más fotos

A beautiful Cádiz sunset :)

Playa Caleta Roman ruins at Merida

some pictures!

Funny chairs at Montserrat



The ferocaríl ride up to the monastery

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

La Boqueria = GREATEST FRUIT MARKET EVER

La Casa Batiló by Gaudi

let's flamenco!

Okay, so allow me to paint a picture for you. 18 somewhat uncoordinated Davidson students sporting an array of footwear definitely not made for flamenco dancing (rainbows don't have very good traction for spinning, in case you were wondering) and attempting to copy the complicated steps our expert instructor was demonstrating. However, two hours, several stepped on toes and a few bruises later our group had "mastered" parte uno of the Sevillana flamenco dance. Props to MundoLengua for setting up amazing excursions for us. I also now know what I want my Spanish souvenir to be: a flamenco skirt just like our teacher's. For the entire class I found myself wishing I had a big, swishing pink skirt to mask my terrible dancing skills. We'll be going back next week for salsa lessons, which should be quite interesting. (Heads up, we're planning on founding a flamenco club when we get back to Davidson if anyone's interested. There will be T-shirts.)

I also went to the beach for the first time yesterday afternoon! There are three beaches here in Cádiz and each has its own distinct reputation. Playa de la Victoria is the farthest away but apparently is favored by the "domingeros" aka people who only visit the playa on Sundays. So we've been advised to go there only during the week unless we want to encounter wall to wall sunbathers... some of which prefer to take the less is more route in regards to beach wear. A little disturbing. Not going to lie. Oh Spain. Then there is Playa de Santamaria which is where you go if you want to face plant straight into a rock while you're boogie boarding. Pass. I'd like to keep my face intact while on this Spanish adventure. And then there is Playa de Caleta which is within walking distance of the university and our house, so as of right now it is our beach of choice. (Although I do really want to check out Victoria because when I was running there the other day I noticed they have a HUGE kiddy park with an elephant blow up slide. Wish I was more embarrassed to admit how much I want to go there...)

The beach is beautiful, although very different from what I am used to. (Learned a new fun fact today: Castillo de Santa Catalina, the fortress at Playa de Caleta, is the southernmost point in Spain and the last part of the country to see the sun each day. Apparently it can be dark at Playa Victoria and still sunny at Playa Caleta and you can see some of the most beautiful puertas del sol (sunsets) from this spot.) After the guys and I jumped in the water (the boys complained WAY more than I, the only girl, did about the water temperature for the record) and swam to the buoys and back a few times (swimming laps Cádiz style!) we were FREEZING getting out of the water since it's so windy here! And since we have to ask Pepa to switch on the shower's hot water at our house, that particular bathing experience was quite chilly seeing that she was not home. After 10 minutes of scampering around the kitchen in my bathing suit searching for however she turns the hot water on, I finally took a deep breath and braved the frigid shower. Refreshing! Sort of.

It is actually pretty cool here, especially at night and I am getting a lot of use out of the one sweater that I brought with me, thinking it was going to be 100 degrees 24/7. Not the case. We THINK/hope that Pepa is going to do laundry tomorrow... this jacket is getting a little sucio (dirty) and we are running out of clothes. Do you think bathing suits are acceptable attire in La Universidad de Cádiz? We may find out soon. I'll consult Pepa. :) Tonight's dinner conversation was hilarious. After Pepa discovered that I am unable to roll my r's, she and Amy spent a full ten minutes trying to teach me, but mostly just laughing at me. I try to avoid the words carro and perro (car and dog) since I always end up saying caro and pero (expensive and but). Not exactly corectamente. Then she asked us to translate the English song that was on the radio and we happily obliged. I love Pepa. And I LOVE her cooking! Tonight we dined on some delicious homemade Spanish tortilla and gazpacho and then put away an entire bag of cherries among the three of us. For lunch we had a fish native to Andalucia simmered in wine, onions, garlic, tomatoes and lemon along with handmade croquettes that are a family recipe. I'm in comida heaven.

We're all really excited for our first fin de semana (weekend) in Cádiz. We may try to travel to Faro, Portugal or take wind surfing lessons next weekend but we've decided to just stay in Cádiz this weekend. We're planning on visiting Medussa music bar (the Cádiz version of a discoteca we've heard) tomorrow and dancing the night away. :) For now we're about to leave our little café (third night in a row) to head back and crash. Maybe I'll join in on the siesta tradition this weekend... it still hasn't happened. Soon though. ¡Buenas noches!

Cádiz!

So… Cádiz. This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been! I feel like I’m in some sort of gorgeous movie set, which is actually true. The James Bond movie Die Another Day was filmed here since Cádiz looks a lot like Havana. (Little fun fact for you there, since we watched a video clip in our Spanish Cultura clase this morning.)

Although we’ve only been here two days, I feel like we’ve already settled into a routine. We arrived on Sunday night, pulling into the bus station a bit dazed from our 12-hour bus ride to find our host families waiting for us. It was quite a peculiar looking moment I’m sure; imagine a group of American students standing off to the side trying to manage our huge rolling suitcases while staying out of the way on the microscopic sidewalk (that’s one thing I’ve noticed… the sidewalks are very, very narrow. Hence you better watch out for speeding cars and mopeds while you’re wandering around) and the host moms milling around, gawking at us and trying to figure out which kids belong to them. It was so cute, they had their little info packets out and were trying to pronounce our names and match our pictures with our faces (I’m sure I didn’t look much like mine at the moment, I had weird marks on my face from sleeping awkwardly on the bus seat for two hours.) Pepa found Amy and I eventually and promptly kissed us both on the cheek and insisted upon helping us haul our stuff to her house. Two other girls in our group, Sydnor and Elyse, are living with Pepa’s sister, and their mom and several family friends were also there to greet us. So essentially we’ve just been adopted into an adorable little Spanish family. Pepa and her sister own a little tienda (store) in the Plaza de San Antonio and Amy and I hope we can use this to our advantage and obtain some extra rebajas (discounts) there. In Spain, for the months of July and August, there are HUGE sales EVERYWHERE. Excellent planning with the dates of this trip Davidson. J

Our living situation is rather funny actually… Pepa and her 17-year-old daughter Alba are obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with Michael Jackson. I’m not kidding. Alba pretty much has a shrine to him in her room with pictures plastered all over the wall. Interestingly enough, Alba is actually in L.A. right now for Michael Jackson’s funeral and Pepa was absolutely enthralled to learn that Amy is from there. I’m sure Alba is going to be peppering her with questions when she gets home on Friday. Pepa has been glued to the TV today, watching the funeral hoping to catch a glimpse of Alba. Other than that the house is filled with random trinkets and decorations from Pepa’s store along with Coco (the Chihuahua) and Dulca (some sort of terrier) and two turtles that have yet to be named (Pepa told us we can do the honors so we’ve been perusing our dictionary. We’re taking this responsibility very seriously.)

So we unpacked, showered and ate our first dinner with Pepa before going out to explore the city, which entailed walking out of the door of our little casa on Calle Adolfo de Castro, taking a left and walking about 50 yards to encounter the most amazing sunset ever. Then we tested out the WiFi in the plazas, which has not disappointed thus far. (Currently we’re sitting in the Plaza de Mina sipping coffee at a little café. I love this.) Classes started yesterday and I am really excited to start studying again! (I feel like some of my friends are going to cringe after reading this, but it’s the truth). We’re taking Spanish Culture and Grammar and Composition with Miguel and Art History with Alberto, both of whom are University of Cádiz professors. We have class from 9:30 to 11:30, then a descanso (break) until 12, in which we go and fight our way to the front of the cafeteria line to order café con leche, and then class again until 2:00. They’ve also planned all these cultural excursions for us… we’ll be taking a cooking class (SO EXCITED), taking flamenco lessons (we’ll see how that goes…) and going to museums and cathedrals too.

Other than that we’ve just been trying to improve our Español talking with Pepa, sitting along the seawall doing our homework and trying to learn our way around the city. Although we’ve gotten turned around quite a few times, we’ve discovered that if you walk long enough in one direction you’ll either run into a cathedral or the ocean. So no worries about getting lost. Although we did have quite a fun excursion this evening… a group of us embarked on an autobús adventure to find the Corte Ingles and buy Spanish phones so we can stop with the whole, “meet you in front of the university at this hour” thing. We left around 8:00, promising Pepa that we would return by 9:30 for dinner. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The service at Corte Ingles is quite a bit slower than your typical Walmart, Target or Best Buy. (Plus the whole Spanish thing adds another element as well.) After two hours in the store, numerous trips up and down the escalators searching for the móvil section, and a trip to the supermercado to buy liters of lemon Fanta (our new obsession) we walked out of the store ten minutes after it closed. (Also, the tag that I’ve neglected to cut out of my shorts kept on setting off the alarm every time we walked in and out of the electronics section, so the clerks all though I was shop lifting. That was fun to explain in Spanish.) They turned the lights off while we were still inside and locked the doors behind us. We closed down the Corte Ingles! Turns out we actually came out on the wrong side so then we hiked around the massive building, found the right bus and returned to Pepa who fed us well, scolded us a little (but in a sweet, motherly way) for being late and sent us on our way. It’s 1 AM right now… and I’m not even tired! The streets are still filled with people at this hour. It’s Tuesday night. I love Spain. I think we’re going to regresar y acostar muy pronto (AHH I just wrote that in Spanish without thinking about it!) Cool. Maybe I’ll dream in Spanish tonight. Just maybe. ¡Adios!

¡vamanos a cádiz!

This blog is going to have capital letters, yes! We said adios to the Tryp Rex hotel in Madrid at 7:30 this morning so I’m back on my laptop and hoping that the free WiFi becomes reality when we get to Cádiz. Right now we’re on the bus on our way to the city where we’re going to spend the next four weeks studying, traveling, windsurfing (hopefully), living with our host families and seriously boosting our Spanish abilities (another hopefully!)

Just had quite an interesting experience… we all woke up and groggily stumbled off the bus after the first three hour leg of our trip into the most random gas station/restaurant/who knows what complex I’ve ever been in. You could satisfy all your needs for food (including the Spanish equivalent of Twinkies, called Bimbos, and their version of spam… did NOT purchase that for my lunch today), DVD (they had Doug’s 1^st Movie and I got really excited and seriously contemplated buying it), fox pelt (not joking), Zorro hat (once again, not kidding), hunting knife, huge hocks of Iberian ham and so much more. Amy and I got our caffeine fix with one of the best cafés con leche I’ve had so far on this trip before trying to figure out where we were on a map of Spain. We still have quite a ways to go… we’re on the bus until 7:30 tonight.

I guess I should recap on Madrid! I think I actually may have enjoyed that city even more than Barcelona, although it’s a tough call. We got there after a long bus ride on Thursday and went out for tapas after meeting up with Professor Santamaria and her family. Ironically, the restaurant we ate at was called Los Angeles… Amy and I were amused and laughed at the fact that she’d traveled halfway around the world to eat at a restaurant named after her hometown. We posed for a picture outside of course. We then went back to the hotel and crashed for the night… only to be awoken to the sound of madrileños singing in the streets. At 5:45 AM. We laughed, tried to understand what they were saying for a few minutes, then conked out again.

Friday morning we woke up and went on a tour of the Congreso de los Diputados. Our tour guide walked us through the Salón de Conferencias and Sala de Ministros, teaching us about the two Cámaras (houses), el Congreso de los Diputados and el Senado, of Las Cortes Generales. We saw the constitution signed by Rey Juan Carlos y Reina Sofia and then had an awkward group picture taken in the huge Salón de Sesiones with all of us in our Davidson t-shirts and athletic shorts posing in front of the elaborately adorned podium. Our tour guide made sure to point out all the bullet marks in the walls of that room from attempted golpes de estado/coups de’tat that have occurred through the years.

After that we moved on to see El Prado Museum which houses the works of Velazquez, Goya and El Greco. We saw Las Meninas and El Segundo de Mayo and once again got to wear the funny headphones for an audiovisual tour. But this time pretty much everyone in the museum was a) sporting the same nerdy gear and b) tourists like us. So it was alright. Despues de esté we girls walked to Salad Co. (a restaurant we had scouted out the night before). But don’t let the name fool you; it was more like the Spanish equivalent of a Golden Corral and we all quickly became big fans of the all you can eat concept as we made multiple visits to the pizza and pasta, ice cream, fruit and coffee stations, basically ignoring the whole salad portion and the restaurant’s namesake. Then we returned to the hotel where most everyone took advantage of siesta time… I on the other hand still haven’t mastered the concept yet. I’m trying though. Posiblemente in Cádiz. Instead Anna and I went running in the Parque del Retiro which was only a kilometer or so down Gran Via, one of the main streets that runs through Madrid. It was so cool to run through the park and see the Crystal Palace, lots of statues, the little lake with rowboats and the Plaza de la Independencia. While Amy and I are going on a coffee tour of Spain, Anna and I have decided we are on our version of a running tour of Spain. It really is a great way to see the city. Okay our bus driver is about ONE FOOT from the tiny toy-like car in front of us… I think we’re about to take them out. Oh nope, we’re good, we just passed them… no blinker though. Spanish driving certainly is a different experience. Watch out when I come home Mom, you’re not going to want to drive with me anymore, I may acquire some bad habits over here J.

Saturday (Fourth of July) proved to be an interesting experience. That morning we went on a tour of the Plaza Mayor and the surrounding streets and plazas. The tour was informative but honestly after a while we had more fun taking pictures of the tourists on the tour with us. Amy captured some epic pictures of our new German friend with the beer belly stretching on a bright yellow Vespa. But don’t worry, we did learn all about the history of Madrid and the Hapsburg influence on Madrid in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. We just mixed in some other forms of entertainment along the way, hence the pictures. Then we had the rest of the day on our own and we saw the Palacio Real, a beautiful cathedral (Pacious and I almost snuck upstairs to play the organ… we figured that might have been frowned upon though, so we thought better of it) and ate lunch along Calle Atocho. Amy and I ended up walking all the way to the Reina Sofia museum and were pleasantly surprised to discover that admission was free after 2:30. So we got to see Guernica and Salvador Dali’s paintings for free. Then as we were leaving the museum a man was playing Pachabel’s Canon on his violin right outside. And there was a Starbucks right next door. Many sonrisas (smiles) resulted from this perfect travel moment.

And although we did not experience the conventional American traditions that come with celebrating the Fourth of July… there was indeed a gay pride parade going on in Madrid. Right outside of our hotel and all up and down that main street. I think that the general revelry, flamboyantly dressed spectators, and buses decked out with blaring music might have made up for our lack of fireworks and red white and blue. We all leaned out of our hotel windows all afternoon, gawking at the scene before us and taking pictures and videos. Quite an experience. After dinner in the hotel some of us ventured out to sample the churros y chocolate that Madrid is so famous for. We went to the best churro joint in the city. It’s been there since 1894 and let me tell you, they know what they’re doing. We sat outside at little café tables and chowed down on the delectable fried amazingness that is a churro, all the while dunking them in chocolate and then just resorting to drinking the leftover chocolate after we ran out of churros. Although Pacious did utilize Sydnor’s empty water bottle to take some chocolate to go when we all declared that we couldn’t finish it. We are such Americans… the locals at the table next to us were staring at us. But we didn’t care. I think he ate it for breakfast this morning…

So that is Madrid! Lo siento for this being the longest entry ever. I think we have about an hour left until we stop in Medila which is known for its Roman ruins and its intense heat. More awkward tan lines to come. I’m excited. Until next time! I hope our host families are nice and orientation goes well tomorrow morning!!

technology FAIL

okay so i ran out of time on that internet session, but managed to post what i had written so far before it logged me out. this keyboard certainly does decrease my wpm...

the biking tour continued... we rode all over barcelona and got to see everything from the bull fighting arena to where they held the 1992 olympics to the beach to the estatua colon and the stairs that christopher columbus ascended to tell queen isabella of his discovery of the new world. pretty cool, not going to lie. our guide was hilarious and found a way to pepper all the information he was throwing at us with jokes and random facts i do not think i would have found in my national geographic guide books. for example. did you know that in spain it is completely legal to walk around stark naked, but if you put a shirt on you can be arrested? yup, that´s right. completely in your birthday suit is just fine but a shirt and no pants no es permite. spain sure is an interesting place. the fashions here are also quite diferente... i do not know if i am going to embrace the whole eurotrash bleached mohawk look or the unitard like pantsuits i see people wearing. i don´t know if davidson is ready for that yet, although some of the boys in our group are determined to try. i also absolutely LOVE getting to use my spanish. i am now BFF with our hotel concierge here in madrid after our hour long conversation last night while i was waiting for the pay phone. he wanted to know all about the huge group of american kids that had invaded his hotel and we also talked about everything from the cultural differences you encounter in different regions of spain, to michael jackson, to his visit to montana, to american accents to cadiz. i felt so proud having that conversation... yet i feel so american being excited about that... oh well.

i´m getting ahead of myself. not done with barcelona yet. on our third day there we actually went on an excursion to montserrat, a monastery nestled up in the mountains about an hour train ride away from barcelon. it was amazing. we rode a gondola (ferocaril in spanish, which sounds way cooler) up there and hiked all over the place after wandering through the cathedral and sampling cheeses and honeys made by the monks. amy and anna and i went on a pretty legit hike to a little monastery called santa cava which was so peaceful. and also had funny little chairs the monks use to kneel on during prayer. we took pictures in them. we are 2.

that night we embrked on a paella adventure armed only with a vague recommendation from the concierge and the knowledge of which direction the water was in. but we found a great restaurant, la barceloneta, and dined on seafood paella. and we´re talking seafood paella here. it had crawfish and shrimp staring at us out of it. we named them, made some new friends... and then devoured it. so delicious. then in the morning we all wrestled our suitcases shut (well at least i did, i didn´t even buy anything in barcelona. i think my stuff just grew. i got another bruise. joy) we were on the bus pretty much all day minus a stop in the medieval city of sirguenza which we hit at the awkward siesta hour where pretty much everything is closed and it looked like the spanish version of those ghost towns you see in old western movies. i will honestly never forget spending my 19th birthday there. haha.

uh oh!! desafortunadamente i am about to be tarde para la cena (late for dinner). but maybe i´ll finish this up later. i just love pounding away on this keyboard anyway. i look like i´m seriously angry at someone, it´s rather funny. ¡¡¡hasta luego!!! i love upside down exclamation points.

aventuras thus far...

so i´m really hoping that i can finish typing this in under 30 minutes because that´s how much the 3 euros i just handed over to the hotel concierge is going to get me... this is the ultimate test of my typing abilities, i´ve been training. i will go ahead and apologize for any mispelled words, since some of the keys don´t work muy buena, and the lack of capital letters. but i think it gives it a bit of spanish charm, si si? (it just took me like a solid minute to figure out how to type that question mark, just saying.)

okay, so here it goes. SPAIN IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!! i thought that barcelona was one of the most beautiful cities i have ever been to but now that we´re here in madrid i think it might be a tie. maybe cadiz will top both of them, we shall just have to wait and see. where to begin?? for our first full day in barcelona we went on a walking tour of the city which featured the modernista architecture and took us all through the bario gotico (gothic quarter). the tour was very informative... but blatantly touristy as we found ourselves traipsing around the city sporting individual audio headsets with bright blue earphones that screamed I AM AN AMERICAN. i really wanted to let people know we were in fact listening to our tourguide firing off tons of information in rapid espanol as our little spanish lady guided our group around barcelona, trying to make sure none of us got taken out by buses, cars, mopeds, locals, etc. we ended at the casa batilo which was the designed by gaudi and the most surreal and colorful piece of architecture i have ever seen... i feel like i would get sea sick living there with all the wavy walls and blue tiles. then we were on our own for the afternoon and a group and i decided to embark on a trek to la sagrada familia, gaudi´s famous unfinished cathedral which he started in 1893 and worked on until his death in 1926. they found the blueprints in his crypt and continued construction on it after that... they´re hoping to be able to hold services there by 2010 and be completely done by 2030. although it´s quite likely that it will always remain the unfinished cathedral forever since they still have 13 towers left to build (with the tallest one aiming for 169 meters, twice as tall as the ones alredy there) and the metro runs right underneath the building, so it shakes every single day. amy and i are planning on coming back with our grandkids to see how that plan ends up. the five mile or so round trip there was totally worth it since that´s one of the biggest sites in barcelona.

on monday we went on a bicycle tour of the city, courtesy of fat tire biking tours. our guide, michael, had the most epic cut off tshirt tan i´ve ever seen (and after4 hours on a bike in a racerback tank top, i did indeed acquire my own awkward tan line. i love it) we rode all over the city, slowly but surely mastering the use of the little bells attached to our handlebars and trying to earn points by hitting birds, squirrells, locals, etc. since michael promised us he would buy the person with the most points a lemonade at lunch (just kidding... sort of)