Paella!

Paella for dinner tonight, which means its going to be a good night. Normally paella, a rice dish very common in Spain, is filled with mariscos (shellfish)...most of which have their shells and EYES. Needless to say, our senora makes the safe version: chicken, shrimp (without shell/eyes/antennas) and veggies. A perfect end to a perfect day.

I feel so disconnected from American pop culture lately, aside from the TV shows I catch on sketchy websites. For some reason most of the networks wont broadcast their shows overseas and Im forced to Google search my way to the latest Gossip Girl episode. I only hear things from word of mouth here for example: Kanye at the VMAs. I didnt even know that the VMAs were happening! And Patrick Swayze dying?! Its been nice to not be bombarded by information at every second of every day. My only daily dose of information (aside from Facebook, which I religiously stalk) is when me and Kerry watch spanish television while we eat dinner. We usually catch Pasapalabra, a game show that our senora loves, or the noticias (news). Its also been a crazy transition from having a cell phone in America to a pay-as-you-go phone here. Every text costs 0.15 euro and so we have to pick and choose what is worth texting. I have now realized that most of what I text is pointless. AND now that texting costs so much, I pay attention in class! A win-win situation.

San Sebastian

The student travelers...

Kerry, Cara, Me and the two Israeli boys we met at the hostel

Keeping guard of our things on the beach

Spectators during the boat race

Me and Kerry on top of the mountain

View of La Concha from the mountain!

Group of us on the beach at night

San Sebastian at night when we arrived

This past weekend, I traveled with 9 of my good friends to a beautiful beach town in Northern Spain called San Sebastian. It was the first time I had ever REALLY traveled by myself (before there had always been parents and teachers) and it was quite the experience. We took a 6 hour bus ride from Madrid and left at 5pm...reaching San Sebastian at around 11:30! Some of our friends had taken earlier buses so they were already there and we all met at the hostel.

Now, it is official. I have survived 2 nights in a hostel. Normally I would be totally grossed out by anything in a hotel/hostel like pillows, curtains, sheets. Weird, I know...but just ask my family and they will tell you. For some reason when it comes to sleeping somewhere I turn into a major germaphobe. This hostel, Olga's Place, was made up of many dorm style rooms with bunk beds and single beds and housed about 50 guests. My room happened to have 5 people we were traveling with and 1 Australian girl who was backpacking through Europe on her own (something I was in totally awe of). I felt much safer that my girlfriends and I were in the same room as our guy friends which I think made the experience much easier. The thing I liked most about the hostel was meeting people from ALL OVER the world. We met people from Israel, Germany, Barcelona, and even some other students that were from the Netherlands and are studying in Madrid! Everyone was very friendly and gave us recommendations on places to go and things to see. The first night in the hostel we all went to the beach with some people we met and had a great time.

On Saturday we all hiked up to the top of (what we believe to be) the highest point in San Sebastian. At the top of this hill/mountain there is a huge statue of Jesus. I didn't get the memo about bringing sneakers or any type of athletic clothing so I made due with flip flops. It was challenging at times, but definitely worth it. After, we all went to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. The beach we went to, Playa Zurriola, was where all the surfers go..and there were definitely an abundance of wet suits. After coming back to Olga's Place and changing, we went out to dinner in the old part of the city. We found a plaza with tons of outdoor restaurants and had the BEST meal. The cuisine changes where ever you are in Spain and for some reason, Northern Spain has MUCH better food than Southern Spain. That night we walked around the old part of the city and found ourselves in a club/bar that overlooked La Concha, the other main beach in San Sebastian. We didn't know this ahead of time but Sunday was a huge boat/crew race at La Concha. Hundreds and hundreds of people lined the beach wearing different colors to signify what boating team they were rooting for. The beach was PACKED and since we had just checked out of the hostel, we had all of our things with us and had to be super careful to make sure nothing got stolen (see photo). We hung out at the beach until it was time to hop back on the bus to Madrid. It was perfect weather and one of the most beautiful beaches.

Traveling for the first time without any parental/teacher supervision was extremely eye opening. I'm so proud of myself for spending money wisely, sight seeing and also being able to take some time and relax. I would love to return to San Sebastian at some point but I cannot wait to continue my travels throughout Europe!

First Madrid Moments

Retiro Park

Fountain in Retiro Park

KAPITAL! The 7-story club

My beautiful familia- miss them more than anything!

People unicycle in the middle of the street while the cars have a red light and then ask for money!

Our school on Calle Miguel Angel

A Day in Retiro

I am sleep deprived. Outside of our window (which we have to keep wide open at all times to make sure theres some sort of air flow) there are loud noises at ALL hours of the day and night. They range from the normal crying baby to screaming toddlers, clanging pots and pans and the occasional cell phone/house phone ringing. Not only are the noises outside but they are also right above us because the people that live there feel the need to move their furniture around constantly. Currently, there is a family singing "Cumpleanos Feliz" at the top of their lungs. I think this may or may not be their 3rd round of the song. Gotta love Madrilenos.

So imagine all of this AND last night we got home at 7:30 am from Kapital, a 7-story club in Madrid. My eyes are basically closed while typing this I am so exhausted. I'm hoping that tonight I will be able to get some sleep and do homework for my 9am class tomorrow. Oh the life of a student abroad. When we were outside of the club my friends and I were talking in English and other people heard us and asked where we were from. Hearing english spoken fluently is definitely not something you hear everyday. They ended up being a bunch of other students from America studying abroad in Madrid through another program. What a small world.

Today me and my two friends went to the Retiro, a park that is the Spanish equivalent to Central Park in NYC. It was beautiful- full of waterfalls, a lake, and lots of people spending their Sundays outside in this gorgeous weather. We tried to do our homework there but we were too distracted by everything around us. I think I am going to try and read there tomorrow for class- we'll see how that goes!

Photos.

Candles at a church in Toledo

Reflection of the Alhambra (Granada)

Flowerpots in Cordoba

Found on a wall in Granada

View from the top of a tower in the Alhambra (Granada)

Lovely Friday

I have officially been mistaken for a madrileña (someone who lives in Madrid). While I was walking to the computer lab a woman asked me for directions in SPANISH and I knew what she was saying and how to direct her! How amazing.

They also have the best ice cream sandwiches here. They are called Cubanitos or somtimes Natas and they are half ice cream sandwich half hard chocolate bar with ice cream inside. Hard to explain but very delicious.

Time for my class.. for the first three weeks we have class on Fridays to make up for other days we are going to miss. So tonight I have class until 10 pm! Lame.

Today we went to one of the local pools in Madrid. For 3 € we got to lay out for a few hours and go swimming which was great. The craziest part was that most of the women were topless and wearing thongs as bottoms. Definintely different than the US. The girls and I want to go to a topless beach in Barcelona. Still working on those plans though haha.

First Day of Classes!

I have survived my first day of classes...which isn´t saying much. Yesterday at 9am everyone in the program had a spanish placement exam where they test to see our level of spanish. The test took about an hour and made me realize that although I can understand spanish, I still suck at grammar. After, I walked around with some friends exploring the area. I also joined the gym which I am VERY excited about. I like running around but working out in a gym is much more fun for me. Plus its making me realize that I am actually living here. I am a resident of Madrid. Wild. After joining the gym I had a quick lunch with friends and then went home to rest (siesta). Monday nights I have a class from 7-10 which seems really late but people where dont even eat dinner until 9 or 10 so its relatively normal. The class is called Sexuality in Spain and its counting towards my sociology minor. The strange thing was about this class was that I had been asking around to everyone I knew to see if anyone else was taking the class with me. Only my best friend (the girl with the hurt foot) and another guy we are good friends with said that they were...we got to class at 7 and WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE CLASS. That´s right, I am now one of 3 in a class about sex. The good thing is that I already feel comfortable with these people so talking is (and never really was) a problem. The downside? I can never miss class. Ever. She will definitely notice if one of her 3 students is missing. And since Kerry (best friend) and I are joined at the hip, she would definitely notice if 2 of her 3 were missing. I have a feeling that the guy is going to drop the class, in which case me and Kerry have our own private class. Should be interesting.

I have my Hemingway in Spain class and my Arts in Spain class today. Hopefully there will be more than 3 people in those classes!

Keeping my fingers crossed about getting the internet today. I´ve been living without it for almost 3 weeks now..crazy. When I do ill be uploading pictures and posting blogs more often. For now, I live at the computer lab.

The weather here is SO hot. Especially at night. We have no air conditioning and we sleep with our window literally WIDE open with out any screen. But our window faces into the building and we never get a breeze...makes sleeping a little difficult but hey, at least my bed is comfortable!