toledoespana

Just thought I should probably post really quick to let everyone know I made it home safe (Wednesday night, to be specific). I'll post more later about my trip to Paris with my mom. It was a wonderful time!!

I am ready to drop! I haven´t done anything too terribly exciting since classes ended. Yesterday I went to the pool at the host house of 2 of the girls at the Fundación. It was really nice, but it was kind of far away; the buses didn´t run there so we had to catch a taxi. The taxi driver definitely ripped us off too, because we didn´t know where we were going. At one point he was pulled over on to the side of the road with the meter running while we told him to turn around and he acted like he didn´t understand what we were saying. The pool itself was awesome though. It was nice to enjoy a laid back day and soak up some sun.

After dinner back in Polígono, Alanna and I headed back to Toledo to watch a movie in the Fundación on Josh´s laptop. It was late when we headed back, so we had to catch another taxi back to Polígono.

Today was more shopping with the girls, and we got our finals grades back as well. I was kind of disappointed with how I did, but the experience here in Spain has been an incredible one, so I guess I just need to focus on that. Right now I´m at the Fundación again, and in a few hours we´re going to have a little graduation ceremony and get diplomas and everything. My host mom is going to come for it! Afterwards there´s a party in the patio of the Fundación. It should be a lot of fun. Tonight I´m actually staying the night at the Fundación because tomorrow morning I´m catching a taxi at 5am to meet my mom at the airport in Madrid. I´ll navigate with her back to Toledo, and we´ll have lunch with my host mom (at my apartment) before I show her around the town a bit before heading back to Madrid. From Madrid we´ll catch an overnight train to Paris and I´m looking forward to an awesome trip there! I will take a ton of pictures I´m sure, but I have no idea when I´ll be able to post any online.

As for now, I´m really wiped out, so I think I´m going to go indulge in a little siesta before graduation!

¡Hasta luego!

I am officially and completely done with my summer classes!!! What a great feeling!! As much fun as study abroad has been, the whole "studying" part was starting to get me down - there was a lot more material to study for finals than I was realizing. It's definitely nice to be done. I'm not sure how I did, but as my host mom keeps reminding me, I will find out on Thursday. Yesterday I had my herencia and history finals, and today I had my final for my Toledo art class. They were almost entirely essay finals, with the exception of 10 true or false questions for my art final (which in themselves made up 25% of my final grade in the class), so I think a lot of my results will depend on how lenient the grading is.

When Alanna was traveling this weekend she got really sick (gastroentritis or something like that.... it's pretty common amongst overseas travelers) and wasn't able to take any of her finals yesterday. Last night I called her and we met in the patio of our apartment building for a few minutes before I invited her up to my apartment. We sat in my room for a while, and it was the first time she'd left her host house in over a day. I talked my host mom into letting us have some sorbet too. mmmmm. My host mom cracks me up sometimes - all Alanna wanted to do was go and rest and study but my host mom proceeded to talk her ear off for a solid 45 minutes. Then, in lieu of studying, I stayed up and talked with my host mom another hour and we watched some tv too.

As for now, I think I'm going to go take a cold shower (which is all I take while I'm here) and look at everything I still need to pack by Friday (of course, without actually starting to pack any of it). I'll eat dinner with my host mom, and then head back to Toledo for the night to spend some time with these kids - it will probably be the last time I see some of them!

Hasta luego!

It´s hard to believe that classes here are almost over. With the end of classes means I´m nearly done with my European summer adventure! I definitely still have a lot to look forward to though. Once everyone´s done with exams on Tuesday we´ll all be able to explore the city a little more and maybe even squeeze in time for one last day trip. My host mom recommends Cuenca because she said it´s easily doable in a day and that it is really pretty there.

It´s been really nice to have a laid back weekend here. Thursday morning I finally got motivated enough to wake up early and go on a run. All I had for class on Thursdat was a tour of the Cathedral with my art class. The Cathedral here is absolutely gorgeous. And enormous. We spent at least an hour and a half inside and I still don´t feel like I saw everything. After class on Thursday, I didn´t do much of anything, which was really nice. I went home and ate dinner with my host mom, sent a few emails, watched some tv, and was asleep by midnight. Friday was another pretty lazy day. I studied/watched tv/lazed around until lunch, then I spent the afternoon by the pool in the patio of my apartment building in a vain attempt to erradicate some of the heinous tan lines I have from Pamplona. I headed into Toledo for the evening, and after my cell phone officially ran out of minutes and I got lost a few times, I finally met up with Kris, Adam, and Josh for dinner and then we headed to Josh´s house to watch a movie. We saw "Abre los ojos" which is the movie that Vanilla Sky was based on. Apparently they were almost exactly the same, although I had never seen Vanilla Sky so I had to take Kris and Josh´s word for it. It was a really good movie. After that I just headed back to Polígono with Adam (again, after getting lost a few times).

I slept in yet again today, and now I´m at the Fundación enjoying every minute of air conditioning before I head back to Polígono for lunch. The internet´s been acting kind of funny at my apartment in Polígono, which is why I haven´t been able to put up any more pictures.

That´s about it for now, just trying to enjoy a laid back weekend (oh yeah, and study a little bit too) before exams on Monday and Tuesday. Wish me suerte!!

¡Hasta luego!

Hello again! I just updated yesterday, but I figure since I have a smidgen of free time right now before lunch I might as well use it to update because I rarely have that luxury.

Yesterday I hit the jackpot at the mercadillo! I went with the mindset of buying souvenirs, but ended up finding a few things for myself as well. Among other finds, I finally found a fan that I like that has already been put to good use, and a CD of some of the popular songs in Spain right now. A few of the songs on the CD are ones that I hear all the time while I'm here, so I'm glad I picked that up. The 4 of us girls (me, Alanna, Katie, and Jackie) headed back to the Fundación for lunch at 1:30, and after that I did some work on my history project. We had a big group meeting at 3 for everyone at the Fundación that just consisted of us filling out an evaluation form. I spent a ton of time at the Fundación attempting to work on my history project but it is really hard stay focused there! The computer labs are basically socializing rooms, and everyone likes to hang out in them because they have oh-so sacred air conditioning. I headed home for dinner around 9:30, and talked to my host mom quite a bit.

This morning I met Meredith at the bus stop a little before 9 because we both had a few last minute things to touch up on our history project. I got everything done with plenty of time to spare, and went to my two classes this morning. My history presentation went well I think, a welcome change from the presentations I've given thus far. Other than that, I've just caught up on email correspondence and now I'm home and will probably eat lunch soon. After lunch I'll either siesta or post some pictures, depending on how sleepy I'm feeling (ie: how much food my host mom stuffs me with). This afternoon I have nothing pressing to do; just studying for exams. I can't remember what it's like to not have a deadline breathing down my neck! I'm excited though, and I definitely want to start studying, especially for art. Tomorrow's class will be a review, and I want to be prepared in case I have any questions.

I'll start posting pictures from the weekend until my host mom calls me for lunch.




There's a picture of the castle. ...I might post more later, but I have been looking forward to this siesta for way to long to let it pass me by!

Hasta luego!

I can't believe it's been nearly a week since my last entry! Things have been really busy here to say the least. Thursday night after class, Alanna's friend Jersey came into town. He goes to OSU as well but had been in Germany for the World Cup. His mom works for the airline so he gets free airfare everywhere so while he was in Europe he just decided to come and hang out with us for the weekend. What a lucky guy!! I went with Alanna to pick him up from the Toledo bus station and we got him all settled into the Fundación, where he paid to stay for the night (and come with us on the trip to Segovia on Friday).

Segovia was gorgeous, although it was a little strange to have such little free time. We probably had less than an hour of free time in the city altogether, and it was split into two different times (one of which we spent most of just waiting in line to use the bathroom at the restaurant we'd had lunch at). In the morning when we arrived we started off with a guided tour of the alcazár, which had inspired Walt Disney to create the Disney logo. In addition to that, it had inspired a group of us to constantly sing the song "How bizarre" while changing the main chorus to say "alcazár." We split into two groups because there were so many of us, but our tour guides for the day were actually faculty members from the Fundación. I was led by my history teacher! After the castle, we walked through the city past the main plaza in which there was a beautiful cathedral - the last gothic cathedral ever constructed in Spain. From there we headed to the aqueducts, which are absolutely incredible. One of the things that makes the aqueducts such an engineering marvel is that there is absolutely nothing in between the rocks cementing them together. they were just cut and placed in such a way that they have not budged after 2000 years. The whole group ate lunch together, and it was really good. We started off with this bisque type soup poured over croutons. We still aren't really sure what it was, but whatever it was, it was delicous! Then we had french fries and beef that was kind of prepared as though it was a part of a stew, except it wasn't in a stew. When we left the restaurant, it had started to rain, so we had a giant group of American tourists scurrying through the streets of Segovia trying to make our way to our bus. I imagine that we were sight to see. From Segovia a lot of people went separate ways. Some kids went back to the Fundación with the group, and a pretty good number of people instead headed towards the bus station to buy tickets to Madrid (myself included). I think there might have been some other people who went to other cities, but I'm not quite sure.

Alanna, Jackie, Katie, Claire, Jersey and I headed to Madrid, and we met Meghan there, who had slept in through the Segovia trip by accident. Our hotel in Madrid was awesome: excellent location, clean, air conditioned and not a hostel!!! It was a little cramped because we had fit 7 of us into our room for a 4-person reservation, but it ended up working really well and we all got a price break too (we only paid 40 euro a piece for two nights!).

Saturday morning we slept in a little and then our 7 person group split up a little bit: Katie and Jackie had to meet up with their art class to go to the Prado and Reina Sofía. The remaining 5 of us walked around the city a bit, grabbed lunch, did some souvenir shopping, and then headed to the Prado, which I fell in love with all over again. Although I am now 2 for 2 of feeling rushed there, I got to spend a lot more time there this time than 3 years ago. I really just think I need to go back someday and devote an entire day (or at least 3 or 4 hours) to this museum. *sigh* After meeting up with Katie and Jackie, we did a little more souvenir shopping and then took Jersey back to the hotel to nap while the 6 girls headed to the other side of the city to do some shopping. That night we went out dancing, and it was a lot of fun. We went to a club that had 7 different floors, each with a different kind of music. It was huge!

Sunday we headed back "home" to Toledo pretty early. It was nice to not feel rushed the second I got back to my host family's house.

Yesterday marked the first day in our last week of classes, which is really hard to believe. I turned in another paper, gave another presentation and became increasingly aware of how much I hate public speaking. Today I don't have class, which you think would be nice and mean that I would have a pretty relaxed day, but I have a lot to do. My history teacher went a little crazy with the projects/homework, and I have a group project due on Wednesday that consists of a 10 page paper and two interviews with local older Spaniards. After another visit to the mercadillo and lunch at the Fundación, my group is going to get together and work until we finish. I found some research yesterday, but hopefully everything goes smoothly.

In other (embarassing) news, I found out the other day that I missed saying goodbye to my two siblings here. I knew that they were going to Valencia to go to the beach with their dad. Yesterday I asked my host mom when they were getting back. For some reason I thought that they were getting back on Wednesday. My host mom, however, informed me (as I'm sure she already had) that they weren't getting back until the very end of July, after I'm already gone. I was really disappointed! I really liked spending time with my host sister Tania, and now I never even got to say bye to her thanks to my own incommpetence. We were supposed to make each other mixed cd's from our computers. I made her one so I'll just leave it in her room before I go. I never even got pictures with either of the kids! Aah, that was frustrating when I finally figured out what was going on, especially when I was starting to feel semi-competent. Oh well. So for the next week and a half or so it will just be me and my host mom.

Also yesterday, I got to call Grandma and it was really good to hear her voice. The timing ended up being really good because I just happened to call while she was home by herself. My phone card cut out at the end of the conversation, but I'm just glad I got to talk to her for a little bit. I can't wait to get home and visit!

Alright, well I need to hit the shower and get ready and possibly even work a little more on that paper before I head out to the mercadillo. If by some miracle I get free time any time soon, I will post again and put up some pictures from the weekend. Hope all is well at home with everyone!

¡¡Hasta luego!!

This is going to have to be a short (and unexciting) entry. It´s been a really busy week at the Fundación. Monday I had a paper and a presentation, today I had a 5 page paper due, and tomorrow I have a 4 page paper and another presentation. The paper was going well until about 2 hours before I had class half of it disappeared. 2 of the most panicked and rushed hours of my life later, I at least had a completed paper to turn in, although I make absolutely no gurantees as to how well it was done. Everyone´s been busy planning trips for the upcoming weekend but I am just trying to make it through the week first! Friday I´m going on a group trip with the Fundación to Segovia, and I think I´ll spend at least a day in Madrid after that.

Other than that, my mind has kind of been on things back home. I´ve been saying a few extra prayers, but it is definitely times like this when I wish I wasn´t so far away. Alright, well I think I´m going to head back to Polígono and try to get this paper done. I should probably stay at the Fundación because I might be a little more productive here, but I think I just want to go and sit for a while.

Hasta luego

The past 4 days have easily been the craziest ones of my life. I will attempt to relate my experience, but please keep in mind that this is an utterly impossible feat. Thursday at the Fundación I had my art class and managed to get the majority of one of my papers done before I met up with everyone and we made our last-minute preparations for the weekend. We caught a bus to the Toledo bus station, where we caught another bus to Madrid, where we got to spend a little time and also meet up with Claire, who had gone to Madrid earlier in the morning to go to the U.S. Embassy because she had had her purse stolen the previous weekend in Barcelona (including her passport, credit cards, everything). After walking around a little bit, we caught another bus to Pamplona. Upon our arrival, we were greeted with insanity and more people than I have ever seen wearing the same thing at the same time (after 12 years of Catholic schools and uniforms!). Everyone at Pamplona wears white pants and shirts, with a red sash around their hips and a red scarf around their neck. Here's a link to some pictures online from the day that I was there (from the official website).

http://www.sanfermin.com/2006/portada.php?day=070706&lang=cas

Just click on "photo express" to the right and there are a few more pictures from Friday. Also, the numbers 5-14 at the top will take you to pictures from each day of the festival. Checking out pictures afterwards was surreal: it was hard to believe I was actually there! (Especially considering from our vantage point we really couldn't see anything at all). After the actual running of the bulls we hopped through the barricades (which were being taken down) and walked along the path where everyone had just run. We wandered around the city for a while and there was plenty going on. We explored some of the places further away from the most concentrated chaos to see some buildings and fountains and whatnot. It seemed like there was live music and performers everywhere. I saw at least 3 parades. We went shopping a bit, ate a couple times. I can not even describe the insanity there though. Soooo many people. We talked to one guy whose ankle had been stepped on by one of the bulls. I've never heard so many different languages in one place in my life. I've also never smelled anything as foul as the streets of Pamplona during the San Fermin festival, especially as the night is approaching the wee hours of the next morning.

Catching a bus from Pamplona to San Sebastian might have been the most ridiculous experience of my life. We had booked our tickets weeks ago, only to be greeted by mass chaos at the bus station. After standing in a "line" (if "line" = huge mass of people pushing forward in a semi-circle to get to the ticket window) to get our actual tickets from what we'd printed online, we were told that if we showed the bus driver our print-offs that we would be fine. Nothing was marked, we had no idea which bus was ours, and after lots of waiting, pushing, yelling, and a little hysteria (from other people in the station) we learned that the station was selling more tickets than there were seats, so that basically having a ticket was meaningless. People began pushing forward and at one point we were all getting pushed so hard that I was smashed in between people and my feet weren't even touching the ground but I was getting moved around by the crowd. A girl a few feet away from me was crying. None of the Spaniards understood what was going on either. After maybe 5 buses had gone by, finally all 6 of us girls who'd planned the trip to San Sebastian together made it on. It was 40 minutes later than we were supposed to leave, and no one ever even glanced at our tickets.

Arriving in clean, tranquil San Sebastian might have been one of my best experiences ever. It was definitely the perfect way to balance at the pandemonium that was Pamplona. We caught a bus to the plaza where our hostel was located, dropped off our bags, walked around and took in some of the sights (including one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen), and grabbed some breakfast before we could actually check in to our hostel. When we got back, I took one of the most satisfying naps of my life. 3 hours of glorious uninterrupted sleep. We lounged around at the beach for a while after that, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous for us! The six of us girls decided that we wanted to splurge that night on a nice fancy dinner. We found a place that was recommended in someone's tour book that was right on the beach. It was such good food. Although it was (obviously) a seafood place and I don't like seafood, I had a veal steak that was incredible. I tried most of the things we ordered: calamari and some kind of white fish (no one remembered the name because it was in spanish and we'd never heard of it in english) although I passed on the shrimp. The calamari that I tried was not as bad as the calamari I remember trying a few years ago. And I was shocked when I actually found myself enjoying the fish that I tried. Who knew?!!! I had the best time at dinner with those 5 girls. We laughed and were silly and savored our food and all ordered dessert and took our time and just really made sure we enjoyed our dinner. We ate Spanish-style too: late!! We weren't seated until 10:45 or so and we didn't leave until 12 or later. It was excellent though, I loved every minute of it and it was well worth the (expensive) price.

Sunday morning we slept in, and met up with another group of kids from the Fundación for breakfast. The groups kind of re-divided and I ended up going with Jackie and Josh to climb this hill/mountain to get to this huge statue of Jesus that looks over the city. The rest of the kids wanted to go to the beach, although they ended up shopping because it was too cold for the beach. (Northern Spain is so much cooler than central Spain where I am!) I'm really glad I went up the hill. It was so steep and tiring but it was so worth it. The view was gorgeous, and I wanted to see everything the city had to offer (we can shop anywhere!!) I was glad that I found other people who wanted to go as well.

After semi-falling in love with San Sebastian, we were finally ready to head back home (via a bus to Madrid and another bus to Toledo and then a taxi to either Polígono or the Fundación). Yet another bus fiasco though: somehow the 6 of us girls had ended up with different bus times and 4 of the girls had already missed the bus we had tickets for. They got their ticket changed, but it ended up not being a direct bus. We got to a late start, and then hit traffic. Things were not looking too promising for us to make the very last bus from Madrid to Toledo (the last one leaves at midnight). We'd already started to try to figure out how we would find a hostel or a place to stay overnight and whether or not we would go home before class on Monday morning or just head straight to the Fundación. Miraculously we made it to the bus station in Madrid around 11:25 I think. We pushed ourselves off the bus before anyone else, and ran through the Madrid bus station to get to the metro. It felt like we were in a movie, running as though these giant stations as though our lives depended on it! We took the metro to the other bus station and from there we ran again to buy our tickets. We made the last bus to Toledo!!! With just enough time to spare to make a bathroom break! The only down side was that it was not a direct bus. I'm not sure how many stops there were, but what is usually a 55 minute bus ride (if direct) took us about an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes. Shortly after 2am, I arrived back at my apartment in Polígono, and it never looked so much like a home to me. I came in, talked to my host mom for a few minutes (who had still been awake), ate a little snack and basically crashed.

It was an early morning though: 7:30 so I could shower, finish up a paper and presentation, and meet alanna at the bus stop at 9:20 so we had time to stop at Enebro (the bar right by the Fundación) to get breakfast. For 1.20 euro, you can get coffee and a choice of churros, tortilla española, toast, and a few other things. I made it through classes although it was HOT ... 41* on my way back to Polígono around 8:30. I was really curious so I found a converter online. Nearly 106*F! Whew!!! No air conditioning! No wonder I'm sweating here typing this up!!

I think that's about all of the update I can handle for now. As people post their pictures from this weekend online I will try to collect some and maybe post them on here. Hope all is well at home!

Hasta luego!

This past week has absolutely flown by. Classes have been going pretty well, but the next 7 days are going to be crazy! Tonight I leave straight from the Fundación to the bus station to catch a bus to Madrid. We´re taking a bus from Madrid to Pamplona tonight and will arrive in Pamplona shortly after 6am, giving us just enough time to get situated for the running of the bulls at 8. We´re going to stay in Pamplona all day and night with no plans of sleeping, then catch another bus from Pamplona to San Sebastian on Saturday morning for a day of lounging at the beach. We have a hostel booked for Saturday night and my guess is that we are going to want to sleep a lot that night. Sunday evening we´ll catch a bus back to Madrid. What a crazy weekend!! I´m looking forward to it though - the running of the bulls is going to be incredible, and I´ve heard from a lot of people that San Sebastian is absolutely beautiful. Next week the insanity will contine because I have 3 papers (a total of 11 pages) and 2 presentations to give in addition to regular reading and homework. Speaking of all the work I should probably get going and try to get something accomplished before my 4:00 class. Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Oh, and p.s. Don´t anticipate any pictures from this weekend to be posted online. There´s no way I´m taking my digital camera with me this weekend! I´ll have a disposable camera with me though, so eventually hopefully I´ll have some pictures to look at.

¡Hasta luego!

Quite a bit has happened since last Thursday!! I'll try to summarize as best as I can....

Friday morning I was up and ready (and *gasp!* early!!) for my 5:15 bus pick-up. Unfortunately this was partly because I didn't really sleep Thursday night and was still awake when my alarm went off at 4:30. The bus ride to Córdoba was a pretty good one - I managed to get an hour or two of sleep so that was good. We stopped at a hotel along the way for breakfast and it was really cute and very tasty as well! Here's a picture of Abby and I getting ready to enjoy our café con leche and food:



Our very first stop in Córdoba was the gift shop, where I took this picture of Josh and Adam getting a little goofy:



Then we went on a guided tour of la Mezquita, an absolutely gorgeous building originally built as a mosque, and later a cathedral was built inside of it as well. A few pictures that do it absolutely no justice whatsoever:








After la Mezquita, we checked into our hotel, ate lunch, and basically had the rest of the night to ourselves (besides being back at the hotel for dinner). Check out what I was brave enough to eat for lunch:


the biggest helping of paella I have ever seen with my own two eyes!!


After a little siesta, I walked around the city with a pretty big group of girls. We just sort of wandered semi-aimlessly through the city because a lot of the museums and sights were closed for the siesta. We got a little lost, but it was nice! The streets in Córdoba were gorgeous. The only bad thing was that it was extemely hot while we were there. My host mom wasn't kidding when she had warned me that Andalucia was even hotter than Toledo! After dinner at the hotel, Pamela, Abby, and I eventually ended up on our own. After a bit more walking we ended up at this ice cream shop a few minutes away from our hotel. We were all extremely thirsty so we just got giant (1.5 liters!) bottles of water and sat and rehydrated and chatted. We ended up laughing hysterically over the silliest things and it was really fun. Here's a primo picture I took of Pamela:



We ended up visiting the gardens at the palace where all of the Christian kings in Córdoba had lived. (It was free on Fridays!) I absolutely fell in love with this place. There was not a single molecule in my body that wanted to leave! At one point a group of us girls (Abby, Pamela, 4 of the Puerto Rican girls and I) played hide and seek, which was sooo much fun! Unfortunately my camera was acting up, but here's a few (fuzzy) pictures. I'm looking forward to other people posting their pictures online or sending them to me so I have some better ones!







This entry is already getting so long and I still have so much more to relate!! Well, that was basically everything from Córdoba. On to Granada....

After a couple hours on the bus, we arrived in Granada, just a little bit late for our tour of La Alhambra. La Alhambra is completely amazing, and difficult to describe to those who haven't been there. Originally built as a city, it later became home to the sultan. At the end of our guided tour we were informed that we had walked over 2 and a half miles just to see everything (not even everything, really). We walked through the weaving building and then around the gardens. One of the most important themes of La Alhambra is water! There is water in every patio, and in nearly every room. Whether a still pool or a very subtle fountain, peaceful water is a constant presence. A few more pictures (which again, don't really do it any justice...)










After that, we checked into our hotel in Granada which was really really nice and had lunch, which was delicious. Eating at the hotels was nice because a lot of the time it was buffet-style so I could pick and choose what I wanted and how much of it I wanted. So often at home my host mom will serve me way too much food but anything I don't eat gets thrown away so I always end up eating way past the point of full! The food at the hotel was incredible though, so sometimes it was hard to stop! I took a nice long siesta after lunch, floated around and talked to different girls on the trip, and wrote a little in my own personal journal until dinner. After dinner at the hotel, a pretty big group of us went to see a flamenco show in the city. It was a very cool experience, very different from the flamenco show I saw 3 years ago. This one was extremely intimate: there was no stage, just chairs sitting all around this little tiny room with a small space cleared out in the middle for the dance floor. Here's one of the dancers:



Also, my current profile picture was taken from outside of the show.

Sunday morning I met Abby, Pamela, and Alissa for breakfast and then we walked around the city. We saw la Real Cepilla, where the Catholic kings are buried, the Cathedral, and did a little bit of shopping before having to meet back at the hotel for lunch. We headed home (to Polígono/Toledo) right after lunch, and we got home about an hour and a half earlier than expected so I was home around 7:30. I had a really good time on the trip and think it was definitely worth the price.

Today has been mostly uneventful. I considered getting up early to go on a little run but decided that I valued my sleep more. One of these days I will get just enough motivation! It is tough though when the temperature is now over 100* during the afternoon. Speaking of which, I have my art class tomorrow where we go out walking all around the city right at 1:00pm when it is basically the hottest outside. Wish me luck, I'll drink some extra water! Defintely the biggest news for today though was hearing about the train crash in Valencia. My mom told me about it right when I got home for dinner. So far, 34 people have died and over 20 are injured. Valencia is only a few hours away from where I am living, and considering I take public transportation every single day while I am here, it was definitely a little scary. Accidents happen though, and life goes on.

Alright, this entry has lagged on for long enough, I'll hopefully be able to post more often during the week (if anything exciting happens) so that this doesn't happen again too soon!

HASTA LUEGO!

¡Hola todos!

I just have a little bit of time to kill (about 15 minutes) before my next class here at the Fundación so I thought I´d give a little update. First of all, I just wanted to comment on the random awful American music I hear so much here. On the bus on the way to the Fundación this morning, I heard Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, and Ace of Base all in a row. Come on!!

Last night I went to the carnival in Polígono with my host mom and brother (Rubén, 10) and one of his friends. Tania (my 15-year old sister here) was there with a group of her friends as well. In a lot of ways it was very similar to a lot of American carnivals, but in many ways it was very distinct. Rides are overpriced, games are rigged, lots of kids run around like the rule the suburb. On the other hand though, the rides lasted a lot longer, there were people who had set up tables selling shoes and fake designer clothing, and there is no censorship here so the prizes at a lot of the places were a lot more risque. I rode on one ride with my sister, and it was pretty fun (it was her second time on in within the past 15 minutes - once was definitely enough for me though!) In lieu of the machines we have in the US that supposedly measure how strong you are by hitting a mallet down, at this carnival in Polígono they had a soccer thing set up where a fake soccer ball was attached to a mechanical arm and you were supposed to see how hard you could kick. The lights lit up to corresponding teams - if you kicked it really hard you belonged to the best team in Spain. It was fun to just walk around and people-watch. There was one lady running one of the booths by herself with her baby in her arms the whole time. I wish I had pictures, but I felt a little awkward about taking pictures since I was the only American there. It was fun though - it was nice to go out with my family here.

Class is rapidly approaching though. This will probably be my last entry for a few days - I leave for Andalucia at 5am tomorrow morning and won´t get back til Sunday night.

¡Hasta luego!

Today I lucked out and didn't have class all day! Usually I have my class on the art of Toledo twice on Tuesdays, but today our professor couldn't make it to class and I didn't have any other classes to worry about. A weekday without having to go to the Fundación. Que suerte! (how lucky!) With my day off, I decided to sleep in... I didn't wake up until almost 10! I bummed around the house for a little bit, ate breakfast, chatted with Tania (my sister here) and then caught a bus to Toledo. I saw Pamela on the bus so when a seat opened up, I sat next to her and we talked until we arrived at the main plaza of Toledo, the last stop for the #6 bus. I met up with Alanna, Katie, and Jackie right after that and we went to the mercadillo, the open air markets here in Spain. We ended up splitting into groups of two pretty quickly; it was much easier to navigate with two rather than four. Here's a few pictures....



This is the view of one side of the mercadillo from somewhere around the middle of it. Although hidden by the shade of the trees, there are little stands set up all along this path in the park. Vendors sell everything from candy to clothes and underwear, to shoes, bags, and jewelry, to kitchen, bed, and decorative items!



This one shows a little better what the stands themselves looked like. Prices at the mercadillo are really reasonable!! Another nice thing about the mercadillo is that they are not as touristy as a lot of the shops. It is almost all locals. My family and other students' families here are always telling us about the things they buy at the mercadillo!

In addition to this mercadillo that is in Toledo every Tuesday, there is a smaller mercadillo in Polígono every Saturday.

Today I managed to find a few things at the mercadillo that I couldn't live without (or that I thought friends from home couldn't live without). One of my purchases was a red España t-shirt to wear for tonight's soccer match! Spain vs France!!! It is going to be crazy - no one can stop talking about it. My mom here isn't very optimistic though; she is sure that Spain will lose to France. I am excited though to watch the game. I'm planning on meeting up with a group of kids from the Fundación to watch it somewhere.

I just finished up lunch with my family, with the Simpsons on in the background. The Simpsons is such a popular show here! We have Simpsons glasses that my little brother here always drinks out of, and my sister has stuffed animals of Bart and Lisa. It seems like it is on all time time. I can still hear it on in our living room as I post this entry.

Friday I'm going on an optional trip with the Fundación to Andalucía. We're going to go to Córdoba to see la Mezquita y la Judería, and also to Granada to see La Alhambra. We'll have guided tours of all these places, plus free time on our own to explore. The trip was 240 Euros which is pretty expensive, but it includes transportation, 4-star hotels, several meals, and a relatively stress-free weekend since we won't have to plan the trip or book anything ourselves! Other than the price, the biggest downer is that I just found out that I'll have to be at the bus stop at 5:15am on Friday. I hope I can make it that early!! Wish me buena suerte!!

That's about it for now - I should probably get started on my homework so that I have it out of the way before the big game tonight.

Hasta luego!

Let's see if I have some better luck uploading photos now...


a few reminders of home:







the view from our hostel balcony:


that was our hostel: Los Amigos Hostel, located on the 4th floor of this building.






El Museo del Jamon: a chain of restaurants where we ate as a group




The gates to the city:




The park where we ate lunch; the cafe was just to the right of what is visible in this photo:

I have successfully finished my first week here! (Actually, now it has been a little over a week.) Friday morning we had a group excursion to Madrid that consisted of a bus tour and lunch. Almost all of the kids made plans to stay at least one another night. I had booked a hostel with 5 other girls so we had time to go shopping (lotsss of shopping!) and eat a nice late dinner (around 12:30 or so; we're almost getting used to the eating schedules here that are so different from home!) I actually had a little bit of success shopping which was ironic because I was the one most hesistant to spend money. I absolutely loved dinner though - I wish I would have taken a picture of where we were. It was this cute little place right on one of the main streets in Madrid. It was right across from the street where Mama Mia was playing (we got to people-watch after the show ended). The city just looked beautiful, and we got to eat outside and enjoy the atmosphere.

Saturday morning we slept in a little, had breakfast at the hostel, and I checked out although most of the other girls were staying. It was my first time ever staying at a hostel, so it was definitely an experience, although this one wasn't too bad (for a hostel). I met up with some other girls in the Plaza Mayor and we walked around the city for a bit. We wound up at this really nice park just outside the gates to the city and we ate a little lunch there and just relaxed for a while. They had gone to Plaza Colón on Friday afternoon to watch the soccer match. The plaza crowds with tons of people during the soccer matches, with everyone wearing Spain's colors and basically just kind of going crazy. It sounded like a lot of fun. They wanted to come back to Polígono pretty early so I was really disappointed that I never made it to the Prado. I will probably go back on a Friday or some other day if I can talk someone else into coming with me just so that I can go. If I come back to the States without having gone to the Prado I will feel like failure, haha. Anyway, after lunch we made our way to the Metro station, took a few metros to the bus station, and then just barely made the next bus to Toledo. The bus was really inexpensive - just over 4 euro for the hour long trip between Madrid and Toledo. I kept nodding off on the bus ride home because I was so tired. When we got to Toledo, the Polígono girls (me, Abby, and Pamela) took Alissa back to the main plaza before taking a bus to Polígono because she was a little unsure as to where she was.

Saturday night the four of us who had come back to Toledo together went out with Alissa's sister here (Maria) and her friend. We walked all around Toledo, stopping into places every once in a while. I continue to be surprised at how much American music I hear everywhere I go. At first I got really excited because it was a little reminder of home but now it just seems like there is too much American music; I am in Spain, I want to hear Spanish music!! Oh well, it was a pretty good night, and Pamela, Abby and I split a cab back to Polígono.

I'm not really sure what I'll be up to today. I slept in until about 10:30 and I have some homework to catch up so I should probably do that, seeing as I have class tomorrow.

Hasta luego!


P.S. I will post some pictures from Madrid hopefully sometime soon. My internet is being really slow right now, so it's not even really worth trying.

It´s Day 3 of classes here at the Fundación. Assuming I can get all of my credits to transfer without any huge problems (which is looking semi-questionable at this point), then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will only have one class (my art class) that meets twice a day: once at 12:45 and then again at 4:00. So basically that means I get to sleep in on a semi-regular basis, hooray!

Although I´d felt a little awkward around my siblings here since they arrived, last night I definitely had fun with my family when I got back. My little sister here and I stayed up until about 2 in the morning chatting. I really like talking to her because I am not as self-conscious about messing up and she is very patient and always willing to help me out.

I got to sleep in a little bit today: I woke up around 9:30ish maybe and got to have a leisurely morning (although unfortunately with another bloody nose - I have no idea why!! I was just washing my face! anyway...). I got on the bus to Toledo a little bit early and exchanged some more money and bought stamps and a phone card before my first class. For my art class, every morning session we will go to a different place somewhere in Toledo and our teacher will explain to us a little bit about what it is. Then in the afternoon when we meet again, we´ll discuss it in more detail. I think that I will really enjoy that class.

I love my history class too here. The teacher is awesome. He is really laid back, uses language I understand, and repeats himself a lot so that I don´t get lost. Sadly, this is the class that I am having a lot of trouble with in getting it to transfer for OSU credit. I might take it anyway, I´m not sure. Hopefully I won´t even have to worry about it and I will just get credit for it.

I talked to both Aaron and my mom today, and it was definitely nice to hear a few familiar voices. Also, yesterday I got my first piece of mail: a card from my mom that she had sent less than a week ago! Hooray for fast mail!!

Alright well I am going to get going, but I´m loving all the messages from home! I´m glad people are reading this blog!! : )