Hasta pronto España

Well, I am currently sitting in the Madrid Barajas airport…I’ve already been here some 2 ½ hours waiting to check in, it’s 6something in the morning. Monica and I came together, but she is already gone, probably getting on her plane to Frankfurt before heading to the USA. I cannot believe I will soon be checking my bags and heading home. These past 4 months have been…wow, can’t even be described. Between the things that I’ve done, the people I’ve met, the sights that I’ve seen, it is more than some people are able to do in a lifetime. Over these past 4 months, I made it to 6 countries, including 2 continents. I am just so thankful that I got the opportunity to come and study in Spain, and now I can hardly imagine my life without it. The song that is playing on my computer is very appropriate, Our Lives by The Calling. Although at times it was hard, especially when my stuff got stolen in Barcelona, but also when I had roommate problems and our whole class was struggling in our lit class, I made it through and I feel like I’ve grown up. I know that my speaking in Spanish has definitely improved, and I have a lot more confidence. It is also a lot easier to listen and understand native speakers, I remember the first few weeks with my host mom I understood probably about every fifth word she said. Reading is also easier, and writing, but I think most of all speaking and listening.
I think the things that I will miss most are fairly obvious, although probably not all. Of course, I will miss all the kids in our program, I think I now know almost as much about BG as I do about Miami, Magda, Susana, etc. I will miss Araceli, Javi, Javier, and Laura, our amazing intercambios, from who I learned so much and had experiences I never would have had had I not met them. On a smaller scale, I’ll miss some of the food, paella (not mariscos, but chicken!), tortilla española, sunny side up eggs and real, fresh fries, the pastries, the bread, cheese, etc. I’ll miss the sunshine and the perfectly cloudless days, besitos, horrible Spanish haircuts and mullets (the Spanish are experts!), meeting friends in the Plaza de Cervantes for a drink and to hang out, public transportation, coming home after the sun comes up, and hardly any homework. I’ll miss booking a bus a few days before to take a daytrip somewhere, even another country, or traveling every weekend. Siesta is also one of those things, it’s nice to rest in the middle of the afternoon, but at the same time its pretty annoying when everything is closed and you can’t do anything. There are many things I know I’m leaving out, but I really am going to miss it. I think one of the things I’m going to miss most though is my host mom, Juani, who was amazing. I know that she has had a huge part in the improvement of my Spanish skills. Talking to her for an hour at a time every day or almost every other day, getting to know her, she really was my mom away from home. Even though half the time it seemed like she was yelling, when really she wasn’t (typical Spanish!), I am really going to miss talking to her and everything.
Of the things I’m not going to miss, I would say as nice as siesta is, it is also a pain. When everything closes from 2-5 every day and you can’t do anything, it becomes inconvenient, like how everything is closed on Sundays. I also won’t miss prepaid phones, especially when you run out of minutes. I only ran out here at the end, but still. I won’t miss eating so much meat, who knows what all I’ve actually eaten while I’ve been here! I just stopped asking after awhile. Other than that, those are the only things I can really think of right now offhand.
Things I would have done differently…I wish that we had had classes with Spanish students, and at the Universidad de Alcalá where most of the other students were studying in Alcalá. We were the only American kids at our school, and even though there obviously were Spanish kids there, we didn’t really have any interaction with them. We pretty much had to find our own Spanish friends, which like I said, I’m so glad to have met Araceli and her family. I think if I could do it over, I would probably request to live alone, not because of the roommate problems I have, but I think I could have learned even more Spanish. She pretty much always talked to me in English when our mom wasn’t around, which made me mad since I would try to talk to her in Spanish, but oh well. I also wish there would have been more people in our house more often, but oh well. The other thing is I definitely would NOT have brought so much luggage, haha. That is something I still have not learned after 10 years of traveling, is how to pack light. Oh well. I really hope that I get back to Spain sometime in the fairly near future, although who knows when that will be. I still really want to get to Sevilla, and also to see the Semana Santa festivities, since we missed that. I think if I go to grad school, I would like to go somewhere in South or Central America, just to experience that part of the world, since I’ve never been there, and I’ve been around Europe a lot. As a lot of people said, I don’t know that I would come back with BG, they have a pretty good program, but there are some flaws, of course, as with any program.
I am definitely sad to leave, this morning in the taxi it was bittersweet. I am anxious and excited to get home and see my family and friends, but sad to leave everyone and everything behind here. I know I’m going to keep in touch with a lot of people though, Spanish and BG kids. I hope to get to BG and visit everyone, perhaps see a hockey game! Luckily most people live in Ohio, Columbus even, so it won’t be so bad. It has been a fantastic experience, and I can’t believe it’s already over; it seems like just yesterday that Nicole and I got here and were waiting for everyone. I think that is about it for now, so another chapter in my life closes and another begins…España te quiero, hasta pronto.

Besitos.

PARIS AND GALICIA!!!

About two weeks ago now we left and went to PARIS! Monica, Dane and I took our stuff to school and left to go to the train station right after class. You can take the train or the metro to get to the airport, but the bus is definitely easier. Anyways, we got to the airport, checked in, etc. and waited around for our flight. We got into Orly airport in Paris, and after we got our stuff went to go get a metro ticket to get to the Hammond’s house, which would be my first test in French. I got up to the counter and tried to ask the lady in French, but it came out as a disastrous mixture of all three, French, Spanish, and then some English. It was pretty funny (I didn’t think so at the time!) but we eventually got what we needed. We finally got to Pont de Neuilly, where the Hammond’s live, and waited for Chad to come get us. I was just so happy to be there, it was a little weird since I hadn’t been back in so long, but it was so nice. Chad got there and took us to their house, which was really nice and great location. Cort and Connor, the boys, have definitely grown up! The last time I saw those kids I was babysitting them! But anyways, they had beef bourguignon for us, which was really good and then we just sat and chatted for a long time and figured out where all we wanted to go.
On Thursday, we got up, Lisa and Chad had made us breakfast (which was so good!) and then we headed out to conquer the city. We each got a carnet of 10 metro tickets (I didn’t need one since my mom had given me one from awhile ago…my tickets were green because they were old ones, apparently the tickets are purple now) and got on the train towards Trocadero, for the Eiffel Tower. I saw it and I think it almost took my breath away. Of course it looked exactly the same as 6 or 10 years ago, but it was just like “I’m finally here!”. We took some pictures around Trocadero and stuff, and then went over to the Eiffel Tower to go up in it. We had decided to go up that day since the weather was decent and we weren’t sure if we would have another good day. Good decision, because the rest of the time it rained on and off. We thought about taking the elevator up, but decided to climb the stairs up to the second floor since it was a lot faster and cheaper too (I know, I know Mom, haha). There were 668 steps up to the second floor but we decided that we were glad that we did the steps. We could stop whenever we wanted and took tons and tons of pictures. By 12:30 that day I had already taken over 100 pictures, haha. We took the elevator all the way to the top, which was fun too, but we actually had better views from the second floor because it started to get hazy. We ended up spending a good couple of hours at the Eiffel Tower, and so by the time we came down, it was time to eat something. We went by Pont d’Alma (where Princess Diana died) and then ate at a café on Avenue Marceau, which was really good. Mmmm French food! Then we walked down Avenue Marceau to the Arc de Triomphe. We went over to it, and when we came up from the pedestrian underpass we discovered that there were some protesters there. There have been riots all over France, particularly Paris recently in regards to a new law that says that anyone under 26 can be fired without reason from their job within the first 2 years instead of 2 months. All of a sudden we heard a gunshot-like sound (it wasn’t though), but then the protesters moved on, down Avenue Marceau where we had just come from actually. Then we walked down the Champs-Elysees, and had lots of flashbacks. Café Vesuvio was still there, we went into Sephora, etc. Around Clemenceau, we went over by the Grand and Petit Palais. We were going to try to cross the Pont Alexandre III but it was blocked by police. So we went down to the next bridge, I think the Pont d’Invalides and crossed there. Police had set up barricades on the other side though…We realized that there were a bunch of people there, and while they weren’t protesting or anything, we decided to try to get away from there. We were going to try to get away down a side street, but they were all completely blocked by the police in their riot gear, complete with shields and everything. Almost every street was blocked, and we saw some cars and bus stops where the windows had been shattered. We had to go way down past Invalides and that metro stop was even closed. We finally were able to get out of that area though and ended up by the Assemble Nationale, where there were a lot of police too. I don’t think I have ever seen so many police in my entire life, especially in such a concentrated area. It was kind of ridiculous. I had planned on maybe seeing my music teacher from 5th grade, but that didn’t happen, because I found out later that he was sick, but that was fine because we kept plenty busy and it might have been a hassle trying to get out to St. Cloud. After that we looked around Concorde a little bit, got back on the metro and went to Pont de Neuilly. Then we decided to go to La Defense, which wasn’t all that far. We walked there and then stopped to eat at a Chinese restaurant which was delicious. We got back, and then talked to Chad and Lisa for a long time before going to bed, it was really nice catching up with them!
On Friday, after breakfast we headed towards Notre Dame. It is such beautiful cathedral. We got off the metro at Hotel de Ville and then walked over to Notre Dame. On the way, we saw the Conciergerie, which made me think of middle school when I had to go on a class fieldtrip there. We did a little bit of trinket shopping, and took a bunch of pictures around that area. We were going to go to the Veneration of the Relics at 3, so we ate before going in. The food was good and then we went inside and looked around Notre Dame before the service started. Every Friday during Lent and I think once a month, they show the relics, which are a piece of the cross, a nail, and the crown of thorns. We sat and watched most of the service, and we were really lucky because we got to go up pretty quickly and didn’t have to wait in huge lines like I remember doing from a couple years ago. It was neat though, and I know Monica enjoyed it. Anyways, afterwards, we went to Opera, and to Galeries Lafayette. Lisa had reminded me of the balcony thing on top of Galeries, so we went and we were going to try to do that, but that didn’t work because we couldn’t find it and when I tried to ask the person didn’t understand. So we went to Rue de Rivoli and the Louvre, which was free on Fridays. Luckily we didn’t have to wait very long to get into the Louvre either, and didn’t have to pay for it! We saw most of the major things, the Mona Lisa, which had been moved since the last time I was there, the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and some paintings. We also went into the Apollo Room, which I had never been in because it is fairly new or something, and that was pretty cool. It was raining and pretty gross outside, so we found a restaurant nearby, eat some dinner, ran back over toward Concorde and took some pictures at night, then headed home, and talked to Chad and Lisa again before going to sleep.
On Saturday, we went to Monmartre and Sacre Coeur because I really wanted to go there. I had forgotten about all the Algerians at the bottom of the hill (I don’t know how!), and they tried to put the little ribbon thingys on us, but we wouldn’t let them. We tried not to speak in English, but then Dane said something in Spanish and one of the guys responded in Spanish. Sacre Coeur was pretty though, too bad it was raining though so the views weren’t that great. It’s always been one of my favorite places in Paris. Then we went to the artist district and checked that out before getting some lunch. I had two crepes and they were delicious. Of course I couldn’t be in France and not eat some crepes! They were very good though. After that, we went down by all the Tati stores which I got a kick out of, and saw Moulin Rouge before heading to our next destination. We went back to Invalides since we didn’t really take pictures with the riots, and then went to Musée d’Orsay, partly to get out of the rain. I’m not going to lie, I like it a lot better than the Louvre though. I love most of the impressionist paintings, so that was fun. Afterwards, Dane and Monica wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, so we went over there, and then back towards Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower to get some good pictures at night. We got there at about 7, just as the shimmering lights were turning on. Since they put the shimmering lights on it for New Year’s 2000, the lights turn on for 10 minutes every hour, which is cool and pretty. We took a bunch of pictures, waited for it to get a little darker, and took some more. We got back on the metro and went to Les Halles to try to eat at a restaurant that Chad had recommended, but there was a wait, so we went next door to a pizzeria which was very good and reminded me of the Trateria in Croissy. We got home, talked to Chad and Lisa again, and went to bed.
On Sunday, unfortunately we had to leave. Chad and Lisa drove us to the airport which was really nice of them. I was really sad as they were leaving and I almost started to cry. It was a really fun trip though and it was so nice to see them and be back. (Hammond’s if you’re reading this, thanks for everything!!!!!!). The flight home was uneventful, and it was a gorgeous day back in Spain. Pretty much just hung out after that.
Last week wasn’t terribly exciting. On Monday, Rose and I got together to study for our lit. test on Tuesday in the Plaza because it was nice weather. Then on Tuesday afternoon we went into Madrid after classes with Beatriz to the Prado. It wasn’t terribly interesting, Monica, Nicole, Juanito and I had gone one day, and I don’t really like most of that kind of art. Then on Wednesday we saw Araceli real quick which was nice since I hadn’t seen her in awhile and then we had dance class and we started to learn the third Sevillana. Monica and I went to Foto Pedros to print some pictures for our scrapbooks and that was about it.
On Thursday, we didn’t have classes because we left to go on our third and final group trip. We went to Galicia, which is in northwestern Spain. We were on the bus for about 9 hours on Thursday, which was really long. We stopped for lunch in Astorga, but hardly anything was open so we just ate our bocadillos and walked around for a little bit and that was pretty much it. Then we got to Santiago Compostela that night where we were staying. A bunch of us went and got Chinese food, which was pretty good, even though the people that worked there didn’t really understand Spanish or English. Monica and I were really tired so we tried to watch two different movies but neither of them were very good and we fell asleep.
On Friday we went around Santiago Compostela and to the cathedral. A lot of pilgrims come to Santiago Compostela. They say that if you follow the route to Santiago Compostela (its like 152 km. at least) then you get your sins taken away. Legend has it that Saint James is buried there. The story is cool, I was actually a little disappointed with the church itself though. That afternoon, we went to another little town for lunch, but it was kind of a boring town and there wasn’t really anything there, and nothing was open because of siesta, as usual. We did find some interesting statues though and took random pictures of those. For dinner, Monica, Juanito, Dane and I had kebops which were sooo good!
On Saturday, we were back on the bus, but this time going to León. We stayed in a super nice hotel, one of the best, if not THE best hotel in Spain. It is a parador, which means that it is a historical building but not it is a hotel. It was really impressive though. We had some free time after we got there, so Monica and I got some lunch, and then we had a group tour around León. We went into a couple of museums, but they weren’t all that interesting. On Saturday night, we had our big formal dinner. We had to dress up and we ate in the hotel. It was kind of fun to see everyone all dressed up. We had a pretty nice dinner and then hung out and chatted for awhile before going to bed.
On Sunday, we just came back from León. We spent most of the day on the bus, and then after we got back to Alcalá just hung out and stuff like that. It was a pretty fun trip, and the nice thing was Bowling Green paid for it, but I think I liked the other two excursions better, which seems to be the general consensus. Yesterday, I went to school and worked on some homework with some friends, which was fun except the homework made our brains hurt. Today pretty much just had classes, talked to a few people, did some work, hung out outside in the plaza, etc. Today we just had class and then dance class. We learned the rest of the third Sevillana and it is hard!!!! It’s still fun though. We are leaving for Tunisia tomorrow and I’m so excited!! It should be a lot of fun and I’m just excited for Semana Santa!! Then we are going to Barcelona next week for Easter weekend. It should be cool!

Las Fallas!!!!

This weekend was a lot of fun. Most of last week we had really nice, warm, sunny weather. On Thursday after school, our group met outside in the plaza to finish up some homework for a class. Thursday night, we decided to experience the infamous Madrid nightlife with our grad student tutors. Monica and I met at the train station, but then she said she forgot any ID. So we ran back to her house so she could get it, even though all of the bars are over 18 and never check ID. We got back to the train and were waiting for the train going to Atocha, and all of a sudden this girl comes up to us and asks us in English if this was the train going to Madrid. We started talking to her, and she is a student from University of Arizona studying here in Alcalá. She was supposed to meet a couple friends to go to Kapital, a club, but then decided she would rather come with us. We got to Moncloa where we were going to meet our grad students (Sarah, Terry, Anna, and Johnny), but the place where we were going to go was closed. So we went somewhere else instead and hung out there for a long time. There was this guy who was probably in his mid-40’s at least dancing by himself, and it was hilarious. The grad students were all going to Tenerife in the Canaries the next day, so they had to be at the airport at 6am and were just going to stay out until then. We decided to take the buo bus and go back to Alcalá and go to Can Can before going home. We left about 3:30 and got a taxi to Avenida de Américas, then got the 4am buo to Alcalá. We got to Can Can about 5am and it sure was hopping for 5 o’clock in the morning! They kicked us out around 5:45 or so, and we got home around 7am, just as it was getting light outside. It was a lot of fun though, and we kind of want to do it again. It was funny how that girl hung out with us the whole time.
Anyways, on Friday, it was St. Patrick’s Day! Unfortunately the Spanish don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day here, but that’s ok. In the afternoon, Dane, Monica and I went to El Corte Inglés in Alcalá to get a present for a friend. After we came back and ate dinner, a bunch of us went out for St. Patty’s Day. We tried to go to the Irish pub but it was packed solid, so we ended up just going to the Amsteleria and hanging out. We stayed out fairly late considering we were out all night the night before, and got home around 3am.
On Saturday, the family came, which was fun. Raul got here late on Friday night, and then Oscar got here on Saturday with Abrán (the 2 year old), and Pilar, his girlfriend. We played with Abrán and he is so cute. Then we ate lunch, and Raul and Oscar were hilarious. Pilar thought it was so funny that she almost spit out her food. For the rest of the day, just hung out with them and watched tv and stuff, it was nice to relax. Saturday night, Dane, Juanito, Monica and I went to the café for a little bit to chat, and make sure we had everything figured out for Las Fallas.
Sunday was el Día del Padre in Spain, in other words Father’s Day here. We went to Valencia for Las Fallas, which is a typical Spanish fiesta that can hardly be described in words. We had to leave early so that we were in the Plaza de Colon by 9 to get our bus. It was a couple hours to Valencia, and by the time we got there with traffic and everything it was about 3 or so. They let us loose, and so we walked around for awhile looking at all the fallas. The purpose of this fiesta is supposed to be that they make statues (but they’re not really statues) that are basically a political satire of things that have gone on during the past year. Then they burn them all, which is supposed to welcome in spring and be a sign that they are forgetting everything that has happened in the past year and moving forward. There were tons and tons of these fallas, every neighborhood makes one, and it is a competition. All of them get burned except for the winner. There were a lot that we didn’t understand, it probably didn’t help that the descriptions were all written in Catalan, and there were some weird ones, but they were cool to look at. The whole day, it sounded almost like a war zone, because everywhere people were setting off fireworks and firecrackers and stuff in the streets. When I say everyone, I mean everyone, from age like 7 to 70. You would walk by and all of the sudden see someone light one, then cover your ears. It was kind of scary, but really cool too. Around 6:30 or 7, we started heading towards the main plaza where all the events were supposed to be later. There were tons and tons of people, and it took us awhile to get there, but we finally found it. We saw some more fallas, and then decided to go eat before all of the stuff started happening. We finally found a restaurant that wasn’t completely packed, and it had paella (which is a typical Spanish dish but Valencia is particularly famous for it), but really only Nicole ended up getting paella. After that, we went and were looking around for a bit. We came upon this one little falla, and they said they were going to burn it at 10, which wasn’t too far away. So we stayed for that and had front row spots. It was probably the most ridiculous thing ever. First they set off some fireworks, which were pretty. Then they lit it on fire, and all of a sudden stuff started shooting out and even hit us. We were really close, and mind you this is all in the street in the middle of buildings. That one was the best one we saw, and we got a good video of it happening. Then, the one right next to it was going to be burned at 12am, which was in an hour and a half. We decided to stick around for that one, so we could have a good spot again. For pretty much the next hour and a half, they got ready to burn this next one. The firemen came and put a sheet over some of the windows of a building, and they tied it up. Then at about midnight, as soon as they lit it on fire, the fireworks shot out, all the while the firemen were spraying the buildings so they wouldn’t go up in flames. Pretty much all the ones that were left except the main one went off at midnight. It was really cool, and we were glad we were so close. The main event was at 1, La Crema, in the main plaza. There was a sea of people so we could barely see anything, but it wasn’t that big of a deal since we saw the other two up close. The fireworks before they burned that one were really pretty though. We had to head back to the bus after it was over, since we were supposed to leave at 2. A bunch of people weren’t back yet though, so we didn’t even leave until after 2:30am. We got back into Madrid about 7:30am, and then home around 8:30. It was so crazy, yet so much fun, and can’t even really be described. I’m so glad we went! After we got home yesterday, the day consisted mainly of sleeping and relaxing, doing absolutely nothing. Yesterday we didn’t have classes because it was a fiesta from Día del Padre. Today I just ran some errands and got ready to go to PARIS tomorrow!!!! I’m so excited, I can barely stand it. I can’t wait, it’s been so long since I’ve been back. I can’t believe there are only like 6 more weeks here, time is going by too quickly. The crazy thing is I’m only going to be home a max of 4 days at a time for the rest of the time since we’re traveling on the weekends and stuff. It will be a lot of fun though. Anyways, that’s about it! Should be a great weekend!!!!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I forgot to mention that Saturday was also 11-M, in other words, the second anniversary of the Madrid train bombings. Throughout Madrid there were memorials and stuff, in particular here in Alcalá, at El Pozo, and two other train stations where the trains blew up. The trains actually went through Alcalá, and my mamá told me a story about how Raul, my brother, always met up with a friend and took that train to work, but that day he was late and missed the train, but his friend got on it and died. There is a memorial at the train station for it, and on Sunday when we went to the Rastro, there were a bunch of candles and flowers and stuff around it. But anyways, on Sunday while I was waiting for Monica to get to the train station, there was something going on, I have absolutely no idea what though. There were a ton of people, and I think they were all boy and girl scouts or something, of all ages. They were all shouting and going by, but I have no idea what was going on. We got to Madrid, and met Laura, and headed to the Rastro. It was crazy, reminded me of a French brocante or something. There were a ton of people, it was a gorgeous day, and you could get pretty much anything you wanted. It was fun though, and I bought a Madrid shirt. After that, we went to Sol and the Plaza Mayor to eat our bocadillas. We sat there for like an hour relaxing and taking in the sun and the people and everything since it was so nice. We walked around some, and then we came upon this guy who was taking pictures like from the early 1900’s. Laura really wanted to do it, so we did and it was really funny. Then we just walked around Madrid some more and walked back to Principe Pío, since it’s close to Laura’s house and so we could get the train home. It was also Nicole’s birthday, so after dinner Nicole, Monica, and I went to the Irish pub to have a drink for her birthday. It was fun, and we had a good time, and got home about 1am.
On Monday, it was so nice outside, I couldn’t resist going to the plaza to try to catch up on my journal a little bit. There were a couple people speaking in Spanish, then French, sitting next to me, and I listened a little bit…it made me so excited to go to Paris next week and speak French! Then Ebets, Karly, Steve, and Carolyn came to the plaza and were hanging out, so I talked to them for awhile before going home for dinner and that was fun.
On Tuesday after school, we had a little birthday party for Nicole. We went to the plaza to get everyone, and then they came to our house. It was kind of weird because we aren’t really allowed to go to other people’s houses, it’s kind of a cultural thing, and so it was the first time anyone had ever been to our house. Mamá bought a torta and some Fanta, coke, and champagne, which were all really good. Ebets, Karly, Lance, Steve, and Monica all came to the party, and it was fun. The cake was really good, and we also drank the rest of Nicole’s 48 euro bottle of wine that she had bought in Extremadura. Then they started to play never-have-I-ever, in Spanish with the coke and Fanta, which was hilarious because mamá was there. It was a good time though, and it was fun just to hang out with everyone.
On Wednesday, we had dance class after school. I got to school a little early and a couple of us were sitting outside and talking before Marta, our teacher, got there. We learned how to do the hands and arms for the second sevillana, and it is hard!! I haven’t mastered that yet, it’s hard to coordinate the arms with the feet. It’s still fun though. After dance, Monica, Dane, and I went to Carrefour to look for something, I forget what, and that was about it.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, which isn’t really celebrated here at all. On Sunday, which is also Father’s Day in Spain, we’re going to Valencia to go to Las Fallas, I’m really excited for that. Then on Monday, we don’t have school, because of the fiesta Sunday. Then finally on Wednesday we’re going to Paris and I couldn’t be more excited!!!

Inglaterra!

Let’s see…so I think I Tuesday after school I went to the café so that I could write in my journal and catch up since I only get around to it like once a week now. On my way home, something was going on in the Plaza for Carnaval (it was Mardi Gras), but I’m not exactly sure what. Then on Wednesday, we had our first class with Pilar, our new grammar teacher. Our other teacher, María Jesús, apparently got a better or different job somewhere else, so PIlar, the other grammar teacher, is going to teach our class for the rest of the semester. We’re all sad, because we liked María Jesús a lot, but oh well. It was kind of a chaotic day, but I’m sure once we get to know her, it’ll be better. Then we had dance class. We learned part of the second sevillana, which is cool, and I like that one a lot. On the way home, Dane, Monica and I went by the Plaza…they were having the Entierra de la Sardinas, in other words the burial of the Sardines I think. It was supposed to signal the end of Carnaval and the beginning of Lent. There was a little parade type thing, and there were guys on stilts with torches and then a group of people carrying the “Sardines”, paper fish, and behind them half the town dressed up in their costumes. It’s hard to describe it, but it was pretty funny and reminded me of Fete de la Carrote in Croissy.
Thursday was the start of the adventure to England. First, we had to get through school which was kind of boring. I came home, ate lunch, packed my bag, and headed out to the bus station where Monica, Stephen, Lance and I were meeting. We got on the bus, and this time Monica and I knew where to get off for the airport since we had taken the bus to the airport for Italy. We got to the airport, waited around for a little bit, finally checked in, and Monica and I checked our bags since we weren’t sure if they would fit in the overheads. Her sister’s boyfriend had given her a bag, and just the girl took it and put it on the conveyor belt thing, she realized that she hadn’t put a name tag on it. That would be important later. So anyways, we waited for our flight, and finally got on. The flight wasn’t too bad, although there was someone sitting behind Monica who smelled really bad and a flight attendant who we think was a transvestite (we couldn’t figure it out, but “she” seemed pretty masculine). We got to Customs, and we got held up because we didn’t know the address of the hostel where we were staying. Monica didn’t have any problems, but Lance, Stephen, and I were all interrogated by our customs officers. First they asked us where we were coming from, so we said, Madrid, Spain. Then they asked where we were staying, and we said London. They asked us where, because London is huge, and we didn’t know the name, address, or anything of the hostel. Todd, Monica’s boyfriend, had made all of the arrangements. I was afraid they were going to send me back to Spain or something, but finally they let us through. Mom, you are probably shaking your head reading this now, but we realized that we were pretty stupid not to have that info. Then, we went to baggage claim so Monica and I could get our bags. I got mine pretty quick, but Monica’s never came. We finally had to go to the desk, and tell them that her bag was lost. That was a nightmare, and once again we didn’t have any of the hostel information. We called Nicole, my roommate, here in Alcalá and had her look up the info on the computer for us. We couldn’t get ahold of Todd the whole time since he doesn’t have a cell phone, and was waiting for us in Victoria Station in London. We gave them the address we found for the hostel, the address for Keele, and then her address in Spain, and hoped that one way or another she would get her bag, but they had no idea where it was. We headed out towards Victoria station, and finally got there and found Todd. It was after midnight by the time we got there, so the Tube had already stopped running. We all got some money at the ATM, but Lance’s card wouldn’t work-odd. We weren’t sure if it was the ATM, but he tried a couple times and two different ones and it wouldn’t work. So, we were going to try to take a bus to get to the hostel, but that didn’t work, so we ended up taking a taxi. We got to the hostel, which looked kinda like a frat house. We checked in, and went downstairs, and there was one other kid staying in our room. He was doing a high school exchange program in Germany for a year, and he was 17. He had come to London and was going around by himself for a week. We were all pretty amazed by that, and decided we wouldn’t have been able to come to London alone for a week. It was funny because his name was John Thomas Vaughan. Anyways, we went upstairs to the bar for a little bit to chat and hang out, and we went to bed around 3am, which was really like 4am for us, since London is an hour back.
On Friday morning, we got up and after breakfast headed out to discover London. We went to Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, all over. We had decided while we were still in Madrid that we wanted to do the London Eye, the ferris wheel they built for the millennium, so we went and did that. It was really cool, and we were really glad we did it. Then we went to Big Ben, and were going to try to go into Westminster Abbey, but there was a line and we didn’t want to wait a long time to get in. After that, we went over towards Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We finally got hungry, so we found some little pizza place where we stopped to eat, and it was pretty good. We left the pizza place and went towards this open air market type thing. There were some street performers and stuff, and then we found a Mark and Spencer’s that we went into. Monica got a couple things since they still hadn’t found her bag. We went to Harrods’s, but we got there right before it closed, so we didn’t really get to see it. We headed back towards the hostel, and just kinda hung out and played hearts in the bar for awhile before going to sleep.
On Saturday morning, we got up and went to Buckingham Palace first. We were hoping to see the changing of the guard, but it turned out we were there on an off day, so we didn’t get to see it. We went back to Harrods’s so that we could spend a little more time there. We went up to the toy department and pet store, which was fun. We left Harrods’s to find the Hard Rock, which is the original one. We finally found it, and went down to the Vault they have there, where they have things from Elvis, John Lennon, Jimmy Hendrix, and some other people. The boys went crazy down there, especially Stephen and Todd since they play guitar and got to play them. Lance’s bank card still didn’t work, and Easyjet still had no idea where Monica’s bag was. We went to Camden Town to eat before catching our 6:00 coach to Stoke-on-Trent and Keele. Camden Town is something that cannot really be described, you have to see it with your own eyes to understand. I guess the best description would be the alternative part of town, but it was ridiculous. Every other person had Mohawks or different colored hair, there were just all kinds of people. The boys got Indian food, and Monica and I got Chinese, which was good. Then we had to make our way back towards Victoria to get our bus, which was about 3 hours. We played some cards and slept a little bit, and got to Stoke-on Trent around 9:30. We took the bus up to Keele, and then went to the Pig and Rat or something like that, the student union to chill out and play a little pool, which was fun. Monica and I slept in Todd’s room, and Todd slept in a friend’s room with the boys.
On Sunday morning, Todd made us breakfast, crepes with a strawberry sauce and eggs. It was so good. After breakfast, we went back into town to get our coach to Liverpool. We got to Liverpool and didn’t really know what we wanted to do. We saw a free museum, and decided to go in there so we could go to the bathroom. It was kind of like a COSI, but it ended up being a pretty cool museum, plus it was free! We came out and discovered that it had rained while we were inside, so we got lucky that we missed the rain. We went to find somewhere to eat, and ate at a restaurant where the boys could get fish and chips, and Monica and I got Chicken Cumberland pie, which was sooo good. We had a really good lunch, and then afterwards headed down towards the water. We went into a couple little museums since they were free, but they weren’t really that exciting. We saw the harbor, and the Beatles museum, but we didn’t go in. We were kinda cold, so we decided to go into McDonald’s, and as crazy as it sounds, we got ice cream and apple pie, it was good though. We saw and talked for at least an hour, and decided that we were ready to go. It was like 7:30 or 8, but our coach didn’t leave to go back to Keele until like 11. We went back to the station and were going to try to get our tickets changed, but it was too late, so we had to wait. We played various card games in the station for the next 3 hours or so, and it was actually a blast. It probably helped that we were really hyper too. We got back to Stoke-on-Trent, and took a taxi home.
On Monday morning, we were supposed to get our coach back to London at 8am. We planned on getting up so that we could leave at 7am to get into town for our coach. Well, apparently Todd had gotten locked out of the dorm where Lance and Stephen were staying. They hadn’t woken up and come over yet, and they had the key, so Todd went and threw rocks at the window to wake them up and make sure they were up, and then they showed up a couple minutes later. We didn’t end up leaving until about 7:15, and by that time we were pretty sure we were going to miss our 8am coach to London since it took a half an hour to get into town. The bus finally came to take us into town, but then it took an hour to get to the station. We got there about 8:30, so we obviously had missed the coach, great. We tried to go to the ticket office to see if we could get on the next bus, but it didn’t open until 9. We waited around until 9, doing our Sevillana dance for Todd, and then went back to the ticket office after it opened. At that point, we were going to find out if we could try to get the next bus or if we had to go to the train station and pay for train tickets since we were running out of time. The lady told us that we could get on the next coach at 9:30 if the driver would let us and there was space, so we waited for the coach. It finally came, and we thought we would have to beg to get on the bus, but luckily there was space, even though we didn’t get to sit together. We were just glad we were able to get on the bus and didn’t have to pay again though. It was kind of a long ride, and our busdriver took off someone else’s side mirror, I think a small truck. There was this loud crack and then we heard him on the phone talking about a mirror, so that was interesting. Todd had gotten us tickets for the 1pm coach to London Gatwick airport. The coach from Stoke-on-Trent didn’t get into Victoria until about 1:30, so we obviously missed that bus too. We went to the ticket office and were able to change that so we got on the 2pm bus to the airport. Our flight left at 4:55 and it took at least an hour and a half, so we were just hoping the traffic wouldn’t be too bad and we would get there in time. Luckily, we got there around 3:30, we had plenty of time, and this time I decided not to check my backpack and took it on the plane with us. Easyjet still had no idea where Monica’s bag was, great. Our flight to Madrid got in really early, so we took the metro home and got home around 10:30ish. It was a lot of fun, and a great trip, definitely an adventure, despite the couple little problems. It was kind of funny because sometimes we had trouble understanding the English, and now I can understand better why the Spanish have trouble understanding us, since they are used to English accents. We all pretty much decided we would never want to go to school in England, even though it was a lot of fun, and we love Spain. After I got home, Nicole told me that grammar class had actually been cancelled, so we didn’t miss anything on Monday.
On Tuesday, I had to go back to the library after school to research for my paper for Susana’s class. We had a 4 page paper due on Thursday, and of course I didn’t do anything while I was in England, so I had all of Tuesday and Wednesday to do it. I was at the library for awhile, and then came home and ate and whatnot.
On Wednesday, Nicole and I went back to school to do some more work on our papers before dance class. We had dance class, and we learned the rest of the second Sevillana, and put it together with the first. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoy our dance class. We worked a little more after, then came home and finished it up.
On Thursday, we had class, but our civ class was cancelled so we could go to a museum in the afternoon. We went into Madrid with Beatriz, our teacher to the Archaeological museum, it was kinda boring. Since we were already in Madrid, Dane, Monica, Juanito, Nicole, and I went to the Hard Rock since it was close and got a couple things. Then we went to Funiversal, the travel agency, to pick up our tickets for Las Fallas in Valencia next weekend. That took kind of a long time, but then afterwards, Monica, Nicole and I called Laura, Araceli’s sister. We went and had milkshakes with her, so that was fun to talk with her. We got home around midnight, ate dinner, and went to sleep.
Yesterday, I slept in and it was really nice. I didn’t do much all day, so it was nice to take a break and relax. I ate lunch with mamá, Nicole wasn’t here because she went to Segovia. Then Monica and I went to the centro comercial, we wanted to look for stuff so we can start making our scrapbooks. We didn’t find anything for that, and then we ended up going to the other side of town to Carrefour. We both bought a couple of cd’s, and I’m excited to listen to them. We came home, ate dinner real quick, then we went back to the centro comercial and saw Brokeback Mountain. It was in Spanish, so it was kinda hard to focus, and I think I missed some stuff, but it was nice to just see a movie, since I hadn’t done that in awhile. We weren’t sure if the bus was going to come, so we walked home, and got back around 1:30.
Today, Monica and I went with Araceli, Javier, and Laura to the Sierras de Madrid, some mountains. We weren’t really sure where we were going, it was a surprise destination road trip. It was really pretty, we mainly drove most of the day, and went through some little towns and stuff. It was really windy though. There were signs for cow crossings all over, and at least once or twice there were cows in the middle of the road so we had to stop and wait for them to cross. There was even a little bit of snow. It was fun hanging out with them, and the landscape was all really nice. We listened to some Spanish music, and Laura gave us a cd of Spanish music she had made for us. So anyways, that’s pretty much it. Tomorrow I think we are going to go to the Rastro in Madrid, so that should be fun. I’m looking forward to it!

Cantabria and Salamanca!

Last weekend we took our second paid group trip, to Cantabria in northern Spain. Magda told us at the beginning that it was going to be a different trip…we weren’t really sure what that meant or what to expect. We got on our bus and drove for a couple of hours, then stopped in Burgos to see the cathedral. It was cool, I think I liked the vaulted ceilings the best there. It is one of the stops of the Camino de Santiago, on the way to Santiago Compostela, and El Cid, from the novel. It was pretty cold outside, so after we ate our bocadillas, we decided to go into a café and get some hot chocolate instead of walking around and stuff during our free time. We got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way to Santillana del Mar, where our hotel was. Our hotel was amazing, and Monica and I’s room was basically like a suite. It was really nice. When we got to our hotel, it was already getting dark and it was raining, but Monica, Lance, Stephen, and I went to the Torture museum that was close by. There were a lot of gross instruments in there and I don’t know how people come up with some of that stuff! We walked around for a few minutes after we went to the museum, but came back because it was pretty gross outside. Lance and Stephen have made a song about Spain that they played for us. Stephen plays the guitar and Lance sings, the song is good, but it’s pretty funny. Then we all ate dinner together in the hotel restaurant. It was good, and there was a ton of food. After that, we all hung out and chatted and stuff, and then went to bed. On Saturday, we started out by visiting the Cuevas de Altamira. There are prehistoric caves with a bunch of ceiling paintings and stuff. I think they are like 8000 and 14000 years old. This one is actually a reproduction because you can’t go in the real one anyone. But it was cool to see and learn about them, they were able to do some extraordinary things back in that era! After the caves, we headed to Santander. It was a really nice day, so we took a little boat ride over to the beach. The beach was a lot of fun. The water was freezing, but it was still fun to walk on the beach a little bit and stuff. The waves were gigantic. It was really pretty too. We took the boat back to the other side, then drove over to a different side of the town. We had a couple hours of free time to eat and explore, so Monica, Dane, Juanito and I went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. It was really good food, and it was nice to just relax. Then we went outside and took a bunch of pictures since it was so pretty, even though it was windy. We also went to the top of a hill and it was cool to look down. We were really lucky that it was mostly sunny, because they had predicted rain for the whole weekend. The whole group reunited once again, and we walked over to this park which was like a zoo where there were penguins and seals and stuff. We kept walking up to the top of the hill, and there was a palace (I think) at the top, but we didn’t go down. We came back down and then finally got back on the bus and went back to Santillana del Mar. I really enjoyed Santander though, and am so glad that it was nice and sunny. We got back to the hotel and rested a little bit before we had dinner again in the hotel. We ate and hung out a little bit after dinner, then Monica, Lance, Stephen and I played hearts until almost 4:30 in the morning. We were all really tired by that point, but it was fun. On Sunday, the weather was gross again and it was extremely windy again and rainy. Luckily, we didn’t do much, we mainly just sat on the bus coming back home to Alcalá. Before we left Santillana del Mar, we went to the Claustro Romano and a museum about dinosaurs, which was semi-interesting. We were all just anxious to get on the bus and out of the nasty weather. We slept, played some more cards on the bus, and they put on a movie, but I didn’t watch it. The ride back to Alcalá was a lot shorter than we expected, but it was a fun trip and I really enjoyed it. It was nice because we got to see a lot of the Spanish landscape and it wasn’t heavy in art and monuments and stuff like that.
On Monday, I went to our café to study and do homework since we had a test on Thursday in our civilization class. It was nice to get out of the house so that I could clear my head a little bit, and I was able to get a lot done. Then on Tuesday, Monica, Dane, and I went and studied and talked some more at the café. After that, Nicole and I took mamá out to eat for her birthday, which was over the weekend while we were gone. We went to Indalo, which is a little bar near the Plaza. It was really nice, and I had a lot of fun. I’m really glad that we were able to go out with her. On Wednesday after school, I went with mamá to pick up a package that Mom sent me. It had the DVD’s from the Olympics and a bunch of M&M’s and Reese’s cups, which was exciting. Then we had our dance class, which was fun as usual. We learned the rest of the first Sevillana, which was mainly how to do the arms along with feet. It’s a lot harder than it looks, especially when she puts the music on, and it starts going really fast. It’s a lot of fun though. Thursday we had an exam in our civ class which was kinda hard. After school, I went back to the post office. I talked to Mom, and she asked me if I had gotten two packages. I had forgotten that on the slip it said there were two, so I had to go back to get the other one. Mamá went with me, like the day before. I got all the way thinking that it was from Mom, until I looked at the address and saw that it was from the Cybs, which made it even more exciting! The lock on the door to our house somehow, so every time sometime came home or left, you had to unlock it on the one side, then relock it from the outside. Kind of annoying, but oh well. Monica, Dane, and I decided to go into Madrid to do a couple of things. We went to buy our bus tickets for Salamanca for the next day, and we also checked out train info for going to France. After we finally got all that done, we called Laura, who is Araceli, our intercambio’s sister, and we met up with her for coffee at a Starbucks (yes, there are Starbucks here). We talked to her for awhile, which was fun. We didn’t get home until about 12:15 though. I showered so that I wouldn’t have to in the morning, quickly ate dinner, and went to bed.
On Friday, I got up at 6am because we had decided to get an early bus to Salamanca. Our bus left from Madrid at 8am, so we had to leave Alcalá at 7 to have enough time to get into Madrid to the station. We got there about 8, and then the bus ride was about 3 hours. The bus was really nice though, the seats were pretty comfortable and there was even a tv and they put on a movie. Once we got into Salamanca, we got out the map that Magda had given us, and decided to follow the route that it showed us. Well, the map wasn’t very good, it had all the major monuments and stuff on it, but it didn’t really show very well how to get there. We roamed around for awhile, it was freezing. We came to these cave things that turned out to not be caves, but some random things. Still not sure about that. We stopped for lunch and ate our bocadillas, then looked around somemore. We finally found the University, after much searching, and the façade, which is supposed to be important. The University is supposedly important too. There is a frog on the façade, and they say that if you find it, for student’s you’ll have good luck on your next exam. There was a couple that was looking for it using a book, so they found it and then showed us. It didn’t really look all that much like a frog, but whatever. We went into a café and got some hot chocolate to warm up, shopped around a little bit, and walked around a little more. Then we finally decided to stop at a cafeteria type place for dinner, and we just took a long time to eat since it was cold outside and we had a few hours before we had to be back at the bus station. We got back on the bus at 10, and we slept the whole way back to Madrid. We got in about 12 30, then took the metro to Avenida de Américas so that we could get on the Buo bus home. This time we figured out where to get the buo, unlike coming back from Italy. By the time we got home, it was about 2:30am. It was fun, but really exhausting since we got home so late.
On Saturday, I got to sleep in, which was amazing. Araceli, our intercambio, called us so that we could meet up and get costumes for the fiesta later. Monica and I met at her house, then Javier took us to Carrefour to try to find something. Believe it or not, it was the first time I had been in a car since I left the US, except for the taxi on the way home from the airport (and besides buses and whatnot). We got to Carrefour and there wasn’t much left, so Monica ended up getting a clown outfit and I got a Marilyn Monroe dress-wow. From that point, we knew it was going to be interesting. Araceli was going to be a pirate and Laura’s outfit was a vampire or something. We came home for lunch, rested a little, and then Javier picked us up again and we went to his niece’s house, where the party was going to be. It was a surprise birthday party for Marta and also a little party for Carnaval. We all had to get into our costumes, and it was just hilarious because we all looked ridiculous. One of the grandmas told me I needed a hat, so she gave me a blue one with curly blue hair. We talked to some of grandmas and grandpas and aunts for awhile while we waited. Then it got close to 7, and we turned the lights off. There were a couple of false alarms, but then Marta finally got there and I think she was pretty surprised. Araceli did like a tarot card reading as a joke, and we ate so much food. Then they had blown up probably two or three hundred balloons and put them in her room, and basically told the kids to go in there and roll around and pop the balloons. It was crazy. It was fun though because we got to talk to Marta, her friend Iris, and her sister, Tamara, who are all about our age, so now we have more Spanish friends, yay! Everyone was trying to get them to practice their English on us, but they didn’t really want to. When everyone would start talking, it would get crazy and so loud and half the time Monica and I were so confused. It was a lot of fun though and I’m really glad that Araceli invited us! After we came home, I talked to mamá for a little bit and then crashed.
On Sunday, we went to Araceli’s house again. This time it was Javier, the baby’s birthday, he turned 2. We got to her house and hung out for a little bit, then after Javier and Laura got up, we went to the bar and met the rest of the family. We got to talk to Marta and Tamara again too, and they were practicing some English again. The waiters kept bringing food, and every time we thought they were done, they brought out more! There was all kinds of stuff, 2 kinds of ham, cheese, calamari rings (yuck), patatas bravas, etc. The tarta was really good too. After everything was over, we went back to Araceli’s house for a little bit before coming home. It was a good weekend, very cultural, very fun though.
Yesterday, Monday, mamá woke us up before she went to work and told us that the buses were on strike so we’d have to walk to school. Then as Nicole was taking a shower, there was no cold water, only hot. We were under the impression from the flyer that there would be no buses, but then once we started walking, we saw a couple, but there were only a few running. We got to school, and then we had an exam in our grammar class. We also found out that our grammar teacher is leaving, and Pilar, the other teacher, is going to teach our class from now on, which is sad because we all really liked María Jesús, and she was all of our favorite teacher. When I got home from school, the guy was here to fix the door, since it had been broken for a couple days. Then Lance called me, and I went back to school and we worked on our paper for our literature class, but gave up after awhile. Monica and I walked home, and that was about it.
Today, our lit class at 8:30 was cancelled, which was amazing. We had to walk to school again since the buses were still on strike. We got our exams back in civ, and a bunch of people were really upset about it. It’s not the end of the world though.
This weekend, Monica, Lance, Stephen and I are going to England. We’re all really excited and it should be a lot of fun. We’re leaving on Thursday night, spending a couple of nights in London, then going to Keele, where Monica’s boyfriend Todd is studying abroad, and going to Liverpool. Also, Lent starts tomorrow, and we are going to try not to speak in English, except of course with people who don’t know Spanish. I can’t believe tomorrow is already March 1! This semester has been going by so fast. Anyways, that’s pretty much it from here!

"Guys...we're in Italy..." (and the rest of the week since then)

Wow there is so much to catch up on. I guess I left off in Italy on Saturday, the highly anticipated day. We woke up bright and early at like 6:30, because we had to catch our train at the station at 8:30. We were waiting for everyone to come down to the lobby, and Todd and Taylor hadn’t shown up, so we went to make sure they were awake, but they had forgotten to set their clocks ahead an hour from England so they were a little late. We took the metro (instead of walking because it was kinda far) to Milan Centrale train station and got on our train. We had to split up 4 and 4 because the little car things were for 6 people, so Jen, Monica, Todd and I went in one, and Taylor, Amanda, Angie, and Nicole went in the other. There were two American girls who are studying in Rome in our car that were going to the Olympics too. There were actually a bunch of Americans on that train, even a girl who grew up in Oxford and just graduated from Miami, small world. The view from the train was really pretty, and there were mountains all around and stuff. We got into Torino then decided we should buy a map so we knew sort of where to go. We figured we should go pick up our tickets for the hockey game before anything else, then we could walk around later before the game. So, we headed over towards the Olympic stuff, went through a market where there was all kinds of crap, wrenches, clothes, costume stuff, you name it, it was there. The whole time we were laughing because none of us speak Italian, but between the 8 of us, we had Spanish, French and English. A couple times we tried to ask people for directions, and the Spanish was more useful than the English since they are so similar. The whole day, we just kept saying, “We’re in Italy…at the Olympics…” It was just so incredible and we couldn’t believe we were actually there. You might think (like we did) that being the Olympics and everything, there would be a nice, organized building to go pick up your tickets for the games. Quite the opposite. It turned out we had to get them in a trailer-like building, in front of which was an unorganized mass of people. We ended up standing in the line for about an hour and a half just to pick up our tickets that we had already bought. Meanwhile, while Todd, Nicole and I stood there, Jen, Monica, Angie, Amanda, and Taylor went and brought us food. It was frustrating that we had to stand in line for so long since we really didn’t have much time in Torino at all, and we would have preferred to walk around Torino or whatever, but it was ok, and there wasn’t much we could do about it. It was a lot better than coming right before the game, because the line was really long. After we FINALLY got our tickets, we decided to walk around and see the city a little bit since we had some time to kill. We walked towards the main plaza I think it was, and that was where they happen to be filming the Today show with Katie Couric. They were interviewing some American guy, I think he is a skier, and then they had a couple dance the tango. That was pretty cool. We also found a cool Torino 2006 monument and took some pictures of that. We moved on and our goal was to find the Holy Shroud of Turin, which we had been told was amazing. Mom had sent me an address that we mapped out and found, but then we got there and it turned out to be the museum about the Shroud, not the actual Shroud itself. We asked where the actual Shroud was, and it was in the cathedral down the way, so we went and checked that out. It was pretty cool, even though you couldn’t see the actual Shroud because it is in a box type thing. By that point, it was getting late so we had to start heading back for the hockey game!! We got back, went through security and then started down the walk into the rink. The funny thing was that there were Torino 2006 and Olympic logos everywhere and there were volunteers in Torino 2006 gear to direct people, and also people walking around with flags tied around their necks and stuff, but other than that, you probably wouldn’t have known that the Olympics were there. Granted, the Opening Ceremonies were the day before, but still, you would think that there would have been a lot more going on. It could very well be that we just missed the Olympic village (we’re still not sure if there was one, but I hear there is), due to lack of time or whatever. We went into the rink and it was so amazing. We bought a couple of souvenirs at the one little merchandise stand they had set up, and it was a good thing because we didn’t see any other places, which like I said, was kinda weird. We went to see the USA Women’s hockey team play Switzerland, and it was probably one of the coolest experiences ever. They were starting to practice, and we took tons of pictures. Unfortunately, since we bought our tickets in 3 groups, we were a little bit split up, but luckily all of the seats were close. Nicole was by herself, but right in front of us, the Monica, Todd, Jen, and I sat together, and up a little higher were Taylor, Amanda and Angie. The game was absolutely amazing, and I was so excited I thought I was going to cry. First of all, if you know me at all, you know I’m a huge hockey fan. Second, how cool is it to watch your country play at the OLYMPICS?! How many people can say they did that? During the intermission between the first and second periods, Monica, Todd and I went down over by the USA bench (since our seats were in back of the Swiss bench) to take some pictures. We were just kinda standing on the stairs, and one of the ushers said to us, “You can go down there if you want”, meaning into the front row. Then as we were going to head back up to our seats, he told us we could just stay down there if we wanted. We were practically freaking out, I mean how awesome to sit in the front row behind the USA bench?!?!?! We asked if everyone else could come down, but he said no. During the second period, right in front of us, the USA scored a breakaway goal, it was sweet. Also during that period, Laura Bush, that’s right the First Lady, came in to the game followed by her entourage, so that was cool. Apparently Katie Couric was there too, I didn’t see her but some of the others did. We got really lucky because we saw every goal that was scored right in front of us. It is so hard to describe everything besides the fact that is was incredible. It turns out we were even on TV, because the game was televised in the US, and my mom saw us on there, so she is going to send us a copy! After the game was over, we headed back towards the train station to head back to Milan. We stopped on the way for food and had kebobs, a new dining experience but pretty decent actually. We got back to the train station, caught the train back, and got back to Milan around 1am. The metro was closed, so we had to walk back to our hotel, and we were tired and it was cold, but we finally got back and crashed. It was such an amazing day though.
Sunday we got to sleep in a little bit, but we still had to get up early because Jen and the England crew had to leave earlier than us. We went to the Duomo, which is the big cathedral and that was really pretty, too bad they are restoring it and there was a ton of scaffolding on it though. Then we went into the Galeria Vittoria Emanuele I think it was called, which was really cool and pretty too. We did a little shopping, walked around some, and then had to head back towards the hotel to check out and they had to leave. I was sad that Jen had to leave, but it was so good to see her, and hang out with someone from home, and we had a lot of fun. Who would have thought freshman or sophomore year of high school that we would have gone to the Olympics in Italy together?? So anyways, they all left, and then Monica, Nicole and I were hanging out because our plane didn’t leave until later, close to 9. We walked around for a little bit, then found a park and sat there for awhile, enjoying everything. We ate some pasta and then finally decided to head towards the airport since it was far away and we didn’t know how long it would take us, since it took 2 ½ hours to get there. We got on a double decker bus, which was cool, and it only took us 45mins to get there! The flight was fine, we were sad to be leaving Italy, but coming back to Spain isn’t exactly the worst thing ever, haha. Italy was really pretty, like Madrid. Then we got and when I say it was an adventure until the end, I mean it was an adventure until the end. We had been told that the buses go from Avenida de Américas in Madrid to Alcalá until every hour of the morning, so our goal was to get there. We had been planning the whole time to just get the airport bus to the Avenida de Américas station, then come back to Alcalá on the bus from there, because the train that comes to our house doesn’t run past 11:30ish and it is free to ride the bus with our passes. By the time we got in and got our bags it was about 11:30 or 11:45. A guy claimed to us the last airport bus to Avenida de Américas was at 12, but that didn’t come so we decided to get the metro over to the bus station. We got on the metro and got to Avenida de Américas, but then we went up to the buses, and a driver of another bus told us it was closed. Uh oh, what do we do now? So we were like, well the train that goes to Alcalá isn’t running, so we will try to get as close as we can on the metro. We went and got off at Puerta de Arganda, because we thought that we be closest to Alcalá, then take a taxi from there. By this time it is a little after 1am. We go outside and there is barely a soul in sight, let alone a car or taxi to come get us. We walked up this hill towards the main road, and were like maybe we should pray for a taxi. Call it divine intervention, but after we got up there, wouldn’t you know a taxi came by, so we flagged it down. The taxi driver was asking us what we were doing, and how we got there and everything, and we were telling him, and he was like, well you are definitely farther and should have just gotten a taxi from the airport or Avenida de Américas. At the point, we just wanted to get home, and we didn’t care, but the whole thing was funny. We got home a little after 2am, and it was like 30 euros for the taxi for the 3 of us, but oh well. We took lots of pictures with Rainbow Bear, and we are planning on taking him on the rest of our trips with us. It’s kind of a joke now, but it’s kinda funny. It was probably one of the best weekends of my life, and I can’t even describe it, although I did my best, and all the crazyness just made it better. It was so worth it!!!

Monday morning the alarm came way too early since we got home late, and we went to class and whatnot. We had our first exam in our crazy/dumb lit class on Tuesday, so on Monday afternoon a bunch of us got together and studied at our café, which was about the extent of that day.
Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, we had our exam bright and early at 8:30am, and then our other classes. Later in the afternoon, Nicole, Dane, Juanito and I got together because we had to do a project with a newspaper, El Mundo, looking at it and comparing it to American newspapers. Other than that, I kind of forgot that it was Valentine’s Day, and nothing exciting really happened. It is somewhat similar to America, it is mainly a holiday for couples but not really love for family and friends too, and commercialized, like in the US.
Wednesday afternoon class, we took a visit to Cervantes’ house (since it is right here in Alcalá). To be honest, the house wasn’t really that exciting and kind of boring. It was kinda cool to see Don Quijote in all the languages, but other than that it we wanted to get out of there. We started at his house at 4:30, but we have our Sevillana dance class on Wednesdays at 5:30 so we all were mad and wanted to leave. But then we had to go to the Coral Comedia I think its called around the corner. It’s a theater that is still used today, and it was more exciting than Cervantes’ house, but we all just wanted to get out of there. We finally were able to leave, but we didn’t get to school until 6ish, a half an hour late. We learned the rest of feet part of the first dance, and did it to music. It was hard because we had never gone that fast, but it was fun. I also got my shoes, which are basically high heels, and that was fun too. Marta, our teacher, decided we could have dance class again on Thursday since we missed half the class. After we got done with class, Monica and I went over to Araceli’s (our intercambio) house and played with her son Javier for awhile and met her partner Javier (both of them are Javier). The funniest thing was little Javier started watching Shrek, and since it is hard for the Spanish to make the “sh” sound, we were teaching Araceli how to say it properly. I came home, we ate dinner, etc.
On Thursday Nicole and I walked with Araceli to a nearby store and we got a birthday present for our mamá, because it was her birthday this weekend. Then we had our make-up dance class from the day before. We started to learn the hand motions for it, which is hard and takes a lot of concentration and coordination, but it’s fun. We also used the music again and it is so fast, it is funny watching us try to keep up. After dance class, we came home and packed and everything, then after dinner Monica, Juanito, Dane and I went to our café to hang out for a little bit and stuff, it was fun just relaxing and chatting.
This past weekend we went to Cantabria, which was a fun trip, but that is for the next entry!