Morocco

Well, we're almost at the end of the semester here, which I still don't understand how that is possible-I hardly feel like I went to class at all! Monday the 17th is my last day of classes and then we have "exams" on the 19th-21st. Except...none of my classes have exams. Which is why I am updating my blog. To distract me from all of the papers I am currently writing!

So last weekend I went to Morocco with this program called "We Love Spain." It is a group that is based in Sevilla, and they do a bunch of different weekend and day trips to Morocco, Portugal, and some places in Spain. So there were about 70 or 80 of us in the group-mostly European students studying abroad in Spain (there were a ton of Italians) and some Americans studying in Sevilla. We took a bus from Sevilla to Algeciras, which is on the coast. From there, we took a very nice 35 minute ferry to Ceuta, which is autonomous city that is technically part of Spain, even though it is on the African continent. Spain was mostly left out of the colonization of Africa, but the French were kind enough to share the northern part of Morocco with Spain-admittedly it was only because they were concerned about the English having all the access to the Mediterranean with the Strait of Gibraltar, but anyway...Ceuta seemed pretty cool. We didn't really get off the bus except to take pictures at this one place where you can see the tip of Spain and the tip of Africa, but it was foggy so I didn't see anything. Then we went through border control to get into Morocco. They told us very specifically that we were not allowed to take pictures at the border, which was too bad, because I saw something really funny that I wanted to take a picture of. In the line of cars waiting to get into Spain, there was this one blue car that had broken down, so the driver put it in neutral and was pulling the car by the frame! It seemed to be going pretty well-hopefully he was planning on calling someone as soon as he got across the border.

Once we were in Morocco, we met our tour guide for the weekend, Mohammed! He spoke very good English and perfect Spanish (and Arabic of course) so we were in good hands. We drove to Tetuán, our first real stop of the trip. We took a short walk around the city, went through about 5 different markets (which is awkward with 40 people) saw the king's palace that he uses when he visits Tetuán, and learned some things about Morocco. Morocco is 98% Muslim, 2% Jewish, Catholic, and other, and according to Mohammed, Morocco has no problems with religion. Muslims, Catholics and Jews all live together and work together and there are no problems. (He told us this at least 5 times during the weekend). Also, Morocco is not very creative with their naming system. The current king of Morocco is King Mohammed VI. His father, the previous king of Morocco was King Hassan II, and before him was his father, King Mohammad V. In every city that we went to, there were streets, parks, restaurants, beaches, etc. named either Mohammad VI, Mohammad V, or Hassan II! They really love their king in Morocco.

We went to this spice shop where this guy gave a presentation about all these different herbs and spices Moroccans use for various ailments. They also had saffron, which I definitely should have bought because it was significantly cheaper there than in Spain-5 grams for 5 euros, instead of 1 gram for 5 euros! I would have bought some, but it seemed expensive at the time, so I didn't end up getting anything. I think that was all we did on Friday.

On Saturday they woke us up at 8 am to drive from Tetuán to Chefchaouen, or Chaouen (pronounced sh-ow wen - rhymes with wow) which was this little blue and white city. It's funny-every city in Morocco has a color, and they paint EVERYTHING that color. Tetuán was white, Marrakesh is red/pink, Rabat is green, and Chaouen is blue and white. Here is an example of what I mean:



In Chaouen we walked around the city, went through some markets, went to a rug/blanket/scarf presentation where they tried to sell stuff to us again but most of it was really expensive so not many people bought stuff (plus I just couldn't envision where I would put such a rug, and my scarf collection has more than doubled since coming to Spain anyway). Then we drove BACK to Tetuán for lunch at this really delicious restaurant where I had my first Moroccan tea of the trip! Moroccan tea is amazing. It is sweet and delicious and I don't know what is in it but I really wish I could make it. After lunch we drove to Tangier. On the way, we stopped to see the caves of Hercules. It was really cool but the guide did not speak English well and it was impossible to hear him because there were so many people and then I stepped in a puddle and my feet were soaked, so I was not in a good mood...thus I don't know anything about the caves except there is this opening to the ocean that looks like a map of Africa if you see it from the right angle. It's pretty neat.

Still on the way to Tangier, we stopped and rode camels! It wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be, but only because it wasn't a real camel ride. We each got to ride for about a minute in a circle around this little spot on the side of the road. Every time you want to get on or off the camel, they have to sit down. So the poor camels had to stand up and sit down every minute! They were not very happy about it, and I wouldn't be either.

Finally we made it to Tangier, where they gave us some free time in the center of Tangier for shopping. I hate haggling, and I didn't really see anything that I wanted to buy, so I left with only 2 postcards! Finally we reached our hotel, which was very strangely shaped. Our room was in a basement of sorts and when we looked outside we saw...camels. Just chilling in the yard by the hotel. They weren't wild, but I'm still not really sure what they were doing there. We went to a show with Arabian horses and other traditional performers (belly dancers, some dude that balanced a plate of candles on his head) but the camels were not involved. We had more tea with dinner that night, and it was delicious!

On Sunday we woke up late, drove back to the border, went through border control, ate lunch in Ceuta, took the ferry back to Algeciras, drove back to Sevilla, frantically took a taxi to the train station, and barely made our train back to Córdoba. All in all it was a pretty exciting weekend.

Granada

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Granada with my program. We spent 2 days and 1 night there, and it was fantastic! The first thing we did was the Alhambra, the world-renown attraction that is a walled-in fortress containing the palaces of Moorish Sultans and some beautiful gardens. Since our bus was late picking us up from Córdoba, we almost didn't get to see the Alhambra, because we had missed our reserved time. Fortunately, we were able to use our connections to get in at a later time. However, since we were late, that threw off our entire schedule for the day. After the Alhambra we were supposed to see the Capilla Real, where Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic Monarchs (the Inquisition and all that) are buried, and Granada's cathedral. We did get to see both of those things, but our visit was cut short because some people wanted to go sit in the hotel rather than see stuff. That night, we took a walk in the Albycín, a neighborhood with small, windy streets that has a beautiful view of the Alhambra. Even though we got very lost on the way back, it was definitely worth it!


View of the Alhambra at night!

The next day, we went on a tour of Federico García Lorca's house in Fuente Vaqueros, which was really not that cool because FGL only lived there until he was 7. There was a cool exhibit there with some of his poetry, which was worth seeing. We then went to a park with some mini palm trees and pretty flowers and spent some time there. Then we had a very expensive and not very delicious lunch...and then we got very delicious ice cream...and then we got on the bus to go home...and that was Granada!


Generalife-one of the gardens inside the Alhambra

The rest of Semana Santa...and more!

Well Semana Santa was so long ago now that I hardly remember what happened! I shall just write the highlights in order to catch up.

Tuesday March 30: Last day in London. We went to Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, and had tea at this really fancy tea place that wouldn't let us take pictures. That night we saw Chicago, which was a mistake because Chicago is a very American musical and the Brits just don't have the accent quite right.

Wednesday March 31: Spent all day on the bus from London to Edinburgh. It was a 10 hour trip, but it didn't seem that long for some reason. It was really cool to see all the English countryside as we went by. We got to Edinburgh and checked into our hostel, which was a great find. Called Castle Rock Hostel, it was voted the #1 hostel in Scotland for 2009, and with good reason! The rooms and bathrooms were very clean, the people were very friendly, and the location couldn't be better-right at the base of the... rock...that the castle was on! That night we did a "Ghost Tour" which was a walking tour around some of the haunted parts of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was a crazy Canadian girl named Kate who told us lots of very entertaining stories.

Thursday April 1: We did a free walking tour of Edinburgh during the day, also with Kate the crazy Canadian. It was a 4-hour long tour but for some reason it didn't seem that long! We went all around the city and learned some really interesting things that I'm not going to recount because a) I don't remember a lot of them and b) I'm supposed to be just writing the highlights. I forget what we did that afternoon but I'm sure it was fun. That night, we did a tour of a "close," which is somebody's former house in an underground city!

Friday April 2: Started the day with a tour of Edinburgh Castle: definitely worth it, although the lack of student discounts was disappointing. Then we walked all the way down the Royal Mile (the main tourist street in the Old Town of Edinburgh that has the Castle on one end and the Palace of Holyrood House on the other) to go to the palace. As our luck would have it, we happened to be there on one of the 3 days that the Palace is closed during the year (Christmas, Boxing Day, and Good Friday), so we couldn't go in. Fortunately, I noticed a large mountain behind the palace that people appeared to be hiking up, so I convinced Courtney that it would be a fun idea to hike up a mountain instead of visiting the palace. She agreed, and we started climbing up the very muddy slope of what I later learned was an extinct volcano. The views of Edinburgh from the top of Arthur's Seat (the name of the mountain-volcano thing) were absolutely incredible! Plus, I was so tired from the hiking that I was more than happy to sit on the bus for another 9ish hours that night on the way back to London.

Saturday April 3: Got to London Victoria Station at about 6 am. Took a train to the airport, sat there for a couple hours, and then flew back to Málaga! All in all a very successful trip with no travel glitches like the last time!

Sunday April 4: Easter! Holy week (Semana Santa) in Spain is a huge deal, but Easter is surprisingly not a big deal. I went to Easter Mass at the "cathedral" in Córdoba (the Mezquita with the cathedral in it) because 2 of my friends who are not Catholic wanted to go to church on Easter and they wanted someone to go with them who would know what to do so they wouldn't stand out. They didn't really need to worry about that though, because most of the people there were tourists and quite a few of them were definitely not Catholic. Other than that, I didn't do anything Easter-like except eat a chocolate Cadbury egg that I had bought in London.

Semana Santa in London and Edinburgh!

I am definitely going to have to break up this entry because I have done so much in the past week that I cannot possibly fit it all in one entry. So Saturday I returned from my spring break trip to London and Edinburgh. I had a great time-met up with some old friends, made some new friends, and saw some really cool things.

Last Saturday, I woke up at 6 am, took the train from Córdoba to Málaga, then took a train from the train station to the airport, and then flew to London, where I met up with my friend Courtney from Mount Holyoke, who is studying abroad in Finland this semester! We stayed at Palmer's Lodge, which is a relatively nice hostel, though it was somewhat out of the city. Fortunately, there was a metro station really close by, so we were able to navigate our way around the city very easily. After we checked into the hostel the first day, we met up with Lynne, Claire, and Dan in Leicester Square for dinner and a show. Unfortunately, since it was a Saturday night, all the places we tried to go for dinner were full, so we ended up running around for an hour and finally grabbing a quick bite at Victoria Station before heading to the theater. We saw Wicked-I had already seen it, but it is one of my favorite shows, so I was only too happy to see it again. They did a really good job with it too.

The next day, we went to the Westminster area of the city to see Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, and the outside of Westminster Abbey. We didn't go in Westminster Abbey this day because it was Sunday, so it was mostly closed to tourists. We walked around this general area for a while, and then we went to the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground bunker where Winston Churchill and his government planned their strategy during World War II. Afterward, we did some more walking and met up with Lynne, Claire and Dan for lunch-we got to go to a real pub this time. It was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and it was an authentic, delicious English pub. We had to wait an hour for a table, so while we waited, we walked up to Saint Paul's Cathedral. Since it was Sunday, it was also technically closed, but if you say that you're going in to pray, then you can go in and see certain parts of the church. So that was a nice little visit. After lunch, we walked to the Tower of London, but by that time it was 4:30, and the tower closes at 5:30, and they recommend at least 3 hours to see the whole thing, so we decided not to go. Instead, we went to Harrods! Somehow, I left without buying a single thing except for a Diet Coke! I was very proud of myself. Then we went to Covent Garden, which is the Fanueil Hall of London. We sat outside and enjoyed a glass of wine while listening to a group of street performers playing various string instruments. We didn't eat dinner that night because we were still so full from lunch, so we just walked around some more-we saw the Royal Opera House and Trafalgar Square, and then we went back to the hostel.

On Monday, we had a plan. We went straight to the Tower of London first thing in the morning, spent the required 3 hours there doing the beefeater tour, seeing the Crown Jewels, and just walking the grounds of the Tower. Then we went to lunch at this little sandwich places that Rick Steves recommended-and it was delicious! Always trust Rick Steves-though apparently there was one restaurant in Rome that he recommended that people don't like at all! Anyway, after lunch, we went to the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Unfortunately, since it is an open air theater, they only have plays from April-October, so we couldn't see a show there. We did do the tour, however, which was pretty cool. Then we went to the Imperial War Museum for a little while, and then we went to dinner at this pub called The Lord Moon of the Mall pub. It was also Rick Steves recommended, and it was absolutely delicious! Good cheap food and cheap beer.

Okay, I think that's enough for one entry. Stay tuned for the next one!

Nick's visit & Sevilla!

Last week, Nick was here on his spring break, and even though I had classes, we still got to hang out and see some really cool things. On Saturday morning I picked Nick up at the airport in Madrid! We stayed in Madrid for the weekend, and it was actually sunny and warm for a change. Saturday night we went to el Museo del Jamón, and then el Museo del Vino, neither of which are actually museums. In fact, they are both restaurants- Museo del Jamón is a tapas bar, where we got drinks and 2 sandwiches-very delicious! Museo del Vino was more of a sit-down place-we each got a Menu del Día and I don't remember exactly what we ate, but I remember it being delicious. The next day we went to Starbucks and got a frappuccino (don't judge, Córdoba doesn't have a Starbucks so it's not like I go there every day) and then we walked in the Parque del Buen Retiro- it's this huge park behind the Prado Museum and it is filled with the coolest and weirdest trees and plants. These trees look fake, but they aren't.



After we walked in the park for a while, we went to the train station and took the train to Córdoba! We spent the week in (fittingly) Hotel Boston, a nice little hotel right in the center of the modern part of Córdoba known as Plaza de las Tendillas. We did quite a bit of walking around Córdoba, and we went to the Mezquita, the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (The Christian Kings' Castle), Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and other various adventures into parts of Córdoba that I had never been before! Somehow Nick managed to find his way around the city better than I can-and I've been here for almost 2 months! It's not fair.

On Friday we went to Sevilla for the day. The weather was GORGEOUS-probably 75 degrees F. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see very much in Sevilla, because the president of Spain, Zapatero, was in town for a meeting with his government ministers. They had the meeting at the Alcázar, so we didn't get to see it, which was really disappointing, because I've heard that the Alcázar has even nicer gardens than the one in Córdoba! Oh well, I get to go back in a few weeks when my family comes to visit! We did get to see the Cathedral in Sevilla. It's a huge gothic cathedral-the 3rd largest in the world! There is a really cool tower that people can climb up, but because it was a holiday in Madrid, everyone and their mother came to Sevilla for the day, so the line was really long! Another thing to do when I go back. The cathedral houses the remains of Christopher Columbus-supposedly. I forget exactly what the story is, but somehow his remains were confused with his son Diego because originally they were both buried in Havana, Cuba, the last remaining Spanish colony. After Cuba became independent, Spain wanted Columbus' remains back, so they shipped them back, but according to some, they shipped back Diego's remains instead, which Spain refused to believe. So for a while, both Spain and Cuba claimed that they had Christopher Columbus' remains. Recently, they did a DNA test with the remains in the cathedral in Sevilla and compared them to the remains of Columbus' OTHER son, who was definitely buried in the cathedral. The relationship between the DNA confirmed that the remains belonged to a father and a son, thus putting an end to the battle over Columbus.

So that was last week. This week was just another regular week in Córdoba...classes and dance and such. Semana Santa (Holy Week) starts today in Spain, so everyone is on vacation! Tomorrow morning I am going to LONDON to meet up with Courtney from Mount Holyoke! Can't wait!

Quick Entry

It's so weird to think that I've already been in Spain for a month. It still feels like I just got here. I finally have a routine for the week that is fairly consistent. I don't have more than 2 classes per day, and Monday-Wednesday I either have flamenco, sevillanas (another traditional type of dance) or both. I was really committed to trying some new things this semester, and look what happened-I end up taking 2 dances classes! I am trying something new though-tomorrow I am going to a cooking class to learn how to make paella! We cook for 2 hours and then we get to eat what we make. In the last cooking class they made sangria, which I was very sad to miss. But then again I was in Italy, so I wasn't that sad. On Saturday I am heading to Madrid again to meet up with Nick, who is coming to Spain for his spring break!

In other news, it has FINALLY stopped raining here in Córdoba! I think they are expecting another few days of rain in the near future before it really starts turning nice, but it's definitely a welcome change to see sunshine on the weather forecast for the week!

Well, I think that's all I have for the moment. A week from tomorrow we are going to Sevilla for the day, so I will be able to talk about that in my next entry! Hasta pronto!

Italia!

So this weekend I went to Italy with Alex, another PRESHCO student. We had a BLAST except for some minor transportation issues that resulted in us living in airports for a couple of days, eating way too much junk food and not sleeping. But other than that, we had a great weekend! We stayed at a hostel in Rome that was close to the train station, and since we got the "Roma Pass," we could take the metro as many times as we wanted for free within 3 days. In addition, we got free entry to the Colosseum, Forum, and Palantine Hill, all of which were really cool. Our tour guide for the Colosseum was less than entertaining...he kept pointing out really inappropriate things and making bad jokes. Here's me with a gladiator outside the Colosseum!



After we saw the Colosseum we were supposed to follow the same guide to the Forum, but we hadn't eaten lunch yet so we ditched the group and found a restaurant nearby that had really good pizza. After lunch we went back to the Forum to try to meet up with another group, but it didn't seem like there were any, so we walked around by ourselves, with the help of Rick Steves. We stayed in the forum until it closed, and then we went back to the hostel, where they had a pasta party! We got pesto that was quite delicious. After dinner, we saw the Spanish Steps, Trevvi Fountain, and we ate our first gelato of the trip! Unfortunately, in our eagerness for gelato, we went to a chain restaurant where only half of the ice cream was gelato and the other half was just regular sorbet. It was still pretty good though.

The next day, we took the fast train to Florence for the day! We went to the Accademia and saw David, which is bigger and far more impressive than I had ever imagined. The sculpture room was also pretty cool-hundreds of plaster sculptures that served as the rough draft before the actual stone or cement statue was created. We had lunch at Za-Za's, a really delicious restaurant that I have now been to three times in my life! I ate gnocci and a caprese salad, which were absolutely delicious! After lunch, we went to the duomo, which is the big cathedral in the center of the city. We elected not to climb the dome even though it was an option, because we were planning on climbing St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican the next day! After the duomo, we walked for miles and miles down by the river, crossing back and forth until we got to the Ponte Vecchio. We also went to Vivoli for gelato, which is one of the best (if not the best) gelato places in Florence :-D

On Sunday, we got up early to go to the Vatican, but not nearly as early as we probably should have. The line for the Vatican Museum (Sistene Chapel, etc) was 3 1/2 hours long and it went all the way from the entrance of the museum to St. Peter's Square! At first we weren't planning on doing a guided tour, but when we realized that the tours get to skip the line, (and since admission was free anyway since it was the last Sunday of the month so all we had to pay for was the tour) we decided to join a tour group. Definitely one of the best decisions we made on the trip. Our tour guide's name was Mateo, and he was excellent! He really knew his stuff and he was really passionate about it. I actually learned a lot that I definitely would not have learned if we had gone by ourselves. The museum was really cool in general, but of course the most amazing thing was the Sistene Chapel. They say that you aren't allowed to take photos in there but EVERYONE does-and some people even leave the flash on! Scandalous! What is perhaps most impressive about the Sistene Chapel is that Michelangelo wasn't even a painter-he was a sculptor! He had never painted anything before in his life! And since he was painting a fresco, there was literally ZERO room for error, because if you have to fix one spot, everything around it will be ruined. In fact, Michelangelo only made one error in the whole damn thing-in the first panel he painted, he made the people too small. What a travesty! So anyway, in addition to the Vatican Museum, we also went in St. Peter's Basilica AND climbed the dome! Check out this picture that I took from the very top: you can see all of Rome!



Later on, we went to the Pantheon and on our way we stopped for gelato. We saw this gelato place that was very crowded, so we assumed it must be good, so we went in. It was definitely the best gelato I have ever had in my entire life. Later on, we learned that the place we had been to was Giolitti, the oldest and most famous gelato place in all of Rome! Sweet!

And now the nightmare begins! The next morning we made it to the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight. Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:15, and we were at the gate by 9. Our tickets said that the flight was leaving at 10:15, but the board said 10:40, so we assumed that there was a slight delay, so we sat there, waiting for them to call our flight. At 10:15 we still hadn't boarded, so I went to ask the woman at the counter what time the flight would be boarding. Her response? The flight left 5 minutes ago! Aaaaaaaaah! Not only did they not announce the flight, we did not see any people lining up to get on the plane! It was probably because all of them missed the flight as well-I know of at least 20 people who were in the same situation as us, and all of them were very angry. So we had to find a new flight home. Easyjet only had one other flight to Madrid that day, and it was completely full, so we had to find a different airline and pay for a whole new ticket. We ended up with Vueling, and the plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:45 pm, nearly 12 hours later than our intended departure time. So what did we do? We sat. In the airport. All. Day. Long. When our plane finally left, we arrived in Madrid at 11:30 pm. Of course, there are no buses or trains at that hour, so we sat in Madrid's airport. All. Night. Long. At 6 am, when the metro opened, we left the airport and went to the train station, where we got on the first train we could get back to Córdoba! Oh man. We were traveling for over 24 hours straight. I'm so glad to be back in Córdoba again!

Córdoba: Rainy with a chance of sun

Well, we have finally made it to Córdoba! Actually, we got here a week ago. This blog is more work than I had anticipated! So, Córdoba. It is wonderful so far! I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed when we first arrived, because we had just returned from seeing all the coolest locations in Spain, and it seemed like Córdoba just wasn't as cool. As it turns out, Córdoba is very cool, just in a different way. It is significantly smaller than Madrid and Barcelona, which I really like. In the week that I have been here, I have found my way around all the important parts of the city with the help of my trusty map. Normally, I have a horrible sense of direction and my map-reading ability is slim to none, so the fact that I can actually follow a map and not get lost too much really says something about Córdoba!

On our first full day in Córdoba, we went to Madinat al-Zahra, which is a city of ruins from way back in the day when the Moors controlled Córdoba. Córdoba actually used to be the capital of al-Andalus, as Spain used to be called, so it was a very important city. It was pretty cool.

This past week we started classes-sort of. The classes for just the students in my program start on Monday, but the classes at the University of Córdoba started this week. Since we only technically have to take 1 class directly in UCO, we got to do a week of shopping-going to the classes that interested us. The class I found most interesting was actually a history class about Spain in the 20th century. It occurred to me that I really don't know anything about Spain's recent history, particularly the Civil War and Franco periods, so I think this will be a really interesting class.

Also this week we had a guided tour of the Mezquita, Córdoba's most famous attraction. It is a huge mosque that was started in the 8th century (The Moors arrived in Spain in 711 so it must have been sometime after that) and construction continued for centuries and centuries. When the Christians reconquered Spain several centuries later, they destroyed part of the Mezquita to build a cathedral. Luckily, they didn't destroy the entire Mezquita as they have been known to do-they just built their cathedral right inside it! So some of the oldest parts are still very well preserved! The cathedral part is still in use today, but the mosque part is not, which is just as well because the mosque doesn't even face towards Mecca like it's supposed to (I forget why this is). In addition to the Mezquita, we got to see the Alcázar for a few short minutes. I think it was an old palace. It had some absolutely gorgeous gardens and pools that we sort of got to walk through. I will certainly be returning soon to see the whole thing.

Another highlight of this week was the Flamenco show we went to. I had heard of flamenco dancing and flamenco guitar, but I didn't really know that flamenco was a style of singing as well. It's really quite unique...it sounds a lot like chanting and it's impossible to understand what they are saying. I liked that dance better-shock and surprise! I tried to upload a video, but it was taking too long so I decided against it. Plus I wasn't supposed to be filming anyway. Whoops.

Barcelona!

The bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Our bus driver, Antonio, drives like a pro. Not only did he successfully navigate us through morning rush hour traffic in Madrid, he got us to Barcelona in 8 hours, when it could have easily been a 9 or 10 hour drive. We were cruising! On our way to Barcelona, we stopped in Zaragoza in order to see an important church-La Basilica de Nuestra Señora de El Pilar. I didn't really understand what a "Pilar" is - it translates to "pillar" but that doesn't really make sense. The legend is that Mary appeared to Saint James there and it was a miracle, so now there is a gold dish that people kiss. Right.

We arrived in Barcelona at around 8:00 pm, checked into our hotel, and then went to find a place to eat dinner. We ended up at this tapas place where we accidentally ordered sangria...not that there was anything wrong with that. It was very good sangria. The waiter was very proud of it. The next day, we had a guided tour of Parque Guëll, a "park" that was designed by Barcelona's world renown architect, Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi was commissioned by a guy named Guëll to construct a separate, elite city for Barcelona's wealthiest families. He started the construction in 1900, and by 1914, only a couple houses had been constructed, and at this point, people had lost interest, so the city was never finished.

Later that day, we visited La Sagrada Familia-the Eiffel Tower of Barcelona. It's a huge cathedral that is associated with Gaudi, even though he only actually was responsible for 10% of its construction. The cathedral is still under construction-maybe that is why I thought it was so ugly. Architects today are trying to complete the cathedral à la Gaudi, but it is very difficult because there is no one as creative or innovative as Gaudi. Nevertheless, architects are trying to complete the cathedral, but it is projected to take at least another 30 years. We did not get to go inside the cathedral, which was disappointing.

The next day, we had a lot of free time, so we got to make our own plans. We had a few things in mind that we wanted to see, so we set off on a very ambitious mission: taking the metro. This mission was mostly unsuccessful. When we got to the station nearest to our hotel, it didn't have the line that we were planning on taking to the Zoo. We got on a different train that we hoped would get us close to the zoo, but when we went 1 stop and had absolutely no idea where we were, we decided to get off the train. We ended up the exact opposite direction of where we wanted to be, but we realized that we were very close to La Pedrera, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces that we were planning on visiting that day. We left the metro station and started walking towards what we thought was La Pedrera. As it turns out, we were walking the wrong way, and if we hadn't realized it, we would have ended up back at the hotel. Luckily, we corrected our mistake and turned around to find La Pedrera. We first went to Casa Batlló, a building that Gaudi created for José Batlló. Gaudi's unique style is apparent in every aspect of this building. He was inspired by nature and used a lot of very bright colors. I would post pictures but it takes too long, so I will try to post them on facebook. After visiting Casa Batlló, we went to a really nice restaurant for lunch. I had a 3 chocolate mousse for dessert-it was delicious! After lunch, we finally made it to La Pedrera. The inside did not look like Gaudi's style as much as Casa Batlló, but then we went up on the roof. It's literally impossible to describe so I will post 1 picture. It just makes you wonder...what on earth was he thinking?



Anyway, after visiting La Pedrera we went back to the hotel, had a quick dinner, and then went to the train station for our overnight hotel train to Córdoba! This train was SO nice. Now I understand why they made us drive 8 hours from Madrid to Barcelona when we could have easily taken a train and gotten there in half the time. They spent all the money on first class tickets on the hotel train-for which I am very thankful. We got to wait in the VIP lounge before we got on board the train, which was a fun experience-free food and drinks! On the train, the cabins were REALLY nice. They had 2 beds (bunk beds) in each room, a T.V., and a bathroom complete with a full shower! I did not take a shower on the train because the trip was only about 8 hours, but I would have taken one if we had been on board longer. Well, that just about brings us to Córdoba. I will hopefully write another entry soon about my experience here-it has been great so far! Hasta pronto :)

Warning! This entry is a NOVEL. Do not proceed if you are short on time!

February 6^th

I am writing this on Microsoft Word with the hopes that the wireless internet at the hotel in Barcelona is faster than what they have here in Madrid. So let’s see…we left Salamanca fairly early and went east to Segovia. We spent such a short time there that I don’t really remember what it was like, but it seemed like a really cool place. We saw the Aqueduct of Segovia, which was built in the first or second century by the Romans (as I just learned from Wikipedia). That was a long time ago! It’s shockingly well preserved. We walked through the town and passed by a beautiful cathedral. I was annoyed that we didn’t stop to look at it or go inside, but my displeasure vanished when I saw our actual destination. It was el Alcázar de Segovia – a huge castle built in the 12^th century I think. Fun Fact – the inspiration for the Walt Disney Castle came from this Alcázar! You can sort of see the resemblance in this photo.

After touring the castle, there was a tower that we could climb that involved over 150 tiny, narrow, winding stairs. Terrifying, but totally worth it for the view.

We left the castle and got back on the bus to go to San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a town just outside of Madrid that contains the monastery and palace called El Escorial, which was the major palace for the Spanish monarchy. It was built mostly by/for King Philip II (Felipe II) in the 16^th century and it is ginormous! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos inside the palace, so I will try to describe some of what we saw. We got to see a ton of different rooms, including the church, which is impressive in and of itself, the library, and the royal bedrooms. The king and queen’s bedrooms were conveniently located on either side of the main altar in the church so that they didn’t even have to leave their beds to hear mass. Underneath El Escorial is the royal crypt-all of the kings and queens since Felipe II are buried there. On one side are all the kings (plus Isabel II (Elizabeth II) because she was actually the reigning monarch) and on the other side are the queens. There are 3 empty tombs/caskets remaining. One is for the wife of the previous king of Spain (Alfonso XIII). She has been dead for a while now-16 years I think-but her remains are still in the rotting room (the room where they put the rotten corpses to decompose). They wait at least 20 years after someone has died before they place their ashes in the tombs in the special crypt. The other two empty tombs are for the current king and queen of Spain, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. After their death, a new room will probably be built for future dead monarchs. All of the tombs in this crypt are exactly the same, because they were made at the same time-all in the 16^th century. Very cool room, but slightly creepy. Even creepier were the next 7 rooms full of dead children and dead relatives of the royal family. We also saw the library, which had some really really really old books.

Just before dinner time, we arrived at our next destination: Madrid! Madrid is huge and very modern-it is definitely the New York City of Spain, but with much better architecture. We are staying at the Hotel Moderno, which is a fairly nice hotel just next to Puerta del Sol. Puerta del Sol is like the Times Square of Madrid-it is always filled with people, particularly in the evenings and on the weekends. We ate dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel-it was okay, but they served us fried chicken and French fries, which I was not expecting to see in Spain, so it was a little bit disappointing.

Does this seem like the longest day ever? It probably was.

February 7^th

Today we had a guided tour of the Palacio Real – the Royal Palace. When Madrid became the official capital of Spain, the king (forget which one) decided that he needed a palace in Madrid, thus the Palacio Real was built. Madrid was chosen as the capital of Spain because it is the geographical center of the Iberian Peninsula, so it is a relatively modern city compared with some of the others. Since its construction, this palace has been the official residence of the king and queen of Spain. It was used as a primary residence up until the last king (Alfonso XIII) so the only king who hasn’t lived there is the current one-what a snob! Juan Carlos (JC for short, haha) and Sofia live in a smaller palace somewhere else. The Palacio Real is still used for official state functions, however. There is a HUGE dining room with a table that probably fits about 75 people. When Obama comes to Spain sometime this year, he will get to sit at that huge table next to the queen, and Michelle will get to sit next to the king, because it has to alternate man-woman-man-woman. No idea why. Speaking of Americans, it just so happened that the American ambassador to Spain, recently appointed by President Obama, was touring the Palacio Real at the exact same time we were! He and his wife and another couple were getting a private tour. Some people on my program actually got to meet him but sadly I did not.

After touring the palacio we had lunch and then took a siesta and then went to the Prado museum, the largest and most famous museum in Spain. It is overwhelmingly huge, though not nearly as big as the Louvre. There was one very famous painting – Las Meninas, by Velázquez, that I was very familiar with, but as I was going through the museum, I realized that I really don’t know anything about Spanish art. That’s why one of the classes I plan on taking this semester is Spanish Art: From Velázquez to Picasso. It’s unfortunate that I had to see all the paintings without knowing anything about them. An audio guide would have been helpful.

February 8^th

TOLEDO! My favorite part of the trip so far, and possibly my new favorite place in the world! First of all, let’s just clarify one thing. Unlike the city in Ohio, the Toledo in Spain is pronounced Toe-lay-dough, not Toe-lee-dough. Toledo is not just any old hill down as some of you may think, and if you don’t check it out if you are in Spain, you are really missing out. Toledo is historically a very important city even though it is small compared to Spain’s other major cities. It has always been the religious and cultural center of Spain, and it is known as the city of the 3 religions, because Christians, Jews, and Muslims all lived there at the same time – not always peacefully as I learned in my Spanish class this past semester! Nonetheless, Toledo is filled with tons of cool architecture from the 3 different cultures. There are Moorish bridges and gates that are over 1000 years old, because the Moors were in Spain between 711 and 1492 A.D., which was a long time ago! Then there is a huge cathedral that was built by the Christians-possibly the most beautiful church I have ever seen. The architecture was amazing-it was built over a longish period of time, so there is a mix of gothic, renaissance, and baroque styles. There is a really beautiful rosetón (big stained glass rose window) and 2 huge organs. Behind the main altar, there are 2 tiny little windows that were decorated so elaborately in the baroque style. The sacristy is also really cool-it is decorated with many paintings from some of Spain’s most important artists. Of course we were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, and it actually was pouring when we left, so I did not get many good photos. But photos really can’t do this place justice. You’ll have to see it for yourselves!

Another cool thing that we saw in Toledo was this painting by El Greco, one of the 3 major Spanish artists. The painting was called El Entierro del Señor de Orgaz (The Burial of the Lord(?) of Orgaz) and it is this huge painting that covers an entire wall of a dinky little church known as the La Iglesia de Santo Tomé (Saint Thomas). The painting describes the miracle of how the Señor de Orgaz’s soul went to heaven when he died because he was such a good and pious man. This event happened over 200 years earlier than when El Greco painted it in the 16^th century, so for models for the painting, El Greco used people from Toledo that he knew to make up the crowd attending the burial. He even included himself and his son in the picture. It’s actually kind of scary because while everyone else in the painting is watching what is going on in the scene, El Greco and his son are looking straight at you.

The last cool thing that we saw in Toledo was this old Jewish synagogue. It’s very old (I’m not sure how old exactly) and it is currently just a museum, but it is surprisingly well preserved given what happened to it. The Christians came in and turned it into a church by building on top of the synagogue. Centuries later, some of the church part has been removed, and you can see the original synagogue underneath! Whoaaaa…

Sadly, that was the last thing we did in Toledo. I could have spent a week there at least, but we only had a few hours. So if anyone wants to go to Toledo, call me up!

When we got back to Madrid, we went to the modern art museum known as Reina Sofia. It contains Picasso’s most famous painting, Guernica, as well as many other paintings of his, and many works by Salvador Dali. My patience for modern art is fairly limited, but I still enjoyed this museum. It has 2 big glass elevators that are on the outside of the building so when you are going up you can see what is going on outside. It’s absolutely terrifying if you are afraid of heights.

February 9^th

That’s today! This is the first time that I’ve had enough down time to write a legitimate blog entry that covers everything I’ve done recently. Hopefully I will never have to write anything this long again on this trip! So today was a fairly relaxing day. This is our 4^th (I think) and last day in Madrid, because tomorrow we are taking the bus to Barcelona! We didn’t have to be anywhere until 7 pm for an orientation meeting with the whole group. I went with some people to the Thyssen museum, which turned out to be a lot better than I expected. The Thyssen is one of the 3 major museums in Spain, and it contains “minor works by major artists and major works by minor artists.” I wasn’t really in the mood for another art museum, and we were mostly going just to say we had been there. Fortunately, this museum turned out to be very interesting, and a lot less overwhelming than either the Prado or Reina Sofia. The paintings were really cool, and the museum was organized in a way that made sense transitioning from one room to the next. There are a lot of impressionist and generally French paintings there, which the other 2 museums lacked. My favorite of course was one of Degas’ dancer paintings. No surprise there! After the museum we went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. Surprisingly this was probably the best food we had in Madrid. I had some really delicious pumpkin soup, a main course with lots of vegetables, and a DELICIOUS tiramisu for dessert. Then we walked across town in search of the statues of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. We found them after a brief walk that took us past the Senate building, and we took a bunch of photos. On our way back we stopped for churros y chocolate, an excellent Spanish snack, at the chocolatería San Ginés, the oldest and most famous chocolatería in Madrid. The churros y chocolate were good, but not as good as the last time we had churros y chocolate at the place next door to San Ginés, where they only charged us 1 euro!

I think I’m FINALLY done recapping everything that I have done recently. This entry is much too long! I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway. Until next time!

La llegada y Salamanca!

Hola a todos! Well I made it to Spain and so much has happened in the past few days that I think I have forgotten most of it, but I will try to give a brief summary of the things I do remember. We arrived at Barajas Airport in Madrid at 9:45 am on Thursday, February 4th after a fairly turbulent flight. Barajas is definitely the ugliest airport I have ever seen. The program coordinators met us at the airport-Esteban, el "jefe supremo" (who reminds me SO much of Rogelio, for those of you who know him), Eva, Encarní, y Maribel. We left the airport by bus and went straight to Ávila, a little town with some sort of old fortress and a famous saint (possibly Theresa). We were all very jetlagged and we only really stopped there for lunch, so we did not see much in this town. We got back on the bus and went to Salamanca, where we checked in at our hotel. I then experienced my first siesta. It was wonderful! I didn't want to wake up. Dinner that night was delicious, and we were serenaded by La Tuna, a traditional musical group from Spain. I took a video and once I figure out how to get it off my camera I will try to post it here. After dinner a bunch of us went out for a walk around Salamanca (by the way this is around midnight on a Thursday and the streets are still packed). We found our way to the Plaza Mayor (town center) and then proceeded to get hopelessly lost for about an hour and a half. Good thing one of us (not me) had some sense of direction and was able to steer us back to our hotel.

Friday, February 5
After a morning orientation session, we had a guided tour of Salamanca. We saw the cathedral, which was really neat because there were actually two cathedrals-the old one and the new one, built right next to each other. The old one was built first (duh), but after an earthquake destroyed a lot of it, the new one was rebuilt on top of/next to the old one. The style of this cathedral is fairly eclectic--it was a mix of many different styles of architecture, including gothic, baroque, renaissance, and a couple others that I was not familiar with. It was really hard to get a good picture of the outside of the cathedral, because it is legitimately right in the middle of the city. To see the contrast between the old and new cathedrals, look at the 2 pictures at the top of the entry (I tried to insert them here but for some reason they went to the top and I cannot move them). The one with the columns is the new one and the one with the paintings is the old one (that painting is from the 12th century or something and look at how well preserved it is!) After seeing the cathedral, we toured the Universidad de Salamanca-the oldest University in Spain. It was really cool to see. The first interesting thing that I remember is the way exams were conducted. If you passed your exams, you got to write your name on the building (on the outside!) and a symbol that said "VICTOR" to show that you were victorious in your studies. I really wish I had taken a picture of the names and the victor symbol because they were really neat. Another interesting thing about the Uni de Salamanca is that on the façade there is a sculpture of a toad (una rana) in between two skulls. Traditionally, if you see la rana and you are a student, it means that you will get good grades and be successful. Additionally, if you see la rana it means you will come back to Salamanca one day, and it may also mean that you will get married. I did not see la rana...so basically I'm going to fail and never come back to Salamanca and never get married. Que triste!

Well, I think that's all the interesting stuff I can remember for now. I was planning on updating this blog through today (the 6th) but there was just too much stuff to say and I am tired even though it is still early by Spanish standards. I will add more later. Goodnight.

First entry!

Hola everyone! This is my blog for my study abroad adventures in Córdoba, Spain. I leave February 3rd, so I'm just hanging around Massachusetts until then, working and hanging out with friends. I'm going into Boston on Friday to pick up my visa (hopefully the Consulate won't give me trouble like they did last time...) The weather in Córdoba is a balmy 55 degrees, which will be a nice change from the relentless snowstorms we are currently experiencing in MA. Be prepared for a lot of Spanglish in this blog, and don't be surprised if some entries are entirely in Spanish.

Here is my itinerary for the first week of the program:
Feb 4-5: Salamanca
Feb 6-8: Madrid, Toledo, El Escorial
Feb 9-12: Barcelona
Feb 13: Córdoba!

I hope you enjoy reading this blog and hearing about all of my Spanish adventures. ¡Hasta pronto!