Starting to plan trips!

Just a quick update…Tuesday we had school, but then after school a group of us went into Madrid to the travel agency to book our plans for Spring break, which is Semana Santa here. There are about 11 or 12 of us, and we are going to go to Tunisia for a week, in north Africa!! We are all really excited, but trying not to look too forward to it since it is at the end of the trip, right before we come home. But it will be awesome and I’m psyched. We had a little problem because out of all 12 of us, I was the only one who knew how to get there, even though Lance and Steve had gone before last week. Apparently we left Tom (and Juanito stayed with him) in the train station because he didn’t get on or something, so he was nasty about that, but it wasn’t our fault. But whatever. We have to figure out what we are going to do for the rest of the week, in other words the second weekend, maybe a trip to Barcelona or Valencia or something. Should be awesome. Then yesterday we planned our trip to Italy. Nicole, Monica and I were getting ready to buy our plane tickets when Jen, who is in Trujillo, said she wanted to go to the Olympics, so now she is going to come with us!!!!! We found a relatively cheap flight to Milan, then we FINALLY found a place to stay that isn’t outrageously expensive for the weekend. We are going to stay in Milan because there is absolutely nothing to be had in Torino, but we will just take the train to Torino on Saturday, and then go to the USA Women’s ice hockey game versus Switzerland, then take the train back to Milan and leave on Sunday. I am so excited it’s not even funny, and ridiculously excited that Jen is coming with us, especially since we didn’t get together last weekend when we were in Trujillo. We are also trying to plan our trip to Paris, possibly mid-March, which I am excited for. Last night we went to a dance class to test it out to see if we want to take it for the rest of the semester. It was a lot of fun, a lot more fun than I thought it would be, since I am a terrible dancer! We are going to learn the Sevillana, and it wasn’t really that hard. We practiced a bunch of times, but I am really excited for it. The nice thing is that BG will pay for half of it! We need more boys though, because Lance was the only one there last night! Hopefully we will get a few more. Then last night we also figured out how to talk through the website on the internet for free. There is a website, www.skype.com where you can go and all you need is a username and a microphone and you can talk to anyone over the internet for free, given that both people have an internet connection. Last night Mom and I tested it out, I didn’t have a microphone though so I could hear her, but I had to instant messenger her back so she knew what I was saying. I felt like an idiot or like I was mute or something, but it was funny, especially when Chris started singing to me, but it was fun. Today we just had school, came home, took a siesta, went to the Plaza for a bit, ate dinner, etc. Although this morning we were waiting for the bus and there was a police car parked in the middle of the street, and the policemen were directing traffic. Ok fine, but we really have no idea why they were there. The fact that the car was in the middle of the street so people had to drive around them seemed to be causing more problem than whatever reason they were there for. Funny. I think tomorrow Nicole and I might go into Madrid for the day to explore and stuff, should be fun. Saturday I think a bunch of us are going to go to Toledo for the day! That’s about it! We are learning about all the fiestas in Spain-there are so many places I would love to go, just not enough time!!

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!

Heading to Extremadura!

(I actually wrote this Thursday night but the internet wasn't working so I couldn't post it until now).

Let’s see…Tuesday night we went to the same café that we went to on Sunday and just hang out. There were a bunch of us, Lance, Steve, Nicole, Rose, Juanito, Tom, and I. It was fun, and we just chilled out for a little bit. Yesterday we only had the one late class, so we had most of the day free. We had a little meeting about our trip to Extremadura tomorrow, and we met the grad student that is going to be our tutor. After we came home and had lunch, we had siesta, and I did some homework. After Nicole woke up, we went to go down to the internet café, but the girl hadn’t opened it yet, so we walked down the other way on our street, we hadn’t been down that way yet. The weather yesterday and today was absolutely gorgeous, couldn’t have asked for better weather, sunny and probably 60’s, maybe even 70. While we were walking around we finally discovered a papeleria, to get a little notebook for new words and notes on trips and a couple folders. We came back to our internet place to do some research for some trips and stuff, then just came home to do some more homework. After dinner a couple people went to our little café at the plaza to hang out and talk about some homework that no one understood, but Nicole and I didn’t end up going because Nicole was having some issues and I was little homesick and stuff, we just relaxed and went to bed instead.
Today we had all our classes, then came home for lunch, then went into Madrid! Lance, Steve, Nicole and I all took the train into Madrid, then the metro, to go to the travel agency to talk about spring break and a few other places we want to go. It was kind of weird because Nicole and my ticket didn’t work at the train station in Alcalá but then it worked in Madrid in the metro. Don’t understand how that works since it’s supposed to be the same. We are talking about going to Tunisia for a week over spring break, Semana Santa here, and then maybe to Valencia or something for the second weekend, so it should be a blast and it’s really cheap. We met Lance’s friend, Berta, who was really cool and came with us. After we finally got done with the travel agency, we decided to go eat and have a drink in a café before coming home. It was a lot of fun, and we’re hoping to get into Madrid at least like once a week. It is so nice that we don’t have to pay for transportation or anything. We hopped back on the metro to get back to our train station to get back to Alcalá. I really miss not being able to take the metro in the States, even though it was so hot. It was kind of weird because Nicole’s and my pass didn’t work in the Alcalá station, and it doesn’t work on the buses for some reason, but it worked everywhere else. Good thing, because I really didn’t want to get stuck in Madrid. Anyways, that’s about it. Came home, got ready for this weekend, we are going to Extremadura this weekend, and visiting Caceres, Merida, and Trujillo. We’re all really excited and looking forward to it, and excited to get out of Alcalá for a few days, even though it’s a cute town and everything. Today when we were in Madrid we were talking about how it still really feels like we’re on vacation, just in Spain and stuff. Pretty awesome. I think I’ve learned more Spanish in the past week and a half than my entire Spanish career. I still can’t believe we’re actually here!