Capítulo Veintisiete: I Will End Where I Began

"Whenever there is a meeting, a parting is sure to follow.
However, that parting need not last forever..."
- The Happy Mask Salesman, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

So, my friends, the time has come to conclude my affairs here en España. I don't think that there's any other way to describe this entire experience as anything other than amazing. I've had a really good time here, and I feel like I've learned quite a bit. I'm sure I've changed, too, but I probably won't be able to notice it until I'm around familiar faces. It's going to be really hard to say good-bye tomorrow, once I'm in the airport. I know that Trinity and I are going together, and that is definitely going to be a difficult farewell. Thankfully, she is planning on visiting us in April!

Still, I know I'm ready to come home. I'm looking forward to meeting up with family and friends, and to go back to Illinois Wesleyan. And of course, I think I'm going to be glad to come back to the good ol' American culture. People tell me that I may go through a bit of a culture shock once I get back to the US, so I am kind of nervous in that regard. Then again, IWU's 'study abroad adaptation' guide certainly didn't apply to me at all.


But who knows? Maybe one day, I'll find a way to get back to this place and visit again. I certainly hope so. I feel like there's still much more to see, in both Spain and in Europe.

I know I still have x amount of hours left, but at least on this blog, it's time to say goodbye. It's been great, España. Thanks for the memories. But now I must return to the place where this all started: mi casa.

Saludos, and I look forward to seeing everyone shortly!

~ LSquared

Capítulo Veintiseis (Continued)

I wonder if there's a word limit on these blogs...probably not.

Okay, so where were we? Ah, Paris.

We get to our hostel, which had a lockout until 4; we got there around 12:30. We checked in, put our bags in storage, and then decided to start exploring the city, kind of just to get a feel for it. And guess who was the smart cookie and left her camera in her backpack? Yeah, that's me. So my camera was absent for the initially exploration of the city, which wouldn't be too big of a deal since we knew we'd be coming back to all these sites later, but still! Go me!

We walked around the Arc de Triumph and then got a fast, easy lunch at McDonald's...actually, we had McDonald's almost every day on this trip! Quite sad really, but we didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on food, and additionally, we didn't speak French/Italian, so we didn't know what was what. Hey, I'm not going to complain given that I do like McDonald's, but I think it's safe to say that I will be okay with not eating it for a while...

We went to the city's most iconic structure after lunch: the Eiffel Tower. We checked the prices for going up and (well Robby) took pictures for a little bit. Following the map, the popular Louvre and infamous Notre Dame (I think you know that I recently just re-watched that movie and was pretty excited to see this cathedral) was just down the street, not entirely close, but walking distance. We looked around the Louvre for a little bit before we met up with Robby's friend, Erin. She had a job in France and agreed to show us around a little bit while we were there. After meeting up with her, we walked to and looked around in Notre Dame for a little bit. The cathedral is definitely more impressive from the outside -- the architecture and the bell towers are extremely impressive, with the multiple statues and the giant, round stained-glass window in the dead center! The interior design really isn't too spectacular, though -- Canterbury's Cathedral definitely had it beat in that regard.

We grabbed some food after that (paninis and crepes), then metro'ed back to our hostal for the evening -- both of us were still tired, and neither one of us minded sleeping a little bit since we wanted to get up early and catch the Louvre early the next morning. We were in a dormitory with four people, but only had one roommate that night. It was an...interesting experience, because the guy was from Brazil and only spoke Portuguese (which, make no mistake, is very different from Spanish). We had some small communication issues (none which were drastic), but overall we got along alright.

Okay, so here's something to know about France (from what we were told from Erin and what we observed): they are always on strike in that country. The employees are never happy with their working conditions, so many places, especially touristic ares, are closed or do not have certain services. Now keep this in mind as we go through the next day or so.

We woke up early the next morning, got some breakfast, then metro'ed over to the Louvre...which was conveniently closed. It's closed on Tuesdays, which was not explicitly said to us at all. This was a little disappointing, because we knew we probably wouldn't get to see as much as we'd like of it -- there is absolutely no way anyone could go through the entire place in a single day. Three days are needed probably. Anyway, we just walked back down to Notre Dame, hoping to get some pictures of the inside and go up the bell tower. We had great luck there, too, as the cathedral was on strike (couldn't go up the bell towers) and there was a service going on inside (we were still allowed to go in but we didn't take pictures as to not be rude and interrupt). So we just took pictures from the outside, then walked our way back to the Eiffel Tower. On our way back, we encountered some scammers. A friend of Robby had warned him about the women who would pretend to drop a ring on the ground and attempt to give it to you, then force you to pay for it (this really didn't make much sense to me, but it apparently works...). We were never approached by these ladies, but we witnessed two attempts of it, one which was almost successful. It was good to have some forewarning of that. There are other scammers that we would encounter later, that thankfully Erin had warned us about.

At the Eiffel Tower, to save money, we decided to just climb the stairs for the first two floors. It was pretty tough, but thankfully, all of our walking/hill climbing had sort of prepared us for such an obstacle. We climbed all 657 stairs and enjoyed the view. Then we took an elevator the rest of the way up (the line was ridiculously long and it was cold, so it wasn't the most pleasant of all waits). The view once we got to the top was most definitely worth it! It was almost like being on the top of the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it Willis) and overlooking the whole city of Chicago. It was chilly, but it was a fantastic visual.

We got some McDonald's for lunch (again), re-explored the Arc de Triumph so I could get some pictures, then headed back to our hostal. We actually ended up going up the Basilica du Sacre Coeur, which was conveniently right up the hill of our hostal. At the foot of the hill of the basilica is where we encountered the other scammers: guys that would pull you aside, tie a bracelet to your wrist, then claim they can't get it off and force you to pay. Erin had given us warning about these creepy guys, and we did our best to avoid them. We got approached, but were able to evade their scam. We explored the interior part, which was like a classy church that's one step down from a cathedral. We went up to the dome, too, and got yet another gorgeous view of the city. We got to see the lights begin to turn on in the city, including those of the Eiffel Tower.

We went back down to our hostal and took a nap (I think we napped every day in Paris, if you include the fact that we went to bed early on Monday). We woke up, got some dinner (paninis) and then headed to the Arc de Triumph to see if we could go up that as well and get a good view. Well, guess who was on strike?

We left a little bit disappointed, but went to go catch the light show at the Eiffel Tower. Lots of tour groups had come to watch it. The area in general had a great view of it, but we got there early enough to get a good spot. The show was quite spectacular, though it lasted a bit longer than was expected (roughly 13 minutes, where we heard it would only be about five). The light show alone is probably where half of my pictures from Paris came from.

It was fairly late. We headed back to the hostal and turned in for the night. We woke up early again to once again try to catch the Louvre. AND GUESS WHO WAS ON STRIKE?! Thankfully, though, they let everyone in for free, though the strike still continued. Of course, the first thing we had to see was the Mona Lisa. That thing is so much smaller than I imagined! I knew it was only a portrait, but I still expected it to be bigger! Oh well, that didn't at all make it disappointing. I'm not going to go step by step through which exhibits we visited (we even got separated a few times), but some other cool things we saw were the Milo de Venus (the statue of Venus/Amphrodite with her arms missing) and the Mesopotamian ruins. Another funny thing that happened: the strike ended as we were in our first exhibit! So, once we got out to go to a different section, we had to go get a ticket...for us, it was free, since we were 'European Students' (mwah ha ha ha)! I have to admit, as much as I would have loved to have taken another day to see more of the Louvre, it was a bit overwhelming in the amount of content that it had. I mean, even looking at its enormous size from the outside doesn't tell you how much stuff is in here -- two or three stories, plus stretching all around? Yeesh!

We met up with Erin again after we 'finished' with the Louvre for the day. We got a small, panini lunch again, and then Erin took us to this really classy place that had really good hot chocolate (or so she hyped it up to be). That hot chocolate was definitely fantastic no doubt; it was like I was drinking pure, melted chocolate, almost like the chocolate you get with churros y chocolate. Really good stuff, though!

And here we have our third and final attempt at getting up that bell tower at Notre Dame. They weren't on strike and were letting people up! But guess who decided to inexplicably close the tower early just as we got there...I am never going to forgive that church for failing us twice!

We went back to our hostal, took a brief nap, then met up with Erin and her friends to go to the Christmas Market in the city! It was a cute street filled with stands of food, small gifts, toys, and so on. Really cool to see actually. I ended up getting a small gift for someone there, too! Afterwards, we took the metro back to the area with our hostal, but took a nice, jolly walk up the street just to get a picture of the Moulin Rouge. People had told us that this street was really sketchy, but we never felt unsafe -- there were tourists like us just there to get a picture, and there were police. We did however, feel a little bit...dirty. Seriously, almost every shop (with the occasional Donor Kebab or other food place) was a sex shop. I've never seen so many sex shop in one place...kind of creepy actually. Maybe that's why they called it a sketchy area.

Went to bed, got up early to catch the metro to catch the bus to the airport. We had a fairly early flight to Rome. I have to say, Paris, for being such a beautiful city, really has kind of a crappy airport. That's not to say it doesn't run well, but it looked like it was in a bunch of storage garage...could have just been our terminal, though.

Quick reflections on Paris: despite all the strikes and a few strange scammers, I absolutely loved this city. It was gorgeous, easy to navigate, never had a problem with the people there, the sidewalks and streets were really wide and provided a lot of space, it was clean, the metro ran well enough (not as good as Madrid, though, and what's with the doors opening before it comes to a complete stop?) and overall the city just had a great feel to it. It was a very, very comfortable city that I feel that I could bear to live in. It's one of the places I definitely want to come back to if I ever get to come back to Europe.

We got into Rome early afternoon. Got into our hostel right away, relaxed for a little bit, then headed out to the city. We grabbed McDonald's (AGAIN) on the way, then used the metro to get to the coliseum. This was top on my To See list, and it didn't disappoint. I'm surprised the structure is in as good of shape as it is for being so old, though it's obvious it's been damaged over the years (by earthquakes or whatever). On the inside, you could see the hypogeum (underground place for animals and people that would enter the arena) and the remains of old stairs and seating arrangements. I mean, it obviously wasn't as majestic or elegant as castle ruins, given it had a completely different purpose (probably considered cruel and unusual punishment) and different architecture, but really, it's an extremely impressive feat, especially given the time it was built. Shows you why the Romans were so damn influential on European culture. Still, is it sad that I was thinking about how many laps people would run around this thing? It was a lot like a track, only a wee bit smaller (roughly 85 by 48).

We caught The Arch of Constantine right outside the Coliseum, and then wanted to hit the forum and catch some old ruins of the ancient city, but we didn't make it out of the coliseum in time. We were kind of unsure what to do at that point, since we wanted to save The Vatican/St. Peter's Basilica for the following day (both take a long time). But as luck would have it, we ran into a couple classmates from Carlos III while walking around! Really, thinking that we'd run into people we knew when there's all of Europe to explore! The good thing was that they'd been in Rome for a few days and knew some good places to explore.

We accompanied them to the one place they hadn't yet hit: the popular Spanish Steps. Apparently, the Pope had been there recently and had done a ceremony. Neat little fact. On the top of the steps was a church, which was kind of like the Sacre Coeur, only smaller. Then, the two we had met were off to a different part of Italy, but gave us some recommendations, which was perfect. We followed our map and first went to the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, which was pretty neat. Of course, this came at the cost of trying to avoid some really nasty drivers/traffic. Seriously, European drivers are awful as it is, but it was noticeably worse here I think because it seemed like there were not appropriately placed signs or stoplights. Like my host had warned me ahead of time: Rome's transportation all around is a mess.

We went to the Trevi Fountain, which was another pretty popular place. There were quite a few small pizza places around there, and also, GELATO! Robby got really excited when he saw a Gelato/Nutella combo, and immediately went for it. Honestly I don't know how I resisted...but as for the fountain itself, it was amazing! The statues with the water pouring down below the one of Jupiter (dead center) was really great to see in its full size. The night lighting also added to its beauty. Of course, there had to be more scammers here, too -- people would walk around asking if people wanted them to take pictures of them with their less than impressive cameras, and then charge them for it; if you had a camera, they'd offer to take a picture with your camera, then take a picture with theirs and force you to pay. I'm really glad I'm learning to defend myself against things like this.

We turned into the hostel early that night, too -- once again dreaded plane ride saps your energy, and we wanted to get up early to get to the Vatican. This would be our final night in a hostel (hurray) as we would be heading to Perugia the next day to stay with Chenna again!

And then the next morning, in the bar while eating breakfast, we came across two more people who were from nuestra universidad. We couldn't believe it. Twice in Rome? Apparently this was a good weekend to come to Italy! And what good timing that they were going to the Vatican that day! We stuck together as a group of four and went to the Vatican together. While I'm sure you could spend more than a day in here, too, this place had nothing on The Louvre as it didn't have anywhere as much, and that may have been a good thing. The most important thing we saw there was the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's great creation with the well-know Creation Of Adam fresco. It reminded me a lot of the things I'd seen in los palacios en Espana, but completely different art style, making it a unique feeling. The whole thing was breath taking, really. Painting on the walls, the ceiling, everywhere! Any art major could probably sit in there for hours just observing and studying it. Quite an in-depth piece of work. The other important part of the Vatican was the collection of Rafael, which was amazing in a similar sense, just not as big.

Then we went to St. Peter's Basilica, which was almost as good as any cathedral. It was yet another one of those things that cannot be justified by a picture in terms of size -- the interior was just so tall, and standing under the dome made you feel really small. We actually got a chance to go up the dome and onto the roof to get a good site of the city. But good lord, those stairs were absolutely malicious! They were literally at an angle, in addition to being steep and in a narrow passage! It was quite a workout to get up the hundreds of stairs, but worth it overall.

We were ready to stuff our faces with food at this point, so we took our friends back to the Trevi Fountain (which they hadn't seen yet) and grabbed some pizza. And yes, the pizza in Italy is definitely different and even more scrumptious than it is in the US. Maybe not as fat, but the different toppings and sauces (sometimes) they put on it is delicious. Oh yeah, we got gelato after that, too...talk about fattening.

After spending a little bit of time at the fountain, we went to the Pantheon, which is free (the best kind of tourist attraction). The Pantheon was really only one room, but it was really cool from both the outside (with its tall pillars holding the structure up) and the in (pretty statues and the grave of Rafael, and a huge hole in the ceiling!). This was definitely one of Rome's highlights.

We walked back to the hostel and just sat back and played cards for a while until Robby and I had to catch our train to Perugia. The other two were pretty beat, too, as it had been a long day and they hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. It was definitely nice running into all those people while there -- the more the merrier!

Long train ride to Perugia, but we finally made it. Chenna was there waiting for us. She took us to get some pizza, then we headed back to her place. She had a final the next day (on a Saturday?) so we didn't want to disturb her too much. That was okay, though, because we were beat and pretty much fell asleep the instant we laid down.

Next day, we slept in (first time in weeks!), got ready and went to Florence after Chenna's final. We took the mini-metro (seriously the cutest form of transportation ever) to the station, but we got there a wee bit late. That was okay, though, because we grabbed lunch (McDonald's...) before we left then. Florence had a couple of museums to offer and a couple of good restaurants. There was a peaceful (yet rather large) anti-fascist protest going on, so we did our best to avoid that. There were cops everywhere, even upon our initial arrival, so we knew something was going on. Luckily it wasn't anything bad.

But really...these museums were a joke, and were it not for a few very important, well-known pieces, these places would have nothing to offer. First museum we went to was literally like a hole in the wall. There were a few sculptures and a kind of neat little music exhibit, but the real attraction there was the statue of David. And I mean, going to that museum was worth it for that alone, but you'd think given that it's a museum there would be, you know, more. David, though, probably the coolest statue I've seen ever. First of all, it's so much bigger than I'd imagined. I'd seen pictures of this thing and thought, "Oh, it's maybe twice my size at best." No. It was four times my size. Absolutely gigantic! But what a sophisticated work it was! So smooth and kept in great shape, and the detail of the human body was accurate and according to scale, which is nice to see. The next museum was better in the sense that it actually looked like a museum. It had quite a few sculptures and paintings, but the real eye catchers were The Birth of Venus and a rare piece by Leonardo da Vinci.

We went to get dinner at a place recommended by Chenna's roommates. It was an American Bar, so we were excited to get a first taste of the American food that was only weeks away (and now, only days). Chenna and I got milkshakes for the first time in a while, and they tasted like frosting. No joke. It was so heavenly! God, can you tell I miss American food? I really enjoy my host's cooking and Spanish food isn't bad, but I need my American.

We went back to Perugia at that point, and decided that we were going to go out into the little city. It was Chenna's last weekend in Italy, so it was good that she went out. She took us to a small bar that had really good music, and was surprisingly busy (it's usually not that crowded apparently). It was a good time, though. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to a discoteca in Madrid. For it's size, it was a real nice place to party at. Robby and I turned in after that (tired and had an early train to catch into Pisa) and let Chenna enjoy the night with her friends for the final weekend. We watched the first episode of Glee on her computer (actually pretty entertaining -- good music) and then crashed.

Next and final morning of Eurotrip, we got up, Chenna took us back to the train station, and we said our goodbyes until next semester. We took the train to Pisa, which as you probably know, has the world famous leaning tower. Many had told us that that was pretty much all it had, and to be fair, that's probably true, but I'm really glad I got to see it. It's not as tall as I imagined, but I mean, seeing this big tower sitting at an angle, with your own eyes, really dazzling. We did climb up it, too, and it was awkward to climb, I must say. Obviously, the tilt may have had something to do with that...but yeah, it almost felt like I was losing my balance at some points, but then I just had to remind myself that it's just the tilt...it really wasn't sitting at that much of an angle. The top was pretty neat, too, once again nice view of the city.

We took lots of pictures of it, then entered the cathedral sitting next to it. It looked better from the outside, especially from the top of the leaning tower where you can completely see its cross-shaped layout. Inside's not too particularly inspiring, but hey, I've seen a lot of cathedrals by now. Couldn't have hurt to see another, right? we weren't allowed into the Baptistry part of it, unfortunately.

The rest of the time was us jumping from modes of transportation to other modes of transportation. Another long train ride from Pisa to Rome (God, after this trip and Madrid, I am so done with trains, too), then grabbed a taxi to the airport. Again, we wanted to save money by just crashing in the airport and waiting for our early flight. This was the worst airport sleeping experience I've had. First, we got moved from one place to another (the departure area with check-in and security and all the gates was closing until 4), and this place was utterly freezing. There were no chairs or booths to crash in, so we were stuck with the floor, and the floor was also cold. Heck it may have been even warmer outside, if it hadn't been raining. Seriously, it was an awful experience that I will hopefully not have to repeat.

But we survived, and made it back to Madrid, where we could sleep and relax.

Quick thoughts on Italy: I really liked the stuff I saw, and I am so glad that I got to see the coliseum (which I've been dying to see for years) but honestly, it was just expensive. I spent so little in Paris, another reason why I loved it, but for what I didn't spend in Paris I certainly spent here. I think transportation had a lot to do with that, but even mere entrances to a lot of these places were just overpriced (I'm sure they have to do that in order to produce the funds they need to maintain these historical places, but still, it was a lot). Rome itself was kind of a messy city, too, in the sense of organization and traffic, as well as just overall cleanliness. Example: the metro looked ghetto as hell, covered with graffiti and the general area not cleaned too well.

This entire trip really makes me want to learn another language, though! I feel as though I could pick up Italian fairly easily since it's pretty similar to Spanish. I'm not sure what other language I'd want to learn, though. French would be pretty cool, but useless at the same time. I think the other most useful language learn if you're a United States citizen (other than Spanish) is probably Mandarin Chinese, and I'm kind of hesitant to learn that just because...well, it's tough as nails. All the different symbols, having to take extra precaution of the sounds you make (you have to do that with a lot of languages, but not to the extent of Asian languages), and it's not comparable to anything I've ever learned. Still, it would be a fun challenge, and like I said, this trip has definitely inspired me to one day try!

Oh geez, speaking of languages, I was really messed up this entire trip. In France, I was speaking Spanish or English most of the time (I usually tried speaking Spanish to other people before English...only to find that that was an epic fail), and then once I got to Italy, I was using random French frases I had learned. My speech pattern is probably permanently scarred from my whole study abroad journey.

Well, this post is dreadfully long. The next post is going to be my last to wrap this whole thing up. It's going to be hard to write, because I feel there are truly no words that can describe this whole experience appropriately.

Hasta pronto!

~ LSquared

Capítulo Veintiseis: Once Upon a December

"Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives / Through the roofs and gables I can see them / Every day they shout and scold and go about their lives / Heedless of the gift it is to be them / If I was in their skin / I'd treasure every instant Out There."
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I don't think I am going to upload anymore pictures, because 1. it takes a long time to upload/organize/caption them all (only five at a time, and then formatting them to fit properly), and 2. I come home in just three days, so those of you who rely on the blog to see pictures will see them all once I get home. There are a bunch of pictures that don't even make it on to here. That's what I get for procrastinating on putting them up, I guess. But I also just got really busy the last few weeks.

I'm still going to do a pretty big update on what's been going on the last two weeks, including how finals went, friends visiting Madrid, and of course, my trips to Rome and Paris. So get ready! This is going to be a fairly long post; in fact, I think I might have to divide it into two.

Okay, first off, finals. I always freak out and become really stressed during finals time, sometimes justifiably, sometimes not. Spanish finals were no different, even though the classes have seemed fairly easy. The thing about the Spanish grading system is that they hardly evaluate you on anything you do during most of the semester, maybe a few assignments here and there, but most of it relies on the last big project or exam of the semester. The only class where this hasn't held true is my language class, and even that was still a cumulative test. This layout annoys me a lot, actually, because I felt like that I was forced to cram all of it at the last second.

Well, that being said, I actually felt most of my final exams/projects really weren't too bad. A couple of times, I'd get really nervous before one of the exams, but then once I got going, I realized that I knew a lot more than I thought. First exam I had was my language exam, a complete written final. Even though there were some parts of it that were iffy, I thought the lengua exam was fair and that I did pretty well on it. I went over literally everything in the claves, even the stuff I was sure wasn't going to be on the exam, and I studied for hours. Next came Historia. We had one big paper to do, and then one essay test. We had a couple of homework assignments throughout the semester that I'd done pretty well on, but I obviously couldn't bank on those assignments to give me a good grade. Personally, I thought my final essay was crap. Just wasn't well written at all. But thankfully, I thought the test went pretty well. I hit all the big points in the historical period that I had chosen to write about, and I wrote a lot. I know there were a few parts that I probably could have included, and I got one of the names of the Reyes wrong (stupid Alfonso XIII), but I'm actually fairly confident on that test, anyway. Hopefully that will balance out my paper, too. Then Cuento, which I had pretty much already finished anyway. My profesora had finally sent back the revisions I needed to do, so all I did was touch it up and was done. I actually liked the final product of my cuento. Maybe I'll post it at some point (it's in Spanish, though). And finally, Cine, which was one of those exams that I freaked out unnecessarily. The test was a snap -- open ended, opinionated questions are so easy to work with. Heck, my friend next to me, who writes fast and in abundance, finished in 18 minutes (I timed her, too). It was rather funny, actually. I myself took at least an hour to make sure I hit everything I wanted to say. That is the one class I'm confident I got an A in. Everything else is kind of up in the air at this point. I still haven't gotten grades yet, and I am not sure when I will get them; according to CIEE, it will be at least 10 weeks before they transfer over, but I'm still checking my Carlos III email to see if any of my profesores posted them.

So after finals were done, my friends and I at CIEE obviously had to celebrate; we'd actually been planning the celebration for over a week, and it was our motivation to get us through the week. But the celebration was for more than just finishing finals; it was kind of an early good-bye, as some people were leaving soon and we wouldn't get to see each other before that happened. Kind of sad since we said good-bye to two of our friends that night. Anyway, we went out to a different discoteca called Pacha, which is one of the most recommended places in a bunch of the guidebooks for Madrid. The place definitely had a fancy feel to it, and it had a nice display, but the music was only so-so. Regardless, we had a good time at one of our 'final' outings.

Friday rolls around, and it was the weekend that our friends from Ireland (Brad, Hannah, and Abbie) and friend from Italy (Uchenna) were coming to visit in Madrid! Robby and I went to pick them up at the airport (it was an interesting morning --- we'd been out late the night before and had been getting little sleep as a result of finals and London the week before, so in other words, we were exhausted). It was kind of a struggle to find them all, but at last, we'd gathered all of us together, pretty much reforming the Dodds Suite from last year. What a happy reunion it was, and it was especially nice since Chenna couldn't go to Ireland, so this was Hannah's, Abba's, and Brad's first time seeing her in Europe (Robby and I had seen her the week before in London, obviously). We guided them through the metro and got them to their hostel, and then took them out to lunch. We were able to find a fairly cheap restaurant, which was great because we were all starving and we got lots of food for a really good price!

After lunch was hibernation time: everyone was tired (Robby and I for the reasons already given above, and Hannah, Brad, and Abba had spent the night in the airport, and Chenna was sleepy), so we followed the Spanish culture and all went back to take a siesta. This hour and a half nap would not even come close to being long enough, but hey, when in Europe, you don't sleep. After that, it was around dinner time, and my lovely host had agreed to make dinner for my friends and me! She had to run some errands that night, but she'd prepared a bunch of food for everyone, including dozens of croquetas! Robby led them to my apartment, and we had a feast. I was a bit nervous of what they would think of the food, but it turned out that everyone loved it! I think we only left a few croquetas left over from the entire meal!

Now it was time to give them a piece of Spanish night life. I think we'd both had hyped it up a bit while we were in Ireland (and probably more after that), so I think they were ready to see what it was we were talking about. I don't want to speak for them, but from what it sounds like, they were very impressed and had a really good time! We took them to Kapital that night, and as we waited for more of a crowd to come in, we did Karaoke again. Songs that were done: "Oops I did it Again" (Hannah and Robby), "My Heart Will Go On" (Abbie and myself -- this is our theme song from last year), "It's Gonna be me" (Hannah, Chenna, and me), and the best "Never Gonna Give You Up" (Brad, Hannah, and Chenna -- they Rick Roll'd Spain!). Afterwards, we hit the dance floor and danced the rest of the evening. They were all amused by the main dance floor that played mainly techno music and had the giant cold fog machine above us (Chenna was particularly amused, which was funny because she was hesitant to dance on that floor since she doesn't care for techno music). I think we turned in earlier than we usually do, but again, we were all pretty tired as it was, but early in Spain means...well, still pretty darn early in the morning.

Next morning/midday (when we woke up), we meet up in front of the hostel, looked a few stores, and then had a quick lunch at Donor Kebab. Apparently, the Donor Kebabs in Ireland taste much different than those in Spain, because the Ireland folk really liked the kebabs in Spain! Like I said, probably the most American Spanish food there is. So yummy! Then, we took them to one of Madrid's highlights: El Palacio Real. You want to know something sad? Both Robby and I have been here for nearly four months, and neither one of us had ever been inside it until this point, the last two weeks of studying here. I guess it was nice in the sense that all of us were seeing something new, but still, you'd think that we would have seen it by now...anyway, it was a lot like the Palacio Real in Aranjuez -- awesome golden frescoes (ceilings), beautiful art, high quality architecture, and the view of the city it had was really neat as well, kind of like it was towering over everything. It was definitely very majestic, and overall very impressive! There was an exhibit that we wanted to see that was closed, but it was still a nice tour.

Our plans for the evening were kind of up in the air, since we weren't sure if we wanted to go to another discoteca due to being a bit expensive. I took the group out to dinner at a cheap tapas restaurant right by their hostal. Everyone tried some Tinto de Verano (I drank this a lot earlier in the semester, remember sugar water with wine), and everyone fell in love! I know that they'd all been kind of itching to try some Sangria, and tinto de verano is similar enough. Actually, the tinto de verano there was some of the best I've had since being in Spain. Afterwards, we tried to find a bar that we could go to, but Madrid was packed! Like, we were walking down the street towards La Puerta de Sol, and there were just thousands of people scattered around! We couldn't figure out why until someone reminded us that it was a holiday weekend so everyone was there to catch the Christmas sales. The bar we tried to go to was packed, and the streets and every where else was just so crowded. We resorted to going to the bar that was in their hostel. That turned out to be a really good idea -- drinks were cheap, wasn't crowded, and we had a good time just socializing and playing cards. We tried to scope out to see how much the other discoteca was, but it turned out to be more than what people wanted to spend, so we just chilled in the bar for a bit longer until we all separated.

Following morning, we got up early and we went to El Rastro. It's always busy, but it seemed worse this time around (once again because of the holiday weekend). We were able to catch a few good deals, though, and I think we got a little bit of Christmas present shopping done. Afterwards before lunch, we all went back to my place so they could meet/thank my host for the meal. None of them really speak Spanish except Robby obviously, so I think it was an interesting experience for them to try and communicate. But I know Susana appreciated them coming to thank her.

We hit up Donor Kebab again for lunch, and then it was sadly time for Hannah, Brad, and Abbie to depart back to Ireland (Chenna's flight was Monday, as was mine and Robby's for Paris, so she was still around). They definitely weren't ready to go back to Ireland, where finals and papers awaited them (I personally am very thankful that we got our finals out of the way early), but it's only a matter of weeks before we get back together in Harriett!

Chenna hung out at my place while Robby and I packed. We ended up taking a late metro to the airport and just crashed there until our flights -- saved us a little bit of money on taking a taxi, and with all three of us there, it wasn't...well, as awful as it could have been (Rome's airport sleepover experience was terrible, but more on that later). I will hopefully never have to sleep in the airport ever again. In fact, I think after this entire study abroad experience in general, I am kind of looking forward to not having to sit on a plane for a while. We woke up fairly early to head to our separate gates. It was kind of a funny 'bid farewell' to Chenna, only because we were going to see her in four days...

Well, the good thing about not getting much sleep before a flight is that we were completely knocked out for the entire flight to Paris. Both Robby and I didn't even make it to take-off, or hell, we didn't even make it to the safety demonstrations before both of us were out cold! And other than a few wake-ups here and there, we slept the entire time. The last week and a half definitely had taken its toll on us (London - Finals - Friends - Eurotrip) and this next week wouldn't restore our stamina by any means, but all of this was definitely worth the lack of sleep! And besides, that's what this has been for: catching up on sleep. And packing...

And this is where I am going to branch this post off into a second post...be back soon!

~LSquared

Capítulo Veinticinco: We're Gonna Bring it to the End

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Been to London? Check. Classes done? Check. Finals done? Check. Friends visiting Madrid? Check!

So what's left of this adventure in Spain? Well, I still have that minicurso to finish (done on Tuesday, December 14), but most importantly, EUROTRIP this week. Okay, it's not huge, but I'll be going to Paris and Rome for a week, and so I'm really excited to be seeing a bunch of different places!

It's been a while since I've updated, and I don't have too much time to be as thorough as I usually am, but here's the skinny on what I've been up to the last week and a half.

London trip:

While the entire trip involved a rather large list of people, it was me, Robby, and Trinity who went to London from Spain. But given that our flight was really early in the morning, we decided to just catch a taxi in the morning. Since we were going to be up early anyway...Trinity and I, before retiring to her place for a couple of hours of sleep, went to see Luna Nueva, the English title is the popular New Moon. I could rant about this for a while, and I think most people know of my general distaste for the series. That being said, it was definitely better than the first movie, which is surprising since the plot is so, so terrible. But more on that later maybe.

We got up early (3:30...ew), grabbed a taxi, airport, flying, LONDON! We got into London - Stansted (this city has four different airports...yeesh) around 8:15. We managed to catch an early bus to get into the city. I remember my host telling me that buses can be a real pain in the butt because of the heavy traffic in the London city. Well....she wasn't lying. It took a while, but we finally made it to Victoria Station, which is at the center of the city and the basic area to catch public transportation (the tube, taxis, buses, etc). So we get there, we're starving, but we knew we needed to find Chenna first. She had told us to meet her by a Subway (sandwich place) inthe station, but first of all, we kind of got lost in the big station...it was like a train station and a mall all in one! After finally finding the food court, we get there to see she is not there...we frantically search around for a little bit, when finally, there she was, standing at the corner of McDonald's. We had a really nice greeting (it had been almost half a year since we'd seen her last!) and celebrated by...getting Subway. I've really been missing American food lately, even the crappy stuff, so a 5 Pound 12 Inch Subway sandwich with wonderful honey mustard tasted fantastic.

Afterwards, we got our tickets to go out to Canterbury (a city a little bit outside of London where we'd be staying that night) and began exploring. We experimented with the public transportation a lot that day, taking the tube and the bus. We took the tube first, and hit up the Buckingham Palace. Originally, we'd wanted to get there to catch the changing of the guard, but we got there just as it was finishing up. So unfortunately, no pictures with guys in red suits and tall, furry hats! But the palace was still cool to see, and as an added bonus, we got to see the Queen driven up in a carriage into the palace! We didn't realize this until later, though, but still, that was neat!

We saw Big Ben in the distance, and knew that that was where we wanted to go next. After a bit of a walk, we finally arrive. This was a nice catch, because it's Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminister Abbey all in one place. We messed around, took some pictures of the giant clock and Parliament, and then headed into the beautiful church of Westminister Abbey. Initially, I wasn't sure if I wanted to pay to go inside and see it, assuming it would be kind of like most other churches we've seen, but it was well worth it. It was a different style of architecture, and it was absolutely enromous! There were so many places you could explore. Plus, with the entrance fee, we got a free audio tour, and that really added to the loveliness of the whole place. Once again, it's too bad we couldn't take pictures (I may or may not have accidentally taken a few regardless), but it was so cool to see.

We got outside and kind of just walked around for a little bit. We walked around Parliament, including going on to a bridge to get a couple of nice pictures, but then it was time to catch our bus to Canterbury. After an hour bus ride, we made it to the little city and met up with one of Robby's friends from work, and her group of friends. They took us out to eat at a pretty cheap place, and we went in and chilled for the night. They had a really nice living complex -- it was kind of like a dorm, only much bigger and much nicer (more modern, too). One of my old basketball teammates was actually living their, too, so I got to visit with her for a little bit. We spent most of the night playing card games (one of the most intense games of Spoons I've ever played) and watching YouTube videos and went to bed early, which was fine given that we wanted to get up early and that we'd been walking around all day. Oh, and those beds were so comfortable! Trinity and I passed out like a rock.

We got up early (7:00...gulp, no wonder we never get sleep), made some breafast, and began our very quick exploration of the little town of Canterbury. We first walked over and saw the ruins of the Canterbury castle. It wasn't anything mind blowing, especially since they were small, but they were interesting nonetheless. As I said about Ireland's castle ruins, it's always neat to see big powerful structures like this still around,e ven if they are just ruins. After that, we went into the Canterbury Cathedral for a couple of hours, and I must say, that was one of the most impressive cathedrals I've seen so far. I don't know if I'd become adjusted to seeing the same styles of the Spanish cathedrals, but this was like a breath of fresh air in terms of churches. It was so big, and it had such a different style to it that it was simply amazing with multiple stained-glass windows, marble pillars, and more. For a little town, it was a heck of a sight to see, and we spent a while exploring both the inside and out. Of course, it was unfortunate that it was under construction...

Okay, so we get out of the Cathedral and head back into London. We grab some lunch, and then we head off to try and get to the Tower of London (and London Bridge). Parts of the tube were under construction that day, so that made getting there really difficult. We had to jump lines a few times, and then try and find a bus that would take us to the street we wanted. We got lost at one point, too, which made our exploration harder. Still, after quite some effort, we found our way and made it ot the tower. I wish we had been able to spend more time in there. It had everything my medieval heart would want to see -- swords (and other weapons), history of castle construction, battles, famous people, old crowns, like there were some many different places to explore. We had hit most of the buildings we wanted to see, but I really wish I could have seen more.

We get out at closing time of the Tower of London and ferociously attempt to contact the people we were supposed to meet up with. I officially dislike phones in Europe. I don't know how many times we attempted to contact people, or how many times we were missing a detail (like a + sign) in order to connect...just really weird. But we finally got a hold of Julie, a buddy of mine studying in tehe city for the semester who would also be our host for that night. We met up with her and Chenna again around her tube stop (again, more complicated tube jumping), dropped our stuff off, and then went out to dinner. Some of us (Robby) were aching to try fish and chips, but me, once again craving American food, went and got an American breakfast -- omelette, potatoes, pancakes...so good. Then we went to King's Cross, which is a train area with a cart going halfway through the wall. In other words, we were going to the place tha twould transport you to Hogwarts! We messed around and took pictures of it for a good fifteen minutes, until we had to leave so that Chenna could get back to our hostal and we could get back to Julie's to book a taxi and get some sleep. Booking a taxi was surprisingly difficult -- European customer service is really awful. Everywhere. I don't think there's one place in this continent where I've had outstanding service.

But that was basically the end of our London trip. It wasn't much, and we actually got rained on a bit on Saturday (it would not have been London without rain), but we still had a great time. We got to see some of the big things London had to offer, and the country spoke ENGLISH! Again, like Ireland, it was kind of weird coming into a country where English is their first language. We were definitely still used to Spanish at this point. Heck, when we first gotin at the airports, Trinity asked where the 'aseos' were (that's like 'restrooms' or 'toilets' in Spanish, and that's the word that are on the signs for the bathrooms). It was hilarious trying to just speak English, which is now broken. Seriously, I've realized just how bad my English has become over the last few weeks.

Alright, well I'd write more, but I have to get ready for EUROTRIP now! Sorry, but I'll have a lot of down time once I get back, though, so I will update with EVERYTHING after that, even though...I come back ot the States that week. Wow...

Next on the updates list (personal reminder and not all in one post):
- Finals
- Hannah, Abbie, Uchenna, and Brad come to Madrid!
- Lots and lots of pictures to upload
- Eurotrip
- Starting to wrap-it up...

Unreal how fast this all has gone.

Hasta luego!

~ LSquared

Capítulo Veinticuatro: I Constantly Thank God for Esteban

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."
- Woody Allen

"El Dia de Gracias" is this Thursday! It's simply too bad that I am not in the United States to celebrate it...

On a brighter note, though, I just got back from a celebration at the CIEE Office for Thanksgiving; it was a really nice treat, actually. Everyone brought their own dish to share with everyone. It's been a while since we as a program have gotten together, so it was nice to socialize with people I don't see very often anymore. It was also the last time we would get together, and thinking about that, it makes me kind of sad...more on the festivity. One of our program advisors bought a huge (and expensive) ham to the meal. Let me be clear that the ham people in the US envision is not the same as it is here, and anyone who's walked by Una Tienda de Jamon knows what I am talking about. This thing is almost like a giant, cooked pigs leg, and you can still see the hoof on it when you get it. Yeah, it sounds disgusting, but it tasted delicious! There's also a very particular way that it must be cut, which was demonstrated to us. Like I said, a really, really nice celebration. Safe to say I am very, very full (which is the sign of a successful Thanksgiving meal).

So, Robby and mine's trip to Granada. I'm jealous of Granada's day-time temperature (night time's another story), but I guess I can't complain about Madrid's because it's still better than Illinois'. The trip as a whole was really good, even though it was definitely tiring. For one thing, our hostal was located very close to Alhambra, literally one minute away, a palace that is located on top of a giant hill. So, we get into the city and we're trying to locate our hostal. We turn onto the appropriate street. It's a hill, though not really any worse than some of the hills in Madrid. Once we reach of the top of that hill, we reached the actual hill of death (I've decided to name it "La Colina del Diablo" after one of the short stories I read in class). No joke, this was one of the steepest hills I've ever climbed, and carrying all of our stuff while climbing it definitely didn't help. We walked down that hill later, and even that was hard to do! It was kind of annoying, because the scenery was gorgeous. It was in the midst of a forest, and there were tiny streams of running water next to the trail. And fall colors were taking over the leaves.

If you are a cross country runner or a biker, I'd recommend that you get in shape by running up that. Actually I don't.

So after climbing for a while, we finally make it to our hostal. It was actually a pretty nice place. The receptionist was a pretty cool guy, and we didn't have to worry about any other roommates that might come in late and awaken us. Unfortunately, it was an absolutely tiny bathroom. I mean, the closet in my apartment was bigger than that was...it was kind of pathetic, really. Also, I wouldn't have by any means considered those beds comfortable, and even the slightest movement would cause the beds to squeek. It's fair to say that neither one of us got much sleep throughout the whole weekend. But it was a hostal, so what can you do?

After we got checked in, we met up with Sandra and Emily, two friends from IWU who were studying there for the semester. They took us to get some food, to this place to get what is called a Shwerka (I know I spelled that wrong). It's kind of like a gyro, only with a lot more stuff on it. It's one of the closest things to American food I've tasted in Spain. Both of us fell in love with those, and we actually went there each day we were in Granada. It was cheap, too!

After restoring our energy with food, Sandra and Emily showed us around a little bit. They took us to a 'hang-out' place where people just chilled, and there was a great view of Alhambra y El Palacio de Carlos V (which we would visit the next day). We got to see the lights for both buildings turn on, and we got some good pictures! After that, we explored the city for a little bit, then went to an Intercambio for IES, their study abroad program. We got to meet a bunch of their friends from the program, and we got MORE free food! If anyone thinks that my eating habits are going to change after living in Spain for a semester, you're probably sorely mistaken. =)

It took a little bit of nagging, but Sandra convinced both of us to go play some futbol (yes, soccer) with some Spaniards. I think we were both kind of nervous for it at first, especially since neither one of us were exactly good at soccer nor had we played any major physical sports for a long time, but it turned out to be an excellent game! The Spaniards were very chill and were pretty patient with us. I always forget how physical futbol can really be; I accidentally hit Sandra in the nose during the game! And to think that jugadores do that intentionally in games sometimes...anyway, it ended in a tie by the time we had to get off the court to let someone else use it. But it was really fun, and the perfect thing to do in the cool night.

We had originally planned to go out with Sandra and her friend Claire that night, but due to exhaustion and a communication error, we ended up just staying in for the night, which in the long run was probably the better idea since we wanted to get up really early to go to Alhambra in the morning. And this time, we actually went through with our plan to get up early and got up around 7:20 to get some breakfast and go to it! I was so proud of us!

Just as an FYI, Alhambra is the most visited sight in Spain, and it's pretty understandable why that is with it's extremely impressive Islamic architecture. Not to mention the place is huge! People who had visited Granada before us had mentioned that their cameras died before they were able to finish it, so we made sure our cameras were fully charged before we dove in. We ourselves spent over three hours exploring. The place really is quite amazing. It's kind of like a cathedral in the sense that there were a lot of little details that went into the architecture and other art, but the fortress was significantly more massive. We got to walk through the fortress itself as well as the Palacio de Carlos V, which we really couldn't explore without spending more than we wanted to (most of it was un museo). But the fortress definitely made up for that! It had a lot fountains and reflecting pools, and a fantastic view of the city! We got to go up a couple of the towers and walk along the wall. The other really cool thing we got to go through in Alhambra was El Generalife, which is pretty much its gardens. For the record, the pronunciation is not like the English 'General Life' even though it seems to be spelled that way. But those were some impressive gardens! Even more fountains and pools, and gorgeous plants. There were roses scattered all over the place, among other flowers. The shape of some of the trees and bushes, and the arches of some of them, were really neat to look at. My favorite part of El Generalife though was definitely las escaleras de agua -- the railings had running water down them, and for some reason, this was just really neat to me. Kind of reminded me of a Water Dungeon in a Zelda game.

After exhausting ourselves in Alhambra, we got ourselves some food (Shwerkas again), and then quickly hit up La Catedral de Granada. If I had to be honest, this cathedral wasn't as impressive as the others. I wonder if it's because I've seen so many at this point that they're all startint o look the same, but it just wasn't as mind blowing as Segovia o Burgos. Still, on the plus side, they let us take pictures, which I can't say for some of the others...*coughTOLEDOcough*

We were pretty beat at this point, even though it was only around 1 in the afternoon. Our friends were busy with school work or other things, so we decided to drag ourselves back up that hill and go back to the hostal and relax as we waited for them. There was actually a pool on the roof of our hostal, and we figured we could just sit around the pool, maybe even go in if the water temperature permitted it (air temperature was pretty good). Of course, the pool was absolute ICE. I stuck my feet in and was just shocked on how cold it was; my feet were sore and could probably have used a little bit of ice anyway, but this was ridiculous. My feet weren't even adjusting to the temperature. So instead of doing that, we grabbed some chairs and just laid out for an hour and a half.

We met up with Emily afterwards and went to La Capilla, a royal chapel where Isabel de Castilla y Fernando de Aragon were buried. It was pretty much a typical Spanish church, only you could see caskets of the two royalties listed above, so I guess it was a little bit unique in that regard. Afterwards, we headed to one of the parks, Los Jardines de Lorca, that was in the southern (or according to the map -- more on this in a little bit) part of Spain. The gardens were pretty neat, though nothing too out of the ordinary. It did have, however, La Casa - Museo Frederico Garcia Lorca, who was a famous Spanish poetist/dramatist and theater director that was killed right at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. For lack of anything better to do, we took a tour of the small house. I have to admit, that was one of the most awkward tours I've ever been on. The tour guide kept looking at us (yes, we're Americans, no need to stare), and there was one guy who kept asking us if we spoke Spanish and if we understood what was going on. He seemed really 'proud' that we were so young and taking in such 'heavy material' -- I'm sure he thought we were younger than what we actually are. He was particularly fond of Robby, too, as he kept trying to talk to him. The house was neat to explore, since it had a bunch of old drawings and writings from the people who lived there, and a really old piano! Still, just a really weird tour...

We get out of the park and decide that it was dinner time. Unfortunately, we managed to get a little bit lost...the map was kind of strange (and I'd looked at maps of Granada on Google Images, and there was not one consistent layout; for example, one map had Alhambra at the Northeast part of the city, another had it in the south, etc...so it just got really confusing), and we ran into a few unhelpful people. Eventually, we reached the street that we were looking for. We got a cheap dinner (Burger King for the win), took a BUS back up that dreadful hill, and turned in early.

We got up fairly early to again get breakfast and to check out. We were able to leave our stuff at Sandra's place so we weren't walking around with it all day. Sandra came and hung out with us for a while, taking us to other parts of the city so we could get some more pictures of some cool stuff. She eventually had to retreat back to her apartment for a little bit to get a little bit of work done. Robby and I entertained ourselves by getting more food (Shwerkas yet again!) and exploring a park while playing cards. I taught him how to play Spit, which is pretty much a combination of Speed and Solitaire (sort of). This is a game that can last a while since the tides can turn so easily, and it's really hard to win. Our first game lasted a good hour and a half!

After Sandra was done with homework, we finished the trip up with some good, ol' Granada tapas...which actually were kind of a rip off. They were really cheap, but the portions were really small. And by small, we got one of everything we ordered: we both got 'croquetas', which means we got one fairly large croqueta; and I also got chorizo, which was one sausage link. Yeah, it was pretty sad, and it didn't even taste that good. Thankfully, it was cheap.

I really like noticing the differences between all the big Spanish cities, like Barcelona, Madrid, and now Granada. This city had a bit more of a 'Caribbean' feal to it, and even the accent was a little bit like Latin America -- they don't pronounce the s if it's at the end of the word, and sometimes they just don't pronounce the last letter in general. Size wise, it's probably a little smaller than Barcelona, and a lot smaller than Madrid, which I kind of liked. I think Granada is pretty much how Emily described it: There are a lot of great, small things to do, but it takes time to find them. Obviously, one weekend isn't going to let us find everything. Still, I had a great time in Granada, and it was fun to visit some fellow Titans!

While I haven't been taking trips, I've been super busy. The end is nigh for classes, so I'm trying to finish up my last few assignments and study for finals. I spent eight hours at La Carlos III studying and doing things for classes! Tomorrow's looking to be another busy day at school, but tomorrow is also Anti-Karaoke! We all had way too much fun last time to not go again this month!

It's not be entirely fair to be so judgmental of the other Spanish cities, but I am really glad I studied in Madrid. The city just has a great feel to it, a city-feel, but a comfortable one, too. And I like the way people speak here, nice and clear. Madrid took me out of my comfort zone in many ways, but it's taught me a lot of different things, like it's improved my language and it's taught me to be more social and confident by presenting me with many different things to do. I don't think I'd be able to handle Barcelona because of the Catalan language, and I'm not sure if Granada would have been the best fit for me, either, since it doesn't exactly present everything to you on a plate like Madrid has. I haven't regretted for a moment studying here, and I am really glad for this opportunity. And for the chance to travel!

Speaking of traveling, Robby and I discussed how these last few trips, these last few hang-outs and moments in Europe are going to make it even harder to say good-bye. We've both had a really great semester here in Spain; we've met some amazing people and have had some of the most memorable times of our lives. It's going to be sad to leave it all, but hey, this may not be good-bye; it might just be a 'see you later.' And in many ways, both of us are looking forward to coming home soon.

Weird to think about what little time we have left, though...

I will post pictures of both Barcelona and Granada (and probably London at this point) after finals are done! I will be in London this weekend, so expect an update shortly after! Sorry for such few posts this month!

Hope you all have a great Dia de Gracias! Be thankful! Kthx.

Hasta luego.

~ LSquared