When in Rome...

When in Rome, do as the Romans do: walk. Walk EVERYWHERE. In the heat - and still love it here. Today, we literally started at one end of Rome and walked to the other, taking in everything at once (well, everything besides the Spanish Steps, because they were too far away - tomorrow's adventure for sure.) We started out bright and early at Vatican City, passing a TON of people (literally, the line was 5 wide and a half mile long) because we bought our tickets online in advance, so smart! We had to bypass a few tour groups, so we breezed by some frescos and statues, intent on finding the Sistine Chapel. Some right and left turns later, there it was! Our entrance was a little anticlimactic, we thought there would be a grandiose door or something, but when we walked in, that feeling changed. We got there super early, so there weren't that many people, and we sat on the sides, craning our necks for a good half an hour looking at everything. It was amazing! But then, it started to get busy, so we decided to get a jump on the rest of the day. We walked through some of the Vatican museums, then headed through the Vatican grottoes, then to St. Peter's Basilica. It was all just fantastic - I found it very spiritual, and even though I'm not Catholic, appreciated just how amazing Vatican City is. Even praying in St. Peter's Basilica was an amazing experience. We walked around St. Peter's square as well, then headed on a HUGE walk from Vatican City back to our hostel.


To start off, we went to Castel Sant'Angelo, one of the churches in Angels and Demons, and then headed across the river to the Piazza Navona, a quaint plaza with a TON of art vendors! Then we were off to the Pantheon, famous for its round oculous at the top (a circle without a roof! where does the rain go??) We had to take a gelato break at this point, and then we were off to Iglesia Sant'Ignazio, one of the places Jeff recommended to us. After that, we headed to the Trevi Fountain, then the ancient city again. We also had gone do the Trevi Fountain at night, so it was cool to see it in the daylight. I should mention that we had some DELICIOUS Italian pizza last night - OH so good, and wine too :) The food here, I hate to admit, is waayyyy better than Spanish food - go figure. PLUS, gelato is my new favorite dessert. We've already had it 3 times, and its just amazing. Way better than ice cream, and not as cold. YUM!


Anyways, we pretty much explored the entire city. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking! Tonight, we're off for pasta and tiramisu, and then a wine bar, so Carlye and the rest of us amateur wine connoisseurs can decide what wine we like the best :)


Arrivederci!

Best pizza ever - the tomatoes were SOOO fresh!

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Square

Roma!

Piazza Navona

The Pantheon

Iglesia de Sant'Ignazio

The Trevi Fountain! To make a proper wish: Wish, then with your right hand, throw the coin over your left shoulder - voila!

Roma bella

So we made it! We've been in Rome officially for 6 hours, and have fallen in love with the city - although the language barrier is something new again haha. I keep speaking Spanish! Oops - at least they can understand me! 


We dropped our stuff off at our hostel and explored for a little bit - going for paninis and gelato because of COURSE, we're in Italy and have to eat what they do! Darn...


After stuffing our faces we headed to the Colosseum and old city district, which was amazing! Its only about 10 minutes away from our hostel, so its the perfect location! The old city was amazing, we're definitely doing an actual tour (ok, buying the tickets so we can go in, and not just walk around) tomorrow, but for now we just explored. We also went to Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, a huge shrine and tomb of the unknown soldier. 

Colosseum!

The monument...

As for right now, we're relaxing, and heading to the Trevi Fountain soon for pizza and tiramisu (yes mom, I will have a bite for you I promise!!). I can't wait


As they say in Italy...ciao! 

And We're Off!!

So today we had to say goodbye to amazing Toledo - my new home away from home! After a relaxing weekend of hanging out with friends, relaxing, and (not to my liking) packing, we had our last breakfast this morning, and then with 2 HUMUNGOUS bags, plus a backpack and purse, we headed out - at first attempting to walk the whole way. If I haven't vented about it before, I'm going to now - Toledo is a city BUILT on a hill. Not one street is completely flat. Put that with a ton of cobblestones, and you have a burning sensation in your legs every time you walk out the door. Not that I mind that, my legs look great from this summer, but adding all the luggage made it almost impossible to even get to the main plaza, and it was hot today, so I was dripping sweat by 9:00AM - lovely. Luckily, we were all going through the same way, so the four of us decided to taxi it to the train station. Best 2 euro I've spent thus far (not including all the gallons of water I've downed). We took the Renfe train from Toledo to Madrid, and then it was ANOTHER adventure taking the Metro to the airport. Three train rides and two transfers later, we were finally at the airport, and then we had to trek to terminal 1, waayyyy down from the bus station. Luckily at this point Nikki and I got to drop one of our suitcases off at the consigna, or the airport lockers. We're going back to Madrid for our flights home, so we didn't want to travel with extra baggage!

At the consigna, we met a guy named Jeff from Florida. He had just finished a semester study abroad program in Santander, and was trying to fly back on stand-by...lets just say he wasn't successful his first day. He ended up hanging out with us all day! It was fun, just chatting and swapping travel and study abroad experiences. We spent the day at el Parque de Buen Retiro, one of my favorite places in Madrid, and then went for churros con chocolate at San Gines - best churros ever. I think I blogged about them already, but yes, basically heaven in a cup mixed with heaven from the fryer (translation: delicious, and probably loaded with calories - great haha)

Other than that, it was a pretty relaxing day, we've just been hanging out around the hotel and collecting ourselves before a marathon trip. 7 days, 2 countries, a million things to do with great friends - CANNOT wait. Our goal is to constantly be uploading pictures and blogging, so hopefully I'll be able to share every night!

For one of my last blog posts from España :(

¡Hasta!

The end isn't the end, its just the beginning of a new adventure...

It is 4:30 on Saturday, July 24, and I am officially done with my time here in Spain (almost). We have our graduation ceremony tonight, and then we're free to go! Not that I'm looking forward to that. Exams went better than I expected, luckily I studied the right things and got good grades on everything! Good, a GPA booster :)


On Thursday night after finals were done, we all (literally EVERY student from the Fund) went to Paraleras, the outdoor discotecas in Toledo. We had to celebrate! Of course we had some drinks before we got there, but it was a fun experience, dancing and just hanging out with the great friends I've found here. Now, let me just say that Spain doesn't EVER do things on time. The sense of time here almost doesn't exist, which at times is very frustrating, but that night was enjoyable - we didn't get there until 2! And we closed the place down at 4 :) Now for me, thats late, like super late. Usually I go to bed at 11 on weeknights, and I can't usually make it past 2 in Minneapolis! Maybe I'll have to bring this tradition back home...


After that great night we had an earlyish morning on Friday, we had decided to go to the famous Don Quijote windmills! If you didn't know, Don Quijote has to be one of the most famous works of Spanish literature ever. In the story, Don Quijote fights these "monsters" that end up being windmills. Because Consuegra (the little town where they are) is like, an hour away, we decided to venture there and visit!


Venture, by the way, is the best word to describe it. Consuegra is this tiny town of about 5,000 people, and we didn't see anyone! Definitely a ghost town. We made it up the stairs (oh my gosh, so many stairs) to the hill where the windmills were, and voila! We could've been Don Quiijote, fighting those monsters. It was SOOO hot that day, we were dying. I drank a liter and a half water bottle in about 30 minutes it was so hot. Luckily none of us got burned! We met this store owner in one of the windmills and he let us go up to the top to see in the windmill, which had a great view! Definitely built for shorter people though.


After comida and visiting the windmills, we decided to head back because there wasn't much else to do...and this is when we really discovered how sleepy of a town Consuegra was. Lets just say that we were told the bus would leave at 5:30, when we wanted to leave at 4:30...ok, so we would just find a restaurant to hang out at. However, a bus didn't roll around to 6:15! That Spanish sense of time again...Anyways, we made it back and just chilled out the rest of the day. I started to pack (sad!) and then we went out for sangria, a delicious Spanish wine concoction with fruit, another thing I'm bringing back to the States for sure!


After sangria we headed to my friend Carlye's homestay house and hung out with her host brother and his friends, who just got back from college in Madrid - haha, another fun Spanish experience! They played guitar and chatted with us all night, and it was fun to be able to actually use my spanish! Of course, that was the end-goal of coming here!


So now, after finishing all my souvenir shopping and finding out my grades, I'm relaxing, and its starting to hit me that I'm actually going to be leaving Spain in three days...THREE DAYS!??? Where did the time go!? I will miss this place, I can guarantee it. I've fallen in love with Toledo's twisty cobblestone streets, its warm people, and yes, even the Spanish sense of time, even when it drives me nuts. I've fallen in love with the church bells that wake me up every morning although I want to curse them, and I don't know what I'm going to do when there's not a bar right outside my front door that I can relax, enjoy a beer, and do homework at. How can this be happening!?? I want to come back home, definitely, but I don't want to leave here too. In spanish, the saying is "entre un pared y una espada", that's totally me right now. It means between a wall and a sword, but in english we say between a rock and a hard place...it sucks! The good thing is after Rome and Paris, I'll be back for a day and a half, but not in Toledo :( Madrid is awesome, but I love Toledo! Its the perfect town, big enough that there's always something new to explore, but small enough that you can really feel a connection with the people and feel like its home. Maybe I'm feeling this way because its so close, but wow, I will definitely need to come back here someday. Definitely.

Why can't the week before finals be like this in Minneapolis??

(this post was written a few days ago, but you still get the idea!)


Naturally, I should be studying for my two finals that I have tomorrow (its about 11 PM) but I have no motivation whatsoever. I think it might be because its summer, and finals in summer is a HUGE oxymoron...or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself of that :) Instead, I'm blogging to you all about my fantastic weekend!


So this weekend to get away from it all we went to Valencia, a Mediterranean coastal city :) It was a nice relaxing weekend before this stressful week of finals, but getting there was an adventure in itself!


On Friday we took the group excursion to Segovia and went to see the Alcazar, the famous castle that was some of the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella Castle, and the Roman Aqueducts. After a 3 hour ride, the castle tour was a refreshing way to stretch our legs, and it was so neat! We were in the room where Cristopher Columbus was granted the money to find India (ok, so we know how that all worked out) and the rest of the tour was just fun. It helped that we had a great tour guide! (Although at this point, I'm a little tired of guided tours, good thing when we're in Rome and Paris we're all doing it on our own!)  The aqueducts were very cool as well, they're 2000 years old, and were built WITHOUT mortar! So basically, you hope that these massive stone bricks can withstand storms, earthquakes, etc...yeah, its pretty amazing that they're still there...


Comida we delicious, we had this great vegetable soup with croutons in it - one of my faves! Definitely bringing that recipe back to the States!


When we got back to Toledo my friend John and I just chilled out, we had dinner at the Fund and then headed off to the bus station to get to Madrid, so we could fly to Valencia! To preface this, we bought our tickets for 6:00AM on Saturday - when we left Toledo it was 10:00 on Friday night...how did we spend the time in between getting to the airport at midnight and the flight at 6? Yeah, we slept in the airport. I was fine with it, I've done it plenty of times before, but I was COLD. I never thought I'd say that in Spain, but the floor was hard and cold! We weren't allowed through security because Ryanair didn't verify our passports until 4, but hey, it was an adventure! When we finally took off at 6, I wanted to about pass out on the plane - too bad our window didn't close! We sat in the exit row (on Ryanair you pick your seats when you board) because we wanted more leg room, but there was that little trade-off. The flight was only about 35 minutes long, which was really refreshing...until the pilot came on and told us we had to circle because there wasn't anybody in Air Traffic Control! So there we were, about 7 AM in the morning after not sleeping much that night, and we were circling the beach that I wanted to relax on. Not fair! He told us that we'd be circling until another worker was able to get to the airport, estimating that it would take around 30 minutes, which in Spain time, is an hour at least...great. Luckily we were able to land around 8, and we were there! We made it to our hostel around 10 to leave our stuff and get changed, and then we headed to la playa!! (the beach).


OH MY GOSH. Thats all I can say. I've been to the ocean before, but NEVER one that is this sandy and with water that feels so good! Granted, I've also never been to a beach with so many topless women, but hey I guess in Europe thats the thing. Definitely not a trend I tried though. The beach was so nice! We were there all day, we met up with other friends that were in Valencia when we got there and just hung out, getting in the water when we got too hot, and relaxing on the beach - I even snuck a nap in! Glorious.


That night we got back to our hostel, got ready, and met up with our friends again to have dinner. They were originally in our hostel but got an upgrade to an apartment hotel because of an electricity problem in their original room, so we made dinner! Ok, my friend Erika made dinner, but it was DELICIOUS. Italian pasta sauce with pasta, bread, veggies, we went all out. It was nice to just hang with friends and enjoy everyone's company!


The next morning we got up early and headed to the science/museum district of Valencia, because it was rumored to be amazing, which it was. It reminded me of Milwaukee and its art museum - all the buildings were very contemporary and flowed together so creatively! At first we weren't going to go to the aquarium, but we decided the ticket was worth it, and I'm glad we did! We saw a dolphin show (my first) which was amazing! Very cool, especially with the spanish commentary. We wandered around, seeing beluga whales, sharks, fish, sea horses, just a TON of cool stuff.


After the aquarium, it was back to the airport for our flight (a short 20 hours in Valencia) and we were headed back to Madrid. Luckily, we landed on time this time! Not that we had to rush back to Toledo, some of our friends were meeting up with us in Madrid and we were venturing to a BULLFIGHT! Now, I was very nervous about this bullfight. Not that bulls scare me, but the fact that they die. I'm a huge fan of meat and all, but I've never actually seen an animal die like that, so I was prepping myself for animal cruelty and the whole bit. But I wanted to go see it because its such a Spanish tradition, and the bull is revered here - its kind of crazy actually.  I actually ended up liking the bullfight, and its something I'd definitely consider doing again. Not that I like the killing part, but its a graceful art, between tiring the bull, and the dance between el torero (the matador) and el toro (the bull). I think I enjoyed it because I knew what was going on, I had written a paper about bullfighting and could follow the progression the entire time. Overall, we watched 5 individual fights, but the last one was a little bit more difficult to watch because they couldn't sever the spinal cord. After that, I was a little glad to leave, but overall it was a good thing to do.


Well, that pretty much sums up that weekend. Now its back to arte de las tres culturas...studying about the different architecture here in Toledo - grand.


¡Hasta!

Finals are Here :(

So yesterday was my official last day of Spanish class EVER - unless I want to just take a fun class here or there. My minor is almost done! Today and tomorrow I have exams, and then I'm home free...which leaves me feeling a little empty inside, I have to admit. I love spanish, and have been taking it since I was in 7th grade...7 years!! wow. I'm a little nervous for my arte class, there's so many buildings and eras I could be tested on!


After Thursday I'm here until Tuesday morning, when a group of us are going to Rome and then on to Paris :) The plan for this weekend is this:


Thursday night - go to the outdoor discotecas and celebrate classes being done!
Friday - we're going to the infamous Don Quijote windmills (of course, corny photos WILL be taken)
Saturday - getting the last of my souvenir shopping out of the way, and then we have our graduation ceremony
Sunday - POOL! and packing :(
Monday - I officially leave Toledo. We're heading up to Madrid to relax and explore a little more, because our flight is too early on Tuesday to leave then. I will miss it, more than I probably know
Tuesday - ROMA! We'll be in Rome for 3 days, and then head off to Paris, for another 3 days, then I fly back to Madrid and then its back to Korea!! Cannot believe its already been six weeks


SO I promise I will keep you updated, but probably won't be blogging too much until after tomorrow night - I have 2 exams and a paper to write...lovely


Just a little background on what I've been doing: The weekend after the 4th was Pamplona, where the infamous running of the bulls happens...but I didn't go. There weren't any hostels or hotels, and I heard that it was fun to see the running (the 5 minutes of it) but otherwise it wasn't extremely interesting, so I'm actually glad I was able to relax and catch up on homework. This past weekend we went to Valencia, a beach city on the Mediterranean. I LOVED it! I'm super tan too :)


I guess you have things to look forward to reading! As for me, I have to get motivated to study...great.


¡Hasta!

Spanish Snow and Andalucia Adventures

So clearly I have not kept my promise - blogging really does take an effort! I apologize for not keeping you up-to-date on my weekend traveling, but have no fear, because I told myself that if I have to stay up until 2 AM, I will get caught up (its about midnight now as I'm writing, but this won't get posted until tomorrow afternoon because I want to add pictures).


To get you caught up - three weekends ago (4th of July weekend) the Fund offered an optional trip to Andalucia, the southern region of Spain. Naturally, I went, because I wanted to take in all of Spain that I could for the short time that I'm here. There were about 60 of us that went, and it was nice to spend some time with other friends who I hadn't traveled with beforehand. The morning started off early, with us getting wake-up calls from the reception at 5AM - yeah, didn't expect that. I mean, I knew the bus was leaving at 5:30 so I was already up, but seriously, 5AM?? We have a phone in our room, and luckily my roommate and I were both on the trip, but I would've hated to get that call and be woken up if I wasn't going!


We all get on the bus just fine and start to head out, and then we take a detour - my friend Helen who lives in a host family decided to hit the snooze just a little too often, and so we had to pick her up :) After that, it was smooth sailing, and we looked forward (haha) to the 5ish hour bus-ride ahead of us.


We stopped for breakfast at this roadside hostel that served some good breakfast, but I was a little disappointed. Yuki, one of the program coordinators, told us there would be eggs! Like real, cooked, scrambled eggs. YUM. But no, there were no eggs, or cold milk...I guess it was just your typical Spanish breakfast.

The Spanish Mountains 

TONS of Olive Groves

The bus ride to Córdoba was fun, it reminded me a little bit of the Needles Highway in South Dakota at one point because we were in the hills (Toledo is in the plain of Spain, surrounded by a ring of "mountains"), and I got REALLY tired of olive groves, really fast. They smell so bad!! Now, don't get me wrong, I love olive oil, but can't stand green olives (sorry Dad). Other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful, scenery wise. Spain is gorgeous, but nothing really stuck out. What WAS interesting was the Spanish movies we had the pleasure of watching on the bus. Now, FYI, Spain doesn't censor very much, if at all. So if you have a weak stomach or don't really want to know what the movies were about, don't read on (hint hint, grandparents). The first movie, just as background was called "El otro lado de la cama". Translation: The other side of the bed. The opening credits were of women singing right after having sex, and getting dressed, etc...weird intro, right?? Well, then it got even weirder. The first scenes were about this couple, and then the following scene, this guy is with his lover, and they get undressed and literally have sex right on screen. No kidding, you can tell. GROSS. Her face even shows it!! THEN, of all weird things, they start singing, and then the next scene was this guy who clearly has issues with his women singing in the locker room, with dancers and everything. Basically, the entire movie was a musical porno of love, and how you shouldn't have lovers, cheat, etc...it was just weird. The second movie (from Córdoba to Granada) was thankfully not along the same genre, but still very graphic. The opening scenes to this one (I don't remember the title) was a guy slitting his wrist! The entire movie was about this prison gang, and how this cop (I think) infiltrated the gang and then eventually dies, a guy gets his ear cut off, basically it was your everyday horror movie times 1000. SO needless to say, I'm sticking to American movies from here on.


After the eventful bus ride, we made it to Córdoba, and toured the old city - the Jewish District, a synogogue, and the Mezquita. Córdoba was cute, and the Jewish District and synagogue were interesting, but my favorite part of Córdoba was the Mezquita. It's one of the most famous places in Spain; an old muslim mosque that was half-converted into a cathedral after the re-conquest of Spain. (For those of you who don't know, Spain before 1492 wasn't a united country, and the Moors, or muslims, had a large influence on Spain until Isabel and Fernando, the same kings who employed Christopher Columbus, expelled the Moors in 1492). After the re-conquest, the Catholic Reign (Isabel and Fernando) renovated everything to make it look Christian. However, the Mezquita was only half-transformed to show their tolerance for the muslim religion...at least I think thats how it goes. Nevertheless, it was really cool, and after studying it before in college I was happy to visit it.

La Mezquita

After the tour we had comida, and got to go to this little outdoor vendor market for like 20 minutes, where some people bought cheap Spain jerseys. Unfortunately, they didn't have my size :( Oh well, I'd pick one up later I was sure. After that, it was back on the bus, where we watched that crazy jail movie and saw even more olive groves...great fun. Oh, and just to preface, Andalucia was HOT - like, 110 degrees hot. I was dying, and so was everyone else. I couldn't believe that a 4 hour ride south would make it that darn hot! We're lucky we all had water and didn't die of heat stroke.


HOWEVER (if you can't tell, I COULD NOT BELIEVE THIS) there was SNOW in the mountains near Granada!! Now, when I say mountains, they're smaller than the ones back home in Alaska, and even THOSE don't have snow in the summer. HOW COULD THAT HAPPEN!!! I have no idea, but you can clearly see it in the picture. What!!! Mind blown.

SNOW!!!

When we got to Granada we checked in, and then we went to a Flamenco performance. It was amazing!! I thought Norwegian Dancing was hard, but they move their feet so fast, its ridiculous. Its a solo dance, but very intense - and the music was cool too! Just a guitar and a cantante (singer). After the performance, we went on a moonlight tour of Granada, and saw the Alhambra at night, another cool sight to see.

Flamenco :)

The next morning we got up early and headed to the buses for our guided tour of the Alhambra, the most famous tourist destination in Spain. Its a huge palace built by the Moors, and its where los Reyes Católicos reconquered Granada and finally united Spain. It was a very cool building with awesome gardens, but our tour was 3 hours long...yup, 3 hours listening to facts...not necessarily my thing that day. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but probably not as much as I would've if I'd have done it on my own. Maybe it was because it was the 3rd palace I'd seen in 3 weeks...hmm :)

La Alhambra

Amigos!! :)

After the tour we had tiempo libre (free time) and we were famished. Naturally, we searched for the closest restaurant, and low-and-behold, it was an Italian eatery. YUM! We all ordered HUGE pizzas for 8€, which is pretty cheap for comida. Since it was so cheap, we decided to order the 10€ dessert, of course that would work! We all split this humungous trough of chocolate, flan, ice-cream, cookie deliciousness, and then headed back to hang out before the Spain vs. Paraguay game. It was our intention to find a bar to watch the game, but by the time our 5th game of Euchre was over (haha) it was too late, so we just ended up watching Spain dominate (yes yes, I know I already blogged about us winning, but remember this was before that!) and then went to celebrate with a pitcher of sangria and some amazing gelato. As we were walking to the gelato place, we saw people dancing in the fountain, going crazy because of Spain's win! (YES, I know I've done that now too, but hey, I'm trying to keep the story in perspective). After an amazing cup of chocolate fondant and cookie dough gelato, we all headed back, dead tired - another successful day accomplished.


The next morning we got up, packed, and then headed to the cathedral to try and catch mass, or at least get a peek at the building because Emily's sister loved it. Luckily, we got there in-between services, so we could walk around for a quick bit and look at the architecture. This cathedral was larger than the one in Toledo, and much more recent - by 200 years haha. Very elegant! After the cathedral, I was able to pick up my red España jersey, and then we headed off to la Capilla Real, where los Reyes Católicos (arguably the most important monarchs of Spain ever) were buried. Again, another cool place. The tombs were in a chapel, and then you could go under and view the coffins - a little weird, but still neat.

La Catedral

Our tour in Granada was pretty much done after that, and we headed back to catch the bus back to Toledo - a great 6 hour bus ride :( Along the way we watched Terminator in Spanish, which was a refreshing change from the Spanish movie genre :) We got back, ate dinner, and then it was back to life for me - I had homework!! Another amazing Spanish weekend was complete :)

¡LA FURIA ROJA!

So if you like, fell off the face of the earth, this is news to you - ESPAÑA WON THE WORLD CUP, and I'm here for it!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!

The emotions right now are indescribable. Amazement. Joy. Awe. Shock. Everything is running through my head a million miles an hour, just loving the way Spain played throughout the entire tournament and how special it is that I'm here to enjoy all of this, especially because it's Spain's first win EVER.

We went to the Plaza del Toro again to watch the game, and it was packed, to the point where I felt like a sardine. It was so fun dancing and watching the game, and when we scored the place went NUTS. Literally. Some guy through his full glass of beer in the air and I got soaked, but hey, who cared? With four minutes left to go, we had taken the lead, and no one cared what the heck was going around in the Plaza. The entire game, we were on our toes, just anticipating winning, and how amazing it would be. When that final whistle blew, the crowd went absolutely crazy. It was a huge dance-fest for like, and hour, and the cheer "Yo soy español, español, español" (I'm a Spaniard) reverberated through the crowd like a shock-wave. Holy cow, that just happened! We WON!!!!!! (haha, funny side note: one of the songs was none other than "We are the Champions" by Queen. In english. And everyone knew the words! LOVE IT!)

Afterwards, again, we danced in the fountain. OF COURSE! It was an amazing win for Spain, and I can't wait to share in the excitement this week. Maybe I'll even go to Madrid for the celebratory parade?? Hmm, thats a definite possibility.

So even though I'm Dutch, yo soy español. I've been rooting for them the entire tournament, and have not missed one game. Not one! Winning el mundial (the world cup) has just made my experience that much more enjoyable, and more personal. I will never have this chance again, so I'm going to live it up. I'm only a spaniard for 6 weeks, but hey, these past 4 weeks have changed my life. I've got to take advantage of it!

I'll leave you with a quote from a billboard in Madrid: "Es nuestro año, será nuestra era" (it is our year, it will be our era) - SO TRUE!

¡Hasta!

¡Vive España!

So, last night was epic. If you didn't already know, SPAIN IS IN THE WORLD CUP FINALS!!!! Basically, its a huge party weekend, AND the running of the bulls is on Saturday, so its a big deal to be a Spaniard right now. Last night I made sure to have my paper that was due for today almost done (I only had to write two paragraphs when I got back, no big deal) and we headed out for drinks and tapas before the game. After relaxing at the university bar we headed to Plaza del Toro, the local bullfighting ring here in Toledo. They show the game on a huge jumbotron, and the stadium was PACKED with red and yellow. It was awesome to be in the thick of it all, and the game was so intense. Granted, the first half wasn't that exciting, but we dominated, and you could feel the hope, excitement, and energy pulsing through the crowd...and then we SCORED!!!!!!!!!!! And not just anyone, but a defender headed in a corner kick. GGGGOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!! The stadium erupted into a thousand high fives, hugs, screams, it was epic :)


Well, needless to say, Spain beat Germany 1-0, and advanced to the finals on Sunday. As soon as that whistle blew, we had a huge party! There were people sitting in the stands but we were on the ground, and it was a massive party. Literally, we danced for about 45 minutes, just enjoying the moment. Of course we had to celebrate! Our next thought was to the bars, so we ventured to a "close" (ok, not close at all) bar that one of us knew about...but on the way, we made a little detour. 


So if you don't know, round-a-bouts are the thing here. No 4-way stops, but always round-a-bouts. Usually, they're pretty big, so they have plants or statues for decoration. Well, along the way we passed a round-a-bout, but there wasn't any plants or statues there - it was a FOUNTAIN!!!! Naturally, practically everyone in Toledo was in the fountain partying it up, so of course we joined them. A few of us thankfully decided to stay dry, so I passed my purse off to my friend Lewis and dove right in! (Ok, not literally, I promise parents, but I did jump :) It was one of the most spontaneous, whatthehell moments of my life, and I loved it! Of course we got soaking wet, but hey that was the point wasn't it? Everyone was singing and waving Spanish flags, and it was great to really feel a part of the city and Spain itself. I'd LOVE for Spain to win the finals! We got some great pictures, and as soon as I venture to the computer lab I promise to post them :)


After the fountain we walked for another good 35 minutes, so by that time I was ready to head home instead of to the bar - I had a paper to get done! Plus, I got bedbug bites last week (not fun, you'll hear about it when I get around to blogging about Valencia) so I couldn't really drink late into the night anyway because of my medicine, so we decided to taxi back to the Fund - I'm glad we did! It was a 15 minute taxi ride, roughly a 50 minute walk...that doesn't sound fun when your shorts are soaking - can you say chafing!? 


So I'm super excited for this weekend. I'm NOT going to Pamplona, I'd love to but it sounds a little sketchy, plus I have another paper to write as well - and I thought I was coming to Spain to explore, not do homework...hmm ;)


All I can say is, ¡VIVE ESPAÑA! (Although I was rooting for the Netherlands as well, seeing as I'm Dutch...hmm I guess its a conflict of interest...nope, Spain has my allegiance, promise!)


¡A por ellos! (All for them, of course we are!)


Hasta :)

[I don't know no town like the old town...that keeps me turning home]

So I've officially been in Spain for 1/2 of my trip, and I can't believe its flying by so fast! However, there are some things I'm really starting to miss, or just things that make me think of home, plus some frustrations. I knew this was coming, but I'm just starting to miss the States in general! I've been out of the country since May 27, longer than I've ever been on vacation or been anywhere, so its all new, but at the same time old, because I want to get home...but I don't want to leave! I've fallen in love with this country, the people (although they're more brash than I thought they would be) and the culture. I really have grown from this experience, and know that I won't want to leave when the time was right, but there are a few things that I've started wanting more than anything...


1) PEANUT BUTTER: ok, I swear Spain just hates peanut butter. Every super market I go to I ask for peanut butter. They all look at me like "clearly she's not from around here" and say in curt voices: we don't have THAT around here" (in Spanish, obviously) Here's the kicker - everyone knows what peanut butter is! They just must hate it that much, but I am CRAVING a PB&J right now. Nutella won't even do it! Its a good substitute, but still...


2) A tall, ice cold glass of milk: so we have milk here, but its NOTHING like the fresh milk from the dairies back here. First clue: the expiration date is in AUGUST! what!?? I guess they just super pasteurize the milk, and they don't need to refrigerate it. Great. At school, I go through a gallon a week! One of my favorite drinks is milk, so thats another thing I'm craving...guess I can serve it with the PB&J...


3) Working internet. I guess this is more of an indulgence than anything, but sometimes the internet is really slow and crappy here. Every once in a while I just want to read CNN, or go on Facebook to catch up with my friends! Its better at night, so I guess I'm not super deprived...


4) 4th of July. Yeah, it was not a big deal here in Spain, obviously. It was a hard day! Everyone here was really nostalgic, we were all craving hot dogs and burgers, watermelon, just good ole' Independence Day Barbecue type food, and fireworks! None to be had...its better now, but not having 4th of July really doesn't make it seem like summer. Usually I'd be at the Mississippi River or at a baseball game, but I was on a bus all day. Fun, but kilometers of olive groves was not exactly how I pictured it.


Other than that, I think I'm surviving pretty well. We don't have AC and the temperature is supposed to be over 100F the next 10 days, but I'll survive, I have a fan :) My classes are going really well, and I'm enjoying Toledo, but there are a few things I can't wait to get back to, and of course my family as well :) 


Well, I best be off. I have two papers that need to be written, and they need to be done tomorrow before 8:30 so I can watch Spain demolish Germany in the World Cup semi-finals! I'll be repping la furia roja (the furious red) with my David Villa jersey - watch out Germany!


Todos con la roja ;) (all with the red)


¡Hasta!

¡Viva con la Roja!

So this past weekend, we all took an excursion to Madrid (well, most of us from the program). Friday was a school-sponsored type day, and then we (Liana, John, Mark, and I, plus TONS of other people) stayed in Madrid for the weekend. For my first spanish experience outside of Toledo, it was amazing :)


On Friday, we took the bus up to Madrid and took a bus tour of the city, driving along Calle de Prado for most of it. We saw the train station, Museo del Prado, Calle de Prado (obvious enough) the stadium where Real Madrid plays, just a ton of stuff. Surprisingly by bus from Toledo it only takes about 40 minutes to get here, and for half the price of the train its cheap too! If you can't tell, the bus ride was fun and informative, but not necessarily my cup o' tea if you get what I mean.


After our bus ride, we were dropped off at El Palacio Real, the royal palace. This was more like it! There were at ton of us, so getting organized enough to get into groups was interesting. Before touring we all tried to take a bathroom break, but of course the women's line was out the door and then some...not worth it. We weren't able to take pictures inside, but the patio outside was definitely a popular camera spot!


Inside the palace was very cool, but after a while it started to get gaudy, or maybe just not my style anymore...I mean, how many rooms decorated in different motifs and velvets does one need, exactly? It was amazing, don't get me wrong, just not my decorating style.


After the palace we headed downtown to eat at Museo de Jamón - thats right, the ham museum. Along the way, we passed a TGIFridays, WHY couldn't we eat there!!!????? Oh, and get this, what did we eat at the Museo de Jamón? Chicken...yeah, not even jamón, a specialty here! Don't get me wrong the food was to die for and I was stuffed by the end, it was just a little ironic if you ask me!


After comida most of us split up to find our hostels/hotels and wherever we were staying. Our group lucked out, Liana knows a girl from her synchronized swimming team at Ohio State who is from Madrid, and let us stay for the weekend! It was SO nice, and a very generous thing! We met up with Raqi and her dad near the Museo, and then headed to the apartment. After we dropped our bags off we hung out for a while, and then it was out for the night, we had to go find a place to watch España play fútbol! (soccer, for those of you who can't seem to understand my slang ;) On the bus tour earlier that day they had mentioned watching the game in the Real Madrid stadium, so we headed over there. Liana and I were looking forward to getting in to the stadium and sitting down, and really being a part of the Spanish crowd! Until we got there...when we realized that there were jumbotrons outside, and we just stood around. Needless to say there wasn't very much security, and we were both feeling nervous. It was OK when España scored their first goal, but by then we decided to leave by halftime. That was until España scored again, and someone lit a flare in the crowd - I was done at that point. Yeah, I probably overreacted a little bit, people aren't as violent here as in the US (or so they say) but I felt really uncomfortable. Good thing we left too, because it started POURING! We did get a little wet, but we found a Mexican restaurant where we could watch the second half of the game in peace, and filling our appetites too! (España won by the way, obviously because they play on Saturday...meaning they beat Portugal too! Huge rivalry, and we were victorious)


After the game we headed back to the apartment, and hung out playing cards WELL into early Saturday morning. It was interesting getting home, because Liana wasn't able to get off of the train at one stop! I called her right away and we all went to meet her at the next stop, so it was all good - she just said that a few people were laughing at her as she stood at the door, not believing she was left behind! We got home just fine though, don't worry :) When we got up (later than we first thought) we got ready and then headed to Museo del Prado, where a ton of classic art is kept. We saw the works of Goya, Velázquez, and El Greco, who painted mostly in Toledo - yeah, we're famous...OK maybe just him ;) Liana wasn't feeling the best, so we went to get some paella and then headed to the Parque de Buen Retiro, Madrid's version of Central Park. It was gorgeous! And a great time of the day to go, because it was so hot (seriously, the weather is SO hot here compared to Minnesota or Alaska, what was I thinking!?) We relaxed and hung out, before heading over to La Plaza Mayor, my favorite part of the city. When you think of Madrid, you think of Plaza Mayor, and it lives up to its name. Its gorgeous! All of these little shops and vendors in this plaza, with a cool statue and probably very expensive apartments - so amazing!


We walked around the Plaza Mayor for a little while and then tried to find a bar to watch the US play Ghana in the World Cup. We ended up going to this Lithuanian bar, and after 4 hours (and watching the US play a good but not amazing game, and losing) our bar tab was only 29€ (around $32, for 4 people!) yeah, it was a cheap night, and fun! 


After the disappointing loss we headed back to the apartment, this time going to bed a little earlier than the night before. We didn't rush getting up in the morning, we only had two main things on our list, so we weren't too worried. We went to El Rasgo, which is one of the largest markets in Europe for some street vending, and then headed over to the Reina Sofia museum, which is mainly contemporary art. The Rasgo was cool, there were definitely a TON of people and some venders were better than others, but it was definitely worth it :) The Reina Sofia was also worth it I would say, because we got to see Guernica, one of Picassos most famous if not the most famous art piece of all time, and the most famous cubism piece ever. It was AMAZING. We studied it for an entire quarter in high school, and it was cool to finally see it in person. Its HUGE too! It had its own private room, and it took up a good chunk of the wall - at least the size of 8 Christines ;) 


The rest of the Reina Sofia was OK, we didn't get to see much of Dali because it closed at 2 for siesta, but it was ok...I like surrealism and cubism art, but I'm not a huge fan of photography, and we saw a lot of it. It'd be nice to go back and spend some quality time on the second floor, but I can use that as an excuse to come back later, right!??


The trip back was uneventful, we didn't really do much on the bus ride besides chat and nap, and then Toledo was in our sights, and we were able to go back and take a nap...until dinner ;)


This weekend we're going to Andalucia, the southern part of Spain, to go to Córdoba and Granada, I can't wait! You'll hear all about that too I'm sure ;) OH and sorry pictures aren't with this post, it takes too long to upload them unless you're on an ethernet cord in the computer lab :)


¡Hasta luego!