Uno, Dos, Cha-Cha-Cha, Barcelona!

Hola friends and family! Apparently mother nature thought it was a good idea to hand off the beautiful to you all and give us the snow. Not cool! I just hope that the snow doesn't ruin my chances of hiking up one of the Segovian mountains on Saturday. 

Last week before I left for Barcelona I forgot to tell you about my dancing class! We have met twice and have two more classes on the next two Wednesdays. The dancing is so fun! It's unfortunate because there aren't any guys in the class, my host mom says it's because they are scared which I completely agree with, but it's still a great time and I have learned so much already. Last Wednesday we started with the Meringue and ended with the Cha-Cha. I was telling my mom last night about these classes and being that my parents are avid Dancing With The Stars viewers, I suggested that she and my dad enroll themselves in a dance class. Who's with me?!!

Barcelona was amazing! I had such a great time and am already making plans in my head to return. The bus ride was a pain since it was nine hours long, but this beautiful city and the awesome weekend that went with it was well worth the early departure time and the horribly uncomfortable sleeping positions. After arriving and freshening up at our hotel, the 24/7 buffet was calling to our seemingly very empty American stomachs. After eating a few of us went to discover the shopping scene along the street, Las Ramblas, near our hotel.

Later that night we showered and hit the town for what would be a very fun night filled with unnecessary metro rides, the most disgusting shots that I have ever taken, way to many pictures on Michelle's camera and ending the night at a club on the ocean. Have I mentioned how much I love my life here? I crawled into bed at about 5:30 a.m. setting my alarm for a time that would allow me no more sleep than an everyday siesta.

Despite what I thought at 5:30 a.m., two hours of sleep proved to be sufficient as we bopped around the city exploring various cathedrals and museums during our walking tour. We walked around from 9 a.m. until about 1:00 and after a group of us headed to the one and only Subway: Eat Fresh. There have been a few close encounters with ranch dressing, (ask me to tell you about the epic tumble in Valencia) but there in the Subway in Barcelona was the first time that a fast-food restaurant actually had it and I was stoked!! My sandwich was so delicious and well worth the jaunt and a half across the city in order to find it. After Subway we made a quick pit-stop at the hotel and then we were beach bound! Luckily Michelle and I were hanging out with the guys that day because four of the guys thought a dip in the ocean in winter was on their bucket list or something and we got to witness it. I have pictures and videos that document, it was quite hysterical.

After a much needed siesta on Saturday most of the girls of the group went to a fountain light show in the part of Barcelona where most of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games were held. It was rather unfortunate that the show ended about ten minutes after our arrival, but ten minutes is better than no minutes. My host mom was telling me as I recounted this story to her that she was in Barcelona during the Games and saw the USA dream basketball team play, that's kind of cool! Anyway after the show we were in pursuit of a sushi restaurant, but ended up only being able to make reservations for the following night and settled for a delicious pita joint close to our hotel. 

Sunday was basically dedicated to the works of Antonio Gaudi. We first visited the world-renown La Sagrada Familia which is a church situated in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. This place was fascinating especially because it has been being constructed since 1882 and still isn't finished yet.

After the Cathedral we traveled by bus to Park Guell which was also designed by Gaudi himself. It was a beautiful park filled with magnificent architecture and panoramic views of the city. Again after arriving back to the hotel after our tours of the works of Gaudi we took a brilliant two-hour siesta. Eventually we freshened up and went to our 9:00 o'clock dinner reservations for the sushi restaurant. I had Yakisoba which is noodles with shrimp and other seafood and then I helped myself to my friend's sushi rolls, yumm! Sunday night was spent hanging out in the hotel playing cards and just hanging out with the group. We got a little rowdy at times and the hotel receptionist was sure to inform us that we needed to "slow down." We think he meant that we needed to be quieter which we then were, but his English was not very good which made it all the more funny. Although that sounds mean I am sure the hotel personnel got their fair share of kicks out of our mediocre Spanish as we asked them about stores, sushi, taxis, etc. 

Monday, the day we were to depart turned out to be jam-packed with things to do before we left. Michelle, Bridget, Katee and I went for a run to the beach which fun, but very fast-paced! Afterwards I ate some breakfast, packed and got ready for the day. Since the open air market was closed on Sunday when we wanted to go we excitedly headed there next!

It was very colorful and the fruit, smoothies, chocolates, and vegetables all looked so very delicious! After purchasing a smoothie and the best strawberries that I have ever eaten I stopped back at subway for my lunch later that day and made a quick purchase at H&M before I went back to catch the bus. Wheew, what a morning! It all went very well, or so I thought...About thirty minutes into the nine-hour bus ride I needed a bathroom, bad. I was so busy that I had forgotten to use the little girl's room and was dealing with the repercussions. We stopped at hour 2.5 and let me tell you, those were two of the longest hours of my life!! We made it back to Segovia at 8:30 p.m. and then I spent a good portion of the night preparing a presentation I was to give the following day. Talk about one of the worst days to have homework!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about my latest adventures and I strongly recommend that you all make your own memories in Barcelona as my stories don't do it justice and there is still parts of the city yet undiscovered by yours truly. Check my facebook for more pictures, too! Until next time, love you all!!

Bring on the Baseball!

Hola a todos! After a pretty crazy week, I am finally updating you all on my life on the eve of my very early morning departure to BARCELONA! I have a mix of emotions going into this trip, the first is that I am downright ecstatic to finally be able to experience this marveled city while the other part is sad that it's another weekend checked off the list. I think it's high time I start planning my trip back here, who's in this time?!

My hectic week began in an interesting manner with some Early-Monday-Morning Football (it doesn't really have the same ring as the "Monday Night Football" song now does it?).  As the Spanish announcers would say, "LOS PACKERS GANARON" which means that the Packers won, which you all knew, but it is so much more amusing to hear them say it in their accents! I give them props though for at least showing some interest in futbol americano while the rest of their country is enthralled with the other kind of football: soccer. Anyway the game did in fact start at 12:30 a.m. our time and you better believe that the majority of our group made it out for at least the first half of the game. I had intentions of staying until the end, but only made it until the end of the third quarter as I kept falling asleep and having nightmares about falling asleep in my 9:30 a.m. class which would not only be embarrassing, but it's already questionable whether our professor even likes us in the first place. I wasn't willing to risk it so headed home and admittedly hoped for a packer-win the whole way. Also, not only did we not get to have a typical Super Bowl Party complete with tasty American food, we didn't get to see any of the commercials either! I have never wanted to see commercials so bad in my life! Instead we listened to the Spanish announcers and stared at an aerial view of the stadium. No commercials also constituted an early departure by yours truly.

Since football season was officially over at 4 a.m. our time on Monday I thought it was appropriate to bust out my Minnesota Twins gear to class on Monday. My host mom commented on my twins shirt during lunch and I don't think she knew what she was in for after "liking" my shirt as our conversation spiraled into me professing my love for baseball and the twins for the next 30 minutes (I'm guessing my fellow-twin-lover father has a huge smile on). I told her all about the my family trips to different stadiums throughout the country, the new target stadium (the conversation then took a slight detour to discuss shopping since the target brand came up, but I no worries, folks I made sure of a timely return back to the discussion topic at hand), we talked about my family's season tickets, my attempt at playing softball and on and on and on. Finally dear Sonsoles admitted that she did not understand anything about the game of baseball. I then proceeded to explain as much as I could about the game with the inadequate amount of vocabulary terms I have for baseball. However, I ensured her that when we found a game on television in about 49 days I would teach her all about it! I couldn't really tell if she was excited, but she knew I was because I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I kept repeating, "me gusta, me gusta."

My weeks are becoming more and more busy as more of our activities are underway. I practically spent my entire Wednesday at school between learning how to salsa and cha-cha, meeting some cool intercambio students and doing my homework. I love to stay busy, but man it makes the time fly even faster which isn't good! Also on a not surprising note I had another incident with the Spanish cobblestone. I was walking back to school today to meet my friend, Anna, so we could work on our Felipe Segundo presentation. For the story it is important to note that since my time in Spain and because of all the walking I have been doing I have developed into quite the speed-walker. (Most of the time I don't even realize it until my short-legged friends start jogging alongside me.) Anyway the fact that the walk to school is on a slight decline the entire way didn't really help my cause. I was cruising along at what I thought was my normal pace, backpack on back, and passing most every group of students that just weren't walking fast enough for me. Well you guessed it, I slipped on the sidewalk and completely fell on my hands and knees. I majorly scuffed my new boots, put a hole in my somewhat new leggings and my knee was bleeding. I was a little embarrassed mainly because all of the students that I had passed earlier just became witness to the result of my power-walking! Well, at least I know how to laugh at myself, right?!

I am going now going to hit the hay as I need to be up in about five hours! We return on Monday night around 7 p.m. but I have a presentation on Tuesday that I will need to work on so you can all look for stories and pictures from Barcelona on Tuesday night! I hope you are all doing well and the offer to escape the rather snowy Minnesota to sunny-60-degree Spain still stands, so let me know!

A Taste of Spring in Segovia

It has been such an amazing weekend here in Segovia and at 6:15 p.m. on Sunday it isn't over and hasn't even begun in the eyes of my packer-crazed friends. The kick off for the Superbowl is at midnight! All of you enjoying your evening game in the states, not to mention your very tasty (and American) appetizers, think of me. Today a few friends and I went and soaked up the Segovian sun and even got a little homesick...for the food y'all are eating today! It is pretty difficult to have a decent superbowl party here (another thing you should all be grateful for on this day) as inviting people over to one's house isn't customary in this culture and the houses/apartments are usually a bit small to accommodate such a large group of us! However, that didn't stop us because we have already booked the basement of our favorite bar, Oso Blanco, complete with copious amounts of sangria and tapas. I guess we are celebrating futbol americano the Spanish way tonight!

This past week went along as usual, I had class Monday through Thursday and spent my evenings playing cards with my friends, watching movies with my mom and doing little homework. Many of us went out on Thursday which was a lot of fun. We were able to meet some futbol sala players at one of the bars because there was a tournament here in Segovia this week. Futbol sala is like soccer but is in an arena with a few different rules (I think/would assume--soccer really isn't my thing though so who am I to say!). Anyway as always it was fun to meet local people and to speak Spanish with them.

The inside of the reconstructed Synagogue.

After a late night on Thursday, Friday proved rough for some. We had a walking tour around the former Jewish quarters (juderia) of Segovia at 4:15 and let's just say that there were some that didn't make it and others that probably shouldn't have. The tour was interesting and I found the history behind it fascinating. Spain has held a variety of dominant religions in the history of its existence. Today in Spain and especially smaller cities like Segovia, Christianity is the basically the only religion that is practiced and others are very few and far between. Before 1492 when the Catholic king and queen married and reformed Spain back to Catholicism, Judaism was prominent. The Jews of the time made up the doctors and people of intellect of this era, and since they could read and write they left information for future generations to find and to then teach tourists such as myself all about. So there's a bit of a history lesson for you all! On our excursion we toured a small museum and then a Synagogue that was reconstructed as the original was located where we now find the grand cathedral in the plaza mayor. On Thursday at dinner, I was telling my mom all about our upcoming excursion to the juderia and also learned that she was in a play about the Segovian juderia, how cool! After our tour we all walked around a bit more, shopped and bought some ice cream as the weather has been absolutely gorgeous here! I eventually went home for dinner with intentions of making it out again, but was too tired and instead plopped myself in front of the television and spoke spanish and watched some shows with my mom.


Today has been such a great day! I was able to sleep in until about 10 and then I met up with some friends at the aqueduct at 11:30 to walk to the neighboring town of Zamarramala for the day's festival.

The trail that took us to Zamarramala.

Before arriving at the aqueduct I was under the impression that we would be taking the ever-so-convenient public transportation that frequents Zamarramala about every 20 minutes instead of walking, hence the terrible shoe choice of my spanking-new heeled boots. And instead of taking the ever-so-convenient public buses, we walked. It took an hour. Since it was another beautiful afternoon in this city of ours, many of us were sweating buckets.  Luckily I wore layers because I was down to my only tank top upon our arrival to this distant land! The festival reminded of the 4th of July festival in St. Joseph, but this time I could legally drink the beer an obvious perk and our first stop, in fact, was for beer and tapas. The tapas were some french bread and tereso which sort of tastes like sausage. (For those of you that don't know, tapas are appetizers such as nuts, potato chips, etc that are commonly served with an order of a beverage at bars and cafes within Spain.) We walked around to all the interesting looking shops and food stands. Since this festival is one that honors women, we followed the women, dressed in traditional garb, from the church to the main plaza of the town while we listened to a few speeches and then watched them burn a man-doll--I knew I liked this place! And don't worry, pictures to follow! We made it back from Zamarramala in less time because I made sure that the chicos (boys) of the group didn't get us lost again!

The much-anticipated burning of the man-doll.

A breathtaking view of Segovia from right outside Zamarramala.

Now I am lying in my bed about to take a nap at 7:00 o'clock p.m., which I think is a first! I am meeting Bridget at 11:30 for our walk to Oso to watch the much anticipated game! And my deepest apologizes to all of my friends and family who are diehard vikings fans, as I will be sporting as much green and gold as my limited wardrobe provides me with and will be singing "Greenandyellow, greenandyellow..." all the way there. Also, this post got long quick, but I am sure you all don't have anything better to do than read about my exciting days here in Spain. I hope you are all staying warm and that the snow keeps falling there and the sun keeps shining here! All my love to you!

Photos from Valencia

This is the world-renown Science Museum of Valencia.
I am standing with the three buildings behind me.
The buildings looked like space ships!

                                                     

   The Mediterranean Sea in January!

Me in front of a cathedral in La Plaza de La Reina
where the bennies found their ice cream ;)

 All of the girls from the trip outside of our hostel:

 Center-Valencia.

One of the plazas in the center of Valencia.

                                        

The view outside our hostel window, que bonita!

Anna, Morgan, Michelle, Erinn and I enjoying
our luxurious bus ride to Madrid.