Salamanca, Teleferico, El Pardo, etc etc

Sorry for the long delay on updating this (Nicole, Nate, etc. haha- Alex I see you liking that wall post too girl) I've been incredibly busy experiencing this amazing city, country, and trying to understand what my professors are saying. 
First, let's jump back about a week and a half. Bright and early at 7 am, Friday, the 9th, all of the students in the IES program got on a few buses to head two and a half hours outside of Madrid to the college town of Salamanca (Northwest of Madrid). We stopped in, what the Spaniards consider a small town, Avila, home to 30,000 people, for breakfast. The city is home to one of the only fully enclosed castles in the country (the place we ate was actually inside it!). A short walk was planned through the town but because there was half a centimeter of snow, our guides cancelled it because it was "too dangerous to walk" (good one guys). 

An hour and a half later we had arrived in Salamanca to drop our bags off at the hotel which was directly connected to Plaza Mayor. Now, there is a Plaza Mayor in Madrid and many citizens consider it to be the most beautiful of the country, but the one in Salamanca puts it to shame (both are two of the only three fully enclosed Plaza Mayors in the country and were designed by the same architect). The arch designs here were much more impressive than the ones in Madrid.

 Next we went to visit the Cathedral (I know it's culturally insensitive but I'm getting a little sick of cathedrals and believe it or not I'm not the only one). The visit on Friday wasn't so bad because we got to go up onto part of the roof and experience some nice views of the city (even though it was ridiculously cold!).

 After enduring another cathedral visit, we took to the library of the the oldest university in Spain, Universidad de Salamanca (founded in 1218, before the States was even a twinkle in our forefathers great-great-great grandparents eyes). We didn't get to go inside, but the courtyard offered some interesting views of the nearby skyline.

Next we headed to part of the actual university. I'm not sure if the building we went into was one of the originals, but I would not be too surprised. As is the case with most historical buildings in Spain we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but the picture below depicts the entrance to one of the buildings. If you look closely, you can see a frog sitting on the head of the skull in the center of the picture. If you are a student at Salamanca and you find this frog in the maze of carvings (without help of course!), you will have endless luck in your classes. Fortunately for me I'm not studying there because I had to have a little help from a few wonderful friends to find this bad boy.

After the visit to the university, we were given some free time, which was naturally spent escaping the cold by dancing/jumping on beds in our hotel room only to be followed by one of the best nights so far in Spain! Later that night, we went from the hotel to a chupiteria, which literally means "shots bar." Some of the best tasting and cheapest drinks in Spain were at this wonderful place. Needless to say, my friends and I danced the night away.
The next morning, we were up bright and early for a nice breakfast at the hotel and then yet ANOTHER trip to the cathedral (yayy...?). This time we went inside and I saw a view I think I've seen about 10 times already (all of them are arranged the same exact way and since I'm still working on appreciating art, I wasn't thoroughly impressed). This cathedral was home to an interesting dome that I was able to get quite an impressive picture of though, so that was a plus. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't overly pleased with myself for this picture.

 

After a tour through the cathedral, we headed to a museum that specialized in Art Deco (no pictures were allowed but I ACTUALLY appreciated the art there, I'm coming so far), and then to a small patch of gardens that overlooked the city. Here there was a well where natives of Salamanca take part in a longstanding European tradition: Love Locks.

For those that don't know, when European teens fall in love, they place a Love Lock, with their names written on it, somewhere in their city and then get rid of the key (usually a place where everyone else does it too and usually near a body of water for easy disposal of the key). After checking out the well of love, we hopped on the bus and drove about an hour outside of the city to have lunch in a castle that has been converted into a hotel/restaurant (only in Spain right?).

 After finally arriving in Madrid around 9 pm, I hit the sack in order to rest up for one of the world's most famous flea markets on Sunday: El Rastro. After a few weeks of trying to meet up, I was finally able to spend some time with my very own Spanish friend, Irene! Irene studied in Newaygo during my freshman year so it had been 7 years since we've seen each other but it was like nothing had changed! We walked around El Rastro for about 3 hours and then got some traditional Spanish lunch (bread, paella, ham --> she ate mine, eggs, potatoes, and our choice of dessert). It was so good to catch up with her and I have plans to travel to Galicia in northern Spain later this semester to meet her family and have REAL, homemade paella!

After El Rastro and shoe shopping with Irene, a normal week of class and trying to keep up with our professors' ridiculous vocabulary commenced, until Thursday night that is. After having a cold for about 2 weeks and traveling so much, I finally went to a discoteca (club) in Madrid! My friend is a promoter at a couple of clubs here so we got in for free at a club called JOY. I had to be up relatively early Friday morning, but I was still able to get in a couple hours of solid dancing before catching the night bus (the metro closes at 1:30 am) home to Parque de las Avenidas (my barrio!). The next morning I was up earlier than I wanted to be to visit Palacio Pardo, the royal hunting estate that was converted to a permanent home for Francisco Franco (dictator of Spain after the nationalists won the Civil War from 1939-1975). 

 

The tour through the palace was actually pretty interesting (no pictures were allowed but my friend Lily managed to snag the picture below of Franco's bathroom). The palace is still used today to house important visitors to the King (ambassadors, fellow royalty, etc.). When Princess Diana came to visit Spain, the King had a gym and pool added to the palace so she would feel more at home (what a life!). The most interesting part of the tour to me was the master bedroom: it contained two twin beds pushed pretty close together and then two doors on either side of the beds that lead to the bedrooms of Franco's daughters. We're not sure but Lily and I speculated that these were the only entrances to the bedrooms to ensure his daughters weren't sneaking out (he was a dictator after all). They have also preserved quite a few of his outfits and for being the most powerful/loathed leader in the history of this country, he was a pretty small dude.

It was definitely nice to get out of the city for a while (it was about a 20 min bus ride from the edge of the city to get here) and experience some greenery. As much as I love the city, I'm starting to miss the fresh air Michigan offers at the snap of a finger.

After a Friday night in at my friend Kelsea's apartment, I was ready to take on Madrid on Saturday. I gathered up a few friends and about an hour before sunset we went to what is called the Teleferico. It is basically a makeshift ski lift (for lack of a better analogy) that travels from the edge of the city to the center of the city's largest park, Casa de Campo. We all got a one way ticket in order to walk back and enjoy all the park had to offer. It was only 3,50 euro for the ticket and I have to say, it was the best 3,50 I've spent since I've been abroad. It was so amazing to see the edge of the city (the royal palace, royal cathedral, etc) from such an interesting form of transportation. Not to mention that Casa de Campo is an absolutely beautiful setting to spend sunset and the hour that followed. I will definitely be heading out there again soon! (I'll probably take the metro next time but I've already volunteered to accompany a bunch of people on the Teleferico again!)

Kind of late on this one, but to wrap it up the classes I'm taking are Grammar, European Political Movements and Ideologies, Contemporary Spanish History (20th century), History of Spanish Painting (a different museum every week!), and Spain and the European Union. All taught in Spanish!

A Lesson Learned

This past weekend, a few friends of mine and I took off for Lisbon, Portugal. At first it was meant to be just three of us traveling, but as the weekend approached more and more people were asking for flight and hostel information. If there is one thing I've learned from my trip to Lisbon (other than that Spanish and Portuguese are not as similar as assumed) it is that I am never traveling with a large group of people again.
I spent a large amount of my weekend waiting for other people to make up their mind about where to go, where to eat, where to drink, etc. I spent two and a half days in this mind-blowingly beautiful city and barely saw anything at all. Every time I would try to break away and go off on my own to finally explore, someone always felt the need to tag along and I was accompanied by complaining and asking where we would be next.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw of Lisbon, I hope to be able to go back (preferably alone) and actually learn some things about the city and its country.

Sevilla, Snoring, School

This past weekend, three of my friends and I decided to hop on a bus (for six, surprisingly short but actually long, hours) and head to the south of Spain to a little city called, Sevilla (say-vee-ah).
We left Friday morning at 8 AM after running to the bus as it was pulling out of the station at 7:58 AM (whoever said people in Spain run a little late can go fall in a ditch). Anyway, I slept for about the first 4 hours or so only to wake up briefly to spot a few incredible cliff faces as our driver fearlessly passed semi-trucks on a windy mountain road. After we arrived in Sevilla, we scrambled to find public internet access to figure out how to get to our hostel and took to the streets. When asking several people for directions and having them tell us "follow this street to the left then take a right" but failing to tell us exactly where to turn right, my sense of direction took over and we ended up at Samay Hostel Sevilla. As this was my first hostel experience, I was, of course, overly nervous, but the guys at the counter spoke english, the place was extremely well-kept, had free internet, kitchen access, rooftop access, and towel service. As far as hostels go, I'm not sure it gets better than that for only 10 euro a night.

We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and decided to explore the city a little bit. After passing orange tree after orange tree, we ended up at a park not too far from where we were staying. My friend Sabrena accepted my challenge to climb a tree in the park to retrieve oranges for us and after she came down, we decided to try them. The only thing I can say about the oranges is that I will never eat an orange that is not store bought in the middle of winter again.
Side-stepping the orange mishap with some water, we explored a few of Sevilla's narrow winding streets before ending up at the city's cathedral and later to a restaurant where I had my first paella (rice, vegetable, and seafood dish, but I had mine without seafood) since arriving in Spain. Later that night we took to the rooftop to enjoy the tempid Sevilla weather and then headed to bed (surprisingly sleeping in a dorm with 9 other people treated me well, the first night anyway).

The next morning we woke up and headed out to take on the city. Our first destination was Plaza de Espana which was absolutely incredible (the weather helped too, 65 and sunny!). We took some pictures before renting a row boat in the half moat that was situated in front of the building. After some adventures in the water, we headed through the Maria Luisa gardens and into the Plaza de Americas for more pictures. That night we ventured across the city for some famous ice cream only to find the store was "closed for the season" (it was 65 degrees in winter...why close?). We then ventured back to a place called "La Carboneria" for some "Agua de Sevilla" which consists of champagne, whiskey, rum, Cointreau, pineapple juice, and whipped cream (quite delicious) and then back to the hostel to cook up some dinner. We headed up to bed to be greeted by the obnoxious snores of our new roommate. After waking him up and having him tell us "there is nothing I can do about it" we angrily laid awake all night wondering why in the world if you knew you snored would you not get a private room?

The next morning we rolled out of bed nice and early thanks to Sir Snores-A-Lot and took to the city. We searched for the perfect gelato, a famous clock shop (closed- it was Sunday after all), explored a casino of sorts, and went inside the cathedral between masses. We then checked out of the hostel and went searching for a place to try the region-made "Vino de Naranja" or "Orange Wine." After a glass each of this over-sweet treat, we wandered to the bus station to catch our ride back to Madrid (we were 20 minutes early this time).

Today- I started my first classes taught solely in Spanish! So far so good, I've understood about 75% of what my professors have said (a lot better than the 1% I was understanding the first few days here)! Not to mention my spanish speaking abilities have improved tremendously as well. This week should be pretty boring, I have class Mon-Thurs at 9 AM which means getting up at 7:30 (ughh), but this Friday, my friends and I are catching the 7:40 AM to Lisbon, Portgual for a weekend away from Spain!
Until next time, hasta luego! (Pictures on the other blog).


--we also went to a Flamenco show last week- pictures/video on the other blog as well.

Segovia

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Segovia (about an hour north/west of Madrid) to explore it's rich history. Here are some things that I learned/experienced. Segovia is the capitol of it's province, also called Segovia, and is home to about 55,000 (a small town according to Spaniards). When kings still ruled the province, they resided in a castle called "Alcazar of Segovia," which sits on the top of a hill overlooking much of his land. The real fun fact though is that when Walt Disney designed Cinderella Castle, he modeled it after Alcazar! Additionally, the castle looks out onto a small church which belonged to the Knights Templar, an underground religious organization. After a tour through the castle (amazing views), we were given free time to wander the city and have a midday snack (midday=around noon, they don't each lunch until about 3 pm). During this time, my friends Molly, Cristina, and I decided to go into the impressive cathedral that belonged to the town. The cathedral's construction began in 1525 and did not finish until the mid 1700s (over 200 years!). The most incredible thing about the cathedral was it's size and architecture. It is hard to believe that it was built without modern technology! After the cathedral and a quick snack, our group walked through town to the aquaduct that occupied a large part of the city. The aquaduct was built over 2000 years ago to transport water from the Sierras (a mountain range that occupies the boundary between the provinces of Madrid and Segovia), it is a large stone structure that runs for almost 8 miles. From what I understood (my Spanish is getting better, but it is by no means perfect yet), they have taken out a piece of the aquaduct at a time and replaced it with a mold to preserve its structure. I've seen an aquaduct in France before, and while they were very similar in structure, I have to say the one in Segovia was more impressive simply because it ran right through the center of a city. After taking pictures planking in front of the aquaduct, our group got back on our buses and headed to a restaurant just outside of the city for a traditional Spanish/Segovian lunch (delicious!). Since posting pictures on this blog is kind of hard to do, I've created another just for them! stalk it here: www.macjulieinspain.tumblr.com
Ciao!

La comida y otras cosas

So since I'm bad at blogging, I figured I should talk about the food because food is easy to talk about and everyone loves it.
The first day here, we had lunch at the hotel. The first course was a plate of grilled vegetables which were a little cold so I was not too impressed. Next, those who ate meat were given what looked like pork and some potatoes. For those of us weird vegetarians, we had a pasta dish. That night, we were split into groups and walked around the neighborhood that surrounded the hotel. At this point, most of us were beyond delirious because our flights had gotten in that morning and it was around 24 hours since our heads had last felt the touch of a pillow. Anyways, a student from Spain that works with IES (companera), showed us around and we ended up at a "restaurant" called 101 Monteditos. Monteditos are very small sandwhiches served with chips. They are cheap (1 or 2 euros each) and they were very good! We all bonded over monteditos and drinks.
The next day, there was a massive breakfast buffet waiting for us in one of the hotel's many conference rooms. There was pastries, bread, fruit, cheese, eggs, rice, and lots and lots of ham. After breakfast we had a meeting to go over some procedures and expectations for homestays which was followed by meeting my senora, Pilar. Naturally, I was extremely nervous but she's been so amazing. 
I live in a neighborhood called "El Parque de las Avenidas" which means "The Park of Avenues," and three other students from IES (Phil, Jim, and Sean) also live in the neighborhood. Pilar, Jim, his senora, and I all shared a taxi from the hotel, in the center of the city, to our neighborhood. Surprisingly, the taxi was not very expensive, only 10 euro, but the ride was very interesting. Having been my second taxi ride, I was a little more aware of how insane driving is in Madrid, but it still caught me off guard. First of all, nearly everyone here drives a stick shift and there are so many different types of car (all cars, no SUVs, trucks, etc) that I don't recognize. Today, I saw a PT Cruiser but other than that, the only other brands that America shares with Espana are BMW, Hyundai, and Honda, as far as I have observed. I was also surprised by the amount of people who actually own cars. Compared to the number of people who live in Madrid, its probably not a large number, but all the streets are full at all times.
After the taxi ride, Pilar showed me my room (I get my own room!!!!) and showed me around the apartment. After hearing stories about the state of Spain's economy, I was not expecting such a luxurious place. There are, I think, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms as well as a nice sized kitchen, den, and living room. Additionally, we have a woman named Ruby, who cooks here for us. After talking with other students, I have come to understand that this is not the case in other houses and that we are quite lucky. I am not sure what Pilar or her husband (who has not yet been mentioned) did before they stopped working, but they must have made quite a bit of money. After moving in, Ruby fixed us lunch (spaghetti, tortilla con patas, salad, and flan). The spaghetti was the same as it is in the United States, but the potato tortilla was very good. Ruby made it with some kind of sauce that was incredible. The flan also was very, very good. The salad was just lettuce with carrots, but they use balsamic vinegar and olive oil as dressing that was surprisingly good.
After dinner, we had to navigate the metro and find our way to the IES Center which is at the Colegio Mayor right next to the biggest park in the city (Parque del Oeste). There we took the language placement test and then a group of us explored the park for a short while after. I met back up with Emma around 7 and we met with Jim, Sean, Phil, and all of our senoras for a walk around El Parque de las Avenidas. This was a good opportunity to practice speaking Spanish even though there were more American students that Spanish citizens. We walked by the running park and around the neighborhood while the senoras told us where to buy certain things (unfortunately there is not an ice cream shop in our neighborhood!). After the walk, the senoras left us to venture into another 101 Monteditos. Here we had drinks and asked Emma several questions about the upcoming academic semester. After having such a large lunch, I refrained from ordering any Monteditos.
When we went back up to the apartment, Emma opened a box her mom had sent to Pilar that was full of cookies. Pilar dove into the box of coconut flavored ones and when Emma told her that each cookie was only 15 calories, she insisted we eat more and more.
For breakfast this morning (we had to be up at 7:30 because the commute to IES is about 50 min, yeah, try speaking and understanding a language at that hour), we had cereal, toast, and fruit juice. We went to IES and began a Spanish class as well as touring a small part of Colegio Mayor.
After the tour and a meeting with some police from Madrid, I made the trip back to El Parque de las Avenidas with Jim and just finished lunch with Pilar, Emma, and Pilar's daughter, Marucha. Today we had a soup with spinach and garbanzo beans, rice (there's always rice), salmon, and the 15 calorie cookies and a banana for dessert.
Since this is a lot already, I will just list some general things about Spain that I've picked up on in the last couple of days.
- everyone is very energy conscious, lights are turned off when you leave the room, and water is conserved with great care. The whole country is a desert, so it is extremely important to Spaniards to conserve water (showers are no more than 10 min).
-additionally, Pilar is very adamant about recycling. Everything except actual trash is recycled.
-they think 50 degrees is freezing and act like you're out of your mind if you have anything more than a coat made for Mount Everest on (this is actually funny because I've been sweating when the Spaniards are jumping around for warmth).
- if something is put on your plate, you eat it. Of course if you don't like it, it is not necessary to eat it, but if you like it, there is no such thing as full (lunches are also much larger than dinners here).
- they eat lunch around 2 or 3 pm, and dinner around 9 or 10 pm (at which point my parents are long gone to dream land).
-everyone uses public transportation (the metro, or subway, is incredible, the bus system is quite elaborate, and both are extremely cheap compared to purchasing gas). Additionally, I have only seen one gas station here, it was near the airport which is 10 miles outside the center of the city.

Finally, tonight at 10 pm, Real Madrid plays Barcelona here in Madrid. The only way for me to logically describe this rivalry is to say that it matches and perhaps surpasses the rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State. Obviously, tonight will be an amazing experience, being a Real Madrid fan and I look forward to watching the game at Marucha's son's house with most of our family!

As far as whats on the agenda for the next couple of days, tomorrow we having the language class again, then I signed up for a historic walk with a Spanish companero and then on Friday we are heading to Segovia, just outside of Madrid, for a bit of a field trip. Until next time, hasta luego.

Whoa.

So day 2 in Madrid is underway and already SO much has happened. First, the flight over here was actually super uncomfortable (surprise right?). I didn't sleep at all like I had planned but flying into Madrid at 7:30 a.m. was incredible. It was cloudy over the city so it was impossible to see even the lights until we got close to the ground, but the sun was just coming up so when we were just above the cloud line, the sky looked as if it were made of mountains. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or my appreciation for nature, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
I just got to my home about an hour ago and it turns out I don't speak as much Spanish as I did a couple of months ago. I understand more than I can speak, but this will definitely take some adjusting. Luckily, my roommate, Emma was here last semester and already knows our host mom, the city, and the language. The stay at the hotel for orientation was nothing special and the food wasn't great, but my family has a maid who cooks and she does an absolutely fabulous job, as long as all meals are on par with the lunch we just ate. Based on all I had heard about Spain and the economy here, I was not expecting such incredible accommodations. Our apartment is quite large (I even get my own room) and seems to be in a better-off part of the city. Also, 4 other students live quite close to us which is definitely a plus.
Right now I'm off to take a Spanish placement test!
Hasta luego!

Tomorrow is the day!

I had no idea how to start my first blog post ever other than by pointing out that this is my first blog post ever. Anyways, tomorrow I leave to spend nearly six months in SPAIN! I'm pretty excited, my dad's very excited for me as are all of my friends, and my mom is nervous (but I know you're excited for me too, mom). It'll be a big leap from the smallest town you've never heard of (Newaygo, MI), to the capitol of a country where they speak another language, but I think I'm ready to bring a little bit of the mitten (and of the University of Michigan) to España!

Also, just a disclaimer, this image is photoshopped but soon enough I'll have some real ones to rival it!