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Megan in Spain, Part II: Cadiz and Madrid

2009-06-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

After two nights in Granada, Megan and I took the five hour bus to Cadiz, the oldest town in Western Europe. It's also where my friend Jane has been living this past year, along with her fantastic roommate Rosie, whom I met in Salamanca. Rosie met us at the bus station, and both she and Jane were very gracious in letting us stay in their apartment (Jane was traveling through Italy). It was so nice to hang out with Rosie and to not have to have my face in a map while we walked around.

Since Cadiz is on the beach, we took advantage of that. Our first day there, the weather was cloudy until about 6 or 7 pm, so we ate lunch and had a coffee and then made a salad for dinner at Rosie's and Jane's apartment. We also opened one of the bottles of 2001 Rioja that my students gave me and it was quite good. Oh, and we watched Say Anything, which I had never seen before.

The next day, we went to the market in the morning, had crepes for lunch, and were on the beach by 3:30. We stayed out there until about 7:30, which is still sun time in Cadiz. Then we ate dinner on the Cathedral plaza and had more crepes for dessert.

On our last day, we people watched for a while at a cafe and then Rosie had to leave us to say goodbye to her Belgian friend and pack to meet her mom in Sevilla the next day. So Megan and I ate lunch outside and went to the beach until about 7:00. We said goodbye to Rosie and made a pizza for dinner and watched Across the Universe. Our whole time in Cadiz was very much a beach vacation. We just ate, slept, walked around, and laid in the sand. It was amazing.

the cathedral

the beach on our first day; we saw a dead body being pulled to shore, which was terrifying.

Rosie and Megan people watching.

pretty little balconies

a park on the way to the beach

walking up to the apartment

our beautiful pizza

We spent 3 nights in Cadiz and departed on Friday morning at 5:45 am. Our train arrived in Madrid at 11:15 am so we promptly found our hostal and fed ourselves paella. We did an abbreviated trip to the Prado, paying attention only to Velazquez, Goya, and El Greco, before meeting David for coffee and shopping. Exhausted, we made it back to our hostal and amazingly back out again for beers and a light dinner in Malasana before heading back to bed. Megan left on Saturday, so we spent that day getting her to the airport and then me to the bus station. And now I'm back in Logrono, missing southern Spain.

an illegal photo of Las Meninas

a beautiful day in Madrid

coffee

antiques

a ton of potato chips

Megan in Spain, Part I: Granada

2009-06-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

This week I had the pleasure of my friend Megan's company in Granada and Cadiz with two nights in Madrid at the beginning and the end. Since there was so much to see, I am starting with Granada. We rented an apartment there, and it pretty much made our trip. As previously mentioned, the owners gave us a discounted rate on the penthouse apartment complete with a rooftop terrace. It turns out that the owners are a married couple, the wife from Seattle and the husband Spanish. The woman wasn't that much older than us, and they were both so nice and adorable.

Our first day in Granada, Megan and I celebrated our birthdays with a full 2.5 hour lunch at a restaurant with a lush patio and attractive wait staff. We ordered every course and were very Spanish about things. There's a photograph of each dish below. Afterwards, we enjoyed our terrace with beer, strawberries, and brie before venturing out for tapas, which in Granada are free with the purchase of a drink. Afterwards we had the best gelato I may have had anywhere. Dark chocolate and hazelnut. Amazing.

on the way to lunch

getting ready to celebrate

the patio

our first appetizer, a spinach salad

our second appetizer, tabouli with eggs, shrimp, and a curry sauce

my entree, garlic cod with potatoes

and chocolate crepes for dessert

the terrace

snacks

a self-timed photo on the terrace

a cafe and the cathedral; note the cloth that is hung to keep the street cool in the summer

Our second day in Granada was spent at the Alhambra, the Moorish palace. We toured the main palace and walked around a little bit before eating lunch outside again and returning to our terrace. Just before sunset, we climbed the hill of the Albaicin, a picturesque neighborhood of white washed houses on a hill that faces the Alhambra. We made it to the lookout after quite a hike, and then made our way down to the Realito, the former Jewish quarter. It was an adorable neighborhood with several cute tapas places where I ate migas for the first time.

approaching the Alhambra

in the palace

I wish you could see the scale here; this arch is maybe 1.5 feet tall so the carving is small and of course extremely ornate

me and the city/Albaicin from the Alhambra

the Alhambra from the Albaicin; behind us were several groups of hippy-types weaving bracelets or making charms out of coins.

from our table at a Realito tapas bar

Granada might be in my top 2 favorite places that I've been in Spain this year. Still to come: Cadiz and a last day in Madrid.

Last day in Albelda

2009-05-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day in C.P. San Prudencia, the school where I teach in Albelda. It also happens to be my favorite school. On a normal Wednesday, I teach 2 classes of sixth graders, have a coffee break, and then teach a class of third graders. After lunch/siesta, I teach another third grade class, and in these last two classes, we have been working on a play since the beginning of March at least. It's in English, so most of the kids have no idea what's going on, and there's a semi-complicated plot twist involving a pot, a rooster, and a golden harp. The words, "Can you help? Can you help? Can you find the harp?" are now stamped into my brain for good.

Today, the sixth graders gave me letters they had written and several gifts, and the third graders performed their play which was hilarious. Their costumes were made of colored garbage bags so there was a constant rustling sound even when they weren't talking (which is literally never). The teachers also gave me this bracelet where each section of beads represent a part of the story of winemaking in La Rioja. See photographs below.

My first class of sixth graders.

My second class.

Some of the gifts the sixth graders gave me: chorizo and pate made by one of the girl's grandfather; mascara, eyeliner, mango and green tea perfume, white and red nail polish, and a makeup case; a mug; eau de toilette; and a keychain. Not pictured, 3 bottles of aged Rioja wine.

The third graders "in the castle."

More of the play, this time in Freddy Redfoot's house. I really wanted to take that poster home with me.

This is on the way back from El Cortijo, where I tutor C.P. San Prudencia's vice principal's children after school.

Headed back to Logrono.

I'll miss Albelda. The teachers there are really nice too. But tomorrow is my last day of teaching (!!!!!!). And then Megan arrives in Madrid on Saturday and we're headed to Granada on Sunday to stay here: http://www.casamartingranada.com/apartments.php?l=en. We got apartment number five for half the price because the owners are already awesome. And then off to Cadiz to get tan and then one week and then home!

Birthday/Tapas

2009-05-22T02:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I celebrated my birthday here in Logrono by going out for tapas with Rosa, the teacher at my Tuesday school who has been incredibly helpful, Kelly, Jennis, and an English teacher with whom Kelly works who's also friends with Rosa. I took it as an opportunity to photograph some tapas, something I always say I'm going to do and then I forget to take out my camera.

Before going out, my roommates and I devoured the amazing brownies that Sylvie made (see above and below). Decent baked goods don't exist in Spain, and the brownies were amazing.

Unrelated, but I'm trying to draw more and I drew this this week, and I kind of like it.

me, Rosa, Kelly, and Jennis at the mushrooms place, La Cueva (The Cave).

These are mushrooms ("champis") covered in garlicy olive oil and held together by a toothpick. There's also a small shrimp on top. So delicious, and the best part is when you're done eating the mushrooms, you have a garlicy greasy piece of bread to eat.

Here we are at 9 pm (notice the light/the perfect weather), being nerds. That's Kelly's teacher, Isabel, on the far right. Hilarious.

I'm not sure what's on the far left; something in a shell. Next is a croquette and then 3 Sublimes, a chicken and tomato skewer with guacamole. It's one of my favorites.

Patatas Bravas are all over Spain, but I think they're the best in Logrono. They're fried potato slices covered with mayonaisse (that magically doesn't look or taste like mayonaisse) and brava sauce, a semi-spicy tomato-based sauce.

I didn't eat this but I took a picture anyways. I think it's green pepper and anchovies. I got a piece of toast topped with goat cheese, jamon serano, and raspberry jam.

And then we end every tapas experience with Sorbette, limon sorbet and champagne blended. I'm going to take photographs next time I go out of more tapas.

Valencia

2009-05-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I met Jane in Valencia for three nights. Here are some photos.

the royal gardens

the cathedral

The arm of "San Vicente." He died in 380 AD. Questionable.

Fluorescent lighting and fuschia walls in the cathedral's museum. Also questionable.

But perhaps the most questionable: the Holy Grail. Adorned with pearls and lacking accompanying literature.

The view from the tower of the cathedral.

The tapestry is made of flowers.

City of Arts and Sciences

A mola mola at the City's aquarium, L'oceanografic. Even stranger looking in person.

In the shark tunnel. You can pay to have a slumber party in here on Friday nights. I want one.

Aquarium

Sea anemone. The only one stuck to the glass.

a Beluga whale watching it's reflection

more of the City of Arts and Sciences

out

paella and sangria by the beach

Pamplona and Santander with Jane

2009-05-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Jane, a friend of mine from UGA, made the monstrous journey north from Cadiz this weekend. She's teaching English in the same program as I. On Friday, we traveled to Pamplona for about 4 hours. It was several degrees colder there, and everything was closed because it was Spain's Labor Day. We visited the cathedral and the archives. On the way back to the bus station, we saw several groups of police, many wearing masks and carrying those plastic riot shields. They and some firemen were searching the large green dumpsters on the streets. We asked the guy who sold us postcards what was going on and he said sarcastically that it was just the police's daily parade around town. After turning a few corners, however, we learned that someone lit a dumpster on fire in honor of Labor Day. For some reason, we saw several Basque independence flags even though Pamplona is in Navarre, not the Basque Country. I guess that's the explanaition for the police insanity.

pretty handwriting in the archives

the police: note the giant gun and potential silencer on the far right

I really liked this K bar sign.

springish

On Saturday evening, I met Jane in Santander after she spent the day in Bilbao. Parts of Santander are run down and composed of these square buildings that you find all over the new parts of Spanish cities and wonder who ever thought they looked good (sadly, they're still building this way). But the part that was cute was actually really cute. We walked along the beach on Saturday and then met a professional basketball team Saturday night, including a man named Charles from Milwalkee who played for the team. On Sunday, we enjoyed the good weather for a portion of the day and visited the Magdalena, a palace on a peninsula. The water was absolutely gorgeous. We ate lunch in the cute area of town at a restaurant with great interior decoration, a rarity in Spain. The food was good, but slow and when we left two hours later, the weather had soured. We spent the rest of the time reading outside, walking around the cathedral, and waiting for our respective buses.

on the way

there

a distant golf course

a pretty plaza

view from the Magdalena

the palace itself

behind the palace

the view from a bench

tapas

A very Riojan day

2009-04-25T05:26:00.002-07:00

On Friday, instead of sleeping until noon, I participated in CRA Moncalvillo's (the schools where I teach on Tuesdays) celebration of Book Day by going to Medrano and Sorzano and telling the story of the 3 Little Pigs in English. Kelly and Natalie also participated.

In Sorzano, there is a mechanical nativity scene that I had never seen, so after storytelling, the children and I walked there.

The mechanical nativity scene (Belen Mecanico). It's housed in a cinder block building (see below) and you have to go to a cafe and get the keys from this old woman. And then you just walk in and this 1940s Spanish music starts playing and all the little figurines move back and forth. To the far left is the actual nativity scene, and the rest are anachronistic shops and schools and houses and beauty parlors. The best is a prisoner climbing out of the jail window on a rope.

Me with the children I teach in Sorzano in front of the Belen Mecanico. There are only 7 at the school.

This is one of the views from Sorzano. The little girl is Yura. She's maybe 5 and from Morocco and extremely intelligent. That's Marian's, one of the boy's, dogs.

The school in Sorzano.

The classroom.

After storytelling, Kelly, Natalie, and I walked to a deserted a convent just outside of Nalda. You can see it in the right of the photo with all of the branches growing through what used to be the roof.

We walked to the currently functioning church/convent nearby afterwards and laid out in the most manicured, plush grass I've seen in Spain and perhaps in my life. We returned to the school at about 2:30 for merendola, a giant snack, with all of the teachers from the CRA, and then Rosa drove us back to Logrono at about 3:45. I had my conversation class, and then got ready to go to a birthday dinner with all of my teachers from Alberite. The dinner was in a bodega owned by several couples, including some of the teachers.

The fire that a few of the teachers built to grill the food on. They burn grape vine branches until they are embers and then...

they put the meat over the fire in these things. They cooked chorizo, really thick bacon, and chuletas, or lamb ribs. One of the teachers, Jose Ignacio, was very concerned that I had never eaten chuletas before and kept asking me who do you hang out with that you have never eaten chuletas before?

There were 24 of us for dinner, and food to feed 40. The bread circles that you see are covered in goat cheese and tomato marmalade. So good. There is a tapa in Logrono of this variety.

To the left, see the chuletas.

After dinner ended at 11:30, we had desserts including dark chocolate-covered orange peels that my English teacher, Susana, made. There was a "chocolate" cake that I think perfectly demonstrates the problem with Spanish desserts. It was basically light brown flan. And then we had sorbette, lemon sorbet with champagne, and we started playing pre-planned games.

Semana Santa

2009-04-25T05:26:00.001-07:00

Spain being a Catholic country, we had 10 days of vacation for Easter. So we traversed the Iberian peninsula, traveling from Lisbon to the Costa Brava. The trip got off to an anxiety-causing start as Jennis and I arrived at the Madrid airport with 4 hours to spare before our flight which was delayed and delayed and delayed for 4 more hours, so we were in Barajas for a grand total of 8 hours. We ate at McDonald's on 3 separate occasions, and arrived in Lisbon around midnight. My friend David arrived from Madrid on an 8.5 hour bus ride before us.

BUT the apartment that we rented was adorable, on the top floor with a view of the ocean/river (I was never sure which was which). We spent Saturday walking all over the city, Sunday Jennis and I went to Portuguese Easter mass and then we all took the train to Sintra. On Monday, we spent the day walking around and getting to the airport.

Sintra

the view from Sintra

Sintra

From Lisbon, we flew to Madrid and spent the night with David. Then on Tuesday, we went to the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Prado and took the AVE to Barcelona, where we spent one night. For dinner, the best kebab place in Barcelona had reopened (after being closed since January or so), so we ate there. And then on Wednesday, Jennis and I rented a car and drove to Calella de Palafrugell on the Costa Brava where we met Kelly and her boyfriend, Jorge Pep.

The coast was absolutely beautiful and it was nice to just sit on the beach and not feel the need to go anywhere, although the places we did go were also gorgeous. The sun was out for most of the day when we were there, and although it was cold, it was still pretty.

The beach.

He made that.

Kelly, Jorge Pep, me, and Jennis

Easter

2009-04-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in my apartment watching football and piddling around on the internet when I heard the distant sound of drum beats. I was kind of excited because it was Semana Santa, and I'd heard that the Easter processions here are particularly dark and interesting. I looked out my window and at the end of my street, a group of people dressed in black KKK uniforms were forming a group (obviously these hooded costumes didn't originate with the KKK, but they're impossible to disassociate). They began walking down my street. I was home alone and terrified. But I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures out on my balcony.

There was a section of drummers keeping a "beat" for the rest of the hooded marchers who were walking as slow as humanly possible down my street (the drummers were also wearing hoods of course). The drums were enormous, and some of the marchers were using mallets. With my balcony view, I noticed circles of red on some of the drums. Indeed, the more devout (I suppose) were using their bare knuckles to beat the drums and had formed circles of blood about the size of a human head on theirs.

With the parade right out front, I saw my friend Kelly down on the street and decided to go down, and we took some more photos. About a quarter of the marchers were children, which was weird to see. The procession would stop periodically and some of the children would lift their hoods and smile for a picture or wave at their parents.

Sergey in Spain II

2009-04-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

We flew from Sevilla to Barcelona on Monday, which was about 8 hours of travel (taking the bus to the airport, waiting at the airport, being in the air, taking an hour and 20 minute bus ride into BCN, etc). Whatsmore, RyanAir's color scheme is extremely abrasive and their "in case of emergency" instructions are on the back of the seat in front of you staring you in the face. I was clutching Sergey's arm and asking him "is that normal?" throughout the flight, and yet he still managed to sleep. But the weather in Barcelona was absolutely beautiful. And we stayed close to Montjuic and I got see a lot of things and areas that I haven't seen of Barcelona.

BARCELONA, MONDAY
The beach in tights.

Dinner at our hostal.

BARCELONA, TUESDAY
The view from the park in Montjuic.

The Miro Foundation inside the park.

Sergey and Miro.

BARCELONA, WEDNESDAY
A market in Poblenau

Torre Agbar

LOGRONO, THURSDAY
Jennis and Sergey in front of our favorite window display in Logrono. The store is for the elderly and the skeleton is holding a bedpan. Who would shop there?

Tapas.

BILBAO, FRIDAY
a really cool bathtub

We went to Bilbao on Friday morning at 7:30 am. We wandered around and climbed the same steps to the park that I climbed the first time I was there. And then we went into the Guggenheim which was amazing. There was a Murakami exhibit and some really cool video installations.

The back of the Jeff Koons dog in front of the Guggenheim.

Sergey and the Guggenheim.

A pedestrian bridge.

In the park area that overlooks the city.

Sergey and the city.

A room full of Richard Serra.

Back in Logrono, cooking curry.

Sergey in Spain I

2009-04-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

MADRID, THURSDAY

Sergey napping, me observing Father's Day picnickers and a man with a slide guitar [not pictured] the first day he arrived (Thursday) at Parque de Buen Retiro.

MADRID, FRIDAY

Inside the Museo del Biblioteca Nacional, extremely well done. They had videos of bookbinding and screenprinting.

Some beautiful book covers.

Grading papers at a cafe.

SEVILLA, SATURDAY

The cathedral in Sevilla, which we visited upon arrival. Of course, I forgot to look up the name of our hostal so we had to take a cab from the train station. But Sevilla was beautiful. This cathedral is the either the largest or third largest in Europe (depending on who you ask?) and it rivals the one in Toledo in it's beauty.

Christopher Columbus' tomb held up by giant pallbearers.

The amazing hand-carved wooden altar piece, which, according to our guidebook, was the life's work of a single man. That might be a direct quote.

The view from the Giralda, the tower of the cathedral, which was easy to climb because you walk up ramps as opposed to stairs so that horses could be ridden to the top. Below are orange trees which are all over Sevilla and smell amazing now that they are in bloom.

More of a view from the Giralda.

SEVILLA, SUNDAY

The moorish Alcazar. We got in for free! Hooray for being a "student!"

Amazing.

Sergey thinking about picking an orange from a tree in the Alcazar garden, which seemed really illegal. He succeeded in another more secluded part but with smaller, weirder oranges.

A peacock in the Alcazar garden.

Still to come: Barcelona, Logrono, and Bilbao.

San Millan

2009-02-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some photographs from yesterday's trip to San Millan with my roommates. In San Millan, there are two monasteries, one of which (Suso) is the birthplace of Castellano/Spanish and Basque. Of course all of the guides spoke rapid Spanish, so I got the jist of what they said but not everything. I went with my roommates, and afterward we visited my Spanish roommate's, Alicia's, pueblo, Banos de Rio Tobia. Her sister, Nuria, is one of the English teachers with whom I work, and I met her husband and three-year-old son. Then we went to the family's bodega beneath a garage and ate chips and olives and cheese and bread and drank homemade wine. It was a very Riojan day.

Suso, the older of the two monasteries, from Yuso. The monks lived in the caves that form the back wall of the monastery, and the oldest portion was constructed in 550 AD (!). It was then rearranged and added onto by the Benedictine monks who came later.

Sylvie, Alicia, Sascha, and Justen.

Yuso. The cathedral is under restoration.

more Yuso

the view from Suso

Suso itself

The cathedral of Yuso, the "newer" and larger monastery. It's under restoration so all of the important parts are covered in brown paper. I thought it was so interesting to see a cathedral in this state. Unfortunately, it won't be finished for another 4 years.

More of the cathedral. During the fall and spring equinox, the sun shines perfectly through that circular window and then through the circle above the doorway to make a perfect ellipse at the exact center of the cathedral. The benedictine monks were religiously obsessed with precisicion.

Original hymnals (is that what they're even called?). These books are at least two feet tall.

The pages of one of the song books. The writing is big enough so that it could be read from afar.

Yuso

I really liked this painted dome.

Alicia's father's bodega. This is where they store the wine. They have a wine-making bodega in the fields somewhere, I think.

me, Sylvie, Sascha, Alicia, and Justen

New Room!

2009-02-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

I moved rooms at the beginning of this month when Robin moved out. I'm now at the end of the hall with an exterior window. Hurray for sunlight! And fortunately (knock on wood), the construction noises that had exceeded all possible expectations from November to January have calmed considerably. The only thing is, during the day there are construction guys outside my window across our terrace. So that's kind of weird. But I like having the extra space.

I also have two new roommates. Vanessa, the original espanola around here, up and moved to Bilbao while everyone but Sylvie was home for Christmas/the holidays. So for a while it was me, Sylvie, Robin, and Sascha. Then Robin went home for good because the term ended and Justen, an American auxiliar who came in late January moved in suddenly one Saturday. He's really nice, from just outside of Chicago. And then several days later, Alicia, a Spanish 24-year-old and the sister of one of the English teachers I work with, moved in. So we're a full house again. With a single shower. Which somehow works out.

Barcelona

2009-02-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from my trip to Barcelona this past weekend. It was a delight:

A new restaurant, Big Fish, where we had wine.
It was really nice inside, particularly the restrooms.

Inside Santa Maria del Mar, Saturday.

Ew. Desigual.

The Boqueria, the market we finally got to visit.
Unfortunately all of the lunch counters were packed.

Particularly good street performers on the way to the beach in Barceloneta.
Note the weather. Gorgeous.

Another street performer, this one even better:
a Euro-hippie making bubbles from this string/stick apparatus.

More bubbles!

This one almost popped on Kara.

The beach and...

a mysterious bouquet and open bottle of champagne left unaccompanied.

Kara reliving her childhood.

Walking out onto the jetty with a sign that specifically said no people, no fishing,
and no something else. All said activities were taking place on the jetty.

A parallel jetty.

Happy hour. A brandy alexander (cheers, Phillip!) and a fruity bloody mary?

A store we've been into before, but I think the mannequins are funny and cool.

Dad, this is the olive products store where I bought your Ebro River salt.

I really liked the letters in the window.

The light blue cash register at the Champagnette (?).

An a-mazing dinner at Sikkim courtesy of Edgar (the best).

At the Crepes del Born.

A pretty bag for a sandwich.

Not pictured: the toddler that screamed the entire six hours of my bus ride to Barcelona. Also not pictured, the woman who decided it wasn't entirely inappropriate to yell at the toddler's mother and father multiple times and tell them that they were a bad parents, etc.

Also, while walking up La Rambla one of the days (it was Carnival weekend and many children were dressed up) we passed a little girl in a stroller wearing a white turban, black dress, white apron, and black face. Good one, Spain.

Nieva de Cameros

2009-02-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

Some of the kids from CRA Moncalvillo, where I teach on Tuesdays, are presently at a one week English camp in Nieva de Cameros , and Rosa, Bea, Myrian, and I went to check up on them Tuesday morning. It was an uneventful trip, but Nieva de Cameros is beautiful. It's off the highway that runs from Logrono to Madrid, N-111, which is windy and has picturesque Riojan towns. This one is extremely small; we asked at the camp if there was a bar where we could get coffee and the answer was no. There are two bars in town and they only open on the weekends. Most people in Nieva work with sheep or cows.

The "camp" was actually an old boarding school I think. The building was very pretty, and the kids seemed like they were having fun. Most of the counselors were male hippy-types around my age. I only talked to one of them, Nathan, from Portland. He had just finished hiking the Camino de Santiago 2 days before arriving at the camp. When I asked him where he lived, he didn't have an answer. At the camp for this week, I suppose. He was nice. It's weird how speaking American/Canadian English makes me feel closer to people now.

There was a small shake up at camp Monday night. One of the girls took someone's shampoo (the teachers all took care to point out that the girl whose shampoo it was is from South America) and wrote "hijo de punta" on the mirror (which means son of a bitch) and then spread the shampoo all over the floor. Pretty bold for a 5th grader.

After standing around with the kids for an hour or so, we took a walk around the town and then to a small hermitage before heading back to Entrena. See photos below.

inside the "camp"

in town

some of the kids waving from the camp

the walkway to the hermitage

outside the hermitage

the view

more of the view

the hermitage

San Sebastian

2009-02-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to San Sebastian for Saturday day and night and most of Sunday. It was an interesting trip; I´ll have to go back as a) it rained literally the entire time save for maybe and hour and fifteen minutes over the course of 30ish hours and b) Jennis´grandmother passed away on Saturday and she caught a train to Barcelona to catch a plane to the USA on Saturday after lunch.

So anyways, we had to wait until 10 minutes before 10 am to buy our bus tickets to San Sebastian because they weren´t sure if the buses would travel due to the snow. See below.

We drove alongside snow plows sometimes and then others we went about 40 mph on roads that were yet to be plowed. It was pretty.

When we arrived, we were picked up by Kara and her Basque boyfriend, Imanol, from the train station and dropped off at the hostal to deposit our bags. Then we headed to a tapas bar for lunch. The tapas (and food in general) in San Sebastian are rumored to be the best in Spain. The tapas were different from those in Logrono because in each bar there are maybe 15-30 different choices (as opposed to about 4) and most of them were some sort of bread topped with cream topped with seafood. In Logroño, they´re all about the meat on skewers.

After lunch, we fought the wind and rain and visited the Playa de La Concha. This is what the beach looks like on an ideal day in San Sebastian:

Even though it was freezing and horribly windy, people were still surfing. We walked the Hotel Londres, one of the luxury hotels on the beach, to drink a coffee, which was nice and elegant. Afterwards, we rushed to get Jennis on a train to Barcelona, which we did in a matter of about 60 minutes.

Then Kara, Imanol, and I took shelter from the weather in our hostal, where we rested until dinnertime. After dinner, we happened upon a large celebration to mark the beginning of Carnival that involved singing and drag. There were hundreds of men and women dressed as ¨gypsies¨and banging pots and pans and singing traditional Spanish and/or Basque songs. They were all gathered in a plaza, and on our side was a horse and carriage. The horse grew tired of the singing and the people, etc., and all of the sudden started bucking into the crowd, knocking over some speakers and generally scaring the beejesus out of everybody for a total of 20 seconds. Later, people continued to walk directly behind the horse, which seems like a bad idea anyways, regardless of previous behavior.

The singers then moved to the streets and formed multiple parades. Then, Kara, Imanol, and I sat in an Irish pub for a little while before going to bed around midnight. Trekking in rain and turning umbrellas right-side-out can really wear you down.

The next morning, Kara and I got breakfast a lovely pastry shop frequented by the owners of our hostal. Who, by the way, were the most adorable mother and daughter. If you are ever in San Sebastian, please stay at Bellas Artes. The daughter, who owns the hostal, was insistent that we see the nicest rooms and request them next time we stay there. AND she gave us a triple room for the price of a double. Below, see Kara and me in the owner´s favorite room. She was very enthusiastic about photographing us in the room.

I had a chocolate souflee for breakfast.

Kara and I spent Sunday walking around San Sebastian. We visited the other beach, which is apparently more for surfers, and ate some more tapas for lunch (see photo at top of post).

Madrid, Segovia, Toledo

2009-02-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

The second weekend after I returned to Spain, I had the pleasure of a US guest: the one and only Victoria. Her timing was perfect as I found myself to be missing home after returning to Spain. I met her in Madrid on Friday, January 15th. We met at our hostel after my cab driver reversed down several narrow streets and stopped the meter once because he was lost. And Victoria's plane had been delayed, which I found out the night before. But I didn't know that it was because of the crash landing in the Hudson. She flew US Airways and had boarded the plane and then had to deboard and wait while US Airways retrieved a different plane from the hangar. Apparenlty there was a minor problem with one of the fuel tanks, but US Airways didn't mention the Hudson incident.

So we met on Friday and promptly walked through the Plaza Mayor to a churreria for chocolate and churros. We spent the rest of the evening walking around and doing some lite shopping, and met up with my friend David, who is teaching English in Madrid, for dinner before turning in early.

On Saturday, we took the train to Segovia, which is just 40 or 30 minutes outside of Madrid. It was a beautiful day, and we helped a man from China who is living in Dusseldorf, Germany (also where one of my roommates is from), buy train tickets for him and his friends. He spoke English but not Spanish, and was very nice. Segovia was beautiful. Buses from the train station dropped us off at the entrance to the old part, marked by Roman aqueducts. I asked some American students at the top of the aqueduct to take mine and Victoria's picture, and they immediately started speaking in Spanish to each other as if it weren't really obvious that (1) they were Americans and thus speaking with American accents and (2) everyone in Segovia is a tourist.

first: the aqueduct
second: walking through town

After the aqueduct we walked to the other end of the old part to the Alcazar, a beautiful castle and one of our main reasons for visiting Segovia. We toured the inside before climbing one of the towers and taking pictures from the roof. I've decided that I really do not like spiral staircases. At all. And there was only one for both up and down. We were followed up by another large group of American students. Apparently our trip coincided with every other study-abroader's Madrid orientation and first weekend excursion to Segovia. We saw another group later in the day. Uggs and baseball caps are always a dead giveaway.

the view opposite the castle

the castle and some cars

one of the beautiful ceilings inside of the castle

the view from one of the castle windows

Segovia from the top of the castle

an exterior hallway

a book I wasn't supposed to photograph, but I really liked the calligraphy on the top of the page and no one was around

After the castle, we had a lovely 2 and a half hour lunch of seafood soup and stuffed routisserie chicken. Our waiter was really nice as well. We went into the cathedral after lunch, which was beautiful and gothic and colder than it was outside. And after that we just wandered around and drank coffee and killed time perusing stores. We left Segovia at about 7 or 8 pm.

the Plaza Mayor, I believe

more aqueducts

the cathedral at night

On Sunday, we ventured out of town again, this time to Toledo. I must say that Toledo is a very confusing city, and that everyone seems to prefer it over Segovia, but I'm not sure why. Our morning began with a 1.5 hour search for the tourism office. From the train station, we used an over-simplified map to the old portion of the city and needed another one as Toledo is a maze with hard-to-find street signs. We passed several main attractions along the way, and when we finally found the tourism office, the women inside were so nice and so helpful. Both Victoria and I bought some damasquinado earrings. We didn't partake in the city's other trademark, marzapan, although we did see a castle made from the food by nuns. Victoria successfully found out way to the Church of Santo Tome, where we entered at the beginning of an English tour guide's explanation of El Entierro del Senor de Orgaz by El Greco.

a bridge to the city

Victoria and her beloved castle-like structures

another view of the bridge

After that, I believe we ate a quick lunch and headed to the cathedral, which is Spain's second largest behind Sevilla's. It was absolutely beautiful and giant. Unfortunately, we had only 20 minutes to spend inside as we decided to take an earlier train back to see the Prado in Madrid.

the cathedral

Victoria after successfully finding the street we were looking for

a marzapan castle

We spent about an hour and a half in the Prado, and then I'm not sure what we did for dinner. On Monday, we slept in and ate a large lunch at a restaurant I had wanted to try last time I was in Madrid but the wait was about 2 hours then. After lunch, we met David at the Marc Jacobs store and wandered around the city and got coffee. Victoria and I had pizza for dinner and a glass of wine near our hostel and went to bed early.

Salamanca

2009-01-26T01:39:00.000-08:00

I went to Salamanca in mid-November for 3 nights with Jennis and Kara. We met up with my friend from UGA, Jane, and her roommate Rosie, who are both doing the program in Cadiz. Unfortunately, it's been over 2 months since this trip, so I'll spare you the misremembered details, but it was perhaps my favorite trip I've taken thus far. We stayed in an adorable hostel, and the town is beautiful. Plus everyone kept telling us that we would be freezing the entire time, and it really wasn't any colder than Logrono already was.

Jennis and Kara

Inside the cathedral

You are supposed to find a skull with a frog sitting on top in all this relief work. Then you will either make A's on your exams or getting married in a year. I found it after about 15 minutes; everyone else found it in about 5.

The famous Plaza Mayor is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in all of Spain and perhaps Europe as well.

The Plaza Mayor at night.

Jennis and me

Rosie, Jane, and me

We ate lunch on Saturday at what I believe was a former monastery. It was wonderful; we took about 2 and half hours and were the only non-Spanish people there.

The dining room at lunch.

Also on Saturday, we went to the roof of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral from the top. I'm more afraid of heights than I really remember.

Salamanca from the cathedral.

Our hostel. You can't tell how cute it is.

Absurdly adorable twin boys that Jennis and I stalked in the Plaza Mayor on Sunday morning.

Sculptures in the Plaza Mayor

Piso

2008-11-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

I really lucked out on my living situation here in Logrono as my apartment is cute, large, in a great location, and I really like my roommates AND they're far cleaner than I am. After paying to sleep somewhere for two weeks in Barcelona, Madrid, and finally Logrono, as well as living out of my 90 plus pound suitcase of summer clothes, I was really anxious to find a place to live when I arrived here. I stayed for one night in a Catholic girl's dorm a la the Exorcism of Emily Rose, and promptly relocated to a one-star hotel and then a pension.

I think on the Sunday after the Thursday that I arrived in Logrono, I made three appointments to look at apartments. Maybe it was only two, but regardless, I was in a hurry to find a place, and my over-the-phone Spanish skills are, well, not actually skills at all. I'm awful. Besides the point, I talked to my now-landlady first, Maria Jesusa, and she was really nice and seemed to ask me four or five times if I was a student, which I wasn't sure how to answer because I feel like people sometimes want to avoid renting to students. So I told her I had just graduated and she was really excited. I met her on Monday or something and looked first at the apartment that I now live, and I wanted to sign the lease then. Which might have just been laziness/anxiety. But I looked at one or two other apartments that day, and then called Maria Jesusa and moved in the next day.

I'll get to my roommates at the end of this post, but here is my best attempt at a "virtual tour." The first picture is, obviously, as you walk in. And so is the second one. How cute is our coatrack?
Above is our foyer and below is if you do a one-eighty and face our front door.

To the right in the photo above you enter our spacious living room/dining area pictured below:

Huge, I know. That is indeed my laundry on that drying rack. Spain is not a country of dryers, and since it rains almost everyday in the fall in Logrono, we have no choice but to display our garments in the living area. Also in the above photo is door to our smaller, street-facing balcony pictured in the two photos below.

So if you skip the den/dining area, you turn down the long hallway. That first door on the left is our one bathroom (there are 5 of us, and 2 are guys, and I've really never had a problem). My door is opposite the bathroom, and then there's a half-bath (currently non-functioning) right next door to the full bath.

Above, the bathroom. Below, my bedroom. It's very small, but I like it AND my landlady knocked 20 euros/month off of my rent. I was the last one to move in. Note the purple pillowcase I bought at Zara Home (along with the rest of my sheets that you can't see).

Below are two views of the kitchen. From the top one, along the right side are four floor-to-ceiling pantry doors. We do have a toaster and a microwave, but we do not have a dishwasher (which is common, of course) or a freezer that is not literally a block of ice on the inside. The door you see below is to a large terrace. The view isn't beautiful or anything, but I think it's cool. It faces the back terraces of the buildings a few meters away. It 's really nice to sit on when the weather is nice.

The washing machines are in the kitchens here for the most part. As you can see.

Now for my roommates: in the first two pictures, it's Robin, Sylvie, and Jennis (who doesn't live with me). And then in third picture it's Sascha, Sylvie, and Robin, who are all my roommates, and then Sylvie's mom, who came to visit a few weeks ago. Not pictured is Vanessa, our Spanish roommate. She's really cute and nice from what I can tell, but she works in Pamplona so she doesn't get home until late and then she always goes home to Burgos for the weekends, which seems pretty typical. I'm also kind of afraid to ask to take a photo of her because I don't know her that well (language barrier, etc.) and it's weird enough that I have a blog, much less that I'm putting pictures of other people on it. And then talking about them.

Sascha, Robin, and Sylvie are all from around the same area of Germany. Robin and Sylvie are Erasmus students, and Sascha is doing some exchange program. He's 19 and just out of high school (they have an extra year in Germany) and plays football (soccer), and sometimes does things that highlight the fact that he's only lived with his family that picks up after him and that he's slightly sexist. But overall, he's pretty nice. He lived in Dallas for a year during high school, so he speaks practically perfect English.

Sylvie and Robin are studying Spanish at their universities and they go to university together and came to Spain together, etc. They're both really cool and nice, and we are all the same age. Sylvie also lived in the US for a year, in Boston as an au pair, and has some pretty funny stories about her host mom and her obsession with the Weight Watcher's points system. She was Amy Winehouse for Halloween and I've seen pictures and she looked hilarious. The eye makeup was perfect and she made an effort to look really strung out in every photograph (although in real life, of course, she was not).

Robin is really nice, too. He's pretty quiet, so for a few weeks I always wanted to hang out with him, but found it kind of difficult. But then one day, he discovered that you could see other people's music on iTunes and he knocked on my door and we talked about music for a while. I'm really into hanging out with them. Last night Sylvie and I ate chocolate on my bed and looked at Google images of Germany for an hour or so. The three of us are going to start reading Spanish books together to improve our language aquisition. That is the one downside of living here--I don't speak Spanish except to Vanessa and she's hardly ever around. But both Robin and Sylvie are exceptionally clean, and I am really enjoying getting to know them.

I posted two of essentially the same photo because you can't tell how pretty/adorable Sylvie/Robin are in one or the other.

(The flourescent lighting in our kitchen is pretty bad.)

Tuesdays

2008-11-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

My father has requested more information on my everyday life in Logrono, so I´m starting with my job here. I´m teaching English in several schools in pueblos outside of Logrono. My role in the classroom is pretty maleable, but mainly it´s to expose the children to a native speaker of English.

Contrary to popular thought (or really just what I thought), not everyone in Europe is bilingual. In fact, I am going to just make the blanket statement that most Spaniards only speak Castellano (what we call ¨Spanish¨) unless they live in the Basque Country or Catalunya (or one other place that I can't remember), and then they speak both Castellano and either Basque or Catalan. So the children I teach are learning English from non-native speakers, meaning the teachers have very strong Spanish accents. Many of the English teachers here speak to me in Spanish because they are embarrassed of their English, and they all complain about how poor the English education is in Spain. I must agree, but also acknowledge the fact that I didn´t start learning Spanish until I was 14 and that most US citizens feel content just to know English. So this program I´m participating in is a good one and hopefully it will get bigger with time, as I only see most of the students once a week if even that frequently.

I´m not a particularly good teacher I don´t think, but the students seem to like me. I´m rather inefficient at passing things out and other stuff you don´t think about but that takes time away from class. By Thursdays, though, I usually run a better lesson. Unlike some of the auxiliares here, my schools are really enthusiastic and thrilled to have me in the classroom, and I´m given more responsibility. Basically, I am the teacher for the day that I´m there. I don´t have to discipline the students but I do have to entertain them and try to get them to speak English for an hour each period. It´s a small task considering that it´s what allows me to live in Spain, but sometimes I take it too seriously and get annoyed at myself when activities go wrong.

Another thing to explain is the Spanish school day. Because I teach in pueblos, the school day is still broken up by siesta. In many places, the schools have switched to a 9 to 2 schedule or something that reasonably resembles that. My school days start usually between 9:30 and 10:00 am with a half hour coffee break (for the teachers, recess for the kids) around 11:30 and then a 2 hour break from 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon. Most of the children go home for lunch/siesta and are returned to school by a parent. Some stay at school and eat lunch from 1:00 to 2:00. Then the teachers eat lunch from 2:00 to 3:00. Every meal is 3 courses: a soup, a meat, and fruit and yogurt. We usually eat for about 35 minutes and then go to a cafe and have more coffee for 15 or 20 minutes before the children come back and class resumes from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. I eat lunch with the teachers at my schools on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I really enjoy it.

Okay, so Tuesdays. I really enjoy Tuesdays because I get to go to three different pueblos everyday. I teach in a CRA (CRA Moncalvillo to be exact http://www.cramoncalvillo.org/), which is a rural school system with schools in five pueblos. One of the schools only has seven children. The morning begins at 9 when I meet Rosa outside of the place she does yoga, and we drive to Nalda in time to start class at 9:30. My first class is an hour with fourth graders (I think?) and there are 9 students. One of the kids, Juan, is the son of a Canadian man, so he speaks perfect English and Spanish, which can be frustrating at times as he is also a 9-year-old boy and likes to contradict me. But other than that the children are well-behaved and the view from the classroom is really pretty.

This isn't even the view from the classroom in Nalda. I've yet to take a photo of that. You can't really see it, but on the closest slope, there is a medieval structure that no one knows what it is. They think it's a hermitage.

An old photo of Nalda that I didn't take.

I didn't take this one either. I think it's a view from Nalda.

After class, I have coffee with Rosa, and the two other English teachers, Mirian and Bea. Apparently Nalda is a very politically divided town, and everyone knows whether you are a liberal or a conservative. They were explaining the situation a few weeks ago, but I didn't understand. I'll have to ask about it again. But we go to the "conservative" cafe. Hopefully only because it's across the street from the school.

After coffee, I go to a different school every week. Either Sorzano, Viguera, or Medrano. These schools are all very small. Viguera is gorgeous. It's considered the gateway to the mountains in La Rioja, and the school is adjacent to an old church.

Another photo I didn't take; this one's of Viguera.

I took the two above from the windows of the classroom.

Someone else's view from Viguera. I couldn't really find photos of Sorzano or Medrano, but there is a great casa rural that we park in front of in Sorzano. You must look: www.casajosephine.com.

From the alternating schools, I go to Entrena for the afternoon, and I do this every Tuesday. You have to drive up a hill a little ways to get to Entrena and then on the way you drive on a plateau with vineyards and it's beautiful. In Entrena, I have an hour of nothing before lunch, but now Rosa is organizing a group of teachers and I am going to help them learn more colloquial English. They are going to pay me. Rosa is just so amazing. She's always looking out for my well-being, and she was like, well you have this hour at our school (I'm supposed to teach 4 hours a day, but I have to stay at the schools for 8 hours because they are outside of Logrono) and you aren't making money when you could be, so we will pay you to teach the English teachers.

So after that hour, I eat lunch with the other teachers from the whole CRA (not as many as you'd think, maybe 12) and we get coffee at this really funny cafe where there are only old men inside. Actually that's most cafe's here during the day.

After lunch, I teach a sixth grade class. There's a large concentration of interesting haircuts in this particular class. One little girl has shoulder length hair but the crown of her head has really short, spiked, boyish hair. It's like a pixie cut with a 2.5 inch radius on the top of her head and then everything else is just standard girl hair. I have no idea who thought of that one. And then of course there's the obligatory rat tail and maybe a mohawk or two. So normal here.

Then I teach a class that's third and fourth grade. It's huge--maybe 24 students--and they're all really cute and funny and like to run and hug me when I walk into the room. Then school ends at 5:00 and I ride back into Logrono with a teacher named Christina. My only complaint about Tuesday is that I don't get to stay in each pueblo longer, and they are all the prettiest pueblos of the week. I would really like an hour to walk around each one. But maybe one day.

Both Entrena, neither mine.

Riojan Road Trip

2008-11-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

the view from Laguardia

NOTE: I am coming down with a cold and I've noticed that my English is deteriorating (both in writing and in speech) so please forgive the lack of sentence variety and whatever else makes something easy to read. The pictures are the most important part, no?

Yesterday Jennis and I rented a car and drove through the northern part of La Rioja and the sourthern part of the Basque country where Riojan wine is produced. Our car was the smallest, greenest car I've every seen but very cute and wonderful for our purposes. Jennis is an excellent stickshift driver (no one here uses automatics) and parallel parker. And our timing was perfect: the day was absolutely beautiful after almost two weeks of rain in La Rioja, and the leaves of the vines have changed colors. We spent most of the day without plans just driving from one pueblo to the next, trying to find the best view and occassionally something to eat. Our only plan was to meet Rosa, the vice principle at one of my schools and the woman who has been taking care of everything I need since June, at the pueblo where she grew up to see her family's bodega.

We started our morning in Laguardia, which is part of the Basque Country and had a beautiful view. We spotted a town nearby while overlooking the vineyards and decided to drive there. The town was called Elvillar and the roads to get there were indulgent almost-switchbacks through vineyards. We walked around a bit before heading for El Ciego, where Frank Ghery designed a bodega/hotel for Marques de Riscal. I wasn't impressed by his work there; it looked like the Guggenheim only some of the metal was bright purple (for grapes?) and you can see too much of the building that isn't covered in metal waves. Plus, our requests for a tour were rejected--apparently you have to make reservations in advance. So we drove closer into the town of El Ciego where we ate a tapa at a bar where they gawked silently at our English speaking and then we stopped at an Enoteca for a glass of wine. It was a most enjoyable experience and we stood outside with the other 20 people who were having midday glasses in the sun. Jennis spotted a really pretty group of vines growing on some cube structure where we parked out car too.

first: a park in Laguardia
second: approaching Elvillar
third: on the road
fourth: vines in the parking lot, El Ciego

After El Ciego, we drove to Cenicero (which means "ashtray" in Spanish). We couldn't find lunch there and it wasn't as pretty as expected so we moved on to Briones, a mideival town that everyone has said was so pretty. It was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to go inside the cathedral. I'll have to go back because we couldn't spend enough time there; we were meeting Rosa in Rodezno, her pueblo, around 4:00 pm and we only arrived in Briones at 3:00.

first: a bull on the highway
second: the cathedral in Briones
third: inside the cathedral
fourth: more Briones

So after walking around for an hour, we drove to Rodezno, where Rosa picked us up at the cathedral. She drove us a kilometer or so out of town to a hill where families own small bodegas. These bodegas are comparable to lake houses: a second home where families get together for meals and make wine in small amounts for friends and families. Rosa's mother and sister-and-law were at the bodega, which had a dining room with a long table and a fire place, and wine cellar. We ate some cod cooked Riojan style and some chorrizo and tried the wine that they make there. It was Rosa's mother's birthday so we also enjoyed coffee and champagne and some small pastries. Rosa and her family were so welcoming and they showed us how they make wine there and we sat and talked by the fire and enjoyed the view from the bodega. Kelly, another American who studied abroad in Logrono a few years ago and moved back last year, met us at the bodega along with her Spanish boyfriend, Jorge. Rosa took us for a walk up the hill of bodegas to a field of grape vines which is actually now owned by a huge bodega that everyone in Rodezno opposes. Then we visited her sister-in-law's bodega that is bigger and has a hundreds of year old wooden barrel for wine storage that they don't use anymore.

After that, Rosa drove Jennis, Jorge, Kelly, and I down the hill to Rodezno proper and we visited the cathedral as everyone was leaving mass. An older Spanish woman explained a story about Eric the Belgian, a very famous relic theif from the 1960s who robbed several Spanish churches of priceless objects and then later "repented" and charged them to return the relics. Apparently he had stolen something from the church in Rodezno as well, I can't remember what though.

We said our goodbyes to Rosa, and then followed Jorge and Kelly to Haro, a famous wine town in La Rioja, for tapas. It was fun there but our first tapa filled us up and it was getting cold, so Jennis and I returned to Lorgono within an hour.

Rosa and me

Rosa's mother and Jennis

the view from Rosa's bodega

inside the bodega

Rosa explaining how they make the wine

fermenting wine

Rodezno from the bodega

Jorge, Rosa, Jennis, and Kelly walking uphill

vines at night

People eat white asparagus here and it's disgusting. This is some "white asparagus" made of chocolate which might actually be grosser than the real thing. We found it in the window of a candy store in Haro.

Barcelona Redux

2008-11-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

I returned to Barcelona for Halloween weekend from Friday, October 31 to Monday, November 3. I stayed with Jennis at the flat her father owns there. It was really relaxing to stay in a home and know that we can come back and see everything we didn´t see this time. And it was great to go with a someone who has been to Barcelona before (Jennis lived there for 9 months in college and has been coming to Spain every summer since she was 11).

We bought our train tickets a month before because they were on sale. Our first train left Logrono at 4:04 am and arrived in Zaragosa at 5:55 am, and then we took the high speed AVE from Zaragosa at 6:57 and arrived in Barcelona around 9:00 am. It was a ridiculous itinerary, mostly because we decided not to stay up all night on Thursday night before leaving Friday morning. So we went to sleep at about 12:30 am on Thursday night/Friday morning and woke up at 3:00 am. Fortunately, Jennis lives across the street from the train station and she has a trundle bed so I stayed with her. We arrived at the train station over 20 minutes early. I´ve decided that train stations at night are creepy. When we boarded the train, there was a guy asleep in our car and he was blocking the door so that was a bit awkward, but other than that the train ride to Zaragosa was uneventful save for our paranoia that we would fall asleep and miss our stop. The AVE ride from Zaragosa to Barcelona was lovely; I listened to Vince Guaraldi and watched the sunrise between falling asleep.

When we arrived in Barcelona, we immediately went to sleep. I slept until about 2 pm and then we ate lunch at a place below us and wandered around Born, where Jennis´ dad´s place is. The restaurant where we ate lunch is called Il Pasatore and it has a menu del dia (starter, main course, dessert, and water or wine) for €6.90! Incredible, I know. And it´s actually good food.

It rained on Friday and we went on a rather jarring shopping adventure. We were looking for a slip for me and these Geox boots for Jennis, but along the way I had a woman tell me that I wear a size XXL American, and Jennis got kicked by an Italian man because she wouldn´t give him 50 cents. That was actually depressing and awful. The stores are full from about 6 to 9 pm here, so we were leaving an overwhelming department store and there were a lot of people around and we were on La Rambla, the huge touristy street in Barcelona. And this guy we passed asked Jennis for money and she just said no and turned away and then he kicked her shin really hard and called her a bitch and a whore in Italian. We turned around and just stood there, completely shocked. No one around us said or did anything and neither did we.

We went back to the apartment empty handed and got ready to eat dinner and go out. Fortunately, our evening got better. We ate at a crepes place where we met a group of Argentinians, one of whom was a graphic designer in Buenos Aires, I believe. We then walked to Barceloneta (the area near the ocean) and ended up spending the rest of the night at a place called Diobar. It was incredibly fun; we danced to Michael Jackson-y music and met a group of people from Milan who were living in Barcelona.

On Saturday, we woke up late and wondered around Born and tried to eat lunch at La Boqueria, a huge market, but it was closed because it was All Saint's Day or something? So we got french fries at McDonald's instead and had our first Top Shop experience.

first: Caracoles, a famous restaurant (we didn't eat there this time)
second: the upper (less touristy) portion of La Rambla

We continued walking up La Rambla passing several Gaudi buildings and then we ended up in Gracia, an area in Barcelona that is very neighborhoody and lovely. We wondered around until about 6:30 when we got coffee and a call from one of the Italians from the night before inviting us to a dinner and post-Halloween party. On our way back to Born from Gracia we encountered a small outdoor concert and several older Catalan people dancing La Sardana, a Catalan folk dance that I believe was outlawed during Franco's reign. It was really cool and the Sardana band was great. I managed to get a little video of it.

first: Gaudi's Casa Batllo
second: a view of the ceiling of Gaudi's La Pedrera
third: a plaza in Gracia
fourth: dancing La Sardana

We met the Milanese group in front of Jennis' apartment and walked a short ways to the dinner party behind the Arc de Triumph. The party was really fun and everyone there was super nice and cute and welcoming. If I lived in Barcelona, I would want to be real friends with these people. Most were dressed up. No one in Spain really celebrates Halloween and when they do, they dress up as zombies or witches or just the typical scary/spooky stuff. So there was some zombie makeup available to everyone. A few of the girls were dressed as the twins from The Shining. Almost everyone there was Italian and most were from Milan. And most didn't speak Spanish, only English. Someone's friend had rented a bar in northern Barcelona, so after a dinner of a few shared frozen pizzas, we relocated to the bar which was also really fun. Jennis and I were without a doubt the only Americans there, and on a projector screen, the bar played a bunch of clearly google-image-searched photos from American horror films.

On Sunday, Jennis and I ate kebabs at a place near her house and then we parted ways for a few hours. She went to meet up with a woman who might be able to get her a job in Barcelona next year, and I went to a cafe I had been to my first time in Barcelona to use their wireless and have a coffee. We met up again at 5:00 pm and took a long walk around Barceloneta to the beach before heading home and getting ready for dinner. We ate at a chic but mediocre fast noodle place before we drank mojitos at a bar that has the best mojitos in Barcelona.

The Mediterranean from Barceloneta

We spent Monday morning cleaning the apartment and walking around Born some more. Of course the weather was perfect for the first time all weekend, but we had to leave for the train station at about 3:00 pm. We visited a really great design bookstore before lunch and I found a few books that I might need.

first: Born and I believe the Church of Santa Maria del Mar
second: the view from the back of Jennis' apartment
third: a cute chocolate shop we walked into
fourth: a green shadow made by the pharmacy cross (how artsy)

Bilbao

2008-10-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

I went to Bilbao for the day on Saturday with Jennis. We met Kara (living in Burgos) and Imanol, Kara's Basque boy from San Sebastian. Our bus left at 8:30 on Saturday morning, and now that I am paranoid about missing my bus, I woke up extra early. Fortunately I made it on time as did Jennis. We were a bit unexcited about the bus ride because we had tickets on the pueblo bus, which means, as you might guess, that the bus stops at multiple pueblos along the way. I am totally taking the pueblo bus every time. We stopped in Laguardia, Haro, and some other town that starts with an A and we passed several other pueblos. The views of the vineyards and the mountains were incredible, and even more so because the sun was just coming up. I took some video footage but it might be nausea-inducing since it's from a bus. Needless to say, it was a pleasant 2 hour bus ride to Bilbao.

We met Kara at the bus station and then just started walking towards the old part of town. The only thing I had heard about Bilbao was from my roommates, and that was that Bilbao is an ugly city. True, parts of it are ugly, but I feel like cities are allowed a little ugliness. The old part of Bilbao is really pretty and you can almost always see the mountains surrounding the city. The buildings are very staggered. I'm not sure how to describe it in words except I suppose that cities on hills are always like that. We walked to the old town and stopped into a cafe just across from the cathedral for breakfast and a much needed coffee. We had tortillas, which in Spain are not just flat circles of bread. It's similar to a potato omelette only it's cut like a quiche. Jennis and Kara noticed a large number of people overdressed for 10 am, and we decided that there must be a wedding at the cathedral across from us. We searched for the bride but she hadn't arrived yet, so we stopped into a Mango outlet. Right when we came out, we saw a volvo with white flowers on the windsheild pulling up in front of the cathedral, and out came the bride. She was, of course, beautiful, and it was really romantic and the bells rang when she walked into the cathedral and everyone was standing around watching her. Including a very strange and large camera crew we decided had nothing to do with the wedding as we saw them interviewing a storeowner down the street.

first: the bride
second: approaching the cathedral

We continued to walk through the old portion of town, and I really wanted to find a place to get a view of the city. We came upon a plaza with a large staircase at one end and decided to climb. We probably walked up 500 steps until we reached a park overlooking the city. The part of the park we found also had a football (soccer) field and an informal game was in session. We sat on a ledge overlooking the court for a while until Imanol called to say that he was parking (he drove from San Sebastian). We walked down the stairs and returned to the plaza where we sat at a wonderfully sunny cafe and had still more coffee and waited for Imanol. Once he joined us, we walked into the market as it was closing. Dad, you would have loved it. They sell everything there. And by everything, I mean every part of an animal and many animals whole. Immediately to the left of the entrance was a meat stand with 2 skinned pig heads and a baby pig in the counter. An entire dead baby pig costs 11.22 euros. We saw a lot of huge cow tongues and you could still see the tastebuds. We also saw whole unskinned rabbits hanging by their feet, uncooked cow brains, and an entire octopus with it's tentacles hanging out of the bin it was in. It was very fascinating. I can't believe that people know what to do with a whole fish or how to skin an animal. I like my food a little more removed from its former self. I only took one photograph because it would have been really touristy and disrespectful maybe to take one of everything, but I really really wanted to.

first: a plaza (I don't know the names of anything in Bilbao)
second: football match (?) and view from the park
third: Jennis at a cafe
fourth: the market, pigs's heads included.

After that, we set out in search of lunch (we basically ate and walked all day). It was a long process, but we ended up sitting in direct sunlight in one of the plazas (it was uncharacteristically warm and sunny in Bilbao on Saturday) and had tapas: cheese, chroquettes, iberian ham, chorizzo, and fried calamari. After lunch, we wandered to the Guggenheim, which was spectacular. We only went in to use the restroom because we didn't have enough time to see the museum properly, but we did a pretty thorough job of seeing the outside. There is a giant dog topiary by Jeff Koons in front of the building. And you can see the museum from a distance down the street off Gran Via, so the approach is nice. Jennis and I were sitting on the river side of the museum when a group of Brazilian men passed us all wearing matching parkas. The last man, Eduardo, asked if he could take our photograph? Jennis told him no, that we didn't know him, but then we introduced ourselves and he took our picture and told us we were "bellisima" or something to that effect. It was funny if a little strange, and we saw them later and they called out "hey, amigas de Eduardo." On the river side of the museum, there is a really tall bridge and you can take stairs up to it because there is a pedestrian path. That was scary, but I did it, and we all wandered over to an outdoor cafe right beside the museum. There were one million children there. Spanish children are dressed very well by their parents and they don't speak English which makes them slightly more tolerable than American children.

After another coffee, we walked Kara to the bus station as she had to leave at 7 pm, an hour before Jennnis. We said our goodbyes, bought our 8 pm bus tickets, and hung around the bus station (which is much less of a shady activity than it would be in the United States). We took a short walk to kill time, and I actually ran into one of my roommates, Sylvie. She and her boyfriend had just arrived in Bilbao from Logrono because he was returning to Germany early this morning. So that was strange to happen upon someone we knew. The bus ride home was nice as well. Practically everyone got off at the Haro stop so after the first hour, we were able to lean our seats back.

first: approaching the Guggenheim
second: the museum and the Koons
third: Kara, Imanol, and Jennis
fourth: me, Jennis, and Kara
fifth: the museum from under the bridge
sixth: on the way to the bus station

Burgos

2008-10-19T08:15:00.001-07:00

My Logrono post will have to wait because I just got back into town from Burgos and I had so much fun. It was the first time since I've arrived that I was really really genuinely glad I'm in Spain right now. I have no idea how I am going to see everything in just 9 months.

In Logrono on Friday, Jennis (the other girl from Birmingham) and I went to the necessary offices to get the forms to make the appointments to get the cards to extend our visas. I walked to the bus station in Logrono and bought a ticket for 5:15 pm, which isn't bad but I'd rather have left earlier. So I returned to my apartment to cook some lunch and pack and hang out for a few hours, but then it was suddenly 5:05. The bus station is about 10 minutes away from my apartment, but I managed to get lost and ended up at the train station instead. And it was raining and I was wearing my new boots which I'm not quite used to, and by the time I finally reoriented myself and found the bus station, I was just in time to see my bus pulling out of the carport area. So I spent another 7 euros to get a ticket for 7:30. I was really annoyed with myself and I had left my keys in my apartment, but fortunately my roommates were home.

Fortunately the trip only got better. I got to the bus station 30 minutes early just to be safe. I ended up sitting next to a delightful Spanish girl. We didn't talk until the last 30 minutes of the ride when she asked me if I was burning up (I was). She had actually studied architecture at UC-Davis and is continuing her PhD in Zaragosa but goes home to Burgos every weekend (which seems very common here, going home for the weekend every weekend even if you're in your late 20s). She gave me recommendations on where to eat, and we talked about hamburgers. It was really nice.

I arrived in Burgos at 9:30 pm and my friends Kara (from Palo Alto, lived in Logrono last year and is repeating the program this year in Burgos), John (from Liverpool [I think], doing the program in Burgos), Abby (doing the program in Logrono for the second year and visiting Burgos), and one of the teachers from Kara's school were there waiting for me. We walked to a charming pizza restaurant with a train track along the ceiling and a toy train that came around every once in a while. Everyone was pretty tired, so we walked to John's nice new flat that he is sharing with a police officer named Raquel to watch Love Actually.

The next morning, we stopped at Al Campo, Spain's equivalent to Wal-Mart, where I bought a pack of 6 Snickers for 2.89 (which is really exciting to me; I'm always looking for Snickers), and then took the bus into the center to Kara's apartment. From there, we walked by the beautiful Gothic cathedral and took the stairs to a cafe that has a great view of the city. I'm also always looking for views, but haven't been having much luck except for this time. We had coffee and then went out in search of lunch.

first: I believe this is the Plaza Mayor

second: the streets of Burgos
third: a view of the city
fourth: Kara, Abby, and me
fifth: one of the two rivers that runs through the center

We ran into 3 other English girls in the program who were visiting Burgos and we all sat down to a menu del dia. I tried some of the morcilla (sausage made of rice and congealed pig's blood; it's black) that Abby and John ordered. It could be good if you didn't know what it was. At about 5:15 we met another teacher from Kara's school, Bea, and her boyfriend (Raul, I think) and their friend Javier to drive a little ways out of town and see two monasteries. It was, of course, incredible. Bea, Raul, and Javier were so nice to chaufer us and then they even hung out with us afterwards.

The first monastery we went to was open, so we got to see the sanctuary. It has perhaps the most ornate altar piece I have ever seen. It's also where the parents of Isabella (as in Ferdinand and) are buried. The monks there distill a beverage that's called Chartreuse. It's 71% alcohol. It seems really strange to me that that is what they do.

first: a view of the cathedral

second: a portion of the altar piece; the gold is much more impressive in person
third: the tomb of Juan II and Isabel de Portugal

The next monastery was closed when we got there, but it's where Bea's father was a monk or something before he left and had 5 children. Apparently it's also where the bones of El Cid's horse were found. Both Bea and Raul knew all about these two monasteries and a lot about Burgos so it was almost like a guided tour. The drives to both places were incredible with rolling hills and sunflowers. I'm including a short video because all of the still photos are awful.

After returning to town, we had chocolate and churros (fried dough), which I hadn't had before. The chocolate here is not at all like the hot chocolate at home. It's basically a melted chocolate bar in a cup and it's so rich and wonderful, and then you dip your churros in it. Amazing.
We continued eating for the next few hours, getting tapas at several places in the center of town before heading to a dance club. It was a really nice night. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend, by the way, even though weather.com predicted rain and a high of 50 the whole time.

first: chocolate y churros
second: tapas of quail eggs and chorrizo and red peppers

This morning, we met Jennis (who was in Burgos with the family and friends of her Catalunyan stepmother) for coffee and wondering around for a bit before the 2 pm bus. We went into a museum, but I'm not sure what it was called. It was all works by one Spanish painter during the Impressionism era. There were some nice sketches. The bus ride back to Logrono was nice. Jennis and I sat together and swapped ipods.

first: the courtyard outside of the museum

second: the museum

Madrid

2008-10-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

I left Barcelona on a Thursday, and took the AVE to Madrid. The AVE is Spain's (new?) high speed train and it is absolutely wonderful. Each car had a mirrored LED screen that would show the time every few seconds. The highest I saw was 301 km/hr. Everything is just so nice and new. I'm taking the AVE back to Barcelona for Halloween, and I'm equally as excited about riding the train as I am about being in Barcelona. Is that sad?

So, Madrid was fun. I arrived at my hostel and the nice man at the front desk carried my deceptively heavy suitcase up to my room on the fourth floor. I then proceeded to use the free wi-fi (or wee-fee as they say here) in the lobby for about an hour and a half because I hadn't had unlimited internet since my arrival. I'm pretty sure everyone in the hostel thought I was so lame because they either saw me checking my email for hours or sneaking into my room with McDonald's. Anyways, after the internet, I decided to take a nap and wait for Jane's (a friend from UGA) arrival around 5 or 6 pm. I was near starving as I had only eaten a pack of oreos from the Barcelona train station that day. I took a nap, and decided still to wait out the hunger until Jane got there. After 3 hours and a frantic email to Jane asking if she was indeed alive, I decided I was going to die myself if I didn't leave for food. I walked out of the hostel and, fortuitously, was greeted by a taxi and Jane and Jane's luggage. We hauled everything upstairs and went in search of food with this Auburn guy (I know, Alabamians are everywhere I've decided) Jane met on the plane.

The next day we explored the Royal Palace and it's armory, which had amazing armored horses and one king's (I'm not sure which one?) impecably crafted armor. There must have been 150 suits for him alone, and many were absolutely beautiful. We had Thai for lunch and then wondered around the Parque de Buen Retiro, which was lovely.

first: the Royal Palace
second: Jane and me at the Royal Palace
third: a monument to the victims of the Madrid subway bombing in the Parque de Buen Retiro;
fourth: I'll have to look up the name of this one

Jane left the next morning and I moved to a single room in my hostel. I think I also tried on every jacket in all the Zara's I passed that day. Being the genius I am, I packed a summer wardrobe to live in northern Spain. It's something I'm still hating myself for today. The next few days and three nights were unremarkable. I did go to the Prado. It took me four hours to get through the top floor (I splurged on the automated tour guide), and I really enjoyed seeing the Velazquezes and Goyas more than I thought I would, but I had to leave because I was saturated. I ate McDonald's two nights in a row (you can't get food to go here) and watched all of the episodes of MadMen I had purchased in Birmingham. It's a good show. One of the days, I met up with Phillip's friend David, who is living in Madrid, for a walking mini-tour of the city and a huge, cheap steak. I also had Asian fusion and gelato with him the night before orientation started. Oh, and I went to the Reina Sofia at night, and I've decided that I really like going to museums at night. Guernica was there, as well as many of the preliminary prints and drawings for the painting. I'm beginning to be more and more fascinated by the Spanish Civil War. I'm about a third of the way through For Whom the Bell Tolls.

first: the Caixa Forum
second: glass elevators at the Reina Sofia
third: the Madrid Atocha train station near the Reina Sofia

After 3 nights alone in the city, I met Ben and Abby (they did the program last year in Logrono and are here for the second year) in the lobby of my hostel and Ben kindly carried my bag through the Madrid subway system, which is notably short of elevators and escalators. The hotel for orientation was nice. We dropped of our stuff and then a huge group went to lunch at another Thai restaurant (strange, no?) and then we wandered around for four hours in search of an American goods store at someone's request. I bought a Halloween Reese's cup once we finally found it. A Spanish woman in line in front of me spent 452 Euros on who even knows what. Halloween candy and pancake mix is what it looked like to me. Obviously there was more, but it was bizarre. Dinner was provided by the hotel and then a group went out for wine.

The next day was all about Spanish education and the program and really everything I hadn't even considered when I decided to come here. It was a bit overwhelming having all of the details of your visa and insurance information explained to you in rapid Spanish. That night, we met up with someone's friend who is living in Madrid and a bunch of people he knew and some Australians. It was delightful, and Phillip's friend David met up with us.

The next day, I rushed to check out by noon and then got pizza for lunch, and headed to the train station later in the afternoon. The train ride to Logrono about 3.5 hours and when we got there, it was dark. I was really excited to see what this place was going to be like. Spain in my mind had heretofore been Andalucia (which I've also never been to), so northern Spain was/still is mysterious to me. Rosa, this exceptionally kind woman who is a vice principal at one of the schools where I teach, picked me up from the train station. I cannot even explain how wonderful this woman is. Really, I can't.

My first night in Logrono was semi-miserable and I cried of homesickness for the first time since being in Spain. So I'll skip that. I'm headed to Burgos for two nights to visit other people in the program and begin my travels throughout Spain. Soon I will put up photos of my schools and Logrono, etc.

Barcelona

2008-10-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

I will have been in Spain for three weeks today (Sunday), so I suppose it is time to start a blog. I haven't been writing down anything that I've done, but I do have some photographs, so I will start with Barcelona, where I arrived on September 20th, and continue to Madrid and finally to Logroño. I won't go into too much detail because otherwise this first post would be dreadfully long. (Actually this turned out to be really long. I'm going to have to add Madrid and Logroño later today or tomorrow.)

I don't exactly remember all of my first day in Barcelona because I don't think I slept on the plane, or at least not very well. I met Shannon (a former roommate from Georgia who was visiting Spain) and her boyfriend John at Hotel Regencia Colon after an uneventful arrival at the Barcelona airport. From there we started trekking around the city. Our first stop was MACBA, the contemporary art museum in Barcelona. I think the language barrier inhibited any appreciation of the art they had to offer. Then, I ate a chicken crepe at a cafe before we ended up at the Sagrada Familia.

MACBA

Skateboard art outside of MACBA (for you, Will!)

A dark picture of Shannon in MACBA.

chicken crepe

Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia was absolutely incredible. They still have a ton of work left to do on it, but we were able to go inside (for the price of 12 euros, I think) and we climbed one of the towers, from which you could see a great view of the city. On our way down, we encountered a slightly terrifying spiral staircase (I have now encountered 3 terrifying staircases here) that were really narrow and long with no interior railing. But we're still alive, so I guess it wasn't that bad. I think we had pizza for dinner that night and went to bed early.

John, Shannon, and me

inside the church

the view from one of the towers

construction

The next day we walked to Port Vell and got caught in the rain without umbrellas. It was one of the less fun days in the city, but that night we ate tapas at Quimet i Quimet. They were good and very adventurous for me. We had salmon, cream cheese, and honey on bread. The waiter was very patient with my lack of Spanish food vocabulary, and I think John ordered an apricot with a anchovies and honey on top. Then we walked down La Rambla back to our hotel room. We encountered a band of hippies with bongos on the way that were making some sort of impromptu dance parade. It was neat, but I don't have any pictures.

me, Shannon, and Picasso on the way to the port

Port Vell and rainJohn and tapas at Quimet i Quimet

The next day, we went to the Picasso Museum. I really liked seeing his early works and drawings. It started raining right as we left, but we fortunately stumbled upon a store that sold only umbrellas, so problem solved. We then went to the Catalan history museum, where Shannon tried on armor. After lunch at the Maritime Museum restaurant, we trekked to Park Guell. It was quite a climb, and I found out later that there is an escalator from one metro stop to the park. The park was less green than I expected but still cool. The second terrifying staircase was here. At the very very top of the park is a round stone structure possibly 2 stories high with a narrow spiral staircase running along the outside with no exterior railing. It was a trick to get down. We met a friend of a friend for an Iraqi dinner that night. I had meatballs in yogurt; very good but also incredibly salty. Then we went to a bar whose name I can't remember but reminded me of an Athens bar. They played Madonna music videos on a projector screen.Shannon in her armor

the view from the park
entering the park

Our last full day in Barcelona we went to another park and then Shannon and I went to Museu Frederic Mares, a man who basically collected for a living. There was soooo much just stuff in there. Everything from gothic archways taken entirely out of their original location to hundreds of novelty tobacco pipes and ladies fans and these weird bouquets in bell jars with flowers made of shells. I didn't know what alot of the stuff we saw even was and all of the information was in Catalan. It was interesting, but we didn't make it through the whole thing due to museum exhaustion. I'm not sure what else we did that day, but for dinner, we went to Barceloneta (by the ocean) and had paella (mine was with lobster) at an outdoor restaurant. Then we walked through a carnival and got gelato before going to bed.