Madrid/Barcelona

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Día 16- June 8, 2008
Today we returned to Madrid… it was kind of hard to wake up this morning (didn’t get to bed till 4, had to be up at 8…) but we caught our bus home (10 am) and had a verrrry restful drive home (I slept the entiiiire way). Kim and I took the metro home, and Pilar had a nice Spanish tortilla waiting for us for lunch, and our clean laundry was laying neatly on our beds—shes such a sweet heart! I was pretty tired, but instead of taking a nap, I updated my travel journal a bit and wasted an immense amount of time on facbeook (as always). Then I began doing a little bit of my hw (this next week is midterms week!) and I have a 10 minute oral presentation. I decided to do it on Bullfighting (la corrida de torros) and started my research. I finally got to skype video with my parents a little more, and talked to Bernardo a bit (crushing, I’m not gonna lie!!  ) I managed to waste most of my day away doing absolutely nothing, but it was nice and relaxing. Kind of a slow day, not much news… trying to plan my Lisbon trip, spent some time considering a weekend trip before we leave for Barcelona to the South of Spain, but it looks kinda hectic… it felt strangely good to be back in Madrid, like I was coming home  Viva Madrid!! <3

Día 17- June 9, 2008
Third week of school starts! Today I did an article about the Democratric Nomimation of Barak Obama. My article discussed whether America was ready for a black president—interestingly, some statistics showed that 69% of white Americans think that we are, but only 47% of blacks thing we are. Obviously, the blacks have a much more sinicle view of racism in our nation. It is pretty fascinating to think about it, I am a new voter in one of the most important elections in the history of our nation! There is a bit of talk about whether or not Hillary will try to jump on Obama’s ballot as vice president, but personally I think this is a bit far fetched. I’m a little bit on the fence myself about Obama—he is very, very charismatic, likeable, and a skillfull, powerful speaker. But, I do feel that he is inexperienced, doesn’t follow up with concrete plans/ideas, and sadly, I’m not sure if our country is ready for a black president. As much as we would like to think that we have achieved equality, I just don’t feel this is a reality we can count on yet. Also, I feel like Obama has a severely smaller chance of winning because of how the Democratic race has proceeded thus far—it seems that he and Hillary have severely divided the party. Those who support Hillary usually don’t like Obama, and those who support Obama don’t really like Hillary. With this in mind, I feel like McCain might simply win my default, because Hillary and Obama have, in a sense, destroyed eachothers chances by making eachother opponents instead of members of the same party! Who knows… I can’t pretend that I know enough about politics to really have an intelligent opinion about it, but I’m starting to WANT to learn more, which is good  anyways… after school I stayed for a few hours to do some hw (I’ve found that I get TOTALLy distracted when I come home) and had a nice walk home by myself (Kim left shortly after classes got out). Then I came home and did some more homework, rested, and ended up chatting with Bernarndo again… we might be hanging out this week! We flirted and got to know each other a bit, and we might hang out either Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, either at the Parque de Retiro, or he might take me to a driving range to teach me how to hit a golf ball (he’s a golfer). I am sooo excited!! But it’s all still up in the air, we’ll have to see if he follows through… Anyway, I’m pretty tired, lots of hw and class this week with midterms, bed time!! Viva Madrid!! <3
Día 18- June 10th, 2008
Another day of presentations in class—today I talked about a bombing by ETA. ETA is a terrorist organization based in Vasque country in the North of Spain. The Vasque area wants independence, and this group has been using bombs and other terrorist tactics in order to try to manipulate Spain into granting them independence. Luckily no one was hurt in the bomb that was placed this past Sunday, but they have killed many innocent people in the last few years… Anyways…. After class we went back to the Prado today for a second visit (it was wayyy to big to see in one visit). Paco led us again, and unfortunately I was pretty tired this time, but it was still very very enjoyable. We looked at some Baroque art today. We saw a few paintings by Velazquez, one of the greatest Baroque artists. We spent an especially long time hearing about his famous painting “La meninas,” which pictures the royal princess, a few maids, and two midgets by her side (it sounds obscure, but most people would probably recognize it). There were three different theories about what was taking place in the painting, and the later 2 were quite complicated… Then we moved on and saw some of Goya’s paintings. The first few were nice, but then we moved onto a room htat had paintings from his “dark period,” in which he was depressed… all his paintings from this period were very haunting and disturbing, with very dark colors and sad, depressing themes. The visit, as always, was very interesting, but I was pretty tired when I got home. I did some hw for a bit, and almost went to a town square to watch an important Eurocup soccer (football) game on tv, but I decided against it because I have my midterm presentation tomorrow. Instead, I relaxed and bit and worked on my project. I made plans to finally go The Madrileña for some chocolate churros with a group of friends but the plans fell though because it closed at 1030 and that was too early to meet… maybe tomorrow! I’m pretty tired and need to get a good night’s sleep before my big midterm presentation tomorrow, Buenos noches!! Viva Madrid!! <3<3

Día19- June 11th, 2008
Another Wednesday—today I had my midterm presentation for Sherry’s class (311) and I did a 12 minute oral presentation about bullfighting. It was really interesting to study, it’s quite a complicated ordeal. It has its origins in Roman traditions, like gladiator games, in which man vs beast was a common theme. Through the years, nobleman in spain undertook the sport, and through a series of change and additions it took todays current form. Each bullfight consists of 3 toreros (toreadors) who each fight 2 bulls, for a total of 6 bulls. Each round (1 bull) happens as follows: first, the torero and his helpers, the banderilleros, enter the ring with the bull and work with it for a bit to understand its skills, strengths, speed, etc. Then there is a formal introduction between the bull and the torero. After this, the picadors enter. Picadores come in on horseback, and their hourses are completely covered nad surrounded by a thick plate of armor to protect them from the horns of the bull. The picadors enter with a huge lance that they use to stab, proke, and prod the bull. The ultimate goal of the picador is to thrust the spear into a special part of the bulls neck, which cuases blood loss but more importantly makes it so the bull can’t properly lift its head, making it less dangerous for the torero. After this, the banderilleros come back in. They each carry bandillos, which are colorful thick barbed sticks which they stick into the bull (they hang from the bull for the rest of the fight). These men work on their feet, coming VERY close to the bull. They work to tire out the bull and weaken if with further blood loss. Then, finally, the torero enters with his capote, or cape, also known as a muleta. He begins the faena, an elegant dance with the bull in which he dodges its charges while flourishing his red cape. Contrary to the rumor, the bull doesn’t get angry when it sees red; bulls are color blind. Instead, the movement of the cape solicits the bulls charge. The goal of the dance is to remain as graceful as possible, and to display bravery, skill, and elegance. An especially good torero stays very close to the bull, sometimes within inches, through the entire ordeal, and a very brave torero may even turn his back ot the bull to prove his dominance, confidence, and skill. This lasts about 10 minutes, and finally, when the bull is tired, the torero goes in for the kill. He uses a sword to make a swift, rapid stab through the bulls back, between its shoulderblade, to pierce its heart nad elicit a very quick death. This is the most critical moment of the fiht, and the torero has to approach the bull head on and only has one chance ot get it right. During the entire spectacle, the crowd is a huge presence and cheers or boos according to the toreros skill and style. At the end, the president of the
entire ordeal (which is called La corrida de torros ) has the ability to give awards to the toreros. One ear, two ears, or a tail can be awarded, each signifying increasing skill. Personally, I think this “sport” is incredibly cruel and unnecessarily violent, bloody, and extremely unfair ot the animals. But, its cultural significance in Spain is undeniable. I asked some of my new Spanish friends at the CIS to tell me why the enjoyed bullfights. One of them told me it was art. He told me that these bulls are bred for the sole purpose of bullfighting, and that they wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for the sport. He said that during their entire lives, they are treated well and with respect, all the way up until the day of their death. Another friend told me that everything in this world has a purpose, and that this is simply the purpose of the bull. He asked me if I ate meat, and told me it was escentially the same. This was a bit unsetlling, because there is some truth to this—im sure many of the cows that end up in our food suffer during their death, and the bulls from bullfight are used for food as well. Regardless of all of hteswe reasons, I don’t think I could ever watch an animal suffer so much pain and torture. Yet, at the same time, I still have a kind of odd fascination about the sport… it’s hard to explain. Anyways….. after school I came back and did a bit of hw, then Kim and I took the metro to Sol to meet up with Kristen and Lizzie to FINALLY try some churros con chocolate!! All I can say? LIFE CHANGING… The churros are like Mexican churros, but without the sugar—they are fried to a crisp, subtly sweet, with a teeeensy but of salt… and then they come with a cup of hot, delicious chocolate. I am pretty much in love with them  Then we came back and rested a bit, and I decided to get some sleep before my midterm tomorrow. NO word from Bernardo—I’m beginning to think he’s a bit of a jerk, he didn’t even call me or anything to let me know when/if we were hanging out…. Pues se la vi! I am not going to let a silly boy ruin my fun here—there are too many other spectacular things to spend my time with!!  Hope my midterm goes welll tomorrow… viva Madrid!! <3<3

Día 20- June 12th 2008
I finished my midterms today!!! In Sherry’s class we only had 2 more presentations, and then we fnished wayyy early so we all walked over to VIPS together and had a nice breakfast (Sherry paid for all of us- how sweet!!) I got two fried eggs, which are on my new list of favorite things!! I hadn’t tried any type of egg besides scrambled for years, and Pilar made us fried eggs and French fries for dinner last night and I discovered that I REALLY enjoy them! Then we came back and a had a final with Vinciente, which ended up being kind of tricky—we had a listening comprehension portion, a LONG article about weather/climate with lots of hard questions, and an essay- I wrote about Hillary Clinton and women in world politics. Then, school was out!!  Me, kim, and Jodi decided to explore a bit and went to a mall at the metro stop Principe Pio, and we found a huge 3 story mall. I bought a few tops, we had a great time looking around. Oh, and I bought red heels for just 5 Euro!! After that, Kim and I came home, napped a bit, relaxed, and got ready for the night. The coordinators of our trip arranged for us all to go to a flamenco show tonight!!! Kim and I ate dinner here with Pilar, and hten headed out to the place for the show. We each got one free Sangria, and it was a very small, intimate show—not a huge auditorium, just a small back room in a restaurant. Basically, I keep falling more and more deeply in love with this country. The flamenco was VERY different than what I expected, but in a spectacular way. The guitar in flamenco music is honestly mesmerizing—its so so beautiful. The singing is strange when you first hear it, the men are very loud and “wiggle” their voices a lot, sometimes they even sound like they are yelling or crying, but its absolutely fascinating, and it grows on you. The dancing is very ostentatious and prideful, almost like a peacock strutting its feathers. There is little hip movement, the focus is almost entirely on the hands nad arms, with large, sweeping gestures, clapping, and swishing skirts/jackets. One man and one woman each danced, only dancing one song together. All of the dancing was very sensual, but in a very artistic, beautiful way. The dancers were very serious, with almost painful expressions on their faces, but the expressions they made with their bodies, their arms, their costumes, were spectacular. At one point, there was a beautiful guitar solo that was so moving I literally teared up, it was so incredible I almost cried. This is a large part of the culture here, and I had SUCH an amazing time watching it!! Then, afterwards, my night got even better—we went to a club called Joy, in the sol, and I danced for about 4 hours straight! The music was amazing, the club was hopping, the people were fun! Luciano was there, as always, with his private table and free bottles, and we met some of his friends. I honestly just danced the night away, it wasn’t until I stopped around 5 AM that I realized my feet were in terrible, terrible pain from my heels !! haha but then I took a cab home with some friends, SUCH a good time!! I love love love dancing I got home around 630, which was too late to go to Salamanca with my friends, but I think im going to go again soon… peeerrfect day!! VIVA MADRID!!! <3<3<3
Día 21- June13th 2008
I know I said yesterday was the perfect day, but I would like to amend this statement, because TODAY was the perfect day!! Needless to say, after my really really long night lastnight, I slept in till about 12. Then I got up, showered, had lunch, and Kim and I headed over to Parque de Retiro with some books and our ipods. I can’t even tell you how beautiful the weather was!! It was the most gorgeous day we’ve had yet, and we found a BEAUTIFUL little spot in the middle of the grass under some shady trees, laid out our towels, and just relaxed. I put in my ipod and just looked around, at the scattered people, the beautiful landscape, the clouds. It was strange, I had this unconditional, deep peaceful feeling, I was just taking in the beauty of everything around me. It was a beautiful moment, and I tried to capture it with pictures, but they didn’t do it justice. After about an hour and a half of uninterrupted, relaxing bliss, Kristen and Lizzie met up with us and we gossiped for a bit  Then we all decided to wander a bit, and we came upon the lake in the middle of the park and discovered it was only 4 euro to rent for 45 minutes, so we jumped in a boat and paddled around for an hour! It was a pretty rough start, we first tried to row with one person on each oar, but it wwas a total fiasco. Once we finally got things under control, we slowly made our way around the lake. It was SO BEAUTIFUL and so so relaxing. The temperature was perfect, the sun was shining, people were friendly and fun! We had a few collisions with some locals, but it was all in good fun. We just floated around peacefully, watching the fishes, talking about life… it was perfect. Absolutely pefect. And then, when we were rowing in at the end, I witnessed one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen. There was a boat filled with a little family- two young boys, a dad, and a mom. The two little boys, maybe 5 or so, were dressed in adorable, matching outfits, and each was sitting with an oar in hand. The dad sat between them, doing the actual rowing, but the little boys were trying their hardest to do the rowing themselvews (with very little success). The mom was sitting on the other end of the boat, facing them, with a loving smile on her face, snapping pictures of her boys. The most precious part of all, though, was the faces of the little boys. They had faces only a child can have—a look of pure euphoria, the kind of ear to ear grin that you cant help but smile when you see. They were laughing and giggling uncontrollably, pratically spilling happiness our of every pore of their bodies—they were glowing. And each of the parents looked down at them with knowing, loving smiles, completely content. It was such a precious moment, I took a picture but it just didn’t do the situation justice. I’ll have to rely on my mental snapshot that I took to really capture the moment…. After our boat ride, we decided to find some gelato, and ended up wandering quite a ways before achieving this. When we did, though, the gelato was FABULOUS and I had three scoops!!  Then we went home, I changed and got ready a bit, and jumped back on the metro by myself to meet up with Katrina for an “intercambio”- sometimes coffee shops, bars, or restaurants have intercambio nights wehre people come in to practice their Spanish and enlgih by alternating between the two languages. Unfortuntaly, the ad was wrong, and the bookstore we went to didn’t have intercambios that night, but Katrina, Sabrina, Payton and I decided to explore the neighborhood a bit, as it was new to us. We meandered through the small, charming little streets, and I just took in my surroundings. We happened upon a beautiful little plaza and found a really cute little gelato place (yes, I had ANOTHER scoop of gelato… but it was worth it!  ) Then the four of us sat down on a ledge and just relaxed, chatting about life, past experiences, spain. The plaza was full of people—families, dogs, children, vendors. There was a group of rambunctious boys playing soccer near us, but we managed to avoid getting hit with the ball. After another glorious hour or so of enjoying the PSnaish culture, we headed home in metros. I wanted to go out again, but only Kristen and Lizzie were feeling up to it, so the three of us went to Kyoto, where Lizzie knows the owner. We chatted and had a great time, and met people from all over the place—italy, spain, even Kuwait! Then we met a group of really cute, friendly Spanish boys, who invited us to go to a “real” Spanish club, called Low. There were about 12 of them, and we all walked quite a ways over to the club. We almost didn’t get in, because they wanted ID (I haven’t been ID’ed anywhere in spain, but this club takes ID to fight illegal immigration) but they finally let us in. Once we got inside, I could tell that THIS was a real Spanish club! I didn’t recognize the music, it was small and underground, and we were legitimately the ONLY tourists in the entire place! It was so much fun, I had one drink and spent the entire night dancing, talking (completely in Spanish!! ), and laughing with the group! I spent quite a bit of time with one boy in particular-his name was Juan Carlos, but his friends called him Juaco for short. He was tall, with brown ahir and glasses, and was so much fun to talk to! We all stayed out until 6 in the morning, then took a bit of a walk before taking the metro home! Juaco walked me almost all the way home, and wanted to take me to breakfast (it was already 730) but I told him that I really needed to get home and sleep, I didn’t want Pilar worrying about me. Quite a wild night, but SO much fun hanging out with some real locals! They helped me out with my Spanish, but all fo them were very impressed and kept complimenting me on my Spanish!!  Viva Madrid!!!
Día 22- June 14th, 2008
Needless to say, I slept in a bit this morning…  till 2 PM to be exact… The boys from last night invited me, Lizzie, and Kristen to go to their vacation home by a lake just outside Madrid to watch the big football (soccer) game with them, but this was obviously not a great plan (a little dangerous… haha) so we politely declined. Instead, I decided to go to the Plaza de Colón to watch it- its this HUGE plaza in Madrid where people gather in the thousands to watch football games—the games are projected on 5 or 6 HUGE screens, and everyone goes in their spain gear. Before going to Colon, Jodi, Kim, me, and a few others went to Sol to shop around a bit ( I got a cute two tone dress from H&M) and relaxed. Then we hopped on the metro to go over to the stop that lets off at Colón, and we saw just how intense this football game was! IT was the Spanish team vs the Swiss team in the Eurocup, and it was like a USC football game crowd on steroids!!  There were people with painted faces, airhorns, jerseys, chanting like maniacs and traveling in packs! When we got there, Kim and Jodi decided they didn’t want to be in the middle of a “sweaty crowd” so they headed over to sip some girlie drinks at the Hardrock Café with the rest of the Americans, while I waited for Lizzie and Kristen. When the three of us met up, we headed into the ridiculous mess that was the crowd! By the middle of the game, they announced htat there were 15,000 people in the plaza to watch the game!! It was NUTS but so so so so SOOO much fun!! We got lots of attention, but some of it was negative, and we couldn’t understand why! Everyone kept glaring at us, pointing, and yelling “suecas!” It took us a hwile, but we finaly figured out that they all thought we were SWISS!!! Here we were, dressed in the Swiss team’s colors (blue and yellow, on accident), three blond haired light eyes girls looking lost in a crowd. It took a bit of explaining and Spanish to correct this, and finally we found a nice group of boys who shared their facepaint and painted our cheeks with the Spanish flag. The game was very intense, it was PACKED so you were stnaindg shoulder to shoulder to shoulder with tons of spanisards! It was another great opportunity to practice my Spanish, which I did with relish! The game was very close, and had to go into overtime when time ran out 1-1. Then, in the last minute of OT, there was an intense goal by the Spaniards and the crowd went NUTS!! They were screaming, jumping, throwing water, it was SO much fun! It was like a Trojan football game, but MUCH more crazy! Afterwards, we grabbed a snack and then I headed home to have dinner and pack for Barcelona. I had a really nice conversation with Pilar about how much I am loving Spain. I told her that before Spain, I was closed, like I had something covering my eyes… bt that spain has opened me- opened my eyes and my heart. She was so pleased to hear it, and told me about how some students she’d had before had had similar experiences. I asked her if my Spanish was improving, and she said that I spoke very well even when I first arrived, but that now, there was a startling difference in the confidence with which I speak—she said I speak now with conviction, strength, and confidence. She told me that she is absolutely thrilled to see me so happy, to see me appreciate all of the fantastic things that Spain has to offer. It was a very sweet conversation, I am growing closer to Pilar and I am going to miss her a lot! Anyways… after getting my things together, I decided to do something I’ve NEVER done and went out a third night in a row—me and a small group met up at Joy (again) and danced the night away! I ended up talking to an Italian guy for about a half an hour, and I was speaking in Spanish, while he answered in Italian! It was so interesting to see how similar the languages were, we practically had no problems communicating!!  All in all, it was a fantastic day, I am SO alive!! I love this country with every fragment of my heard, body, and mind! Viva Espana!! <3<3 tomorrow- I will discover Barcelona!
Día 23- June 15th, 2008
Today we left Madrid for Barcelona! It was an earrrrly morning (had to be there at 830). Unfortunatly, my voice was almost completely gone and I felt like a total trainwreck (lesson—if you stay out till 3 in the morning 3 days in a row, you WILL get sick. Period) But it’s alight because I slept quite a bit on the bus (we have our very own tour bus). We drove allll day (it was over 10 hours). We stopped for lunch in a place called Zaragoza. It is another beautiful, historic Spanish town next to a river, with lots of history and beauty. There was a pretty spectacular cathedral which Paco gave us a tour of, called the Basílica del Pilar. It was large and very impressive, and the architecture was BEAUTIFUL! It contains a large pillar that, as legend has it, is where Jesus suffered lacerations before his crucification, and later, that the Virgin Mary appeared on top of. It is contained in a wall inside the church, with a small portion exposed—people from all over the world come to kiss the pilar for good luck, faith, and respect. I kissed my hand and pressed it upon it, because it didn’t look completely sanitary… people have been kissing it for 2000 years!! Another interesting thing we learned was that during World War II, two bombs were actually dropped through the roof of the basilica—but they never detonated! What a miracle! You can still see the holes in the roof, and the bombs are hung up on the wall, completely in tact!. Afterwards, we wandered a bit, grabbed some lunch, and got back on the bus. They showed us a movie called “Juana la loca,” a movie based on the life of Juana, the daughter if Isabelle and Ferdinand, the monarchs who united spain with their marriage in 1492. It was very fascinating and eerie-Juana was a bit mad, and had emotional outbursts and uncontrollable compulsive, obsessive behavior. After the movie, I crashed pretty hard and just slept! We finally got to our hotel around 7 or so, which is BEAUTIFUL 4 star hotel called Pere IV. Jodi, Kim, and I are sharing a 3 person room, and its nice a big! We each have our own beds, its HUGE as far as European hotels go! After unpacking and settling a bit, we all went out in a huge group to get some Mexican food—it was sooo good! Barcelona seems pretty enough so far, but very quiet compared ot Madrid (althought it IS a Sunday night…) Tomorrow, we start bright and early! So excited!! Viva Barcelonaaaa!! <3<3

Día 24th- June 16th, 2008
Today was my first taste of Barcelona!! We started with pretty much the BEST breakfast of my entire trip—it sounds silly to be excited about, but our hotel has a FANTASTIC bufett breakfast every morning with tons of fresh fruit, eggs, bread, juice, coffee, sausage, bacon, cheese, pastries… I ate so much! Then we all boarded the bus and droe to the top of a mountain near the outskirts of Barcelona for a Panoramic view of the city. We saw the Olympic stadium, and went to the top of Montjuic, which basically translates to Moutnain of the Jews. The view was pretty spectacular—Barcelona is a port city nestled between the mountains and the sea. Most of the city is very ordered and divided into perfectly square blocks, with the exception of the Gothic barrio (neighborhood). We saw the Plaza España, and the Rambals, which is a street that is at the heart of Barcelona. The Rmablas is surrounded by stores, restaurants, and bars, and the walkway is lined with cute little tourist shops, flower shops, animal shops, and street performers. We saw a variety of interesting streetside entertainment, but the area was pretty heavily ininudated with people. Then we all ate lunch together at a buffet place (more really good food!!). Afterwards we headed over to the Barrio Gótico, or gothic part, of Barcelona. It was SO beautiful.. straight out of postcards, lots of old, ancient, buildings, narrow, winding streets, the kind of European ambiance you can only find in the oldest parts of European cities. The architecture was gorgeous, and we passed under arches and flying buttresses from the 1200’s to the 1600’s. We were going to try to go to the Catedral de Barcelona, but we couldn’t enter because some of our girls were dressed “inappropriately”—they had “amercian shorts” or dresses that hit too highly on their legs. Instead, we all split up or an afternoon of freetime. Everyone kind of went their individual ways, so Kristen, Sabrina and I headed back to the hotel to change into our bathings suits and walk to the beach. The beach is literally a 12 minute walk from our hotel, and we didn’t even need to get directions—we were told to just walk in a certain direction, and we hit the beach easily. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day, the weather was perfect! We all three just laid out and relaxed, and I wrote some postcards to friends and family while listening to my ipod (still no stamps, haven’t sent htem yet!). The beach was reasonably crowded, but we had plenty of space to stretch out a relax. The water was a bit cold, but I jumped in for a few minutes and took a swim. It was so beautiful and relaxing, it was JUST what I needed to recharge! Afterwards, we all headed to dinner for Jordan Michael’s 21st birthday—the whole group walked over to the beach to look for a restaurant, and we found a cute little place right on the sand! We all had a variety of stuff, and it was pretty darn good! It was a really fun dinner, and we all headed back to the hotel and had a small shindig in one guy’s hotel room. A pretty sizable group decided to go back out to go to a club/bar, but I decided to call it a night because I wasn’t really feeling well. Loving Barcelona, talk about a vacation WHILE on vacation  Viva Barcelona!!

Día 25- June 17th 2008
Today we went a bit outside of Barcelona to a town on the beach called Sitges. We had some free time to walk around a bit in the morning, and we kind of got our bearings. The town was so cute—narrow, winding little streets, beautiful white washed walls, the ocean was spectacular shimmery aqua blue. It reminded me a lot of Greece—although ive never been there, the white washed buildings and vibrant ocean looked like what I’ve seen in photos! Then we all met up again to go to a teeny little museum called El Museo Cau Ferrat: Casa de Rusiñol. It was very small; it was actually a home of the painter Rusiñol that was restored and converted into a museum. It was really interesting because a lot of the original furnishings and rooms were left the same, such as the kitchen and bedroom, but the rest of the house had many of his paintings, as well as paintings of other artists that he collected, on display. Sadly, a museum attendant led our tour instead of Paco, and it was very brief; she was hard to understand in Spanish, and gave us very little detail. It was a VERY brief visit (probably only about 20 minutes or so) and then we were let go again for free time on the beach!! (I’m pretty sure this visit was simply an excuse to take us to this BEAUTIFUL beach). We had about 4 hours of free time, and we all laid out our towels in a group and relaxed a bit. I listened to the new Colplay album, Viva la Vida, for a bit (soooo good!) and the weather was PERFECT! Nice and hot, but not too hot—just warm enough so the water was a nice relaxing treat. I jumped in the waves a few times, we played soccer and volleyball, I relaxed and listened to music—it was fantastic. Then, Kristen, Sabrina, Ben, Jodi, Kim and I went to a little restaurant out on the pier and had bocadillos and cokes. We met back up with the group around 3, and we all got back on the bus for another attraction—a cava factory! Cava is the Spanish word for champagne (well, technically “champagne” only comes from Champagne, France). It was started in the 1500’s, and is still a prominent, working vineyard and cava factory today! We had a guide who was practically IMPOSSIBLE to understand (he had a thick accent, mumbled, and was speaking half in Catalan) but our teachers helped translate a bit and we got the general idea. He took us down underground to the cellars where they keep wine while it is fermenting—it was absolutely incredible! The cellar hols 5 MILLION bottles of wine at any given time! Each floor was seemingly endless, with row after row of wine; there were huge cases of hundreds of bottles of wine stretching as far as you could see in every direction! We walked through 3 floors of this, until we got on a small cart which he drove us around in. We did this to explore the oldest section of the cellar—it was very dark, damp, and musty, but it was so cool! There were all of these tunnels made of stone, filled with dusty bottles of wine in different stages of fermentation. They explained to us the manner in which the wine is fermented, how they add the yeast to induce fermentation. After a certain amount of days, they tip the bottle on its ends to the waste of the sediments sink to the neck, and then they freeze it to pop off the small chunk of sediments. It was so cool to see how it was made! After our tour they took us back up a few floors to a tasting room and we all had a glass of house cava—so fun! It was really good, and I got a few bottles to take home. I want to have a bottle for my family for when I get back, and one for my roommates as a house warming gift, but I’m afraid I may get them taken away from me at custom’s… I suppose we will just have to wait and see! I also bought myself a little flute, to remember the factory/vineyard—Codorníu. It was called las Bodegas de Cava Codorníu. After all of this, we finally hopped back on the bus and started the treck home. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired after the long day, so I took a little nap and showered. We all went out to dinner together—we hopped on the metro in hopes of eating Brazillian food. Unfortunately, our planned restaurant was not open, so we just wandered a bit and decided to try this Syrian place… it was the best meal I’ve had on my entire trip! It’s funny how sometimes the best restaurants you find and the ones you find unintentionally! I had the best hummus of my entire life, falafel for the first time, and lamb shawarma—it was SOOO yummy! Fresh, healthy, some of the best food I’ve had yet! Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for a bit and hung out in our room. Jodi and I are getting so much closer, I’m really glad I met her on this trip! She is in Alpha Phi with me, but we never talked at home. She’s a really sweet, ridiculously funny girl… I’m so happy to be making all these new friends! And the best part is that we will all be at SC still next semester!  We went out after a bit, to celebrate Jordan’s birthday on the town. There is an area right on the beach, near the marina, where all of the restaurants turn into bars and clubs at night. We were looking for a particular bar, but ended up in a few others before we finally found it. It was ridiculous, we were walking and literally EVERY bar had a guy outside yelling for us to come inside, that we could get free drinks! It was fun, we danced and had a good time but I was pretty tired, so I headed home with a few people in a cab around 2 so I could get some sleep. It’s been a LONG day, but probably one of the best yet! Amazzzing  loving Barcelona!! Viva bareclona!! <3<3

Día 26- June 18th, 2008
Wednesday—Barcelona is halfway over  But today was by FAR my favorite day so far! We finally got to see the architecture that Barcelona is famous for—the architecture Antonio Gaudí. Gaudí was part of the art nouveau movement. He was born in the mid 1800’s, and died in 1926. The art nouveau movement was a type of modernism style, which was completely different and bizarre. The idea was to combine nature and architecture, so many of his works have rolling lines, crooked pillars, etc. He believed that in nature, there is no such thing as a straight line, so he avoided them as much as possible. He built less than a dozen buildings in Barcelona, but these buildings have become landmarks and symbols of the city. His style is world famous. We started at the Parque Güell, a large park in the mountains in the outskirts of Barcelona. Paco led us as usual, giving us mountains of information (all of it VERY interesting!!). The park was started originally as a housing project for the middle class, funded by a very wealthy man, but Gaudí only actually built 3 houses, as well as a temple, entrance, fence, and some walkways, etc. The first house we saw, the entrance and guard tower, looked strangely like a gingerbread house. Much of Guadí’s works are covered with mosaics of tile—much of the materials he used were from junk yards, he recovered tiles nad building materials from trash dumps, etc. Gaudí was one of the first architects to use this recycling technique in his works, and the results are spectacular and fascinating. There is a beautiful plaza in the center of the park, with bizarre, crooked pillars and a beautiful mosaic representing the seasons of the sun and moon on the ceiling. The mosaic is filled with millions of scraps of tile, but you can even see scraps from bottles, cups, and other objects that he utilized in his architectural masterpiece. The park was designed to be completely self-sufficient—on the top of the palace, there is a winding bench that encloses a large patch of dirt. Underneath the dirt, the tops of the pillars of the palace below are hollow and collect rainwater after it was soaked through the eartch, funneling it down through the center of the pillars to a large storage tank underneath the entire palace. The wall on top, however, was my favorite part. I had actually had a Spanish textbook in high school which had pictures of the wall, and I recognized it, but had never known what the wall was before! It is a beautiful, long, windy bench/wall that is designed with the back set at a perfect angle to lean back and sit comfortably and relaxed. The entire thing is covered with a brilliant, fascinating mosaic of many, many colors. I was absolutely enthralled with it, I tried to capture the snake-like shape of the bench, but it was difficult withso many tourists everywhere. The best part out of all of it was the view—from the bench you could look out and see all of Barcelona, and in the distance, the glittering ocean…. So pretty! I LOVEd the park, I wanted to stay all day on the benches! Then we headed back to the bus and headed over to his most famous work.. the Sagrada Familia! It has become a world famous symbol, and is probably the most well known symbol of Barcelona. It is a cathedral, but with the art nouveau style. Personally, I think it’s very eerie looking-it has four large towers, and the front of the cathedral actually looks like its melting off, somewhat like a melted candle. The carvings, shapes, style, and set up of the cathedral are all very different and unique. According to Paco, Gaudí had become rich in his life but he became obsessed with this project—the Sagrada Familia became his masterpiece, and he used all of his money trying to build it. He literally went from being a millionaire to homeless, living in his cathedral while it was being constructed, until his death in 1926, leaving the cathedral completely unfinished. Parts of the main central section of the cathedral had been completed, but the rest hadn’t even been started. Interestingly, he was hit by a bus, but when he was taken to the hopstical no one recognized him, as he looked like a homeless beggar, and he was kind of cast aside and didn’t receive proper treatment. When his friends arrived and found him a few days later, it was too late for him to be saved; he basically died because he was dismissed as a homeless beggar. Years later, construction was started up again. Although many of the plans Gaudí made were lost during the civil war in the 1930’s, most of his original ideas were known and modern artists have had the opportunity to fill in the gaps with ideas of what they think he would have wanted. So, for the first tiem in my life, I got to walk though a cathedral that was actually BEING BUILT. It was so amazing… the amount of work, workers, stone, time, that goes into building such a strcutre. I have a completely new appreciation for the cathedrals that were built in the 1400’s—how could they have built such incredible buildings without technology? It’s absolutely incredible. This particular cathedral, though, was absolutely incredible on the inside, but it is still far from done. It is supposed to be finished in 2020, and I have decided that I WILL come back to see it once it is completed. It was such a fascinating building for me—a blend of religion, art, modern, ancient… so many sets of opposites, it was so interesting to see them blended. There was only one small section that had stained glass already installed, and it was spectacular—I can’t wait to see the main ahll of the cathedral once all of the stained glass is placed in! It was breathtaking… I could go on and on about this cathedral. Basically, it was the most impressive thing I saw in Barcelona… After seeing this, we had some free time, and then an optional trip to El Museo de Barcelona. I decided to go, and am SO glad I did! It turned out to be another equally fascinating masterpiece. A few years ago, while digging the metro lines, they discovered the ruins of past buildings and cities underneath the current (and medieval) buildings! And they reconstructed all of them—underground! It was like a time machine—we went down in an elevator, and were suddenly walking around in 2000 year old roman ruins. They were absolutely breathtaking—there were homes, artifacts, wine cellars, cold water pools, temples, roads, laundry basins… they weren’t entire buildings, but they reconstructed the fragments and it was easy to see what they used to be. It was SO fascinating. Barcelona has been a major city for thousands of years through many different cultures because of its strategic location on the Mediterranean, close to many disparate cultures and places. It was so interesting to see the original roman influences, to peer into life from 2000 years ago. After this, we shopped around for a tiny bit before heading back to the hotel for, yes, you guessed it, a nap . I napped for quite a while, and then we got up and decided to go our for my favorite food ever… Thai food! Me, Kim, Kristen, Jodi, and Angelita all took the metro over to a Thai restaurant on the other side of town… the ambiance was incredible, with quiet little fountains, gorgeous décor, and mood lighting. There was even baby turtles in the fountain next to us!  I split and traded Pad Thai and Curry with Daniela, and it was FABULOUS! I had missed Thai a lot, so it was a nice treat to have it for the first time in such a while. It really hit the spot! After all that food, I am in a bit of a food coma, and pretty tired from such an eventful day, so I’m gonna crash… Viva Barcelona!! <3<3

Día 27- June 19th, 2008
Another gorgeous day in Barcelona—weather was perfect, we took another day trip. We drove in the bus for 2 hours, and watched a movie called “Todo sobres su madre” (all about your mother). It was quite strange, with transvestites and strange love affairs, but it was a clever and enjoyable movie. We arrived in Figueras around 11, which is the hometown of Salvador Dalí and his museum. Let me tell you, Dalí was one of the most insane, twisted geniuses that I think I’ve ever seen. He designed and built his own museum in the 70’s, on top of the site of the theatre in which he had his first art exhibition. The outside of the building looks like something out of a dream (like most of his artwork)—it was covered with sculptures of eggs, loafs of bread, and faceless gold statues, also with bread on their heads. When we first entered we walked into a large courtyard with a strange statue of a fat lady, a Cadillac, and a boat raised up on a platform. The boat had large blue “water drops” falling down from it, as if it had been hoisted out of the water and is now dripping. Paco explained to us that Dalí actually made these drops by filling condoms with liquid and spray painting them blue. The Cadillac was pretty bizarre too—about ever five minutes there is a rainstorm on the INSIDE of the car (water pours down from the inside!). Then we walked inside and saw a few different paintings that look like one thing with the naked eye, but change when you back up or look at them through a digital camera. We saw a TON of strange artwork, some or it drawings, some of it paintings, some of it sculptures made out of the strangest stuff you can think of. Dalí was obsessed with scandal, and did almost anything and everything possible to attract attention and shock people. His artwork is very twisted, and sometimes dark and disturbing, but there’s not arguing that this guy had a brilliantly artistic, unique mind. Paco taught us about his life. He studied art in school but on the day of his exams, during his oral exams, he walked in and told the board of professors that they couldn’t evaluate him, because he knew far more about art than they ever would. Needless to say, he never got his diploma… He then fell in love with a woman called Gala, who became his muse. She left her husband and daughter to be with Dalí. Ironically, Gala was a nymphomaniac, while Dalí suffered from impotency, and he publicly announced that he regularly paid young men to curb his wife’s sexual appetite. Despite this oddity, the two were madly in love and performed many scandalous things in their lifetimes. I have honestly never seen anything like his work, and it was pretty impressive. A lot of it was very haunting… but brilliant. After a few hours in the museum (we had free time and I wondered by myself, captivated by the art), we hopped back on the bus and drove a bit till we got to a beach called la playa de L’Escala. Apparently we were only a 20 minutes drive out of France! You can definitely feel the French influence, especially in the language… Catalan, the language spoken in Cataluñia (and therefore Bareclona), is a blend of mostly French and Spanish. Unfortunately, many of the people in Barcelona are very nationalist and, even though they can speak Castellano, they won’t. They are even a bit snooty about it—I’ve been struggling, trying to practice my spnaish, but they immediately switch to English as if they are too good to speak Castellano. Anyways… the professors took us all to lunch at a restaurant right on the beach, and it was fantastic. I got lasagna and split an ice cream fudge Sunday with a friend, both of which were verrry rich. They we had a few hours of free time on the beach—another GORGEOUS beach, with shimmering teal Mediterranean water. We all laid out for a bit, but then I got a little group together to go out into the water because it was pretty hot. We had a ball to play with, so we got a little circle of volleyball going. The water was perfect, and was shallow—you could walk out about 50 feet and stil have the water around yhour waist. I taught the goup how to play Ships and Sailors (good old cheercamp!  ) and we played a few rounds. It was so much fun, a perfect lazy beach day! After a few hours we all piled back on the bus and drove home, and watched another movie called Soy la Juani, which was REALY strange… We got back, took a nap, and got ready to go out—finally Thursday! We got a group together and walked out to the beach/pier, and found a restaurant right on the water, in the marina. Unfortunately, it was a REALLY expensive restaurant and I ended up paying 8 euro for spaghetti (the cheapest thing on the menu) and I let’s just say I was less than impressed with my food… but it was fun just the same  Then most of the group went back to “finish getting ready”, but Kim, Jodi, Ben and I had planned ahead and didn’t have to go back to the hotel. Instead, we headed over to the coolest bar I’ve EVER been to—it was called ice Barcelona, and the entire thing was frozen! They keep the entire place at -9 degrees Celsius, and they give you a fur jacket, hat, and mittens before you go in. You are only allowed to stay inside for 45 minutes (for safety reasons, you might get frostbite!) and you pay a flat-rate of 15 euro for one drink and entry. It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but it was such a once-in-a-lifetime thing! And, to top it all off, it is RIGHT on the beach! So we all four went inside (and of course, like any intelligent human being, I wore a short dress and SANDALS) and it was SOOO cold but so cool!!  The ENTIRE inside was made of ice—the bar was made out of blocks of ice, the stools too. There were ice sculptures of the Sagrada Familia and other interesting landmarks, and tons of cool ice sculptures and igloos. I got a girly little blue drink, and even the GLASSES were made of ice! We took lots of pictures, but I got cold pretty darn quickly—when I started to have trouble feeling my toes, I decided it had been long enough and escaped back outside to the heat—I only lasted 20 minutes!! Haha but it was worth it, it was so cool! Then we met up with the rest of the group and went into a club called Opium, where we were on the “list”. It was really fun, we danced and had a great time, but I had a mini tragedy—I lost my cell phone, my camera case, and 50 euros!  It was my own carelessness, I decided to put all my stuff in my camera case instead of a bigger purse, and my camera case opened nad dumped all of my stuff without me realizing it. Luckily, my camera was still around my wrist, which was the most important thing I had with me. I suppose it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that I managed to lose this phone, I have made a hobby of doing this… someday I’ll grow out of it I hope! But oh well, se la vi! Great day/night! Loving Barcelona!!! Viva Barcelona!! <3<3
Día 28- June 19th, 2008
Last full day in Barcelona… another amazing day of course!  We woke up, had breakfast, and hopped on the bust to head over to see La Iglesai de Santa María del Mar. It is another beautiful 15th century cathedral, but was interestingly built by sailors, and the rocks were all brought in from outside places by sailors. It was very pretty, and had especially impressive tall, vaulted ceilings with enormous pillars. Then we headed over to el Museo de Picasso. The museum was very interesting, and Paco, as always, had lots of interesting details to give us. The entire first half of the museum was actually filled with early works of Picasso, traditional styles that were very realistically and skillfully painted. It was interesting to see his “talent” in the traditional sense—its not htat Picasso couldn’t paint with traditional skill, he just chose not to. As we walked through the museum, we got to see the transitions in his styles, through the blue period and to cubism. We saw a cool connection with the Velazquez painting “Las Meninas” in the Prado—Picasso spent extensive time in the Prado, and did over 100 different cubist copies of the painting. It was an interesting visit, and afterwards we had an optional trip to the Catedral de Barcelona. I went, along with a few others troopers, and it was simply spectacular. It was built in a similar style to most of the other ones we have seen, and had a tomb underneath with a saint (which unfortunately I have already forgotten the name). After this, we had free time, so Kristen, Sabrina, Katrina, Payton and I wandered off into the medieval section in search of lunch. We ended up in a tiny, hole in the wall kind of place, and I ordered something that turned out to be completely different htan what I expected, but it was still good. Then, we walked across the street to a gelateria called “Gelaaati” and had, literally, the BEST gelato/ice cream of my LIFE. It was so creamy and fluffy, I was in heaven! Then we shopped for quite a while, and headed over to Las Ramblas to do some more shopping. I got two more pairs of pants (no self control) of the same brand/cut as the first pair of black skinny jeans I bought. In my defense, they fit perfectly and I would have regretted not getting them, and I KNOW I will get my money’s worth (they were only 20 euro each). We meandered a bit and looked around some more, and then went into a wonderful outdoor market. It is similar to some others I’ve written about, with a ton of fresh fruit, veggies, meats, etc. We meandered up and down through the isles slowly, and I bought a few peaches and a box of fresh sliced strawberries.. they were some of the ripest and best I’ve ever had, it was a perfect perfect summer day! We all headed back at around 4, and of course, I took my daily nap. Then, around 930, me, Kim, Angelita, Danielle, Jaclyn, Nikki, and Jodi all headed back to the Syrian restaurant for Angelita’s birthday dinner (the big 21!!). Angelita is vegan, so the restaurant was perfect for her. I got shwarma with pine nuts in a pita this time, and, as before, it was some of the best food I’ve had! Afterwards, we picked up some snacks for the bus ride tomorrow at a mini mart, and ran into some of the rudest people I’ve ever met. The owner of the store repeatedly yelled at us for opening the ice cream freezer, kept telling us to hurry up, and were just completely awful to us! It was upsetting that the people here weren’t as friendly as the rest we’ve encountered, but I suppose I shouldn’t let a few isolated people ruin my impression of the public in Barcelona. Anyways, we headed home, hung out for a bit, and are just gonna crash. Ben came in and hung out with us for a bit, he was a bit drunk but just as hilarious and entertaining as always! I’m sad to be leaving Barcelona tomorrow, but, truthfully, I miss Madrid and am excited to be going home!! Viva Barcelona!! <3<3

Día 29- June 21st, 2008
Another longggg bus ride home! We left Barcelona at around 9 AM (I successfully packed an ENORMOUS lunch from the breakfast buffet, but shhh don’t tell anyone!  ) and got back to Madrid about 430 PM. I was able to sleep a few hours in the morning, but spent a lot of the bus ride chatting with people, listening to the new Coldplay album (love it still!) and we watched “Volver.” It was a pretty bizarre movie, but I loved it! It is a bit dark, and has some pretty major twists and turns, but it was extremely entertaining and Penelope Cruz is dazzling in it. After we got back, Kim and I had to trek all of our luggage back home on the subway (NOT fun) and had to rough it thoruhg the heat—Madrid is officially a sauna, with nice, hot, humid weather. inally, the weather I had heard about! We got back to the apartment around 515, unpacked, relaxed, and chatted a bit with Pilar. I showered and had some dinner, and ghten got ready to go out with a group of girls. Tonight is actually the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and Kristen made some connectiosn through Lizzie and got some exlusive passes to go to this Bacardi sponsored party in Madrid. About 8 of us got together to go, but once we arrived we realized it was a white party and ALL of us were wearing different combinations of dark colors (oops!). We decided to wait in line anwyays, but we waited for about 45 minutes before they cut off the line and announced they woudlne be letting any one else in. We were pretty bummed, but decided not to let it ruin our night and headed over to this bar called Cats, which had given us some coupons while we were in line. It was a really cool place with nice atmosphere, I got a Shirley Temple and we all sat together and chatted for a few hours. Daniela, Rebekah and I caught the last metro back home. A few girls went out to Pacha, the club, but I was feeling pretty tired so I decided to just head home. It sounds strange, but it feels SO good to be back in Madrid! I fee much more at home, much more at ease, I love this city!! Viva Madrid!! <3<3

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