MALLORCA WEEKEND AND PARENTS!!!!! (PART ONE)

Soooo the parents came this week and I am pretty sure I wore them out. Or Spain did atleast. Mucha fiestaaaaaa is all I can say haha. On Monday I took them on a huge walking tour of Madrid, complete with chocolate and churros and a flamenco show at night. I felt like a badass because on the tables I had reserved for the flamenco show was a little card with my name on it and I felt all official. It was a successss! Tuesday we went bar hopping in my beloved Malasaña with my friend Chrissie and I took them to Palentino aka the best bar on earth and we got ham and cheese sandwiches for a euro. Yesssssss :)

Wednesday we went to the REAL MADRID GAMEEEEE versus Lyon in El Estadio de Santiago Bernabeuuu!!!!!! This was one of the coooolesttt things I have ever done seriouslyyy me and my mom were like freaking out! The energy there was sooo awesome and everyone was sooo in to it and excited and ahhh it was just great. We got up there a bit early, bought some Real Madrid scarves, and found a bar right outside the stadium. Spent two hours at the bar getting pumped up, talking to spaniards, watching lyon fans try to get in fights with real madrid fans, and everyone just cheering and singing and celebrating.. ahhh soo great! There were sooooo many guys there and for the FIRST time in my entire life when I went to the bathroom in the bar the line was out the door for the guys but no one was in the girls bathroom. Onlyyy at a Real Madrid game. It was hilarioussss. We then headed into the stadium to find our seats and it was basically a whole different worlddd. The stadium was SO loud and the seats were SO steep and everyone was SOOO intense and intent on watching the game. No vendors, no bathroom breaks, everyone was just fixed on watching the players. Madrid won 3-0!! It was an amazingggg game and watching the passing sequences from above was incredible!!! Real Madrid is going to be my teammmmmm :) We left completely worn out and headed to Palentino’s to get some food and drinks before we passed out. I suggest that everyone go see a soccer game in a foreign country- it was epic.

More to come!!!

PS. the girls in the picture above are my two best friends here in Madrid!! Chrissie is on the right and she is from New York, Tevia is in the middle and she is from New Jersey.. they are who I went to Galicia with and who I will be going to PORTUGAL with in April!!!!!!

SEVILLA AND CORDOBA WEEKEND!!!

Hellloooooooo!!!

So back again from many, many Spain adventures!!!

Lets begin:

Sevilla and Cordoba was last weekend with my study abroad program. They charted a private bus for the 20 of us and we drove down on Friday morning, six hours to Cordoba, greeted by the pouring rain... kind of a bummer, but whatever. We had a great lunch, checked into the hotel, and toured around the old city which used to be the capital of the western Moorish empire when the Muslims first got to Spain, later to be replaced by Sevilla, and then by Granada. Evidence of this was “La Mezquita”. A huge beautiful former Muslim mosque that was literally amazing inside and also really interesting because once the Christians reconcurred Spain, they decided to you know just build their grand cathedral INSIDE the mosque. So its basically this massive Muslim place of worship with a huge church inside of it. The strangest thing ever. Later that night our program set us up with some spanish students from Cordoba, so me and four other girls went out to a Hooka bar with them and then afterwards we went to another flamenco showwwwwww. another oneeeee. this one was actually pretty good seeing as Andalucia is the capital of all things flamenco so I enjoyed it!!

The next day was Sevilllaaaa maravillaaaaaa and we were sooo lucky to have SUN in the morning!!! The drive from Cordoba was only about an hour and we arrived to a thriving, lively, sunny city with everyone out and about. It was soooo pretty and I can see how Sevilla is the most popular place in Spain for students to study abroad. Its a small city, nothing compared to the enormity of Madrid, and seems small enough to feel like you could get to know the place really well. However wonderful it was though, I for sure got home-sick for Madrid!!! Anyways, we took a tour of the Alcazar and the surrounding gardens which was all beautiful and nice to see some green for once haha. Then our program director who is from Sevilla took us to this really authentic restaurant for lunch- so good. Some of the best food I have had since I got to Spain. I was full for atleast 3 days afterwards. Thennnnnnn we got back on the bus and they surprised us by taking us KAYACKINGGGG on the river in Sevilla!!!! Needless to say I was excited, yet the others not so much. I partnered up with Tevia, the diva that she is, and we had quite an eventful two hours fighting over who could paddle with the best rhythm and Tevia trying to avoid getting wet at all costs (impossible). The last 200 yards or so of our trip it starting POURING rain. The whole situation was hilarious and I couldn’t stop laughing as we all got soaked while trying to furiously paddle back to the dock... which was some how sinking into the river... We all ran back to the bus in our wet clothes and headed back to the hotel to somehow dry off. Then for the night timeeeeeeee- SO, when we were walking around Sevilla all day I was looking at all the signs on the building walls and one caught my eye and I stopped in my tracks. Hernan Cattaneoooooooo, the famous Argentinean DJ who I saw my very first night after I landed in PERU exactly 3 years ago, was going to be playing in Sevilla that nighttt!!! Ever since that night in Peru I have been trying unsuccessfully to see him again but he is always touring abroad so I have never had the chance. Well there he was in SEVILLAAA- another sign of my life full circle. I convinced Tevia to go with me after much pleading. It would have been awful if I didn’t go. So after a bit of pre-gaming with a spanish bachelor party we stumbled upon, we took a taxi to some club in Sevilla at 3 in the morning to see Hernannnn Cattaneooooo. I was absolutely dying of excitement and seeing him brought back sooo many memories. Dancing in a beach side club an hour south of Lima with a Swedish guy that I met in the terminal in Houston.. and I was only 17. Succccessss for lifeeeee!!! Anyways, it was basically a full blown rave and we danced danced danced until 6:30 in the morning and got back to the hotel as they were setting up the continental breakfast. Luckily that next day it was pouring rain, so all our tours got cancelled and we were able to just get a bus tour and then drive back to Madrid. After one hour of sleep in the hotel, Tevia and I passsedddd out on the way home.

Anywayssss, I’d say it was a successful weekend on the whole. I learned a lot about Spanish history, saw some beautiful architecture, ate good food, went kayacking, and saw Hernan Cattaneo. wahoooooooooo!!! More to come soon about MALLORCAAA!

GALICIA WEEKEND PART THREE- make sure to read part 2!

Okay so La Arribada-

We get to this town and its FILLED with people, ALL of them dressed as if they are from when Christopher Colombus sailed the ocean blue. However, Tevia and I realized that this time period is open to interpretation seeing as we saw people dressed as pilgrims, pirates, medieval peasants, people from B.C., people from the 1800's, you know.. just anything that looked like it was from the past. It was hilarious. Vendors lined to streets with any kind of delicious food you could imagine and tons of little trinkets and jewelry and whatever. We walked around for several hours, got a beer, walked around a little more, ran into some of the boy's friends from school, and realized we were the only foreigners in this festival hahaha. As the night fell, eating turned to drinking and everyone started the party. We drank in the streets, in bars, went to a nightclub, ran into other friends from Galicia, danced, talked, met new friends who have invited us back to Galicia already and general had quite a few memorable adventures. Tevia, Chrissy, and I were mind blown to say the least. At 7 am we stumbled back to the Mercedes which Adolfo had conveniently parked in front of his ex-girlfriends house that overlooks the water in Bayona- amazing. Seeing as everyone had quite a bit to drink the plan was to sleep in the car for a while until we were ready to drive back to Vigo. So the five of us piled in to this car, mind you its freezing outside, and attempted to sleep. Didn't work. Pablo was snoring, Adolfo deemed it necessary to play a few techno songs before we went to bed, I was in the center seat aka the most uncomfortable, had the fidgets, and already was feeling hungover...

Somehow or another I fell asleep around 8 and awoke at 11 to a woman banging on the windows of the car and yelling at us in spanish hahaha. We are all so confused and disoriented and all of a sudden Adolfo realized it was his ex-girlfriends mom!! Great. So he jumped out of the car and left the door open so we could hear what she was saying... "There are beds in the house kids, get inside!! There are beds inside!!" hahahahha- turns out she wasn't mad at all but wanted us to sleep in the house rather than the driveway. Adolfo turned down the offer seeing as his ex had a new beau also in the house haha so the mom ends up bringing out about 15 blankets for us in the car and like 10 nice throw pillows. This moment was absolutely hilarioussssssss watching her come out to give us blankets and I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. The whole situation was sooo randommmmmmmmm I can't even explain it hahahah- this story will for sure go down in the books. Anyways, after another hour or so the boys thought it good to go back home now so we folded up the blankets and headed back to Vigo to pack up our stuff.

Pablo's sweetheart dad drove us to the train station through the beautiful Galician countryside. I really do love love love this part of Spain and the whole trip was suchhh an adventure. The train ride back was nice and smooth and I got to sleep and we passed through some amazing scenery on the way back to Madrid. Everything was incredible. GALICIA=SUCCESS. Not enough good things to say about it...

Anyway, back to my MADRID. Last week was relaxed. Lots of school and lots of meeting up with friends for drinks/coffee whatever. I did however find out this week that MANU CHAO, my favorite musician, filmed a music video in my FAVORITE bar in Malsaña called Palentino hhahahah. It really is like full circle my life.. I live in Malasaña because of Manu Chao and my favorite bar without knowing before is in his music video for "me llaman calle". Loco. Circles, circles, circles en mi vida...

here is a link to the video.. you can more or less see the bar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzZWXUfIyIs

This past weekend I was in Sevilla and Cordoba which was also absolutely full of adventures (of course) which will come in the next blog. Parents are also here right now!! WAHOOOOOO

ps- here is a link to all my pictures, just copy and paste it:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097077&id=1016283261&l=a551a7939e

GALICIA WEEKEND PART TWO!!

okayyyyyy continuing on from where I left off!!

The boys then took us to the supermarket to get ingredients for dinner. They were so sweet and wanted to make sure we ate exactly what we wanted and when we got home they set the table and even put a table cloth down (these boys are so refined here in Spain!!). Our dinner was delicious- chicken, tortilla española, mmmmmmm yumm :)

That night the boys took us out with another one of their friends named Fandi out to the bars/ discotecas in Vigo. It was Carnaval so everyone had costumes and it was crazyyy. We went out till like 6 in the morning and I saw about twenty people dressed up as terrorists... for some reason this is not politically incorrect here in Spain. They had middle eastern robes on and were carrying around AK-47s.. I asked someone about it and without a second thought they said "Oh yea.. friends of Bin Laden!!".. okay..

I'm not sure what time we slept till on Saturday, but when we awoke we discovered that Adolfo's family had come and was also staying in the house too! His two older sisters were there, one of their boyfriends, and his mom and dad. We got dressed and were about to head down to Bayona, but then his parents invited us out to lunch with them!!!!!!!! Now I do not know exactly what these people do, but they are freaking rich- they took us in their beautiful cars to this beautiful restaurant where all the waiters knew them and had wine at the ready.. umm yes. So me, Chrissie, and Tevia, Pablo, Adolfo, and his family sat down at this elegant table, like nothing i have ever seen/done. I felt honestly like royalty or something and we were at first all nervous because we wanted to make a good impression on his family. The first few minutes I spent trying to remember all the table manners I have ever learned in my life so as not to seem like an idiot, but finally the ice was broken and we had the best afternoon EVER eating steaks and fish, drinking wine, speaking in Spanish, showing photos of our travels, eating Galician dessert, trying the dad's whisky, everything- I think they were really amazed by the three of us and we got excited invitations to come to Galicia whenever we wanted.... it was honestly an afternoon from a movie or something- wining and dining with high society in Galicia, Spain. I couldn't have asked for anything more...

But then we left the restaurant and of course who would we run into? None other then the president of Galicia (!!!!) who Adolfo's dad apparently knew (of course). We were introduced to him as "the americans" and he was quite intrigued with the three of us as well, especially after Tevia told him that she worked with Obama's campaign in 2008. Succccccessssss.

ANYWAY, after all of that excitement, the 5 of us finally got in route to Bayonaaaa- the town about 30 minutes away from Vigo right on the water where Christopher Colombus returned to in 1493 after finding the Americas. Every year since then, Bayona hosts a festival called La Arribada where everyone dresses up in period clothing and eats and drinks and is merry... its LOCOOO. Also- Bayona is extremely beautiful. Like I could live there- it almost almost looks like a mini Rio de Janeiro from above because its this adorable little town stuck in between crystal blue waters and tall green mountains. It's magical.

Okay I am tired again!!!!! PART 3 OF GALICIA WEEKEND WILL COME SOOOON!!!

LOVE YOUUU

PART ONE OF GALICIA WEEKEND:

GALICIA!!!! perfect. another wonderful, magical place in the world that I have been lucky enough to visit and lucky enough to have seen through the eyes of people who call it their home....... and another place that I must return to one day..

Galicia (btw) is the most north-west province in Spain right above Portugal and along with Spanish they also speak a language called Gallego which sounds like a mix of Portuguese and Spanish. They speak Gallego more than Spanish between each other and more with elders, but everyone is also completely fluent in Spanish and perfectly willing to speak it. During Franco years, it was prohibited to speak Gallego so once he lost power the people began speaking Gallego with pride as a way to demonstrate their new found freedom. This is also what happened on the other side of Spain with Catalán in Cataluña- however there it was a bit more extreme. Anyways, I really liked the accent of the people we met from Galicia, it is Spanish but with a kind of Portuguese accent and it just sounds great. Also, Galicia is very green and mountainous and with beaches everywhere... Maybe the best part of Spain?? I think so.

Continuing...

So the weekend began on Thursday night when Chrissy, Tevia, and I took the metro up to north Madrid to meet the boys, Manuel and Pablo, for some drinks before the long train ride. We all headed up to the train station together (Charmartin) and at 10:30 we boarded. The first hour we spent in the food cart just talking and laughing and such and then we all eventually meandered back to our seats to attempt to sleep on the 7 hour journey. Thank you to my severe case of the fidgets and constant restless leg syndrome I can’t say I slept too much despite my Enya playlist being on repeat for several hours. At 5 or so in the morning the train man (whatever he is called) woke us up and told us we would shortly be arriving at Ourense in Galicia!!! We gathered all our stuff together and said goodbye to Manuel who was continuing on the train a little bit farther.

Enter: Adolfo, Pablo’s best friend who we were to be staying with and who had come to pick us up from the train station. Six in the morning he comes rollin up in an S-Class Mercedes with a techno cd BLASTING through the windows. Success?? Tevia, Chrissie and I couldn’t help but laugh to ourselves as we sped through the galician night in the luxury vehicle with our two new spanish friends. sooo randommmmmmm hahaha. After an hour we show up at this huge, old house right on the outskirts of the city of Vigo, which is the largest city in Galicia. The house is Adolfo’s parents summer vacation home, but he just lives their permanently. Rough life. He had a whole bunch of delicious breakfast goodies ready for us, so we ate and then crashed for a few hours in our cute little room looking out to a backyard full of goats. love it. after our little nap, the boys decided to take us to Santiago de Compostela!!! about 45 minutes away, the capital of Galicia, and the final destination of the Camino de Santiago which is a very famous religious pilgrimage through the north of spain. akin to the appalachian trail, but less intense and historically religious. after a car ride of the same techno cd from before, we showed up in the adorable mountain town and got some food to eat, lots of wonderful seafood, it was definitely the best food ive had yet in spain. the waiters of the restaurant were bemused by our excitement and ended up giving us 3 big shells which are the mark of the camino de santiago.. success. The five of us then headed to the huge cathedral in the center of Santiago which is its defining sight and is literally amazing. I was blown away by how ornate and magical it was and inside were the remains of the saint santiago himself. After the cathedral we meandered around some more, my camera broke tragically (its okay i just bought another one) and then eventually we trekked back to Vigo to meet Pablo’s friend, who is also named Pablo for a drink. They took us up to this ancient fortress overlooking all of Vigo and it’s harbor and honestly it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, if not the most beautiful. The sun was setting and reflecting off the water and the mountains and ahhh, it was heaven literally. i really could live there.

OKAY THAT ENDS PART ONE- I REALLY MUST GET SOME SLEEP. MORE TO COME, MORE TO COME...

UPDATESSS FINALLY!!!!

ahh this week has been crazy, busy adventuring, busy with school, busy with planning for march and spring break, and busy with my acquisition of the spanish language! lets see...

sooo every weekend in march i will be gone traveling around spain- i am going to miss madrid for sure but excited to see what else is Spain!! And each trip is going to be very different, its going to be quite a whirlwind :)

Weekend One- Galicia with Spaniards!! Galicia is the most north-west province of Spain right above Portugal and it's supposed to be gorgeous and GREEN! A few weeks ago Chrissy and I met some spanish guys who are super cool and nice and are originally from Galicia but are now here in Madrid studying to become dentists! how random? Also, my Spanish girl friends from class know them through friends which is such a coincidence. Anyways, we have been talking to them a lot and they invited us up to Galicia because there is a huge festivals all over for Carnaval and also another festival called La Arribada that celebrates Christopher Colombus' return to Spain after discovering the Americas. Look it up- thats where I am going!! Christina told me the town where it is is supposed to be AMAZING and she got so excited when I told her the plan. Sooo successss.. me, tevia, chrissy, pablo, and manuel will be taking an overnight train there on Thursday night and we will arrive Friday morning!! Wahooo.

Weekend Two- Sevilla and Cordoba with my program!! Not really sure what the deal with this one is yet or what we are going to do, but it will be nice to have everyone together again and also have everything paid for!!! Successs- and Sevilla and Cordoba will be amazingly beautiful. One of our program heads is from Sevilla so hopefully we will get the local's tour.

Weekend Three- Mallorca with the parents!!!! Mom and Dad are coming for the week and our last weekend we will be flying to the island of Mallorcaaaaaa :) I'm sure it will be fabulous and gorgeous and relaxing and everything!! And good to be with the parents of course!!! Ill be getting us around with my spanish...

Weekend Four- Finale weekend!!! Going to BARCELONAAA to visit Jessica and Emmaaaa, my friends from Boulder who are studying there. All the adventures are up to them- I am SURE it will be hilarious and fun, I will be staying in a hostel while I am there too.. succcesss!!!!

Anyways, lots of adventures this month- but lets see- how did February wrap up?

-Radio class has been hilarious- Each class I am recording news broadcasts that I have to write myself and then we record them in the studio in front of the class- its hilarious and awesome. Getting to be good friends with two Spanish girls in my class and also this other chick who is from Germany but has lived in Brazil and Spain and Thailand and speaks like 15 languages and is generally a badass. Today, she gave me and Pablo a ride to the train station (greatest thing ever since everyday that train station gets farther and farther away) and I walk as slow as a turtle so its like a hike to get home. We have a test next week in my other regular class and I don't know what I am going to do- sooo hard to analyze texts and learn new material in Spanish. These are like intense readings we are doing and somehow I have to comprehend it all in Spanish- not easy at all.

-Tevia and I found a new Irish Bar to watch her beloved Manchester United!! We have quickly become regulars at the James Joyce Madrid and Tevia is turning me into a soccer aficionado whether I like it or not. Man U played Chelsea last night and I was torn who I should root for. Chelsea for obvious reasons or Man U because Tevia will literally have trouble breathing if they are losing. There are always great people there and we have managed to make friends with the bartender and on Saturday we met some hilarious Welch guys and spent the evening joking and cracking up while watching english rugby and drinking Heineken. Success??

-On Thursday night we went out with Borja and all his Spanish friends! Met some great people and bar hopped to all his favorite places with the best tapas. And the best mojitos. I tried to teach this spanish girl the Hokey Pokey song (didn't work) and I also got my Portuguese on with a Peruvian guy who was there. We came back to Malasaña and I had to make a pit stop to my favorite little hole in the wall burrito place where I have become friends with the hilarious Mexican guy who works there- luckily that night a kid my age was there who is also friends with the mexican guy and turns out he lives down the street from me AND has a moto hahaha. I made him promise to give me a ride one day which he agreed to!!! Today I ran into him again on the way home from school walking through Malasaña and he got my numberrr soo we can scooter it upppp. So good to be recognized and feel at home!! hahah

-Chrissy's parents were visiting this week so Tevia and I had quite a few day adventures together. Friday it was beautiful out so we headed to Retiro Park with snacks and a hammock and literally spent all day in the park laying in the hammock and chatting. Spaniards were like amazed by the hammock and I am pretty sure we got like 15 pictures taken of us throughout the day. It was sooo relaxing and I think everyone in Madrid was at Retiro enjoying the day:) Then on Saturday we took a little trip to El Escorial!!! It is this adorable little mountain town about an hour outside of Madrid and there is a HUGE monastery in the middle and the town is great. We proceeded to stand in line for an hour to get into the monastery but then decided to bail to go find crepes. We have our priorities straight haha. Good to be back in the mountains though- if only for a day!!!

Other than that I have been studying and hanging out with Christina who made a delicious squash/ potato/ onion soup thing last night to prepare us for Spring!! My spanish is improving ten-fold each day as well. Yesterday I bought Spain's equivalent of the New York Times or Washington Post and read it on the train to school- all about Libya and that situation in Spanish!! It was a success because I really could understand a fair amount of it. The differences I have noticed between Spanish and English is that english has a million different words to describe every single thing, but the verbs in spanish will be one word but mean a million different things. Also- it is really interesting because you sort of adopt the personality of the Spanish language when you speak all day. It is hard to explain but like your voice kind of changes when you speak spanish versus english, the rhythms, the attitude, etc. Crazyyy!!

Ahhhh okayyyyyyyy- this is all for now!!!!!!! Wish me luck this weekend in Galicia!!!!!! :)

Fun Fact: The Spanish version of "The Notebook" was renamed "El Diario de Noah" which translates directly to Noah's Diary. Also "Sound of Music" was called "Sonrisas y Lágrimas" which translates to Smiles and Tears. "Meet the Fockers" was called "Ahora los Padres son ellos" meaning Now they are the Parents. Hahahaha its funny.

PSSSS: feel free to comment on the blog people!!