First weekend trip (Extremadura!) and Semana Santa plans (Tunisia!)
This weekend we had our first weekend trip, to the Extremadura region. We left on Friday morning on our bus, one of the really nice ones with a bathroom and reclining seats and everything. It was about a 4ish hour drive, and we all just talked, played a little euchre and go fish and whatnot. We got to Cáceres, where we were staying in the hotel. It was a really nice hotel, a lot nicer than we were all expecting. Monica and I roomed together to switch it up a little bit instead of rooming with our normal roommates, in my case Nicole. After we got to the hotel we had free time for a couple of hours, so a bunch of us went out exploring for awhile. It was absolutely gorgeous, bright blue sky and sun, and probably in the 60’s or low 70’s. The city was pretty cute, and we just walked around for awhile. We came upon a little playground/park where there were these sand dune things (we weren’t sure exactly what it was, it wasn’t a skate park because there was sand in the middle, but who knows) and swings and a slide and a four person teeter totter and stuff so we played there for a little bit. Then we went on and walked around some more and there were some cool views of the city. Monica and I stopped to go back and look at this one little church, which was pretty on the outside, and everyone else went on. There was this gigantic hill, and we decided to go up it to get back towards the hotel. We beat everyone back to the hotel, and then later the two of us went back out to explore some more. We walked around the historic part of the city, and saw most of it, like the church, the Plaza Mayor, and different stuff. We came back and rested for a little bit in the room and watched some tv, which was funny because there was some music video with snails in it (??). We had our group tour of the city that night, which was nice, and we went back to a lot of the places where Monica and I had already gone. We were really glad we explored so much earlier though because it was a lot prettier during the daytime than at night, and Javier walks so fast, you can’t listen and take pictures at the same time. After the tour a bunch of us went out to eat at a restaurant, which was fun. We came back to the hotel and didn’t go out, but we were hanging out with Dane and Juanito for awhile. Magda called us and said all of us who were in rooms down in the basement had to move rooms the next day because Kelly and Johanna found a cockroach in their room-gross. We were a little paranoid that we would find one too but luckily we didn’t.
Saturday we took our trip to Mérida, which is where my mamá is from. It was really foggy the whole way there, and even after we got to the city. It was a Roman city, and there is an amphitheater, theater, and Roman art museum there, among other things. I didn’t really like the amphitheater that much, but it was still cool, although mostly ruins of course. I definitely liked the theater the best. It was really neat, and even though it was really foggy, I really liked it. We went into the Roman Art Museum, which no one really liked. It was kind of boring, and just seemed like a bunch of statues and different stuff. After the Roman art museum we had some free time to eat and do whatever before heading back to Cáceres. A couple of us ate at a typical Spanish restaurant, and it was really good. Then we went back and hung out for a little bit with the rest of the group before heading back to Cáceres. We took the bus back, it was only like an hour or a little more, so that’s not bad at all. After we got back to the hotel, our stuff had been moved to a new room because of the cockroaches. We checked out the new room, then went to the supermercado to pick up a couple of things. We got some rum and coke, and some more jamón jamón chips (ham flavored chips, I’m not really a fan, but they’re pretty popular within our group). We went to go get some Chinese food around 8. We went to the restaurant and the waiters had no clue what was going on. Example: Nicole asked for a clara con limon, which is beer with like lemon, and they brought her a beer, and a lemon fanta or something, which wasn’t right. The Chinese guy also told Juanito he wasn’t eating his food right and told him that he was a child. After we got back, there were these kids who were there for their cousin’s baptism. They started talking to them, and they were between like 7-13 years old. We were trying to practice our Spanish on them, and they tried to practice the really basic English they knew on us. Every once and awhile, they would all start to talk at the same time, and we would get confused and not know what was going on. But we talked to the niños for about an hour, so that was fun. We drank a little bit of the rum and coke with a couple friends and were hanging out, that was fun.
On Sunday, we left Cáceres in the morning and headed to Trujillo on the way home. Unfortunately when we got there, it was really foggy again, so we couldn’t really see much. Trujillo is supposed to have amazing views, but we didn’t get to see any of them. We were going to go up in the castle, but it wasn’t worth it because of the fog. It was a cute town though. We had a really good lunch before we had to go back to the bus. I had hoped to see Jen since she is studying abroad there this semester, but she just got there late last week and had fallen asleep, so I didn’t get to see her. But I’m sure she’ll come to Madrid, so we can get together then. After that, we just came home on the bus, which seemed to take a long time. We finally got home around 8 or so, had dinner, unpacked, and went to bed.
On Monday, we just had grammar class. We missed the #10 bus on the way home, so we took the #1. The bus driver just kind of randomly stopped for a couple minutes before going on. Still not sure what that was about. Nicole and I had homework to do, so we worked on that, and then ran to the supermercado to pick up a couple of things, not too exciting. We watched Dodgeball though (in English, but with Spanish subtitles), which was amusing and went to bed because we had to get up really early today.
Today we had 3 classes in a row, and it was a long day. I was tired, which was really the first time it had been hard to get up in the morning. After classes, we all decided to go to the travel agency today to book our spring break (which is Easter week, Semana Santa here) plans. We got the train from Alcalá and then took the metro to the travel agency. We all had to go together, and there are about 10 of us that are going. Apparently we left Tom (and Juanito, who supposedly stayed behind with him) in the train station, and he somehow didn’t get on the metro. So we all got there fine, but they somehow got left behind. Tom called and griped for 10 minutes at least about it, sorry, it wasn’t our fault he can’t figure out how to step on a train though. We booked part of our trip for Semana Santa, we are going to go to Tunisia for a week, we are all really excited. I think it will be a lot of fun, no one really wants Tom to go anymore because of the temper tantrum he had about us “leaving him behind”. But whatever, it should be awesome, and we are thinking about going to maybe like Barcelona, Valencia, or possibly somewhere else for the rest of the weekend. After I got home and ate dinner, Nicole and I tried the bottle of wine that she bought for 48 euros over the weekend in Extremadura. It was supposed to be a sweet wine because she doesn’t usually like wine. Turns out she said it was some kind of sherry or something, but I thought it was pretty good, she didn’t like it though, which is too bad.
I’ve decided that we have a really good program. Bowling Green gives us our bus passes, which would otherwise cost us around 60 euros a month, so we can go anywhere in Madrid for free. We also have 3 planned trips, and they even give us money for food. So far I’ve been really happy with it, and it has been awesome. One of the cool things about this weekend was that we got to meet our grad student tutors, and get to know them a little better. It was a really fun weekend though and I'm excited for the rest of our trips! This week hopefully we will all start to set up some intercambios and make some Spanish friends. That’s about it, it’s been real!
Saturday we took our trip to Mérida, which is where my mamá is from. It was really foggy the whole way there, and even after we got to the city. It was a Roman city, and there is an amphitheater, theater, and Roman art museum there, among other things. I didn’t really like the amphitheater that much, but it was still cool, although mostly ruins of course. I definitely liked the theater the best. It was really neat, and even though it was really foggy, I really liked it. We went into the Roman Art Museum, which no one really liked. It was kind of boring, and just seemed like a bunch of statues and different stuff. After the Roman art museum we had some free time to eat and do whatever before heading back to Cáceres. A couple of us ate at a typical Spanish restaurant, and it was really good. Then we went back and hung out for a little bit with the rest of the group before heading back to Cáceres. We took the bus back, it was only like an hour or a little more, so that’s not bad at all. After we got back to the hotel, our stuff had been moved to a new room because of the cockroaches. We checked out the new room, then went to the supermercado to pick up a couple of things. We got some rum and coke, and some more jamón jamón chips (ham flavored chips, I’m not really a fan, but they’re pretty popular within our group). We went to go get some Chinese food around 8. We went to the restaurant and the waiters had no clue what was going on. Example: Nicole asked for a clara con limon, which is beer with like lemon, and they brought her a beer, and a lemon fanta or something, which wasn’t right. The Chinese guy also told Juanito he wasn’t eating his food right and told him that he was a child. After we got back, there were these kids who were there for their cousin’s baptism. They started talking to them, and they were between like 7-13 years old. We were trying to practice our Spanish on them, and they tried to practice the really basic English they knew on us. Every once and awhile, they would all start to talk at the same time, and we would get confused and not know what was going on. But we talked to the niños for about an hour, so that was fun. We drank a little bit of the rum and coke with a couple friends and were hanging out, that was fun.
On Sunday, we left Cáceres in the morning and headed to Trujillo on the way home. Unfortunately when we got there, it was really foggy again, so we couldn’t really see much. Trujillo is supposed to have amazing views, but we didn’t get to see any of them. We were going to go up in the castle, but it wasn’t worth it because of the fog. It was a cute town though. We had a really good lunch before we had to go back to the bus. I had hoped to see Jen since she is studying abroad there this semester, but she just got there late last week and had fallen asleep, so I didn’t get to see her. But I’m sure she’ll come to Madrid, so we can get together then. After that, we just came home on the bus, which seemed to take a long time. We finally got home around 8 or so, had dinner, unpacked, and went to bed.
On Monday, we just had grammar class. We missed the #10 bus on the way home, so we took the #1. The bus driver just kind of randomly stopped for a couple minutes before going on. Still not sure what that was about. Nicole and I had homework to do, so we worked on that, and then ran to the supermercado to pick up a couple of things, not too exciting. We watched Dodgeball though (in English, but with Spanish subtitles), which was amusing and went to bed because we had to get up really early today.
Today we had 3 classes in a row, and it was a long day. I was tired, which was really the first time it had been hard to get up in the morning. After classes, we all decided to go to the travel agency today to book our spring break (which is Easter week, Semana Santa here) plans. We got the train from Alcalá and then took the metro to the travel agency. We all had to go together, and there are about 10 of us that are going. Apparently we left Tom (and Juanito, who supposedly stayed behind with him) in the train station, and he somehow didn’t get on the metro. So we all got there fine, but they somehow got left behind. Tom called and griped for 10 minutes at least about it, sorry, it wasn’t our fault he can’t figure out how to step on a train though. We booked part of our trip for Semana Santa, we are going to go to Tunisia for a week, we are all really excited. I think it will be a lot of fun, no one really wants Tom to go anymore because of the temper tantrum he had about us “leaving him behind”. But whatever, it should be awesome, and we are thinking about going to maybe like Barcelona, Valencia, or possibly somewhere else for the rest of the weekend. After I got home and ate dinner, Nicole and I tried the bottle of wine that she bought for 48 euros over the weekend in Extremadura. It was supposed to be a sweet wine because she doesn’t usually like wine. Turns out she said it was some kind of sherry or something, but I thought it was pretty good, she didn’t like it though, which is too bad.
I’ve decided that we have a really good program. Bowling Green gives us our bus passes, which would otherwise cost us around 60 euros a month, so we can go anywhere in Madrid for free. We also have 3 planned trips, and they even give us money for food. So far I’ve been really happy with it, and it has been awesome. One of the cool things about this weekend was that we got to meet our grad student tutors, and get to know them a little better. It was a really fun weekend though and I'm excited for the rest of our trips! This week hopefully we will all start to set up some intercambios and make some Spanish friends. That’s about it, it’s been real!
posted by steph at 1/24/2006 07:53:00 PM
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