My Spain Journey

Snowpocalypse take 2

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:46:42 -0500

Snowpocalypse take 2

Snowpocalypse!

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:44:50 -0500

Snowpocalypse!

Brittany the crayon

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:36:41 -0400

Brittany the crayon

¡Hola mis amigos! ¡Vamanos!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:16:54 -0400

¡Hola mis amigos! ¡Vamanos!

Brittany the crayon

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:12:47 -0400

Brittany the crayon

So many leaves after the storm!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:10:02 -0400

So many leaves after the storm!

Lightning bolt/tornado cloud (Taken with Instagram)

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:42:17 -0400

Lightning bolt/tornado cloud (Taken with Instagram)

Photos

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 09:00:24 -0500

Peace Arch in Milan

Duomo

Fake David

Famous Bridge in Florence (I still don’t know the name)

Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Giant Metal Tree in Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor

Christmas Decorations on my street

Roommate group photo (from left: Alysha, Claudia, me, Kara, and Elizabeth)

Italy + Final Days

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:32:06 -0500

Hello everyone! This will be my official last blog post from Spain since I am leaving tomorrow. I just wanted to write about my fabulous six-day trip to Italy and a reflection on my final days and how my semester has gone.

First off, Italy. I went with one of my roommates and two friends from my program, so it was a nice small group. My friends planned all of the planes and trains to each destination between 6 and 7am every other day, so needless to say, we took a lot of naps at our hostels. Our first stop was Milan, the fashion capital of the world. Although we did not find lots of fashion districts, we did walk around the business district which reminded me so much of downtown Boston. There was even a skyscraper which looked bizarre to me after not having seen one in four months.

Our hostel was less than ideal. When we finally found it, a group of boys from Tuscany told us the lady was never around to answer the door. Great. We asked them to hold the door open since we didn’t want to just wait outside forever, but there were clearly some communication issues since they closed the door. Luckily, as we continued to have a conversation with them, the lady showed up to let us in (she had been walking her dog). The room was okay, but the lady was disorganized and did not know English, so communicating was not successful.

Apart from the hostel, Milan was very much just a normal, big city. We tried to go see famous sights (such as the Last Supper), but we were unsuccessful, so instead, we walked around exploring the city and walked through a park. We really were able to see a lot of the city and there were parts that we probably would not have stumbled across had we stuck to a strict schedule of sightseeing. Although Milan was probably my least favorite out of the three cities we went to, it still was a fun adventure. Besides, it’s really hard to beat Florence and Rome.

Our next stop was Florence. It took us a while to find the hostel (as it did in Milan), but we finally found it only a couple of blocks from the Duomo! This hostel was the best out of the three. It had nice rooms (ours came with a couch) and the guy at the front desk was incredibly friendly. He told us everything we needed to see in Florence, referring to David as “the naked man.” We decided to explore a little bit and stumbled across the Duomo. I couldn’t believe it was so close to our hostel! It was a lot different than I had remembered. I swear it had a blue theme instead of green, but clearly my memory is not the best in all aspects. One of our friends was sick at the hostel, so we waited to do all the sightseeing until the next day.

Alas, who knew that everything would be closed the next day? And I mean everything. We tried the Duomo (closed), the museum with the real statue of David a.k.a. “the naked man” (closed due to a ticket office strike-no joke), some really pretty gardens (closed during the winter), and the Galileo musuem (closed). After striking out four times, we were frustrated to no end. We ended up walking a famous bridge (I forget the name of it. Actually, I don’t think I ever knew the name of it.) with lots of jewelry stores and we were able to see the fake David, along with many other statues of mythological beings. At this point, I was really hoping Rome would be a lot more successful than our past two experiences. And it was!

After sneaking into first class on the train (Italians don’t care where you sit apparently), we found our own compartment with a door that locked. It literally was like the Hogwarts Express train from Harry Potter, complete with red plush seats and views of the European countryside. After arriving at our hostel (not as great as the one in Florence, but better than the one in Milan), we decided to venture out to the Vatican museums. We made our way through rooms filled with Egyptian and Greek art and sculptures and finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. Against my father’s wishes, I did not remember the Sistine Chapel at all (I had gone with him really early in the morning during our family trip). It was gorgeous though! The famous painting of Adam and God touching their fingers together did not stick out as much as I imagined, but I still was able to find it easily.

Day 2 in Rome brought many sightseeing opportunities. First off was the Colosseum which recently opened its lower level to the public, so we were really able to get a neat view of the ground floor with all the old cages. Our Colosseum ticket also let us in to see some archaelogical ruins, such as the Roman Forum and the Palantine. Next on our list was the Trevi Fountain which is gorgeous no matter what time of day you go to it. The Pantheon was right nearby, so we went inside for a little bit and saw the many paintings and open ceiling which lets in light and the natural weather. After a short break at the hostel, we ventured to the San Pietro church in the Vatican city. We saw the famous white marble sculpture of Mary and Jesus, and the real dead body of either a Pope or a priest (which brought back terrible memories of Hannah’s and my fear and disgust as we saw the same body when we visited five years ago). That was our last main stop in Italy, and the next day, we flew back to Spain, relieved to be in a country where we knew the language.

That was my only problem with Italy. I really had a difficult time understanding Italian. For all those who think Italian and Spanish are extremely similar, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. Although there are some words I understood when I was reading advertisements, I could not understand the language as a whole and no way could I understand someone who spoke it directly to us. We found (for the most part) that Italians preferred it when we spoke English to them instead of Spanish, so we were able to get by everywhere we went. I would speak Spanish by accident a lot when I said “Hola” instead of “Buon giornio” or “Gracias” instead of “Grazie.” I guess my mind just works in Spanish no matter where I am! Overall, the trip to Italy was pretty successful and we all had a lot of fun.

On a side note, before I talk about my final days here, I wanted to let you guys know that I have been continuing to see movies here in Spain. Most recently, I saw the new Harry Potter movie and the new Chronicles of Narnia movie (don’t worry, I won’t give anything away). Before this semester, I definitely would not have been able to sit through a movie in Spanish without any subtitles and understand it all, but I have been able to understand every movie I’ve seen here (a total of six). Not only has my speaking improved, but my understanding and listening has improved immensely and I owe it all to this program and semester, and of course, my professors.

I am finally wrapping up my amazing semester in Spain. This week, we had finals and our last classes which were a lot harder emotionally than I expected. My literature teacher, who is my absolute favorite, hugged us all individually and wished us luck for wherever we may be going next. I am definitely going to miss her the most. She was an amazing professor and a fabulous woman. I’m going to miss all of my professors just because they were all so helpful and enthusiastic. I am trying to imagine having my classes taught in English, and it is freaking me out a little because it just seems so bizarre. It’s going to be weird to hear English on the streets, in my home, and in stores since I am so used to hearing Spanish everywhere. I’m not making any promises that I won’t accidentally use a few words of Spanish when I talk with you guys! I know I am going to have to deal with reverse culture shock, but I know I can overcome it because I have such amazing family and friends. I will never forget my experience here and I am definitely coming back to live here someday! Adios España! Nos vemos muy pronto (We’ll see each other really soon)!

P.S. Look in the next post for photos. I have a feeling I don’t have any room to put them in this post.

More photos

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:19:43 -0400

Since my post was clearly too long, here are some more photos that I wanted to share from my trips to Barcelona, Segovia, and Avila:

Our Barcelona hostel (our beds were on the top bunks- numbers 1 and 1b)

Segovia aqueduct

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s castle

Avila wall

Group shot on wall (Elizabeth, Ashley, Alysha, Kara, Kelly, and me)

Barcelona, Segovia, and Avila

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:19:40 -0400

Wow, I haven’t posted in forever, so this will be a very long post! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! I have traveled to three very different locations for the past three weekends. First up was Barcelona where I met up with my friend Nikki, who is currently studying abroad in Rome. After travel delays and rude flight passengers, Nikki and I arrived at our very modern looking hostel. We were given loft beds in a very narrow, but cozy room. We only had one full day in Barcelona, and we definitely fit everything we could into it!

First off, we went to Casa Batlló which is one of the magnificent Gaudi houses. Featuring beautiful mosaics and wavy windows, it is truly an amazing piece of architecture. My favorite part is the dragon roof (which is what I call it). It is a curvy, colorful roof which has dragon like scales on it.

Up next was La Pedrera, another piece of Gaudi architecture. The inside is fun to look around, but the roof is the true magnificence of the building. Full of slopes and tall, wavy structures, it feels like it stretches on forever.

After La Pedrera, we were off to Park Guell, the famous Gaudi park. The entrance features magical houses that look like Christmas gingerbread ones and the famous mosaic lizard. After the park, we had a pretty disappointing lunch followed by lots of walking and shopping down La Rambla, a long, wavy road covered with market stands and street performers.

As much as I love the sights in Barcelona, I have decided I could never live or even vacation there for one very important reason. That reason is Catalan. Oh, how I hate this langauage with a fiery passion! Catalan is an old language that is a mixture of Italian, French, and a little bit of Spanish. It is only spoken in the Spanish province of Catalunya and it is in no way like Spanish. The reason they speak Catalan is because they are extremely nationalistic and they do not wish to be a part of Spain any longer. For all of us tourists who stand out, they would prefer to speak English to us before speaking Spanish. That is how much they dislike Spanish. Catalan is very frustrating for me because as a Spanish speaker, I feel I should be able to understand even a little bit of Catalan since it is a Spanish language. Let me tell you that if you know Spanish, you will not know an ounce of Catalan. When I see signs in Catalan, it seems I should be able to figure out some of what it says, but it looks like Swahili to me. It did make me appreciate how lucky I am to be in Salamanca where pretty much no one knows English, so I am forced to use Spanish. Ok, rant over.

Overall, Barcelona was a very fun and successful trip! And now I know that I can air travel by myself in different continents!

Two weekends ago, our program had a day excursion to Segovia. Segovia is known mainly for its giant aqueduct (I actually had to look up this word in English because my English spelling is slowly decreasing, due to my increase in Spanish). Clearly, I have a giant love for aqueducts because I was mesmerized by it and took lots of photos. We actually did not see very much with our tour guide because the cathedral was closed at the moment we wanted to see it. However, I was able to see the cathedral during our free time. Though not as magnificent as the one in Toledo (that one is sill my favorite), it was a gorgeous church. The most impressive sight in Segovia was the church of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It is full of rooms with original items intact, such as tapestries, thrones, and suits of armor. Climbing up the spiral staircase to the tower was brutal for all of us (especially for a boy who is on crutches at the moment, but he managed to make it all the way up!), but the view from the top was amazing and totally worth it! On our way down, we let a group of British students by who were having just as much trouble as we had going up the stairs. One girl turned to her friend and said (I am not kidding) “Come on Polly. We can make it. Do it for the children!” Don’t aske me why she felt the need to say it, but that quote, along with the fact that Polly sounds like the most classic British name to me made me keel over with laughter for about two minutes. It’s always an adventure in Spain! Segovia was a fantastic place which I would recommend to anyone traveling in Spain.

Finally, my trip to Avila was this past Saturday with a few of my friends. After planning to go for an entire day, my host mother warned us that there is not much to do in Avila. She said there was a small town and a wall (it’s a walled-in city) and that was it. We believed her, but figured we would still be able to find things to do. Just in case though, we bought tickets for an earlier bus back in the evening. Needless to say, my host mother was not kidding! Avila is an extremely tiny town. We walked the entirety of the city about five times during our trip. We had a total of about nine hours there which was a mistake. However, we had fun just hanging out and seeing the magnificent wall. The weather was less than ideal (that’s an understatement). It was rainy and freezing for most of our trip, so we found ourselves going into two different cafes to get hot chocolate and pastries just to warm up. Luckily, we had nice sunny weather for the last two or three hours of our trip. We did not make it to the cathedral (there is one, contrary to what my host mother said) since we had to pay to go inside. The best part was walking the length of the wall. We had beautiful views, especially when we climbed up really steep, scary stairs (I’m developing a fear of heights) to the towers every ten or so feet. We scaled as much of the wall as was possible which took up a lot of our time. It was a lot of fun! Although we had terrible weather for most of the day and not much to do, we had a fun time in Avila and were glad to get away for a day.

So, there you have the stories of my past three trips. I hope you enjoyed reading and I’ll try to post again soon! Below are some photos for you guys to check out. Adios!

Casa Battló

Nikki and me on the roof of La Pedrera

Lizard in Park Guell

Toledo and Madrid

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:54:01 -0400

Hi everyone! This blog post will be mostly about my program’s excursion to Toledo and Madrid that happened two weekends ago. First of all, Toledo and Madrid are completely different places! Toledo is a beautiful, hilly town with lots of gorgeous religious buildings and touristy shops, whereas Madrid is pretty much the same as New York City.

We started off on a Saturday morning before the sun came up and made the long bus ride to Toledo. While in Toledo, we were able to see two churches, a synagogue, and a single painting in a museum. Our awesome tour guides Lucia and Fernando brought us around to all of these sites while giving us their very detailed histories. The synagogue was beautifully built with tall, white and gold arches. Along the walls hung paintings and drawings of religious figures and landscapes. The single painting in the museum was very nice, but it was a little confusing as to why we paid money for a huge group of students to go in for about five minutes (maybe they had a group discount?). The last church we went to was absolutely the most gorgeous church I have ever seen in my life (and I thought the church in Salamanca was impressive-but it’s nothing like this one!). I wish I had pictures to show you guys, but we weren’t allowed to take photos even without a flash. Every piece of art was just so decorative and detailed that I still can’t believe people actually created them hundreds of years ago.

After we finished in Toledo, we made our way to Madrid on Saturday night. We were left to do whatever we pleased after checking into the hotel. I went with a few of my friends to the Plaza Mayor (which is the big central meeting place of the city). I know I’m not a public transportation person, but I would definitely take the metro if I lived in Madrid! It is so unbelievably clean and it’s easier to use than the New York City subway. Near the Plaza Mayor, we found an absolutely amazing chocolate bar/restaurant where we bought churros with chocolate sauce (which was practically pudding). Churros are pretty much long sticks of fried dough, so you can probably imagine how good they taste! Get ready, Mom, Dad, and Hannah because I am definitely taking you guys there when you visit! After a short night’s sleep at the hotel (my friend and I realized there is a reason we can’t be roommates-we talk way too much into the wee hours of the morning!), we met with our tour guides for a full day of sightseeing.

First off was the Prado Museum which contains thousands of Renaissance-type paintings by artists such as Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya. We were told about the histories about an array of paintings before we were allowed to go off on our own. We only had a short time which I spent with a few girls in the cafe and the gift shop (and I completely regret it!). We then made our way to the Reina Sofia Museum. This museum contains mostly modern art and artists like Picasso and Salvador Dali. Many of you know I am not a modern art fan, so I did get a little bored in this museum, but I tried to make the most of it anyway. After the museum, we had a lot of free time to get lunch and do whatever we wanted. Of course, my friends and I took a few other girls back to the amazing churro place from the previous night! As we made our way back to the bus, we had a walking tour of a cathedral and some government buildings. As we got on the bus back to Salamanca, it started to rain, so we were lucky enough to miss it! All in all, it was an exhausting, yet amazing trip that I will not forget.

This has been a long enough post, but I just wanted to keep you guys updated a little about my Salamanca life. Classes have been going well (my art and literature classes are not as boring as I feared they would be), and my film class is still my favorite. We are watching my all-time favorite movie (Pan’s Labyrinth) in that class which I am extremely excited about! Besides classes, I’ve been taking it easy and just enjoying the atmosphere. I also have seen two more movies in theaters (The Karate Kid and Despicable Me), neither of which I had seen before, so it was a true test of my Spanish skills! Luckily, I understood almost every word, so that’s something to be proud of! This weekend, I am off to Barcelona where I will be meeting up with my friend Nikki, who is studying abroad in Rome. I’ll let you guys know how that trip turns out in my next post! And, since I didn’t put any photos up in my last post, look for some photos down below! I hope everyone is doing well! Adios!

View of Toledo

Synagogue in Toledo

Prado Museum (with a sculpture of Velázquez)

Plaza Mayor in Madrid

If you touch this with your foot, it means you will return to Madrid one day!

Sickness and Trying New Foods

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:13:00 -0400

Hello everyone! This post will be a little shorter than my first, due to my sickness which lasted almost a week. Because of my sickness, I had a pretty uneventful week, but I did manage to go on the historic walking tour our program set up for us (although I may as well have missed it). Although the information was very interesting and we went into beautiful buildings, our tour guide talked to us as if we were children and even changed back to English at times which was very frustrating to all of us Spanish students. We’re studying abroad in Spain, so of course we understand Spanish! The most interesting piece of information I learned was all of the different faces that adorn the walls of the Plaza Mayor. One side is kings, one is heroes and conquerors, and one side writers and professors of the university (there is a fourth side, but I missed who is on there). Unfortunately, the tour guide will be taking us around Segovia (where we will be going at the end of October), but hopefully it will go better than this tour did.

I had to miss two days of class since I was sick, but classes were winding down anyways. We officially ended on Wednesday, so we have a short vacation until we start our regular classes on Monday. I will miss conversation class, but I definitely won’t miss grammar! We did have a great group of students in our class, including a boy from Italy and a girl from Germany, and hopefully we can keep in touch with them.

Last Friday, I was able to try a new food at my host mother’s take-out restaurant. Her daughter would not tell us what it was, so we tried it having no idea what we were getting ourselves into (although it looked like tongue to me). I didn’t mind the taste so much (the texture was a different story), but once I found out it was cow’s stomach, I felt a little sick. I definitely wish I hadn’t found out because once I thought about it, it wasn’t as exciting anymore!

An exciting activity that I did with one of my roommates and a friend was to go see Toy Story 3 (my third time) in theaters. I was really glad it wasn’t in English with Spanish subtitles which is what I was expecting. For some reason, it was a lot more emotional in Spanish, although I have no idea why. It was difficult to understand at first (mostly I knew what was going on from having seen it twice already), but once I got used to it, I could understand most of what they were saying. I am definitely planning to go see some more movies in Spanish!

That’s all for now. Unfortunately, I have not been taking as many pictures as I should be, so there are no new pictures for this post. Hopefully, I will have new ones for next time! I hope everyone is doing well! Adios!