Spring Break!

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As you may know, my mom and brother are here in Spain this week, as it worked out that we all had the same spring break this year. On Saturday I boarded a bus at 2:30 p.m. and took it to Madrid to meet them. The bus ride was 6 hours , and I was traveling by myself so it was a rather long and boring ride. I at least had a good book to read, so I was able to keep myself somewhat entertained. Saturday night I stayed in a hostel by myself. That was also rather uneventful. My family’s plane arrived at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, so I had to go to sleep early Saturday night. The next morning I took the metro to the train station. I knew the flight number of my family’s plane, but had forgotten to ask what terminal they were due to arrive in. The first 3 terminals in the Madrid airport are connected, but the 4^thterminal is another few minutes away from the first 3. For some reason, I just assumed that my family would be arriving in one of the first three terminals. I got to the airport and saw that there was a 7:30 a.m. flight that had arrived from Washington. I assumed that they had had a layover there or something and proceeded to wait for them. In retrospect, I realize that this logic doesn’t really make sense, as the flight number I had didn’t match the one on the screen. After about an hour of waiting, I finally decided that something was wrong. I went to the information desk and inquired about the flight. The TSA informed me I was in the wrong terminal and needed to take a 15 minute bus ride to terminal 4. Whoops. Needless to say, my family was more than I little worried when I finally arrived, an hour and a half late.

From Madrid, we traveled by train to Valencia. Once in Valencia, we checked into the hotel and immediately went to a soccer game that my brother had wanted to see. The soccer game was much cooler than I had expected it to be. The stadium was huge, and all the fans are really into soccer, so everyone was yelling and cheering. The game ended in a tie, but it was a pretty neat experience. We went to bed relatively early that night as it was a Sunday and they were tired from traveling for about 24 hours straight.

On Monday we made friends with the guy who owned the hostel, Jose, who was born and raised in Valencia. He apparently didn’t have much else to do that day because he literally spent the majority of the day walking with my family and I through the city. We ate horchata, which is a really good drink that tastes sort of like sweet and condensed milk, but better. We also toured a large Catholic church and climbed the tower to the top for an excellent view of the city. It was too cold to go to the beach, so we decided to skip it. That night we met 3 Australian kids who were doing a gap year in London, and we all went out to dinner together. They were really nice, and it was fun meeting people the opposite side of the world. We went to a restaurant Jose recommended to us, and had a huge pan of chicken and rabbit Paella. Paella originated in Valencia, so of course it was delicious, as was the wine. Overall, it was a really fun day.

The next day we packed up and headed to Seville. That night we walked to the center of the city and eventually to plaza de Espana. I think my mom is really falling in love with Spain, and she especially loved plaza de Espana. It’s rather amazing, I’m already so used to these sights that she is simply in awe of. She kept telling me how beautiful it was and how lucky I am for getting to study abroad here.

Tuesday night my brother and I decided to go out for a little while while our mom stayed in the hostel. We went to a restaurant I’ve been to a few times before and ended up sitting next to two Italians. We started chatting with them and then ended up going to another bar with them. Again, it’s fun to talk to people from around the world. My brother was mad because I made him leave relatively early (around 1) but I knew that we were supposed to be up early the next morning. On the way home he told me that he definitely thinks he’s also going to study abroad, probably next spring. He always did do everything I do.



Anyway, this week is Semana Santa in Sevilla, so it kind of looks like the city exploded, especially in the center. There are a bunch of religious processions that all end in the Cathedral, so there are a ton of chairs set up in the city center for people to watch. The processions generally include a float that depicts either Christ on the cross or the Virgin Mary, and is carried by a bunch of men. There is also usually a band, and a bunch of people dressed up as what looks like the KKK to Americans. I’m not kidding; they wear a white or black cloth over their entire body with just holes for the eyes, and then a long, pointed cone on the top of their head. I’m sure the KKK got their outfit ideas from this; the two are just too similar to be a coincidence. I should look it up in more detail. Actually, I saw a little black boy who was dressed in one of these said outfits, and I couldn’t stop laughing because he was bawling his eyes out, and I just thought it was so ironic. I know it’s not funny, but I couldn’t help but giggle at the irony.

My mom, brother and I also toured the Alcazar, which is a huge palace next to the cathedral. The Alcazar largely consists of empty rooms and beautiful gardens, but it’s absolutely huge, and we all really liked it. I actually hadn’t been there before, for which I was actually glad because it was something we could all see together for the first time. We also walked along the river and saw the Torre de Oro, went to an open-air market which sold fresh shark, and a flea market.

My senora invited us over for dinner last night, and so we arrived at 8:30 at my house for a traditional Spanish meal. Senora knows no English, and my family knows little to no Spanish, so I essentially had to act as translator during dinner. At the beginning of the semester this probably would have freaked me out, but now it was fine. Not that I am able to speak Spanish well by any means, but it’s good enough now that I can get the jist of what senora is saying to my family and translate back to my senora the general subject of what my family is talking about. Overall, I thought it went well. My mom loves giving gifts, and she gave my senora like 10 things for taking care of me. I think my senora thought this was a bit much, but I think she also really liked them.

This morning we toured the Cathedral (something else I hadn’t done previously) and took a horse and buddy ride through the city. The cathedral is really remarkable. It’s so big it’s really difficult to comprehend how they built it, and I couldn’t stop staring up at the ceilings. The horse and buggy ride was fun too, it was a good way to see the final things in the city we hadn’t seen, and it was funny riding along on the public streets in a carriage.

I am currently on a train to Barcelona. We decided to go to Barcelona instead of Lisbon because the ride to Lisbon was 10 hours and was going to cost extra because it was an overnight train. Although I’ve already been to Barcelona I’m excited to go again because I can be a tour guide to my family and I left last time feeling like there were still things that I should see, so hopefully I’ll be able to see them this time around.

Well, I suppose I’ve written quite enough for today, I just felt like I had a lot of stuff to write about, which I did!

Ciao!<a name="_GoBack"></a>

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