My European Summer

Final Goodbyes

2007-08-08T02:07:00.000-07:00

alright so I have officially been out of Spain for the past two weeks and I must admit that I do miss it. My final goodbyes to the kids I work with were very hard (they always are) and all of my coworkers told me that if I ever come back to Madrid then we have to get together. I, in turn, told them that if they happen to be in Michigan then they better stop by and see me. My boss gave me a picture in a frame of my kids from the pool and it was very sweet of her. I must admit that when people ask me what is my favorite part of Madrid I know it is my internship and those kids so saying goodbye was tough.

Saying goodbye to my host family wasn't any easier either. Don't get me wrong, there are some things that I will be very glad to be away from (the bed bugs I have slept with for the past 3 months, the 3 minute maximum showers I took, the nasty salad with buge globs of mayo on it) but there are some things I will miss terribly (the cat Felipe, my best best buddy in the house Eva, and her sister Cecilia). I left at midnight to take the metro to the airport and I figured I would leave alone since Ines and Eva always go to be at 10:30. However, Eva's sister Cecilia was over for the night and they all told me that they were going to stay up until I left. So we watched movies and ate soup and chit chatted until I had to go. Saying goodbye to Ines (my house mom) and Cecilia (Eva's sister) was no problem, but when it came to Eva (Ines' live in assistant)I really had to hold back the tears. We took the elevator down together and she held the doors open for me as I lugged my big suitcase outside. Once outside, she gave me the biggest hug and told me the sweetest things. I told her how amazing it was to have her in the house and we promised to keep in touch through email. She went back inside and once she was gone I finally started to tear up. I was almost to the end of the block when I heard her yell out my name and say goodbye one more time. It was very sweet of her.

Now I am with Kelli and Katie traveling around Europe. We have been in Italy for a week, London for 4 days, and just got into Ireland. I absolutely love everywhere that we have been and could not possibly even begin to write about my experiences. Fortunately, I will be home within a week so if you want to know how the traveling was then you can talk to me about it!

I must admit though that I do miss Spain. I miss the daily challenge of hearing a foreign language all around you. I miss taking the metro around town. I miss reading in the park. I miss walking around downtown window shopping. I miss Eva. And I miss my kids.

Part of me is ready to come home though. I am starting to get tired of living out of a suitcase and going from one hotel to the next every day.

So there are three parts of me, one that loves the European traveling, one that wants to stay in Spain, and one that wants to just come home to see my friends and family. There isn't one thing that is more dominant than the others, they all just exist together. It is kinda strange, but I am just trying to live for the moment and treasure the experiences I have today and not think about the past or the future.

Paris-A Weekend in the City of Lights

2007-07-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

The weekend after Pamplona, Kelli and I went to Paris. It was an absolutely amazing experience and much much calmer than our Pamplona weekend. It was also a lot cleaner too so that was very appreciated!

We flew (a very nice difference from the bus) from Madrid to Paris and arrived there at night. We got really lucky when we were in the airport because we ran into some people who spoke english and they told us that we had to take a train to get into London cause we were about 45 minutes away from our hotel. By the time we reached the hotel at 11:30 though we were straving so there was a little convenience store downstairs that we raided and we had cookies and chips for dinner.
After our gourmet dinner, we hit the town walking and realized that we were about a 15 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing to see it lit up at night. Plus every hour on the hour it sparkles. It was hands down my favorite thing to see in Paris. Kelli and I were amazed by it and spent about 2 hours that night walking underneath it and just reveling in the fact that we were in Paris.
Here are Kelli and I with a sparkling Eiffel Tower in the background. So cool!
The next morning we got up bright and early to go see as much of the city as we could. First stop was the Louvre. This is it from the outside.

When we got there we saw all of these signs that said we could take pictures of all of the artwork excpet the Monna Lisa. So we decided to take a picture of the sign of the Monna Lisa to say we had been there. As we were taking this picture, though, a guard who was standing next to us told us that if we wanted to see the real Monna Lisa it was just in the next room. We couldn't help but laugh and thank him for the tip.
It turns out that when we got into the next room everyone was taking pictures and nobody seemed to care at all! So here are Kelli and I with the famous Monna Lisa. It was actually a whole lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. To be honest, it was kinda anticlimactic.
Here is the Venus de MiloWho is more ferocious-Kelli or the Lion, you decide!
I fell in love with these crown jewels. Just look at that tiara! Plus they are all emeralds which is my birthstone. i think that is a sign that they were made for me. So for those of you who are still looking for a belated birthday present for me, these are first on my list!

This is the funniest picture ever. These are two sister and the one on the right is pinching the others nipple. We burst out in giggles upon seeing this. I also think it is funny that my camera has somewhat censured the picture by having the flash go off covering the other woman's chest.

Now for all of you DaVinci code fans out there, this is where the two Louvre pyramids meet! It is really cool because when the sun shines, the floor is covered in rainbows from the inverted glass pyramid!
After the Louvre we walked over to the Notre Dame. It is an absolutely gorgeous building!
We were told by friends who had visited Paris that it was much more worthwhile to climb the tower in the Notre Dame than the Eiffel Tower so Kelli and I waited in a super long line for 2 hours to climb a kajillion stairs (yes that is an actual figure).

This is the famous gargoyle of the Notre Dame and right now his name escapes me, but he is still pretty cool. Although he isn't as scary as most gargoyles with that tongue of his sticking out!

Once we got to the top it was totally worth the wait and the hike! It was so great to see the city from an aerial view.
Which one is not like the other....

Kelli and I from the top of the Notre Dame with a great view of Paris behind us. After the Notre Dame, Kelli and I walked and found a great little park. There was even a cute fountain and all of these boats floating in the water.
We stuck our feet in because it was ridiculously hot and the water was so incredibly refreshing!
We then walked to the Arch de Triomphe (I just slaughtered that spelling). It is soooo massive!

Next on the list was the Moulin Rouge which I just had to see after watching the musical. The street it is located is literally full of sex shops and other "places of illrepute". It was so strange to see tourists walking by them and not even batting an eye.

This is a...a...oh dear, I forgot the name and am too lazy to look it up. But it is cool, and very big, and we could see it from our hotel even though it was like a 30 minute walk from there.

FAVORITE PART OF PARIS! So when we got to Paris on July 14 we had no idea that it was a special day at all, but we found out that it was actually the French Indepence Day. That meant that we got to go into museums for free, yay! Even more importantly, though, we got to watch fireworks go off behind the freaking Eiffel Tower. I can't even describe in words how amazing it was to experience this. It is funny though because just two weeks before this I thought I was going to have a summer without fireworks, but as it turned out I got to see fireworks in both Pamplona and Paris and it was awesome!
After watching the fireworks we decided that we had to eat a crepe since that is one of the famous French foods. This is the man who made our crepe for us and he was super friendly and funny. Sadly, he only spoke French though so communication was a bit difficult even though Kelli and I tried to use both English adn Spanish to talk to him-yay for the international language of hand gestures!

The crepe he made for us was freaking amazing and they are now my new favorite food, except Madrid doesn't have them, so I am now just crepe deprived. The next morning we had a few hours before we had to go to the airport so we went back to my favorite part of Paris-the Eiffel Tower.

It is really really big and not quite as pretty in the daytime as at night, but still one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen.

We had an amazing weekend in Paris and I am so incredibly glad that we went!

One Crazy Night in Pamplona!

2007-07-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

So first of all, so sorry for the long time between my last post and now. Time here has been a little hectic and for awhile my internet connection didn't exist so uploading photos was pretty much impossible. However now I am back and have a few posts I want to write before I leave Spain for good. On the 7th of July a big group of friends and I went to Pamplona for the running of the bulls. It was one of the craziest trips ever. We left Saturday at 2 in the afternoon, took a bus up to Pamplona and arrived there at 8. We then had until 8 in the morning to hang out in the city (we didn't plan on sleeping so we didn't rent a hotel room-plus they are unbelieveably expensive) and little did we know what the night had in store for us in Pamplona....

We went kinda stir crazy on the bus ride up north, but we were elated to finally arrive in Pamplona. This is Francisco, Dillon, Steve and Katie on the bus dressed in the San Firmin white. We heard that if you don't wear all white in san firmin people dump wine on you. It turns out that is half way true. There are people with huge tubs of wine that will dump it on you, but normally they don't just do it randomly.

Our other friends took a different bus up earlier in the day, but fortunately we met up with them at a bar. Here are Katie and Nik showing off their big muscles.

We hung out on the terrace of a bar for awhile while our other friends dropped off their bags at Cameron's flat. Here are Tamurlaine, Nik, Katie, and Trey screaming to see the bulls already. Too bad this was only at 10 at night and we still had a good 10 hours before we saw the bulls.

Here are Amber and Nik at the bar. It was Amber's 21st and I guarantee you that she will never forget turning 21 at the running of the bulls!

Crazy story 1:Here is the birthday girl again, but note a difference in this picture-check out her pants. That is right Amber peed her pants when she was waiting in the line to go to the bathroom. She said she was 3 people away from the stall when she just couldnt hold it anymore she she let it go. She came out of the bathroom laughing her butt off and we thought it was pretty funny too. Happy Birthday girl!

Crazy story 2: we were at the bar when we heard these great loud thud-like noises. After about two minutes later we realized that they had to be fireworks and we took down the street running. Now keep in mind that we were in Pamplona on July 7 and just 3 days earlier we had tried celebrating the 4th of July in madrid, but it didn't work very well. So this was our second chance to celebrate and we had freaking amazing fireworks. It was fantastic and couldn't have come at a better time!We found this huge lit up plaza that was packed with people. They were setting up for a concert so we hung out there for awhile.

Here are the boys and Kelli. Both Kelli and Cameron bought those butt ugly cow spotted cowboy hats and were so proud of them all night.

Crazy story 3 (the craziest in my opinion): this is Cameron Kelli dancing in Cameron and her brother Trey's flat. They were renting it for the weekend from a woman and it is just an extra room in this womans house. At around 2am some of us were beat so Cameron and Trey said we could go back to their flat and crash on the floor. It took awhile, but we finally found it and tried to get some sleep. But the rest of the group was out and was trying to find the flat too. So after another hour there were about 9 of us sleeping on the floor and Cameron and Trey sleeping in their beds. Two of the people in our group didnt want to sleep so they stayed outside of the room in the hallway. The woman of the house heard them talking, walked out into the hallway and flipped when she saw strangers there. She then opened the door and had a coronary seeing 9 of us asleep on the floor. She told us we had 6 minutes (yes that is a directly quoted figure) to get out of the house before she called the cops on us. This included Cameron and Trey packing up all of their stuff and getting out of their immediately. Well needless to say, the threat of having the cops come scared the crap out of us and most of the group fled withing 30 seconds. The woman calmed down a bit more, but still definietly kicked us all out. So at 4am after being kicked out of a hotel room and being threatened to have the cops called on us we went here...
This was the cleanest park that we could find. Yeah, during San Firmin Pamplona is a DIRTY city. Keep in mind this is just what it looks like, can you imagine the smell? It was pretty darn bad.

Here is our sad mottly crew-homeless. We also forgot that we were going up north were it is a whole lot colder than in Madrid. So we were freezing out butts off all night. Fortunately to pass the time we ran into crazy story 4: We met this guy who was dutch and knew a tiny tiny bit of spanish, no english, and dutch. He decided to become our new best friend and we tried to talk for about an hour using hand gestures and his broken spanish. It was obvious that communication with this man wasnt really working so we just started making up things about him until we put in more effort to understand him better. At one point in time we decided that he must be in the mafia, but when we mentioned that he freaked and said he wasn't ever in the mafia, suspicious behavior if you ask me....

Around 6am we left to find a place to watch the running of the bulls. The streets where the bulls run are narrow and it is very difficult to see them. After a half hour though, we found a pretty good spot and settled there for the next hour and a half. Here are Kelli and I trying to look alive and awake.

Crazy story 5 (another involving the cops, there is kinda a theme here...):earlier in the night Nik had broken off from the rest of the group to be with Katie. We finally found him though when we were waiting on the side of the street for the running of the bulls. Nik showed up with this squeaky toy mallet that whenever it hit something made this shrill squeak. He was absolutely in love with this thing and thought hitting everything and anything was hilarious. About 30 minutes before the bull run, all of a sudden cops started yelling at everyone where we were waiting. We were standing right behind the big wooden fence that blocked off the side streets from the main bull run road, but it turns out there was another fence about 30 feet behind us that we were supposed to be behind. The area where we were was a safety area for the runers. So although we had staked out our spots for an hour and a half, we got kicked out 30 minutes before the bull run. The cops were NOT kind nor gentle about kicking us our either. They litereally herded us to the side of the gate and PUSHED us through, yelling the entire time. Nik though was not one to be messed with and so when the cops pushed him through he turned around and hit him on the arm with his squeaky mallet and yelled in spanish, "dont touch me!" I am sure the squeaky mallet really taught the cop a good lesson about respecting physical space. Regardless Nik was proud of himself.

The problem with seeing the bulls run is that you are on the street with them and hence at the same lateral viewing angle as them. The best/only place to actually see the bulls is if you rent a balcony. Unfortunatly the balconies are 40 Euros a person which was a bit steep for us. I think they need stadium seating to see the running of the bulls, and it should be free to sit there.

Here is the crowd of people behind me trying to see the bulls. It was absolutely packed.

Here I am in the middle of the crowd. Bring on the bulls, I want to see them run!

The guy standing right behind me had actually run with the bulls the day before so he gave me a play by play of what was happening. First they let all of the people go who changed their minds and don't actually want to run with the bulls.

Then a firecracker sounds and that means the first bull is out of the pen. A second one sounds shortly after meaning that the last bull is out of the pen. Then you just see a bunch of people running in the road.

I think there is a bull here in the picture, you just cant see it. The thing is that when the bull runs down the road, people rush over to the side of the streets to get out of the way. So when there are lots of people on the side of the road like that it means that there is a bull in the middle of the street that they are avoiding.

The run ends with another firecracker sounding to say that all of the bulls have made it into the bull pen at the end of the run. In total the run lasts about 8 minutes. If you watch from the street it takes about 5 minutes. Overall there were 2 people gored by the bulls and 5 injured in that days run.

They do replay the run though in the main plaza next to where the running of the bulls is. So we did get to see the whole thing from an aerial view which made it much more worth it. We had a crazy time in Pamplona, but now I can live to say that I have seen the running of the bulls!

Vacation and the Pool

2007-07-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

So I have to admit that the amount of time I put into my internship is absolutely pitiful. For the first month of work I started at 5 and ended at 6:30, only 1.5 hours of work and I got all Fridays off. I actually spent as much time taking the metro ride to the school as I did working. It was pathetic. Then after working for 3 weeks, I got a vacation. I thought it was ironic that out of all of my friends with all of their long hours, I am the one with the vacation, but no complaints here. Plus I had something to look forward to after my vacation-double the hours at work, that's right a whole 3 hours working!

It just so turns out that there was a student from GV that was in Madrid for 4 days while I was on my vacation. My spanish professor told me about her and said that she had a son and was wondering if I could show her around Madrid and help her out with her son while she was here. She would be leaving to go to Bilbao in the North by the end of the week to study there for a month. She was only in Madrid for orientation with a bunch of other GV students. I had never met her before, but she was really nice and her 4 year old Jordan was a sweetie. I played tour guide for the first day that she was here and on the second day I helped her get acquainted with Spanish life.

By the third day she had an orientation meeting with the other GV students and she asked if I could watch Jordan for the day. I took him to a park and the funniest thing happened there. We were playing on a play set and there was another boy there with his grandmother. Jordan looked over at the grandma and said in english, "there is a spider on your face." The grandma didn't speak english so she didn't understand at all and I was just about to translate what Jordan said when I looked over at the woman and saw the biggest hairiest mole on her face I have ever seen in my life. It really did look like a spider! I tried so hard to not laugh, but failed miserably at it and was just sooo grateful that the woman didn't speak english. Needless to say it made for a very funny day.

The rest of my vacation was nice, but I was excited to start working again. There are public pools that are open in the summer and so the Valderperales Association doesn't meet at schools in the summer, but rather at one of the public pools. We do activities with the kids for the first hour and then after that they go swimming for 2 hours. Basically it is day care for the day, but it still gives me the opportunity to work with the kids so I like it.

I am working with a different group of kids at the pool and I am kinda sad about it. On the first day there, my 2nd and 3rd graders ran over to me and asked if I would still be their teacher. I cant even describe how happy it made me to know that they still wanted me to be their teacher. Sadly though, Bea told me that I was working with a new group. I am now working with another girl, Arrancha, with the 3, 4, and 5 year olds. It is a whole new ball game now. The amount of patience you need to work with this age range is ridiculous and some days are really hard for me. Plus finding activities for them to do for the first hour is difficult. We are working at picnic tables outside and have no supplies other than what the kids bring. Needless to say, we do a lot of coloring and duck, duck, goose, simon says, and red light green light.

I have come to find out that kids at this age also cry, a lot. Today we had 3 criers within the first 15 minutes of working, it was nuts. They are really cute though and they love to snuggle and hold your hand, so although I come much closer to loosing my patience with them than I do with the older kids, they still have somehow wrapped me around their little fingers.

About half of them play in the kiddie pool and I am in charge of monitoring them there. Inevitably someone will get cold and climb into my lap soaking wet. We snuggle for awhile and after tickling them they normal go back to play after 15 minutes. However, every day I am left with a wet lap and it makes it look like I peed my pants every time! I guess it is worth it though, because they are really cute.

Plus as an added bonus-my 2nd and 3rd graders want me to play with them as much as I can. When they see me in the morning, they always say, "hello katie" in english with these big smiles and I gush over them calling them my little english students and saying that when they talk to me in english it is like I am back in the United States. It's cute and I'm just glad to have made an impression on the kids. They are so adorable!

So morale of the story-I still love my internship even if I am not working with my favorite age range of kids. I am just thankful to get to work with kids at all-english or spanish.

Cordoba-the famous Mosque and the infamous Shemale

2007-07-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

The next day we took the bus to Cordoba. It was only a 2 hour ride so we didn't mind being stuck on a hot bus for the morning. Once we got there we grabbed a map from the information office and decided we would wander into the center of Cordoba to see the famouos Mosque. Katie took off and she decided to go in the general direction of where the mosque was, but didn't bother to look at the map. After about 5 minutes we realized that we were lost, but thought it would be kinda fun to wander around Cordoba. Besides, we thought that we were going in the general direction of the Mosque, so we should be all set. Well after about 20 minutes we knew we were definitly lost and finally conceeded to checking out the map. We couldnt find any idea on the map of where we were so I had to ask a store clerk where we are. Unfortunatly the accent in Cordoba and southern spain in general is pretty much unintelligible. So after a lot of nodding of my head and pretending like I understood, she pointed on the map wher we were and gave us some sort of directions to the Mosque. So after an hour we finally were getting somewhere close to the most famous part of Cordoba

The first thing we ran into was this very bold looking gate on the south side of the city. It is meant to mimic the arches of the Mosque, and we laughed to think that this was the gaudy amusement park style version of the mosque.
We were able to see the mosque perfectly from a bridge we found outside of the city.

This is one of the old gates of Cordoba used to enter the city in the past.

An outside door to the Mosque. The details were incredible.

There was a plaza that seperated the mosque from the cathedral. It was beautiful.

These are the famous arches that are inside of the mosque. They are everywhere and are gorgeous.

Kelli and I in front of a cool archway

Check out those details!

Kelli and I with the arches behind us

A beautiful painted glass window near the entrance

This was from one of the chapels. It is very catholic looking and is funny to see the difference s between the islamic decorations and the catholic desgins all within the same building.

Our boys looking far handsomer than the patron saint of Cordoba.

After we visited the Mosque we wandered around for a bit, picked up some lunch and bought our bus ticket to go back home. We had a few hours to kill though before our bus left and there was a park next to the bus station. We figured we would grab some sun and maybe a siesta before we got on the bus. We sat down and were soon joined by a homeless man who was obviously drunk and was carrying a container of wine with him. He started talking to Tyler first, but Tyler played dumb and said his spanish was very bad and he couldnt talk to the man. So he turned to Nik instead and Nik started talking to him. About 5 mintues into the conversation this man told Nik that he was not a man, but a woman. I guess we might have been able to pick up on this since there was a dirty scrunchie in his hair. Nik however, didnt quite understand him and kept asking him to repeat himself. I tried not to laugh as he kept on telling Nik again and again that he was a girl. Once Nik understood what he said he told Nik that the most beautiful girl in all of Spain was looking at him right now. Nik got really excited and looked around the park trying to find this beautiful woman looking at hime. By now it was almost impossible for me to not laugh, and the man then informed Nik that he was the "woman" looking at him. He then asked Nik if he wanted to go with him and Nik told him that he really didnt do that sort of thing and he was a religious man. Well this set off this homeless guy/girl and he started yelling at Nik about how hypocritical religious people are. Nik was getting frustrated so he just stopped talking to the guys and laid back down.

Seeing that he had lost his attention the guy (which we have since named the "shemale") went back to Tyler and decided to give him a spanish lesson. He pointed to the grass and said cesped, He pointed to the wine and said vino. He pointed to me and said mujer. He expected Tyler to repeat everything that he said and hence learn better spanish. Tyler, though, quickly got tired of this and when the shemale decided to start a vocab lesson on the parts of the body and explained that he had both male and female parts, we all were getting red up. Nik turned around at this point and told him, "hey man come on, there are ladies present." The shemale just shrugged and said, "so what, I am a lady too!" I could tell that everyone was getting frustrated so I finally spoke up and said, "senor, im sorry but could you please just leave us alone?" Well apparently this is the wrong thing to say because he then stood up and walked over to me and I could tell that he was very upset with me. I have to admit that my mind just started to panic. I was sitting down against a tree reading a book and this drunk shemale was walking over to me and starting to yell, and I was the one who made him mad. yikes. Fortunately, as he was approaching me Nik jumped straight up to protect me in case anything were to happen (this is why I absolutely adore having Nik in our group-he is our bodyguard) and the shemale saw him and walked back over to him and asked if he wanted to fight. Nik insisted that he didnt want to fight, but was just stretching, that was all. Things cooled down from there and the shemale finally walked away from our group. Unfortunately for someone else, as we left that park about an hour later we saw him hitting on another guy who was just trying to relax in the grass.

We all couldnt help but laugh once the shemale left. They boys had both thought that he was going to hit on the girls when he came over to the group, but little did they know that he had his eyes set on them instead. The girls thought it particularly funny because we have been hit on by many many drunk guys here and the boys dont seem to understand how we feel, but now they have experienced it too. Ironically the last time I was in Cordoba, we were chased by a gypsy into a McDonalds bathroom and our teacher had to yell at her to leave us alone. I guess I am sensing a pattern with Cordoba and unwelcomed visitors...

Here are the girls that should have been hit on, but apparently they weren't nearly as good looking as our boys. Lol, just kidding, I love my girls and their funny faces!

When we were leaving the city we looked over and found a huge farm of sunflowers. All of the yellow specks in this picture is a sunflower. This wasnt the only hill of them either. We passed through sunflower land for at least 8 minutes on the bus. I have never seen so many sunflowers in my life!

As incredible as the Sevilla and Cordoba weekend was, I am much more excited for next weekend when we go to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls!

Sevilla-my favorite city in Spain

2007-06-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we decided to go to my favorite city in all of Spain. Last time that I was here with my high school spanish class, we went to Sevilla and I fell in love with the city. Needless to say, I was pumped to return to this city and I was really excited to both see Sevilla and to spend an entire weekend away from Madrid. We traveled by bus since that is the cheapest way to get around Spain and we left Madrid at 11. The bus ride lasted for 6.5 hours and although we tried to sleep, there is only so much sleeping you can do on a bus ride. We got there sometime around 6 am and after getting about a max of 1 hour of sleep we stumbled off the bus and tried to find our hostel.

Kelli and I on the bus as we are leaving Spain. We look ready to sleep a little right? Yeah right.

When we first got there it was way too early to check into our hostel, but we dumped our bags off their and then hit the city while running on 1 hour of sleep. This is the wall that used to surround Sevilla. Here are Katie, Kelli and I in front of the wall. Can you tell we are a little slap happy? lol, I love these girls!

Katie showing off her excelent model poses in front of the weall

Kelli was so tired she decided to take a nap on the sidewalk

A beautiful building we found as we wandered through Sevilla

We eventually stumbled into a park and there was a pretty river with cool bridges on it. Tyler told me it was part of a beautification project for all of Spain. Here are Katie and Kelli in front of one of the bridges. It was funny because we ran into a bunch of fishermen on this river and they all had super long fishing poles that are meant for catching large fish in deep waters. We decided that there must be only one fishing pole manufacturere in Sevilla so they all have the same goofy poles.
My all time favorite picture of Nik as he stretches in front of another bridge

Fortunately by about 10 we found this ledge and we decided it would make an excellent bed for us until we checked into the hostel in another 2 hours.

We took a 3 hour nap once we checked in and were ready to see Sevilla again. We found that there are lots of carriages for tours of the city.

The group minus Kelli in a Plaza that we found

This is an old hospital that has no been turned into the parliment building for Andalusia (Sevilla is the capitol of the southern region of Spain).

We finally got to this beautiful piece of architecture. This is La Giralda, a famous cathedral of the city and my favorite part of Sevilla. The view from the top is breathe taking!

This is what the statue at the top of the building looks like.

Once you climb 39 stories (there are no stairs though, just ramps-this was so that the king and royalty could climb the tower using horses and not have to climb it themselves. pretty cool huh?)

A part of the cathedral.

A view from the top of La Giralda-this is the Plaza de los toros or bulls stadium.

Another view from the top-the two spires on the left are the Plaza de Espana which is absolutely gorgeous.

Nik, Tyler, Katie and I at the top of La Giralda

Looking down at the courtyard in the center of the cathedral. Katie, Kelli, Nik, and Tyler resting after the long trek up and down the tower

Another beautiful building in Sevilla-I love this cityAfter La Giralda, we went to the royal palace. It had islamic influences in the building and it was sooo beautiful.
Look at the details on the wall!

There were these gorgeous purple flowers all over the place and they covered the walls in this courtyard

Kelli and I in front of the pretty purple flowers

The outside gardens though were the best part. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life.They had these cool flowers that were yellow in the center and then slowly turned to orange on the outside. It was like a rainbow flower.

There were even peacocks in the garden!

It was a maze of flowers and greenery. I loved it!This was an awesome fountain that looked like a moss covered hill.Next we went to Plaza de Espana. For all of you Star Wars fans out there, in the second movie, a scene of the princess in Nabou (sp?) was shot in this plaza.

It is so gorgeous here!

Katie showing off her ballerina skills in the Plaza

We found a plaque that represented Madrid, so it was only natural to take a picture of the group in front of it.

The girls in front of the fountain in the center of the plaza. Yay Sevilla!

Katie and Nik trying to show their sexy faces and failing miserably at it.

We soon returned to the hostel and got ready to go out for the night. Before we went though, Nik decided to give himself a haircut. But we only had one bathroom and 5 people who had to get ready. It made for an interesting experience. The best part was how proud Nik was though of cutting his own hair. He is now known as the barber of Sevilla.

We found out that there was a festival for the patron saint of spain and there was actually a bond fire in the park. We are pretty sure we won't see another bon fire for the rest of the summer here so it was a nice reminder of home.

Whenever we go out Katie and Nik are always a riot together and we have the best time. This picture pretty much sums up everything.

Overall we had an amazing time and the next day we were on to Cordoba to see the famous Mosque.

International Klutz

2007-06-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

I've always known that I have been somewhat coordinationally challenged throughout my life. I am always running into tables and stubbing my toes and tripping over my own feet so I've come to terms with the fact that I am a klutz. I mean for heaven sakes about a year ago I tripped over a tent pole and broke my elbow. That definitly qualifies as a klutz at home. However, yesterday I proved that I am an international klutz.

Before we take the kids upstairs to go to class we all play outside on the playground. I was chasing around one of my students because he was trying to tickle me and I tried to dodge to the right when I realized that I was not in the right shoes to be dodging anywhere and I was losing my balance. I flung my arms out and tried as best I could to regain my balance, but I knew it was a lost cause and I hit the ground hard. I looked down and saw that I had scrapped my knee, which is something I haven't done for the past 8 years. I felt like a 5 year old again, horsing around with friends and then getting injured on the playground before school starts. It wasn't that bad of a scrap, but my knee was bloody and I was trying to play it off like it wasn't a big deal but all of the kids kept asking me about my knee to see if I was ok. Eventually my coworker saw my knee too and we both had to leave the kids to clean up my injury.

Needless to say there are some things that I wish weren't international and my klutziness is one of them. If that could somehow have stayed at home in my room then I would have loved it. Unfortunately apparently being a klutz is a universal trait and even when you are thousands and thousands of miles away from home, you can still scrap your knee.

Segovia

2007-06-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we decided to go to Segovia. Kelli and I took a bus there and on the bus we met a guy named Andrew who was staying in Madrid for the summer. He found a program online where he stayed with a family and for 3 hours a day taught their children how to speak english. He was a really cool guy and since he was traveling alone, Kelli and I invited him to walk around Segovia with us. Segovia was really different than Toledo, it was a much bigger city and was much newer also. When we first pulled into Segovia it looked just like any normal city. There were lots of businesses and restaurants and nothing was really special. We found out though that the beautiful part of Segovia is the older part located in the center of the city.

There is a wall encircling this older part of the city and it almost looks like a fortress when you walk up to it. There is an aqueduct that runs into this older part of town and it is 2000 years old. The aqueduct is one of the three important things to see in Segovia.

Here is Kelli in front of the aqueduct. The water is caught in the top part of the aqueduct and it is an enormous and long structure.

Kelli and I in front of the Aqueduct

Here is where the aqueduct meets the wall surrounding the older part of the city. It is so beautiful.

Here I am at the top of the wall where the aqueduct meets the wall. As you can see, it stretches out for a long way.

Once we entered the older part of the city, we saw beautiful buildings like this one.

I love going to cities like Toledo and Segovia because it is like we have been transported back in time

The second "must see" in Segovia is the Cathedral. It was a beautiful building. I liked it a lot better than the one in Toledo

The last thing that you have to see in Segovia is the Alcazar or Castle. It is massive!

While we were there Nik finally caught up with us.

The Alcazar was absolutely gorgeous.

Here is Kelli with her knight in shining armor (haha-get it?)

This is the royal bed of Isabela. It was teeny. Apparently they didnt have King size beds back then.

Nik is trying his hardest to pull this cannon ball out of the cannon, but it just isnt working

There was an outer wall to the castle that had a great view of the mountains outside the city.
We also found a well outside. The boys decided to have a spitting contest to see who's spit could reach the bottom first. Yeah, we're a real classy group Spain has really cultured us.
Nik, Adam, Kelli and I in the reflection of the water in the well. We dont really know why the water is so dirty. Adam guessed that it was a well full of people's spit and since the palace is really old and lots of people visit it then that is a lot of spit!
When we looked down from the outside there was this gorgeous garden below the wall.
In the Alcazar there is also a massive tower. I don't think I have ever climbed so many stairs before. They were very steep steps and the staircase spiralled up to the top of the tower. Whenever we ran into someone coming down the stairs they were always encouraging us to keep going. In turn when we went down the stairs we encouraged the other tourists who were climbing the stairs. It was like a mini pep talk hub. Here are Nik and I peaking around the corner of the staircase we were hoping to be done soon, but this was only the half way point.

Once we reached the top we realized it was totally worth it. The view was gorgeous and we got to see the entire city and then some.

This is Segovia-birds eye view. The big building on the right is the Cathedral. You can see at the wall surrounding the city at the edge of the tree line too.

Once we climbed the tower Kelli wanted to get a view of the castle from far away so we took a hike through the woods and found this view of the castle. Like I said before, it is massive.

I love Segovia!

The Best Internship in the World

2007-06-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally started my internship. I had an interview on Monday at 5 and was pretty nervous going into it. I finally mustered up my courage and went in for the interview and it was amazing. My supervisor is an absolute sweetheart and I fell in love with the association immediately. It is an after school program that works with lower income families and has a tutoring program. They help out the kids for an hour after school and then they take the last half hour to play outside with the kids. Most of the kids really struggle in school and have immigrated to Madrid from other countries. Needless to say, they are absolutely adorable and I fell in love with them immediately.

Right after my interview I went straight into a classroom and was told that I would be working with Alonso and helping 5th and 6th graders with their homework. I was designated official English tutor since that is my native language and we had a great time. During free time/play time I talked to Alonso and realized that my supervisor never told me my hours. When I asked Alonso when I worked I made him repeat it about 3 times because I didn’t believe what he said. Sadly, I only work 1.5 hours ever day, from 5-6:30. We can’t work anymore because it is an after school program and before then the kids are always in school. SADNESS. Anyway once July comes and the kids are out of school I will be working more, so that is good.

When I returned the next day I thought I would be doing the same thing of tutoring kids with Alonso, but I was soon proved wrong. At first I went into a classroom with Eva and was helping her draw silhouettes of the kids. After about 10 minutes, Beatrice came in the room, chose 10 students, and had me follow her to a classroom across the hallway. She introduced me to the 10 kids and made sure that I knew all of their names. Half way through the introduction process a warning flag popped up in the back of my head. I thought, “wait a minute, she isn’t going to leave me here with them, right? No she couldn’t do that, I don’t have anything planned. She wouldn’t do that…I hope” that is right about when I started to pray really hard that she wouldn’t leave the room. Next thing I know though, she was saying goodbye, told me to bring the kids outside in 45 minutes, and then she LEFT THE ROOM. All of a sudden I was left alone in a room with 10 kids who all spoke Spanish and had to pull something out of the air for us to do for the next 45 minutes. I was in total panic mode, but decided that we would learn the parts of the body so I taught them the song. Head shoulders knees and toes and then we played Simon says.

Since then I have had much better lessons planned and I have to say it is so incredibly amazing to have my own class. It is still weird to hear the kids say, “profe” and be asking me questions. I keep on thinking that they are talking about a different professor in the class and I can’t help but look around when they say “profe…” It is really cool though because for the first time ever I have my own classroom with my own kids. It is my first step towards being a real teacher. I love it.

Bull Fight-warning somewhat graphic content

2007-06-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

After we went to Toledo on Sunday Kelli and I decided to go to a bull fight. To be honest I was kinda nervous to go to a bull fight. On one hand I knew that it is a part of the culture and is important and let's be honest, when in the world will I be able to watch a bull fight ever again? On the other hand though, we are talking about a bull fight where the soul goal of the event is to kill the bull. Kinda gruesome if you ask me. So needless to say I was a bit nervous walking into the Plaza de Toros... This is the Plaza de los Toros (Plaza of the Bulls) where the bull fight was held.

Kelli and I inside of the stadium

The ring wasn't as big as I expected and Kelli and I had great seats and even better, the tickets were super cheap. The only downside is that the seats are very steep and somewhat slippery. We saw a vendor take a spill down a few stairs before the bull fight started. It was scary, but he was alright.

When it was time to start the trumpets sounded and the matadors came out. There are two different types of bullfighting and in the kind we watched the matadors are on horseback, but in other bull fights they are on the ground. With this sort of bullfighting, it is all about the skills the matador has with both the lance to attack the bull and with the horse.

These are the banderilleros. They are the guys that flash the red (or in this case pink) cape in front of the bulls. I had always thought they were the matadors that killed the bull, but in this type of bull fight, their job was to distract the bull while the matador on the horse went to the outside of the ring to get another lance.

Here comes the first bull

Then the matador came out and was ready to attack.

Here the banderillero is distracting the bull while the matador gets ready to strike at it one last time. For the last strike, the matador uses a sword and it sometimes is the fatal blow to the bull.

After stabbing the bull with about 10 lances of all different sizes, (and assuming the bull has not yet died) the matador gets off of his horse for the final striking blow. The banderilleros try to confuse and tire out the bull by flashing the cape in front of his face. And yes, this is the part where I closed my eyes and didn't watch everytime. Somehow I just couldn't watch them give the final stab to kill the bull.
Dragging the bull out of the ring so that the next round can start

After that the second matador comes out to strut his stuff. He was by far the best of the three matadors

Our favorite matador taking a victory lap around the ring. Everyone kept throwing him scarves and flowers as he made his way around the ring

As the matador was walking around, everyone was cheering and waving white handkerchiefs in the air. You could tell he was definitly the crowds' favorite.

The third matador. They try to get their horse as close to the bull as possible without getting injured. Bull fighting really is all about the machismo

Each matador gets a chance to kill two bulls so in total there are 6 rounds in the bull fight. It really wasnt that bloody because the lances were never pulled out of the bulls. Bullfighting is a very different sport and although I will probably not go to another bull fight again, I am still glad that I was able to watch at least one when I was in Spain. I am more excited though to see the running of the bulls in Pamplona in July. Ole!

Toledo

2007-06-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

Although Madrid has been a great city to live in, we have been here for over 3 weeks now and we all decided that we really needed to get out of the city for a day. So last Saturday we decided to go on a field trip to a nearby city, Toledo.

We took the bus and ran into the funniest guy from New York. He cracked jokes for the hour long trip and the time on the bus flew by as we talked to him. Once we got to Toledo we realized that the bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and we have to go all the way up to the top. It was quite the climb for us because Toledo is situated in the mountains, but after about 20 minutes we were finally in the city.

Once we got to the top of the hill we went through these gates to enter the city. From the inside of the gates

This is taken from the city looking down. As you can see, it is pretty high up in the mountains although once we got there the view was breathtaking!

Nik and Steffie on a bridge we found with the mountains in the backgroundDillon with 2 of the sexiest Americans in Toledo

Here are Kelli, Steffie and I on the outskirts of the city with the mountains in the background

When we first got there we walked around the outside of the city to find really cool pictures and buildings like this one.

Toledo is an older city and there are many beautiful old buildings like this one all over. I felt like I was back in medieval times with castles.

Steffie and I even found a miniature knight when we were there. He's pretty intimidating!

We walked around for awhile and found a statue of Don Quijote. I'll let you decide who is more handsome, Dillon, Nik, or the statue. A synagogueFinally we found a great little restaraunt outside where we could grab some lunch. This is Kelli

This is NikThis is DillonThis is SteffieThis is KatieAnd of course, me!The most famous thing in Toledo is the Cathedral. This is it from the outsideThis is the main door to the Cathedral and it is absolutely ornate
The Cathedral is gorgeous on the inside

All of the ceilings had ornate decorations and pictures. I couldnt believe how much detail there was in everything!

Although we had planned on spending the whole day in Toledo, we realized by around 4 that we had walked around the city and seen everything there was to see. Unfortunately, Dillon had left his book at the restaurant we had lunch at so we had to try to find it again. It took up another hour to find the silly place and the waitress told us there was no book there. We then headed back down the hill (which was much easy then going up it) and hopped on thebus to go back home. Dillon told us later that his book was in his backpack and so we technically never needed to go on the hour long search for the book. Upon hearing this, Kelli threatened to smack him, although we were glad that he didnt loose his book, even if it did mean that we walked around Toledo for some extra time.

Overall it was a really fun trip and it was great to get out of Madrid for the day. This weekend we will be going to another nearby city, Segovia, where there are aqueducts.

Eva-living with a maid

2007-05-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

We finally did it. Eva and I have officially become friends. When I first came here, she seemed rather distant. Don’t get me wrong, she was always smiling and helping me out, but we never talked. It just didn’t seem right. It probably didn’t help that I had no idea how to treat her since I don’t know how you are supposed to treat a live in maid. I tried to show her though that I was willing to do everything myself and I didn’t want her to do everything for me. After meals, I always try to pick up my place and bring my dishes to the sink. I clean up after myself, keep the room very clean, take my own clothes off of the clothes line, and do everything I can to make Eva’s life a little easier. However, for the past week, we just haven’t quite clicked, until now that is.

Just yesterday I was eating dinner alone because Ines was watching tv and all of a sudden Eva sits down next to me. I was rather surprised because before now she always sits in the kitchen and eats her own meal and never talks to me in the dinning room. This, however, is a special occasion because Eva has pictures of her children. It turns out she has 4 kids who live in Nicaragua and she works in Madrid sending money back to Nicaragua. She shows me some pictures of her daughter’s 15th birthday party and I feel like she is letting me into her world. It is just a little peek, but she has taken the first step to us becoming friends and I quickly am elated.

That was just yesterday and today our friendship was sealed. She actually ate dinner with me! Ines was not eating with us, so I was alone at the table and she just sat down next to me with her plate. We chatted about her family and her sister who also lives in Madrid and she told me that she hates being here and wants to go back to Nicaragua with her family as soon as possible. She still seems really skittish at dinner, but I know that we have suddenly become friends. It is awesome. She tells me some things about Ines that I need to keep in mind and some of her preferences which are strange, but I should abide by them just to make life easier. At some point in time during dinner, she whispers something very important about Ines that I try to understand but for the life of me, my spanish skills just don’t work when somebody whispers. She asks if I understand this big secret that she just whispered to me in unintelligible spanish and I nod my head yes. True I lied, but I knew it was important and asking her to repeat it would put her in an awkward situation. So I am just hoping that I eventually figure it out, or maybe it wasn’t even important in the first place.

After dinner I watch TV with Ines and Eva and again Eva and I talk to each other when Ines leaves the room. Eva offers me a bunch of pants that don’t fit her anymore and as much as I would love to take them I know they are too small for me. Eva is about 5 feet tall and she is skinnier than I. I don’t know what made her think they would fit me, but I appreciate the compliment and the offer for friendship. I even get offered a beer and it is then that I realize our friendship is absolutely sealed and I am incredibly happy. After awhile, she tells me that she just finished off the last of the beer and when she stands up she loses her balance and falls right back down again. We both bust out in giggles since it is obvious that she has had the last beer. It was the first time I have laughed in this house since I moved here.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Eva will help me learn to speak 3 languages, 2 of which I am almost fluent in and one of which I struggly in greatly. The first language she will help me with is, of course, spanish. She doesn’t know English so she forces me to talk around what I want to say and she always probes me for answers. Unlike Ines, she doesn’t just give up and talks to me in English, Eva pushes me to speak more spanish. It’s good for me, and although it can be frustrating, I like it. The second language Eva and I speak is through facial gestures. We say a million things through smiles, winks, head nods, and various other expressions. Ines is simply to blind to read facial gestures, to be honest she is lucky to look at where we are standing in the room so me and Eva’s facial gesture language is completely fine to do and helps us say a lot. Fortunately she also saves my butt whenever Ines asks me a question and I don’t know if she is talking to me or to Eva. I really like the facial gesture language. The last language we speak is the hardest. This language is the whispers and lip reading language. Of course, it is done in spanish and whenever Eva whispers there is always background noise like the TV or the radio on so that Ines doesn’t hear us. So not only do I have to understand what she is saying, I have to try to block out outside noises. The worst is when she just mouths something to me. I always want to understand what she is saying, but I never get it. Maybe with more practice we will be able to practice this language we have. Overall though, Eva and I have become great at communicating with each other and by the time I leave here I am sure my spanish will have greatly increased thanks to her help.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression and say that Ines isn’t nice. She really truly is a very nice woman. However, there is only so much a 75 year old woman who is almost completely blind can offer. It’s just nice to have Eva on my side and have someone I can chit chat with around the house. I like having a new friend and although it took a while, I am glad that we have warmed up to each other.

Pirates of the Caribbean

2007-05-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

In Spain, they have movies in the Original Version this means that when we wanted to watch Pirates of the Caribbean we just had to find one of these movie theaters and we got to watch it in english. It was a freaking sweet movie! The theaters here are a little weird though. They dont have stadium seating at all, all of the seats are on the same level. I never knew how used to stadium seating I have become, but it was weird to be on the same level with everyone. Plus here they have assigned seating. So strange!

We all got concession stand candy and it was super cheap, which was also a surprise! They even had pints of Ben and Jerry ice cream so Katie and I split the pint during the movie. It was great! Plus in the theater there are bathrooms right there in the same room as the movie is playing in! We all had a great time eating ice cream and watching a movie.

Katie and I with our ice cream

Funny faces

Nik and Kelli making beautiful faces

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plains...

2007-05-26T06:27:00.002-07:00

Alright so apparently the saying, "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains" does not apply to Madrid. We have recently had a weeks straight worth of rain. On one hand rain here is absolutely essential. There have been some years with really bad drought problems in Spain and the madrilenos have had to monitor their water consumption. So in this case the rain has always been welcomed in Spain whenever it comes. On the other hand, rain sucks here! Everything in Spain is done outside so when there is rain, no one can leave the house. There is no partying at night. There is no walking aorund the city. Everyone is just trapped inside the house. How boring!

Before the rain week started though, my friends and I decided to go to the park on a Sunday.

First we just wandered around the city finding cool buildings and taking fun pictures.

We found this park that actually had these palm trees in it, something we never thought we would find in Spain!

Nik even brough his football so it was a perfect time to throw it around for awhile.

There was a group of musicians playing drums while someone was doing sweet flips. He is on the left in the picture doing some sort of hand spring or something gymnasticy like that.

There was even a great view of the royal palace from the park
Here are Katie, Kelli, and I in front of the city. I guess the dark ominous clouds in the background should have been a warning sign for us, but we didn't really pay attention to them.... About 5 minutes after that picture was taken we got DUMPED on. We sprinted back to a plaza and found cover in this staircase that led down to a parking garage. We had to stay here for about an hour before the rain let up a little and we sprinted over to the closest metro station. In retrospect, we will be paying much closer attention to the clouds in the sky next time we go out. Overall though we did have a really fun time and I don't think any of us will forget about our adventures in the rain.

New Friends

2007-05-26T06:27:00.001-07:00

Since I cam here I have been making a few new friends from school. The girls I am closest with is Christina. She is from the Ukraine and does not speak any english so we can only communicate in spanish, which has led to some interesting events between the two of us.

Below is a picture of us eating churros. Churros are fried dough and then you dip them in chocolate (it is like Spains version of a doughnut) they are SOOOO good! Christina is on the right and Kelli and I are on the left in the picture.

Sadly Christina returned home on Wednesday of this week since she has been here fore over 2.5 months. I was sad to see her go but she said that she was ready to go back home. I guess it doesnt really matter too much since this is my last week in school anyway. I start my internship on Monday and am excited to be filling my time with more things to do!

Thank God!

2007-05-25T17:17:00.001-07:00

Wow.

I have heard about pickpockets for forever now. Whenever I say that I am going to Spain inevitably someone says that I need to watch out for pick pocketers, but there was some part of my brain that was just like, "yeah yeah pick pockets, just hold onto your bag and you will be fine." Tonight, thouogh, I had my first run in with a pick pocket.

He wasnt even sly at all, and he scared the crap out of all of us. I was standing in front of a metro station with about 4 other girls and we were chit chatting in english and waiting for another girl to show. All of a sudden I was jerked backwards and I realize that someone was pulling on my purse. I immediately tried to hold onto it tighter and pull it towards me. He was also pulling on the purse of the girl next to me. The strap on her purse broke so once he had her purse he took off running. We were all stunned and couldnt believe what happened. About ten seconds later Katie took off running after the theif and all of a sudden we found ourselves running through the streets of madrid trying to find Steffi's purse. Of course we never caught up to him, which could be for the better since I dont know what we were going to do once we chased him down. We never thought that far ahead.

Steffi was stunned and so were the rest of us. She lost 45 Euros, her camera and her keys to her house. We went straight to Steffi's house to tell her mom what happened. We called the police to file a report but her house mom told us that it was pretty much a lost cause. We were all pretty frightened. Sadly for Steffi, in addition to losing all of her stuff this all happend tonight and it is her birthday. That poor girl.

It was all so surreal and sudden. I can still feel the sudden jerk on my purse when he tried to grab it. I know that he was going to have either my purse or Steffi's and I was incredibly blessed that he didnt get mine too, but I can't help but feel bad for Steffi. It was all so strange. I am unbelievably thankful though that none of us got hurt and nothing too bad happened.

For the rest of the night we were all on our gaurd. We took Steffi out to a bunch of bars and bought her a lot of drinks. That poor girl, robbed on her birthday! We figured the best way to cheer her up would be to just let her forget and we tried to crack jokes and have a good time for the rest of the night. I know though, that none of us really forgot what happened and it will take a while for us to forget exactly how easy it is to steal someone's purse and how scary it can be.

My Apartment

2007-05-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

This is the outside of my house. Our apartment is 4 windows up on the right.

When you walk in the door, you walk right into the living room

This is the hallway leading to the bedrooms. The walls have that dark line running down them because Ines always puts her hand against the wall to guide her down the hallway.

This is the dinning room where we eat all of our meals

The kitchen, it is kinda small but Eva makes amazing food here

The Bathroom
My bedroom, the closet on the right is mine

My bed, which is quite possibly the most uncomfortable bed in the world. I can feel every single spring in the stupid thing.

So that is my new house and, minus the bed, I am feeling quite at home here.

3 weeks in Pictures

2007-05-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

In our first 3 days here, collectively Katie, Kelli, and I all took over 300 pictures. Since then we have calmed things down a bit, but here are the highlights from these past three weeks.

Here is Kelly with all of our luggage, we had a lot!

Here are the 3 girls on our first day in Madrid
Here are the three girls looking very pretty on our first day in Madrid

This is our hotel which was located pretty much in the center of Madrid

This is our hotel room, we stayed here for the first 4 days.

Kelli with our hair dryer, it looked like a phone!

The first thing we did was visit Plaza Mayor, a very famous part of Madrid

Here is a beautiful painting from an artist in Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor is filled with artists and musicians who are trying to earn money from the toursists.

Nik, Katie and I in the Plaza Mayor at night.

A street preformer playing the water glasses outside the Plaza.

Beautiful buildings line all of the streets.

On our first day here we tried to find some cheap food and ended up at a greek restaurant called Doner Kebab.

This is the cook shaving meat off of this leg so it falls onto the grill and they can cook it for us.
Our first night out in Madrid!

Salsa dancing with Javier

Our second night out in Madrid!

The buildings here are so much prettier than those at home

The Plaza de Espana. This has a huge statue of Cervantes and Don Quijote.

Kelli and I in front of the Don Quijote statue in Plaza de Espana

Almost every day we have a picnic lunch with various friends from school. This is Viviana and Thomas, they are from Switzerland and are taking classes with us and we are picnicing in the Plaza de Espana
A beautiful Plaza we found when wandering around the city A gorgeous church
By the third night here we were missing American food, so we grabbed some McDonalds. Surprisingly, this McDonalds has wireless internet and serves beer! Not surprisingly, there is a Burger King about 3 doors down (there is always a competition).

This is The Atocha, it is the train station that was bombed in 2004. Now it is all restored and running perfectly

This is the inside of the Atocha train station. There is a huge atrium on the inside, it is really cool!

The palace of communications-an amazingly beautiful building!

This is the Puerta de Alcala. There used to be 7 puertas or "gates" to enter Madrid and this is one of the 7. Only 5 still exist today

Palacio Real is the royal palace. Although the King doesnt live there today, it is still well known

Palacio Real from the side (can you tell this is one of my favorite buildings)

Here is the Palacio at sunset. It is so pretty, especially when it is lit up at night.

Katie and I in a park next to the PalacioKatie in front of the Palacio Real.

This is a street preformer in front of the Palacio. They stand still like statues until you give them money then they do a little movement for you and go back to being frozen.

Sangria!This is from the "Garden of the views" there is a cathedral next to the Palacio Real and this is it at night.
The cathedral during the daytime

In the Garden of the Views. There is always a massive street party there and it has become one of our favorite hang out spots at night.

We took a tour of the city on a double decker bus, this is Javier and I
Kelli and Katie

Caitlin (a EUSA manager) and Nik
Here I am on the metro, it is the main mode of transportation to get all over Madrid. I ride the metro at least 4 times a day.

On the metro, it is common to have street musicians playing music to earn money. I see this group play on my metro at least once a week

Almendra, one of the EUSA program managers took us out for tapas. Tapas are like appetizers. Often a spanish dinner consists of many tapas at different bars. When you order a beer tapas come with them and after 2 beers and tapa plates, then you move onto the next bar for more tapas and more drinks. This is Katie, Kelli, and I waiting for out tapas.

Our group with Almendra walking from bar to bar eating tapas for dinner. The decorations are there because of a festival the next day for the patron saint of Madrid, San Isidro.

Outside of the restaurant where we ate our tapas.

The typical madrileno garb worn on festival San Isidro (the holiday of the patron saint of madrid, San Isidro). Mostly young children and older men and women wear these outfits.

Kelli and I couldnt believe it, pink tiger striped stirrup paints in a trendy store in Spain. I thought Europe was supposed to be ahead of the fashion trend!? Please don't tell me that stirrup pants are coming back in style!

If only I knew more electricity vocabulary...

2007-05-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

In my room there is a lot of light. That was actually something my house mom, Ines, emphasized when she first showed me my bedroom. She told me look at all of the light, there is an overhead light to light the whole room, there is a lamp on the desk, there is a lamp on the night stand, and there is a lamp on the headboard. She is right and there is a lot of light in my bedroom. One day I had on the overhead light and one of the light bulbs was on the fritz. It kept on turning off and then turning on and then off again. It was annoying, but there were 2 other bulbs in the light, so when that one bulb burned out I figured it wasn't that big of a loss.

Two nights later I was on my computer at about 2 in the morning and all of a sudden the power goes off. My overhead light was on and when the power cut off I saw a little spark fall from the light. I immediately grabbed a blanket and jumped up to make sure that the spark didnt catch fire on the rug on the floor. When I was positive that no damage had been done, I quickly jumped back into bed and went to bed hoping that I hadn't done anything to make the electricity go out and maybe it was someone else in the apartment building.

I woke up the next day and Ines told me that the electricity didnt work this morning and she had to have someone come fix it for her. It was really expensive because that day was a holiday and I felt bad for her, but decided it would be in my best interest to not mention the fact that I already knew the power had gone out last night.

I went back into my room and switched on the overhead light with zap, the power went out again and another spark dropped from the light. I immediately froze and Eva (the maid) came running to my bedroom asking me what happened. I then had to explain in spanish that when I turned on the light the electricity went out and there is a spark that fell from my light when it all happened. Now that may be easy enough to say in english, but I have never learned words like turn on and spark. Add to that the fact that I was scared straight that I had screwed up the electricity and I ended up bumbling through the entire explanation. I ended up saying something like, "when I did this (presses the light switch) the electricity didnt work. But I am worried because when the electricity didnt work a tiny piece of fire fell from the lamp." We tried to play with the circuit breaker but that just made more sparks fall from my light. I was the only one to see it though so every time they played with the circuit breaker I ran out to the living and said, "there are little pieces of fire falling from my lamp!" They looked at me like I was nuts. Ines didnt understand and thought that I was scared and kept comforting me by telling me that I didnt have to be afraid of the dark and there wont be any fire. I told her I wasnt scared, but she didn't believe me.

An hour later the electricity guy returned and found out that there was too much wattage in my overhead light. The light bulb that had burned out a few days ago was actually melting the lamp and causing all of the problems. That is also why it was sparking, because it was too hot. It was a quick fix and now is a funny story about my inadequate spanish and my newfound interest in learning about electricity vocabulary.

Address

2007-05-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is my address, I am totally open to cards and letters!

Katherine Bonino
Ines Estarellas
C/Hermosilla, 54 no 3, izq
Madrid 28001

the "o" in no after Hermosilla, 54 should be raised up like you would raise the "th" when you write 8th. Basically it will look like an n with a degree sign next to it.

A Little part of Home

2007-05-19T07:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had a visitor from the states! Lauren was traveling around Spain and it just so happens that she ended up in Madrid when I was here. I met up with her and her friend and showed them around Madrid. Lauren and I have been friends since 8th grade and it was so great to be able to see her. We talked about high school friends and laughed about old inside jokes we had. It was just a relief to get that comforting piece of home here in Madrid.

Here is Lauren and I, it was so great that we got to hang out!

It is strange that although I have only been gone for a little over a week, it feels like I have been here for months. We all were amazed today when we realized that we have only been here for a week and a half. I thought the time was supposed to go quickly, not slowly, how strange!

Classes

2007-05-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

We started classes on Monday and first we had to take a placement test at 8 in the morning to see what level classes we should be taking. It was funny because 8 in the morning is early over here. Most businesses start at 9 and there was hardly anyone on the metro or on the streets on the way to our school, Don Quijote.

I have the morning classes so I start at 9 and then have a half our break at 11:45 and then go back to class again from 12:15-1:00. After 1, I am home free and since Kelli and Nik have the same class times as I we normally go to a plaza or a park and eat lunch. Our classes are incredibly small and there is a maximum of eight people in a class. My class has 6 students and it is very laid back. We normally chit chat about plans for the weekend, good movies that are out, where in Spain we want to visit, what our homes are like, and really nontrivial things like that. Sometimes we talk about grammar and vocabulary, but normally even then we get off topic and end up talking about the madrileno lifestyle or something.

It took me a while, but I am slowly warming up to my classmates. One girl, Mandy, is from Germany and so when she speaks spanish she has a thick German accent and it is practically impossible to understand her. Don’t get me wrong, she is a nice girl and everything; it is just that I can’t understand a word out of her mouth. Ironically, the professor often can’t understand her either and she is constantly asked to repeat herself.

There is only one other girl from the US in my class and she is from Miami, other than that the other girls are from Holland, Germany, the Ukraine, and Norway. We make for a pretty mixed group, but it is great to get to know people from all around the world.

My Home Stay

2007-05-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

So I have finally moved into my home stay and I have to laugh about it because it is nothing like what I had imagined it would be. I live in a very nice neighborhood in Madrid that is very expensive. It has all of the designer shops in it like Gucci and Prada. Katie laughed because out of all three of the girls that are here we all know that I am the least fashionable and yet I ended up in the “fashion district” of Madrid. Regardless, the community is very safe and very nice and the only downside is that it is expensive to live here.

I am living with Señora Inés who is in her mid 70s and is almost entirely blind. She has a cyst on one eye and the other is clouded over. Natural light hurts her eyes and it is difficult for her to get around. She was a teacher for many years but had to retire because of her eyesight. She has a major in Spanish and English linguistics which means that when I don’t know how to say something, I can say it in English ;). I never realize how much I relied on hand gestures to help me with my language, but now that I am living with her I have. Since she can’t see anything then my hand gestures don’t help her at all so I now am forced to rely solely on my language which is an interesting challenge to face. She is a very nice woman though and calls me, "mi hijita" (my little daughter).

Because of her vision problem, she has a live in maid/helper. Yup that is right, I came to Madrid and now I have a maid. Her name is Eva and she cleans the house, cooks, answers the phone, and basically does everything that Inés can’t do because of her declining eye sight. Eva is nice although it is strange to live with her here because she tells me that I should leave the table without brining my dishes to the sink or washing them and things like that. Inés also has a cat named felipe. He is an orange tabby cat and Inés admits that he is very spoiled.

Even though we are all split up in Madrid, the 5 of us still get together every night to walk around the center of the city (Sol). We all try to talk in spanish, but there are times when we slip back into our native tongue. It is so nice to have people that I know in the city so that I know that my nights will be filled with doing something. Currently during the daytime there isn’t much to do yet. Classes don’t start until Monday and in my household there isn’t very much activity at all so most of the time I read or wander about the city. I really wish I could meet more people and fill my time with more activities, but I guess I will have to wait.

Tomorrow we start classes at Instituto Don Quijote, but first we have to take a language test to see what level we should be placed in. We got a tour of the school and all of the classes are super small. They have an 8 student maximum capacity and some of the classes are as small as 2 students. They are engaging and dynamic though and we will not just be lectured to, but will be interacting with each other and the professor. I am pretty excited to start class and dive into learning more spanish.

Getting Accustomed to the Spanish Lifestyle

2007-05-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well we just survived our second day in Madrid and this one felt just as long as the first! We started the day by going to the EUSA office and talking about our internships. I have an awesome internship and am incredibly excited about it. I am going to work with kids in a summer school/day camp/day care sort of situation. It is the first choice that Nuria and I discussed and she was able to set it up for me. We start on June 4 after we take 3 weeks of a language class in el Instituto Don Quijote. I am not very excited about taking the language class especially because we have to take a placement test on Monday to see what class we will be in. However, the internship is right up my alley and I am thrilled to be able to work with kids for the summer.

After our internship meeting we walked around with Almendra and Caitlin (managers from our EUSA program). They showed us all of the main areas of Madrid like La Calle Gran Via (similar to the New York Times Square), La Plaza Mayor, and lots of other places. We were able to learn a lot about Madrid and learn some key places that we need know about to buy things during our stay. We also drove around on a double decker bus and got to see some amazing sites around Madrid.

The Madrileno schedule here is incredibly different from the one at home. Here the workday doesn’t really start until 9ish at the earliest. So after eating breakfast at 8:30ish, you can “re-breakfast” at around 11. This is because breakfast is a very light meal normally consisting of only toast and coffee. The “rebreakfast” normally is coffee and a pastry of some sort. At 3:00 they eat lunch here and it is the biggest meal of the day. Then at 8/9 it is time for dinner. The craziest part about all of this though is that there is an INSANE night life in Madrid. There is always a party going on and there are thousands and thousands of bars all over the place. Almendra told us that there is 1 bar for every 4 people in Spain. The discotecas don’t really become popular until 3 in the morning and the madrilenos will party until 6 or 7 in the morning. The phrase, “We’ll sleep when we’re dead” fits in perfectly with this city. It is nuts.

The three girls have learned that we are very happy to have Nik with us when we go out. When we were at a club a fight was about to break out when Nik threw his hands out to protect us and then grabbed us and ran out of there as soon as we could. We all agreed that it is great to have him with us when we go out at night. Javier is also extremely helpful and since he is bilingual he directs us all around Madrid and takes care of us. In short, we girls lucked out and got 2 gentlemen to come on the trip with us. It is so cool that our group gets along so well.

First Day in Madrid

2007-05-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

We’re finally here.

This is unbelievable I can’t believe that I am in Madrid and will be spending my entire summer in Spain. I don’t think the fact has truly sunk in that I am going to be living in this city. Fortunately for now though I am having a really good time with the people I am traveling with. There are 5 of us in total Kelli, Katie, Nik, and Javier. Kelli is a blast and I really like talking with her. She flew over to Madrid with Katie and I and we instantly all became friends. We joke around with each other like we have known each other for a lot longer than just 2 days. Nik is also really nice and friendly. Javier has already been here for 2 days and has gotten to know the city pretty well. He lives in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish. He gave us a tour of the city and helped us find some cool clubs to go to tonight. Unfortunately it is kind of hard to look at him because, I kid you not, he looks EXACTLY like Mr. Beans. I will have to take a picture of him and post it because it really is true.

Anyway today was an incredibly long day. Our flight left Detroit at 1:15 and we landed at Philadelphia at 3:30. At the airport we overheard the funniest guy ever. He was talking on the phone and it was really difficult to understand what he was saying. Kelli asked me what language he was speaking in and I told her I thought it was English. I listened for a little longer and realized that he did speak English and sounded exactly like Seth Green’s brother with the infected tongue ring from Rat Race. It was hilarious. We left Philly at 6:00 and had a 7.5 hour plane ride to Madrid. In US time that means we landed in Madrid at 1:30 am. However, with the time change here we landed at 7:30. Customs was a bugger to get through because of the long lines and we finally got out of the airport around 8:30. We got to the hotel and were told that we had a free day until dinner at 8:00. We were all absolutely exhausted but wanted to try to get over the jet lag so we tried not to sleep at all today. Unfortunately that didn’t work and we ended up napping for about 4 hours.

After our nap, we ran into Javier who showed us around Madrid. We made a new friend in the Museo del Jamon and we relaxed in la Plaza Mayor (the biggest and most popular plaza in Madrid). We met up with Caitlin and Almendra at 8 for dinner and they informed us about our orientation and everything we will be doing. Orientation lasts until Saturday and then we move into our houses with our host families. School starts on Monday, blech. After dinner we went out to see the Spanish night life and ended up spending a lot of time in a Salsa club learning how to dance. Javier was great on the dance floor and led all of us girls around. Nik said he wanted to learn how to salsa by the time he left Spain so I decided to help him and soon became his salsa partner. Sadly, neither of us are very good at dancing, but at least we have a long time to learn how. It was a blast to hang out with everyone and just let loose.

We called it an early night at 12:30 since we were all so tired. My first day in Madrid has been amazing and I know that many other awesome days are soon to follow. I’ve found that I have to pay a lot of attention here since everything is in Spanish. It is impossible to multitask here because it takes every ounce of my energy to understand what is being said around me. I know that my Spanish will improve with this immersion, I am just a little afraid of what I have to go through for it to improve. It is also hard to be connected to the internet without paying a lot of money. Once I am in my home stay, I will be able to have better access for free so more posts will be able to come then. I miss everyone at home, but am glad that I have also been able to make some friends here.

5 More Days

2007-05-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

So the countdown is officially 5 days until I am on a plane and flying over the ocean to Spain, and I can't wait. Fortunately we were finally given an email from EUSA that gives us a bit of information about what will happen when we get there. They confirmed that we will be picked up by EUSA from the airport and then will spend three days in a hotel. Unfortunately they didn't mention anything about our internship placement so I still know nothing about that. In addition to that, she told us that we should only pack one suitcase. How in the world am I going to pack 3 months worth of clothes and stuff into one suitcase? For those of you that have traveled with me, you know that I am an overpacker which can make this whole one suitcase thing a problem ;).

I still can't believe that I am actually going to Spain for the entire summer. It is going to be absolutely insane to be there. 5 more days and then I say adios to my american lifestyle and hola to Espana. There is a lot to do in that time though and more importantly a lot of friends to say goodbye to.