Slowly but surely...

This week has been super busy with classes, but it's time to begin blogging again about Semana Santa.  So here it goes:

Day 3:

Today we had to get up early to leave for Scotland.  We left our hostel and took a double decker bus to the train station/bus station.  Ride double decker bus, complete.  So off we went and got to the bus station with no problems.  Then back to the airport that was an hour away to catch our plane.

At the airport, I got stopped in security because my small can of hairspray was outside of the 1 quart zip lock bag.  My bad.  So the kind British lady proceeded to take out all of the contents of my backpack.  Poor her because I had a lot of stuff in my backpack.  When she took out some of the touristy things that I had bought, my head sunk with shame.  Of course I had to buy little trinkets from London like the telephone booth pencil sharpener and the double decker bus!  They were a must.  She just laughed and continued to pull out all of the contents of my bag.  She reached my "food" section and out came the cookies and other delicious goods that I had with me.  So while my friends and I were waiting for her to get done searching my bag, we opened the bag of cookies and began to eat them.  Another airport security man came over and asked in his lovely British accent, "Does someone have biscuits over here?"  I said that I did, and he asked if he could have one.  I thought he was joking, but I said sure and he did indeed take one!  Friendliest airport security experience ever.  

Made it into Glasgow and it was very cold and rainy.  As the picture shows, very rainy indeed.  We found the place where the bus comes to pick people up, however we had no idea which bus we needed to take.  We asked a redhaired Scottish lady if she knew which bus would take us to the Glasgow bus station and she was very helpful in telling us which bus we needed to take.  Made it to the Glasgow bus station and then began our journey to Aberdeen to finally be reunited with Kelsey and Mary!

On the ride, I was able to view a bit of the Scottish countryside.  It is by far one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen.  Little sheep dotted the lush green pastures, quaint little houses, broken wooden fences. Very beautiful indeed.  The bus ride went super fast, and before I knew it we were getting into Aberdeen.  I gathered all of my things and hoped that finding Mary and Kelsey wouldn't be too difficult.  Once getting off the bus, I could see through the glass door my two beautiful friends.  What a joyous reunion.  Until I tried to push the door when it was pull.  Oh well, I was just happy to finally see some familiar faces on this side of the globe!

We decided to walk to Mary's flat from downtown which proved to be an interesting adventure.  We went to a supermarket and I finally reconnected with some missed foods from home, like Cool Ranch Dorito's and a few other unhealthy goods.  Walked around a bit more with our trusty Scottish locals, finally made it to Mary's flat and got settled in.  We spent the night talking a bit and then getting situated to fit 4 people into a room that was built for one.  Mary was a very gracious host though and we were very grateful to have a warm room to sleep in.

Semana Santa: The Beginning...

Since I can't sleep right now, I will be productive and begin my blog about my Semana Santa.  A few general reactions: Incredible, Unbelievable, I must go back.  I am in love with England.  In love.  Maybe it's the English accent, or just the English over Spanish, the quaint little homes, the brightly colored pounds, the red telephone booths, the double decker buses, the food that tastes like home, the wonderful land of Scotland, who knows.  Trip of a lifetime for sure.  So how to break it all down into this blog.  The easiest way to tackle this blog I believe is to take it day by day.  So sorry if this gets rather lengthy or if I don't complete all of it in one sitting.  My apologies.

Day 1:  Departure

Due to my inability to read military time correctly, I confused the flight times and discovered it the night before.  Our flight left an hour earlier than I had thought, so I had to skip my last class on Wednesday so we could catch our flight out of Madrid.  I met up with my friends at the train station, my mom drove me and she is such a sweetheart, then took the Renfe into Madrid, then the metro to the airport.  First comment: I hate the Madrid airport.  It just brings back bad memories of running around trying to find where I was supposed to meet my director on the first day, and it's a large confusing airport.  Confusion is not a feeling that I like prior to flying.  Once at the airport, we had to get our boarding passes stamped, which was fairly easy given that I am a little better at Spanish this time around, and proceeded to security.  Took off from the airport and landed in London on time.

Once in London, we had to go through customs and I got my passport stamped!  Yes I've been to the UK.  We also changed over some money, seeing as we were now on the pound, not the Euro.  Finally got to the bus stop, and bought our bus tickets to the city, since our flight (Ryanair) landed an hour out of London.  Thus began the journey with public buses.  Got into downtown London and found the metro.  Since we're used to using the metro in Madrid, it was fairly easy to figure out.  Especially when everything is in English!  So took the metro to St. Paul's Cathedral where our first hostel was.  Our first hostel was in a great location and was nice.  Not as nice as the Yes! Hostel in Lisboa, but we've come to learn that that was an exceptional hostel, not the norm for hostel living.

After we checked in, we decided to take an evening stroll around London.  Probably one of my favorite memories from Spring Break was this first night.  We walked across the Millenium Bridge (Harry Potter anyone?), and saw the London Bridge as well as the London Eye.  We headed in the direction of the London Eye because we wanted to see Big Ben as well.  It wasn't a long walk, but I made the comment like, "I'm sure we'll just look up and Big Ben will be right there."  And sure enough, no more than 15 seconds later, we got our first view of Big Ben.  And I now have a new obsession with Big Ben.  Maybe because it's because I've seen so many movies that reference Big Ben, but it is my favorite part of London.  Very touristy yes, but very cool at the same time.  So we walked by Big Ben and said hello and then headed back to our hostel.  On the way we found a telephone booth, so of course we had to take pictures in it!  We also found a little supermarket that was open, and I bought cereal (well I thought it was cereal, but it ended up being granaola), Dorito's (they don't have Cool Ranch in Spain), Coca-Cola, water, and a few other small items that I've craved for awhile.  We got back to the hostel pretty tired and we snacked for awhile and then went to bed.  Good day.

Day 2: Exploring London

This was our only full day in London, so we wanted to make the most of it and see everything.  Well I now it's impossible to see everything, but we wanted to hit most of the main sights of London.  We got up early and got ready to leave.  I brought a mini-hair dryer that I bought in Spain and was assured in Spanish by the seller, that it would work in England.  Haha good one.  It broke the first day.  Should have known better than to take his word on that.  But it really wasn't a big deal because I was just happy to be in London!

After leaving the hostel, we headed off in the same direction as the night before and saw once again the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster, and a few other cool things.  From there we made our way to Picadilly Circle (kind of like Times Square), Buckingham Palace where we saw the changing of the guard, Oxford Street, Burlington Arcade (very ritzy shopping center), H&M of course, and other souvenir shops in search for touristy things.  We also went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian art, Greek sculptures, and other old things.  I thought it was interesting but seeing as I don't know much about ancient world history, I opted to go to a café to get some coffee since I was getting a little tired and we still had so much left to do and see!

After the British Museum, we started to head back towards the London Eye because we had an appointment to take a ride on it at 7.  On our way, we found a London guard not the really cool ones at Buckingham (they were no where to be found), but a guard nonetheless.  We came up from behind and were super excited to get the most obnoxious and ridiculous London guard photos until we realized that he was just, well, depressing looking?  The photo will explain perfectly.  We felt so bad taking pictures with him and it was just awkward.  Epic fail.        

Finally got to the London Eye, which is the world's biggest ferris wheel if I remember, and got to go when it was just getting dark out.  It lasted about half an hour, and the view was incredible.  I have fallen in love with London and it is one of my favorite cities.  It's modern, but has an old English feel to it as well.  Very interesting.  It is also a relatively clean city and despite the rain off and on, I really enjoyed exploring London for the day.

After the London Eye, we headed back to the hostel to drop off our stuff and then headed out again.  We wanted to try the famous Fish and Chips, and went to a restaurant called The Anchor (yes Hope College references are necessary) only to find out that they had the chips, but ran out of the fish.  However, we managed to get free french fries out of the deal because I think the lady felt bad for us.  So we ate french fries and were content enough with those.  After The Anchor, we tried another place only to be informed that the kitchen was closed.  Shoot.  We are used to Spain where most places will still serve food past midnight, but I guess in England kitchens close around 10:00/11:00.  So we walked around some more, saw the London Bridge and the Tower of London, and called it a day.  

What an amazing day it was.  We saw practically all the "big" sights in London in a single day.  And we walked the whole thing!  We were pretty worn out by the time we finally got back to the hostel, but it was certainly worth it.  I can't wait to go back to London because there are some things that I would still like to do/see, so I guess that just means another trip to London sometime.  I'm more than ok with that.

As for me, I am tired now and have to still pack to go to León tomorrow so this is it for tonight.  I was conflicted, because I could either write a super short blog, skimming and leaving out details, or go a little more in depth and do it in sections.  I have opted for the second option.  So for today, London blog complete.  Still to come: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, London part II, Barcelona, and Girona.  So much more to come.

Back to school, back to school..

Back to school it is.  Classes and everything.  Yesterday was a super busy day with my 3 classes.  Right after classes, I had my 2 hour conversation period (intercambio) with a lady named Ana.  She took me through a park in Alcalá and we walked and talked.  One hour in English.  One hour in Spanish.  It was really nice out, except I had a huge bag plus my purse and all of my books.  Not exactly ideal for walking, but I really liked seeing the more "natural" part of Alcalá.  After my intercambio, I had what was supposed to be a half hour tutoring session to go over some material we have covered in my grammar class that I need a little more clarification on.  Well half hour turned in to an hour.  I'm just glad for the extra help though.  Hopefully it will boost my next exam grade and all this hard work will pay off.  After the tutoría, I was able to go home finally but when I got home, I had another intercambio with my host dad.  It lasted only 45 minutes because he had to go pick up my host sister, but I really like my intercambio with my host dad because I know he appreciates it, and it's fun to learn more about him (and I love hearing people speak English with different accents).

As for this weekend, I'm off to León with my program.  I believe we are going to a "bodega" aka vineyard, so that should be fun.  My director informed us that we get one glass of red, and one glass of white.  And that is all.  I am more than okay with just a few sips of each and calling it good.  I think we are also going to a cave?  I will let you know on Sunday I guess how it all goes.  

Also, I would like to say that my Spring Break blog is coming tomorrow.  With all of my tutoring sessions, homework, and intercambios it makes for a really short day.  But hopefully tomorrow I can sit down and write up the blog about my travels and add the pictures.  So until tomorrow.  All my love to everyone back home!

Time

I vowed to myself that I would do my Semana Santa experiences the day that I got back.  Epic fail.  I wrote down on a piece of paper most of what I did, but I can't bring myself to write the entire blog yet.  Sooo many amazing experiences with amazing friends both new and old.  I promise that I will write about it later this week as well as upload pics, but for now a little note about the theme of time since it has been on my mind lately.

It's funny how fast time passes.  I know I wrote about it before, or at least I think I did, but time has really gone by super fast.  I feel like this whole experience has been surreal at times.  Everywhere in Europe is literally a click away from my finger tips, and I believe that my many adventures have made my time here go by super fast.  I was talking with my host parents today, and they mentioned that I have about a month left.  I looked at the date on my computer and sure enough it says April 6.  In exactly one month, my parents and Nate will be in Alcalá de Henares, and I couldn't be happier knowing that they will be on their way soon enough.

But as I begin to think about their arrival, it is also highly bittersweet to think about the end of this time of my life.  I had to register for classes today, making it all so much more real that next semester is fast approaching.  Back to normal classes and back to Hope College.  I lucked out and have a pretty decent semester, really good hours for class, and am guaranteed a spot in a really cool class for the following Spring.  So it was a successful registration, by far most successful in my life, which is a proud accomplishment seeing as I'm half a world away (many thanks to Nate for helping sort out my classes for me as well).

But in terms of time, it also makes me realize how I will soon be moving on from my other home, my home at Hope.  I will be graduating in almost a year from now, and this is both an exciting and terrifying thought.  The real world.  Dun dun dun.  As much as I like to fool myself, I am not in the real world as a college student, and my time abroad has definitely proven this because I get to travel when I want, have my clothes washed for me, and have 5 meals, más o menos, a day prepared for me.  Definitely not the "real world."

It's hard to believe that in a little over a year, after about 18 years or so of being a student, I will finally put down my label as student and hopefully will be entering the world as a young professional or at least be able to obtain some sort of job.  It seems like just yesterday I was in elementary school, and it's fun to reminisce at times and it all goes back to what I said before: Time goes by so fast.  I'd like to end on this note.  Although my time here is almost done, there are so many more things that I want to do with this final month.  I want to be able to look back on my time in Spain and know that I did everything that I wanted to do and more.  I know that there is a reason why I am in Spain, and I can assure you that with each day I am learning and growing and becoming exactly the person that I am meant to be.  Some say that time changes everything.  However I ran across a Spanish phrase that I find appropriate: "El tiempo da buen consejo."  It means time gives good advice.  I know that with the passing of time, comes growth and for this, I am content in knowing that I am where I am supposed to be, and as I look down at the calendar on my computer, I can rest assure that the passing of time is a good thing.  A very good thing indeed.

Semana Santa

So tomorrow at 6:00 P.M., I officially begin my Semana Santa aka Spanish Spring Break.  Whoo!  I can't believe it's already time for Spring Break.  All the planning and preparing and finally it is here!  So a little run down of my plans is in order:

March 24:  Done with class at 2.  Get to train station at 3.  I told my host mom that I could "andar rápido" (walk fast) from my house to the train station but she said she would drive me.  So kind of her.  Depart from Madrid Airport in at approximately 5:00 P.M. and get to London well sometime I don't know when.  It's not on the boarding pass I printed out.

March 25:  Only full day in London, so lots of sight seeing and walking around and exploring.  I believe we are doing the London Eye that day, which I'm excited about.  Probably some telephone booth pics, as well as annoying the British guards.  Must dos.

March 26:  Depart from London to Glasgow.  Spend a few hours in Glasgow.  Get bus to Aberdeen and arrive in Aberdeen at approximately 8:00 P.M. to find Mary Cantor and Kelsey Hawkins.  Good day good day.

March 27:  Wake up and catch bus at 7:00 A.M. to Edinburgh to see the city for the day.  Head back to Aberdeen and get into Scottish shennanigans with my Scottish loves.

March 28:  Hang around Aberdeen.  Explore North Sea/Mary and Kelsey's new home.  Get into more Scottish shennanigans.

March 29:  Depart Aberdeen super early via bus and head back to Glasgow.  Go from Glasgow back to London.  Spend late afternoon/evening in the city.

March 30:  Spend the morning in London and then fly out of London and head off to Barcelona.  From here, we don't really have any set plans haha.  Chill in Barcelona?

April 3: Leave Barcelona and fly back into Madrid.  Home sweet home.

Well that is Semana Santa in a very brief nutshell.  Hopefully travel goes smoothly.  I will inform everyone if it when I return.  Lots of pics I'm sure.

Also today was a big day because I had an intercambio for 2 hours!  2 hours of conversation, one in Spanish and the other in English.  Today I finally realized that yes, my time in Spain has helped my conversation skills which was my only real goal for studying abroad in Spain.  The conversation went smoothly, I didn't fumble for words as often as I used to, and I understand Ana's spanish the entire time.  What a relief to know that after 2 months, I'm finally coming around.  Still waiting for my first Spanish dream (I've been told that once that happens, you know you're good.  Or something like that), so hopefully before I leave.  If not, I will just have to face the fact that I will never have one.  Shoot.

Well it is waaay past my bedtime.  I had two papers to write and a book to read, as well as packing my suitcase/backpack.  2 hours of conversation.  Tutoring session to try to help my grammar grade.  Stamp buying.  E-mail writing.  Walking back home because I forgot my passport.  Printing bunches of boarding passes.  Among other things.  Very stressful busy day.  But tomorrow see you later Spain and landing in London.  Perfect way to celebrate the end of a busy week.  All my love to everyone back home!

Change of Plans

Exactly what is says above.  Change of plans.


This weekend I was planning on going on my trip to Valencia for Las Fallas.  I got up on Friday morning, feeling not so great but alive, so I headed off to the train station to meet my friends.  Upon arriving to the train station at about 7 in the morning, I started to feel super sick.  But I figured it would pass.  Took the train into Madrid and then the metro to the bus stop and was seriously questioning whether I would be in good enough form to spend all night out without sleep.  Needless to say, 15 minutes before my bus left, I looked at my friend Nina and informed her that I would not be able to make the journey.  I was super sad.  I have a bag of candy and a bunch of train tickets as souvenirs of my trip to Valencia (the bag of candy is because I needed something smaller than 20€ to give the machine to get home, and I was feeling a little sorry for myself).  Yes I am a fat kid at heart.


So I returned home, crawled back into bed, and started figuring out how I was going to tell my host parents that I didn't feel good.  They had plans to go to Salamanca and I didn't want to mess up their plans, so I stayed in my room pretty much all day and slept.  I woke up feeling fine, actually better than fine, so I guess it was just a 8 hour thing?  Weird.


So I finally ventured out of my room, and my host parents had already left.  Phew.  I know they probably wouldn't have stayed home, but I didn't want to be an inconvenience and risk the chance of ruining their weekend plans.  I talked with my host sister Laura because we were home alone this weekend, my other sister went to Granada, and she said that she was having friends over if I wanted to join her tonight.  Guess that it's the same in Spain as in the U.S.: "Parents go away, children invite their friends over for a house party" (cough Tom cough).  So I got to meet some of Laura's friends and it was great to actually meet people my age.  We ate dinner together, pizza and tortillas, so a little mixture of American food as well as Spanish food.  They talked a lot of politics and it got pretty heated at times, and luckily they didn't ask me for my opinion.  Some of the hot topics were child support, banning bull fighting, and a few other Spain-related topics.  Needless to say, it was a good night of practicing my listening because they spoke super fast but I enjoyed myself.


I slept in on Saturday, and I had already planned this so as to avoid the morning.  I have had too many morning mishaps, and I was determined to finally break the spell.  So I avoided the morning all together.  Good solution.  Maybe not.  But I ensured myself no morning mishap, so hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here on out.   I hung out at home all day and successfully wrote about 24 postcards.  Ok lies.  I had some of them written from before but I found most of the addresses that I needed and put the stamps on them and wrote probably 15 of them.  They will be sent tomorrow and I hope they all reach their destinations safely.  I really wanted to go to the mall on Saturday, but decided that that probably wasn't the best idea seeing as I'm going on vacation in a few days which will be costly.  So post card writing it was.


Then last night, Laura had friends over once again only this time there were more people.  This time they just came over for drinks though.  The guys made a huge pot of mojitos, and another first, I tried my first mojito and I actually enjoyed it.  It makes me think of Tom because I know you drank those on the cruise whenever we went.  Don't lie, you did.  We also played Trivial Pursuit, of course in Spanish, and it was rather difficult and I didn't know any of the answer but I was in charge of rolling the dice and making sure the guys didn't cheat.  It was a pretty agreeable job.  Even though I didn't know the answers, it was still fun to be a part of it.


After Trivial Pursuit, we headed out.  Given this was at about 1:30/2:00 A.M.ish.  We went to a small bar in a little neighborhood that I have not been to.  Luckily my friend Claire came with her sister so I had someone familiar with me all night.  The first bar was a little small and crowded but it was fun because it was mainly local Spaniards, not all the drunk American students that I usually see.  The picture to the left is of us at the first club.  Pilar, Claire, me obviously, Sarah (Claire's sister), and then my sister Laura.  Around 3:00ish we headed off to "La Garena" which is near where my hotel was the first night, and is the huge party zone.  It has a plaza of a bunch of clubs and I can't remember the name of the clubs that we went to, maybe Glass Café and Kabboi but I'm not sure.  After finally deciding to head home, Laura's friends said they wanted "hamburgesas" (hamburgers in case that one threw you for a loop), and we drove to the McDonald's near our house.  Too bad it was a super long line and we decided to forego the fast food and just eat at home.  So at 6:30ish Laura, myself, and her two guy friends were eating sandwiches and cereal around the kitchen table, looking extremely tired.  Successful end to a great evening.  I have to say that I was nervous to go out with Laura and her friends but it was so much more fun than I thought it would be, and I would definitely go again if she invited me.  Her friends were very understanding of the fact that my Spanish wasn't great, and they were very helpful.  Overall a very fun weekend, probably one of the funniest that I've had since I've been abroad.  


Today I spent a lot of my day sleeping and doing homework.  I have to read a book for my grammar class and decided against the book that my professor recommended me, mainly because it was super long (335 pages).  My host sister Cristina gave me a different book, much shorter, only 135 pages and I think that's more realistic for me.  So today was pretty relaxing, ate dinner at Claire's house again, and hung around the house.  Very good weekend.  So even though I thought my plans had fallen through, this was probably an even better alternative than going to Fallas.


A little bit of this week's schedule.  I leave on Wednesday for England, specifically London first and then on Friday I leave from London to go to Scotland to finally be reunited with my loves, Mary Cantor and Kelsey Hawkins.  I can't wait!  From Scotland, it's back to London and then off to Barcelona for a few days and then back to Madrid.  It's weird but flights are always cheaper to go to Barcelona first and then to Madrid.  But I'm excited beyond words to finally see some familiar Hope faces, and there is a possibility of running into another friend in Barcelona because she's staying at the same hostel as my friends and I.  I guess, "It's a Small World After All" (for you Norm since you're in Disney).  This week will be super busy, but I'll try to write another post on Tuesday once I have a few more details to my week.  Hope everyone enjoyed the good weather at home, I hear it's snowing now, but Spring is right around the corner, and it is definitely here to stay in Spain.  Hooray!

8:06 A.M., class starts at 8:30 A.M., 35/40 minute walk...you do the math...

So quick little blurp about yesterday morning.  Morning number 2 of epic fails.  I woke up at 8:06, and because we have to make up class, we had class at 8:30 instead of 9:00.  Great.  So I threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, put in my contacts, washed my face, and ran out the door.  I felt bad because my host mom asked if I wanted food, but I didn't have time.

In short, I ended up running to class.  Boo.  I bet I looked pretty funny running to class, but it was quite the painful experience (literally I have a bruise on my hip from my purse hitting my side over and over again that's probably about 3 inches long).  Lesson learned.

When I showed up to class, I was only 5 minutes late.  Still technically on time since I have 10 minutes before it counts as an absence.  We also got our test back a few minutes after walking in the door.  Definitely did not do well.  At all.  Worst test of my life I believe?  Oh well, guess I need to have some more tutorías with Fausto.  Shoot.

But today I'm taking the train into Madrid to catch a bus to go to Valencia.  Valencia is about 5 hours away, and there's a huge festival going on in Valencia this weekend called "Las Fallas."  Pretty much, from what I've heard is that it's a lot of fun, and people light stuff on fire?  I'm game.  My friends and I are staying up all night and then taking the bus back at 6:00 A.M. to Madrid.  Should make for an interesting night.  Well I need to get going because I have to leave in about 30 minutes, but I'll be back tomorrow sometime and will let you know how everything goes.  ¡Adios!