Barcelona!

This past week has been Semana Santa which essentially means spring break! Because a general rule of studying abroad is that if you have more than three days in a row off of school you have to go somewhere, my roommate Kathleen (and her dad and brother for the first two days) and I went to Barcelona. For the record, I think that's a good rule :-).

Barcelona was a really exciting city. It's on the Mediterranean Sea, so it's kind of a beach town, and yet if you traveled just up the main thoroughfare, Las Ramblas, and then went down one of the little streets you found yourself in an old Gothic neighborhood. If you went up the street from that you felt like you were on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. I guess to me Barcelona felt like it was a lot of different places all rolled into one. But as Kathleen's guidebook said, when you're in Barcelona "you're not in Spain, you're in Catalunya." And that sentiment was very true; Barcelona felt significantly "less Spanish" than a lot of the other places I've been...and it makes sense concerning the history of the region--Catalan culture and language were so repressed under the Franco dictatorship that now the differences between the region and the rest of Spain are highlighted a bit more as a matter of pride I guess. Honestly, I wish I knew more about Barcelona's history in general because I think I would have appreciated the city even more if I knew more about it, but also, by the end of the trip I missed the "Spanish-ness" of Madrid. However, I would definitely visit Barcelona again and again because there is so much to do there!

Anyway, the highlights of the trip were seeing the buildings and the park designed by Gaudí. I had seen pictures of his work before and I knew it was trippy, but just looking at these buildings that seemed to have no angles and this park that, as Kathleen's brother said, looked like Willy Wonka designed it really makes you reexamine your own perspective. Other highlights of the trip included hunting for beach glass on the shoreline (I grew up on Lake Michigan and never had seen beach glass like that before! I pretended I was finding emeralds instead of worn down pieces of beer bottles). I saw an amazing (free!) art exhibit about an abandoned prison and the grafitti found on the walls there and also these letters written by a woman to her lover, a political prisoner. I also enjoyed going to the Olympic stadium because I have memories of watching the '92 games with my mom when I was four and I think that was when I first learned about Spain. Perhaps the funniest thing on the trip was that the best meal I had was at an Irish pub--I don't know, it's just funny when I think that I was in Spain, but really in Catalunya (with the Sagrada Familia behind me--it's the most famous Gaudí building and is the picture at the top of this post) eating Irish food with a traditional Irish band playing in the background but hearing American pop music blasted over the speakers.

For some reason, it's really hard for me to come up with words right now to describe any more about Barcelona, so I'm just going to let you check out the pictures:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

What I'm going to do the first week I get back to the States

I am going to eat these things at these restaurants:
1) Steak Grilled Stuffed Burrito--Taco Bell
2) Pepperoni Pizza & Garlic Knots--Politos
3) Hamburger w/ Pepper Jack Cheese--Becket's
4) Pepperoni Stix & Berry Stix--Toppers
5) $5 Footlong--Subway
6) Chicken Strips & Nickel Nuggets--Glass Nickel
7) Pork BBQ--Pearson's
8) Wings--Buffalo Wild Wings/The Bar
9) Short Stack--IHOP
10) Japanese Pan Noodles--Noodles and Co.

And I'm going to drink as much Diet Mountain Dew as I can find!

Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar is not just my favorite Spanish film director, but is probably my favorite overall film director (yes, he beats David Lynch and Wes Anderson). The trailer above is for his newest movie Los abrazos rotos. (If you've never seen anything by him go out and rent/add to your Netflix queue either Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Todo sobre mi madre, or Volver--you won't regret it.) This past weekend I saw Los abrazos rotos and while it doesn't come close to breaking into my top three or four favorite Almodóvar movies, it was such and enjoyable experience because I am in Madrid! It is completely different watching an Almodóvar movie in Spain than it is in the U.S. I've seen a lot of the places that were shown in the film, I was watching it in Spanish without subtitles, and I was laughing along with my friend (and about half of the other people in the theater) to the references to Women on the Verge... I don't know--I guess this was just one of those little things that will end up being really memorable someday. (Also I am glad that I got to see it now because it doesn't get to theaters in the U.S. until October or something.)

Last week I also toured the Palacio Real and it was gorgeous, but disappointing because I could not take pictures inside.

Speaking of photos, here are some from my wanderings last week.

Oh and I'm going to Barcelona next week for Semana Santa, so expect a big update with lots of photos after that!

Long Weekend

I found out on Monday that we didn't have to go to school this past Thursday and Friday because it was Father's Day on Thursday (which apparently is a national holiday--things were closed!) and then they just gave us off on Friday because they probably figured no one would show up anyway. Thus I had a long four day weekend in the city because I was too lazy to try to throw together a last minute trip somewhere.

I'm glad I stayed in the city though because my care package from my friend April finally arrived with my new camera in it! However, the arrival of this new package meant that I had to deal with the Correos again. I had the package sent to the ISA office and they emailed me saying that they had a slip to give me to go pick up the package at the post office in El Corte Inglés. This slip informed me that I had to pay 44 euros to pick up the package because of import taxes or something. While I was not pleased that I had to pay this, I was still excited to pick up the package. I got to the post office and then the lady told me that getting the slip actually meant that the package was in the district...but the package wouldn't actually get to the post office until the next day, so I would have to come back and pick it up then. Dumb--I'm just not sure why they would give you a slip saying "come pick up your package!" only to tell you that it doesn't mean you can actually pick up your package. But the good news is that it was there the next day and it contained my camera and other wonderful things.

The arrival of the package was not the highlight of my weekend though. No, the best part of the weekend was going to the Madrid Zoo/Aquarium with my roommate Kathleen! We saw pandas, koalas, sea turtles, chimpanzees, and lots of other animals. It was a beautiful day and the zoo is in this huge park called the Casa de Campo so it was fun walking around there a bit as well. The only sad thing was that my camera battery died, so I did not get any pictures of the lions, zebras and giraffes, but I'll add those to the post when Kathleen puts her pictures up.

Click here for zoo photos.

Spring is blooming in the city!

Click here for more photos.

O Valencia!

This past weekend Rachel, Sonya and I went to Valencia and it was amazing. The city is on the Mediterranean coast and strikes a nice balance between being a beach town, a historic city, and a cutting edge cultural center. I really enjoyed it there and I think that if I lived in Spain permanently I would vacation there at least once a year. We visited at a good time because Valencia is gearing up for Las Fallas. Fallas is a celebration of Saint Joseph, which sounds a bit unexciting but it's not because it involves lots of fire and lots of noise. The different neighborhoods build these elaborate sculptures called ninots and then on March 19 they burn them! So we didn't actually get to see any burning, but we saw lots of other things.

Some highlights from the trip included:

La Mascletá: At two in the afternoon everyone gathered in the main plaza and there was a fireworks show! Now it may seem a bit foolish to set off fireworks when it's not dark out, but in this case the Valencians don't care about the pretty colors and whatever. No, the Valencians care about the noise. I seriously thought my eardrums might burst during the mascletá because it was so loud. Imagine packing over 100 fireworks in an area less than the size of a football field, surrounded by buildings and then setting them all off in less than 15 minutes...that's what the noise of the mascletá was like. It was so exhilarating though--everyone was there and the crowd just gave off this palpable energy that climaxed when the last rocket had sounded and we all broke through the barriers. It was amazing. (Later on we witnessed other fun things in the main plaza that you can see in the photos.)

The Beach: Valencia is right on the Mediterranean and even though the sea was cold, it was beautiful. Along the shore Valencia feels just like a little beach town and that is a vibe that I have not felt in a long time. I liked it.

The Aquarium: Honestly, all I can say about this is that it was everything I had hoped it would be. You have to check out the pictures! The architecture alone was beautiful! I got to see all sorts of fish, sharks, sting rays, beluga whales, walruses, penguins, sea lions, etc. etc. (no turtles though...sad). The best part was the dolphin show. I've always loved dolphins and they always amaze me with their intelligence. Going to the aquarium was by far the best part of the trip. (The aquarium was part of the Cuidad de las Artes y las Ciencias, which included the Museo de las Ciencias as well and that was pretty awesome too.)

We did so much in the two and a half days we were there, but those are the best parts. The only bad part of the trip was the Valencia Metro. In Madrid the metro is very easy to use, very efficient, and very quick (in other words, it is very un-Spanish hahaha). In Valencia the metro made no sense. Trains from two different lines would run on the same set of tracks, a line would just randomly split in two without changing numbers or colors, and if you missed the train you wanted it was like a 10 minute wait for the next one (in the middle of the day in Madrid the wait is never more than 4 minutes). So this is a warning--if you go to Valencia make sure you pay attention to what the particular train says about its destination; don't trust what you think the signs in the station are telling you.

Photos!
Day 1
Days 2 and 3
Oceanográfico

Valencia fun that has nothing to do with the trip I went on (well, that's not entirely true because I sang this song to myself almost all weekend):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbsHwuyfnnw

Happy Birthday Elena Maria!

It's my roommate (back in the U.S.), Elena Maria's, 21st birthday today! Because of this, it seemed worthwhile to mention that in Spain you can order beer at McDonalds or Burger King. What's very funny to me is that I rarely see Americans order beer with their food; instead the Spaniards are the ones walking around with these clear plastic cups of beer on their trays next to their fries and Big Macs. Anyway, that's just a random tidbit I thought I'd share.

(Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I'm going to Valencia this weekend and I will write a big update after that!)