantic weekend with danielle

This weekend, I had a class trip to Granada and Córdoba in the south of Spain. Basically our entire class ignored me and Danielle, and therefore we had a romantic weekend together.

We had a 8 hour bus ride down to Granada from Madrid and when we got there, Danielle and I had lunch at a cafe. Then we had this long long tour of La Capilla Real (the royal chapel), which was kinda boring. Our tour guide spoke half in spanish and half in english and when she spoke in english, she exaggerated the last syllable of every word, which got really really annoying. Then we watched the disney channel in spanish in our room while we "got ready" and we hopped on the bus. They brought us to a restaurant where Danielle thought that "piscina" meant fish and she doesn't like fish...but piscina means pool...BUT we had fish so she was actually correct. We had a 4 course meal with a bottle of wine (thanks SLU!) including some salad with a shrimp on it with eyes staring at me, mystery meat, mystery fish, and ice cream. Then we went to a flamenco show, which was really really cool. The dancing is incredible and it's really emotional. The dancers can move their feet so fast and they get SO into it.

Saturday we went to La Alhambra, a city on top of a hill, and walked around for hours. It was raining, which kind of sucked, but it was cool to see a place that I've studied in art history this semester. The Muslim influence in the architecture is really cool to see there. Then we had lunch, where I swear the cook took a microwavable pizza and stuck it in the microwave for a couple minutes and served it to me. We had a two hour bus ride to Córdoba, where we drove around in circles for so so long. But really. We had free time for the rest of the day (5pm on...great) with no knowledge of the area at all. So we walked in a general direction and followed the people...and thank the lord found some restaurants. And by we, I mean me and Danielle again...because our class hates us and chose not to be nice to us. That's okay...we had a nice romantic weekend. Anywaysssss...we had dinner outside in this shopping area and had free tapas with a beer. And ice cream. Oops. Then we watched Jimmy Fallon, a documentary of marijuana, and a reenactment of the killing of Bin laden in our room because that's the only english channel there was...well the Bin Laden show was in German.

Sunday we got up super duper early and had a tour of la catedral de córdoba (which is actually a mosque) with a tour guide that only spoke spanish. That was really really cool...the architecture is amazing. And we walked to the baths of cordoba...which was underground and dark and old. It's where the men bathed in cold, lukewarm, and hot rooms. Interesting. Then we had two hours for lunch...and we had lunch outside next to some orange trees. Yum. Finally we went back home (6 hour drive).

Granada and Córdoba were really cool cities, and I'm glad I went but I probably won't go back. The people on our trip weren't so great...whatever. Thank god Danielle was there.

Orange trees!

Catedral de Córdoba

the decorations in La Alhambra were amazing

Palacio de Comares...La Alhambra

Flamenco show!!

mona lisa smile

so today in my art history class, we were talking about velázquez and his self-portrait. he painted himself in one of his paintings, La Rendición de Breda, and our teacher told us about how they had another painting by him and they thought it was just of a random man, but once they actually cleaned it well, they compared it to the Breda painting and it was actually a self-portrait, therefore making the painting increase substantially in value. I thought this was so cool because for years people walked by it, thinking it was nothing, until one day they cleaned it and it was so much more.

This is exactly like the Mona Lisa painting in the Prado here! You can read the story here but basically they had a regular painting up in the Prado for years, until they actually cleaned it recently and realized that it was a painting of the Mona Lisa, but done at the same time as Leonardo da Vinci. It shows that one of da Vinci's pupils must have painted it but someone in the 18th century painted the background black because that's what was in style at the time. No one knew what was underneath until now! It was really cool to see it at the Prado (twice!) and I was really excited to show my family when they came, but they just moved it this past week to the Louvre in Paris to compare them side by side (where the real Mona Lisa is). So now I'm really upset because I can't show them! But just wanted to share a little art history with you!

I FORGOT THE BEST PART

oh my god I forgot the best part. Well, the worst part. On the plane home, I was EXHAUSTED to the max, trying to sleep. And this smelly older Spanish man sits next to me and his friend is sitting in front of him. They have another friend who's a woman somewhere else on the plane. basically this trio decides to have a little get-together the whole ride home. Like the man in front is on his knees turned around on the seat talking over the back of his seat and the woman is standing in the aisle. for two and a half hours. they bring out beer and crackers like it's a little party and i wasn't invited. all I was trying to do is sleep and they're having a party. really?

bad boys go to brussels

Sit down and take 10 minutes out of your day. This is going to be a long one. This weekend I traveled to Belgium to see a concert called Sensation. Let me tell you, it was quite the experience. We basically were dropped off in a random country where they speak Dutch and French (neither of which I have any idea how to speak) with no instructions of how to do anything and we had to figure everything out on our own. Everything. And the whole weekend we were surrounded by American students because everyone was going to the concert.

Basically I get off the plane on Friday (6am flight mind you) and YOU CAN'T SEE A THING. I have never seen fog like this. Like you couldn't see the other planes at the airport, or the person in front of you. It was CRAZY. And I was so tired on the plane, like delirious, so my crazy brain decides to ask who Ryan of Ryanair was. I still haven't gotten an answer.

So then we have to take a 45 minute bus shuttle from the airport to Brussels, which was fine. But we were dropped off on the side of the road at this train station. We walked around it for a while, but there were only platforms for the trains and then we walked down this corridor and found the main train station. We had to buy tickets to Hasselt (where the concert was), which was confusing. We had to ask the Information desk twice for help. But thank god a young cute boy was working there, with whom we decided to flirt with for a while and create a line behind us of angry travelers (his name is Tom and he's our best friend). Then we had to find the metro (Tom directed us). We bought tickets and asked the man selling them how we get to our station because we didn't know which line to take, and he basically responded to us in Arabic or Dutch or whatever foreign language he spoke and we were so so confused. Thank god the man behind us put up three fingers at us, so we figured we had to take the #3 line (which was right).

So we took the metro and got off at our stop and then had to walk to our hostel. We went to check in (it was 11am) and they told us that we couldn't check in until 4pm (even though on our reservation it said we could check in at 11am) sooo Carissa and Ariel (Katie met us there later) put their stuff in a luggage storage room they had, but I was too scared that someone would steal my stuff so I took my backpack with me. We had 5 hours to waste so we wandered around, had lunch in this CUTE sandwich place where the woman owner was SO SO nice to us. We sat for a while and then walked to this center called Grand Place in Brussels' old town, which is the cutest, prettiest thing ever. It was a square and the buildings on the 4 sides were all gorgeous. Gorgeous Baroque church and baroque buildings. YUM. And since we were in Belgium, we HAD to get belgian waffles!! So we went to a waffle store and got our first of our three waffles of the weekend. Fresh whipped cream and strawberries on a belgian waffle. UM HEAVEN.

And look! They had so so many options of toppings! We took them and sat on the ground in the middle of the square and stuffed our faces and talked about pidgeons (don't ask- they were crazy).

So at 3 we were exhausted and bored and went back to the hostel to hang out until we could check in. But when we got there, they said we weren't allowed in because they were closed form 1-4. OH THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO KNOW. Soooo since we were locked out of our own hostel, we walked the opposite way from the square (cause it was a 15 minute walk) and found an industrial park and sat on benches. Well, I sat on a bench on the lookout while Ariel and Carissa napped on them and a homeless man sat nearby screaming for the entire hour. Finally at 4pm we went to the hostel and checked in. Okay. I know we were staying in a cheap youth hostel for only 30€ a night, but listen to this. The room was tiny with only 2 bunk beds in it and a sink. The bathrooms were broken so only one was open (which was co-ed and in a basement...we were on the 3rd floor). We got paper-quality sheets (a fitted sheet, a pillowcase, and a cover to put around a down blanket). Ariel's had stains on hers. We looked like we were staying in a jail. Oh well, it was only one night...we'll survive. My mother would have walked in there, turned right around, and demanded that we stay somewhere else. Well, anyways, we napped, Katie (our 4th friend) showed up, and we went out for dinner. We ate in that square outside and had pizza and cherry beer. yum yum. Our waiter was a crazy crazy man and when he gave Ariel and Katie their wine, he said, "Tomorrow morning. Goodbye" hahahha as in a hangover. We were dying. And for dessert, duh, we got waffles (2 of 3).

Saturday we woke up and had to check out by 11am. We went to the square, yet again, and what was breakfast? can you guess? hmmm...waffles! (3 of 3). People, I'm telling you. You wouldn't normally think that Belgium is a touristy place or anything like that, but everyone needs to take a trip to Brussels for these waffles. They're unreal. And Belgium produces over 1100 varieties of beer. And chocolate stores there are like McDonalds in America or like Dunkin Donuts in Boston. They're on every corner. People need to take a trip there. And the city is a cool mix of modern and old architecture.

Anyways, we had breakfast, and then went on the metro to the train station. Asked the information desk again where to go, and got on the train. Got off the train in Hasselt in the middle of nowhere. We had lunch at this random snack place, but everything on the menu was in dutch so we picked random things and hoped for the best. We ordered something called the Bicky Burger, which apparently is a brand in Belgium because there was Bicky flavored Lays chips and a Bicky stand at Sensation, but it was hilarious. Then we got a cab with this really nice driver named Hitom (like Hi Tom! or Hey Tom!) and we chatted the whole way to the hotel. This hotel was paradise compared to the hostel in Brussels. It was super nice and in the middle ofthe woods and overlooked this race car track where they were having a race. It was so cool so we watched for a while from our room.

We got ready and then went to Sensation!! It's actually called Sensation White because everyone wears all white, so that's what we wore! The ticket said that doors opened at 8pm and it started at 9 so we planned on getting there at 7:45 so get good spots. WELLL it was like 40 degrees out and we didn't bring coats so we were standing in tank tops. And we found out the doors opened at 9 and the concert started at 10...AFTER we got there. So we stood outside in the cold for 75 minutes and then stood inside for an hour. greaaat. While we were outside we met these funny German girls who were au pairs in America!! Small world.

Sensation was so fun...the music was great (I want to be Afrojack) and the arena was cool. There was a giant lotus flower thing in the middle and the DJ was went in a circle around it so everyone could see him. There were 6 different DJ's throughout the night. Then in the 4 corners there were littler lotuses that had water fountains and fireworks. These giant balls that lit up went up and down from the ceiling too. And the lights were awesome. There were people there from so many countries: Sweden, USA, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Egypt were just some of the people we met. The floor got SO dirty, our white shoes were like black when we left, so we just threw them out. RIP 9€ white boots. You can see more pictures from the night here on their website: http://sensation.com/world/en/photos/index/belgium.

I also met up with some WashU people there which was nice to see familiar faces!

Then today, we took a taxi, then train, got off at the wrong stop so we took the metro, then the bus, and a plane, and another metro to get home. When we went to find the bus, we had to walk alll around the train station to ask where to buy tickets when we eventually found out we could buy them from the bus driver after we had already been there...and then they stuffed us in a taxi with some other Americans to go to the airport. Stressful to say the least.

Anyways! I'm finally finally home after a long, stressful, fun weekend of transportation, house music, and waffles. I feel like I could be dropped off in any random country now and I could figure out what to do. I'm invincible.

P.S. sorry this is so long...it was such an experience this weekend I just had to get it all out!

p.s. I don't want to go to school tomorrow. kaybye.

military time

I went to sweden this weekend!! my lifelong dream that I've been talking about for years and years finally happened! I went and visited 5 of my old au pairs and it was so great. okay, let me give you the play-by-play:

I went friday, and Linda and her mom met me at the airport. We took a bus into Stockholm and it was so nice to catch up. Then we met Linda's cousin at the train station and found Anna. Linda went off with her cousin and Anna and I went and chatted in a coffee shop. It was definitely colder there than Madrid (where it was 70 degrees all weekend) but it wasn't too bad. Then Sabina, Sanna, Sanna's sister Sara, and Camilla all came and met us there! We were starving so we went near Camilla's place and got pizza. I got falafel pizza (jews represent) yummmm. Then we went "bar hopping without the alcohol" because we wanted to sit but couldn't find a place that wasn't too busy. 5 bars later, we found one and sat and just hung out, where we heard Sanna's long story about how she broke her pinky toe (don't ask...it's gross). Anna and I were staying with Camilla so we went back to her apartment, exhausted, and went through Camilla's photo album from when she was in Boston and just caught up.

Saturday we woke up and Sabina, Camilla, Anna, and I went to Fotografiska, a photography museum, which was UNREAL. Honestly, it was SO inspiring and I just want to be a famous black and white photographer. I am going to glue my camera to my side and just take pictures of everything. Go google these people: Anton Corbijn, Liu Bolin, Nick Brandt. And there was an exhibit about the LRA (the child soldiers in Africa), which was so ironic with all this Kony business going on. It was amazing, but so sad. These photographers are so freaking talented. Okay, enough ranting, I was just so inspired. Anyways, after that we walked around the Old City, which is so cute. The buildings are leaning and not up straight because Stockholm is built on a bunch of trash, which was cool. And we were walking around and ran into this sports bar that was totally Boston sports themed!! I went in a FREAKED OUT and the waiters and bar tender were like laughing at me. It made me miss home!

We had a Swedish lunch there and then walked past the government buildings and met up with Linda (Sanna was working). We went shopping and bought some fresh blueberries and raspberries and wine (yeeeee) and eventually went back home. We skyped with the fam and then had ice cream with the berries and some wine just to relax at home. So fun. Sanna and Sara came, and right before we went to dinner, Anna and the girls surprised me and gave me a plexiglass bracelet in the shape of Sweden to remember the weekend with. SO CUTE GIRLS. The nicest. So then we took a "bulle" (cab) to this Thai restaurant and it was so sick. All decked out like Thailand and sometimes the lights flickered and monsoon sounds played. Awesome. The pad thai was UNREAL guys. unreal. During dinner I chatted on the phone with Simon (Anna's boyfriend) where we established that I had an american accent and he had an australian accent, Andreas (Sabina's boyfriend), and Tobias (Sabina's brother who is my age and came and visited us in Boston yearrrrs ago). I convinced Tobias to come out with us and so after dinner we met up with him and his girlfriend Hanna at this club called Lobby. It was so funny because it was in the middle of a mall. Like in the lobby of the mall with a dj and bar. hilarious. But it was so so fun with the girls. Wasn't feeling so hot this morning. And now I'm home!

It was seriously a great weekend with lots of laughs and catching up. I felt like I was just hanging out with my friends. I'm so thankful that they all took time out of their busy schedules (and even flew/took the train to Stockholm) to see me! It was a great great weekend and hopefully it happens again soon!!

the sports bar! unreal.

Camilla, Sanna, me, Tobias, and Hanna

Camilla, me, Sanna, and Linda at the Thai restaurant

is this what a chino looks like?

today my photography class had a field trip to Calle Fuencarral, which is half a residential street, half commercial. We had to take a photo story...so a series of pictures that have a similar theme. I had no idea where to start so my friend Carla and I walked down the street and just took pictures of anything that caught our eye. Eventually I had four different themes going: graffiti, people window shopping, shoes, and this woman with a little dog who we met. so now I have a million pictures and don't know which direction to go with. It was really interesting because you had to be really gutsy going up to people and taking their pictures. I wish I could really fluently and confidently speak spanish (I mean, I can) and ask if I could take their picture. I was just too scared. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. My goal is by the end of the semester to ask a stranger to take their picture. We'll see what my final product looks like.

Sol told us that there are a couple of Chinos (little cheap stores owned by Chinese people) near us, and I really wanted to buy a fur vest (obviously fake) because that's what everyone wears here! Don't worry dad, I want a cheap one. So Carissa and I walked down this long street, but we've never been to a Chino before so every cheap-looking store we walked by, we said, "Is this what a Chino looks like? Is this it???" But eventually we got to one...no fur vests :( but i ended up walking out with a trench coat. oops.

Also, we had a surprise visitor at home tonight. One of Sol's girls who stayed with her last summer came and visited. She had dinner with us (but Sol wasn't even there) and hung out for a little. Her name is Danielle and she's visiting her friends in Madrid for her spring break. She's a senior at UCF. So yup...finished my homework, so off to editing these pictures and watching A Bug's Life!

velazquez and goya and el greco, oh my!

so this week I have three field trips. do i even go to college here? Today my art history class went to el museo del prado and walked around for 2.5 hours. let me tell you, my feet kind of hurt. it was great though because my class combined with my professor's other class (taught in english) and we just walked around the museum and talked about art. it was great. even though i know a lot about art history, i really did learn a lot. my teacher is amazing and she's so cute. we walked through the museum stopping at almost everything. by the end, the people who worked there were yelling at her because apparently the "explaining" hours ended so you weren't allowed to explain the paintings to groups anymore (?? i don't get spain)...but she said to every person who yelled at her "this is the last one, I swear" and then we'd move on to the next painting. such a bad ass. I love her. And she was complaining about the huge groups of Japanese tourists walking around hahahha. At the last painting, she told us that we have to do it again and after go to a tapas place in Plaza Mayor and get tapas and sangria together. how cute. i can't get enough of her. and she was on her way to go buy a painting for her birthday....and she complained about how her husband loves golf and how every one of his birthdays all he asks for is golf clubs and balls and clothes and she's bored of buying golf stuff...sound familiar??

anyways, it was a great visit and i had a lot of fun. tomorrow i have another field trip to a street called Fuencarral where my photography class is going to walk around and take pictures for a photo story. And then Thursday, my color theory class is going to the Thyssen museum to see the Chagall exhibit. Great great week.

wait..it's march already?

hullooo. not too much new lately. this past weekend my art school friends from WashU who are studying abroad in Florence came and visited! It's their spring break so they are traveling all around Spain (how perfect) and they came to Madrid for the weekend! It was really great to see familiar faces. Friday night we went to El Tigre for dinner (crammed, sweaty, good food). They went out and I stayed in and watched Up with Carissa (yep). Saturday, we met at 100 Montaditos (I don't know if I've mentioned this place yet, but it's heaven...I went 4x last week). Danielle and Carissa came and ate with us, but then they went home. We all walked through Plaza Mayor and then went to Parque Retiro. It was a little chilly, but we walked around and sat for a while on the grass. Then we went to Museo del Prado and split up because some girls wanted to go the Reina Sofia instead. It was so funny to walk around the Prado with people who have sat through the same art history class as me, so we all commented on the same paintings and laughed about our professor, Wallace.

That night, a couple of the girls came to a concert (but we only found two of them there), where we saw Crookers. They're two guys from Italy who dj, and are incredible. I'm so glad I was able to see them live. I stayed in Sunday to do homework, etc. so I didn't see them again, but I'll see them in 2 weeks in Belgium!

Today is Danielle's birthday..HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIELLEEEE!! We went to a mexican restaurant last night to celebrate...got there around 7:30, and found out that they don't open until 9pm. Great job, Spain. So we walked back home and waited around until 9. I had chicken enchiladas, which were sooo good.

In my communication class, we're talking about intercultural communication and thereby mostly comparing and contrasting American culture and Spanish culture. It's really made me realize how different the two cultures are; and there have been so many things that I've had to get used to. For example, I hadn't realized until I came here how rushed eating is in the states. You go to Starbucks and you only get a to-go cup, people eat on the go all the time, and the minute you finish eating in a restaurant, the waiter runs over and gives you the check. Here, Starbucks assumes you are going to drink your coffee there so you get a ceramic mug (you have to ask for a to-go cup), people stare at you if you eat on the street, and you need to ask the waiter multiple times for the check. And the mexican restaurant example too...you don't realize how late people eat here. Restaurants OPEN at 9pm...on a sunday! And it's rude to put your hands under the table when you're eating...but in America that's what you're taught to do.

also, it was around 70 degrees last week and I was legitimately sweating in a light sweater, but everyone else was still in heavy coats, scarves, and gloves. I don't get how they do it. So i asked my Señora and she said that the custom is that when it's winter, you dress like it's winter, no matter what the actual temperature is. how strange! In the states, if it's February 1 and 70 degrees out, you wear shorts and flip flops.

Also when we were talking about intercultural communication, my teacher discussed culture shock. He explained how it goes in a U shape, where you're excited about something, but then realize all the differences and get homesick (even physically sick!) and then come to accept it and start the U all over again. And I've realized that yes, I miss home and I DEFINITELY miss the food, but I really haven't had a hard time adjusting. I love this country, despite it's minor cons. It has been a lot of learning (and a lot of learning about life in America too! becoming much more aware of culture) but I couldn't imagine being physically sick due to culture shock. I'm trying to accept everything as it is and live as much as a Spanish lifestyle as I can. I can't believe I only have about 9 weeks left here. It really has flown by, and now that I'll be traveling every weekend for the next 7 weeks, it's going to go even faster. (Sweden this weekend to visit the au pairs!!!)

Sorry for the rant, I think all the ham is getting to my head.