So tomorrow morning I leave at 7am on a bus headed for Madrid, where I will then catch a plane to Paris. Chelsea and I are going to be staying with one of her friends for the first few days and then we will be staying in a hostel. We are hoping and planning on doing all of the normal touristy kind of things but because we also have friends that are studying and living there we will also get to see certain parts of the city and country that the average tourist wouldn't necessarily find, such as good shopping spots or cheap yummy cafes. I will post pictures as soon as I have a strong enough internet connection in my apartment.
I love you all.
Rachel
Monday, October 10, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
I really miss you all and home!
Good Morning,
So I woke up this morning feeling completely homesick. It was really the first time that I actually wanted to come home for good. Nothing bad happened that made me feel this way it was just the realization that I am still going to be here for 5 months and that I am not going to see any of my family until then. Luckily, I get to go visit Jake in Egypt and then Katie, Greg, and Nic are coming for Christmas break! But still I miss my family. I miss being able to call any one of you to meet at the beach for a walk and planning what food to bring to one of our family gatherings when we are all together. I think that this all has come about, more or less because a lot of my friend's families are starting to visit and I don't get to see mine :( But I know that the next few months are going to fly by, I just wish that I could share more of my time with you guys.
Anyways, I just wanted to remind you all of how much I love you and that I am missing you a lot even if I don't say it all the time.
XOXOXO
Rachel
So I woke up this morning feeling completely homesick. It was really the first time that I actually wanted to come home for good. Nothing bad happened that made me feel this way it was just the realization that I am still going to be here for 5 months and that I am not going to see any of my family until then. Luckily, I get to go visit Jake in Egypt and then Katie, Greg, and Nic are coming for Christmas break! But still I miss my family. I miss being able to call any one of you to meet at the beach for a walk and planning what food to bring to one of our family gatherings when we are all together. I think that this all has come about, more or less because a lot of my friend's families are starting to visit and I don't get to see mine :( But I know that the next few months are going to fly by, I just wish that I could share more of my time with you guys.
Anyways, I just wanted to remind you all of how much I love you and that I am missing you a lot even if I don't say it all the time.
XOXOXO
Rachel
Sunday, October 2, 2011
I love having guests. But I also love it when they leave.
This weekend was crazy. A bunch of our friends from Cádiz came to Granada to visit and celebrate our Dan's birthday. We had four friends from Barcelona, two from Madrid and then Allie all staying in our apartment. It was cozy to say the least. Originally we didn't really know how it was going to work out but we managed to find places or mats for everyone and they all got to see the cool and fun parts of Granada. But now I am ready to watch Glee and Grey's Anatomy and catch up on some sleep.
Tomorrow I start another week of trying out classes. I am hoping that I won't have to take an 8:30 am class but it is the history of Muslim art class that I really want to take so if the professor actually shows up and I like it I might have to. Other than that I have my grammar class, the history of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and then museology. All of them seem to be really cool but my history professor speaks really fast sometimes and I don't know any of the vocabulary that goes with the subject so I sit there struggling to stay focused. She did say though that she will start handing out/uploading study guides for us to fill out while she talks, which I think is going to be really helpful and will also make the class much more enjoyable. For my museology class we are learning all about the history of museums and how the first ones were created and what they were used for. Tia is in that class with me and we are both loving it. We are also super excited because later on in the semester we will go to a couple of the local museums and maybe even go to Sevilla to see a few. Our professor also said that later on we might have to opportunity to intern/get a job working at a local museum or for the department, which would be really cool. I think I am going to have a really good time in my classes but I still haven't figured out how the homework thing really works here. We have been given lists of books that are recommended to look at or read but then we are only really told to either buy one or two. Also, there is no real outline of homework assignments or anything like that so I have no idea if I am supposed to be doing anything or not. Hopefully the professors will go over it again tomorrow and if not I am just going to have to ask them or some of the other students so that I don't end up falling behind.
Other than school, and now that my friends are all out of my apartment I am ready to really set up a daily routine and start exploring the city a little more. My goal for the week is to go to a live music performance and find another coffee shop that I can go read in. I hope everything is going well with you all. I love you and miss you!
Rachel
P.S. Katie brought to my attention that my posts have been having some spelling and grammar mistakes and I'm sorry about that. I have changed all of my computer settings into Spanish and when I misspell something in English it will replace it with the word that it thinks is the closest, even if it is not. Hopefully when I have more time and when I am all caught up on sleep, I will be able to write in English above a third grade level. ;)
Tomorrow I start another week of trying out classes. I am hoping that I won't have to take an 8:30 am class but it is the history of Muslim art class that I really want to take so if the professor actually shows up and I like it I might have to. Other than that I have my grammar class, the history of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and then museology. All of them seem to be really cool but my history professor speaks really fast sometimes and I don't know any of the vocabulary that goes with the subject so I sit there struggling to stay focused. She did say though that she will start handing out/uploading study guides for us to fill out while she talks, which I think is going to be really helpful and will also make the class much more enjoyable. For my museology class we are learning all about the history of museums and how the first ones were created and what they were used for. Tia is in that class with me and we are both loving it. We are also super excited because later on in the semester we will go to a couple of the local museums and maybe even go to Sevilla to see a few. Our professor also said that later on we might have to opportunity to intern/get a job working at a local museum or for the department, which would be really cool. I think I am going to have a really good time in my classes but I still haven't figured out how the homework thing really works here. We have been given lists of books that are recommended to look at or read but then we are only really told to either buy one or two. Also, there is no real outline of homework assignments or anything like that so I have no idea if I am supposed to be doing anything or not. Hopefully the professors will go over it again tomorrow and if not I am just going to have to ask them or some of the other students so that I don't end up falling behind.
Other than school, and now that my friends are all out of my apartment I am ready to really set up a daily routine and start exploring the city a little more. My goal for the week is to go to a live music performance and find another coffee shop that I can go read in. I hope everything is going well with you all. I love you and miss you!
Rachel
P.S. Katie brought to my attention that my posts have been having some spelling and grammar mistakes and I'm sorry about that. I have changed all of my computer settings into Spanish and when I misspell something in English it will replace it with the word that it thinks is the closest, even if it is not. Hopefully when I have more time and when I am all caught up on sleep, I will be able to write in English above a third grade level. ;)
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sorry for having not posted recently.
Hi Everyone,
Sorry that it has taken me so long to post anything but the past few weeks have flown by. It feels like just yesterday that I got to the residencia and now I am in my own apartment in a different part of town. Here is brief recap on what I've been doing. The classes that I was taking during the ILP program were, for the most part, boring. The history/culture class that we had was all review of what we had learned in Cádiz. The literature class was a joke. The professor went on rants for the entire class period about the "power" of literature: who controls it, how people get it, and what they do with it. We only read about four pages of Don Quijote and three poems. On the flip side, I did really enjoy my reading comprehension and grammar classes. The professors were my favorite and I definitely learned the most in them. The grammar professor explained certain verb forms and tenses (like the subjunctive) that are generally challenging to understand but he made it extremely easy. Our reading class was actually way better than the lit class. We actually got to have discussions about what we read and our professor expected us explain what the texts had made us think about. All in all it was definitely worth doing but I am glad that it is over.
During the weekends I have tired to do some exploring within Granada but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I got the chance to go to Madrid. Madrid was... interesting. I was expecting to be much more impressed and to have been more in awe than I was. Actually, I was somewhat underwhelmed. It just seemed like any other city and I just wasn't too impressed. But I did really enjoy the museums. We got to see a bunch of Dali, Picasso, and Velázquez, probably the three most famous Spanish painters of all time. In the Reina Sofia Museum we got to see Picasso's Guernica, one of his largest paintings ever. It seriously took up almost the entire wall and was definitely a main attraction. Along the other wall was a piece about the process he had gone through while painting the masterpiece. It showed pictures of the different stages that he had gone through. It was really interesting and surprising to see what he had started with and then to turn around and see the final product. In our history classes we learned about how Guernica was the sight of the first bombing in Spain by the German and Italian forces, commissioned by General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Pretty much, Franco was so determined to gain complete control and power within Spain that he ask/allowed Germany and Italy to test out their new bombs on Spain before the Second World War began. Franco was crazy.
While we were in Madrid we got to do some of the other normal touristy kind of things like Plaza Mayor, the cathedrals, and Plaza del Sol. Everyone says that Madrid is great for shopping, which it seemed like it would be, but it is soooo expensive. I did have a good time though with my friends walking around we just didn't have enough time to see why so many people love Madrid.
In comparison to Madrid I feel like there isn't much to do in Granada on the weekends except walk around and explore the wonderful and crazy little corners within the city. We got to go to the Alhambra with our group and it was gorgeous. I posted all of those pictures to Shutterfly so whenever you want to be lazy you can look through my 300+ photos from that day. Even though we had a guided tour I spent the majority of the time walking around in my own world, soaking in the amazing colors and the incredible detail that covers every wall from floor to ceiling. I was so consumed in my own picture taking as well that I didn't listen to too much of what our guide said but I got what I needed. I am still amazed by the fact that people actually lived there; that it was there home and that the gardens were just their little backyard where they would go to get away from the palace life.
One of the many great things about Granada that I have started to explore more and more is the food. Because Granada has such an extensive mixture of cultures there are tons of different opportunities to try different cuisines. The first week here we went up to the Albaicin and found this great little tapas buffet where you buy a drink for 2€ and get a plate of four different tapas of your choice. We, and by we I mean Chelsea, Tia and I, have also tried Chinese buffets, Vegan and Vegetarian restaurants and then these two amazing Arab/Syrian restaurants. It is really common for restaurants to have a menu of the day which gives you a list of different starters, second dishes, main dishes, and then desserts to choose from. As it turns out these are usually the best deals and give you the greatest amount of food for your money, so obviously they are my favorite. I mean you get a plate of pita and hummus, a plate of curry mustard chicken, a delicious traditional Spanish pudding and a drink for about 8€, who could complain. It has been a lot of fun too because with every new restaurant that I try I feel like I am experiencing a different part of Spain or a different culture/country altogether. I also really enjoy just walking around in the different sections of town. It is interesting that while there are some areas are much more Arab dominated there are others, like those around the Cathedral, that are a complete mixture of Spanish and Arab knickknacks. For example, they sell the scarves, hookahs, tea sets and baggy pants common to the Arab stores but then they also sell the Minnie Mouse looking Flamenco dresses. In general, those stores are supper touristy and random and I don't really like going in them. I saw one the other day that has swords in the front window, like ten or twelve HUGE sword just sitting in the window.
As I explore more and more I find things like health food stores and spice shops that not only have great deals, but have huge selections. I bought three different types of tea yesterday for 9€. A basic green tea, a Granada mix (pomegranate, green tea, fruits and flowers of the forest and some spices), and hibiscus flower. I am really excited to start having them in the mornings because while I have become a coffee junkie, I would prefer to switch back to tea, it doesn't make me all shaky or keep me up at the end of the day. I have also finally found shoes that fit me. During the last week of August the sales prices were even lower than those that we had found in Cádiz. I bought two pairs of heels for 18€ and another for 6€. I went a little wild but I, unlike all of the other girls in my programs, did not bring any of my heels or nice shoes, so it has been nice to finally have shoes that fit and that I can wear out when I go out.
This brings me to another point. People in Spain have a very different lifestyle like I have mentioned before. They don't start drinking or going out until about 12:30 or 1, so I don't usually go out with everyone. I go out for dinner or tapas and maybe a glass of tinto or a soda, but I don't go to botellón (the traditional Spanish style hangout that happens every night in the Walmart-style convenient store parking lot). I have gone a couple of times but it just isn't really worth it. You have to take a taxi down there and then it is freezing cold, and people are smoking everywhere and it is just not really the type of place that I want to try to meet people. Also, I am pretty much not capable of staying out past 4 in the morning and that is when the majority of people, or at least the good-looking people, really start arriving at the clubs. It is pure craziness and I don't really like to do it. In my exploring I have found a couple of really cool bars though that are going to be good for going and studying in and for listen to live music. One of the girls that has been showing us around Granada, Andrea, told me about this great place to go listen to Jazz music as well, which I am excited about. I guess I am just ready to start doing some of the things that I would want to do in Santa Cruz and see how they are in Spain. One such thing is the experience of going to the gym. Not very many people here go and work out, let alone regularly, so I am starting to recognize and be recognized by the people at my gym. One of these days I may actually talk to someone ;). But it has been great working out again on a regular basis my body really needed it. I am also now able to cook my own food, which is really refreshing. I am no longer constantly eating bread and fried foods, I get to have salads and couscous and eggs for breakfast. It is great.
Something cool happened the other day. We all got an email the from our program director asking if any of us would be interested in teaching English to children. I responded right away and went to have an interview/to find out more information. As it turns out, it is a legitimate class that I would be teaching, as in, I would be the teacher of a group of young children who only speak Spanish. I told them that I might still bring in a resume but I don't think that I am ready or really willing to put that much time into something other than my own studies here. Also, I just don't know if I am capable of that yet. But during the first part of the interview I met with a woman that asked if I would want to tutor her sister and niece for about 10€ an hour once a week for two hours. I told her that I am definitely interested and will check back in with her as soon as I know my class schedule.
On Saturday Chelsea and I decided to go up to campus to try to find our classes and to just look around. When we finally got up there after about a 25min walk we realized that they lock everything up during the weekends so we couldn't even try to see where we would need to go. It was really weird though walking around a different campus. I started to feel really nostalgic and realized that this is my last year of college and I am not really going to be spending it at UCSC. For all of the times that I wanted to transfer and go somewhere else I now know that I made the right choice in going to UCSC. I got to take some great classes, I made amazing friends, and I got to stay close to home and be with all of you. I miss you all like crazy and am grateful that you have all been so supportive of all of my choices, especially this one about Spain. I am lucky that I have had so much going on because otherwise I know that I would be thinking about home all the time and I would be miserable knowing that I am not going to get to see you all for another 4 almost 5 months. But I do have lots of things to do and I am enjoying them.
For example, Chelsea and I have decided to go to Portugal and France in October, which we are both extremely excited about. We are going to fly into Oporto the week before Halloween and then take a bus down to Lisbon. From Lisbon we will go back to Oporto to see the city before heading to Madrid for Halloween. Halloween in Madrid is supposed to be crazy and I figured that it would be cool to experience it in a city that appreciates the opportunity to dress up and have some fun, and it gives us another chance to see Madrid and visit our friends from Cádiz. About a week and a half later we will be going to Paris. We fly into Beauvais. I think we are planning on taking a bus into the city right after we land but we might also stay out there and explore for a day to see what different parts of the country are like. We also want to take a day trip out to Versailles because we both have this fantasy that while we are in Paris we are going to meet two amazing men that want to take us around France and Paris and take us to a really nice fancy dinner. But as of right now, we are going to be staying with Chelsea's neighbor from home because she has a nice home and is willing to let us stay with her. Chels also has a bunch of friends that are either from France or who have studied abroad there so they are all composing lists of things for us to do. I would love to hear some suggestions about what you all think we should do, where we should go, what we should eat, etc. if you have any ideas. In Granada secondhand stores are really common and I am starting to learn to appreciate buying good quality things that have already been used/worn. Normally I feel like I need to take a shower immediately after I go into a secondhand store but here I have already made a few good purchases. Because of this newfound ability to shop for used goods I thought it would be a good idea to look up some places in Paris that we could go to try to find some cool stuff. The first webpage that I found gave me a list of places to go which all seemed really cool. Then I kept reading and found out that they are all known for finding and selling vintage Louis Vuitton and Hermes Paris bags and luggage that normally sell for about $3-5,000 a piece. So we will definitely just be window-shopping at a extremely high-class flee market. It will still be fun though and I'll get to take some cool pics.
This past weekend Chelsea and I moved out of the residencia and into our apartment (pictures are coming soon on Shutterfly) and so we spent most of the weekend getting things set up and buying the basic things that we needed. The apartment came fully furnish, but we wanted to buy our own sheets and things cause we both just felt weird using the ones that other people had been using. As we started putting everything away the other day we realized that we don't have an oven. I have been looking forward to baking and cooking certain things from home that definitely require and oven. We asked around though and some of our friends have ovens so I can just go over there and bake away. But other than not having an oven, the place is great. We each have our own room and mine has two twin beds. I have pushed them together so it at least looks like one but the other one is going to come in handy for when people visit. Originally I thought that this wasn't going to be happening for a while, but our friend Dan's birthday is this weekend and so all of our friends from Cádiz are coming to Granada and want to stay at our place. Chelsea and I are the only ones that aren't sharing their place with other people so we all just figured that it would be easiest to volunteer our place for the weekend. Little did we know that 8 people were planning on coming down and maybe more. The way we figure it four people, maybe five can sleep in my two beds when they are pushed together, three can sleep in Chelsea's, two on the couch, and the rest can speed out on the floor. It is going to be quite interesting though. I'm not too sure how I feel about it yet but I am glad that I m going to get to see everyone.
Today was the first day of classes and the way that it works in Spain is you sign up for about 6 classes, even though you only take 4 and you go and sit through about 9 so that you can see if there are other ones that you like better or that you can understand more. The reason that I have had so much time to finally sit down and write to you all is because during my first two classes the professors didn't show up. We had been warned that this might happen but I didn't think it would happen back to back. I woke up this morning at 6:50 to get ready and figured out that the bus I need doesn't even go by my house until 7:40 and it only takes about ten minutes to get up there so I got up there really early. I sat and waited the entire first class and my professor never showed up. Someone said that he was stuck in traffic or something but I mean, come on, it is the first day of class. In my second class, I waited around for almost half of it before people came back in and said that the professor had actually shown up. When she finally came in I was smacked in the face with the fact that I am still not prepared to be in classes that are completely taught in Spanish. History classes taught for English language learners are one thing but classes that are for Spaniards that can understand everything being said is another. I seriously could have cried. The professor speaks quickly and really quietly but seems nice and understanding. She was asking questions about what classes the students had taken in anthropology and it wasn't until the third or fourth person had started answering her that I understood what was going on. I don't put the pieces together until about five minutes too late and it is frustrating. Today was definitely a wakeup call, but at least this will force me to make Spanish friends because I am going to need their help to understand what is going on and then maybe later they can tell me where the cool places to go are and where to get good food. But after realizing how challenging the next few weeks are going to be i started to question why I am even here. I am practically done with all of the requirements I need to graduate and I could have just finished them up in one quarter at home. But instead I chose to come here. Obviously I am so happy to be here and to be able to experience this but I just realized this morning that I am not just going to be living here, I am actually going to be a student, taking challenging classes. I just felt like I was a freshman again not knowing where anything was, not really knowing what the expectations are going to be, not knowing anyone in my classes, but then on top of all of that I am still learning the language that everything is being talked about in. I was the only non-native Spanish speaker in my anthropology class today and while everyone seemed really approachable and welcoming, I don't have my main social skill at hand, being able to talk to people. It was just a little overwhelming but I know it is going to get better. I am going to go to my last few classes of the day to see if there is one that I want to switch into/out of and then by Thursday I will had my complete schedule. As of right now it is looking like I will be taking the history of Muslim art, applied anthropology, advanced grammar and composition, and either museology, the organization of power in modern times, or the ancient history of Egypt and Greece. There war tons of other classes that I could have taken but I didn't really want to have classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays so that I would be able to have longer weekends for traveling. Anyways, I gotta go but hopefully I will have internet access in my apartment by the middle of the week so I can Skype with some of you people that I still haven't gotten to see.
I love you all so much!
Rachel
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The First Few Weeks in Granada
Hi Everyone,
Sorry it has taken me son long to update you all but my first few weeks in Granada have been crazy busy. I have now been here for two weeks and I cannot believe how fast everything has been going. I just wanted to let you all know that I am starting to get settled in and that I will try to upload the rest of my pictures onto shutterfly as soon as I can, my USB memory card thing is not working again.
I am heading out tomorrow afternoon for Madrid with Chelsea, Allie, and Pilar to visit our friends from Cádiz who are studying there. It is just going to be a short little weekend trip but we are all excited about it. I will make sure to sit down when I get back and write a real blog entry and post my pics. But just so you all are kind of in the loop, I have classes from 9-2 mon-thurs and then afternoon meetings with our "monitors," native UGR students. I have found an apartment that is perfect and I will be living with Chelsea and maybe a Spanish student if we feel like being super cheap. Right now we will be paying about 250€ each + utilities and things, which is about $450 total a month. I don't move in until the 20th of Sept. and won't have my keys until then so the pictures that I can give you before then are just the initial ones that Allie took for us when we first saw the place.
I love you all. Please email me or post something telling me how you are doing.
Rachel
Sorry it has taken me son long to update you all but my first few weeks in Granada have been crazy busy. I have now been here for two weeks and I cannot believe how fast everything has been going. I just wanted to let you all know that I am starting to get settled in and that I will try to upload the rest of my pictures onto shutterfly as soon as I can, my USB memory card thing is not working again.
I am heading out tomorrow afternoon for Madrid with Chelsea, Allie, and Pilar to visit our friends from Cádiz who are studying there. It is just going to be a short little weekend trip but we are all excited about it. I will make sure to sit down when I get back and write a real blog entry and post my pics. But just so you all are kind of in the loop, I have classes from 9-2 mon-thurs and then afternoon meetings with our "monitors," native UGR students. I have found an apartment that is perfect and I will be living with Chelsea and maybe a Spanish student if we feel like being super cheap. Right now we will be paying about 250€ each + utilities and things, which is about $450 total a month. I don't move in until the 20th of Sept. and won't have my keys until then so the pictures that I can give you before then are just the initial ones that Allie took for us when we first saw the place.
I love you all. Please email me or post something telling me how you are doing.
Rachel
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Past Two Weeks in a Nutshell and Shutterfly
Hi All,
I have decided to make a Shutterfly account so that I can upload all of my pics so that everyone can see them and I don't have to spend time piecing out ones I think you all will like. I will continue making posts on the blog and add pictures that are important to me and I will use it as a way to explain where the albums on Shutterfly are coming from. Fell free to ask questions about the pictures and I will respond via the blog so everyone can get the extra info.
Currently I am sitting in my hostel in Bilbao waiting to leave for my 19 hour bus ride back to Cádiz. Why 19 hours you might ask, because I am traveling from one of the absolute most northern parts of Spain down to one of the most southern parts. Ironically the one stop that I make in which I have to change buses is in Granada, where I will be heading on Thurs.
While talking with my friend Dorotia today I realized that I have visited 8 cities for at least a day in the past 11 days. I woke up this morning feeling exhausted and my eye was twitching. I told Dorotia and she said that it is obviously from be uber tired and that wiped out from my extreme travels. I have loved every city that I have gone to and at the moment am unable to say which one is my favorite. Salamanca's cathedrals straight up shocked me with their extravagance and detail. Segovia's aqueduct was incredible and I could not believe that it has stayed complete for as long as it has without any form of glue or cement holding its rocks together. Covadonga was the perfect nature fix and was shockingly beautiful. I have never been so close to so many cows, and ones with horns and bells, in my life. I also had one of the best meals so far in Spain there. The girl in that album is Pilar and she was in Cádiz with me and will be in Granada as well. Her dad's family is from Spain and she comes here every summer so she is completely fluent in Spanish and has relatives that she has been staying with over this break. To my delight I was able to stay with them as well and also go to eat with them. Her uncle and aunt are known in their family for making delicious food and I was so grateful to be able to try traditional Spanish style cuisine but Dennis, you still hold the cake in eye as best chef. I got to spend a day in Salinas, the little beach town that they actually live in, and it was really cool. Because it is along the northern coast there are these huge drop-off cliffs that just end straight onto the beach. Although it was foggy for the two days I was there it reminded me of Big Sur or other places along the coast like that. I also got to explore Oviedo, the main town near Salinas which had some cool older architecture as well. I had the best eggplant sandwich yet there. Eggplant and fired eggplant is super big in Spain and usually they serve it by itself but at this little cafe we went to to get wifi they had put it in a sandwich with cheddar cheese, something that I had not even seen in Spain, and added a little bit of spice to it that tasted like horseradish. It was a good way to start our trip out to Covadonga.
Then there was Santiago de Compostela, the ending place of the pilgrimage that thousands of people make each year to visit the tomb of St. James. The cathedral there was very impressive as well as was almond tart that is specific to that area. From there Dorotia and I decided to visit Finisterre, or "The End of the World." Before Columbus set sail the people of Europe literally thought that this coastline was the edge of the world. When we finally got out to the edge we understood why that thought might have crossed people's minds. It was incredible and we had fun speaking only Spanish the whole time, a feat for both of us. It was also during this walk that we saw some of the most vibrantly blue water I have ever seen in my life. I find myself saying this a lot but my pictures just aren't going to do the real colors justice.
The past few days have been spent in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque region and home to the Guggenheim. When I first got in at 11pm the receptionist at my hostel told me that I had come at the right time because this whole week was the most exciting week in Bilbao, Festival. She said that a free concert would be starting at midnight and that I should go check it out. Dorotia and I decided to go, at least for a little bit and quickly decided that we wanted to leave because it was hard rock, like nothing I had ever experienced before. We walked along the river up towards the other festivities when I decided to head back and pass out. The next day we went out to Guernica, the site of the first bomb dropped by Hitler in Spain, at the request of the lovely Dictator Franco, and the inspiration for Picasso's famous Guernica painting. We quickly found out that it was going to be a short day in Guernica for it only took us about an hour to walk around the entire city. We did get to see the ancient oak tree that has been preserved as a marker of the site where the Basque community leaders would meet to make important decisions. It was pretty cool. Inside the museum near it there is also one of the most amazing stained glass works I have ever seen. It depicts a meeting of Basque fisherman below the special tree. We were so pooped though that we passed out as soon as we got on the bus and woke up super deep into the city in Bilbao which was not at all where we were expecting to end up. But because we were already there we decided to push through without a siesta and explore the Casco Viejo, or the older part of town. We saw more old churches and the cool buildings and apartments that line the river that winds through the city. After a nice little nap we reunited to join in the activities of Festival starting with eating the BEST sausage/chorizo sandwich ever. Earlier in the day, without knowing that it was commonly sold in Bilbao, let alone a specialty, I had been saying how much I wanted a chorizo sandwich, so I was pretty freakin excited to see and smell them as soon as we reached the festivities. To accompany our sandwiches we bough our own little bottles of the locally made and specialty sidra, or hard cider, and had ourselves a nice little dinner on the curb. Festival in Bilbao is crazy. It is like a huge fair but in the streets of the city and much more wild. Spain is known for having churros with chocolate, usually a cup of warm chocolate in which you dip the churro, but in Bilbao at Festival they apparently coat the churros in dark chocolate. YUM! As we started to enjoy our churros the biggest firework display I've ever seen began and scared the S*** out of me. I knew that there were going to be fireworks but I just was't prepared for them to start the instant that I began eating the best churro of my life. Needless to say, Dorotia and I had a wonderful night in Bilbao along the river, eating good food, watching a spectacular firework show.
Today I went into the Guggenheim. The outside and the architecture of the building in general were by far the best and most exciting parts of the museum but there were some exhibits that were worth seeing. The huge flower puppy dog outside was one of those things, along with the bubble tower and the gigantic spider. Inside, the exhibits were a little freaky. Not my style of art. I couldn't take picture of them but I did snag a few of my favorite, which was a permanent installation of huge copper pieces that form a kind of maze. There was also an exhibit that displayed the art project of kids who were learning how to express ideas and events through art. That was pretty cool as well. But overall, the Guggenheim was not THAT amazing. The outside is though.
If you couldn't tell with how long this blog entry is I have had some time on my hands finally and in a place that had internet connect. I am sure I am forgetting things I have done but right now I am going to go eat another one of those amazing chorizo sandwiches before I leave Bilabo and get on my 19 hour bus to Cádiz. I hope you all enjoy the pictures on Shutterfly. Here is the link http://rachelsplaces.shutterfly.com. I miss and love you all.
Rachel
I have decided to make a Shutterfly account so that I can upload all of my pics so that everyone can see them and I don't have to spend time piecing out ones I think you all will like. I will continue making posts on the blog and add pictures that are important to me and I will use it as a way to explain where the albums on Shutterfly are coming from. Fell free to ask questions about the pictures and I will respond via the blog so everyone can get the extra info.
Currently I am sitting in my hostel in Bilbao waiting to leave for my 19 hour bus ride back to Cádiz. Why 19 hours you might ask, because I am traveling from one of the absolute most northern parts of Spain down to one of the most southern parts. Ironically the one stop that I make in which I have to change buses is in Granada, where I will be heading on Thurs.
While talking with my friend Dorotia today I realized that I have visited 8 cities for at least a day in the past 11 days. I woke up this morning feeling exhausted and my eye was twitching. I told Dorotia and she said that it is obviously from be uber tired and that wiped out from my extreme travels. I have loved every city that I have gone to and at the moment am unable to say which one is my favorite. Salamanca's cathedrals straight up shocked me with their extravagance and detail. Segovia's aqueduct was incredible and I could not believe that it has stayed complete for as long as it has without any form of glue or cement holding its rocks together. Covadonga was the perfect nature fix and was shockingly beautiful. I have never been so close to so many cows, and ones with horns and bells, in my life. I also had one of the best meals so far in Spain there. The girl in that album is Pilar and she was in Cádiz with me and will be in Granada as well. Her dad's family is from Spain and she comes here every summer so she is completely fluent in Spanish and has relatives that she has been staying with over this break. To my delight I was able to stay with them as well and also go to eat with them. Her uncle and aunt are known in their family for making delicious food and I was so grateful to be able to try traditional Spanish style cuisine but Dennis, you still hold the cake in eye as best chef. I got to spend a day in Salinas, the little beach town that they actually live in, and it was really cool. Because it is along the northern coast there are these huge drop-off cliffs that just end straight onto the beach. Although it was foggy for the two days I was there it reminded me of Big Sur or other places along the coast like that. I also got to explore Oviedo, the main town near Salinas which had some cool older architecture as well. I had the best eggplant sandwich yet there. Eggplant and fired eggplant is super big in Spain and usually they serve it by itself but at this little cafe we went to to get wifi they had put it in a sandwich with cheddar cheese, something that I had not even seen in Spain, and added a little bit of spice to it that tasted like horseradish. It was a good way to start our trip out to Covadonga.
Then there was Santiago de Compostela, the ending place of the pilgrimage that thousands of people make each year to visit the tomb of St. James. The cathedral there was very impressive as well as was almond tart that is specific to that area. From there Dorotia and I decided to visit Finisterre, or "The End of the World." Before Columbus set sail the people of Europe literally thought that this coastline was the edge of the world. When we finally got out to the edge we understood why that thought might have crossed people's minds. It was incredible and we had fun speaking only Spanish the whole time, a feat for both of us. It was also during this walk that we saw some of the most vibrantly blue water I have ever seen in my life. I find myself saying this a lot but my pictures just aren't going to do the real colors justice.
The past few days have been spent in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque region and home to the Guggenheim. When I first got in at 11pm the receptionist at my hostel told me that I had come at the right time because this whole week was the most exciting week in Bilbao, Festival. She said that a free concert would be starting at midnight and that I should go check it out. Dorotia and I decided to go, at least for a little bit and quickly decided that we wanted to leave because it was hard rock, like nothing I had ever experienced before. We walked along the river up towards the other festivities when I decided to head back and pass out. The next day we went out to Guernica, the site of the first bomb dropped by Hitler in Spain, at the request of the lovely Dictator Franco, and the inspiration for Picasso's famous Guernica painting. We quickly found out that it was going to be a short day in Guernica for it only took us about an hour to walk around the entire city. We did get to see the ancient oak tree that has been preserved as a marker of the site where the Basque community leaders would meet to make important decisions. It was pretty cool. Inside the museum near it there is also one of the most amazing stained glass works I have ever seen. It depicts a meeting of Basque fisherman below the special tree. We were so pooped though that we passed out as soon as we got on the bus and woke up super deep into the city in Bilbao which was not at all where we were expecting to end up. But because we were already there we decided to push through without a siesta and explore the Casco Viejo, or the older part of town. We saw more old churches and the cool buildings and apartments that line the river that winds through the city. After a nice little nap we reunited to join in the activities of Festival starting with eating the BEST sausage/chorizo sandwich ever. Earlier in the day, without knowing that it was commonly sold in Bilbao, let alone a specialty, I had been saying how much I wanted a chorizo sandwich, so I was pretty freakin excited to see and smell them as soon as we reached the festivities. To accompany our sandwiches we bough our own little bottles of the locally made and specialty sidra, or hard cider, and had ourselves a nice little dinner on the curb. Festival in Bilbao is crazy. It is like a huge fair but in the streets of the city and much more wild. Spain is known for having churros with chocolate, usually a cup of warm chocolate in which you dip the churro, but in Bilbao at Festival they apparently coat the churros in dark chocolate. YUM! As we started to enjoy our churros the biggest firework display I've ever seen began and scared the S*** out of me. I knew that there were going to be fireworks but I just was't prepared for them to start the instant that I began eating the best churro of my life. Needless to say, Dorotia and I had a wonderful night in Bilbao along the river, eating good food, watching a spectacular firework show.
Today I went into the Guggenheim. The outside and the architecture of the building in general were by far the best and most exciting parts of the museum but there were some exhibits that were worth seeing. The huge flower puppy dog outside was one of those things, along with the bubble tower and the gigantic spider. Inside, the exhibits were a little freaky. Not my style of art. I couldn't take picture of them but I did snag a few of my favorite, which was a permanent installation of huge copper pieces that form a kind of maze. There was also an exhibit that displayed the art project of kids who were learning how to express ideas and events through art. That was pretty cool as well. But overall, the Guggenheim was not THAT amazing. The outside is though.
If you couldn't tell with how long this blog entry is I have had some time on my hands finally and in a place that had internet connect. I am sure I am forgetting things I have done but right now I am going to go eat another one of those amazing chorizo sandwiches before I leave Bilabo and get on my 19 hour bus to Cádiz. I hope you all enjoy the pictures on Shutterfly. Here is the link http://rachelsplaces.shutterfly.com. I miss and love you all.
Rachel
Friday, August 19, 2011
The Last Few Days
Good Morning,
Today I am leaving for Oviedo, a town in the North of Spain, and will be going out to Salinas to stay with my friend Pilar, who was in Cádiz with me and will be going to Granada, and her family. Every summer she comes out here to visit her family so not only is her Spanish really good, she is also extremely familiar with this part of Spain. Her family is letting me stay with them for free, which means I have a little more money to spend on the next few days at museums and things. I am planning on taking a day trip out to the national park up here called Picos de Europa. It was the first national park in Spain and is one of the most visited national parks in Europe. The exact place that I will be starting my hike from is Covadonga (in case you want to google map it). After taking some time away from the huge crowds that are all over Spain right now because of the Pope being in Madrid, I will go back to Pilar's for another night and then head over to Ribedesella to see one of the oldest caves in Spain, Cueva Tito Bustillo. While it is not the one in Altamira, the one that most people know of, it is supposed to be amazing and I will actually be allowed into the cave. The Paleolithic art is very similar to that in Altamira and there are stalactites and stalagmites throughout the cave as well. After this little adventure if I have time I will try to make it over to Altamira before going to Bilbao for the night. In Bilbao I will obviously go check out the Guggenheim but I think my friend Dorotia and I are going to take a day trip out to San Sebastian to see the beaches and some of the touristy
attractions over there. Finally, on the 23rd I will get on a bus at 8pm and start the day long trip back down south to Cádiz to pick up my luggage and will then go to Granada on the 25th. I check into my program on the 26th and start classes the following monday. While it seems as though I have tons of things to do in the next few days, I know that everything is going to continue to fly by. I cannot believe that my two week break is already half way done and that I will be in Granada shortly. So far during the past week I have been speaking more English than Spanish because most of the people that are staying in the hostels speak languages other than Spanish but they do know English. While traveling with Dan, Reid and Dorotia I have realized that a huge majority of the world speaks some degree of English and that while this is nice and great, in terms of communicating with people, it also means that when I am tired of dealing with pushy European people I cannot bad mouth them cause more likely than not they will understand what I am saying. Like I briefly said before, I am ready to not be around tons of tourists that, apparently, don't know how to walk properly, read street signs, or, like a woman this morning, know how to use the most basic coffee pot to make coffee. I think this woman wanted me to make it for her even though she is like 55 and should know how to figure out how to use a coffee maker. Sorry for the rant. I just realized that it is 9:00 and my bus leaves at 9:30 so I gotta go. Pics will have to wait a few days.
Love you all!
Today I am leaving for Oviedo, a town in the North of Spain, and will be going out to Salinas to stay with my friend Pilar, who was in Cádiz with me and will be going to Granada, and her family. Every summer she comes out here to visit her family so not only is her Spanish really good, she is also extremely familiar with this part of Spain. Her family is letting me stay with them for free, which means I have a little more money to spend on the next few days at museums and things. I am planning on taking a day trip out to the national park up here called Picos de Europa. It was the first national park in Spain and is one of the most visited national parks in Europe. The exact place that I will be starting my hike from is Covadonga (in case you want to google map it). After taking some time away from the huge crowds that are all over Spain right now because of the Pope being in Madrid, I will go back to Pilar's for another night and then head over to Ribedesella to see one of the oldest caves in Spain, Cueva Tito Bustillo. While it is not the one in Altamira, the one that most people know of, it is supposed to be amazing and I will actually be allowed into the cave. The Paleolithic art is very similar to that in Altamira and there are stalactites and stalagmites throughout the cave as well. After this little adventure if I have time I will try to make it over to Altamira before going to Bilbao for the night. In Bilbao I will obviously go check out the Guggenheim but I think my friend Dorotia and I are going to take a day trip out to San Sebastian to see the beaches and some of the touristy
attractions over there. Finally, on the 23rd I will get on a bus at 8pm and start the day long trip back down south to Cádiz to pick up my luggage and will then go to Granada on the 25th. I check into my program on the 26th and start classes the following monday. While it seems as though I have tons of things to do in the next few days, I know that everything is going to continue to fly by. I cannot believe that my two week break is already half way done and that I will be in Granada shortly. So far during the past week I have been speaking more English than Spanish because most of the people that are staying in the hostels speak languages other than Spanish but they do know English. While traveling with Dan, Reid and Dorotia I have realized that a huge majority of the world speaks some degree of English and that while this is nice and great, in terms of communicating with people, it also means that when I am tired of dealing with pushy European people I cannot bad mouth them cause more likely than not they will understand what I am saying. Like I briefly said before, I am ready to not be around tons of tourists that, apparently, don't know how to walk properly, read street signs, or, like a woman this morning, know how to use the most basic coffee pot to make coffee. I think this woman wanted me to make it for her even though she is like 55 and should know how to figure out how to use a coffee maker. Sorry for the rant. I just realized that it is 9:00 and my bus leaves at 9:30 so I gotta go. Pics will have to wait a few days.
Love you all!
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