The Final Days of Siesta

I can’t believe my study abroad experience has already been over for 3 days now! I’m sorry that I haven’t blogged in such a long time. I plan on this just being a short summary of my final days in Madrid.

On Saturday, my friends and I met up for lunch at Mercado San Anton. The first floor of the market has produce and deli style cheese, meats, and seafood along with bread and pastries, then the second floor has food vendors to buy cooked food from. It was probably my favorite eatery in Spain, but the best thing I got was the Gouda Pesto cheese. For realz. Then we went shopping at Tribunal. I didn’t get anything 😦 Then we went to the old post office, which is actually the Cibeles Cultural Center that my friends always study at. There’s an observatory at the top that we went to for free. We could see the entire city! It was beautiful! Then, I went home for dinner. After that, I went back out to go to an outdoor concert. It was .. strange. Then we ended the night at a Rock and Roll club.

On Sunday, I went to Spanish mass with Christina! It was my first Catholic mass and it was interesting 🙂 I was even able to understand part of the Scripture reading to be part of John 6! It was cool. Then we went to Lavepies with Katie and Jamie to eat Indian food. It wasn’t awesome but it was enough to satisfy my craving til I get back to Berkeley. Then Christina and I went to tan, study, and sleep in Retiro park. Billy joined us later. Then, it started raining -__- Worst tanning session ever, but we still had fun!

On Monday, after school, we went to Toledo. It wasn’t that interesting of a town but I did so much shopping there! The jewelry is so beautiful! I got 2 pairs of earrings for myself 🙂

On Tuesday, after class, I went with Christina and Helen to this really good pasta place. Then we met up with Marissa and Kendra and  attempted to go to 2 different museums that were both closed. Instead, we went to eat gelato! I went home afterwards, but soon went back out to go to an Ice Bar. The guy took a free photoshoot for us! It was really cool. I thought I was crazy for doing this since I hadn’t studied for my final yet, but it was totally worth it.

On Wednesday, after taking my final, we went to Mercado San Miguel for lunch. I had paella and ice cream 🙂 Then I went shopping by myself. It was pretty successful. Then I went home to start packing. After dinner, I went back out to meet up with Winnie! It was nice to  be able to meet up with a friend from Berkeley. Then I ran into some friends from the program, and we went out for a night of more fun.

On Thursday, we went to school just to get our finals back. I got a 100% on my final! I was so happy! I really accomplished what I set out to do in Spain- raise my GPA (among other things). We went out for a final lunch at Mercado San Anton. Then I dragged Shawn to come shopping with me as we waited for our last class to start. We went to another market called Mercado San Miguel for our last class, then we went to meet up with Katie, Christina, Natalie, and Billy at the Madrid Rio park. It was really hot, so I decided to run through the fountains while I was wearing a dress.. LOL. Then Christina and I decided to go get water or soda, but instead, we found this bar in the middle of the park and decided to share a jar of sangria. It was delicious! When we got back to the rest of the group, we hung out for a bit, before we saw a news crew! They ended up taping my friends and I saying “hace calor” and they asked us what sounds remind us of summer. Then, I went home to finish the rest of my packing. At dinner, I was able to watch myself on the news 🙂 That night, we just celebrated our last time being together.

I left at 8 am and took all my things with me on the metro. I felt pretty good for being able to do that, and not go over the weight limit on my luggage. I hung out with Marissa, Helen, and Ashanti. Marissa and I ended up buying drinks for the very last time til we turn 21. We got on the plane to Philadelphia, and I finally watched Hunger Games! When we landed, Zach picked us up and took us to get philly cheese steaks. Finally, we went home.

What an amazing summer this has been! I plan on making one more post before I stop blogging here for good. Til then, I’m going to enjoy the few days I have in SoCal.

On light and algae

So I was flying over London, yeah? And once you get past the massive box of light that is the Olympic stadium, in the heart of all the other lines of yellow and white, in the center of everything that is population and English and city, it gets out in the surrounding ‘burbs.

And then the towns look like glowing bits of floating yellow algae in a sea of dark and land. Like little oases of warmth and life in the expanse of nighttime abandonment. Now, you can say that nothing man-made will ever come close to what is naturally shaped; but I think we’re natural too, no? And sometimes we do okay.

— K.

P.S. Apologies for going AWOL. I’m starting my stack of catch-up drafts!

My Super Spontaneous Spanish Day Trip

Unlike my fellow sister Kylie, I am not spontaneous. I may like to do risky things every once in a while, but I absolutely hate not having plans and just “going with the flow of things”. However, this weekend I decided to let loose a little. A combination of wanting to see more of Spain, having a bad week, and it being my last weekend made me decide that I wanted to get out of Madrid for a bit. To do what or go where? I had no idea. I narrowed down my choices to Granada, Valencia, and San Sebastian. Most of my friends were either spending the whole weekend in Granada or staying in Madrid. Neither appealed to me, so when I heard that my friend Billy was going to Valencia for a day, I decided to jump on the opportunity last minute.

We got to the Madrid bus station at 7 am. I’m pretty sure both of slept for almost the entire ride because I don’t remember much of it.. except for arriving at 11. We were met by Billy’s aunt’s sister-in-law and her husband. They took us to their car and drove us to their apartment. We rested for a short bit and figured out what to do for the day.

We left at around 12 and they took us on a driving tour of the city. It honestly isn’t the most exciting city, so it was wonderful being able to see all the main touristy things in a air-conditioned car. We finished at almost 1 and went to the beach to find a place for lunch. We ended up at a restaurant called La Marcelina. We had this bread with garlic and olive oil to start, then a platter of fried calamari, cuttlefish, and this one other fish to share. The seafood was so fresh! Then we got to what I had been waiting for- PAELLA. Paella was originated in Valencia, so I was excited to be able to try it. I hadn’t been anywhere with extremely exceptional paella, which was a disappointment, so I had really high expectations coming here. We each had half a plate of seafood paella and half a plate of paella Valenciana, which is basically vegetables and chicken. After one bite, I was about to die and go to heaven. This paella makes me feel disgusted by all the crappy paella I had eaten thus far.. no other paella can even compare to this. It was probably the best thing I’ve eaten in Spain thus far, especially the seafood paella! For dessert, I had a glass of lemon sorbet to clean my pallet.

After lunch, Billy’s aunt’s sister-in-law and husband drove us to the Oceanografico. This was probably one of the main reasons I wanted go to Valencia. I heard they had a penguin exhibit and for 3 euros, you could feed the penguins at a certain time. I was disappointed to find out when I got there that there was a limit to how many people could feed the penguins and it was already sold out for the day. That was simply a minor setback because this was by far the best aquarium I had ever been to! The area was large and there were many different animals to see. A few of my favorites were the sharks, sun fish, beluga whales, and walrus. Then of course, my absolute favorite- PENGUINS. There were 3 species: 1 outdoor, which I suspect to have been Magellanic penguins and were malting their feathers, and 2 indoor penguins, which were the Gentoo and King variety. I flipped out. They were so cute! After that, we went to the dolphin show (yeah.. AT THE AQUARIUM). The English translation of the show was terrible, but luckily I enough Spanish to still enjoy the show. The dolphins and trainers were spectacular!

For 2 euros more than the original price of entering the Oceanografico, we could enter the science museum. That was a blast too! I think my favorite exhibit was one about sports and health. I was finally able to weigh myself and I found out that I have lost almost 10 pounds since coming to Spain! That was exciting! I also found out my vertical leap is 35 cm! I was quite impressed with myself since I haven’t been working out or playing basketball in a long time. The other important thing was that I beat/matched Billy’s score 😉 hahaha. One other interesting exhibit we saw was about memory and the way our brain works. It was very interesting to see how our brains reacted to the experiments. The other exhibit we enjoyed was one about Marvel superheroes and the science behind their abilities. Unfortunately, we were about to leave soon so we didn’t spend too much time there.

After, we walked around the park a little bit. I jumped in this pond/fountain just for fun! Then, we got picked up to go to the bus station and went home. We slept most of the way home, but woke up because the movie playing was Air Bud.. hahaha.

Overall, it was a splendid day. I am pleasantly satisfied with my decision to spontaneous for once. Maybe this is something I should try more often. I hope to more unexpected surprises throughout my last week in Madrid!

-A.

The Final Stretch

For my last weekend in Ireland, we didn’t hold back. Three day tours back to back to back in fact– Friday through Sunday. Friday we went to Wicklow, although I don’t remember too much of it. I was going off of zero hours of sleep because of this final paper due that same morning, so I mainly slept my way through the bus tour. However, I do remember something about a chicken that had escaped its pen, about sheep wool and colourful blankets, and did I pretend to be nymph? I must have pictures of this trip somewhere….

Saturday, bright ‘n early, we headed for Cork and the Blarney Castle. We took many a stop through picturesque seaside towns like Kilsale and Cobh, but the highlight was definitely kissing the Blarney Stone. So to kiss this magic stone you have to lie on your back and extend your neck off of the top floor of the castle, which sounds pretty risky, but you don’t really KNOW how crazy scary it is unless you try it. You not only have to lie down and extend over the ledge, you have to LEAN DOWNWARD! And if you’re tiny like me, half your body goes off the side of the castle! Luckily there are iron bars you must hold on to to ensure that you don’t slip to your death, and there’s a man who “holds” your legs. But with a quick little smooch you’re on your way, enchanted with “the gift of the gab.” 🙂 The Poisonous Garden on the grounds was interesting too.

And if Saturday wasn’t action-packed enough, on Sunday we embarked for the Ring of Kerry. Another very long bus trip, more rushed sight seeing of little towns, but if you ask me, it was all worth it. The landscape in the Southern coast of Ireland is amazing. I’ve been in Ireland for almost two months and the green hills, the rocks, the cliffs, the woodlands, the water, the ruins still take my breath away.

It was a nice way to end my stay in this lovely land.

–S.

BarTHelona

Just in case you don’t understand the title of this post, in Spain, they pronounce any ‘seh’ or ‘zeh’ sounds as ‘th’. It was a little odd to adjust to at first when I arrived in Madrid, but I got used to it. Unfortunately, Barcelona’s language is even more complex. Most Spanish speakers speak the dialect of Castallano, but in Barcelona, they speak Catalan. It isn’t too different, but still a bit difficult to understand. Unfortunately, that may have been one of the least complicated portions of our trip.

I found out that one of the metros near my homestay takes me directly to the airport. So I hopped on it and was lucky enough to meet Katie on it a few stops later. We got to the airport, went through the most lax and chill airport security ever, then headed to our boarding gate. We were definitely ready for a fun weekend in Barcelona! I went to get coffee and when I came back, Katie informed me that our plane was going to be delayed an hour. It was 11 pm at this point. It was a minor setback but not much of a problem. We patiently waited, but when we saw no sign of a plane, I decided to ask the lady at the boarding desk what was going on. She basically told me that the plane that’s flying us to Barcelona was still in Barcelona and they didn’t know when it would leave. Katie and I basically spent the next 4 hours walking around, napping in uncomfortable places, and eating at McDonald’s. We finally landed in Barcelona at around 6 am and got to our hostel at 7 am.

We woke up at noon to go exploring. First, we went to the Olympic Stadium. It was beautiful! I had so much fun relishing in all the history that had taken place there, especially the thought of the 1992 Dream Team being there. I was gushing. We also saw Palau Sant Jordi, the communication tower, the Olympic museum, the Olympic pool, and the palace at Montujic. I was also geeking out about the fact that the current USA basketball team was there at those places only a few days ago. Then we went to Las Ramblas, which is a street with lots of stores and this really cool market. Then we walked along the pier/beach and all the way back to our hostel. My feet were killing me! We rested for a bit, then went to go find this bar that Katie found that we speculated would broadcast the Olympics opening ceremony and it received great reviews for their burgers. We got off the metro at the correct station at 9:30 pm and walked around looking for the bar for about 45 min. We had pretty much given up, but then we found it! It was so exciting that we forgot to take pictures of our delicious burgers and mojitos. We were only 15 min late for the opening ceremony and were able to watch it on a large screen and it was on the BBC channel (yay English!). We left after the Columbian flag bearer and got back to the hostel to watch the rest of it in our room right as Lithuania came on. We finished watching the ceremony then went to sleep.

We woke up at 9 the next morning and went out for a day of checking out Antoni Gaudi’s architecture. We started with the Sagrada Familia. It was beautiful! Apparently, Gaudi wasn’t appreciated during his time, and I could definitely see why. His work was very untraditional. There were many bright colors and odd shapes. Later, when we went to an exhibit right outside the cathedral, we found out he drew his inspiration from nature. Many of the so-called odd shapes were actually designed after plants or animals. It was very interesting. Then we went to Park Guell. Everyone else who had went said it was their favorite thing, so I had high expectations for it, which were not met. I expected the park to be more like Retiro’s, but instead it was very hot and humid and the park had lots of sand. It was also almost all uphill walking, which I absolutely hate, so we only went to see the necessary things, then left. It was also just very crowded. I wasn’t a huge fan of it. Then we went to see some houses that Gaudi built. After that, we went to lunch. We tried to find this place that Katie found for good sandwiches, but Trip Adviser led us astray again -__- We ended up at this small restaurant near the metro station. Then, we went back to the hostel to get our bikinis on to go to the beach! It was so relaxing. The sand was so soft and I took an hour nap. It was wonderful. It was just very crowded. Then we went home, showered, and went back to Montujic to watch the magic fountain show in front of the palace. It was really pretty and fun to watch, but again, there were just too many people and we couldn’t tell when the show was starting or ending. We stayed for about 20ish minutes, then we went to a restaurant that Katie found. They served gourmet Catalan “pizza”. It may have been the best meal that I’ve had in Spain so far! I had a “pizza” with gorgonzola, mushrooms, and walnuts. Katie and I also shared a salmon and guacamole salad. After that, we went to get gelato at place recommended to me by Winnie. The biscotti gelato was probably the best gelato I’ve ever had. I wanted seconds! Then we went home and went to sleep.

On Sunday, we got up at around 8 to begin exploring the gothic region of Barcelona. Honestly, we didn’t see anything too exciting, but we did buy a few souvenirs. Then we rested at the hostel a bit before getting to the airport early. We wanted to see if we could fly back to Madrid early, and we could, so we did!

It was a very long weekend. Although I had a lot of fun, we were tired most of the time. I think  the lack of sleep from the 5 hour plane delay just wasn’t a good start. I also feel like Barcelona is way too tourist-y for me. It is definitely a place worth checking out, but I would’ve been find stay one night instead of three. If I had stayed longer, I would’ve gone to the chocolate museum and I would’ve stayed at the beach longer, but I was just so pooped by the end of the weekend that I wanted to be back in Madrid. It was also really humid. If I had to pick between really high temperatures in a dry place or normal temperatures in a humid place, I’d pick the dry place. I just absolutely hate humidity.

I’d also just like to give a big shoutout to Katie. I usually really enjoy planning trips and being the person to guide the way, but it was a nice change of pace to be able to just follow for once. Katie kept us on task so that we could see so many attractions in so little time and I almost had to do no thinking as to where we were going or what we were doing. I’ve never been really good at following and not taking control, but maybe I won’t mind doing that more often 😛

Overall, it was a good weekend, but I’m happy to be back in Madrid. I can’t believe that in about 12 days, I will be on a plane again, except this time, I will be going home.

-A.

Pictures of my weekend can be found here.

*Side note: The longer I’ve been in Spain, speaking and learning Spanish, the worse my English has become. I apologize for any grammatical errors and choppiness in my writing, but I kind of don’t care enough to fix them .. hehehe*

Luxuries of Living as a Madrileno (pt 2)

It has been an interesting last 2 weeks. At some points, I was really tired and homesick, so I just stayed in. But then, I realized that I’m in Madrid, Spain and there is no time to waste on such petty things! I need to go out and live! And so that is what I did. There have been some strange things that have happened- from going to the pool and realizing the women have zero problem going topless (*puke*), to getting hit on by a drunk, not-so-attractive British guy (*even more puke*), to actually going to a museums and enjoying learning (what?!). It seems like I should have blogged some time sooner because there may be too much to say for the amount of time I have to write this.

One exciting thing I finally did was go swing dancing! I finally was able to go to 3 events and meet many Spaniards. Many of them dance very well too, but the conversations were definitely the highlight of the experience. I made friends with many people, some who speak English and some who do not. It was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish and truly experience more of the culture.

I also went to go see Batman! In Madrid, there are theatres that play movies in their original versions, but with Spanish subtitles. This meant that I could watch Batman in English, and still learn a little bit of Spanish as I watched.

I’ve been to quite a few museums/exhibitions in the past couple of weeks. I don’t remember the names of most of them, but the one that stood out the most to me was the Museo del Prado. It is one of the most important art museums in all of Europe. We went for a class trip and I was extremely impressed with the history and workmanship of Velasquez’s Las Maninas.

One random night, I met up with my new apartment mate from Berkeley, Jolie. We went to a Hawaiian bar and got a drink that was in a volcano! That was very delicious and it was fun to be able to meet and bond while in Madrid before we got back to Berkeley in school mode.

Then, yesterday afternoon, I went with a few girls to Chinchon. It is a city an hour away from Madrid. Honestly, there wasn’t much to see. We went to the Plaza Mayor that had a bull ring, so we took pictures. Then we climbed a hill to see the outside of a church, where we took more pictures. I think the point was that we bonded and were able to get to know each other better.

This afternoon, I went to the convent. Basically, these nuns sketchily sell cookies and other sweets. You buzz a door and they let you in. You follow the signs to this little turn wheel. You never see their faces. They just talk to you and do the exchange of sweets and money via this little lazy susan. I bought a bag of cookies. They weren’t that great, but it was fun to say I bought the sketchy nun cookies!

I’ve certainly enjoyed getting to spend time with the people I’ve met here too. I’ve gone on multiple lunch dates with my girlfriends, I’ve explored in groups, I said goodbye to a friend from France while meeting a new English friend, and I just had to say goodbye to the two Arkansas boys that have been living with me. It’s crazy to think that I only have 2 weeks left in my program. I miss home and I can’t wait to be back in Berkeley, but til that day comes, I’m going to make the most of my time in Spain.

This weekend, I’m going to Barcelona. I will not be bringing my laptop (WHAT?!). I hope that I will have many stories to tell when I return. Til then, hasta luego!

-A.

Mid Summer Slum

So maybe this post is a little overdue, since it’s now two weeks past the midpoint of my stay abroad. But in the last week or so I’ve been feeling slow, drained, stuck in a slum.

Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed and am still enjoying my time in Ireland (and have a lot of pictures to show for it), but there’s something in the air that’s been getting to all of us in the program–and it’s not just the pollen. As much as we all like our internships, work is still…work, and the novelty of the workplace and the accents have worn off. Half of us have also seemed to have caught a cold of some sort. Shucks! I was really hoping to escape Ireland’s summer rains without getting sick. But it’s really hard to keep up with the ever-changing weather here! To quote one of my co-workers, “At one point yesterday I thought I was going to get sunburnt and all of a sudden it was like, well now I’m caught in a monsoon.” You get the idea.

And I’m really feeling the pressure when it comes to school work too. I have the final project for my online class to get underway, I have a 3000-word paper due next week for my Irish literature class, plus weekend trips, and cramming in more Dublin sight-seeing….

*Screeeeeeeeeech* Sometimes I want to just slam on the breaks and give myself a moment to breathe.

Something about these summer slums that seem to stifle one’s summer fun. 😉

–S.

Updates from here and there

Berlin is a massive city that was built to hold double the number of its current residents. So it has filled all this space with broke artists, babies, and piss from all the weekend beer. Which also means that over the old, Socialist-styled and war-riddled walls, there are colours and concepts both pasted and sprayed that are almost as large as the spectrum of living this city has seen. And the strollers speak to a re-filling of this great, grand city. And the beer – the beer which is cheap yet delicious and which can be drunk anywhere in the city which also has no CCTV. To go with your hot dog, where the bread is a third the length of the bun. So it’s rough and slightly grimy but so steeped in a greatness that’s just sleeping below the boldly graffitied surface.

I like Germany a great deal. I almost thought of German as a rough, guttural language – at least, while I sat in French class. But I’ve become quite a fan of those rolling -ung‘s and –ein‘s.

Dresden is a city rooted in royalty and gold; in palaces and cathedrals and a river that runs through a literal richness of history itself. It’ll likely never be able to move on past those overwhelming roots, but who cares when your roots are gilded in gold? Anyway. Leipzig. Leipzig is a fully-functioning city with all the bustle of a highly-populated life, but with these odd quirks that only a large city could choose to have. D. told me that his first weekend in Leipzig was also when it played host to the largest Gothic (as in the clothing/lifestyle, not the buildings) convention in Europe. Teenagers hang out on bridges in clouds of smoke and pools of drink, next to bridges with those famous literal locks of love (apparently this city has more bridges than Venice!). There was church in the park on a Sunday morning at a gathering of several of the city’s smaller churches, where I talked for a long while with a man who told me about all the pen pals he’s had and how Italian is really the most beautiful language. D. and I spent hours riding around the city on bicycles and then sat down to my third doner in three days, in the middle of the town’s central square. Thank goodness for Turkish people and the cheap meat they brought on those large, vertically-rotating spits.

Then upward to Stockholm, where the peas are greener, the salmon is sweeter, and the clouds are even fluffier in skies bluer than what I thought was the limit, as what I decided when I passed over Canada. For sheer purity in the goodness of food, I think the Scandinavians take the cake. And the caviar. And the vegetables. And the fish…

Brussels really does have the best fries. And chocolate. And waffles. No, really.

At any rate, my time with my family is coming to a close. For my part, I’ve driven through the car onto a ferry into Germany and through Belgium en route from the Netherlands. Cobblestones are probably fairly terrible for car tires, and drivers change lanes probably as often as they smoke their cigarettes (which is often). We go to Paris tomorrow, and then our roads will diverge. Since they’ve quite… thrown my plans out of sorts, I guess I’m starting from scratch again. Maybe Prague. Every other traveler has told me to go to Prague, except for that one man who told me the true gem was Budapest. Well, and the other guy who told me I had to go to South African, sometime. So maybe Budapest…

Hope you’re all doing well.
— K.

An End to the Teenage Years

For the first time in my 20 years of birthdays, I had very low expectations for what the day would bring. I was beginning to feel homesick and I thought that I would much rather be with my family, friends, and boyfriend back at home than with the people from my program for my birthday. I was pleasantly surprised to have experienced the best, most relaxing weekend that I’ve had thus far in Spain.

It started with me waking up at 4:30 in the morning to talk on Skype with my parents on Thursday. They bought a cupcake for me and even put a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday to me. Unfortunately, I was unable to eat any of my birthday cupcakes since they’re 5000ish miles away. MUY TRISTE. Then I had a Skype date with Jonathan. We tried watching Wall-E, but only got halfway before the internet began being upset with me and not letting me watch anymore. We skyped until about 7:45, then I left the house and walked to the ACCENT Center to board the bus to Galicia. The ride was about 5 or 6 hours long… Not the most exciting birthday. At our first stop, Marissa surprised me with a card signed by everyone! I was quite shocked. I expected no one to remember it was my birthday. Then the whole bus sang to me. That was embarrassing..

At around 6, we got to USC- la Universided de Santiago de Compostela. We stayed in the residence halls, and everyone had a single bedroom with a single bathroom! It was quite nice. Then we had a dancing exhibition and learned the Gallego dance. It was pretty entertaining to watch and do. After that, a group of my friends from the program took me out to a nice place for dinner. Again, I was pleasantly surprised when they all wanted to pay for my dinner. I was hesitant to let them, but understand how it is when I want to pay for people’s birthdays, so I reluctantly let them. Then we went to a bar and Marissa bought me a couple of drinks. We hung out, danced, broke a few glasses (not me D:) then went back to where we were staying.

On Friday, we had breakfast in the Cafeteria, then went on a walking tour of Santiago. It was raining, but I was still able to enjoy myself, especially seeing the Cathedral and university. If I were to ever study in Spain, this seems like the university I’d want to attend. After that, we got lunch at a good seafood restaurant where I was able to try to Galician specialties- Gallego soup and octopus. When it was time for dessert, Jamie pulled out a candle and made everyone sing for me again! Again, I was embarrassed.

We left Santiago and embarked to La Coruña. We took a panoramic tour of the city on the bus and stopped on a mountain to have a view from above. It was beautiful. Then we got to our hotel. I roomed with Jamie and Katie 🙂 We lucked out and happened to have one of the bigger rooms. Then we all went out to dinner at a barbecue restaurant. After that, dessert at a chocoleteria. We got back and a couple of us decided to play Uno before going to sleep.

On Saturday, I got up early to Skype with Jonathan for his 21^st birthday! I was almost late to get to the bus to go to San Andres de Texeido though. It’s a small little Galician town. We arrived and hiked down this hill to find this beautiful view of what the Spaniard’s call Land’s End. Before the Americas were discovered, the Europeans believed the western edge of Europe was the end of the world, so we happened to be at Northern Spain’s end of the world, or the east side of the Atlantic Ocean. It was beautiful!

Then we hiked back up the hill to the bus. We stopped at the highest cliff in all of Europe!

Then we made a short stop at another small Galician town called Cedeira for lunch before going back to the hotel. We got to the hotel and lounged for a while before a few of us headed to the beach. It was a beautiful walk. Then we went to get dinner. After that, I came back to the hotel to Skype with Jonathan again for his birthday. When I was sleepy and went to my room to go to sleep, I ended up joining in on an interesting conversation, which eventually led to a 3 am walk on the beach.

On Sunday, we packed our bags, put it on the bus, and took one final look at La Coruña. We saw the tower of Hercules, did a walking tour and saw a couple of smaller cathedrals, then went to lunch. After lunch, we had a 7.5 hour bus ride home.

Last week, I began feeling depressed and homesick. I kept having dreams about people from home and I knew that I wanted to spend my special day with the people I love the most. While I still miss them a lot, I think I also learned that I can still have fun with people I may not be as close to. This weekend was a great time for me to bond with a lot of my UCEAP friends and I’m so thankful for them. We may only have a few short weeks left with each other, but I plan on cherishing our friendship and trying to make the most of it. I feel like I may have closed myself off to the people in my program and came expecting not to make too many friends, but this weekend has shown me that while these people don’t need to by my best friends, they actually care about me, and that’s one of the greatest things I could ask for in a friendship.

So, this is dedicated to my wonderful friends that I’ve made on this trip. Thank you so much for making the end of my teen years and my birthday abroad so unforgettable.  Cheers.

-A.

Set Fire to the Train

My planned day trip to Toledo turned into a bust. Last Friday, July 6, I had planned on going to Toledo with a couple of girl friends. We were set to meet at the bus station at 8:20 am. Of course, I was running late. I boarded the metro and began heading towards the bus station. I was seated with my back towards the platform to enter from, meaning I was facing the window towards the other platform of the train going in the opposite direction. About midway to the bus station, we made a stop and people on the other platform began pointing towards my train at around the spot I was sitting. People began waving to get my attention. I got up to see what they were pointing at, but whatever it was was directly below me and I couldn’t see it. I knew something was wrong though because I smelled smoke every time the doors opened. Finally, after 2 more stops, they told everyone to get out. Someone went through to make sure no one was still on the train. After that was confirmed, another guy came running with a fire extinguisher, ran into the train, jumped out the other side, and sprayed it. My guess was that it was a fire, or sparks at least. Unfortunately, this delay made me miss the bus to Toledo. When I told my señora what happened, she didn’t sound surprised. I guess this happens often.. oops!

Since I couldn’t go to Toledo, I ended up spending the day shopping with my friend Katie 🙂 I finally bought a watch! I usually rely on my phone to tell the time, but it has been kind of a hassle here, and I don’t have a good watch at home, so it was nice to finally invest in getting one. Then, I went home for dinner, but came out again at night to meet up with my ADX sister, Christine! She is studying abroad in Guardamar, which is southwest of Spain. We had churros con chocolate, then we walked around the city at night.

The next day, I woke up feeling sick. I ended up not meeting her until around 4, but we went shopping for a little bit before I took her to my favorite place in Madrid- Retiro Park. I’ve posted about that a couple of times now, and we honestly didn’t see anything different. It was just nice to be able to share my adventures with a friend back at home. To cool down after our walk, we bought a half liter of Sangria and sat down in a shady grassy area and drank it and talked. It was wonderfully peaceful.

Then we met up with Christine’s friends and went out to dinner at El Tigre. It is a restaurant that serves free food when you purchase a drink. Honestly, it did not taste that good, but it filled me up. We went out for ice cream afterwards. Since I was sick, I went straight home after that.

The next day, I felt even more sick, so again, I didn’t meet Christine til about 4. We had a late lunch, then we went exploring around the Opera area. We ended up going inside this beautiful church called Almudena Cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful! We even went into this prayer room that looked like was made of 50% gold and we silently sat there and prayed. Hopefully, towards the end of my trip, I will understand enough Spanish to be able to attend a mass there.

After that, we sat in a park by the Royal Palace. We talked for a bit, then took a metro to meet with my program to watch a bull fight. We weren’t even sure if Christine could get a ticket, but luckily she was able to. The bull fight was extremely intense. Luckily, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect before walking in. I would prefer not to go into too much detail about the sequence of the fighting, but to put it simply, they kill the bull at the end. Many people see it as inhumane, but the fight itself is truly an art form and is part of Spanish culture. If the bull weren’t used for a fight, it would be killed and cooked in a hamburger. The fight definitely had its climactic moments. At one point, a horse got flipped over, but it was able to stand and finish the fight. On another occasion, one of the matadors got shanked! We later found out that he now has a 25 cm deep hole in his right thigh… Apparently, it’s rare that either of these events should happen. We were just unlucky (or lucky?) to witness it. As exciting and adrenaline-rushing as it was, I think I’ve seen enough bull fighting for my lifetime.

Spending the weekend with Christine made me realize that as much as I love it here, I also miss home and Berkeley. Luckily, in about a month, that will no longer be an issue. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep on living it up in Madrid.

-A.