obama

we went to the school to watch the obama inauguration last tuesday. we all thought that it would be in english with spanish subtitles but when it started they were translating over the english in spanish so you could hardly hear what they were saying. so we all got on our comps and listened to it on cnn. 

pretty much every person i have talked to, not just from spain but from europe, is super excited about obama and we went up 10x in their books because we elected obama. it has to do with the war and invading, i have heard many reasons but they were so excited for obama and even when we first got here that was one of the first things people talked about when i said i was from the US.

while we were watching it a reporter came to talk to us she was interested in our opinions about obama as american students. of course i was the first person she talked to and i had kind of prepared an idea of what i wanted to say in my head but of course when she put her recorder in my face i went blank...i just remember saying that this was the first election i voted in because i thought it was so important and i was interested to see what he was going to do and if he is going to live up to his campaign promises...and i just remember being really red. it was interesting though and she interviewed every one of us. but for days after his inauguration it was still all over the news.

VALENCIA

this past weekend we went to valencia which is on the coast of spain. the weather was AMAZING. it was a vacation within a vacation. i felt like i was in florida-palm trees and old spanish buildings, plus the smell of salt from the beach. we first got there and went exploring for different bars and discotecs. the next day we woke up and went to get an early lunch-tortilla espanola!- and then went on a tapas tour at 2:30. the guide was from great britain and there were 2 australians on the tour with us. we went to three restuarants and got a tapa and drink (sangria) all for 8 euro. 

at the first one, we had blood sausage. and now i know that it is all blood and no sausage. then we had sausage and beans on a slice of bread. then we had peppers on bread. then at the last one we had so much food! we had bread and cheese, croquettes, a platter of meats, and then paella of course because we were in valencia! i tried rabbit and snail for the first time and there also was calamari in the paella too.

we went back took a nap and then got ready for our pub crawl. we went to a bar and 2 discos. it was a blast! our australian friends joined us and we met a bunch of people from all over the us who were there for the weekend and the guides were from italy and holland.

the next day before we left we headed to the beach. this was probably my favorite part of our whole trip. it was so windy on the beach though but there were palm trees everywhere-so tropical! i put in feet into the freezing cold Mediterranean to say that i did. you can't go to spain without seeing it! then we picked up our bags at the hostel and headed home on our 5 hour bus ride to toledo.

new friends.

i got home from Granada to a new roommate. i was a little nervous at first because i really liked the way it was with just Mercedes and me. but i came home right in time for dinner and of course she speaks spanish much better than i do. she has been here since september, so it makes sense. but i actually feel like i learn a lot from her. but obviously claire and mercedes have more to talk about because they understand each other better, but it is a learning process and its more spanish to surround myself with.

mercedes also got roses from her boyfriend so after dinner the three of us sat at the kitchen table on our computer sharing pictures and stories of "chicos." it was really funny and we had a good time.

because claire has been here since september she has made a lot of spanish friends. her best friend here is fabian who was her intercambio partner. she said that i would have to meet him. so last wednesday we went over to his apartment in santa barbara. he is 27 and lives with his brother, jose, who is 25. fabian is learning english and is pretty good at it but jose only knows spanish. at first i was very hesitant to speak because claire is so much better than i am and i was intimidated but after a little while i loosened up and it was really amazing to me how easy it was to communicate, esp. with jose. there are some hobbies that people all over the world have in common. and one of them is YouTube. we sat in their apartment for three hours sharing our favorite YouTube videos-they would take a turn and then claire and i would take a turn. we laughed the entire time. fabian cooked us dinner too and when we left to catch the bus i felt like it was one the best times i have had-and i actually felt that i learned so much more about spanish, not just the language but the culture.

we went over there this past sunday after we went out dancing with them on saturday. we watched YouTube but this time Jose and Claire wanted to teach me dancing because i said i wanted to learn salsa, merengue, etc. We played reggatone and salsa music for about 3 hours and danced in their living room. I was awful at first but loosened up and Jose even said i was pretty good. those dances are so much fun- i can't wait to go to a salsa club in toledo-which they assured me that we will go to practice my moves and see others in action. again, fabian cooked us dinner. i love going to their apartment because when i hang out with them, it is exactly what i would do with my friends at home-only its in spanish. and it is such good practice. plus, i feel so comfortable around them that i am not as scared to make mistakes. it is also good to help fabian with his english. and he called me 'jackie chan.' can't wait to hang out with them again. 

claire is also a good roommate. we sit at lunch, just talking about our days what we are doing in school what we are doing later in the day. we both love chocolate and crave sweets. and love youtube. she is from south carolina and goes to converse, an all girls college. it's just nice to branch out a little from the group because sometimes i can get overwhelmed with how much time we spend together. so its a nice change.

GRANADA

first off, last weekend we went to GRANADA! it is in the south of spain and some people call it the "toledo of the south" because both cities have muslim influences in architecture. our hostel was so close to the city and it was warmer there! our first night we went exploring walking through the main plaza and up the main street. i noticed there seemed to be a younger crowd in granada than in toledo. we ate some dinner and headed back to the hostel. our group got split up with the hostel across the street owned by the same man so 4 girls stayed in a 4 bedroom across the street. but the rest of us were divided into three rooms and we got our own floor which was really nice. so after we all got settled and showered we hung out in one room and played never have i ever...there is no better way to get to know someone. it was really fun just because for most of us it was the first time outside of school that we all were able to hang out and really just be ourselves. 

the next morning we woke up at 7 AM to get tickets for the Alhambra. yes, 7 am. we just had to walk up the hill to get there but seeing as how it was 7 am it felt like a dream. i don't think i was fully awake for the entire thing. our ticket time was 2PM so we headed back to bed. woke up got some lunch and went to the Alhambra.

jasmine and i got separated from everyone else but it was a nice break from traveling in a group of 13. we walked through the gardens and stumbled onto the entrance to the palace by accident. and thank god we did because you can only enter within a half hour of your ticket time  so 2-230. we were trying to take a picture of this building and a woman in a red coat said 'palacio?' and we said 'suuuree??' not really sure what she meant. she scanned our tickets and we walked through the ropes to this entrance  way back in the corner-the entrance to the palace. if we weren't trying to take that picture, i am not sure we would have found the entrance and therefore missed one of the best parts of the alhambra! because they only sell so many tickets a day, which makes sense-you wouldn't be able to enjoy it if there were a thousand other people in one room with you.

the alhambra consists of a ancient moorish palace, gardens, churches, and a tower (used for the army and a defense for the city). it is amazing the beauty of such an old structure. i don't want to call it a building because it is so much more than that. it is so large that it took us about two hours to walk through it and there were parts of it that were closed off, we couldn't see. the amount of attention paid to detail was truly amazing. the decoration of the arches on the doors, the elaborate designs carved into the wood on the doors, the walls that popped out with their texture from the carvings of flowers or arabic letters. the other amazing part about these rooms were the ceilings. there weren't simply made of of wood or stone-they also were carved and textured. 

however, my favorite part of the alhambra was the view. it sits on top of the hill in granda and looks out over the entire city. the fact that there was a clear blue sky, no clouds, and it was warm enough for me to take off my coat at one point, made the trip that much better. i don't think that the alhambra would have had as much of an impact on me as it did if there weather wasn't so nice. there was a walkway inside the palace that looked out onto granada. i felt like i was in Greece or another city, it didn't seem quite like spain. jas and i took pictures of each other standing there and it honestly looked like a fake background-that is how amazing the view was.

we then went out for pasta and churros con chocolate. out, bed, up early to catch the bus back to madrid.

too busy!

i'm sorry i haven't written but i have been so busy! between going to school, doing homework, rutas (tours) of toledo, cine espanola and our ml 250 class, talking with mercedes and my new housemate...i haven't had time to write! but here are some updates...

adjusted.

sunday we attempted to go to the mall...this was one of my few bus experiences because i don't need to ride it to get to school like other people so i use my bus pass rarely. but mercedes looked online which bus to take and where to get off. so we set off excited for the rebajas (sales) which they really only have in january and june so everyone makes a big deal of them...so we missed the stop and had to wait til the bus reached the last stop. and when we did the driver made us get off and sit at the bus stop while he smoked...normal? then he told us the right one to get off at and when we arrived we realized all the stores are closed on sundays. great. so we just ate at the food court and had some ben and jerrys (you pay the same if not more than in the us for probably 4 bites of ice cream) and headed back onto the bus. we went to an internet cafe, jas and i watched summer heights high and kate and aide skyped. 

then we went to noca noca-this little cafe in the plaza zocodover (main plaza) that we have come to really like. they have the best hot chocolate, bocadillos (sandwiches) and pastries and of course, coca-cola light. we attempted to read our first assignment-a 40 pg. play in spanish (written around the same time as Shakespeare...) and i am still not done with it yet. that is going to be my goal tonight. 

after dinner, i had just stepped out of the shower and i heard christmas music so after i got dressed i walked into the family room and mercedes was watching "las vacaciones" or "the holiday" with kate winslet and cameron diaz so i sat down to watch it...all spanish voice overs and no subtitles, good thing i had already seen it or else i would have been completely lost. and the commercials are hilarious and they last a lot longer than in the us but they dont come on every 10-15 mins...probably every 30 min or longer-interesting. but i couldnt watch the whole thing i was too tired so i left mercedes to finish it. but my first experience at watching a spanish movie-without subtitles!

madrid. take 2

we went to madrid for a day trip with the group. we had to meet at 9 am. too early for me...but the cold walk woke me up. our bus radiator froze because it was so cold so it took awhile to get going. i listened to my ipod, slept the whole way there. we went to a cafe before the Prado and i got chocolate, their hot chocolate, but it is so much better! it takes just like you are drinking melted chocolate chips bc it is so rich and thick! then we went to the Prado where we had a guided tour-in spanish of course. we saw 'the anunciacion' by fra angelico, works of el greco (who actually lived and worked in Toledo, where I live) bc he had his own section, many of velazquez paintings including las meninas. the guide told us to take a mirror (which i conveniently had in my monster of purse) and stand with your back to the painting and look at the reflection and it looks 3D, and it really did-the people seemed to pop out. that was my favorite one to see bc in one of my spanish classes we spent 2 hours examining that painting to it was interesting to see the real thing, and not a picture on wikipedia. we then went to the puerta de sol-the main plaza in madrid and the center of spain really and had lunch. met back up with the group and took a walking tour of spain. it was kind of hard to understand the tour guide and it was soo cold out! but we saw the plaza mayor with weird statue people. but this plaza was where they tried people during the spanish inquisition. they would ask are you christian, do you believe in god and if you didnt say 'yes' then they would kill you right there. it is hard to wrap your head around the idea that you are standing on the same bricks people atested to their faith (or lack of) on hundreds of years ago. it really is the same though all throughout spain. everything is so old and has thousands of years of history behind it, compared to the hundreds in the US. we then saw the cathedral that took years to build and it is hugggee. then we walked to the palacio real which has 2800 rooms in it. amazing. and beautiful. imagine that as your house. but the king doesn't live there-just  parties, events, and other things take place there.

 it was a completely different side of madrid than i had seen the first time i was there. but it was touristy but done the right/better way: with professional guides/locals who knew a lot more than if i had just gone to see these sites myself. 

 i just uploaded about 250 pictures from the day/night bc when we got back around 7 we went out to eat and then we went to our houses, got ready, and met back up at o'briens, which has turned into our hangout. our whole group met up there and had another great night in Toledo. ;)

tengo frio!

it is so cold here now! esp. inside the houses they don't have heating like we do. they have little "estufas" or stoves on the walls but they are the only warm part of the room. i forgot my slippers so my toes are always cold even with socks on. my house is warmer than outside but its not like if i were to walk into my house at home in the US...every so often i will go up to the heater in my room and put my butt on it to get warmer haha. i think that is why i am getting sick-cough, runny nose...sucks. and it is snowing in madrid today! which is very rare, i hope that the roads will be better so we can still go tomorrow but i hope there is still some snow...hate to admit it but it doesn't seem like winter without it.

mercedes

i am pretty lucky to have mercedes...my host mom. i told her how some people were having problems with their families because they aren't very welcoming and aren't very patient and she said it doesnt bother me much because the only language we both know is spanish so it forces you to learn it and everyday you are getting better and its true i said because i can understand more of what she says...i am not exactly able to speak better, but understanding yes. in time it will better. plus she is a good cook and that helps. everything she makes i tell her i like and she laughs and says i like that you like it. 

she is so funny i think she likes the fact that i told her i impressed my friends when i told them where to go because she said it was a good place so she took my map and numbered it with discotecas, cafes, streets with gift shops and things that we should go too. she said tell them your host mom said to go there, they will be impressed you know the city so well already. 

 she also thinks its funny how much i enjoy the siestas (afternoon naps) because the past two days i have taken 2-3 hour naps. i think i am still adjusting to the time. either that or i am not used to waking up at 8 am.

we also had wine with dinner last night, well i had dinner and she had wine because she said her and her friends went out and she has been drinking wine all night so she wasn't hungry. but the wine here is soo good. maybe just hers. but i know my dad would like the kind i had because it tasted very much like everything he usually picks out. 

of course

This morning we had our orientation and grammar class at 930 AM. mercedes said i could leave around 915 and be there on time. so what time do i wake up this morning? oh, 917 AM...i set my alarm for 830 PM and it didn't go off. so i ran into the bathroom and i think mercedes though i left already because she looked at me and said "confundido (im confused)" and i said 'yeah i am going to be late...' and she gave me an apple to eat on the way. so i was almost a half hour late.

 then they gave us a tour of la universidad and we went and saw the church in the university that was built in the spanish inquisition and has 2 tombs in it of famous spaniards and tombs underneath as well. the gold details on the wall were amazing and the details in the marble statues too. we also saw a square opening where they said was during the inquisition they would bring people here after they were condemned in the church to prepare to die in la plaza zocodover and they would have to walk there naked. the fact that it still exists with its marble and stone columns and arches is amazing. 

we had our first grammar class today too and after we had our welcome party with a full spread of comida espanola-cheese, bread, ham, tortilla espanola (an egg omelet with potato), croquettes (like a mashed potato, ham and cheese that looks like a mozarella stick) and empanadas (look like hot pockets you can have them with meat, chicken, etc. but these had fish inside) and of course Sangria which is a sweet wine with fruit. these are typical spanish tapas or appetizers that they eat before dinner which i  went home and ate at 230 with mercedes. other than the late start it was a good first day!

small things

its funny how some things from America have an influence here. things like music. they love our music! in restaurants and stuff they play our music more. and when Mercedes cooks she listens to Norah Jones, Alicia Keys and Amy Winehouse haha. but other things like politics, clothes and food they have their own opinions and culture. except i have seen the occasional Burger King and McDonalds...the mcdonalds here has coca-cola light and free internet with your purchase so i went their yesterday. but their menu has completely different things on it. of course they have the usual whopper and big mac but they also have more cultural things. and here when you start talking to someone and tell them you are american, usually their second question is related to Bush and Obama and they want our opinions. from talking to these few people it seems like they have more interest in our government than half the people in the US.

en Toledo!

I finally feel like i am here...i am not living out of my suitcase anymore. i have a bed, closet, and a big window with the best view! it looks out on el castillo (the castle) and the oldest bridge in Toledo that goes over the river. its is beautiful! mercedes is really nice but speaks really fast, when were eating some times are better than others and i just nod even if i have no idea what she is trying to say...but her food is good minus the fish she served on the first day-they had their heads and eyes and scales and spines. but thats how they eat fish here. but everything else has been muy bien! i am still adjusting to their eating times though because they have a small breakfast (cereal or coffee) then their big meal around 2 and then a smaller meal at like 930ish. i eat but i am never completely full...and they don't have diet coke! they only have coca-cola light but it tastes too sweet to be light...i think i might go through withdraw. and i am within walking distance from the school and plaza zocodover the main one. i have a bus pass too. can't wait to see whats for dinner tonight. i think she told me to call and get a recipe from home and she can cook it because i have been telling her about american food and how its good that she is a good cook because my parents are. so maybe i can give her a taste of america.

Pictures from the three days spent in Madrid

Madrid=fun city. they know how to party-they don't go out until 12 and bar hop until they close around 2-230 and then head to the discotecas that stay open until 4 or 6 in the morning. we met some portuguese people at a bar and hung out with them because they spoke english (pictured above)! we went bar hoping and i am pretty sure we went everywhere in madrid that first night we were out-puerta de sol, plaza mayor, plaza de santa ana y plaza angel! we slept for a good 12 hours-we had to adjust to the 6 hour difference somehow-and went out again only we stayed closer to home. and we took a shuttle back to the airport. there was no way i was lugging all of my stuff on the metro again just so that people can stare and not help me carry a rolling suitcase UP stairs. for 8 euro more, totally worth it. And mom, I had to take a picture of the Sharpi because it was just so cute! And I have seen 2 others, I think they are pretty popular here.

Finally!

From Cleveland to Philly to Madrid. They say half the fun is getting there...well i don't know if fun is the right word but it was an adventure. we landed in Madrid at 10:15 AM, got some euros and attempted to find our hostel. realizing that we didn't know the address we hopped on the bus but of course none of us had exact change so we got off and had to wait for the next one. from the bus we decided to take the metro. we called the hostel and got directions. they said it would be the easiest but longest way. little did we know that there were no escalators or elevators, just flights and flights of stairs and each of us had rolling suitcases with duffle bags. we looked ridiculous to say the least and people didn't even hide their stares. after about 2 hours we made it to the final stop. but adrienne and mike didn't get off in time so i waved to them as the metro continued on. they switched and met us as we trekked down the narrow sidewalks with our 50+ lbs of luggage for a 10-15 min. walk to the hostel. only to find the room tinyyy and with our luggage there's no floor space. talk about close quarters. considering i was running on 2 hours of sleep from the plane, it was one of the best naps i have had in a veryy long time. but we made it! and only for 2 euro. but im pretty sure we will be taking a taxi back to the airport...