Glorious Lisbon, for whatever reason, seems to have gotten the shaft by tourists visiting western europe. Considering its incredible landscape, history, architecture, people, cuisine, and language, its really a shame that its visited with such less frequency than other cities. I can honestly say that Lisbon is my new favorite city in Western Europe, beating out the big guys like Paris, London, and Madrid. Unless Rome and Florence totally enchant me next month, Lisbon is going to reign supreme... Being that this past week we had Thursday off, much of Spain goes on little trips for the long weekend. My friends Casey, Katie, and I decided we would head to Portugal, taking advantage of its proximity as well as the fact that Casey and I had both started learning Portuguese. Well it ended up that Casey ... read more

well well well, i finally have pics from October´s excursion to Córdoba and Granada, both in Andalucía, Spain´s southern semi-autonomous community. it wasn´t my first time to Córdoba since it was part of the family itinerary in March of ´04. nonetheless, it was cool to be back. the famous Mezquita (mosque) turned Cathedral was awesome as usual-i think islamic architecture is gorgeous. the Catholic church certainly effed it up when they converted it. Córdoba has served as both the capital of an islamic emirate as well as caliphate during the time of the great Islamic Kingdoms, so there´s definitely no lack of arabic influence. we also hit up the alcázar, a fortress-residence of sorts where some royalty spent time. that night we hit up a flamenco show, which wasn´t as good as the one i saw ... read more

so to continue... we made our way to el pais vasco, an autonomous community in northeast on the border with france. the basque people have their own separate history, culture, and even language that can't be related to any other language spoken on the planet. many basques want complete autonomy from spain (as an autonomous community they have many rights, but are still part of spain), the most extreme case of which can be seen in the terrorist group ETA. bilbao, our first stop, is essentially the industrial center of el pais vasco, but over the past 10-20 years it has seen incredible growth as a city of culture and other things. so yea, we arrived in bilbao around american dinner time and hopped on their metro system to get to the center of the city. ... read more

well its been awhile since ive updated this, namely because of having my camera stolen some weeks ago at 5am in a plaza and hence no photos. the only other real trama has been my getting punched in the face two nights ago at a bar by this asshole drunk. other than that, spain is better than ever, especially now that i have a legit schedule and am friends with all the spanish kids in my residencia. anyway, for this update i´m going to pretend im still at the bullfight i went to the weekend before last. it was...interesting. i can´t say i really have much of a desire to go again, but as a quintesstial part of spanish culture, im definitely glad i saw it. the sequence of events is as follows: - the bull ... read more

i´m gonna have to cut this short, since im about to head to the city celebration of spain´s victory as world champions in basketball, but yea, i´m alive and well. madrid is magnificent, but that of course goes without saying. i´ve already had my fill of paella, jamón serrano, el corte inglés, and all of the other wonderful things here. my residencia is very nice, though i have yet to meet my roommate. apparently there´s a kid from zaragoza (2 hrs from madrid) in my room, but he´s gone for a few days and will only be here until the end of the month. then in october i´ll have another spanish roommate. today we started our intensive language course at the instituto sempere, and it seems like it´ll be a good thing for the next three ... read more