So this weekend was our program trip to La Rioja and País Vasco, two regions in the north of Spain. I'm sure you're sick and tired of hearing me tell you how beautiful all these places are, but that's really just too damn bad for you. Our first day, after waiting about 4 hours for our bus to come, we headed off on our 3ish hour drive to La Rioja. I forget the name of the first town we stopped in, but we saw this monastery where the first Spanish and basque words were ever written. It was pretty cool from a historical perspective, and also...you guessed it... incredibly beautiful. The north is a lot greener and we were in the mountains where there were sheep grazing on the hills. After that we went to another town in La Rioja whose name I forget, and we walked around before having a phenomenal dinner. One of the great things about these trips is getting to know the monitores who are all so awesome. At the dinner I got to sit near monitora Bibi, who is pretty freaking awesome. After dinner I was competely exhausted, but fortunately we went back to the hotel to sleep. Hallelujah.
The next day started off with a tour of a vineyard at 11 AM & wine tasting at noon. Yes, noon. Even though it was really early to be drinking, that was probably the best glass of wine I've ever had. Oh yeah, the type of wine called "Rioja" happens to come from this region of Spain (La Rioja. Crazy, right?). So it was pretty phenomenal.
After wine tasting, we went to San Sebastián in País Vasco, this awesome town right on the oceanfront. First we had another delicious meal, and then, being the complete nutcase that I am, I made my friends go wade in the ocean with me. It's a miracle that I still have friends. But it was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to actually go swimming in the ocean (on the southern coast, where it will be warmer) in two weeks!
After San Sebastián we went to Bilbao. I went to dinner with Annie, Rachel, our guide Mario, these 2 French girls who are friends of one of the monitores, and the monitores. It was pretty fantastic. Mario, our guide, is a ridiculous human being and started smoking a joint after dinner while we were heading to a bar. The bar was a lot of fun, as things tend to be when the monitores are involved. They're all such fantastic people.
The next day we went to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, which is far and away the craziest looking building I have ever seen. I'll put up pictures soon.
So that's pretty much how my weekend went, and now I'm back in Madrid, waiting for this week to end. All my work seems to have fallen in this one week, so it's only tuesday and I'm already exhausted. But it's ok- I may be exhausted, but I'm exhausted in Spain.
martes, 22 de abril de 2008
miércoles, 16 de abril de 2008
I need to do my homework
So instead I'm going to post on my blog. Yeah.
The movie that I saw was really fantastic. It's called The Counterfeiters and it just won the Oscar for best foreign film. It's about the Holocaust, so it's really intense, but it's totally worth the time and money if you get the chance to see it. Also, Spanish movie theaters are different from ones in the US. They're bigger, have assigned seats (like your seat number is on your ticket), and aren't really big on concession stands/snacking during the movie. They are big on dubbing though. It's basically a carry-over from the Franco dictatorship when dubbing was used as a way of censoring foreign films. So I watched an Austrian movie dubbed in Spanish that just won an American award. It was a pretty multi-cultural experience.
We leave Friday morning for País Vasco. I wish we were going now because I just don't want to do my work. It was a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree day, which is the perfect way to kill all motivation, especially when you know that the entire next week is going to be rainy and gray and involve 3 exams and 2 writing assignments. Not that i can complain. I never have any work. It's just unfortunate that it all fell at the same time.
In other news, Spaniards don't really go around the house barefoot. I was walking around the apartment without shoes or socks and Pepita told me I was going to catch a cold. I know I'm not a doctor, nurse, or other qualified medical expert, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. She and Luis always wear shoes or slippers around the house.
I've been taking a lot of naps recently. Pepita thought I was sick or unhappy. The truth is I just love sleep so much. It's a beautiful thing. I want to import siesta to the US.
The movie that I saw was really fantastic. It's called The Counterfeiters and it just won the Oscar for best foreign film. It's about the Holocaust, so it's really intense, but it's totally worth the time and money if you get the chance to see it. Also, Spanish movie theaters are different from ones in the US. They're bigger, have assigned seats (like your seat number is on your ticket), and aren't really big on concession stands/snacking during the movie. They are big on dubbing though. It's basically a carry-over from the Franco dictatorship when dubbing was used as a way of censoring foreign films. So I watched an Austrian movie dubbed in Spanish that just won an American award. It was a pretty multi-cultural experience.
We leave Friday morning for País Vasco. I wish we were going now because I just don't want to do my work. It was a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree day, which is the perfect way to kill all motivation, especially when you know that the entire next week is going to be rainy and gray and involve 3 exams and 2 writing assignments. Not that i can complain. I never have any work. It's just unfortunate that it all fell at the same time.
In other news, Spaniards don't really go around the house barefoot. I was walking around the apartment without shoes or socks and Pepita told me I was going to catch a cold. I know I'm not a doctor, nurse, or other qualified medical expert, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. She and Luis always wear shoes or slippers around the house.
I've been taking a lot of naps recently. Pepita thought I was sick or unhappy. The truth is I just love sleep so much. It's a beautiful thing. I want to import siesta to the US.
sábado, 12 de abril de 2008
Christmas in April
And as any self-respecting Jew knows, that only can mean one thing- Chinese food and a movie.
Today Luis went out to the country house that he and Pepita have about an hour and a half outside of Madrid. He happens to hate Chinese food, so that's where Pepita and I went for lunch. I love Pepita. It's nice just getting to talk with her and learning about her family and her life. When the program told me that I'd be living with her, the letter they sent me told me that she was 60 and Luis was 67. After I arrived here, I got the feeling that the ages the program told me were wrong, I just didn't know by how much. So apparently Pepita is going to turn 70 this year and Luis is 75. This makes a lot more sense in Luis' case (missing his bottom teeth, not entirely with it) but I don't think Pepita looks like she's 70. She was very happy I was so shocked. Oh, and the chinese food itself was good too. I haven;t had any while I've been in Spain, and go figure that of all the things that could remind me of home, chinese food would be one of them.
The movie part of my mini-Christmas will be happening in a couple hours, with the key difference being that this movie will be entirely in Spanish. I've been working my way up, first watching Spanish movies with English subtitles, then Spanish movies with Spanish subtitles. Now I'm going to give it a whirl without any subtitles. I will be so happy if I just understand the basic plot details. I'll let you know how it goes.
Classes continue as usual. I started a new class this past week that's supposed to be about Spanish nationalisms, which would be a really fascinating topic. Despite the fact that Spain is one country, it has very distinct regions and languages. In a lot of the country they speak castellano, what we know as Spanish, but in Galicia they speak gallego, in Cataluña they speak Catalan, and in País Vasco (where I'll be traveling to next weekend) they speak Euskera. They also have their own cultural differences, kind of like you find between some regions in the States (like comparing the south to the northeast). It's a really fascinating topic, and the current state of affairs is just a mess, especially with ETA, the radical Basque nationalist terrorist group that wants to keep terrorizing people until Galicia becomes its own separate country. (This should not make you worry. We will be perfectly safe on our trip this coming weekend. The program would in no way jeopardize the well-being of 25 students).
So this is all the stuff I should be learning about. Unfortunately, my professor is a puttering old man who canceled the entire first week of a two-and-a-half week class. So now after finishing week one of our 1.5 week class, we're still only in the mid 1800s. And haven't really discussed nationalisms at all. On top of that, we originally all thought that we had to write a 10-15 page paper in Spanish on some aspect of Spanish nationalisms. But the other day he told us that if we've come to class every day and just want to pass the class without earning an especially high grade, we don;t have to write the paper. Normally I'd be the overachiever that I am and write something to turn in, even if it sucked. But I'm taking this course pass-fail. The grade I get will never show up anywhere, I just have to pass (which I will, since I will have gone to every class). So that just made my life a little less stressful, especially since the week after next I'll either have 2 exams and a paper or 3 exams and a paper. Fun.
I also had a really good conversation with one of the monitores the other day about terrorism (it was really uplifting). I didn't realize that the March 11 bombings in Madrid 4 years ago were also carried out by Al Qaeda, I thought it was ETA. (Though maybe the whole march 11-september 11 connection should have tipped me off...). It was really interesting to talk with a foreigner who has experienced something very similar to 9-11. I'm having a lot of trouble trying to explain the conversation, I guess overall it was sad but comforting in a way to know that we're not the only country that's experienced such a horrible catastrophe.
When I havent been tackling the world's biggest issues, I've been sleeping (I love sleep) and hanging out with my friends. We went to this great vegetarian restaurant yesterday, and even though I'm not a vegetarian, it was just phenomenal. I never knew a meal without meat could be that good. I don't plan on going veg anytime soon (or ever), but I can definitely see the appeal. We also went to this place called the Jardín Secreto (The Secret Garden) for dessert two nights ago. I think it's one of Madrid's best kept secrets (oh god so bad..... you can hate me now). I went with Rachel, Annie, Annie's housemate Stephanie who goes to BU, and Stephanie's friend Rebecca. We split a bunch of the most phenomenal desserts including orgasmo por chocolate- I don't think I need to explain what that means. Needless to say, we had a fantastic time with great food and even better company.
Also, it finally stopped raining for a day. It rained all this past week and it's supposed to start again tomorrow. Thursday or Friday though it's supposed to return to spring weather and sunshine, and I can continue trying to get skin cancer to look more Spanish. Awesome.
Today Luis went out to the country house that he and Pepita have about an hour and a half outside of Madrid. He happens to hate Chinese food, so that's where Pepita and I went for lunch. I love Pepita. It's nice just getting to talk with her and learning about her family and her life. When the program told me that I'd be living with her, the letter they sent me told me that she was 60 and Luis was 67. After I arrived here, I got the feeling that the ages the program told me were wrong, I just didn't know by how much. So apparently Pepita is going to turn 70 this year and Luis is 75. This makes a lot more sense in Luis' case (missing his bottom teeth, not entirely with it) but I don't think Pepita looks like she's 70. She was very happy I was so shocked. Oh, and the chinese food itself was good too. I haven;t had any while I've been in Spain, and go figure that of all the things that could remind me of home, chinese food would be one of them.
The movie part of my mini-Christmas will be happening in a couple hours, with the key difference being that this movie will be entirely in Spanish. I've been working my way up, first watching Spanish movies with English subtitles, then Spanish movies with Spanish subtitles. Now I'm going to give it a whirl without any subtitles. I will be so happy if I just understand the basic plot details. I'll let you know how it goes.
Classes continue as usual. I started a new class this past week that's supposed to be about Spanish nationalisms, which would be a really fascinating topic. Despite the fact that Spain is one country, it has very distinct regions and languages. In a lot of the country they speak castellano, what we know as Spanish, but in Galicia they speak gallego, in Cataluña they speak Catalan, and in País Vasco (where I'll be traveling to next weekend) they speak Euskera. They also have their own cultural differences, kind of like you find between some regions in the States (like comparing the south to the northeast). It's a really fascinating topic, and the current state of affairs is just a mess, especially with ETA, the radical Basque nationalist terrorist group that wants to keep terrorizing people until Galicia becomes its own separate country. (This should not make you worry. We will be perfectly safe on our trip this coming weekend. The program would in no way jeopardize the well-being of 25 students).
So this is all the stuff I should be learning about. Unfortunately, my professor is a puttering old man who canceled the entire first week of a two-and-a-half week class. So now after finishing week one of our 1.5 week class, we're still only in the mid 1800s. And haven't really discussed nationalisms at all. On top of that, we originally all thought that we had to write a 10-15 page paper in Spanish on some aspect of Spanish nationalisms. But the other day he told us that if we've come to class every day and just want to pass the class without earning an especially high grade, we don;t have to write the paper. Normally I'd be the overachiever that I am and write something to turn in, even if it sucked. But I'm taking this course pass-fail. The grade I get will never show up anywhere, I just have to pass (which I will, since I will have gone to every class). So that just made my life a little less stressful, especially since the week after next I'll either have 2 exams and a paper or 3 exams and a paper. Fun.
I also had a really good conversation with one of the monitores the other day about terrorism (it was really uplifting). I didn't realize that the March 11 bombings in Madrid 4 years ago were also carried out by Al Qaeda, I thought it was ETA. (Though maybe the whole march 11-september 11 connection should have tipped me off...). It was really interesting to talk with a foreigner who has experienced something very similar to 9-11. I'm having a lot of trouble trying to explain the conversation, I guess overall it was sad but comforting in a way to know that we're not the only country that's experienced such a horrible catastrophe.
When I havent been tackling the world's biggest issues, I've been sleeping (I love sleep) and hanging out with my friends. We went to this great vegetarian restaurant yesterday, and even though I'm not a vegetarian, it was just phenomenal. I never knew a meal without meat could be that good. I don't plan on going veg anytime soon (or ever), but I can definitely see the appeal. We also went to this place called the Jardín Secreto (The Secret Garden) for dessert two nights ago. I think it's one of Madrid's best kept secrets (oh god so bad..... you can hate me now). I went with Rachel, Annie, Annie's housemate Stephanie who goes to BU, and Stephanie's friend Rebecca. We split a bunch of the most phenomenal desserts including orgasmo por chocolate- I don't think I need to explain what that means. Needless to say, we had a fantastic time with great food and even better company.
Also, it finally stopped raining for a day. It rained all this past week and it's supposed to start again tomorrow. Thursday or Friday though it's supposed to return to spring weather and sunshine, and I can continue trying to get skin cancer to look more Spanish. Awesome.
domingo, 6 de abril de 2008
Lisbon, Madrid, Segovia
Apologies again for the delay since my last post, but I've been without an internet connection for the better part of the last week and a half. But now I have lots of cool things to share with you all!
Last Thursday after classes ended, I flew out to Lisbon, Portugal to spend the weekend there with one of my best friends from Vassar, Rachel Fink. While I had a cold for the entire time, we still had a blast, and Lisbon is so pretty (as, I'm realizing, most of the Iberian peninsula seems to be). I'm still working on uploading all my pictures from spring break forward, but hopefully they'll be up by the end of the weekend. The weather was beautiful and in the low 70s most of the time. We also made friends with these 4 random guys who had studied abroad together and, fortunately for us, all spoke English. So Archie the Scot, Luca the Italian, Artur the Pole, Olaf the German, Fink, and myself hung out a few times and were generally ridiculous human beings. The really cool thing about these guys was they didn't try and pull any inappropriate crap. I love Spain, but sometimes the things that Spanish men will say or do are pretty shocking, and not in a good way.
But I digress. We saw the sights in Lisbon and then on Sunday Fink & I both headed back to Madrid, where we shared a hotel room until Wednesday night. It was so great getting to show her some of Madrid and a little of my cultural experience. We had dinner with my host family one night, which was hilarious. Luis was in rare form, and Pepita kept telling him things like "Living with you is like living with a child." It made me feel right at home.
So Wednesday night after saying goodbye to Fink I got to come back to Pepita & Luis's house. I love traveling, but sometimes it's nice to just home come to your own bed and your own room. Since wednesday we've been in the middle of a mini heat wave, and the temperatures have been in the mid to high 70s. Wednesday afternoon with Fink and then Friday afternoon with Annie and Rachel, my friends from the VWM program (I seem to know a lot of Rachels) we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Retiro, one of Madrid's parks, where we rode the paddle boats on the pond. I even have a little color in my face now and have lost some of my usual Eastern-European winter death glow. It's pretty great. It's supposed to drop down to the 50s or low 60s and rain tomorrow though, so I may have to go out for a run today and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.
Oh, and yesterday there was a program day trip to Segovia, a town about an hour and a half outside of Madrid. It's small and pretty, and has the castle that inspired the Disney logo you see before every disney movie, so that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted the night before from traveling & waking up early for classes & catching up with friends that I forgot to charge my camera. So I managed to get all of 1 picture (fortunately, it was of the disney castle) before my camera died.
I think that's most of the good stuff. I did end up booking a four-day vacation with some of my friends to Sevilla and Tarifa (read: the BEACH!) for the first weekend in May, and we have a 3 day program excursion in another 2 weeks to La Rioja and País Vasco. other than that, life here continues as usual with classes, very little homework, and exploring Madrid as much as possible.
Last Thursday after classes ended, I flew out to Lisbon, Portugal to spend the weekend there with one of my best friends from Vassar, Rachel Fink. While I had a cold for the entire time, we still had a blast, and Lisbon is so pretty (as, I'm realizing, most of the Iberian peninsula seems to be). I'm still working on uploading all my pictures from spring break forward, but hopefully they'll be up by the end of the weekend. The weather was beautiful and in the low 70s most of the time. We also made friends with these 4 random guys who had studied abroad together and, fortunately for us, all spoke English. So Archie the Scot, Luca the Italian, Artur the Pole, Olaf the German, Fink, and myself hung out a few times and were generally ridiculous human beings. The really cool thing about these guys was they didn't try and pull any inappropriate crap. I love Spain, but sometimes the things that Spanish men will say or do are pretty shocking, and not in a good way.
But I digress. We saw the sights in Lisbon and then on Sunday Fink & I both headed back to Madrid, where we shared a hotel room until Wednesday night. It was so great getting to show her some of Madrid and a little of my cultural experience. We had dinner with my host family one night, which was hilarious. Luis was in rare form, and Pepita kept telling him things like "Living with you is like living with a child." It made me feel right at home.
So Wednesday night after saying goodbye to Fink I got to come back to Pepita & Luis's house. I love traveling, but sometimes it's nice to just home come to your own bed and your own room. Since wednesday we've been in the middle of a mini heat wave, and the temperatures have been in the mid to high 70s. Wednesday afternoon with Fink and then Friday afternoon with Annie and Rachel, my friends from the VWM program (I seem to know a lot of Rachels) we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Retiro, one of Madrid's parks, where we rode the paddle boats on the pond. I even have a little color in my face now and have lost some of my usual Eastern-European winter death glow. It's pretty great. It's supposed to drop down to the 50s or low 60s and rain tomorrow though, so I may have to go out for a run today and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.
Oh, and yesterday there was a program day trip to Segovia, a town about an hour and a half outside of Madrid. It's small and pretty, and has the castle that inspired the Disney logo you see before every disney movie, so that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted the night before from traveling & waking up early for classes & catching up with friends that I forgot to charge my camera. So I managed to get all of 1 picture (fortunately, it was of the disney castle) before my camera died.
I think that's most of the good stuff. I did end up booking a four-day vacation with some of my friends to Sevilla and Tarifa (read: the BEACH!) for the first weekend in May, and we have a 3 day program excursion in another 2 weeks to La Rioja and País Vasco. other than that, life here continues as usual with classes, very little homework, and exploring Madrid as much as possible.
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