Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad/Buon Natale

This is me officially appologizing for not keeping this updated. I promise once I'm back in Cáceres I'll give you an update on my life so long you probably won't really want to read it. Travelling is hard!

Quick update to keep you occupied:

Since November 22nd, I've been to Salamanca, Sevilla, London, Madrid (again), Lisbon (again), Florence, Venice, and now I'm in Rome. Yeahhhh that's going to be a long update.

I'm missing everyone from home lots and wish everyone a happy and safe holiday!

Monday, November 22, 2010

I really can't bear to put all this in one post

The other weekend (so yes, it was almost 3 weeks ago at this point- shhh), we went on a 22km (about 14 mile) hike with a hiking club. Elizabeth's piano teacher had told her about it so we decided to sign up. We left at 7:30 in the morning with a huge group (about 60 people, some wearing tennis shoes, some with intense hiking gear) and drove to an area called the Valle Ambroz. It was absolutely gorgeous and we met some pretty cool people and saw a 700 year old chestnut tree. I couldn't move for about two days after, but it was definitely worth it. Can't explain how pretty it was so I'll just post some pictures. Click on any of them to make them bigger. In summary: cow up close; Elizabeth, Maggie and me on a bridge; really old tree; there's fall here (!); "wild" Spanish horses; beautiful; donkey up close; blah blah blah, pretty pictures; chestnuts are REALLY ugly; jamón in the wild; more pretty landscape. Enjoy!












Sunday, November 14, 2010

Warning: Novel

Yes, yes, yes. I'm 2 weeks behind. I realize. Let's play catch up. Although I'm warning you now there will be no pictures in this post and I won't be very witty. Wow that makes me not even want to keep writing, let alone read this. Shoot. Ok, maybe I'll make an effort.

Two weekends ago I made a very spontaneous decision to change my long weekend plans from going to Zaragoza (an uninformed vacation choice made in the first few weeks and planned by other people) to go to Portugal. I refunded most of my bus ticket (the TEN HOUR bus ride) to Zaragoza for the next day and bought a train ticket to Lisboa with a different group of K students leaving that night. Very spontaneous, but one of the best decisions I've ever made.

We took the train over night and got in to Lisbon the next morning, checked into our hostel, and napped for a couple of hours. It was raining a lot, but we ended up walking around town for a bit anyway before stopping at a restaurant for lunch.
Sweet plaza by our hostel despite the construction

Portugal is famous for their cod (bacalhau: pronounced vaca-joww in portuguese) and we had a huge and delicious 2 hour meal.
    
Delicious. And floating in Oil.
Portugal is also known for its coffee (according to my host family, it's the best coffee in the world, and I must say I have to agree. It comes in espresso form in a tiny little cup but takes forever to drink because you have to take tiny sips. It's so strong it's almost thick, but it's so so delicious.

By this time it had stopped raining, so we walked around some more, exploring the neighborhoods. Lisbon is an absolutely gorgeous city. Most of the buildings are tiled on the outside, which I was obsessed with.

The city is on a hill, so at the top, we found a beautiful church that looked over the whole city. (click if you want to see it bigger: I told you it was beautiful)
That night, we walked around some more and found a really neat lookout onto the mouth of the river (that becomes the ocean). We were standing there looking out at the water, wondering why it looked super foamy when we realized it was because we were surrounded by thousands of fish! It was so disgusting, they were packed together so tightly they would occasionally jump out of the water. I literally took about 25 pictures of them, but I'll spare you.

The next day, it was raining pretty hard again so we decided to take the train to Sintra, a small town about 45 minutes away from Lisbon. Buying train tickets in Portuguese was an interesting experience. It was nice to get out of the rain for a while on the train, but it was raining even harder whn we got there, which was a shame because most of the things to see there are outdoor castles etc. Nevertheless, it was amazingly beautiful. When I buy my European summer home it's going to be in Sintra.
Stupid picture, but did you know umbrellas will actually do this if it's windy enough??
To get out of the rain, we ate lunch for a couple hours again (accompanied by wine and coffee of course), then walked around one of the palaces. The rooms inside were really cool. There were these two strange conical towers which we realized were actually huge chimneys from the kitchen. They just had huge roasting racks over a fire right on the floor. Pretty intense.

Sunday, we went to Belém, which is sort of like a suburb of Lisbon. There's a pretty cool tower there right on the water and a giant cathedral.
My camera battery died right after I took this picture and I was super sad, but Elizabeth let me use hers so it ended up alright. (Although I've yet to get any of the pictures from her). We then went in search of the pasteis do Belém (famous pastries originating from a factory there). We eventually found the factory, which turned out to have a million tables inside and got some of the pastries (and café com leitche) which were delicious.

After that, we went to the Castelo do São Jorge which is located looking over the city. It was really pretty, and there were actual peacocks running around! Pretty sweet. There was also a moat, which I was really excited about. After eating (more bacalhau) we wandered around the city some more. Our train didn't leave until 11:30 so we had lots of time to kill. It started raining again so we stopped in a café and got some port wine (which is from Porto, a city just north of Lisbon). I had a sweet picture of the plaza we were sitting outside of, but it's not letting me upload it right now.




My host sister used to live in Portugal so she had given me a list of things to do while we were there. So far everything she'd recommended had been amazing, so we decided to give the last attraction a shot: the Santa Justa elevator. It's a strange looking elevator located in the middle of the city. There was a super long line, so we figured it must be great. 3 euros and a 30 second elevator ride later, we were about 4 floors up looking at the city through a chain link fence. The elevator is attached to a building behind it by a walkway which goes next to an old cathedral which we'd actually been wondering how to see it up close. However, the exit to this so called "Eiffel Tower equivalent in Portugal" was a back entrance into a courtyard on a hill we'd been standing in 30 minutes earlier. The gate was open. So essentially we paid $5 to ride up 3 floors on an old elevator. It was so ridiculous it was hilarious, and we couldn't stop laughing the whole way back to the hostel.
The Eiffel Tower if there was a back entrance out the top.
Overall very successful trip.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Weekend in Madrid (ie. not enough time to see anything)

Hello all! Sorry it's been a while, I've been incredibly busy. Actually, I feel like I say that all the time, but it's true. I actually just got back from a trip to Portugal this morning, but that's for another post. Anyway, let me catch up. Last weekend my program went on an excursion to Madrid! (Prepare yourselves for an enormous post)

We got there early Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel. It was a really nice hotel and the rooms were really big with only two people per room. It was really funny, because no one could figure out how to turn the lights on. It turns out you have to leave your room key in a slot by the door in order to work any of the electricity. Energy efficient I suppose, but I was pretty concerned for a while that we had no power. We had some free time after that, so we walked along the Gran Via which is the main commercial street in Madrid and shopped a little (huge H&M? Yesssss). There were so many people speaking English it was really weird. At one point, we passed a souvenir shop and the ladies walked by and one of them goes "Ohhhh! Remember where this is because I want to come back and get stuff for my son!!" (in a strong southern accent). We all looked at each other and immediately switched to speaking Spanish.

The whole group met up a little later to do a scavenger hunt (or in spanish a gymkana) where we had to wander around Madrid and answer questions about certain buildings and ask strangers questions about Spanish culture. Not really my ideal way of getting to know the city, and my group couldn't find a lot of the locations. After that we were all super hungry and tired so we headed back to the hotel. Everyone was so tired from traveling/walking all day that no one ended up going out (which was sort of crazy considering it was a Friday night and we were in Madrid, the city that literally never sleeps).

The next morning, I woke up with horrible heartburn and ended up walking with my friend up the Gran Via looking for Aquarius (a drink similar to Gatorade) in my sweatpants. Pretty ridiculous. After I was feeling better some of my friends wanted to head out and go shopping. I went with them for a little while, and then me and Colleen decided to go check out the Parque de Retiros which is a huge park in Madrid that's super beautiful. We were super tired, so we took a quick nap in the sun (sounds weird, but there were people, well mostly cute couples, laying around everywhere).
FALL COLORS!!!
We then met up with the group at the Prado, which is one of (if not the) best art museums in the world (even better than the Lourve for its paintings apparently). It was really amazing, and I got to see a ton of famous art in person (Goya, el Greco etc). It would've been really nice to have more time though, because it's a huge museum and therefore we only saw about a tenth of it.

Las Meninas. I was told immediately after I took this that you weren't allowed to take pictures.
 After looking around for a few hours, we went to the Reina Sofía, which is a museum of contemporary art. I loved this museum. Probably its most famous work of art is La Guernica by Picasso (if you don't know, it depicts the Spanish civil war). The museum also contained all of Picasso's studies of the painting which were really interesting to see how the idea developed. The museum had a ton of Dalí and Magritte and so many other great painters.
You were allowed to take photos in the whole museum except the room with the Guernica
At this point, we were all exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was go to Kapital, the 7 story club Madrid is famous for. Colleen and I decided we'd walk back to the hotel, change clothes, and have a super leisurely dinner. After walking back for about half an hour, consulting the map every few blocks, we realized we were farther from the hotel than when we started. If you've never looked at a map of Madrid please do now. If you zoom in, you'll notice there's absolutely no order to any of the streets.

We called the girls we were going to meet for dinner and asked them to come meet us because if we walked all the way back to the hotel we'd never leave. We sat in a Plaza waiting for them and people watching (and freezing...). There were these really cool flower stands that looked like boxes around us that closed up into cubes at night.
We finally met up with the other girls and walked to a plaza we'd accidentally stumbled on that looked like it had good restaurants. We ended up having an amazing meal at a very authentic restaurant which was really nice. The place was packed, and we were squeezed up between another table and the corner where they served the jamón. It was pretty cool.
Ironically, our meal was all the same color but it was sooooo delicious. We had manchego cheese (super famous cheese from Spain), tortilla española (like an omlette with potatoes), and the best calamari I've ever eaten in my entire life.

After eating, we wandered back to the hotel through the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol (another very famous plaza). In the Puerta del Sol is the "kilómetro cero" (kilometer 0) where all distances in Spain are measured from. There's a plaque in the ground, and I made the whole group go sarch for  it with me, only to find a Spaniard standing half on it, intensely absorbed in a conversation. (I took a picture of it anyway, random man's leg and all). Here's me, Colleen, and Elizabeth by one of the fountains in the plaza:


Sunday morning, we checked out of the hotel and walked to the Palacio Real. The inside of the palace was incredible. Elizabeth and I fell so behind the group because we had to stop and gasp at every room. It was a good thing you weren't allowed to take pictures inside because I would've been there for days. We also visited the armory which contains the biggest collection of armor in Europe (or maybe Spain, I can't remember, but it was impressive either way) and the cathedral.
Palacio Real
More Palacio (inside the main courtyard)
We looked pretty funny standing around with our audio guides.
After that we all split up and found another awesome restaurant to eat lunch before catching the bus home. It was a really great trip in spite of getting sick, but I'm definitely going to have to go back to see more of it. There were a ton of places I didn't get to. I was glad to get back to Cáceres after being in such a big city with so many people and so much to do. I missed my siestas!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Guadalupe y Trujillo




Speaking of food, check out what my madre brought home the other day:
Yes, that's an entire leg of jamón serrano (complete with foot hidden behind tin foil decoration). When I told my madre I wanted to take a picture, she made me wait until she decorated it and put her cake in front of it (it's called a gypsy's arm- white cake rolled with homemade plum preserves as filling).

Last weekend, my program took us on an excursion to Guadelupe and Trujillo, two towns not too far from Cáceres. Guadelupe is famous for its monastary in which resides the most famous statue of the virgin of Guadelupe. Apparently, many people make pilgrimages here to pray to her. The monastary was beautiful and it was interesting to be in such an important religious building. There was actually a mass going on while we were taking the tour.

Courtyard (it was actually green because it had just rained!)

One of my favorite parts of the building was a room in which the old choir books were kept. Old as in massive hand painted leather-bound volumes, so heavy they had wheels attached to the bottoms to make it easier to move. Also, in order for everyone to be able to read from the same book the writing was huge! With the music, there was probably less than a sentence on each page. The drawings were very  beautiful, with crazy detail and lots of gold paint which I liked.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the church, or else I would have some crazy things to show you. There was an entire room dedicated to the crowns made for the virgin (diamond and gold and filled with precious stones). There were also all these wooden hands and when I asked what the significance of them was, I realized that they were actually hollow and contained the bones of saints. It was pretty crazy.

We finally got into the room where the statue of the virgin was and it was pretty hectic. It was really crowded, and there was a line that formed so people could file past the nook where she was and kiss a picture of her. I didn't kiss the picture but I did get a pretty close look at the statue. It was surprisingly small although dressed in an incredible (and very triangular) embroidered dress and was wearing a super fancy crown. The thing that was most surprising was that the actual statue was made out of wood, and so it was dark skinned, which was slightly shocking after seeing painting after painting of white saints and religious people. The story behind this particular statue is that it was found buried in the ground (and according to the paintings came out glowing), although these stories were made up in order to have a miraculous background.

At this point we were all starving, but our professor had us walk to another part of the city to see a hospital type building.  Walking through the curving cobbled streets was really awesome, because between the buildings you could see the incredible landscape. The countryside where Guadalupe is is gorgeous, filled with mountains and valleys.
This is where people used to come to get water.
Although the hospital where the monks used to make medicines wasn't very interesting because we couldn't go inside past the main courtyard, there was a great view from the stairs in front.

After that, we all climbed back on our bus and drove to Trujillo, a very historic city where Pizarro (the conquistador of Peru) was from. Apparently many of the Spanish conquistadors were from Extremadura because since it is a poor region of Spain, they had the most to gain from treasure seeking in the new world.

The city was cool because it was built on a hill and as you climbed away from the main plaza, you were in a way walking back into time (Catholic -> Roman -> Muslim). It was an extremely beautiful and I felt really cool walking through such an old city. When we reached the top of the city we were at the oldest part, where there was a castle that we got to walk around in (not really in so much as on- it was pretty much turreted walls with towers at the corners). It was my first castle experience and it was pretty cool. A little bit scary because the turrets are far enough apart and low enough in between to make you nervous.
That tower you see in the upper left was separate from the rest of the castle so that if it was overtaken they could destroy the middle bridge and strand the enemies on the tower
That's all for now. I've got to go write a paper and prepare a presentation for school tomorrow (I still don't understand how they think they can give us homework here). I'll leave you with a view:

Thursday, October 7, 2010

And so it begins.

¡Buenas! (as in buenas tardes or good afternoon)

Life here never stops (except on Sunday's and between 2 and 5 every day, but nevertheless...). I started my University classes last Thursday, so this has been my first full week of school. I've switched from Archeology of Rome to International Migration. I had gone to class that fist day and not understood a single word of what the professor was saying except something about needing prior knowledge of Roman culture. When I approached her after class, explaining that I was an international student and was slightly confused she didn't slow down her talking at all! Pretty terrible first day experience. International migration is slightly better. The prof is still super hard to understand, but there is another girl from my program and a German ERASMUS (the European international students) who are struggling along with me. The proffesor does a lot of dication of definitions and it's funny (but slightly not at all) because when I read over what I wrote down later, there's tons of made up words and things that just don't make sense at all.

The teaching english class has been good so far, easy (although I feel like I'm cheating slightly) but a great place to meet Spanish students who want to improve their english. Also it will be super usefull if I ever want to teach abroad. A lot of the stuff we're talking about in class so far is activities and introduction type stuff that we did all the time at camp!

Whoever told me we don't ever have homework was exaggerating slightly. Or maybe I'm taking the wrong classes, because I definetly have homework. Papers and presentations in 4/5 of my classes. Long papers. Like, 8-10 pages (in Spanish...). On top of that, we've started our ICRPs (Inter-cultural research project). I am going to be working at an elementary school a few days a week helping out in the english classrooms. I haven't started yet, but I think it will be pretty fun. Spanish kids are SO cute (not to mention better at spanish than me).

Don't worry though (Mom and Dad), even though I'm busy I'm still having a great time. This weekend, we're taking an excursion with our program to Guadelupe and Trujillo. I missed the informational session on it today because I had a meeting for my ICRP, so I'm not sure what we'll be doing or seeing, but I'm excited to see more of Spain.

Hasta Luego

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Markets, Mérida, and Mountains

I've been so busy lately it is crazy. Last week we had orientation activities in which they told us about all the cultural faux-pas we've all been making since we got here. Some interesting facts: you NEVER are barefoot at home (always wear slippers), hands above the table as you eat, always say hello and goodbye when you enter/leave rooms, Spanish people don't say please or thank you as much as Americans (it is much more serious), people from Extremadura (the region I'm in) are extra impossible to understand, and much more.

We also got placed into our Spanish classes, and chose our University classes. My first day of class is tomorrow because today there is a general strike in Spain and the buses are not running. My first class is Archaeology of Rome (a University class with no one I know in it!) at 9 tomorrow morning-- school again? What? I'm also taking Teaching English as a foreign language with the University. My K classes (with only other students from my program) are Art and Culture, Images (some sort of culture class), and Spanish.

 On Wednesdays during the summer there's a huge outdoor market that happens, where they sell food, clothes, shoes, fabric, and jewlery. All the vendors are constantly shouting for your attention. "¡Un Euro, Un Euro, Un Euro!" (One Euro, but when they say it, it ends up sounding more like oon-eh-oorow-oon-eh-oorow-oon-eh-oorow).

All the food at the market looked so good. They had rows upon rows of fruit. Spanish fruit is so good. I don't know what's so different about it, but I've had the best peach of my life, and the sweetest melon ever here.



 They also had tons of vegetables (note the giant peppers), all sorts of breads and pastries, and of course jamón, chorizo, and queso (ham, sausage, and cheese for all my non-spanish speakers out there).
I actually went back to the market today and bought a ring and some cough drops (knock on wood I'm not getting sick).

We took a trip out to a contemporary art museam, el Museo Malpartida, created in an old wool washing facility by the German artist Vostell. The museam is out in the campo (countryside) and it was really refreshing to see some new landscape. There were also a ton of sheep, which was kind of cool to see. Vostell's art focused on critisim of today's consumer driven world, and the installations were very dark and mechanical. We then followed the docent out a door and suddenly found ourselves standing at the edge of a giant resevoir looking out over a stormy sky and beautiful rounded boulders. It was really breathtaking. It was the first day it wasn't overwhelmingly hot, and I was sad that we didn't have time to walk the path around the lake.
On the way into the museum.

Am I still in Spain?

On Saturday we had our first mini excursion to a town called  Mérida, which is only about 45 minutes away. Mérida is home to some of the most well preserved roman ruins around. It was so cool. Words probably can't do it justice, so I'll just show you:
Aquaducts
Second longest roman bridge

Amphitheater (interesting fact: sometimes they would fill it with water and have ship battles)

Theater


Me, Colleen, and the goddess of cereal (no joke)

Ruins of a GIANT roman house

Flan. My new obsession.

Among other things we did in Cáceres over the last week was to climb the mountain that overlooks the city. It isn't a mountain in the sense that you need gear to climb it, rather just a very large hill, but in Spain's flat landscape it's pretty impressive. The street winds up and up for a long time past gorgeous villas and endless landscape until you reach the top where there's a church and a huge statue of the patron saint of Cáceres, Santa María. There were tons of people walking up the mountain, and apprently there are many who get up and climb it at 5:30 every morning. I imagine the sunrise is amazing from up there.
You can see my university from the top. (Very small, but it's the lighter colored building just above the brick one in the middle right hand side)

Cáceres

View of the old city on the way back into town