Viva Madrid

Sorry for slacking on the posts. I haven't been up to a whole lot besides school, sleeping, eating and drinking and I'm honestly getting lazy about staying in contact with everyone. I promise that I will update more often so the posts are much shorter. Lo siento!!! But here it goes, my life in Madrid the past few weeks:

My good friend Danielle (who I visited in London last month) came out to visit us in Madrid last weekend with her roommate Bri! We had such a great weekend consisting of strolls in the beautiful Parque del Retiro, tapas y vino, and clubbing. Rachael and I took Danielle, Bri, and a good friend from our program, Christa Lee, to the Mercado de San Miguel, one of my favorite spots that we have found thus far in Madrid. It is this gorgeous buliding with glass walls on all four sides and is filled with fresh fruit, flowers, fish, meat, cheeses, breads, wines, sweets, and much more. It is classy, delicious, and is the best for tapas. I quickly came to realize that tapas are the best thing about Spain, hands down. I love the concept of eating a bunch of small hors d'oeuvres because you can get such a great variety at a decent price. MMMM so tasty and suprisingly filling, Not to mention how cultural I feel when I eat out! We also ran into this amazing place called El Museo del Jamon (aka. the ham museum). Ham is literally all over the walls, it is hilarious yet semi-disturbing. The ham is great though! It's the cheapest place for tapas and drinks so far and it is well worth a visit at least once a week :)

I have also now seen the gorgeous Plaza Mayor which is 100% more beautiful than it looks in photos. There are street performances who are more weird than even San Francisco. There are so many cute restaurants and little stores for locals and plenty of souvenir shops for us tourists to visit. My goal is to get some postcards sent out and maybe even buy a Real Madrid jersey soon (and hopefully get a game soon to watch mi primo Iker Casillas tear it up in goal!)

This past weekend, Rachael and I decided to get off our lazy butts and explore the city more because we always find ourselves in all the same places. So on Friday, we were able to use our newly purchased February Metro passes and we made our way across town. We eventually found ourselves in Oriente Plaza which is a large plaza located in the front yard of the Royal Palace. The sun was setting so we had a beautiful view of the enormous palace as well as La catedral de Santa María La Real de La Almudena, more commonly known in english as the Almudena Cathedral. Entrance was free (YES!) and we were able to walk around and take some great pictures of this old gothic church, still in use today.

On Saturday, Rachael and I decided it was time to get out of Madrid so we took a 3o minute train ride to the old city of Toledo. It was breathtaking!! The city is much smaller than Madrid with hills and a river running through it. The streets were all cobble stone and incredibly narrow, it was amazing how people could drive on them! With all the little shops and cafes, it was all too cute to handle. The Alcazar, literally a GIANT palace, stood on the highest hill in town and could be spotted from almsot anywhere. The main Cathedral was beautiful of course which pretty much confirmed my theory that only huge, extravagent churches are allowed to exist here in Espana. They are by far my favorite buildings to visit not only because they take my breath away every single time, but also how old and sacred they still are to the Spanish people today.

And last but not least, this weekend I was lucky enough to celebrate two birthdays of friends here in Madrid. Thursday night, Christa Lee turned 23! Wanting to shake things up a bit, she decided she wanted a fake bachelorette party instead of the same old birthday bash. She yelled "Me voy a casar!!!" all night long and it was hilarious that people actually beleived us. We celebrated with an amazing sushi dinner and got home around 6am. The spaniards are nocturnal I think. I did all over again Saturday night for my best friend Megan's 21st birthday! We celebrated Mexican style with great nachos, margaritas and thank god only one tequila shot, yuck!! It was a pretty successful (late) night, none the less. And finally Superbowl Sunday. The game didn't start till midnight here and with class at 9am I called it a night around 2. I was very excited to learn the next morning that the Saints came out victorious!!!

Well thats long enough for now, this weekend I'm off to Geneva, Switzerland so pray that I don't freeze my toes off!! And by the way, today is my half birthday!!! 6 months until I turn 21 woohooo!!!

SEVILLA, not Seville

This is a little out of order but I will be caught up after this post!

This past weekend we took an orientation excusion to la ciudad de Sevilla, in southern Spain. The weather was much nicer there and the city was amazing! So much history, beautiful architecture, cobble stone streets and fashionable people! The cathedral is the 3rd largest in the world and I was absolutely blown away with its enormity and detail. We toured the palace as well and the architecture was brilliant, a great deal of it built by the Moors. The gardens were so green and vast, full of fountains and birds. It's unreal to think that people used to actually call this place their "house".

I went out only one night with other Suffolk students, most of whom I really bonded with throughout our weekend's stay. I quickly learned that heels were a bad idea for walking long distances on old cobble stone roads. We went to this "12 year old bar" as I called it because the place was filled with teens who pretended they were in their twenties. We made one guy show us his ID which proved that he was only 17 years old...DOB 1992. nice try buddy.

We also went to the ancient Roman city, Italica, where we were able to see roman ruins. We also went to Rancho el Rocio (!!) and had a little coctail/tapas hour complete with singing and dancing. The tapas were amazing and the cervezas were muy deliciosas!! We then watched a horse show, which is difficult to describe. It was basically choreographed horses and cowboys. It was a very cultural experience and I can't wait to see a bull fight next!

Because the trip was planned through the school, we were pretty spoiled with a really nice hotel and great restaurant meals. The Spanish enjoy three course meals at lunch (2pm) and again at dinner (8-9pm). And I thought that I ate alot at home, sheeesh. They are also OBSESSED with bread too. It is everywhere and thank god they eat it with olive oil and not butter like the Americanos. And it's a good thing we walk everywhere because I would definately be packing on some extra baggage.

I started school today and it was fine. Same old, same old. I worked out too. The gym is teeeeeenyyy but it's better than nothing. I plan to work out Mon/Wed and play intermural soccer on Fridays!

In my spare time (the train ride to & from Sevilla) I have been reading the book, The Shack, and I love it. I'm actually almost finished already and I'm worried I won't be able to find any good books in English here. I was also incredibly worried I wasn't going to be able to watch any of my favorite American tv shows or movies on the internet. Thankfully this nice girl at school showed me the ropes and I am currently all caught up on Desperate Housewives!

One of my best friends from home, Megan, is also studying in this semester in Madrid and she arrives today!!! I can't wait to see her and start the weekend off in a celebratory fashion!

Madrid: mi nueva casa

Madrid. Madrid. Madrid!!
I'm so excited that I am finally here! My new school, Suffolk University, is a small campus branched from the main campus in Boston. The "campus" is more like one building but it is cute and cozy nontheless. Orientation was boring and not worth talking about except for our visit to the Prado Museum! It was amazing, I never knew that art could be so influential. I have so much more respect for artists after witnessing such talent and skill. It also made me love Grammy's paintings more than ever and I wish I could have them all!

New friends have been made and the staff/faculty seem nice...BUT class hasn't started yet so that impression could quickly change. Tomorrow is the first day of classes and I'm actually really excited to learn about the history and politics of Spain and some marketing and business law too!
I went out for the first time last night for a friends 21st birthday. Fabulous sangria and music made for a successful first of many late nights! The spaniards are crazy. I do not understand how they party till the wee hours of the morning and then function for work/school the following day. I don't think if I will ever adjust to their "no sleep" lifestyle.

My host mom, Amelia, is a sweetheart but unfortunately speaks NO ENGLISH. AT ALL. I've been having a hard time speaking but I can understand pretty well so hopefully I will pick it up asap. I must to pick it up asap, so pray for me!

London is the new Antarctica

My blog is finally here!!!

So much to share about the last couple weeks! I have been out of the States since Janurary 5th so I appologize for the very little detail.

Rachael (my super cute college roommate) and I headed from SFO to London Heathrow ready to take on our week of UK adventures - technically just London since we never left the city. We stayed at our first hostel and it was interesting. Not as sketchy as I imagined and we met some fun people. We met up with Danielle (another Chapman girlfriend) a few days later and moved to a quaint little hotel together with bad customer service. Actually, everywhere in London seemed to have bad service compared to the US.

Our daily adventures consisted of a walking tour of "royal london" with our hilarious scottish guide, Eliza. We saw Buckingham palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Parliment and Big Ben. All of it = BEAUTIFUL! Hyde Park was lovely (as the Brits call everything that is nice) and Harrods was amazing. We also visited the Natural History Museum, the Tower of London (which we unfortunately didn't go inside of because we are cheap), the Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral (which I'm also pissed about not going inside of), Shakespeares Globe, Abbey Rd. (complete with a Beatles re-enactment photo), and last but not least, Kings Cross train station- aka. Platform 9&3/4

The tube (underground/metro/subway) was really easy to use and would take us anywhere we wanted to go. I love public transportation and the London system was pretty easy to learn thanks to our trusty BART back home.

Of course we went out at night, every night to be exact, and it was a good time every time. We met some nice Brits and Australians too. I love both accents! We spent alot of our time just making fun of how each other talks and uses funny words or expressions. The best night was definately our last when we went to see a show called "We Will Rock You." It was a musical based on all of Queen's songs and it was hilarious.

As amazing as all the sight-seeing was, the most memorable part (in a bad way unfortunately) of our London vacation was the weather. I can't even describe the misery I felt every time I walked outside. It was absolutely freezing and my feet and face felt numb the entire trip. If I ever decide that I want to live somewhere where it snows, I demand that you stop me from doing such a stupid thing.

Well, that about sums up London! next stop: MADRID