Madrid/ Toledo/Valencia

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Día 10- June 2, 2008- Started the second week of school today! I’m felling a lot better, but I’m going to try to get some sleep tonight so I can ensure that I regain my health. Today in class I presented about an article in which a Muslim marriage in France was annulled because the bride was not a virgin—it was pretty controversial, and really interesting. Then in my other class we discussed Hilary Clinton a bit. After class, me and about 12 other students met in the computer lab at the CIS to discuss plans for Valencia this weekend. We tried hopelessly for about an hour to buy train or bus tickets online, only to find out that the company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards! Kim and I walked to and from school today (we need to get some exercise, and we figure that adds almost 5 miles of walking ot each day, AND it saves us money!). When we got home, we ate lunch and relaxed a bit. Then, we made plans to meet with a friend to go to the train station to buy our tickets for the bus for Thursday, but she called us right before we got on the metro to tell us that it was closed for a siesta. We had already walked all the way to the metro, and even though it had been raining all day, it was a beautiful sunny moment, so we decided to walk around and explore a bit. We really wanted to find a supermarket to buy some light snacks because sometimes we are both hungry after dinner or lunch, but the one we found was closed for a siesta and wasn’t going to reopen for 45 minutes. After a bit of pondering we decided to meander a bit and wait for it to open. We ended up finding a bakery and I got a really yummy ham and cheese croissant for only a Euro 50, (1.5 euros) and we sat down on a bench and chatted in the sunshine. When it finally opened, we were taken quite off guard. The “market” we had been waiting outside was not a market at all, at least by United States standards. It ended up being kind of like a flea market, or maybe more like a farmer’s market, filled with tiny stalls brimming with huge stacks of raw meet, raw fish, fresh fruits, fresh veggies, and cheeses. The food looked good (although the smell of the meat and fish was a little nauseating) and it was all fresh, but it was not things that we could really buy (I think my senora would be a little offended if I just came home with a bunch of bulk food, I just wanted some snacks!!) So we explored a bit, then headed home and did some homework. We ended up spending a few hours wrestling around with times and dates before we finally successfully booked a hostel for our weekend in Valencia, so we finally have our plans set! Then Kim and I went out to the living room for a nice dinner—Pilar made us “lentejas con chorizo,” and it was a rich, thick stew of lentils (small small beans), sausage, peas, and garlic. It was one of the heaviest meals we’ve had so far, and I really really like it! Then we chatted for a bit about our trip to Valencia, thanked her for dinner, and retired to our rooms for some more homework. A group of kids decided to go to a bar tonight (apparently they found a bar with 1 euro shots on Mondays) but I decided I would rather sleep!! Anwyas, I’m pretty tired so I think im gonna get some shuteye, tomorrow I go to the world famous Prado museum—should be beautiful! Viva Madrid!!
Día 11- June 3, 2008-
Today we had regular class again, then took a day trip in the afternoon to the Prado Museum. Paco led us, and we took a bus over there. The museum was pretty spectacular. The Prado is one of the largest museums in Spain, and one of the most important art collections in the world. Paco took us through and explained stories, errors, and idiosyncracies of many paintings. We started witht eh oldest paintings, which were spectacular paintings that had survived from the middle ages, some from around 1200 AD. Then we moved on and were able to see the evolution of art and its reflection of the current culture. After the medieval art, we saw religiously inspired art, which contained lots of gold leafing because during this time period, people believed htat light was an indication of God’s presence, so gold needed to be present in holy paintings. Then, we saw the evolution of oil paintings, in which they mixed honey and oil to get a fast drying paint. Paco explained to us, though, that in order to properly mix these paints an artist would have to seal the ingredients and tuck the container into a pile of animal dung in order to produce the right amount of long lasting heat needed for the chemical reaction… ew!! Haha… anwyays, then we moved on and saw some art from Rembrant—the Prado is home of many spectacular Italian paintings, and we saw quite a few of them. We finally finished off our visit with a look at some paintings of an important Spanish artist named Greco. His art was somewhat twisted and dark, but very fascinating. The figures are very distorted, and he uses dark, bold colors and a desceptive, unrealistic display of light. His paintings usually had religious connotations, and he often painted mortals on the group and god and angels int eh sky. We are going to return to the prado again next week, because it is FAR too big of a museum to see in on emeasly day. Afterwards, Kim and I took the metro home and I did a little bit of homework. After dinner, she and I headed over to Maloney’s to meet up with a few people (Maloney’s is an Irish pub). We got COMPLETELY lost and ended up wandering around the streets of spain for about ab hour before we found it-it was a total hole-in-the-wall type of place, probably no bigger than the computer lab at my school! It was crowded and smoeky and very American-esque—it was full of kids from Florida state who were having a going away party, and it was a little claustrophobic to say the least. Nevertheless, we met up with our friend Luciano from the CIS (we were also there with Jaclyn, Lizzie, and Danielle from our group) and hung out for a few hours. Kim and I literally RAN back to the metro to catch the last metro at 145, it was such a close call!! Then we came home and crashed… long day, but amazing as usual… viva Madrid!!

Día 12- June 4, 2008-
Today we took a day trip to Toledo—spectacular. Absolutely spectacular. Toledo is a city a few hours out of Madrid that has a completely fascinating history. The city is indescribably beautiful—it has all of these beautiful, old stone buildings nestled on rolling hills, and a wide, beautiful fiver encircles the town. As we drove through the winding hills surrounding the town, the sight took my breath away. We arrived and were allowed a few minutes to grab a bite to eat, and then Paco, our fearless leader, led us through the narrow, charming streets of the ancient town towards its crown jewel, the Cathedral of Saint Mary. I can’t even tell you how spectacular it was—I have seen many old churches before, but they will never cease to amaze me. This particular cathedral was built between 1226 and 1493 and is absolutely incredible. It had huge, gorgeous vaulted ceilings, long halls, beautiful murals and paintings… it was breathtaking. Everything was made of stone, and the style was the popular Gothic style of its time period—the arches were not round, but had points in the center. Paco told us fascinating stories of its origins, construction, and how spectacular it was in its time. Up near the ceiling the walls were lined with stained glass windows, and the patterns they cast on the rest of the walls were gorgeous. He taught us a little about the saints depicted on the walls, and we learned about Saint Christopher, the patron saint who protects travelers. Then we saw a very interesting stone (I can’t remember the name…  ) which had a fascinating story. Forgive me for my ignorance/if I mix up details, but there was a story in the bible in which Mary descends from heaven to thank a man for defending her virginity during her life. She descends upon the earth and places her feet on a stone—the stone in the cathedral is supposedly that very stone. It is encased in a secure container, but has openings so you can touch it—you are supposed to touch the stone and make a wish (I did this, but I can’t tell you what I wished for or else it won’t come true!!  ). We also saw some more paintings from Greco, which were quite beautiful. Then we headed out and saw a small museum that contained another Greco painting which depicted a miracle in which a man was literally buried by angels who descended from heaven. I think the most fascinating thing about Toledo is it’s history. It has been a major city for thousands of years, and has gone through a ridiculous amount of transformations and moldings during these times. Initially, it was a Spanish city, but had a large amount of Jewish influence. Then, for about 500 years it was conquered by Muslims and underwent a drastic transformation with building of mosques, etc. Then, it was finally reconquered by Spain, and in 1492 Jews were officially expelled from the city. Thus, through its eyars of different influences and rules, today it is a fascinating blend of Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic cultures. The architecture, especially, was fantastic. The cathedral itself was actually constructed right on top o fhte stie of a mosque that was destroyed after the reconquista. After the Jews were persecuted and expelled, most of the synagogues were destroyed, but they elected ot keep one, and transform it into a church. To make things even more interesting, when it was a functioning synagogue, it was built for Jews but was actually built and designed by Muslim workers, so the architecture has a distinctly eastern influence. The arches, rather than being pointed gotchi arches, were horse-she arches, a clearly middle-eastern looking type of design. We visited this synagogue/church, which is ironically called the Synangogue de Santa Maria la Blanca—a blatant mix of Jewish and catholic influences. Paco taught us that it is the oldest, most well preserved synagogue in all of Europe (although it hasn’t been used as a synagogue for quite some time). It was so interesting to see all of these buildings, to see the evolution and the blending of these three completely disparate cultures. The streets, buildings, and atmosphere in Toledo were awe-inspiring. I couldn’t get over how beautiful it all was. As we walked through the streets, the narrow walkways were shaded by large sheets that were tied to windows and apartments high up above our heads—Paco explained that just a few weeks before, the Catholics in Toledo had a large, annual festival in which they symbolically carry Christ’s body through the town, and it is necessary to ensure that his body is “covered.” After a bit more walking around, we took a lunch break, and I had a bocadillo (little sandwich) and bought myself some jewelry and marzipan. The jewelry here is famous for its delicate gold threading, all done my hand. It’s marzipan, as well, is very famous, and I fell in love with it—it was so so sweet but absolutely delicious. Then, after our lunch break, we walked a bit more thorugh the city and went over to Toledo’s monastery, which, like everything else there, was spectacular. It had some Muslim influences as well, and was commissioned by Isabelle and Ferdinand, the Monarchs that united spain in 1492. The monastery was all stone with a beatufil courtyard with a garden in the center, and had an adjacent church nearby. I can’t do the architecture and the details justice, you’ll have to look at my pictures. After a somewhat exhausting day or touring, we headed home and I had dinner and did some homework. But, a nice little tidbt of exciting news, I ended up talking a but with my new friend Bernardo (a VERY cute, very nice young boy who I met at the CIS—he was the one that ran to starbucks to get me a fork for my lunch) on skype for a few hours, he seems like a really fun guy. He is from Portugal, and is going to give me advice for my trip to Lisbon (I would take any excuse to talk to him though, he’s gorgeous!!!  ) After all of that, I was pretty tired, so I headed to bed… tomorrow I go to the REAL Valencia!! I’m so excited! Viva Madrid!!! <3<3 Viva Toledo!!

Día 13- June 5, 2008
Today I had a few more presentations in class, which went well, and then it was time to go to Valencia! Luckily I had packed a bit the night before, so I was pretty well prepared to just grab my stuff and head to the train station. It started pouring rain as soon as we got to the station, but Kim and I and our group of about 15 managed to find the bus and arrive safely. The bus ride was only 4 hours, but the cramped coach bus smelled a bit and was very crowded. Once we got there, we were unfortunately COMPLETELY lost, and it was raining cats and dogs (like any intelligent traveler, I was wearing a dress and sandals, with absolutely no umbrella…. Of course…  ) We fiddled around a little bit before we finally established that we needed to get to a metro and then transfer to a bus, and ended up getting lost a few more times. After about an hour and a half of desperate searching ,we finally found our hostel, which was down this beautiful little narrow street in a charming square in Valencia, near a cathedral and a plaza called Plaza de la Virgen. We checked into our hostel—my very first hostel experience!! The people at the front desk were wonderful, and helped make sure that all 12 of the grils in our group ended up in 2 6 person rooms all 3 nights (even though this was not what we booked!!) We finally got up to our rooms to discover that they were TINY (it was probably about as big as my room in Cardinal Gardens, but with 3 bunk beds and lockers—there was NO floor space, only about 2 people could be on the floor at any given time.. haha.. Despite a few select people’s complaints, everyone was pretty pleased with it—it was clean, had bathrooms right there, and had secured lockers equipped with keys that we could use. We settled in a bit and got changed, then headed out around 11 for dinner/drinks. We ordered 3 huge pizzas from a cute little pizzeria, and the boys (four of our group, the boys, were staying at a nice hotel a few minutes down the road—what wusses!! Haha) met up with us before we headed out to a few bars. We meandered through the square, and mostly just hung out and danced a bit. The drink that Valencia is famous for is called Agua de Valencia, and it is kind of like a memosa—it had a few different types of hard alcohol, champagne, orange juice, and some other types of fruits. After a few hours of meandering, we all finally went to bed. It’s been a looong day, but I’m so excited to see Valencia during the day… viva VALENCIA! 

Día 14- June 6, 2008
Oh my goodness, I am in love with this town. I will never ever be able to look at Valencia, CA in the same way! This is the REAL Valencia, and I am in love with it! This morning Kim, Jodi and I slept in a little bit, and then finally headed out into the daylight around 1130. We ended up meandering around the town with Angelita, and we got directions of interesting sites from the lady at the front desk. We walked quite a ways (this town is even more beautiful htan Madrid—lots of old, beautiful stone buildings, narrow streets, people walking cute little dogs all of the place) and ended up at this spectacular indoor market. It had everything you could imagine—fruits, veggies, nuts, fish, meat, sausage, candy, cake, bread, wine… all fresh, all hoem grown. I bought a few pieces of fruit and we explored a bit, but hen settled down at a tapas bar for lunch. I got a croqueta sandhisch (basically mozerella sticks on a baguette) and tried Valencia’s other famous drink, Horchata. The Horchata here in Valencia, though, is MUCH different htan the Mexican-inspired Horchata I have tried in southern California. Mexican horchata is made from milk, rice, and cinnamon—Horchata here is made with nuts and cream, and is SO delicious! It was really like a type of desert drink… We also got helado, and I think I discovered my new favorite type of ice cream. They have a common flavor here called nata, which means cream, and it is some of the richest vanilla ice cream you will every try! We continued alking around for a while, and I bought 2 pairs of shoes for 5 euro each (deal!) and we walked past a bull ring. We walked inside, because we tought it might have something interesting, but there was a home show going on. Then we walked quite a ways over towards one of Valencia’s main attractions, the science museum and aquarium. The area is a huge complex of sepcatcular, adjacent buildings, very futuristic looking but very beautiful. Each of the museums was perched on top of a shimmering pool of water, and the beach created the perfect backdrop for these beautiful buildings. We thought about going into the aquarium, but we came 2 hours before it closed and we didn’t want to waste 20 euro on ahurried visit. Kim and Jodi decided to split off and go shopping, while Angelita nad I headed over to meet up with another small group at the beach. The beach was BEAUTIFUL…. We coudlnt’ have asked for better weather, itw as sunny and warm with a beautiful breeze. The sand was ridiculously soft, and the watter was a deep shimmery blue. There were lots of guapos (cute boys  ) on the beach, but it was definitely a European beach-lots of speedos, and quite a few girls went topless!! (NOT everyone though, defieniltey not any of our group!!_) We relaxed and sunbathed for a few hours, then began a somewhat dizzying, confusing trek home ohte bus. We finally got back, got cleaned up a little bit, and our entire group took taxis towards the ebach for our reseravations at a Paella restaurant. As I mentioned earlier, Paella is a traditional Spanish dish, and Valencia is supposed to have the best Paella in all of Valencia. We each got a portion of the Paella, which is cooked in buil on these HUGE circular pans, and it was fantastic. The restaurant was very nice and classy, and we all had a great time. Then we headed over to the beach, because Lizzie had met some German boys this afternoon that invited us to go hang out with them at the beach t ngiht before heading over to discoteques. We all walked out onto the sand and hung out for a few hours, talking, laughing, and just relaxing. I got to know some of my group members a little btter, and after a few hours we headed over to a really interesting discoteque with Indian inspired decoration. We all danced and had a ball!! Finally, around 3 oclock, we started to get tired and took a cab home (early night by Spanish standards) and crashed. I am in love with this city! Viva Valencia!! 
Día 15- June 7, 2008
Another gorgeous day in Valencia—some day I have to buy myself a vacation home here. We slept in a little bit again, then this time I headed out with Danielle, Angelita, and Nikki to meander through Valencia. We had a delicious breakfast at this little restaurant called “Pan y Queso,” which had these wonderful little rolls of bread that had cheese baked into them. They were delicious! Then we walked along a large garden that wraps its way thought the city, and we ended up at this fair/carnival which we called the “Hippy Fair.” It was a large collection of booths of arts, crafts, jewelries, and artisans goods, with an entire row of food booths that all smelled incredible. It was a very very unique market, the jewelry and things that we saw were all very very unique (not like a typical flea market, where you see the same stuff over and over again) and I ended up buying these adorable little cards that had Spanish proverbs written on them. I picked out each and every one of them by hand, and thought they were very beautiful and meaningful. My favorite one translated to “ If at night you cry for the sun, your tears will stop you from seeing the stars.” As pretty as it is in English, it is much more beautiful and touching in Spanish. After a few amazing hours of art and food, we decided to head over to the beach again for another couple of lazy, gorgeous hours at the beach. When we got there, Lizzie, Kristen and I decided to take a long stroll along the shore, and it was so nice and relaxing. We walked probably about a mile along the shore until we reached a group of kite surfers, and I have a new ambition to learn. The kite surfers were incredible, and Valencia has a good solid amount of wind to make it a popular destination. It looked like soo much fun!! We finally turned around and headed back, then grabbed some food and headed back to the fair for another look. Unfortunately, the three of us got completely lost. There we were, 3 blondes staring blankly at the back of a bus stop map, totally confused. Luckily, a group of (cute!) boys were standing nearby, and one of them politely asked if we were lost. He and his friends helped us find a good route to get where we needed to go, and we all ended up chatting for a bit. They turned out to be living in Barcelona but visiting in Valencia. A few of them were from Brazil, and one was from Holland. We ended up continuing chatting on the bus, and exchanged numbers nad information to meet up later that night at a club called Guru—its not hard to make friends here! Anyways, back to the fair—this time, there was live music and performers (it was night time) and we had a blast! We grabbed a bit of food and headed back to the hostel, where we relaxed, showered, and got ready for our night out. After much debate, we decided that we couldn’t go to Guru because it was too far and we didn’t want to pay for a Taxi, so we decided to meet up with Lizzie’s German friends at this little bar nearby called Aguacate (avocado… haha). I got to sample a Spanish tradition called calimoto-mixing red wine with coke. It sounds awful, but its actually really yummy! We ended up chatting with her friends for hours, I had a WONDERFUL time! I was a little shy about using my Spanish at first, but some of the only spoke Spanish, and once I got started, I was on a roll! I had normal, great conversations in Spanish for a full 3 hours or so! I had so much fun, and had a really great conversation with a boy named Adrian. We talked about politics and world views, and I started to realize how much being in Spain has already changed me.
It sound cheesy, but I really do feel like I’m really growing and expanding my horizons. It’s hard to see the rest of the world from California’s little bubble, but now that I have been translated to Europe I really have a new appreciation for world politics and a fresh look on life. I am having such an amazing time here, and I really feel like I am constantly discovering new things about myself. I think it’s because here, every situation is foreign and new. Even the people here from USC don’t know me, so I’m forced to simply act naturally and impulsively, to act without any history or reputation to live up to. I have had such an incredible time meeting new people; it’s one of my favorite things to do now! I really feel like this experience is helping me open my eyes to a much bigger world, as well as open my heart to a fantastic new way to live my life. I feel so so alive. I feel like no matter how much I see here, and how many more people I meet, I am just thirsty for more—I want to see more, explore more, learn more. I am developing a real love for languages too—I am so pleased to be able to speak somewhat normally in Spanish, and hope to be almost fluent when I leave here, but now I am so inspired to learn more languages!! I can’t even describe the euphoria that this country is giving me—I feel like my heart might explode, I am so enthralled with everything about Spain! I think this was the best decision I have ever made, this trip is a completely discovery experience for me, and it is EXACTLY what I needed right now in my life. I love this country; I love its people, its food, its culture, its history, its architecture, its lifestyle. I am so in love with Spain! Viva Valencia <3<3

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