when in Rome...

To begin with, it is impossible to add enough pictures to adequately encompass my journey. We woke up early Friday morning, hopped on the metro to the airport, and got on our plane. Flying Ryan air was definitely interesting, but for their cheap air fares, just fine. It is almost impossible to sleep on the flight because they keep announcing items they're trying to sell, annoying. So we were all very tired and cranky when we arrived in Rome. We had to take a bus to the city center, and there was so much crazy traffic, a usually 30-40 minute ride took an hour and 20 minutes.. with the driver jerking on the break every 5 seconds and accelerating like mad only to move 3 inches... It was terrible. When we get to the city center, we had NO idea what to do. After 20 minutes of trying to figure out the small Rome metro or busses, we decide to take a cab. We go up to a driver and offer him 40 euros for the 4 of us (taxis in Madrid are very expensive.) We were so lucky he didn't rip us off... The fare here ended up being only 10 euros!!

We check in our bed and breakfast and head to the Coliseum. It was very, very cool. Then we headed off to the Roman Forum, and after, maneuvered our way home using a crappy map the bus company gave us. Those who know me know I played no part in this maneuvering..My map skills are quite subpar. We then met our Italian friends we'd met in Madrid a few times for dinner. (We were smart and gave their information to our bed and breakfast owner just in case.) They really picked a gem of a restaurant...I highly doubt a tourist has ever set foot in the place. Their best friend also knew the owner, so we just got a ton of great, true Italian food and wine for a great price.

Saturday, we woke up early to go to the Vatican. Somehow, we beat the crazy long lines. St. Peter's Basilica was beautiful, as well as the Sistine Chapel. We had no idea you have to walk to an entire museum to get to the chapel...Also the entrance fees for both of these attractions are through the roof!! We grabbed lunch and then got the BEST gelato I've had to date. We made our way to the Spanish steps, relaxed and ate our gelato, and then went to the Trevi Fountain. I can't explain how fulfilled I felt at the fountain- it had been such a hectic day of go, go, go, and I just got to sit down, collect my thoughts, and realize I was in ROME and how lucky I was to be in such an awesome city.

We went to dinner, ordered pizza and a HUGE calzone, both of which were delicious. I also had a cannoli with ricotta cheese... mmm! We were so tired we didn't even have energy to go out, we passed out, caught our taxi at 530 the next morning, headed to the airport, and flew home!! After such a crazy weekend, it was so great to be back in Madrid. I took a nap in the afternoon, had paella courtesy of Consuelo, and slept and slept.

The metro/bus strike started today and will last until Wednesday. There were no problems today, go figure, and we woke up an hour and a half early just to get to class. Our bus came right away, and we got to class waaaayyy too early. Tomorrow though, there may not be any metros or busses at all running. It should be very interesting! I cannot believe I'm starting my fourth week :( :(

:) things could not get better.

So today we went to class. Had a stinky exam, and in our art class started learning about Goya. Our class and teacher have an ongoing joke about the island of Ibiza, which many people go to here, and it is a crazy party island which our teacher tells us has a lot of drug usage. So we have an hour left of our 2 hour class, and someone asks how to say fart in Spanish (clearly mature college kid), so our teacher writes it on the board next to her notes on the royal family. She then says "Que verguenza!" which means "what shame!" since theres words about passing gas next to her notes about rulers and royal families. She proceeds to ask us where we are all headed this weekend, and then give advice on each place. (People are going to Lisbon, London, Granada, and obviously Rome.)

So she starts talking about her kids visiting Ibiza and since we're joking around I start asking her all these questions about her son..starting by asking how old he was, and she just simply says .. NO. But then of course, like loving moms love to do, just starts blabbing about him. I was pretty excited to waste an hour of class just joking around, laughing, and learning how to say farts in Spanish.

We then decided to go to the pool, but wandered around for 30 minutes in the hot sun trying to find it. (There are a plethora of public pools here where you pay for entry.) We may have had to ask at least 20 people about it, and no one knew anything. Finally we found people who knew where the pool was and made it there. This is a public pool with PLENTY of kids, but sooo many of the older women went topless. Blech.

Anyways, I'm headed to ROMA tomorrow!! Must pack :) Adios!! Chao :)

so live your life

Just got back from going on my FIRST run here in Madrid! I am still shocked that I enjoyed it, even though its 90 degrees out. But sorry Mom, I still have yet to adore running.

Monday was an awesome day... We had class, then went to the Museo Reina Sofia, which is a museum of modern art. SOOO awesome to see Picasso and Dalí paintings, especially Picasso's most famous painting, Guernica. I snuck a picture from the other room since you're not allowed to take pictures of it.

Monday night, we headed back to the stadium to watch Spain play Honduras and WIN!! It was pure chaos and I loved it!!

Tuesday, we went back to the Prado and looked at Velazquez's works. I don't know why I actually enjoy these museums... I guess because every year in Spanish we learn about all these huge paintings and now I actually get to see them. After the Prado, we went to see a flamenco/ballet interpretation of Carmen. Audience style is soo different here. Everyone showed up last minute, and no one really clapped for a pretty artistic performance. The music was pre-recorded, which was odd, but the dancing was phenomenal.

Another strange cultural thing that's different from the US: Students live with their parents throughout college. No one here has an apartment or house with friends. Our teachers think in 30 years that will change, but not now. Also, I've never seen anyone really running outside here, maybe because of the heat, but today, people definitely looked at me like I was crazy.

We leave for Rome early Friday morning!! I can't waaaaiiiit and I need to pack :)

halfway through :(

So my trip of a lifetime is halfway through...I can't stop being sad about that fact even though I have three weeks left!

Thursday we went to a discotecha, of course. We were there and met some American guy who goes to Syracuse. He's a Delt and was talking about how he loves Thetas. Two girls come over and say, "You're a Theta?! We are too!" They were from Baylor. So we took a kite picture and ANOTHER random girl came up and is a Theta as well!! That's what the picture is of. Smallll but awesome world.

Friday we went to the Senate. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was styled after the English senate in Great Britain, so the whole building looked like a scene I've seen on CSPAN. Their library was awesome though, for they had every Madrid newspaper for every day of the week.

Today we went to El Escorial, another royal palace built by the extensive royal family of Spain. It was freeezing inside the palace because it was all built of old stone. We were all wearing sundresses and cardigans, so we were unhappy. We visited a lot of tombs, which I did not like at all. But it was neat because we learn about the history of the royal family in class, so I can now easily follow the crazy succession of royals.

The pictures are as follows: One I added from the soccer game, the guy on the right is Carlos, who is a friend of my friend from the States, and his friend Luis is on my right, who studied in Toledo, Ohio, for a year when he was in high school. He loves OSU. (Haha). The other picture is of our sangria and pasta at lunch, typical. The pasta isn't so typical, usually we have some odd Spanish sandwiches. The picture of the sky and building is the inside of El Escorial.

a por ellos oyeee

Yesterday, we went to the Palacio Real. The weather is still bad, which is a shock to just about every local. We're all used to it, being from the midwest and all, but people here think it is ludicrous. The palace was quite extravagant and beautiful. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside :( but everything from the carpet to the flooring to the murals on the ceilings were absolutely gorgeous... Everyone left wishing they could live in the Royal Palace. I'm adding a picture of the inside of the palace from the courtyard.

Today, Spain played its first World Cup game!!!!! I don't want to discuss the outcome, because they lost. We met some of my friends who lived in Madrid at the game. What happens is all the huge plazas in Madrid put up big screens and people flock to watch the game. We went to the RealMadrid's soccer stadium, San Bernadeu to watch the game. It was soo cold out, but there were thouuuusands of people there- I was so hot! It was awesome. Absolutely nothing like this happens in America. Everyone was singing, cheering, and EVERY person there was decked out in something Spain. Most people wore flags as capes or something of that nature. The title of the blog is a song we learned that everyone always sings at the games. I had a great time and definitely caught the World Cup fervor. Spain is one of the teams favored to win, so it was a huge disappointment that they lost!

I wish we were into soccer or some national team. Its pretty cool to celebrate and watch a game just meandering (well, there wasn't much room to move) outside. The national anthems of Spain kept being sung, and many people were just partying their little lives away. The only downside is smoking is such a huge part of the culture, and being crammed like sardines makes it impossible to escape the nasty smoke!!

an extremely interesting encounter.

I have changed my comment settings so if you want to comment it's possible... Anyways, we had class today, came back, it stormed, and we began to plan our weekend in BARCELONA! :) We're headed there in 3 weekends after our trip to Rome.

So, we decide to meet our friends Cait and Mary Ellen for sangria and just to hang out. What I love about Spain is how common it is to eat at a little table outside, take your time, relax, and just enjoy the great company :) We did just that today. We had sangria and some Spanish food, and just chatted for about 2 hours. Many people at nearby tables or streets chatted us up, and the waiter brought us a fake flower. Like I previously said, people are incredibly friendly. Its not like they all want to hit on you (although many do), they just say "Hola!".

So we're getting ready to leave, and an old man comes up to us. He was I'd say 80 years old. Loving my grandparents, I was excited to talk to him (I really want to practice my Spanish!) But this man had another agenda. He began to throw compliments at us... Crazy nice, obv over the top and untrue compliments. He stroked Cait and my cheek, and we were just trying to leave, it was an extreeeemely uncomfortable situation. Seeing his age too, we just didn't know what to do, so we kept saying we had to leave, we had to leave.

So we leave, as fast as possible..And our old man decides to FOLLOW us! We had a good running head start (imagine how dumb 4 girls feel running in a crowded plaza from an old man, but this guy was very very creepy) but traffic held us back. Cait and I made it to the metro station, but Cait couldn't find her pass so the guy caught up!! I ran off ahead because Cait and I were taking separate lines and I called Jobie to see where she was at. Jobie met me and we were fine, but we called Cait and Mary Ellen to check in on them, and the old man had followed them to their bus stop. They left and went to the main metro terminal to wait it out, return after a few trains go by, and he's still there. They finally managed to ditch him, but phew! What an afternoon. I had no idea a man of that age would be that strange!!!! You always think its the kids our age or a little older...but not someone in their eighties!! Weird weird weird.

weekend!

This weekend the rain continued non-stop :(. Saturday, we went to Toledo. It was freeezing out, and it being summer AND Spain, no one brought many warm clothes. We were all bundled in hoodies but still cold. Then, it starts pouring down rain. Non stop. And our tour was all outside. They did not cancel or postpone the tour, so we took basically a 5 hour walking tour in the pouring rain. Everyone was quite miserable. I just hate being cold so I was not enjoying myself. Under 75 (there are other study abroad groups who went) people's umbrellas, it was difficult to see anything anyways.

After that terrible experience, Jobie and I were ready to just go home and relax. But we decided to go to the discoteca so that not all of our day would be bad. We went with Cait and Mary Ellen, and didn't end up staying long, and instead, left and got delicious pizza... MMM. The picture with all the people are some Roman dudes we met on the calle (street). Madrid is a very social place. All of the plazas are full of people talking and socializing. For the World Cup, the plazas fill with people to watch the games.

Today, Jobie and I went to the market to try and shop, but we got there later and it was too crowded. We meandered back to the plaza and sat down for a delicious lunch. However, restaurants function so much differently here. You don't tip your servers because they are on salary. This means that the service is always terrible. There is one waiter for 20 tables. We had to wait 30 min to order and 1 hr to get Jobie's pizza and another 20 min to get out check. But it was a gorgeous day, and we just enjoyed sitting outside eating and talking.

We got home and Consuelo, her daughter, and a past exchange student Consuelo had housed, who is visiting Madrid, were home. We sat down and watched Spanish survivor and gabbed for an hour or so. Consuelo is hilarious and always wants to know about our love lives. Between the taxi ride home last night and today, I got to speak a ton of Spanish so that is great.

We have another full week of classes starting tomorrow, with the world cup mixed in. It should be another great week!!

rain, rain, go away

Its been dreary since Wednesday. Freezing actually. I survived my first full week of classes! And my first exam!! That's exciting. Hmm, what all have I done since my last post? Well yesterday, Jobie and I searched Expedia for ages until we found a good hotel in Rome, and we booked a bed & breakfast near the Travistiere (sp?) Fountain.

Last night, we went to a huge, 7 floor discoteca with about 15 kids from the group. It was a ton of fun. There's definitely nothing like that in America.

Today we went to the Prado, which is a HUGE, incredible art museum. One of our classes is about art in the Prado, so it was cool to finally go. Every year, our Spanish teachers feel it necessary to talk about art and paintings and artists, blah blah blah, which I'm not too interested in but its not awful. It was definitely neat though to actually see a lot of the very famous paintings I have learned about for so long. Just another one of the cool things I get to do while I'm here.

Another awesome thing about Spain is the fruit... It is always so fresh and delicious. You never bite into a fresh peach that is just mediocre- everything is always awesome. The only downside is Consuelo will buy 10 peaches or bananas that are already ripe so we can never eat them all before they go bad. We're trying paella tonight for dinner, a super popular dish here. The one bummer dish here: pizza. I'm excited to go to Italy and eat the pizza there. Italian food is my favorite :)

Tomorrow we're visiting Toledo, hopefully the weather clears up!

ROME!

Not much has happened since my last post other than lots and lots of class (big exam tomorrow) and OH... Jobie and I booked airline tickets, for 110 Euros, to go to ROME the weekend of July 25th!!!!! Sooo exciting. Now all we have to do is find a cheap hotel....

We went to the Museo del Traje yesterday, or the clothes museum, and that was really interesting. Then we went to an indoor market and had many Spanish bits of food. Some people got crazy with caviar, but I just had some bread & cheese combinations...With chocolate cake afterwards of course.

Everyone here has got the world cup fever, I hope Spain does well! That's all I have, short post.

Start of week TWO!! (crazy)

The last week felt sooo long (in a good way), but I can't believe its week two already!! A lot of my trip is hard to explain to people... Jobie and I just meander around different parts of Madrid, shopping, window shopping, eating, taking in the city, and trying the various sangrias and wines (hey, its part of the culture!). This week though we do have class Mon- Thurs. (last week we had Thurs off classes for a festival.)

Sunday (yesterday), Jobie and I went to Plaza Mayor and surveyed the market there. It was mostly old coins and monies, which we have no interest in. So it was finally time to actually SHOP! The shops close by the time we're out of school at 1-ish til late afternoon for a siesta, but it was Sunday and the shops stay open and just close early. We finallllyyy got Ronaldo jerseys, after checking many stores to see who has the cheapest (not something I am normally good at). I didn't purchase much else, we just browsed... Spain fashion is incredibly different. Denim is extremely in here, which I'm not sure if I like... Faded denim everything from vests to pants is not my thing. We then ate at this awesome Italian restaurant where we're convinced we had the best sangria yet.

Today, we had class and then a walking tour around Madrid with the university. The tour was a little long (3 hrs, and no one was paying attention), but I did get to see even more of the gorgeous city. I get to live here for SEVEN weeks!!! :)

Segovia & a bullfight!

My digital camera ran out of battery on one of the busiest days here so far :( Booo. I will add pictures shortly as soon as I charge my camera and steal some of Jobie's pictures.

Today we went to Segovia, which is about an hour away from Madrid. Segovia is an entirely different town with such a different atmosphere. It was less like a city and more like a quaint town. A huge pillared aqueduct stands in the middle of the town's old plaza. We visited a gorgeous cathedral and old castle which Ferdinand and Isabel lived in! (The ones who sent Columbus to discover America.) The weather was lovely and breezy. We had a nice, long, relaxing lunch in the main plaza with friends.

As soon as we arrived back, it was time to hop on the metro and go to the bullfight! The exterior of the arena is absolutely gorgeous, it looks as it was made out of tiles. I was expecting not to like the fight and to want to leave after one bull, because many people told me I wouldn't like the violence of it. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the fight. It is just as practiced as baseball or football in the states. There is immense artistry in the way the bullfighters and matadors twirl and hold their capes. The crowd has certain chants and cheers, and it is hard not to catch on to their adrenaline. If the bullfighter does a good job (this did not happen everytime), the crowd gives him a standing ovation and waves white handkerchiefs in the air, which I learned tells the matador to "ask" the bull for his ear. Then, the matador parades around the arena with the ear. The matadors are also young and very cutee :)

We headed back home to another one of Consuelo's huge but great pasta meals, and she again rolled her eyes at us when we didn't want seconds. She was delighted though that we saw such a good fight (the fight was on TV) because she told us the fights usually don't go this well. So all in all it was definitely a great day!!

thursday & friday.

Yesterday, Jobie and I slept in (yayy!!) then started our day by going to a HUGE park, Parque del Retiro. It must span over a couple miles and is completely gorgeous. You can even rent a boat to row on the pond they have in the middle of the park. After being in the sun at the park for an hour though, we were dead tired. It is incredibly hot here.

We left and went to siesta at our apartment, and then got ready. One of my friends from the states has a friend who lives in Madrid, so we met up with him and his friends and a bunch of the Purdue kids. We had a delicious meal that was nothing like food in America. We ordered plates of cheeses and uncooked ham, as well as sangria, calamari, and some other dishes. Surprisingly, I liked everything! We then went to various bars around Puerta del Sol. Promoters want to get you in to their clubs so everyone is always handing out coupons for free drinks. Jobie, Myra, and I had the craziest taxi driver on our way back, he put NYC drivers to shame. He too was eager to help us learn English though, which was very nice.

Today we went to the Museo del Ciudad, and had a very dull tour. Unfortunately, there's nothing to report about that. We're about to have our siesta and then later, Consuelo is having a fiesta here for one of her former host students who's father recently passed.

i'm a sickling :(

Last night, Jobie and I went to Moncloa just to lounge around and find a good bar. We ended up going to Puerta del Sol and sitting outside at a bar there. It was a nice evening, then I started to feel sick. I end up being sick all night and into this morning :(

So now I'm still sitting in bed (its 430) here. The pictres are from where we went last night and a main statue in Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid's most popular and beautiful areas.

I also came across this USA news and think it is awesome: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamation-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-pride-month. I know that has nothing to do with my trip but just wanted to share.

That's all for now, I hope I can sleep off this stomach bug :/

First night of going out, first day of classes

Last night, one of the grad students with us who has worked with bands when he was younger knew of a free concert. Jobie and I took the metro for the first time and didn't get lost!! We even had to change trains and were fine. Anyways, we get to Gran Via, and although I had been warned about prostitution, I was totally not expecting what I saw. Girls with bad dye-jobs hollering crude things at men. When men turned them down, they'd insult the girl the guy was with. I saw one guy walk away with one..eww. A few of their butt cheeks hung out of their shorts major league too.

Jobie and I finally find the small club and walk in and realize..its definitely not our scene. Could not be further from it in fact. Everyone there was very punk/rocker/wearing black/studs... and it was extremely tiny and just about all of the audience members were smoking. I'm lucky that in Ohio, we can't smoke indoors. Europe is so different in that regard. We stick around for the first band, which was too screamo for my tastes, and leave, getting home by 12. Are you happy mom?!

Today was our first day of class. The first two hours were fascinating but towards the end I couldn't wait to leave. Spain's history and culture is absolutely incredible, though. So now we're having our descanso and deciding what to do with ourselves. Consuelo got us tickets to the bullfight Saturday night, which are apparently very hard to come by. Ayyy toro!