Love from España

the rest of the adventure

2008-06-27T22:56:00.006+02:00

day 5: sevilla

we started off the day with a trip to the plaza de toros and did a tour through it (even though there wasn't actually a bullfight..) and then went to the plaza de españa and then to the cathedral. we climbed up the tower of the cathedral (with all of our bags.. it was really hard) and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. that afternoon, we caught our flight from sevilla to barcelona for the last leg of our trip. our hotel there was right on la rambla, one of the main streets in the city, which was really convenient and exciting. turns out that we arrived on one of the biggest party nights/holidays of the year, with fireworks and bonfires going all night. woop woop.

day 6: barcelona -- the day of gaudí

we woke up early and went to all the gaudí stuff we could in one day: the casa batlló, la pedrera, the park guell, and of course, la sagrada familia. it really was amazing to learn about and SEE the innovations that gaudí developed in his architecture. it was unlike anything i've ever seen. la sagrada familia, in particular, was amazing. it's gaudí's temple for the catholic church that they've been working on since 1893. and it isn't going to be done until at least the 2020's. i made a goal when i saw it that i will come back here and see it all when it has been completed.

la pedrera, an apartment block/complex:

la sagrada familia:

park guell:

day 7: barcelona

we hit the other, non-gaudí sites on wednesday: the cathedral, the museum of history (which had a really cool underground roman archeaological (sp?) dig that you can visit), the olympic stadium, and the picasso museum. then that afternoon we caught a flight back to madrid and then made it back to alcalá de henares to pick up my bags. thursday morning we flew home and then were back at 1 green hollow in irvine by 11 pm.

it really was an excellent adventure!

first half of the adventure

2008-06-27T22:32:00.007+02:00

day 1: madrid
thursday, we got everything set. that means, buying train tickets for our upcoming adventures and working on getting dad's credit and debit cards to work (the companies froze them because they didn't know he was going to a foreign country). we also managed to go see the royal palace, the puerta del sol, the plaza mayor, the prado museum, and the parque del buen retiro and eat some tapas right off of the paseo del prado. all in all a pretty successful day. this was a funny picture... we asked this man to take a picture of us in front of the prado and he did. just didn't actually include the prado behind us. hahahah.

day 2: córdoba
we made it via the ave SUPAFAST train to córdoba the next day. although it was over 100 degrees the whole day (it. was. hot.), we managed to have a good time and go see all of córdoba's hottest sites: the mezquita, the alcázar, the synagogue, and the archealogical museum. these are the pictures of us: me in the over-1000-years-old arab baths of the alcázar, a beautiful little courtyard we found, and 2 shots of the mezquita.

day 3: tangiers

we took the morning ferry over from algeciras, spain to tangiers, morocco. we had no idea of what we were going to do when we got over there but we did know that we wanted to visit the kasbah, or sultans's palace, and that we wanted to ride a camel. we managed to do it all with the help of our wonderful tour guide assan. he basically ran us through on a whirlwind 3-hour tour of the city, trying to get us to buy everything we saw and bringing us to a restaurant. it was really incredibly fun and i was glad we didn't get robbed or anything, which probably would have been likely if we hadn't had our guide. we got to see a lot of cool things there. we also got to ride on the ferry right past the rock of gibraltar!

day 4: church in córdoba and then on to sevilla

sunday morning, we took the train from algeciras to córdoba, where we went to church at the small branch there and were welcomed by the members there. then we hopped back on the ave and went to sevilla and ran to the alcázar there just before it closed and looked around. that night, we went to a flamenco show, which was really cool and i was glad that we got to do that, even if there were no bullfights going on while we were there.

quick update

2008-06-23T16:12:00.003+02:00

this is a little bit of what we´ve been up to thus far... us riding camels in tangiers, morocco (they were really generous and gave us 4 minutes on the camels) and visiting the plaza de toros in sevilla (clearly not while there was actually a bullfight going on... there aren´t any going on this week. dang it.) we´re heading to barcelona in a few hours on a plane and then we´ll be back to madrid on wednesday to fly home thursday. so we´ll be back thursday at midnightish FYI, in case you were all curious. cross your fingers that nothing else goes wrong and that we make it home without incident. love you all.

safe and sound and went to africa

2008-06-21T19:14:00.002+02:00

hey fans and friends and family,

we´re at a locutorio in algeciras, the southern tip of spain. we can see the rock of gibraltar with its friend the strait right outside the window and we are working on making reservations for our hotels in sevilla and barcelona for the next few nights. quick update on the last few days:

-i met up with dad at his hotel and then his credit card and debit card weren´t authorized so we spent a while figuring that out on thursday. it was a great adventure.
-we made it to córdoba and visited all the sites there. it didn´t take very long.. the most exciting thing there is the mosque.
-last night, we made it to algeciras and this morning took the ferry over to MOROCCO and spent a whirlwind half a day in tangiers. it was really cool and guess what: nobody stole anything from us! shocker!
-we´re safe and sound and planning on going to sevilla tomorrow and then barcelona monday night, tuesday, and wednesday. then flying home on thursday.

woop woop things are going great! love you all. hasta luego,

your favorite world traveler (alyse)

last day in madrid

2008-06-18T21:16:00.003+02:00

i guess i shouldn't be so sad: i'm going back into madrid tomorrow with dad and we're going to see everything that i love again. it's not like it's the end of the world or anything or that i'm actually leaving... yet. i've still got one more week here in this country, which i am excited and grateful for. but it's like the end of an era: half of our group is already gone and other than my one roommate who is still here, i'm not going to see any of them again because everybody else is heading out tomorrow at different times. IT'S OKAY though: we're all going back to provo so random run-ins on campus are inevitable and everybody's already set for the beginning of semester get-together reunion that's been planned.

anywho, for our last day here, we went and hit the last museum that i hadn't been to (the thyssen, a private collection that was absolutely incredible. i was a huge fan. lots of impressionist stuff and all that.) and then went and rowed boats again in the parque del buen retiro, and visited the peacock gardens. oh yeah and i also bought the last of my gift/souvenirs for my family. i really hope you all like them! only one week until i'm back at home kiddos.

okay but FYI: i am going to be traveling for the next week with dad (alyse and blake's excellent adventure, remember?) which i am totally excited about. we have really no idea what we're doing... which kind of scares me... but we will see. but i am not bringing my computer so i won't have internet for the next week, other than what the hotels have to offer/locutorios we find. so i'll try to post up on this, if we get the opportunity, but if not, i love you all and will talk to you soon!

good-bye, alcala

2008-06-18T00:17:00.004+02:00

today was our last day studying at the university of alcala de henares. we went over our exams (i did great on one of them and i am pretty sure i got the worst grade in the class on the other one... oops) and had a totally informal "graduation ceremony" where our spanish professor, jesús, gave us these diplomas that he just made himself. then, we went over to profe's house for an end-of-the-trip party. there was lots of food (paella, etc.) and good company. and this one girl in our group made a video/slideshow of all of the places we've visited, and we all did individual interviews just briefly telling profe how great he was and how much we appreciated him--he got all teary-eyed when he saw it and it was awesome. we gave him the gift that we bought him (this mini-triptych that was his favorite thing in spain) and he loved that too. so basically, overall, it was a successful day.

i am seriously SO SAD that this program is over. it's funny: you always hear how study abroads are all life-changing and all that, but it really was. i hate being dramatic and sentimental. but we're all getting so nostalgic now that tomorrow is going to be our last day together (well, at least for most of the people who are still going to be here). it had to end sometime, though. and it's like mom says about family reunions: it's better for them to be too short and leave you wanting more than for them to be too long and make you want to leave. too much can be too much. and i'm sure that i could get tired of this at some point. i'm sure i could.

dad's flying in on thursday morning, which will start blake and alyse's excellent adventure... we currently have plans but no reservations or bookings. which i am slightly worried about but we have no choice any more. we shall see what happens! oh yes, and on that note: this may very well be one of my last posts because i am not bringing my computer on our travels because it's so HEAVY so we'll be using locutorios/hotel internet until i regreso a los estados unidos.

this is just a good pic from our trip to teruel last week.

fro'd

2008-06-17T01:29:00.003+02:00

i almost forgot to post about this! i froed my hair today (and by today, i mean monday) and it was huuuuuge and pretty sweet. i didn't get that great of a picture of it, now that i think about it, but this is a pretty good one at our last trip to the monday mercadillo and our delicious purchase of nectarinas. it was a celebration for our final exams. you should see the side view. i think it will become a more regular process when i need to look ridiculous for some occasion.. it was incredibly easy (all i did was brush it out with a comb) and actually pretty cool with a headband.

starting the end

2008-06-17T00:08:00.002+02:00

so we took our final exams today. they weren't that bad. i'm just holding onto the hope that our profe will help us out and give a little curve or something, but no worries. this spain experience was worth it even if i do get a couple of A-'s out of this program.

we took some pictures with our family today since we aren't going to be having another lunch together before we leave, unfortunately. we have a big party at profe's house tomorrow and then kristine is leaving on wednesday. introductions: faustino, area 70, and his wife, consuelo. they are some really great people. i really really like them even though we haven't really bonded much even after living with them for almost 2 months. i feel like it's just that they don't know what to talk to us about, although they are totally 100% nice all the time. i love them. it's been an awesome experience. consuelo gave each of us matching necklaces and had specific colors picked out for each of us... she gave me mine specifically because it matched one of my rings that i bought here. it was so cute.

after lunch, we went into madrid and wanted to get some souvenir shopping done and out of the way, but we were foiled by the awful rain (it started pouring cats and dogs, and gerbils even) and all the street vendors' stalls were gone. and the prado is closed on mondays, which we forgot, unfortunately. so it was a slightly unsuccessful day in madrid, but that's okay: party tomorrow and we've got allll day wednesday to get stuff done! and then i've got a couple more days with dad. so it should be great.

the reason i'm looking forward to coming home

2008-06-15T14:17:00.002+02:00

although i'm really sad about the program ending so soon, there are definitely going to be some great things about coming home! like these:

i just found these pictures on my computer again and thought i would share... they're from our little picnic we went on in that week i had at home before i came out here. i'm excited for more plans like this for the 6 weeks i'm at home this summer!

cuenca y teruel

2008-06-15T01:27:00.006+02:00

this was our last adventure of the program. it was basically an opportunity to "explore our brains out" as our profe said. the cities we hit are not really known for being huge tourist spots, but are mainly just places where people live and exist with a few really cool places in between, so it was fun.

we mainly went to cuenca to check out the "casas colgadas" (hanging houses) that are pretty unique from anything we've yet seen. cuenca is famous for them and they're really pretty, although i couldn't figure out what is so crazy about them. i enjoyed them though. and we went to an abstract art exhibit there as well. it was... abstra

this was just a cool building. or set of buildings. and it was funny because (if you look at the picture below) we matched them! hahaha and each other... kristine and i bought these shirts together and our friend rhett managed to be matching us. primary colors are 1 2 3...

afterwards, we went this tiny little town called albarracin. there wasn't really much there but this cool outer wall but it is a beautiful, beautiful town.

friday night/saturday we ended up in teruel... the final stop on our trip. it was a really cute place as well. but the best pictures i took there were just me with the 3 youngest sherman kids, who feel like they might as well be related to me for how much fun they are.

we have 4 days left in our program, and then it will be over! sad! and now begins the countdown until alyse and blake's excellent adventure! (and yes, i will insist on calling it that... i won't call you blake, dad, but i think that should be the title of our weeklong trip. sound good?)

i <3 don quijote

2008-06-11T13:53:00.003+02:00

i FINALLY got the pictures i wanted of me with my good friend! i was so happy to get this done. the first one is me with miguel de cervantes, the writer of don quijote (who was born in alcala de henares) and the second one is with don quijote and sancho panza themselves. suhweeeeet.

the prado museum

2008-06-10T22:30:00.003+02:00

so, living so close to such a major european city, i would have been disappointed with myself if i hadn't taken advantage of visiting everything that i could and getting all the culture i could out of it. so we've been somewhat regular attendees of the museums around here. or at least, we've gone a few times, which has been a really cool experience. i've discovered that i do have some kind of artistic taste, in that i can figure out what i like and what i don't, even if i don't have very much knowledge on the style or era that it comes from. and this is what i like:

this painting is by bartolomé e. murillo, and it is called "la sagrada familia del pajarito," or "the Holy Family of the little bird." and oh my gosh, i loved it from the first time i saw it. after walking through and seeing oh so many of the same type of paintings of christ as a child (usually just a small looking person being held by mary, not a baby, with joseph nowhere to be found), it was so dang refreshing to see something so realistic and true-to-life. look at the holy family: they're just hanging out together, spending time together. joseph is being so fatherly to his young toddler. mary is sewing. jesus is playing like any normal toddler would do. i love this painting. a lot. it's even better in real size.

there's only one week left of our program, and we're still working on cramming in as much museum/madrid time as we can. man, time has flown...

just a-riding the metro

2008-06-10T12:57:00.003+02:00

well, i can't take pictures as well as rique or kylie by any means, but in case you were curious to see how we get around the general area of madrid on a regular basis... this is how. thanks to our abonos, which are the month-long passes we have that give us free public transportation throughout all of madrid, we get to experience the excellence of the metro.
these are not typical pictures: it is rare that we get seats on the metro and it is rare that there is empty space where people are not standing. the best is when people are crowded in really close, especially with the european habit of NOT wearing deodorant is obvious. it's also really funny to me how people run like mad to catch the metro as it's leaving... when the trains come every 2 minutes. literally, every 2 minutes. i mean, if you miss it, you just have to wait for another 120 seconds for the next one to come... but people run like crazy to catch them before they leave. although that is by no means only a spanish/european thing; i know that happens in the U.S. too. it's just funny.

shout out for profe

2008-06-09T20:49:00.003+02:00

can i just say that i love my professor and his family? they are amazing. their kids don't fight, as far as i can tell, they're HILARIOUS (like the 4-year-old who walks around telling everyone that his full name is seth lover sherman and that he thinks that jesus is a jedi knight) and some of the nicest kids in the world, and are super well-rounded. and profe and his wife are just excellent; they're so nice and just cool with us doing what we want, as long as we are following the BYU guidelines and not gallivanting off to morocco on our weekends. such a great family... we totally lucked out with getting a director that's so cool. i've heard from several other people how uptight and not-cool their directors are and it definitely plays havoc with the mood of the whole group. we just had quite an emotional noche de hogar where we all talked about how much we loved each other and thanked profe for everything he's done. it was a very nice night... my faith in BYU-related FHE's has gone up on this trip.

i'm a graffiti artist!

2008-06-09T14:45:00.001+02:00

or, at least, i wish i were...

salamanca y ávila

2008-06-08T14:31:00.005+02:00

we went on our second-to-last trip the last few days... it's horrible to think that there are only 10 days left! salamanca and ávila were really really cool though. well, mostly just salamanca. we didn't have enough time there, i feel like. i would willingly go back there, no hesitation. (so far, dad, i would love to go back to sevilla, león y burgos, and salamanca... just FYI.) oh my gosh, the bus ride out there was the most beautiful thing i have ever seen. do you remember that book that we had when i was little about that woman who threw those flower seeds everywhere and they bloomed and made everything totally beautiful around her? that's what this was like: in the middle of these fields, there were beautiful poppies that just were sprouting everywhere, it was amazing. i wanted to stop so badly.

but we got to salamanca and began to explore. our hotel was only about 5 feet from the plaza mayor (which is supposedly one of the most beautiful plazas in all of spain, and is also where they filmed the movie vantage point, which i now need to see because i've been there) which was nice.

we went to the cathedrals there (they have an old and a new one, connected, but different styles) and on the new one, there is a carving of an astronaut. check it out. usually they have carvings of saints or people suffering or something... but here, it's an astronaut. seriously. we also got to climb almost up to the top of the tower and it was really cool.

we then went to visit the ancient universidad de salamanca, which is really really really cool. the BEST THING there: the ancient library they had. i was soooo excited by it, but they had literally this glass cage by the entrance that you couldn't go past or enter. i got a few pictures through this glass cage and enjoyed it nevertheless.

of course, that night, there was a random concert going on in the plaza mayor. we went for about 15 minutes and the band was so horrificly horribly we had to leave.. it was like the sounds i would make if i were being eaten by an alien or something. but then apparently the next band was really good, of course, but i missed it. i was really bummed about that. but it's okay.

the next morning, we went to a few really really cool convents/monasteries in salamanca. and then headed out to ávila and wandered around there all day. the cathedral there was really cool as well (although we couldn't take pictures in there). the city has a wall that used to encase the whole city, although now, most of the city is outside of the walls. we could climb up the walls and stuff though, so that was fun.

and now, we're back in home sweet home in alcalá de henares, at least for the next few days. friday and saturday we're going to cuenca and turuel (i think that's how they're spelled) and then after that, we're basically done. sad to think of!

museo de las americas, etc.

2008-06-05T21:55:00.004+02:00

today we went into madrid (again) and visited some really cool places. the first was the museo de las americas, which has all of this cool ancient mayan and aztec and incan stuff (i'm really uneducated about things like this, so sorry if those are all the same thing or something and i just look really dumb) back from when the spanish people came in and conquered/overtook all of south and central america. i saw incan gold! for the first time, which was really exciting because it sounds really cool... and there was a real live mummy there! (i just realized that mummies are not alive. but it was a real mummy, that's what i mean.) and shrunken heads!

and the largest mayan codex to ever have been found. there are only FOUR codices (that's the plural of codex, according to wikipedia) like this in the world. it's basically a giant folding book on paper that has all of these really intricate drawings, written by mayan scribes and there used to be libraries full of them until the spanish conquistadors came in and burnt everything that the mayans had. it was really very cool.

we then explored around, took a really excellent picture (see below), and planned out our conquering of the world (the 45-minute train ride allows for a lot of interesting games... we basically assigned chris to be the emporer of the world and divvied up the countries between the rest of us like we were playing risk and it was incredibly fun. that's kind of what the picture is below... chris is the emporer of the world in the middle).

we found this EXCELLENT record store that has the greatest collection of records i have ever SEEN! we're going back later and i am sooooo excited. it's amazing... i can't wait to actually look through and investigate to see what they have.we also tried to go get tickets to see one of the last bullfights... and couldn't get in. but i got a picture outside the plaza del toros.

the 12th of october

2008-06-04T23:15:00.003+02:00

who knew that the 12th of october was such an important day in spain? well, turns out that it is the National Holiday of Spain, or Hispanic Day (this is all fact, according to wikipedia). it is a holiday held to commemorate not the day of birth of a certain female mormon 19-year-old tourist, but the exact day that cristopher columbus first set food on the americas. it is important enough that there is a metro stop named after it in madrid... and i of course had to travel there and get a picture to prove the wonderful importance of 10/12.

los autobuses

2008-06-04T14:22:00.007+02:00

i ride a bus every morning to school and some afternoons back from school (especially when it is raining) and it is an adventure.

this is where we usually are every morning when the bus rolls past us and we miss it. luckily they come about every 4-7 minutes so we're usually okay, even when we do miss 3 in a row. they are very unstructured here, it's not uncommon to see 2 or 3 of the same number just one after another.

this is our bus stop that we wait at every morning...

and this is what it looks like from the back of the bus in the middle of the day when nobody needs the bus. i'm the only one on it.

some funny things we have noticed about riding the bus:

1. there are only 2 girl bus drivers that i have ever noticed. the rest are all men.

2. the men bus drivers all talk to/wave to each other when they drive past each other. as in they full on stop their busses in the middle of the road and lean out their windows and have a chat.

3. when one of the women bus drivers drive by a male bus driver, the men won't talk to the women and just ignore them.

stay tuned for the next in this series on public transportation in spain, part 2: using the trains!, and part 3: the metro in madrid...

hoy fue un dia EXCELENTE

2008-06-03T22:59:00.005+02:00

today was an EXCELLENT day.

we went to the parque del buen retiro again, after eating lunch at our respective houses. the park is one of my favorite places in all of madrid. there were 16 of us that met up and went and rented boats on the "great lake" of the park (it's probably about the size of the pond by the heritage library in irvine.. but square) and rowed around for a while. it was beautiful weather (one of the first nice days we've had in a while) and it was totally tranquilo and wonderful... we lay there with all 4 of our boats connected by people's feet and hands and just enjoyed the beauty of madrid.

then we went to the gigantic "feria de libros" or BOOK FAIR that was seriously so ginormous i almost died in the park. it was like heaven (although if it actually were heaven, all the books would have been in english). the line of stalls went on forever.. the last one was numbered #336. so technically it didn't go on forever, it went for 336 stalls. but it was incredible. why aren't there things like this in the united states? i find myself saying that about a lot of things here... seems to me somebody should be taking notes for good spanish/european ideas to adopt in the united states. like gigantic parks with huge huge huge book fairs.

the day ended with a trip to get some equally delicious gelato. muchas gracias, espana, por este dia perfecto...

panaderias

2008-06-02T20:58:00.003+02:00

so these are some of my favorite things about spain:

you walk inside and there are just bread things everywhere: baguettes, pastries, croissants (sp?), chocolate filled or custard filled or strawberry filled or any kind of deliciousness you want. as any good child of blake or dana murphy knows, our homemade rolls CANNOT be beat, but the bread from places like this comes pretty close: for 50-80 euro cents you can buy a freshly baked long baguette that is just absolutely filling and delicious. as a self-declared carb-ivore, the bread here fulfills all of my desires. plus, we have it with every meal, as much as you want (our family must seriously go through 2-3 baguettes a DAY, what with 3 grown kids living at home and the 3 of us students). love. it.

p.s. i think i have a sinus infection. i asked my roommate and she used to get them chronically and the areas over and under my eyes are hurting and i'm all stuffed up... luckily she's got some decongestant stuff so i think i should be fine. this is what i get for getting and staying wet in granada when it was fuhreezing... oops. i also got my roommate sick i think... double oops.

p.p.s. a relevant and entertaining quote from a letter from elder nathan oaks: "i don't know what else to say about europe. everything is smaller. except the death rate from smoking."

i go to school in a castle

2008-06-01T16:29:00.002+02:00

okay maybe it's not a real castle, but it is pretty cool nonetheless. it was founded in 1499, no big deal, just a good 7 years after columbus discovered america and all. it is a world heritage site (whatever that means). i didn't take this picture but the one i got was not as good so i need to go back and re-capture the beauty of the universidad de alcala because it's something nice to remember. we don't even actually go to class in this building but another one down the street, but it's not as picturesque so i'm not going to put a picture of that one up. it's just a plain non-decorated building.

day trip #2

2008-05-31T20:20:00.003+02:00

our first day trip was to segovia, our first week... and all of our trips since then have involved us staying at a hotel somewhere. today, we went to some of the places around madrid that aren't too far but still interesting and historical to visit.

el escorial: was built in the 16th century. it's a giant palace/monastery complex (another one of those) that was really interesting and cool. it really kind of bugs me that we can't take pictures inside of these places. but i did sneak one in the library because i couldn't help it. it's a little blurry but that's okay. the ceiling in the library was fabulous... and of course, the books were amazzzzing as well.

valle de los caidos or the "valley of the fallen": fransisco franco, the most loved/hated man in all of spain, built this memorial to the men who died in spain's civil war. it's one of the largest basilicas in the world: carved out of the middle of a mountain, with a huge huge cross coming out of it. it was built by franco's prisoners of war, many of whom died in the process... which makes it all the more poignant and impressive to visit. franco is actually buried here as well. it's now a law that you can't have large pro-franco gatherings here any more, like there used to be (somebody told me).

going into the basilica was creepy... there were statues of "angels" on the walls that looked like ringwraiths from LOTR and it was all dark inside and franco's presence kind of dominated. it was strange to even compare it to our temple, La Casa Del Senor, where we got to visit on thursday and do baptisms, which is so opposite.

i also got to see my dear friend rique there... she got to join our group and then we explored madrid together. (she has the pictures of us.. i will be getting them soon!) it was great to see her and take a break from studying abroad, if that makes any sense. she informed me that there are now, what, 94 days until school starts up again in september. so we need to live up the rest of the summer!

the plaza mayor

2008-05-28T23:06:00.005+02:00

sorry, this is the third post of the day and all, but i went to the plaza mayor today and yesterday and thought i would share some of the beautifulness that is in the plaza. p.s. this is where i bought a whole bunch of art from this man in the plaza.. i should have gotten a picture of him! i will have to go back. p.s. the first picture makes me think of rique.

i'm now somebody who gives my loose change to street performers

2008-05-28T22:28:00.007+02:00

because i am SUCH a huge fan of them here! they can make things SO much more enjoyable with their beautiful music or interesting feats... i love them. and i like taking pictures of them. so i HAVE to give them some money to keep them from hating me.

things that are different from america in spain, part 1

2008-05-28T13:18:00.002+02:00

1. they speak spanish here.
2. they have eurocuts and dress with european style: tighter jeans for men, a definite lack of "dressing-down", which i classify as sweatpants and sweatshirts... you rarely, rarely see those here EXCEPT when people are running.
3. practically nobody wears shorts. (again, except for running... but then again most people are wearing sweatpants. interesting story about that: our professor, jesús, told us that the reason for that is when franco was in power that people over a certain age were not allowed to wear shorts and had to wear pants. so it even today, that image of only children wearing shorts has carried over to today's society. interesting, no?)
4. the lightswitches for the bathrooms are always OUTSIDE of the bathroom. i have no idea why. but every single place we go, whether it's at our house, mcdonalds, la universidad, or the hotels we stay in, the lightswitches are on the wall outside the bathroom. not any other rooms, though. little kids must have a heyday playing with that. i would. heck, i'm still tempted to turn the lights off on my roommates while they're showering... i've thus far abstained though.
5. their meals are a lot later: lunch, which is their main meal and where we eat a TON, is usually at 2:30-3:30, and dinner, which is just a snack or a sandwich, is at 10:30 to 11. that's apparently early for them, too.
6. everything is smaller. the houses, the streets, the beds, the showers, the kitchens, the cars, the stores... everything except for the cathedrals. super, super small.
7. they have weird laws and rules: (i think this might have been a lie) but we heard that women are not supposed to go swimming without a man there. i know that this is a fact: busses need to stop every 2-3 hours for a half an hour break or they can be seriously fined. a lot of the supermarkets make you lock up your bags/backpacks in a locker before you go in so you can't just stuff things into your backpack. kind of weird things like that.
8. teenagers walk around with their phones that they've downloaded music to and play them loudly and obnoxiously on the busses, metros, trains, etc., and it's totally acceptable and normal. nobody looks at them twice. if kids did that in america, everybody would growl at them and be really annoyed. i don't know, it's just kind of weird to me.
9. public transportation is much better.
10. the history here is a lot a lot a lot cooler. even here in alcala, you just walk down the street and there's a 800 year old church on your right and miguel de cervantes' birth house a block over... that doesn't happen very much in the US.

this is all for now. i'm sure there will be ensuing continuations of this post later.

p.s. i love you

2008-05-25T19:51:00.003+02:00

i forgot, i would just like to thank all of my friends and family for all of their constant attention and emails! it definitely brightens my day to check my email and have emails from all of my roomates, family, friends, neighbors, pets... i know that this blog is long and extensive and boring and i totally don't expect people to be faithful readers of it (other than you, mom and dad, because you are the reason i am being so faithful with updating this hahaha) but i really do appreciate all of the emails and reminders of love from you all! i've even gotten 2 letters from missionary friends since being here; elders oaks and parkinson deserve prizes. it keeps me from getting homesick and gives me something to look forward to at home in alcala.

i'm almost halfway done with my wonderful time here!

the siesta

2008-05-25T19:35:00.002+02:00

so i was supposed to go into toledo today to go watch the corpus christi procession... and the phone, which i was using as an alarm, was on silent. so i woke up, ironically enough, at exactly 7:45, when the group was supposed to meet at the train station. man, i'm so disappointed... the only thing that's making me feel a little bit better is the fact that it's supposed to be raining buckets all day long over there and it's supposed to be really cold, which would be miserable. oh well, these things happen; now i'll be sure to check the phone every night before i use it as an alarm again...

anyways. i thought i would share the joy that i find from the spanish tradition of the siesta. it's something kind of incomprehensible to our american minds. it's something incredibly amazing that i hope doesn't change any time soon. it's the tradition of having everything, absolutely everything in a town shut down for 3-4 hours every afternoon so that the workers can go and enjoy themselves their lunch and take a break. seriously: businesses don't open until 9 am (which is reasonably late to me; even the panaderias here don't open until then) and then they usually close from 2:30 in the afternoon to 5ish when they open again until 8 or 9.

a part of me wants to be the owner of the annoying american large chain store that comes in and begins the competition of keeping my store open during these hours and forces the rest of them to stay open... and the rest of me likes it so much that these people still feel that pleasure and LIVING are more important than working all. the. time. and MAKING their living. and i especially love it how after lunch, it is fully, 100% understood (in fact, almost expected) that you take a nap. i usually just take advantage of this on sundays. like today, when i slept from 4:30 to 7:15... so i clearly give my stamp of approval to this tradition.

LISBON, PORTUGAL

2008-05-24T21:05:00.009+02:00

this trip was probably the best decision i have made while i've been here. it cost $150 to fly here and probably another $50 for the hotel and public transportation/food costs but it was SO worth it... who knows if i will ever make it back here, and this is someplace i definitely would not have wanted to miss. it was incredible! we spent almost exactly 24 hours in portugal, which i know is not a very long time... but i would not have changed it at all. if i could give somebody advice, i would give them the exact same itinerary. definitely.

we got off the plane and hopped onto a bus to head out into lisbon. it was a really weird feeling to get out into an airport and.. not have anybody there waiting for us. i mean, if you think about it, you pretty much ALWAYS have somebody there waiting for you when you get off a plane. it was fun though.. one of the best adventures i've had to go to a foreign country where i don't speak the language (basically everybody there speaks english though) and navigate my way around. the first thing we did when we got off the bus was stare out at the water. this was actually the bay, not the ocean, but it was still cool. we appreciated it.

we headed out to the tower of belém, which was pretty far away from the center, and climbed all the way up it. it was built in the 15th century as a part of the defense mechanisms for the city, and stands on the river to protect them. it was decorated with all of these balloon things, which actually made it look cooler, i think. the view was INCREDIBLE... you can get some really really good pictures from all of the different levels, of the ships going by and the city behind it.

afterwards, we went to the jerónimos monastery right down the road (profe would be proud of us for visiting a religious monument). it is another one of those actually beautiful buildings. and it was incredibly large, one of those impossible to capture in one photograph buildings? so i bought a postcard with it on it and called it good.

we stopped by the plaza do comercial on our bus ride back into the city, where this cool, city-wide art project was being displayed (actually, i don't know why i'm describing it like that.. we really have no idea what it was for). they looked like mushrooms but then we discovered they were trees, painted in cool ways. very cool.

this little girl was relaxing under this tree.. it was really cute and i snapped a picture.

so then we started to make our way up to the castelo de sao jorge, and i was accosted by this man. he put a bracelet on my wrist and said it was free because i was a very nice lady, and i, not being a complete stranger to stories about con artists like this, tried to not take it and say thank you and walk away.. but he insisted i take it as a gift and then continued to insist that i give him money so that he could drink some beer. i escaped after giving him 2.50. story made short, i was robbed by this man. if you go to lisbon, these men are EVERYWHERE... watch out for them! i managed to capture him doing the same thing to this woman... i wish i could have warned her, but it was too late... but the view once we got to the castelo was worth it.

after walking around and eating dinner (at this amazing, delicious, hole-in-the-wall himalayan food restaurant), we made it the trek out to our hotel... on the beach. the town our hotel was in reminded me so much of balboa, i loved it: a total, normal little beach town. it was nighttime when we got there, so we had a midnight picnic on the beach and ate some ice cream and then woke up way early and got out there before we headed back into the city to take some pictures of us at the ATLANTIC OCEAN FROM THE OTHER SIDE! helllloooooo, north carolina!

we caught a bus up back to the center of lisbon and made it to the grand central station of lisbon: gare do oriente (whatever that means in portugues). it's this really cool architecture of a building that i really wanted to see at night (look it up on wikipedia, it's great at night) but it was still gorgeous in the day.

then we walked through the equally cool mall across the street (i don't know if you can see, but there was water going across the roof all the time... it was cooooool) to get to the...

PARK OF THE NATIONS! site of the world expo in 1998, it's this ginormous ginormous park area that has a lot of modern art sculpture and is right on the bay. we walked around here until our flight a few hours later. it was absolutely incredible. and huge.

all in all, it was a successful "vacation from our vacation", as we called it. we explored, navigated, got lost several times, but thanks to the wonderful pop-up map kristine purchased beforehand and dane's resourceful abilities to ask people for directions in spanish and understand their portugese, we managed to survive and 100% enjoy ourselves. i'm so glad we went... who knows if i will ever have the chance to country-hop like this again? when will i ever get to come back to portugal? who knows? thank goodness!

windmills

2008-05-24T20:52:00.003+02:00

so we have been on several trips since i last wrote. we did indeed visit toledo, but as i am returning there tomorrow to visit for the corpus christi procession (more info about that later, when i talk about it) i figured i would just cover toledo in one fell swoop. but here are some pictures of the windmills we visited, made famous by the honorable DON QUIJOTE who mistook them for giants and tried to attack them. they are beautiful.. and we were there on a really beautiful, clear day. thankfully it wasn't raining. but it definitely was windy.

Profe read the part of Don Quijote to us when he attacks the windmills.. it was cool. he was really into it, so i got a good picture.

it looks fake, right? sooooo cool. i was a big fan.

el parque del buen retiro

2008-05-20T22:33:00.009+02:00

today, a few of us went into madrid and visited el parque del buen retiro. it's basically the central park of madrid. the royals used to repose here when they got tired of ruling and beating up on the other lower classes; just imagine coaches and carriages and horses and fat, white people with hoop skirts. it's absolutely huge and AWESOME.

look, you can rent boats and go rowing on the lake there. this cute old couple were probably creeped out that i was trying to get their picture. but i really want to do this at some point while we're here.

okay, i kid you not... these were the most GIANT DUCKS I HAVE EVER SEEN... none of the pictures i took really show how gigantic they were. they were bigger than murphy! seriously, i have never been more impressed with the size of a waterfowl than with these. it was incredible.

there were these beautiful rose-covered archways there... love

this man was my favorite.. i really kept wanting to go up and ask him if i could take his picture but i was too afraid so i took one from afar. you know, just chillin there against a pillar in this national monument, playing his random instrument thing... it was really really cool.

we of course got ice cream. it's a staple here.

oh, yes! tomorrow we leave for TOLEDO! we'll be there wednesday and thursday.. i'm so very excited! and then spending friday and saturday in PORTUGAL! woop woop!

mercadillo

2008-05-19T14:35:00.003+02:00

so we visited this market again! it was incredibly fun. i didn't really buy anything this time, but we're still scoping it out and i'll probably be purchasing a good amount of cool things here. the tradition has begun of buying a caja of strawberries and eating them. 2 euros for an entire kilo. these are some of the photos from the mercadillo. it really is just like a cooler, cheaper version of the OC swap meet. i'm a big fan.

documentation of the adventures

2008-05-18T14:28:00.009+02:00

enjoy these pictures!

the catedral in leon...

the doors to the entrance of the catedral in leon.

an example of the windows in the cathedral. imagine these covering the whole building. awesome.
the museo de arte contemporaneo in leon... soo cool!

mr. mark rowan, everybody... he likes to make fun of my non-functional buttons on my shirt. very nice of him.

random statue.

a pilgrim walking along the pilgrimage route! captured from a moving bus!

the one time it actually rained while we were in burgos.

the view from the castillo of the city of burgos.

just this nice walkway right next to our hotel..

k so my one of my favorite things about spain: the random statues that they have in random places without any explanation or plaque or anything... like that girl with the umbrella and this random merman (he's covered in barnacles if you can't tell). i am a big fan of these. i'm taking pictures with as many of them as i can.

this is what the burgos cathedral looks like at 6:45 am when the sun is rising, but you can't tell because there are too many clouds to see the sunrise.

okay, does this look familiar to anyone? anyone? salt lake city, maybe? i'm surprised how much the SLC temple looks like some of the cathedrals here. but i've heard about how the architect for the SLC temple was sent to Europe to look at the cathedrals as a model for how it should look.. which would make sense.

just some doors in the cathedral...

within the catedral de burgos... one of the many, many, many hallways.

these shells are placed all along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. we were literally walking along one of the most famous and ancient pilgrimage routes in the entire world. it was kind of neat.

just a dog... wearing pants... in covarrubias. sorry, this is random. but how ridiculous is that?!

a SECRET PASSAGEWAY we discovered in covarrubias!

it may not have rained on us that much, but you can see by how fabulously green it is there how much it must rain. this is what our bus ride consisted of... hours and hours of looking at absolutely stunning scenery looking like this. i think i was destined to live in the country.. i just love looking at fields like this.

another long trip

2008-05-18T14:02:00.002+02:00

this was our last long, more-than-an-overnighter trip. we went to León, Frómista, Burgos, Covarrubias, and Santo Domingo de Silos... all in a three-day time period. León y Burgos were some of my favorite places we've been to so far. i guess it's hard for me to say that because i've loved everywhere we've been so far. but some of these sights were to die for.

Thursday: we took off in the morning and drove to León. the bus ride was fun: filled with sing alongs to high school musical and styx, and discussions about each of our individual lists of things to do before we die (i made one right then and there). when we got there, we went to visit the real basilica de san isidoro, to see the sarcophagi (sp?) of a lot of the past kings of león. there was some beautiful artwork there and a museum and a really old library filled with ancient books and manuscripts. the fresco on the ceiling of the tomb room was incredible--it was totally well-preserved and had a lot of scenes from the Bible and Jesus' life.

after that, we went to the cathedral there.. and i think that it has to be the highlight of my trip. it was the most beautiful building i have seen in my life. basically, some of the most incredible stained-glass windows i have ever seen covering all of the walls and illuminating everything. it was BEAUTIFUL, the kind that makes you gasp as you walk into the building. dad, i suggest León as a place for us to visit so we can come see this cathedral. because all of the cathedrals are impressive. they're HUGE! they're larger than life; you look at them or go inside them and think, "how on EARTH could people have built something this large/grandiose/ornate thousands of years ago without technology or anything?" but after a while they all start to run together. and it also gets annoying when they're as big and as confusing as hogwarts and there's no way you could walk around the whole thing without getting lost. this one was still huge, still inspiring, but a lot more reasonably sized and not overboard. all in all, i give the cathedral in León an A+.

we went to visit the museo de arte contemporaneo in león but it was closed. it was a really cool multicolored building though, and maybe if we come back here we can visit it, right, dad? after leaving león on friday, we headed to frómista and saw another small little church there. and then we headed to burgos and visited the monasterio there (about 7 of us got totally 100% lost on our way there but we eventually looked into the sky and realized you could see the monastery in the distance... another reason you should be aware of your surroundings). monks and nuns still live there! who knew that people still did that? i kind of didn't realize it. but there they were. and then after that, we went to the castillo de burgos, which sits on the top of the hill overlooking burgos, and gives you a beautiful view of the city. there were some awesome gardens there too, which we explored and walked through. the cathedral there really is an impressive sight as well (it definitely is one of those that falls into the category of the overly large and grandiose cathedrals. i mean, it's absolutely stunning how large it is, but once you get inside, it's just too big!). we hiked back up there on saturday morning to try and watch the sunrise, but here's some advice: check the weather forecast before you do something like that. it was too cloudy for us to see anything. ugh. but the best thing was on friday night: a huge rock concert smack dab up next to the cathedral. hahaha... what a venue!

saturday, we went to covarrubias, this tiny little town with another little church (population 630ish) and then to santo domingo de silos, an even tinier little town with an even tinier little church (population 311, according to the lonely planet book). we got to watch the monks do their gregorian chant in santo domingo de silos, though. don't worry, they produced an album in the 1990's that reached the top of the pop charts in the UK. impressive, right?

okay, well, i'll add some pictures after this. it was a great trip. we were exhausted but it was really fun at the same time.. i'm so happy to be experiencing all of this!

mini-adventures

2008-05-14T19:49:00.002+02:00

dear family and friends,
the last few days have been great days, although not totally exciting or eventful. here is a swift summary of events to keep you updated on my life!

tuesday:
-classes. no comment. i'm kind of avoiding thinking about that.
-gelato after school. (duhhhhh)
-dane, kristine, jessica and i visited a grocery store, and had the most hilarious 5-minute excursion there. we walked in the wrong door, like where trucks are supposed to be loading stuff, and they yelled at us, but then we just pretended that we couldn't speak spanish and just walked really fast past them. then once we were in there, more ladies yelled at us to put our backpacks in these locker things, but we again pretended that we didn't speak spanish and put them instead into these little rolly carts they have and pulled them along with us. they looked absolutely disgusted with us and we went around a corner and started laughing so hard i almost started crying. it was incredible. they seriously looked at us like we were this sub-human species but it was hilarious.. you probably had to be there. no worries.
-it was our friend mark's birthday, so we went into madrid and ate dinner there at this restaurant, and then came home and had cake and ice cream in someone's apartment. mark had people sing happy birthday to him in 6 languages: english, spanish, french, sign language, arabic, and portugese (that was me). i tried to start a dance party and miserably failed. everyone just looked at me like i was an alien. it was really cool. i missed mlk and cookies and g is for classes. i can't wait to have dance parties at the club again.

wednesday:
-classes. no comment.
-played soccer in the park. i fell and skinned my knee and was really hardcore... it was fun.
-we watched john q. at someone's house... and i bawled my eyes out. it was actually kind of embarrassing how much i cried. if you haven't seen that movie, you should, but it's really really sad. just FYI.
and now i'm here writing this to you.

oh yeah, the biggest thing: i booked a flight to portugal yesterday! we have a free weekend (next weekend) (or maybe 2 weekends from now i can't remember) and so a group of us are going to travel to portugal for a day and halfish to visit. lisbon. cool, huh??? i'm pretty excited. i get to visit another country! woop!

words of the day:
panderetas = bagpipes
neoyorquino/a = New Yorker (that's for you sar)
ruiseñor = nightingale

one more thing for the day

2008-05-12T23:47:00.001+02:00

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

$6000 for a speech impediment

2008-05-12T23:00:00.004+02:00

so, one of the things that people warned me about before coming to spain was the LISP that people in spain here have. i was told by multiple spanish speaking friends that if i came home saying "grathias" and "platha" that nobody would ever talk to me again, and i told them that there was of course no way that i would willingly adopt a lisp. i mean, who wants to get a speech impediment? of course, i come to spain, and people speak with a lisp like everyone said, and turns out it's not annoying at all. it's actually kind of enjoyable, and entertaining. i kind of like it. and you feel stupid saying "gracias" back to the store clerk who says "grathias" so you adopt it there, and it starts to spread throughout most of your conversation. it's slightly difficult to differentiate between the c's and z's and the s's (because the lisp is only used on c's and z's, not on s's... so that's why you say "grathias" and "platha de espana"), but that's all just part of the game. so parents, if i come home with a lisp... will you still accept me as your child? will everyone else still talk to me? i don't think that the theta will spread to my english, but who knows. what if it's permanent?

okay, but on another note, we made the BEST discovery today: the alcala de henares equivalent of the O.C. swap meet. it was pretty much incredible... i bought a sweet umbrella (which clearly i needed) for 5 euros, a ring for 1 euro, some burned CDs, and the best purchase of the day: a huge box of strawberries for only 2 euros. i should have taken a picture of it. i didn't get any pictures today, but we're planning on going back every monday becuase it's only on monday's. it was INCREDIBLE though... we ate all of them before we finished shopping. it was the day of strawberries. other good things that are fresh here: the tomatoes (tomatos? what on earth is the correct spelling of that word? i really don't think i've ever known...). absolutely amazing.

word of the day: velas = candles

las fotos de la excursion

2008-05-11T14:52:00.010+02:00

enjoy these fotos. there are many. this set of fotos goes with the previous really long blog post, that if you haven't seen, you probably don't have to read because it's really extensively long.

the architecture of la mezquita was incredible... there were hundreds of these doubled arched looking hallways throughout it.. there are over 1000 columns. it looks like a forest of columns.

what else what i be taking pictures of? some ancient, beautiful old books... i was coveting them.

sitting on a wall outside of the mosque... it's an ancient wall, i'm sure. cool, huh?

an ancient roman bridge across the street from the mezquita. no big deal.

visiting the ancient arabic ruins outside of cordoba.

la torre de oro in sevilla. aubri is from grandma and grandpa's del mar ward... her last name is darton. do you guys know her family, mom?

the vista from the top of the torre de oro... this is the giant catedral in sevilla. how absolutely ridiculously large is that?

the remains of christopher columbus. jealous?

some absolutely sweet spanish graffiti. it's seriously EVERYWHERE and it's SO COOL... i want to do some while i'm here. don't worry, i probably won't, i'm guessing.

i don't actually get this.. i think it's equal to saying "look out!"

the view from la alhambra of granada. i want to run on rooftops here.

visiting the beautiful gardens in granada. this is jessica, my freshman friend who reminds me of sarah e.f. don't worry, we both had changed into our pajama shirts becuase everything else was wet. but then it started raining again and those got wet, too. dang it.

just a nice view of the gardens... alex is all into the model posing.

and to end on a note of comic relief...

the rains in spain fall mainly on the american tourists

2008-05-11T14:24:00.002+02:00

it's been a long time since i've posted on here, but there's a good reason: we've been on a trip without internet from wednesday to saturday. i didn't neglect you all, i promise! we drove a good 6 hour bus ride down to the south of spain (where it is supposed to be hot hot hot all the time but is NOT, let me tell you) and visited córdoba, sevilla, and granada, 3 towns scattered around the area. i think maybe i'll make another blog post after this with pictures because there are too many to include with the descriptions.

córdoba: we were only there for a few hours on wednesday, because the main attraction there is this GINORMOUS mosque (mezquita) that was built in the 8th century by Arabs who migrated to southern Spain. it's over 23,000 square meters in size... by that, i guessed that at least 483 of our houses could fit inside of it (that's just a guesstimate). it's absolutely beautiful inside, but the most outrageous thing about it is that when the christians re-took córdoba, they took over the mosque and built a chapel/cathedral smack dab in the middle of it. how awful is that--they totally destroyed this amazing work of art building? i was outraged, let me tell you. but most of the building is still intact, and beautiful. afterwards, we went just outside of the city to visit these amazingly cool ruins of a huge ancient arabic city. profe. just let us loose and told us to run around for an hour and explore... which i LOVED, naturally, and it was really cool.

wednesday night we made it to sevilla, where we stayed for 2 nights. the best thing that happened in sevilla was the amazing parade that we stumbled across on thursday morning. literally, we were in this little tiny maritime museum next to the river, and i walked out the front doors, and here comes this ginormous crowd of people... dressed in flamenco clothes, riding horses, playing in a flamenco band, pulling small colored covered wagons... it was absolutely incredible. so what do we do? join in. we walked with the parade for a good 45 minutes to an hour, and i have never had more fun in my life! when on earth does that happen, where you get to just join in a parade and walk along with them? in the united states, they always barricade parade routes off so nobody can just run in and destroy the order... here it was the complete opposite. it was incredible.

after the parade, we went as a group and toured the huge palace (also named the alcazar, like the other one) and cathedral in sevilla. according to the guidebook, the people who built the catedral said, "let us create such a building that future generations will take us for lunatics." and it certainly was one of the most ornate and gargantuan buildings i have seen en mi vida. the original dome collapsed after it was built because it was just too big. that's how crazy it was. oh yes, and guess whose remains are there? none other than christopher columbus! we got to visit his tomb! after that visit, we were again set free to wander the city, so we walked around for 182901 hours (it was definitely more than 10 miles of walking that day) and visited the plaza de españa which is an absolutely beautiful building/plaza area, during the day and especially at night, when they illuminate it up. we also got to enjoy some flamenco music at a flamenco bar (don't worry, i only got fanta!).

friday, we went to granada. it rained the entire time we were there. oh, and also it was freezing. and i didn't have a jacket or umbrella, and i only brought one pair of shoes and only shorts. haha can i complain any more? but it was still fun--we got to visit ferdinand and isabella's tombs (the most important joint rulers in spain, pretty much ever) and the alhambra, which is known for its beauty and amazing islamic architecture. the gardens there were amazing. of course, we were really grumpy and not interested because of the temperature and how we were all soaked (we were outside in the rain) so profe just told us to leave and explore the gardens by ourselves until the busses came to get us because we were bugging him haha. some of us got together afterwards and had a picnic in the hotel room because it was so cold and just ate some fruit and bread and cheese we got at the grocery store.. it was incredibly satisfying.

anyways, it was a great time. we bonded as a group, and i think we're all becoming good friends. i am trying to think of good things to buy as gifts for you all... if there's anything specific that you want, let me know. i'm going to work on getting some good stuff for you all! i love you people... and happy mother's day!

helado de nata con fresas

2008-05-06T21:12:00.007+02:00

my roommate said it best when she said, "i don't remember what the last food was that changed my life, but i'm pretty sure this is the next." 'nata' ice cream with the most incredible strawberries lightly dusted in sugar... probably the best thing i have ever had. i wonder if you can order helado de nata en los estados unidos. it's basically the flavor of whipped cream but incredibly rich and delicious and frozen as ice cream, and it's not even that incredible tasting on its own but with the strawberries? i can't imagine something that i would want more. it was THAT GOOD--better than prophet's dessert and mcdonald's soft serve ice cream combined (i know, kind of extreme, but really). i had 4 servings of it (2 after lunch and 2 after dinner)... i wish i had gotten a picture of it, but we're planning on mentioning how amazingly amazing we thought it was and maybe they'll give it to us again later. don't be too jealous.

so but my roommate took some pictures of our casa and i stole them off facebook and i took one or two myself so i could show you exactly where it is where i am living right now. we're living on "la calle perdida (the lost street), numero 56. there are a few pictures of me struggling to open our front gate, because it's entirely IMPOSSIBLE to do--they don't have door handles that turn (if you look, the doorknob is just in the middle of the door and it's just there so you can pull the door shut, it doesn't turn or anything) and you have to turn the key around three times. ugh.

uneventful events

2008-05-06T14:54:00.003+02:00

ayer fue el primer dia de las clases!
yesterday was the first day of class!

i'm not sure how i feel about them yet. we have the same teacher for both, and he told us to call him by his first name jesus. he seems really really nice and i like him, but the literature class and the amount of work he has assigned seems unreal. a lot a lot a lot of reading, as in wow i could totally handle this if it was in english but i still have problems comprehending and not a very large vocabulary so reading 400 pages of spanish poetry seems a little extensive! and all that everyone kept promising me was that the class work here would be easy shmeasy and there was no reason to worry about it... i really hope that i'm somehow just missing some instructions that he gave (which is entirely likely). we'll have to see how it goes.

after class, i came home, ate a gigantic lunch, and then we went and played soccer in the main parque de alcala de henares. it was awesomeee, playing futbol en espana, with some random spanish 12-year-olds who came and joined us. i felt so hardcore and awesome. then we had FHE with about 10 of the group, and we went to get churros con chocolate (churros dipped in this really really really thick hot chocolate stuff... delicious) and then had a lesson in a park. no big deal.

one thing i like here: there are hundreds and hundreds of random little museums, everywhere! in all of the old little churches and random buildings that are not being used any more really for any reason, they just make an exhibit of some guy's art or statues or old advertisements and they are free and i love it. today, my friend dane and i walked around alcala after class for an hour or two and just found 3 of those museums and walked around in them. you wonder if things like that would be successful in the united states... i would like to think so.

i'm going to go do the same thing today: go running and then bring don quixote to the park and read it. they have a statue of don quixote and his squire on the main street (calle mayor) sitting on a bench, and i'm already planning on taking a picture of me reading don quijote to them. get ready, i'll put it up once i get it done.

el dia de la madre

2008-05-04T22:56:00.006+02:00

today was mother's day in spain, and i was surprised that they do the exact same things here that are traditions in the united states: the primary kids singing "mother i love you" (madre te amo) and the giving out of gifts to all of the mothers (everyone got a potted plant). going to church in spanish was basically what i expected--a lot of really really fast-speaking sunday school teachers and people bearing their testimonies and not a lot of comprehension going on for my part. but that's okay, i'm working on it. i did realize that our senor is probably the fastest speaking man in the ward, so luckily we got put with him so we can go on not understanding him! perfecttt.

my roommate let me borrow her skype today and call home, and i tried to download it and use it but apparently my computer doesn't come with a microphone. so i'm going to go to the centro comercial tomorrow and find that electronics store and buy a headset and then i can call people! if you download skype on your computer too, we can talk for free! everyone do it okay? i'll let you know when i get a headset, it would make it so much easier to communicate with you all, we probably couldn't talk every day but more than now!

we're having a competition between the kids in our group of who can get the best picture of the worst european haircut (aka the EUROCUT competition). you may ask, what is a eurocut? anything mullet-y, mohawk-y, dreadlock-y, nasty and gross... classifies as a eurocut. for example, look at this picture. the winner of the competition wins some sort of prize.. nobody's sure what yet but it will be awesome. we've seen so so many of these hairstyles, i'm thinking about adopting it myself.

word of the day: hormiga = ant (irvine esta construido encima de muchas hormigas)

chelsea: i'm listening to newsies right. now. (rise up and seize the day!)

segovia and la granja

2008-05-03T23:33:00.006+02:00

a few pictures to start out with and describe this amazing day: we went on one of our day trips to segovia and la granja, about an 1 1/2 bus ride north of alcala de henares. it was AMAZING... some of the most beautiful old historical things i have ever seen. the main sights in segovia are El Alcázar, this ginormous castle (which i am at the top of in the second picture), the ginormous catedral, and the ginormous ancient roman aquaduct that is still standing thousands of years after the fact (picture one, in case you couldn't already tell). there was some INCREDIBLE sightseeing going on-- i have about 189210 billion pictures similar to these 3. (i just included the last one because it's a cool shot of the supersupersupersweet alleyways that make up the most of the streets in segovia... you might be able to see a few cars up at the top, they literally just barrel down these miniature streets honking at the pedestrians to get out of their way, it's incredible that things like that are acceptable here.) after walking our legs off at segovia, we went to la granja, which means "the farm" in spanish, but we actually ended up visiting the palacio real of la granja and seeing these huge water shows from the fountains of the palace gardens, which were incredibly beautiful.

points of interest of the day:

-one of the guys in our group, rhett (not butler, sadly) and i went up to a group of nuns in la granja and started talking to them and got a picture with them.. it was awesome. i love practicing my spanish.

-we figured out a way to get up on top of the aquaduct in segovia, so next time i'm here, i'm just going to come up and hang out illegally on the aquaduct.

-we saw several of the "twilight" books that camille likes at this little book stall in the main plaza of alcala de henares in spanish.. i took a picture and sent it to her.

-i gchatted with rique and we figured out that SHE IS GOING TO BE IN MADRID FOR 5 DAYS AND I WILL GET TO SEE HER!!!!!! i haven't been more excited about news like this in a while.. i miss my lovely roommates (<3).

-i bought a present for bethany's birthday, i'll have to decide whether i'm going to send it to her or just bring it home with me to avoid possibility of losing it.

living with faustino

2008-05-02T22:37:00.003+02:00

so today, we found out that apparently the senor of the familia we are living with is not only the head of all CES here in madrid/spain, he's a recent area authority. that's cool, we're living in the house with a general authority. don'tttt worrry. how funny is that? i had no idea until right now about that when we looked it up because we were slightly suspicious that he was something of a big deal. yep. living with faustino lopez in madrid. his wife's name is consuelo, and they have five children, four boys and one girl. i'm not positive, but one's married, one is serving a mission in the CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE MISSION (say hi to tanner for me!), and i'm pretty sure that the other 3 live here at home, although i've only seen one thus far in the 3 days we've lived here. his name is julio and he's 21, the "baby" of the family (as they call him), and is in a wheelchair. they're a really upstanding stalwart family (clearly).

the house is really really compact. there are 4 stories, and i have yet to venture into the basement, but there's an attic and then 2 floors with living space. the bathroom that we use is the SMALLEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. the shower is too small for me to even move, i keep hitting the hot/cold knob and freezing/burning myself to death. but it's fun, and consuelo is a good cook, and i am enjoying the house. there are 3 girls stuffed in a room the size of the small room at 887, with a bunk bed and a single bed, but we're working it.

today was a pretty similar day to yesterday: a story of trying to get accustomed to public transportation and our town. we had a "walking tour" of alcala de henares with our professor, and then we went into madrid with our entire group and walked around. this is a picture of a few of us visiting "el parque del retiro" in the middle of town: it's this ginormous park even bigger than central park, where the royals used to relax and roll around in their chariots and such. we only visited the very tip of it, i'm excited to go there and read don quijote! (i bought it and will be reading it while here in spain. sadly, my copy is in english.. but i figured that 1000 pages of reading in spanish would be a little extreme. better for me to fully understand it, right?)

word of the day: frambuesa = raspberry.

favorite thing of the day: gelato and french bread baguettes that are everywhere.

this looks famous...

2008-05-01T18:37:00.008+02:00

let's first have a memoriam for my alarm clock. i got it for some birthday or christmas, a very very long time ago, while i was in middle school. i thought it was the coolest thing in the world.. a radio attached to a clock! awesome! it's lasted me for years and years, through 2 years of college. but during the trip over to spain, it has broken somehow.. and will never work again. i am very sad about this loss.. donations to my "Stop Airline Workers from Throwing Checked Baggage Around in a Violent Manner" fund will be accepted via email.

okay, on to describing the day:

after sleeping a solid 12 hours (9pm-9am... i was supposed to wake everyone else up but alas, the clock was broken), i woke up, got ready, and my roommates (sarah jane and kristine) and i decided to go into madrid to explore. we were actually supposed to meet some other people in our group, but since my alarm clock wasn't working, we missed the meeting time and so they probably left without us, i guess. (life without cell phones... we can't exist without them!) our father (faustino, who is apparently the head of CES in all of spain... wow) very kindly volunteered to drive us to the train station instead of having us take the bus, like we had planned. on the way, he started explaining all the places we needed to change from train to train and train to metro and stuff, and we gulped and realized what how much we DIDN'T have planned when we left. literally: we had no idea what we were doing or where we wanted to go. who does that? goes into THE major city in a foreign country without knowing where you're going? apparently, i do.

so we get onto the train and then later the metro. the whole time i'm clutching at my purse for dear life because i am terrified of having things stolen (read previous post) and don't worry, i was completely unattacked and we had nothing stolen (thank goodness). staring at the map, we really had no idea what to do, so i said, "let's get off at plaza de espana, that sounds important." yes, literally, that's how we chose where we wanted to go in the entire city of madrid. we get off at the wrong one, of course, and come out at some point that is just this residential area and start walking, feeling confused and really dumb. somehow, we stumbled across this park with this huge statue and decided to sit down for a while. after this while, i looked up and said, "what is this statue thing anyways? there are way too many people taking pictures in front of it.. it looks famous." and yes. turns out we ended up in the plaza de espana after all, and we had been sitting there for a good 20 minutes not knowing it. and turns out that just down the road was just the palacio real de espana (the royal palace for all you non-spanish speakers) and this giant cathedral and these beautiful gardens.

so we ended up being total tourists after all. i bought an ice cream cone with gelato (which absolutely beat the heck out of the gelato place in utah, of course) and we walked around and took pictures and ooohed and ahhed and the line "i don't know what it is, but it looks famous" was the most commonly used phrase of the day. (yes, it was in english, because kristine doesn't know very much spanish apparently, but we did use spanish a lot, dad, i promise: "parece muy famoso" was also said.) my legs hurt now but it was worth it. and we got completely lost on the way home from the train station (unfortunately, spaniards don't like marking their streets very clearly so it's impossible to know where you are) but it was totally fine because once again, we stumbled across our neighborhood (seriously. totally on accident.) and made it home. as chelsea w. would say (and in fact, did say) it was a miracle.

PS. there is a stop on the metro in Madrid that is... i kid you not... Hospital 12 de Octubre. the Twelfth of October Hospital! SERIOUSLY. 1012 hospital. i didn't take a picture, but i will, dont' worry. i was all excited when i saw that and my roommates looked at me funny... sound familiar, sarah?

and here are some pictures:

the large statue that turned out to be famous. i don't know what it was of. but it was famous. (there's a gigantic huge cement sculpture thing right to the right that you can't see.)

annndddd me in front of el palacio real!

my SAFE arrival in Spain!

2008-04-30T14:38:00.000+02:00

So i'm sure you're all very concerned as to whether my travels across the world were safe, fun, uplifting, whatever. and to answer all of those questions: yes. definitely, i am about to pass out because i've basically been awake for 24 hours now (with only a few half hour naps scattered about in between because i apparently cannot sleep on airplanes) and i am not allowed to go to sleep until 8 o'clock tonight because i'll be jet lagged if i do and then i won't be any fun tomorrow. so instead, i'm going to post a detailed description of my trip on this blog, eat something, and go explore ALCALA DE HENARES!

so my mom dropped me off at LAX yesterday morning. i check my bags, go through security, buy a gigantic baguette that's supposed to feed 4 people and eat the entire thing, fly to philadelphia, have a two hour layover, and get on board my first transatlantic flight. my roommate here, sarah jane, coincidentally happened to be on the same flight, although about 13 rows ahead of me. man, it was the quickest night EVER (literally), and i didn't sleep at all. i finished off a tale of two cities again (and almost cried at the end.. i've decided i want to name one of my children sydney because i love sydney carton so much at the end of that book) and talked IN SPANISH to the lady next to me. having a conversation with her totally soothed the main fear that i had coming to spain. my 2 main fears were:
1. that when i tried to communicate with anyone in spanish, i would be unable to remember anything i have learned in my 6 years of studying the subject and would look like an idiot.
2. that everything i own would be stolen or pickpocketed from me.
but i now at least know that i can communicate with people in spanish, even if they are fluent! i feel SO much better about being here and i'm so excited to better my espanol and use it a lot.
after we landed, i got BOTH of my bags (nothing got lost rique!) and then sarah jane and i proceeded to wait for 7 (SEVEN) hours in the waiting area of the airport for the rest of our people to arrive. and then we had to wait for the bus to come and get us. and i couldn't sleep during that time at all. however, it doesn't matter, because the bus eventually came and we rode on it and can i just say that spain is BEAUTIFUL and i LOVE LOVE LOVE where i'm staying and everything about everything here. it's gorgeous weather and an adorable little town (alcala de henares) and my familia here seems very nice. i just can't wait to go exploring! tomorrow we don't have anything planned, so we're all going to meet up and go into madrid (about 1/2 hour metro ride) and go do stuff. i don't think any of us know exactly what yet, but it will be fun, whatever it is.

so don't worry mom! i'm here and i'm alive and i'm happy as a clam! (ps. that's such a weird saying. clams aren't happy, they don't even have brains, do they?)

Beginning Blogging

2008-04-26T00:34:00.000+02:00

I feel weird starting a blog; I've always kind of thought it was like xango was in high school for all the emo kids who wanted to have the world know why they were feeling so sad and junk. But this is a different kind of blog... a TRAVELBLOG if you will, basically for my family and friends to check up on my exciting times in Spain. I fully expect to delete this blog after I get back, although knowing me, I'll probably get addicted and start using it all the time.

But stay tuned. I'll be in Spain starting next Wednesday. I'll be putting pictures and semi-detailed descriptions of my adventures here for my devoted readers, all 7 of you.

PS. in future posts, I probably won't be capitalizing everything. It's easier to just write all in minisculas.