Si Si!

Hola Amigas!!! So sorry its been over a week since my last post but we have been so busy with field trips, tests, shopping, and roadtrips to Portugal!

Tuesday July 19, 2011 -- 'El Pais'
Tuesday morning, my communications class headed on down to Spain's largest newspaper, El Pais. We had a private tour of the entire place and got to see how and where all their newspapers are made which was so cool! El Pais sells over 400,000 copes per day and distributes not only here in Spain but also Latin America and Miami. WOW! They had a really cool 'memorabilia' room called AS where we got to see autographed jerseys from the World Cup last summer!

The rest of Tuesday was our typical... lunch, siesta, dinner, and drinks!

Wednesday July 20, 2011 -- TEST DAY
Wednesday, I had my first test for my communications class, which I knew every answer to! We got our tests back this past Monday and I made the highest grade in the class... 49/50!  See Mom -- there is still some studying involved in this amazing vacation! After our siestas and dinner, a few of us decided to go down to Pispas since we had not been there in almost a week! Alex and Yasmin were glad to see us and we were even more glad to see them! We sure are going to miss them and Pispas when we have to leave!

Thursday July 21, 2011 -- Retiro Park and PORTUGAL BOUND
Thursday morning, our watercolor class decided to meet and the beautiful Retiro Park in Madrid to scope out the scenery for a potential painting! Unfortunately, most of us were going on the Portugal trip and we did not have much time there since we had to be back at the Colegio by 12! These are a few of the shots I did get though!

They have this great big pond in the middle of the park where you can rent little boats for an hour! It look so quiet and peaceful out there!

most of our watercolor class

North of Spain/South of France Excursion

Hola!!! Before I start typing all this up and you start reading, i will warn you... this will be a LONG blog. We have done so much in the past 5 days!

Thursday July 14, 2011-- The Prado and excursion departure
Thursday morning we had a group field trip to one of the worlds most famous museums... The Prado. The Prado holds paintings from the 14th century all the way to the early 19th century. This place was amazing. We were split up into four groups and each group had a guide with them to explain the paintings and artists' background. We saw paintings from the very famous Spanish artist, El Greco. We also saw works from Sorolla, Valazquez, Goya, and Rubens. The tour lasted about 2 hours but I could have spent the whole day there. We only saw about 1/4 of the museum, but the first two tours had to leave early because we were going on the excursion! We had a great tour though... normall The Prado is packed but since we went so early, we were lucky and had very few others visitors with us!

We had to be back at the Colegio and on the bus by noon in order to get on the road for our big trip to the north of Spain! This was one hell of a weekend. We stopped in over six different towns/villages in a matter of four short days. We were on the bus alot but what we did get so see made it so worth it. It was an amazing trip and well worth the money!

We started the trip leaving Madrid and heading to the La Rioja region, which is where most Spanish wine is made. We stopped at this great cafe where we drank wine and made a quick pit stop -- this place had an amazing view.

Such a great view!

Abbye and I in La Rioja

Right across is one of the oldest functioning monestaries left in Europe -- Yuso Monastary. This monestarty holds some of the oldest midevil manuscripts and we were able to see the first text published in Spanish over a thousand years ago. This place was spectacular. I have never seen anything so spectacular and grand but in such a unique way. It is pretty cool to say you've been to the place where the Spanish language originated and saw the original texts!

Yuso

After the monestary we were headed to wine tasting at one of the best wineries in La Rioja, David Moreno. We tasted several kinds of red wines and were able to buy some of our favorites! We had a personal guided tour of the winery, explaining everything you would ever need to know about wineries. After the tour, they served us a delicious feast of stew, salad, and lamb with unlimited wine. Clearly we had a great time! The group even sang me Happy Birthday!!! All the lights went off for about five minutes and no one had any idea what in the heck was going on but they finally turned them all back on and began singing Happy Birthday. It was so great! After a great night already, we were headed to our first hotel stop in Logrono. Our hotel was so fun and comfortable. There are seven of us gals so we decided to split the rooms between three and four -- I was with Abbye and Kelsey which was perfect! One of our favorite teachers on the trip, Christobal, took us out to a bar called Stress... which is exactly what it was. Logrono is not much of a touristy town and we were clearly tourist and they didnt seem to like us unwelcomed visitors. But of course we made the best of it and were back at the hotel by two!

(left to right) Jamie Lee, Maggie, Abbye, Kelsey, Nola, Molly, and me

delcious wine tasting

David Moreno Winery

Abbye, Me, Maggie, Nola, Jamie Lee, Kelsey, Molly, and Jack

HOTEL IN LAGRONA

Friday July 15, 2011-- Pamplona, San Sebastion, Zarauz

We were up and on the road by 10:30 Friday morning and on our way to sightsee some beautiful wineries on our way to Pamplona. All I can say about Pamplona is that it smelled... terribly. The running of the bulls had just ended the day before we were there and there was alot of trash around, but it smelt like a mixture of the Perry Fair animal exhibit and downtown Athens after a gameday. It was gross. I wished we could have gone at a better date because I am sure the city has much more to offer than its horrid smell but thats all I could think about.

us girls in Pamplona

After Pamplona, we were on our way to the most beautiful place I've ever seen -- SAN SEBASTIAN. Words and pictures will never be able to describe how spectacular this place is but i'll try... Roberto had our bus driver take us to the best view of the town on top of a mountain. He had us look the opposite way the entire way up so we wouldn't see a thing until we were at the top. When we got off the bus and turned our heads, I was shocked. I had tears coming down my face it was so pretty. San Sebastion is a very wealthy town where many celebrities and famous people go to vacation or have weekend homes at, and I can see why. In my dream future, I will have a house there so I can spend my summers in the most beautiful place.

San Sebastian

Mom and Dad, I think its time to get a beach house here!

After San Sebastian, we were on our way to the second town we'd be staying in, Zarauz. Zarauz is right outside of San Sebastion and is a very touristy town. We walked up and down the beaches and had a nice dinner at our hotel where they served us soup, salad, and cow cheek. Yes, I did just say cow cheek. A very interesting delicacy. Most people liked it but I had a bad piece I believe and I was not so crazy about it. I really just couldn't get over the thought of what I was eating. It was nothing like what you think a cow cheek would look like. It was very thick and tender, I was expecting something flat and thin...like a flank steak. Negative. Everything else was delicous though, and then we were out on the town with Christobal again! A big group of us went out to a few bars on the boardwalk right on the beach. And as always, we had a great time. 

HOTEL IN ZARAUZ

Saturday July 16th, 2011 -- Saint Jean de Luz, Basque Country, Lekeitio, and Bilbao

We were on the road again by 10:30 and headed to south of France! We only were able to stop in one town but it was very quaint and nice.... Saint Jean de Luz. We were able to walk along the beach again and have beignets! Yummmm! We were only there for about an hour and half but it was a nice stop in France! 

us gals in Saint Jean de Luz

After Saint Jean de Luz we headed towards Lekeitio for lunch. This is one of the best fishing villages in the world! Alot of the tuna we eat in American comes from this place. We ate lunch at one of the cafes right on the beach and had a beautiful view!

Bilbao bound! After lunch headed towards Bilbao. Bilbao is Spains fifth largest city and is said to be a very rich city. Spanairds say that it is their 'stuck up' city. We stayed in a super cool hotel that was right across from the Guggenheim! We had a great dinner in the hotel and drank some delicious red wine in the hotel bar! After a few drinks, Christobal took us out for a night on the town again! This was my favorite night by far! We all had so much fun and danced the night away!

HOTEL IN BILBAO

Sunday July 17, 2011 -- Guggenheim, Human Evolution Museum, Madrid bound!

Sunday was exhuasting! After three days of non-stop travel and half sleeping on a bus, we were all pooped! We were up by 9:45 and headed over to the Guggenheim. There are only three of these in the world, in NYC, Bilbao, and Italy! It was very very interesting but it was pretty hard to walk around for two and a half hours with all of us being so sleepy. But I am glad we went, I have been dying to go to the Guggenheim in New York City but for now, going to the one is Bilbao will have to do!

Guggenheim

After the Guggenheim, we were Madrid bound! And I think everyone was pretty excited about it! We all missed our own beds at the Colegio and the comfort of a city we were familiar with! On the way back we stopped at a Human Evolution Museum in Burgos, Spain. I was in complete zombie mode at this point. We had a hour and half guided tour which was pretty interesting, i think... haha. But it was really cool to see all the old fossils and bones they had found. After the museum we were on our last stretch back to Madrid. We got stuck in traffic so it took us about three and half hours after the museum to get back. But we finally made it back around 10:30! 

This excursion was a chance of a lifetime. Most people make these visits in weekends and we did over six cities in four days! I have another weekend excursion this weekend to Lisbon, Portugal! I am so pumped. We will be in Lisbon the entire weekend so we won't be spending near as much time on the bus or switching hotels! I can't wait to tell ya'll about it! Until then... ADIOS!

Best. Birthday. Ever.

LEGAL

So as most of yall know, my 21^st birthday was yesterday – July 12, 2011. I have been looking forward to this day and the right of passage for my entire life! And it really was awesome. I couldn’t imagine it being any better!

I had my field trip yesterday morning down to Puerta de Sol where the protestors are which was pretty interesting, but difficult. We tried to interview as many people as possible, but we had a lot of people tell us no or that they didn’t know much about it because they were tourist as well! After Sol, we hopped back on the metro to go to a English based newpaper called In Madrid. It’s a pretty small newspaper, but it is directed specifically towards English speakers only. The newspaper has been up and running for about 15 years now. After we talked with him we were on our own, and Nola and I came back to the Colegio! Everyone was pretty busy yesterday working on homework and studying but we all managed to catch some pool time in the late afternoon! 

Now the fun really begins!

We all got ready and my sweet sweet friends surprised me with a delicious birthday cake in Abbye’s room. I was so surpsied! They have been so sneaky this week and I had no idea. I thought Abbye was in a bad mood on Monday because she kept avoiding me all day… she really was trying to get me away so she could go get the cake. We all laughed about it after I connected all the pieces back together… “ohhhh that’s why you had that huge box for your ‘sub sandwhich’” Thanks Abbye for planning my whole day and surprising me! It was perfect! 

And as American as this sounds, we have all been CRAVING some real American food, SO we decided it would be fun to eat at the Hard Rock café for my birthday dinner! YUMMMM. The Hard Rock is close to our Colegio so we were not too worried about time… until we got there and they told us it would be 2 hours to sit!!!! We decided it wouldn’t be worth it since it was already 10 and decided to go on back to our very favorite…. PISPAS!

Nola and I at Hard Rock

Abbye and I

(from left to right) Jamie Lee, Kelsey, Nola, Molly, & Maggie

We had so much fun. And as always had a great time dancing and laughing the night away with our group and Alex and Yasmin! We ate some delicious food and had a ball. Alex and Yasmin even surprised me with a birthday cake! So so nice. I feel so special and welcome when they are around. There was no better place for me to spend my birthday! We had such a great time!

My birthday cake at Pispas!

Yasmin and I

Alex and I

Our great group of 9!

(from left to right) John, Maggie, Jack, Nola, Me, Kelsey, Molly, Abbye, & Jamie Lee

Today… I am paying for it, waking up after a late night and going to class is not so much fun! But it was all worth it. Hey, im finally legal! Thanks so much for all my friends and family who made this day so special for me! It was the best birthday a gal could ask for!

Mom & Dad – I know your both relieved knowing that Im finally legal now. As soon as I get back, we’ve got to go to dinner and let me finally order my vino! I’ll be an expert when I get back from my trip to the Rioja Winery this weekend!

Real Madrid!

Today was so great and exciting! Not only is it my Mom's birthday but we also got to go on a tour of one of the worlds most famous futbol stadiums -- Estadio Santiago Bernabeu of Real Madrid! We were able to walk around the entire stadium and go through the museum in the stadium! Here are some pictures that I got!

Before we did all of this, we had our classes this morning which went great! Tomorrow we have our first field trip for my communication class and we are going to Puerta de Sol to interview some Spanairds and their take on the Spanish economy. For those of you who do not know... their economy, believe it or not, is much worse than ours in America. If you are under the age of 30, the unemployment rate is 50%, and the total unemployment rate is 21%. It is hard to believe that 1 out of every 2 people under 30 does not work here. There have been rallies and protests going on for a while now, and many people from Barcelona come to Madrid to join the protesting. They have big tents set up in Puerta de Sol to set up base for their protesting. Our teacher, Dr. Bosisio thought it would be a good idea to really get a grip on how these people feel about all these protestors and the economy. Believe it or not, we are supposed to be speaking in fluent Spanish for all of this. There is an English publication here in Madrid and the editor of it has graciously given us this opportunity to even interview a few of his interns! I am definately a little nervous because I clearly know very little Spanish BUT we have been divided into groups and within each group there is a Spanish speaker.

I am kinda hoping our field trip won't be lasting too long since tomorrow is my 21st!... Maybe he'll go easy on me hahah! Anyways, I am sure I will have lots and lots to say after this field trip tomorrow and my fun-filled birthday activities in Madrid! Adios!!

Pispas!

Hola!!! I cannot wait to tell you all about how eventful our first real weekend here in Madrid has been! I finished up my last post with Thursday morning after our field trip so I will take off from there!

Watercolor Class at the Sorolla

Thursday July 7 --
After going to the Sorolla Museum, we came back and had a very quiet lunch. The first weekend excursion left right before lunch and I think about 35-40 of our students went on it. The trip was to the south of Spain and sounded like so much fun! They had a pretty long bus ride though so they had to be up and about pretty early! The Colegio was very very quiet this weekend without all of us 'loud Americans' there. Thursday afternoon, all of us girls went out by our pool to chat and read. The sun stays up until about 11 pm here so you can lay by the pool for hours! Thursday night, our group of friends went back to our favorite bar & lounge, called Pispas! They are so nice and accommodating there! It will definitely be somewhere we'll be spending alot of time at! After some late snacks and drinks at Pispas, a few of us went back to a disco called Cats, which is very close to our Colegio. We only had about an hour before our curfew so we wanted to go somewhere close. And it was SO much fun. We were back by our 3 am curfew and it was off to bed again!


Friday July 8 --
We were all still so exhausted from the week, so most of us slept in pretty late on Friday! We headed back up to the pool for a while before planning our evening in Plaza Mayor. We had all decided we wanted to venture off from our area around the Colegio and head down to Plaza Mayor. They have this great big market called 'Mercado de San Miguel'. We had originally planned to eat dinner there but by the time we arrived, it was PACKED. And decided to eat at a cafe right near the market where they served a wide variety of spanish cuisine! We finished just in time to get back on the Metro before it closed at 1:30 am and headed back to Dalai (one of the discos around the Colegio). We all had so much fun there and danced the night away! We stayed until almost 6 am when the bars close here. I know that seems so late to us Americans but it is just a way of life here. Dinner is not until 10 or 11 and things do not really pick up until around 1 or 2 so staying out that late is normal for a Friday night here. Needless to say, we had a great time but were all exhuasted!

(Molly, Jack, Ashley, Abbye, Jamie Lee, Kelsey, Me, Nola, John, and Maggie) eating in Plaza Mayor

Saturday July 9 -- SLEEP!
All of you know how I am with my sleep... so after staying out until 6 am, it should not be surprising when I tell you I slept till 4 pm the next day. After waking up extremely late, us girls had a day of shopping! We went down to a store called Zara and back to El Corte Ingles. We all made some great purchases and were back at the Colegio by 8 or 9 that night. We all took quick showers and met up with the rest of our group of friends around 11. We went back down to Pizza Jardin and had a feast of some delicious pizza! Pizza Jardin and Pispas are both on the same block so its super quick to get there! After the pizza we went back down to Pispas and had a awesome night! Our little group of 9 is perfect. We all get along so well and throughly enjoy each others company! We have gotten to know the owners of Pispas and they seem to really like us! They should with all the business we're giving them... hahah! We had yet another late but amazing night!

Sunday July 10 --

Today was our day of rest! We did NOTHING. We slept in until about lunch time and ran down to another cafe on our block where we had a Sunday feast. For 12 euros, we each had a 3 course meal which was delicious. I had a ensalada de tomate y parmesan (similar to a Caprese salad) and risotto (made with four delicious cheeses) and ice cream! We all came back and caught up on our homework and laid around until it was time for dinner. Abbye and I watched a episode of Glee I had downloaded onto my computer which was fun! Molly and Maggie found us a great Mexican place to eat for dinner. It was nothing like our Mexican restaurants like we have in Georgia but it was still yummy. We decided to walk back to our Colegio and burn off all those calories from the Mexican!

I am falling more and more in love with this city everyday! There is always something to do and somewhere to go! I am super excited for this week! My mom's birthday is tomorrow (Monday) -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) and my 21st is Tuesday! AND we have our excursion to the north of Spain on Thursday - Sunday where we will be going all around the top part of Spain and south of France! What a great week I have ahead of me! I will have so much blogging to do by the end of it so be looking out for another long post!

I forgot to post this in my first blog since I've been here but here are few pictures of my room here at the Colegio!

Week 1!

I wanted to tell ya'll about my first day of classes and our first day of field trips!!! 

Monday July 4-- HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! Monday was our first day of classes which was so exciting!! I started off with my Spanish Culture class with Dr. Bosisio! He is so so nice and personable. I only met him once before Madrid, back in May and he knew my name and exactly who I was as soon as we got here! Our first class is from 9:00-11:15 which is not bad at all! We pretty much had a in class discussion the entire time about differences between the cultures and it was so interesting! We had a thirty minute break in between classes and started back again at 11:45 with my watercolor class! I do not know a thing about watercolor but our teacher is so much fun and so helpful! Molly, Nola, Maggie, and Jack are all in the watercolor with me so its even more fun with friends! 

After class we grabbed a quick lunch and it was time for SIESTA (nap time). We were all so exhausted in our morning classes, I could barely keep my eyes open. Around 5:30 we all were back up and decided to hop on the bus and go on down to the El Corte Ingles which is Spain's largest department store. They are everywhere in Madrid. They probably have over 12 just in the city. We all left our hair dryers and things at home so we went to go buy those! The bus dropped off right out front of the store and supermarket and it was so crowded! And again, none of the ladies working there spoke English. I ended up accidently stepping (lightly) on a womans toe and made her super angry. I kept saying 'lo sienta' which is 'I'm Sorry' in spanish but she was not having it. I have never gotten so many nasty looks from so many people in my entire life. Other than that fiasco, everything else went fine. 

We walked around that area for a little bit before it was time to head on back for dinner. After dinner we (Abbye, Nola, Kelsey, Jamie Lee, Molly, Maggie, Jack, and myself) went to a bar & grille called 'Pizza Jardin' where we drank sangria before we headed on down to a club! The club was SO much fun. We were the only people in there when we first arrived and even had a few free drinks! More people from our trip ended up coming in too and we had quite the party! We got back to the Colegio right at 3 am, which is our curfew for Monday-Thursday, and went strait to bed! 

Molly, Jamie Lee, and I at Pizza Jardin

Kelsea loves her Sangria

Happy 4th of July!

Tuesday July 5th-- FIELD TRIP DAY

Now this was interesting. Roberto had split the entire group into two smaller groups, and unfortunately Abbye, Kelsey, and I were on the early one so we had to be out by the bus by 8:45 am! 

Abbye and I in the Metro Station

The field trip was planned for all of us to go the the largest Mosque in Spain. It was huge. I had high hopes for this field trip to be awesome but it definitely let me down and I think others too. It was a little unorganized and EXTREMELY hot to be walking all over the place. And after we got there, they were not ready for us. Finally when we went inside, a woman talked to us for about 45 minutes -- which I understood none of. Apparently she was telling us the rules in Spanish but clearly I didn't get those. Rule #1 -- Do not step on the carpet with shoes on! -- Seeing that I do not understand Spanish and had no idea of this rule, as soon as we saw the room, I walked right on the carpet with shoes on to go take some great pictures, and was then yelled at by a Muslim for doing this. Rule #2 -- Do not walk past the second row of columns! So after taking our shoes off, I saw even more great things to take pictures of so I walked right on up to do it, and was yelled at again by the same Muslim lady. Rule #3 -- no pictures of yourself inside the mosque! -- We were instructed to wear scarfs on our heads inside the mosque just as they do. The women cannot have any hair showing ever. Well of course we all seem to think we look ridiculous with these scarves wrapped around us and I wanted a picture to show you all! This is when I got kicked out of the mosque for being rude in a Holy place. So clearly, this field trip was a no go for me, but I made the best of it!

This innocent picture is what got me kicked out of the Mosque

Our little group of friends did not do a whole lot the rest of that day. We had a tour of Madrid at 5 which was super fun. We were again so exhausted so went to bed pretty early that night. Until today (thursday), I think we have all still been pretty jet-lag. Sleep has been a priority.

Wednesday July 6-- 2nd Class Day

Both of my classes when great just as I had hoped. We were done by two and went strait to lunch. We all took siestas afterwards and then Abbye, Nola, Kelsey, Jamie Lee, and I went back down to El Corte Ingles to run to their supermarket! I was in dire need for some salad dressing. The food we have at our colegio is by no means awful but it is typical cafeteria style food -- very bland. And they have salad available at every meal and no dressing. So we all got a few things to spice up our food at the colegio! Wednesday night, Molly, Maggie, Nola, Jamie Lee and I all walked back up to the Pizza Jardin for some late drinks and a snack. I believe they are beginning to recognize us there now! But their food and sangria is so good there we just keep coming back! We didn't stay for long and we were back at the colegio by 1ish!

Today, Thursday July 7 -- field trip day 2

Today our watercolor class (about 11 of us) went down to the Sorolla Museum. Joaquin Sorolla was an Impressionist from the city of Valencia and his former studio-mansion in Madrid has been converted into a museum reproducing perfectly a typical early 20th century house. We walked around the house for about an hour and then walked down to the Conde Duque museum of art! We explored that part of the town for a while and then were back on the metro to come back for lunch and now I am here blogging with ya'll! 

I hope ya'll enjoying reading my blog! I haven't been able to upload pictures on my blog recently so to see those, look on my facebook page!