Julie Marie
Julie DeMareo Joined: December 24th 2008
Logged in: May 22nd 2009
Logged in: May 22nd 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Tonight is Sunday and I'm leaving for Portugal tomorrow on a 9:45 am flight! I can't believe how fast everything has flown. My last midterm, Spanish History, was last Thursday. Edgar, Hallie and I met in Retiro in the beautiful weather to talk through our notes and outline answers to probably essay prompts. I almost never use study groups but I knew it would be really helpful because not one word of the class lecture, reading materials, or powerpoint slides given to us in the class are in English and so I knew we would all be able to fill each other in on details we may have missed individually. I didn't go to my Intercambio even though it was my last chance but I am facebook friends with the group of Spaniards that I saw ... read more
Vatican
Finally I'm getting around to recording my last four days of Semana Santa. On Holy Thursday I woke up early and walked 15 minutes or so from Niki's apartment to the train station and bought a danish on the way for breakfast. My train was 10 minutes late but other than that everyone ran smoothly. The train was only 1.5 hours and then I followed directions to the hostel by taking the metro a few stops from Termini where the train came in (and the only stop where the two metro lines in Rome overlap). Right when I checked into the hostel I met up with my GW friends from the Newman Catholic Student Center whom I was meeting, Marissa who is studying in Geneva and Matt who is studying in Freiburg. I was so excited ... read more
Puerta de Alcala
In two Mondays I will be leaving Spain! I can't believe how fast time has gone. This is my last week of classes and next week I will be taking my final exams, so now I'm trying to squeeze in the last things on my Madrid to-do list! Last Tuesday I went to a Real Madrid soccer game. As you probably know, soccer is the number one sport in Europe by far. Tennis and basketball probably come in second and third (Nadal the tennis player is in a lot of Nike ads here). When I realized I didn't have a lot of time left to go, I sent an e-mail to everyone in the group seeing if people would be interested in going for that Tuesday. A few of the boys had already gone to an ... read more
Hostal
So I know I still have to write about my time in Rome, but I figured it would be easier to work backwards and tell about my weekend in Sevilla first. Last semester Carmela took the GW students in my program to Sevilla but since we went to Galicia instead as our longer bus trip I decided I would go on my own. I got the name of the bus company Ashley's friend Amanda (who is studying in Sevilla) used when she came to visit Madrid. It was 6 hours each way and 35 Euro total. I would have definitely preferred the high-speed Ave train which is only 2.5 hours, but it costs about 70 Euro each way and I decided I'd rather spend the money on something else. Last week I booked my tickets and ... read more
Notre Dame
So when I got back from Semana Santa on Monday I tried to sit down and record my entire trip but that got to be too overwhelming. I've written about 2/3rds of it so far which I'll publish now while I continue writing about the last part of the trip. Also, I ran out of memory on my camera while I was in Rome so in order to make space I downloaded the pictures from the beginning of my trip to my friend's computer so I'll have to post them later when I get them. This morning I got back from my Semana Santa vacation! I took notes of my travels because I knew there was no way I was going to remember in order what I did every day of the trip. Friday, April 3rd ... read more
Gaudi building
Last week I didn't do anything too exciting since I was studying for midterms. Unfortunately we won't get our grades back until after Semana Santa (Holy Week/spring break) so that's not for another two weeks. I had a nice break from studying on Wednesday when Ashley and I met Diana after our flamenco class at El Tigre, a popular tapas bar in Gran Via. There you can get a large sangria for 4.50 Euros which comes with a big plate of assorted tapas with each drink. I also got together with Ashley and Diana on Thursday night before we left for Galicia. We met at an Irish pub two blocks away from my house that I always walk by but never went in before, so that was fun. Saturday morning we met at metro Colon at ... read more
Valencia 001
Last Tuesday I went out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! It seems like Spaniards know of it but don't celebrate it (they don't need an excuse to drink anyway) but there are quite a few Irish pubs in Madrid anyway. After out evening class we all regrouped in Sol and the first group went to an pub called Dubliners. Since there were six of us, Sezen, Andres, Ashley, Hallie, Jarrad, and I split a bucket of beer. Then the rest of the people in my program called us and said they were around the corner outside another pub and had grabbed a table. We walked over and pulled up some chairs and had a good time hanging out. Javier, the home stay brother of Alex, had brought his friend Christian. Javier studies history at a nearby ... read more
Palacio Real
I don't remember doing anything interesting on last Monday or Tuesday, so I'll just skip ahead. Last Wednesday I went to the best show I've seen so far. It was a ballet and also included traditional Spanish dances from the South in Andalucia. It started at 8:30 pm and after two intermissions didn't end until around 11 pm but I didn't even feel the time passing because the costumes were so beautiful and the dancers were so talented! Carmela invited everyone but only another student Mark and I went. Carmela also introduced us to her mother and friend who came. It was an advantage to go with Carmela because she was able to explain to Mark and I the names of the different costumes, etc. After that it was too late to go to Intercambio which ... read more
Seafood Paella
The weather is getting warmer! I heard it was 70 degrees in D.C. and similar temperatures in Philly. It hasn't been that warm here yet but it's been in the mid-50s which isn't too bad. I hope the Phillies are working hard down in Clearwater! Last Wednesday Ashley and I had a great time at the Intercambio. We met some strange people before finally introducing ourselves to a young couple from Madrid who were so friendly and totally hilarious. The man's name was Javier (I swear every guy here has that name) but I forget the woman's name because it was uncommon. Their English was pretty good and we were able to speak in Spanish the majority of the time and then we used both languages when it was hard for either side to explain something. ... read more
Basilica de San Francisco
Last weekend was actually my first complete Friday to Sunday weekend spent entirely in Madrid. About half the people in my program had booked a trip to Amsterdam a few weeks ago but I didn't want to go so I had more time to get to know my own city. Friday I slept in and then started catching up on a lot of reading for my International Business class. Then I went for a run. For the past two weeks I've tried to get back into a formal exercise routine and so every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I've been running for a half hour in a different direction from my house. I figure this will help keep me in shape and will be a fun way to learn my way around the barrio (neighborhood). After getting ... read more
