I just found out!
I am ecstatic! Yes! Yes! Yes! GO SOX! YES! WE ARE GLORIOUS!!!!
Life is good. Oh my god.
And now for the blog post you've been waiting for (maybe?).
Heyo!
It’s Saturday. La la la.
Those of you who have sent me snail mail (you know who you are) ARE FANTASTIC PEOPLE who deserve awards. I obviously love getting email, too, and phone calls (well, nobody calls me, but I call my family and they pick up, so that counts!), but the whole no-internet-regularly thing makes the excitement somewhat delayed (BUT KEEP EMAILING ME ANYWAY!!!!!). As I’ve said before, this lack of internet thing is really getting to me. I’m trying to decide whether or not I’m going to want to move into the Residencia in the spring and internet is a HUGE “yes, do it” factor. More on that later.
Also, the hour changes for us here in Spain tonight, so for a week (you US-types don’t change until Nov 4th), the east coast of the US will only be 5 hours behind Spain!
I have a lot to say about technology and TV shows and pop culture-type things. Stupid things like that. Including…
Probably the most important thing in recent memory that has happened to me would be that I introduced Jose and Julio to Arrested Development (I LOVE SPANISH SUBTITLES) yesterday and we watched the first 6 episodes in a row because they liked it so much….!!!!! Fantastic. Not all of the jokes translate perfectly (yes, I was checking) but the stuff with Marta and the Desi Awards and the little clips of Spanish is even funnier with Jose and Julio. They love Buster and Tobias, especially, and definitely want to see more. This might not seem like a big deal for those of you who have never seen the show, but not only is Arrested Development really funny and sadly somewhat misunderstood by a large portion of the population (WHY WERE YOU CANCELLED, AD?!?!), it is something that is very near and dear to my family’s heart. It’s hard to quote the show in Spanish, but today I was hanging out with the guys outside of Correos, waiting for Julio to sign out from work and Jose imitated Tobias getting on the stage in Season 1 when he directs the school play. Amazing. Oh, they also love yelling “Steve Holt!” Makes me feel at home!
Another super-exciting and technology-related post is that Julio has about 8 trillion movies semi-illegally copied or downloaded from the internet (hey, who doesn’t, right?) (and yes, they’re all dubbed in Spanish…) and THEY WORK ON MY LAPTOP. I borrowed a few just to see if they worked (some are in QuickTime, some work on the DVD player) and for some reason started with Hotel Rwanda (I’m a sucker for punishment, I dunno, what is my problem?! Luckily I haven’t finished the movie yet and I got to watch 6 episodes of AD soon after starting HR so the intense emotions of HR [dubbed in Spanish] were somewhat counteracted in time to save my sanity). I swear I’ve been doing homework, too!! Really really. I have. Probably not as much as you in-american-school-types who are reading this (bobokids, middkids, aaron, adam?, etc.), but oh well. We have midterms coming up. Should be interesting. More on that topic in another blog post, when I’m too braindead to think of anything else. Heh heh. Not funny.
For some reason I’ve been really missing Firefly (Tim, it reminds me of you and Carl and those late-night homework- or sanity-breaks we’d have in 320 East!!!) and Felicity. I may have to buy myself an early graduation present of all 4 seasons of Felicity…no, no, I WILL exhibit self-control...plus, Sammie owns it (which is how I got addicted in the first place), so senior year will be happily spent lost in Felicity-land. Siiigh. Aaaanyway, now onto deeper and not-really more important stuff!
The heat wasn’t supposed to come on until Nov. 1st but I’ve noticed that my radiator has definitely been on once or twice in the past week. It’s kind of tucked into a bookcase and the shelf that I keep my towels on is the one resting slightly on the radiator which means that I get nice warm towels for my shower. Mmmmm. Genius.
In a way this is a two-blog-posts-in-one post, although I tend to write so much anyway that it doesn’t really matter what I call it! At any rate, I’ve been working on a list (I love lists!! Sometimes on my to-do lists I’ll put things like “dinner” or “shower” just so I have more things to cross out. Or I’ll even put things that I’ve just finished doing, so it looks like I’ve made more progress. Mind games!) of strange little facts/tips that are useful to know about Salamanca. Maybe I should wait until the end of the year or at least the end of the semester to “publish” it, but as I said, I like lists, so whatever. Here’s what I have so far:
Important and Strange Facts that are Helpful to Know about Salamanca (A Guide In-Progress):
1) If you can’t find a street sign, look at the trash bins. They always have the street name written on them and they tend to congregate in groups all up and down the street.
2) If you’re a girl and even remotely attractive and you’re thirsty at the Irish Rover and you just want a glass of water and don’t want to pay for it, just ask anyway. 99% of the time you’ll get it.
3) If you go to Colegio Antonio Machado (farther south than Parque Picasso) and you ask Julián (the coach), you can reserve the soccer court (it’s not a field in any sense of the word) and they will turn on the lights for you and give you nets for the goals for like 10 euro. The first time you go, if you beg nicely, he’ll let you play for free and maybe even turn the lights on.
4) Café Massé (Maria Auxiliadora) is a great place to play pool and hang out with friends (and watch the Pro League practice!). You get a free game with two drinks and then each game after that is a euro. They also have decks of cards, trivial pursuit, and other strange games at the bar that you can request and play with while you enjoy a drink or hang out with friends or watch the soccer games they usually have projected on the big screen.
5) Gadis on Avda Portugal, El Arbol and the Carrefour Express at the train station and on Calle Toro are open through lunch. Shops like H&M, Bershka, Zara, Sfera, Misako, and others on Calle Toro are also open through lunch. The Body Shop and Sephora are not.
6) There are certain dates throughout the year that the Ayuntamiento in the plaza is open to the public. Ask a guard there when they are or ask at the tourism office.
7) If you can’t find hostels you like, check out pensiones. There’s a cute one (Los Angeles) RIGHT ON THE PLAZA for 15 euro a night. The people are nice, the rooms are small but clean, and the bathroom is clean and works.
8) There’s a laundry place on Calle Pedro Mendoza that will wash and dry for 6 euro. They also fold your clothes, which is either a luxury or will gross you out. You can also mooch off your residencia friends and wash and dry for 3 euro total, but you’ll have to haul your laundry over to the residencia and do all the work yourself. Your choice.
9) You can call taxis. They charge you from when you call, but they get there REALLY QUICKLY.
10) There is Mexican food in Salamanca. Cantina Mariachi or something and 100% Mexican, both on the Gran Via side of the Plaza. Duomo pizza is cheap and really yummy, on Gran Via. El Yunque isn’t Mexican food but it is mainly sandwiches, hamburgers, and hot dogs. The croquetas are amazing, as is the flan. And the people who work there are super nice and it’s close to the plaza.
I’ve also been working on compiling a list of the phrases that Jose, Julio and the rest of the guys say all the time. I have no idea if any of these are appropriate for family use (well, that’s not true, I have a general sense, but it doesn’t matter to you guys because you won’t be using them! Ha!), but the really rude stuff you guys already know (the Spanish translation of our four-letter-words, duh). These are the things they say about 90% of the time, though:
Majo/maja: Can be used as an adjective or noun. It basically means “cool.” For example, Jose and Julio think I am maja and they call me “maja” sometimes when I’ve said something funny (aka all the time). They also think my señora is maja, and obviously they think they are majo. All of their friends are majo/maja. You get the idea.
¡Me cago en diez!: This would be like saying “gosh darn it” instead of “goddammit” (that would be “me cago en dios” and is very very rude, apparently) and they say it ALL THE TIME. It’s like saying “crap” or, you know, when we say “goddammit.” It is appropriate in all situations among friends. An exclamation (like, “ow, I just stubbed my toe, me cago en diez!” or like “darn, this store is closed…pero, me cago en…!”) of surprise, frustration, confusion, and anger. Very versatile and popular.
Chulo: This also means cool. (Adjective)
Chungo: This means gross or lame or…anything negative, really. (Adjective)
Guarro: Unclassy. Lame. (Adjective) Especially useful if someone spits in the street, picks their nose, or uses the street as a bathroom (yes, I’ve seen it happen). You get the idea.
Macho/hombre: Their version of “dude.” Used for emphasis. For example, “Sí, macho!” “Pero, hombre, que ya está cerrado.”
Que sí/que no: Yes! No! When you’re arguing. Or you’re re-enacting the Monty Python Argument Sketch. Take your pick.
¡Jobar!: The nice way of saying the f-word. Like “freak” if you don’t want to say, well, you know.
Subnormal: Same as in English, clearly. When we’re teasing each other and saying that we’re totally weird, we call each other “subnormales.” Obviously.
There are a few others but they are either rude or less common. I’ll put them here in Spanish just because I can (tomar por culo, cojonudo, gilipollas), but if you translate them, I hope you don’t think Jose and Julio (and the rest of ‘em) are total slobs. Because they’re not. =)
I lied, I’ve been making another list, aka PLAYlist. It’s called the Xmas 2007 Grooooove Mix and it’s partly been created (well, it’s in-progress) to satisfy my homesickness and partly because I love thinking about christmas at my house when everyone on my dad’s side of the family visits and we have to wrestle with the huge tree and put up ornaments (well, that’s mostly my dad’s job) and cook lots of food and we all hang out downstairs in the kitchen area and dance around and play word games like Boggle and Quiddler and frustrate the hell out of my mom by playing things like Set. We usually have music that we play every year (Fats Domino, anyone?! Okay, we have classier stuff, too, but hello, best name ever) but as I said, I can’t stop thinking about my house and my family and being together and generally being Freedman-tastic so I decided to make a mix. Just thought you should all know.
Julia Lindsey is coming to visit me on Wednesday and staying for 2 nights, hopefully enjoying the Fiesta de los Santos (when the mariquelo is supposed to climb the cathedral and play a flute and violin up there to give thanks for the miracle that nobody died in 1755 when there was a huge earthquake!!) in Salamanca. Then we’re heading to Madrid on Friday and hanging out for a night (Kat, I’ll let you know what this other hostel is like…!), probably with Becca Maller (from Bowdoin, here in Salamanca with me) and Jessica Paris who is on Julia’s program. Jessica and Julia fly out of Madrid on Saturday afternoon and then Becca and I are taking the train back to Salamanca. I hope the weather is nice and potentially sunny although I know it will definitely not be warm. Oh wellll! Sammie and I are working out plans for her to visit me at the end of November (around my birthday, thanksgiving, etc) and I can’t wait!! Then I’m heading out to Italy as November turns into December, and Anna and Livs might visit me the next weekend (!!!!! I HAVEN’T SEEN THEM IN ALMOST THREE YEARS!!!).
Here is a summary of the do-I-want-to-live-in-the-residencia-in-the-spring internal debate. And yes, you should tell me what you all think. GIVE ME OPINIONS. COMMENT. EMAIL. Etc.
Pros: Internet. Freedom to eat what I want. Did I mention internet? Live closer to IES kids, stay closer with them in general. Closer to the plaza. Laundry is cheaper. Oh, internet. All food I want to eat. Friends from home who visit could stay overnight there and not have to pay for a hostel. I could invite Spanish friends over to hang out, have dinner, whatever. Independence aka getting to sing in the shower and not having to worry that I’m offending my señora by not liking fish or not being talkative enough. Get to put stuff up on my walls. Get the experience of living in a Spanish dorm in addition to homestay. No completely insane and obnoxious dog peeing on the floor and trying to eat your shoes and making it impossible to do your work outside of your room because he jumps on you and making it a necessity to keep your door closed at all times. And internet.
Cons: No Spanish family. Awkward conversation with said family at the end of the semester. Might be more expensive. Far from the train station. And the kicker….it’s completely the other side of the city from Julio/Jose. Yes, there are buses, we can meet in the plaza, they have cars, blah blah, but I get the feeling it would be a lot harder for them to walk me home and it would be harder to just call and say “hey, I’ll meet you in 2 minutes.” I’d probably never go to Julio’s house anymore and though it’s not like I do it much now, Jose and I may or may not start going there more often to watch movies/AD or whatever now that Julio’s dad is feeling better (asthma?). Not the world’s biggest problem, I know, but it really is amazingly convenient that they live so close…they are the main things in this town keeping me sane and if moving to the residencia jeopardizes in any way my relationship with them, it would be pretty much pointless. So. Opinions?!?! Vote now.
Sigh. I’m going to go watch Season 2 of Grey’s on DVD. I can’t take it anymore.
Oh yeah. GO SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Much much much love,
Besos!!!!
-c-
p.s. I’m 24 days away from never being a teenager again. I am freaked the hell out.
p.p.s. My hair is the longest it’s been in recent memory. So are my fingernails. They’re not the same length (hair and fingernails), I promise. That’s gross.
p.p.p.s. I can’t figure out how to turn the volume down on my phone (I can figure out how to turn down the earpiece volume but not the ring volume) so it scares the living daylights out of me every time someone calls me.
p.p.p.p.s. (on Monday) I saw "El Orfanato" against my will on Saturday night and it scared the crap out of me. But if you like scary movies you should see it. Also, last night (Sunday night) I saw "Spasmo" which is like a physical comedy group (no talking) (for free!) with Álvaro and Sarai and Julio and Jose and it was so friggin' funny I still giggle. My favorite part was the 5 guys in devil suits with horns/their devil staff-thingy creating a helicopter. You had to be there. Priceless.
DID I MENTION THE SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES?!! Yeah. They did. Oh yeah. Bigtime.
5 new photos at the end of this album:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017059&l=7dc32&id=4602208
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
One of my longest Blog Posts EVER! (Oct 21)
Hey all!
Check out the last 30 or so photos in this album:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017059&l=7dc32&id=4602208
So it’s Sunday, aka my day to chill out, catch up, relax, and maybe get around to using those watercolors I bought the other day. I slept until noon today (and went to bed at 11:30 last night…AMAZINGGGGG…! I didn’t have siesta yesterday, okay!?) and have been catching up on old blog posts so I can post them tomorrow when I have internet again. I’ll probably do some homework, too, so when the second week of November aka midterms rolls around I won’t be scrambling to catch up on the optional reading we can do to supplement our class notes. We’ll see how useful it all ends up being, but whaaatevaaaah.
So on Friday (the 19th) I got another chance to show off Salamanca! Kat’s friend Staci (senior at UVA, traveled around the middle east and lived in Israel for 3 months this summer, doing a project on hip-hop and visiting friends, jewish, blonde, fun, loves to make amusing faces in photos like I do, braver than I am about asking people what’s going on, as you will see later, a good sport for putting up with me as her tour guide all day) took the overnight bus/train to Salamanca from Granada on Thursday night/early Friday morning because her parents flew into Madrid yesterday and she wanted something to do before they showed up. She found a pensión for 15 euro right on the plaza, for those of you who are interested….! The people were nice, you can’t beat the location, her bed had sheets and was comfortable, you still can’t beat the location, and the bathroom was perfectly clean. Did I mention it’s on the plaza and it was 15 euro? Yeah.
Anyway, Staci got to Salamanca around 11 on Friday morning and I took her on a semi-whirlwind tour of my Spanish hometown! We wandered in and out of the cathedrals, enjoyed the Plaza de Anaya, checked out the cueva, I abandoned her for lunch and she had some wine and tortilla on the Rua Mayor and made friends with the bartender named Artur (like the king, as he said). We met up and ended up sitting in the sunlight in the Plaza for a good 2 or 3 hours (and obviously had some ice cream while Staci took a power-nap and rested her feet), people-watching. She noticed a ton of people heading out of the town hall and asked me what it was and if we could go in, and I was like “uh, well, I dunno, I’ve always wanted to but never tried!” so she was like “okay, let’s ask that guard guy.” We chatted with him for a little while and he was like “naw, you can’t go in, yesterday it was open to the public but it won’t be again until December but you can wait, yeah?” and Staci worked the “awww, I’m only gonna be here today, can’t we pleaaaase go in??” and he was like “listen, okay, we have to close it now because there are 3 weddings tonight but if we go quickly, sure.” So we got to go into the town hall with nobody else around!!!! It was kind of rushed but it’s a small space so it was cool and awesome enough to be there when nobody else was around!! Check it out:
Staci, if you’re reading this, I am still SO impressed that you got us in there. Way to go!!!! So cool.
When the sun had set enough that the Plaza was completely in shadow, we wandered down to the Puente Romano then up to the Casa de las Conchas and checked out the graffiti wall (my name is still up there!) and she added her own signature. As we walked out downstairs, there was a rapidly forming line of people waiting to head downstairs and Staci (being brave or maybe just smart) asked a guy standing in the doorway what was going on and he goes “oh, it’s a free concert, it’s Sephardic/Arabic music” which is almost exactly what Staci is interested in so she was like “uh, duh, I’m going” and it was late-ish by that point and I needed to get home for dinner so I didn’t accompany her, but I gather it was pretty cool. I met her and Jose, Julio, Álvaro and Sarai in the plaza later and we chiiiiilled at Molly Malone’s and then grabbed some late-night snacks at El Yunque (I TOLD YOU I ALWAYS GO THERE!). I think everyone involved had a great time and once again I was pleased to introduce Spanish friends of mine to American friends of mine and notice how well everyone got along and how easy it is to just bring people together like that. Kumbayaa, and all!
On a somewhat different and more melancholy note, I’ve been thinking a lot more about home lately, and I’m not completely sure why it started NOW. It’s probably a normal mid-semester thing, but it seems weird because I’m getting closer and closer to my friends here and feeling more and more on top of my Spanish game, as it were. Then again, being so happy with my friends here makes me miss my friends at home (those I talk to and those I don’t, you know who you are) It probably has something to do with the change in temperature, the fact that my birthday is less than a month away, the fact that I saw Kat and have been thinking more about Bowdoin, the fact that I figured out how to use my cell phone to call the US, the fact that I don’t have internet anymore, etc. etc. etc.
This could be an entire blog entry on its own, but I think for my sanity and yours I’m going to keep it short and save it for another time, maybe during a slow news period….“haha,” you’re saying to yourself, “if THIS isn’t a slow news period in the life of Casey, then GAWD I don’t think I could HANDLE any slower….!” Yes, yes, I know, I write a lot. It’s because I miss you guys and I miss being able to express myself in English to people I love and care about as much as I do you guys.
I did watch some episodes of the Office (british, obviously) a week or two ago, but I haven’t yet watched any Grey’s, Arrested Development (well, I did a few weeks ago, I think, waiting for internet to work or something), or Sports Night, nor have I watched any of the movies I brought, but the way things are going I’m starting to think it might be a possibility in the near future (assuming I’m not doing homework, enjoying sleep or enjoying time out with the guys). Part of me thinks that if I watch old Grey’s from the good ol’ days I’ll get even more homesick and it will just backfire. I really just miss Felicity!!! 99% of the time I’d rather just listen to music, anyway.
I listened to “Stop This Train” by John Mayer about 20 times the other night (and thought of Sammie and Schonie and driving around in Sammie’s car, during cold winter nights but staying warm in the car), missing my home life and wondering if I was going to actually cry like I’ve been feeling like I want to for a few days. You know that weird feeling where you don’t need to cry enough to just DO it but you know you’ve got that tight feeling in your brain and throat and you wonder if crying would just make you feel better in the end? That’s where I was for most of last week. Spending time with the boys and Staci and Ashley this weekend and writing about my new type of homesickness has definitely helped, though, and I’m feeling much better. Also, I’m halfway done with this semester and the more time I spend with Julio, Jose and Álvaro (and the rest), the more I realize how much I’m going to miss them over my super-long Christmas break, not to mention next summer (UNTIL THEY VISIT).
Oh, random good news: I stopped biting my fingernails!!! There’s at least one of you out there (do you read this blog?!?!) who knows how much of an achievement that is for me!! I’m still addicted to gum, though. At least I’m not smoking, right?!?! Ew.
Cute story! (yes, my name is Chareth Cutestory…): I was walking around with Julio the other night and he ran into a friend of his near El Yunque (I told you I go there all the time!! It probably helps that it’s right near the plaza, cheap, has amazing croquetas and good sandwiches, and Julio’s friend who is our age works there and he also is friends with the owner lady, who actually ended up talking with Julilo for like 2 hours that night about her art projects and then talking to me about studying here…she’s so cool!! She showed us all her clay tools and the ones that she’s in the process of carving…by that time, Jose had shown up and got into a detailed discussion with her about types of wood because he works as a carpenter).
Anyway, they got to talking (Julio had called their friend Rhona the night before around 1am when he was out with me and Jose to ask what time class was the next morning and woke her up to do so…then his alarm “didn’t go off” that morning and he ended up not even making it to class, making Rhona jokingly angry and causing this particular friend to tease Julio mercilessly about the fact that he forgets everything, because he was asking her about homework etc, too…somehow I remembered certain things about the project details or due dates or something so his friend was like “haha, just take Casey everywhere, you won’t forget a thing!” and he was like “well, yeah….” I laughed.), as Spaniards tend to do, and I noticed a cute blonde 2-year-old girl hanging out on the front step of the café that her mom was having dinner in.
She started smiling at me and of course we started playing peekaboo and I made funny faces at her and hid behind Julio and the menu outside the café to make her laugh. We were having a great time and her mom and mom’s friend noticed and were laughing, too, and finally her mom came outside, picked up her totally adorable daughter (who looked exactly like I did when I was younger, super-blonde hair and big cheeks and all, except with a ponytail instead of the plastic barrettes I used to love) and brought her over to me to give me a kiss on the cheek! I love this country!
IES has been in Sevilla and Granada this weekend. Why didn’t I go, you ask? Well, when we had to sign up for the trip, I thought I’d be visiting Sammie in Glasgow (how was the KT Tunstall concert?!?! I am so bummed that didn’t work out…) and I also figured I’d rather travel down there in the Spring. Maybe I’ll go with my family when they visit in March! I’ve been trying to balance out my time hanging out with IES kids and my Spanish friends, but it’s hard! I like IES kids and we play soccer pretty regularly (we played on Thursday without any Spanish kids because Toni and Mario had class and Julio was doing homework) and get coffee etc. during our class breaks, but I tend not to see them at night anymore, unless we meet up at random bars. Part of this is also due to the fact that I don’t really “go out” to bars anymore, but I’m hoping that catching up on sleep and work lately will enable me to see a little more of my American friends here!
Yesterday I took advantage of the internet and Skyped home. It was SO GOOD to hear my family’s voices but frustrating that the connection wasn’t that great and the background noise on my end was apparently pretty confusing. Also the slight delay meant that I’d make stupid jokes and wait for my family’s giggles and I’d end up waiting out an awkward pause, wondering if I’d just been away from home too long to be funny and then finally they’d laugh. I also worry that I ended up complaining too much because it’d been so long since we talked “face to face” that all of my complaints and worries just piled up! I hope to figure out more of a system so we can do it more often and actually have chilled out and fun conversations instead of ones that involve me being dramatic. Jess, your skype in china better work SUPER WELL in the spring or I am going to have a heart attack.
Still yesterday I hung out with Ashley in the plaza and enjoyed the sun, people-watched, and discussed how glad we were that we didn’t have to be on the bus for almost 24 hours this weekend, especially since there’s been a lot of inter-IES semi-romantically-related drama lately. We did confess that we hoped some dramatic and stupid stuff happened this weekend so we could hear about it tomorrow, when everyone comes back. We met a guy named Alex yesterday from London (while we were sitting in the plaza) who got here 3 days ago and doesn’t know a word of Spanish. He was like “well, I decided to finish school and then got a job to save up money until I finally got myself together enough to come here, but I was so excited I didn’t end up learning as much Spanish as I’d hoped..nor do I have an apartment, but I’m looking…I even forgot to get my hair cut, so I’m working on that!” He sounds totally crazy but he seemed pretty normal and nice enough so we gave him our cell numbers and directions to a few internet cafés in case he needs help. We’ll see what happens. Crazy Europeans!
Still yesterday I met up with Julio and Jose in Jose’s car outside the Plaza and we drove to Media Markt, where were supposed to meet Álvaro and his girlfriend Sarai and browse tripods because Julio’s broke and just generally be goofy (aka play with the Photobooth cameras on the Macs, mess around with the stereo settings, and joke about how some of the video cameras are so big they dry your hair and do your ironing while you film…oh, and I get to make snide comments about crappy translation of movie titles…for example, Garden State is called “Algo en común” aka “Something in Common” which is just about the most cliché and boring title EVER.). Jose’s right front tire started losing air pretty quickly about halfway there (but didn’t pop) so we got kind of delayed. Luckily we were close to Norauto and could pump up the tire (and browse car accessories in Norauto). I wonder how it’s doing now…it looked fine after we left!
We all ended up going to McDonalds (I know, I know, I know, I know) because the boys couldn’t decide where they wanted to eat and Sarai wanted a hamburger and we were outside of town anyway. Julio bought me a McFlurry because he’s convinced they’re super good and I was like “well, yeah, it WAS actually pretty good, but you need to try Kimball’s ice cream, okay?!!” Jose tried to get me to dip the Deluxe Fries (aka like…wedge fries) into the special sauce they come with and I refused, as I did the time before. If I go to McDonalds, I don’t want good fries, I don’t want any weird sauces, I want McDonalds fries and ketchup!! Silly Spaniards.
Anyway.
Here’s some more music I’ve been listening to lately:
Slip Slidin’ Away by Paul Simon (best line: “she said a good day ain’t got no rain…she said a bad day’s when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been”), who always makes me feel nostalgic and homesick but strangely comforted. His voice has been familiar to me since the days I went to Ohio at Christmastime, when I wouldn’t have known who Paul Simon was if he bit me, but I could recognize every song off the Graceland album. Little did I know back then that I’d actually see Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Bowdoin during my freshman year!!
Something Pretty by Patrick Park (Julia H., did you introduce me to this one?? I love the chorus!!!)
Someone Else’s Life by Joshua Radin (Ryan, did you introduce me to this?? I can’t figure out where I got it. I definitely have to be in the right kind of mood to listen to Josh Radin but this song has been on non-stop lately…best lines: “I keep your picture in my worn-through shoe” and “when I’m lost, I look at my picture of you”)
Lost and Found by Adrienne Pierce
And the other night, I listened to some of Sammie’s music and the Felicity theme song (yes, I have it) because I missed her (and our Boody street double) and figured it would be the easiest way to pretend she was here. Sammie, I hope you’re at least writing lyrics over there in Scotland…you need to sing to me when you visit in November!!!
When I listen to new songs I like that I don’t think many of my friends have heard, I can’t help but think of Sam and Charlie’s radio show and wish I could call in my requests every Wednesday night. I think homecoming weekend was this weekend at Bowdoin…if you guys are reading this, how was it?!?! To any of you Bowdoin students or alums, I wish I had been there!!!! I have to confess that sometimes when I get internet I look at the webcam of the quad…is that weird??
It’s funny, I haven’t really been listening to my Spanish music that kept me alive this summer at Middlebury. I speak less Spanish here than I did at Midd, but somehow I feel like I get my fill of Spanish during the day and when I’m in my room I want my English music to comfort me. I also hear a lot of American music when I’m out in bars/clubs (I haven’t been out dancing in what feels like forever but it’s actually only been about 2 weeks) and hear Spanish music during the day in cafés because they all have TVs with Latino Top 40 music videos playing in the background and over the loudspeakers.
Well, now it’s time to go heat up my lunch (the family is out and about today and Becca is still out with IES…if it weren’t for the fact that we have 2 classes together I think I honestly might never see her!! For some reason I always end up taking my siesta while she eats lunch and she and Mari go to the gym a lot during dinnertime and our schedules just don’t match up!) and then I think I’ll siesta and maybe mess around with my watercolors!!
I hope all of you back home are enjoying the fall foliage and pumpkin pie without me and I hope you’re ready for some of the strongest and longest hugs you’ve ever gotten when I see you in 8 weeks (or in January, for you Middkids and Bobokids who I won’t see before New Years)!!
Besos, besitos, besines, and besazos,
-Casey
p.s. Jess, whenever I hear songs that we sang to Ella and Henry I think of you and wish you were here with me, practicing your Spanish instead of your Chinese and enjoying the Spanish lifestyle instead of the Middlebury grind…! Maybe I will end up visiting you in China in the spring…haha….maaaybe…
Check out the last 30 or so photos in this album:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017059&l=7dc32&id=4602208
So it’s Sunday, aka my day to chill out, catch up, relax, and maybe get around to using those watercolors I bought the other day. I slept until noon today (and went to bed at 11:30 last night…AMAZINGGGGG…! I didn’t have siesta yesterday, okay!?) and have been catching up on old blog posts so I can post them tomorrow when I have internet again. I’ll probably do some homework, too, so when the second week of November aka midterms rolls around I won’t be scrambling to catch up on the optional reading we can do to supplement our class notes. We’ll see how useful it all ends up being, but whaaatevaaaah.
So on Friday (the 19th) I got another chance to show off Salamanca! Kat’s friend Staci (senior at UVA, traveled around the middle east and lived in Israel for 3 months this summer, doing a project on hip-hop and visiting friends, jewish, blonde, fun, loves to make amusing faces in photos like I do, braver than I am about asking people what’s going on, as you will see later, a good sport for putting up with me as her tour guide all day) took the overnight bus/train to Salamanca from Granada on Thursday night/early Friday morning because her parents flew into Madrid yesterday and she wanted something to do before they showed up. She found a pensión for 15 euro right on the plaza, for those of you who are interested….! The people were nice, you can’t beat the location, her bed had sheets and was comfortable, you still can’t beat the location, and the bathroom was perfectly clean. Did I mention it’s on the plaza and it was 15 euro? Yeah.
Anyway, Staci got to Salamanca around 11 on Friday morning and I took her on a semi-whirlwind tour of my Spanish hometown! We wandered in and out of the cathedrals, enjoyed the Plaza de Anaya, checked out the cueva, I abandoned her for lunch and she had some wine and tortilla on the Rua Mayor and made friends with the bartender named Artur (like the king, as he said). We met up and ended up sitting in the sunlight in the Plaza for a good 2 or 3 hours (and obviously had some ice cream while Staci took a power-nap and rested her feet), people-watching. She noticed a ton of people heading out of the town hall and asked me what it was and if we could go in, and I was like “uh, well, I dunno, I’ve always wanted to but never tried!” so she was like “okay, let’s ask that guard guy.” We chatted with him for a little while and he was like “naw, you can’t go in, yesterday it was open to the public but it won’t be again until December but you can wait, yeah?” and Staci worked the “awww, I’m only gonna be here today, can’t we pleaaaase go in??” and he was like “listen, okay, we have to close it now because there are 3 weddings tonight but if we go quickly, sure.” So we got to go into the town hall with nobody else around!!!! It was kind of rushed but it’s a small space so it was cool and awesome enough to be there when nobody else was around!! Check it out:
Staci, if you’re reading this, I am still SO impressed that you got us in there. Way to go!!!! So cool.
When the sun had set enough that the Plaza was completely in shadow, we wandered down to the Puente Romano then up to the Casa de las Conchas and checked out the graffiti wall (my name is still up there!) and she added her own signature. As we walked out downstairs, there was a rapidly forming line of people waiting to head downstairs and Staci (being brave or maybe just smart) asked a guy standing in the doorway what was going on and he goes “oh, it’s a free concert, it’s Sephardic/Arabic music” which is almost exactly what Staci is interested in so she was like “uh, duh, I’m going” and it was late-ish by that point and I needed to get home for dinner so I didn’t accompany her, but I gather it was pretty cool. I met her and Jose, Julio, Álvaro and Sarai in the plaza later and we chiiiiilled at Molly Malone’s and then grabbed some late-night snacks at El Yunque (I TOLD YOU I ALWAYS GO THERE!). I think everyone involved had a great time and once again I was pleased to introduce Spanish friends of mine to American friends of mine and notice how well everyone got along and how easy it is to just bring people together like that. Kumbayaa, and all!
On a somewhat different and more melancholy note, I’ve been thinking a lot more about home lately, and I’m not completely sure why it started NOW. It’s probably a normal mid-semester thing, but it seems weird because I’m getting closer and closer to my friends here and feeling more and more on top of my Spanish game, as it were. Then again, being so happy with my friends here makes me miss my friends at home (those I talk to and those I don’t, you know who you are) It probably has something to do with the change in temperature, the fact that my birthday is less than a month away, the fact that I saw Kat and have been thinking more about Bowdoin, the fact that I figured out how to use my cell phone to call the US, the fact that I don’t have internet anymore, etc. etc. etc.
This could be an entire blog entry on its own, but I think for my sanity and yours I’m going to keep it short and save it for another time, maybe during a slow news period….“haha,” you’re saying to yourself, “if THIS isn’t a slow news period in the life of Casey, then GAWD I don’t think I could HANDLE any slower….!” Yes, yes, I know, I write a lot. It’s because I miss you guys and I miss being able to express myself in English to people I love and care about as much as I do you guys.
I did watch some episodes of the Office (british, obviously) a week or two ago, but I haven’t yet watched any Grey’s, Arrested Development (well, I did a few weeks ago, I think, waiting for internet to work or something), or Sports Night, nor have I watched any of the movies I brought, but the way things are going I’m starting to think it might be a possibility in the near future (assuming I’m not doing homework, enjoying sleep or enjoying time out with the guys). Part of me thinks that if I watch old Grey’s from the good ol’ days I’ll get even more homesick and it will just backfire. I really just miss Felicity!!! 99% of the time I’d rather just listen to music, anyway.
I listened to “Stop This Train” by John Mayer about 20 times the other night (and thought of Sammie and Schonie and driving around in Sammie’s car, during cold winter nights but staying warm in the car), missing my home life and wondering if I was going to actually cry like I’ve been feeling like I want to for a few days. You know that weird feeling where you don’t need to cry enough to just DO it but you know you’ve got that tight feeling in your brain and throat and you wonder if crying would just make you feel better in the end? That’s where I was for most of last week. Spending time with the boys and Staci and Ashley this weekend and writing about my new type of homesickness has definitely helped, though, and I’m feeling much better. Also, I’m halfway done with this semester and the more time I spend with Julio, Jose and Álvaro (and the rest), the more I realize how much I’m going to miss them over my super-long Christmas break, not to mention next summer (UNTIL THEY VISIT).
Oh, random good news: I stopped biting my fingernails!!! There’s at least one of you out there (do you read this blog?!?!) who knows how much of an achievement that is for me!! I’m still addicted to gum, though. At least I’m not smoking, right?!?! Ew.
Cute story! (yes, my name is Chareth Cutestory…): I was walking around with Julio the other night and he ran into a friend of his near El Yunque (I told you I go there all the time!! It probably helps that it’s right near the plaza, cheap, has amazing croquetas and good sandwiches, and Julio’s friend who is our age works there and he also is friends with the owner lady, who actually ended up talking with Julilo for like 2 hours that night about her art projects and then talking to me about studying here…she’s so cool!! She showed us all her clay tools and the ones that she’s in the process of carving…by that time, Jose had shown up and got into a detailed discussion with her about types of wood because he works as a carpenter).
Anyway, they got to talking (Julio had called their friend Rhona the night before around 1am when he was out with me and Jose to ask what time class was the next morning and woke her up to do so…then his alarm “didn’t go off” that morning and he ended up not even making it to class, making Rhona jokingly angry and causing this particular friend to tease Julio mercilessly about the fact that he forgets everything, because he was asking her about homework etc, too…somehow I remembered certain things about the project details or due dates or something so his friend was like “haha, just take Casey everywhere, you won’t forget a thing!” and he was like “well, yeah….” I laughed.), as Spaniards tend to do, and I noticed a cute blonde 2-year-old girl hanging out on the front step of the café that her mom was having dinner in.
She started smiling at me and of course we started playing peekaboo and I made funny faces at her and hid behind Julio and the menu outside the café to make her laugh. We were having a great time and her mom and mom’s friend noticed and were laughing, too, and finally her mom came outside, picked up her totally adorable daughter (who looked exactly like I did when I was younger, super-blonde hair and big cheeks and all, except with a ponytail instead of the plastic barrettes I used to love) and brought her over to me to give me a kiss on the cheek! I love this country!
IES has been in Sevilla and Granada this weekend. Why didn’t I go, you ask? Well, when we had to sign up for the trip, I thought I’d be visiting Sammie in Glasgow (how was the KT Tunstall concert?!?! I am so bummed that didn’t work out…) and I also figured I’d rather travel down there in the Spring. Maybe I’ll go with my family when they visit in March! I’ve been trying to balance out my time hanging out with IES kids and my Spanish friends, but it’s hard! I like IES kids and we play soccer pretty regularly (we played on Thursday without any Spanish kids because Toni and Mario had class and Julio was doing homework) and get coffee etc. during our class breaks, but I tend not to see them at night anymore, unless we meet up at random bars. Part of this is also due to the fact that I don’t really “go out” to bars anymore, but I’m hoping that catching up on sleep and work lately will enable me to see a little more of my American friends here!
Yesterday I took advantage of the internet and Skyped home. It was SO GOOD to hear my family’s voices but frustrating that the connection wasn’t that great and the background noise on my end was apparently pretty confusing. Also the slight delay meant that I’d make stupid jokes and wait for my family’s giggles and I’d end up waiting out an awkward pause, wondering if I’d just been away from home too long to be funny and then finally they’d laugh. I also worry that I ended up complaining too much because it’d been so long since we talked “face to face” that all of my complaints and worries just piled up! I hope to figure out more of a system so we can do it more often and actually have chilled out and fun conversations instead of ones that involve me being dramatic. Jess, your skype in china better work SUPER WELL in the spring or I am going to have a heart attack.
Still yesterday I hung out with Ashley in the plaza and enjoyed the sun, people-watched, and discussed how glad we were that we didn’t have to be on the bus for almost 24 hours this weekend, especially since there’s been a lot of inter-IES semi-romantically-related drama lately. We did confess that we hoped some dramatic and stupid stuff happened this weekend so we could hear about it tomorrow, when everyone comes back. We met a guy named Alex yesterday from London (while we were sitting in the plaza) who got here 3 days ago and doesn’t know a word of Spanish. He was like “well, I decided to finish school and then got a job to save up money until I finally got myself together enough to come here, but I was so excited I didn’t end up learning as much Spanish as I’d hoped..nor do I have an apartment, but I’m looking…I even forgot to get my hair cut, so I’m working on that!” He sounds totally crazy but he seemed pretty normal and nice enough so we gave him our cell numbers and directions to a few internet cafés in case he needs help. We’ll see what happens. Crazy Europeans!
Still yesterday I met up with Julio and Jose in Jose’s car outside the Plaza and we drove to Media Markt, where were supposed to meet Álvaro and his girlfriend Sarai and browse tripods because Julio’s broke and just generally be goofy (aka play with the Photobooth cameras on the Macs, mess around with the stereo settings, and joke about how some of the video cameras are so big they dry your hair and do your ironing while you film…oh, and I get to make snide comments about crappy translation of movie titles…for example, Garden State is called “Algo en común” aka “Something in Common” which is just about the most cliché and boring title EVER.). Jose’s right front tire started losing air pretty quickly about halfway there (but didn’t pop) so we got kind of delayed. Luckily we were close to Norauto and could pump up the tire (and browse car accessories in Norauto). I wonder how it’s doing now…it looked fine after we left!
We all ended up going to McDonalds (I know, I know, I know, I know) because the boys couldn’t decide where they wanted to eat and Sarai wanted a hamburger and we were outside of town anyway. Julio bought me a McFlurry because he’s convinced they’re super good and I was like “well, yeah, it WAS actually pretty good, but you need to try Kimball’s ice cream, okay?!!” Jose tried to get me to dip the Deluxe Fries (aka like…wedge fries) into the special sauce they come with and I refused, as I did the time before. If I go to McDonalds, I don’t want good fries, I don’t want any weird sauces, I want McDonalds fries and ketchup!! Silly Spaniards.
Anyway.
Here’s some more music I’ve been listening to lately:
Slip Slidin’ Away by Paul Simon (best line: “she said a good day ain’t got no rain…she said a bad day’s when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been”), who always makes me feel nostalgic and homesick but strangely comforted. His voice has been familiar to me since the days I went to Ohio at Christmastime, when I wouldn’t have known who Paul Simon was if he bit me, but I could recognize every song off the Graceland album. Little did I know back then that I’d actually see Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Bowdoin during my freshman year!!
Something Pretty by Patrick Park (Julia H., did you introduce me to this one?? I love the chorus!!!)
Someone Else’s Life by Joshua Radin (Ryan, did you introduce me to this?? I can’t figure out where I got it. I definitely have to be in the right kind of mood to listen to Josh Radin but this song has been on non-stop lately…best lines: “I keep your picture in my worn-through shoe” and “when I’m lost, I look at my picture of you”)
Lost and Found by Adrienne Pierce
And the other night, I listened to some of Sammie’s music and the Felicity theme song (yes, I have it) because I missed her (and our Boody street double) and figured it would be the easiest way to pretend she was here. Sammie, I hope you’re at least writing lyrics over there in Scotland…you need to sing to me when you visit in November!!!
When I listen to new songs I like that I don’t think many of my friends have heard, I can’t help but think of Sam and Charlie’s radio show and wish I could call in my requests every Wednesday night. I think homecoming weekend was this weekend at Bowdoin…if you guys are reading this, how was it?!?! To any of you Bowdoin students or alums, I wish I had been there!!!! I have to confess that sometimes when I get internet I look at the webcam of the quad…is that weird??
It’s funny, I haven’t really been listening to my Spanish music that kept me alive this summer at Middlebury. I speak less Spanish here than I did at Midd, but somehow I feel like I get my fill of Spanish during the day and when I’m in my room I want my English music to comfort me. I also hear a lot of American music when I’m out in bars/clubs (I haven’t been out dancing in what feels like forever but it’s actually only been about 2 weeks) and hear Spanish music during the day in cafés because they all have TVs with Latino Top 40 music videos playing in the background and over the loudspeakers.
Well, now it’s time to go heat up my lunch (the family is out and about today and Becca is still out with IES…if it weren’t for the fact that we have 2 classes together I think I honestly might never see her!! For some reason I always end up taking my siesta while she eats lunch and she and Mari go to the gym a lot during dinnertime and our schedules just don’t match up!) and then I think I’ll siesta and maybe mess around with my watercolors!!
I hope all of you back home are enjoying the fall foliage and pumpkin pie without me and I hope you’re ready for some of the strongest and longest hugs you’ve ever gotten when I see you in 8 weeks (or in January, for you Middkids and Bobokids who I won’t see before New Years)!!
Besos, besitos, besines, and besazos,
-Casey
p.s. Jess, whenever I hear songs that we sang to Ella and Henry I think of you and wish you were here with me, practicing your Spanish instead of your Chinese and enjoying the Spanish lifestyle instead of the Middlebury grind…! Maybe I will end up visiting you in China in the spring…haha….maaaybe…
October 17th, 2007 (I’m behind in posting, so sue me)
Yo!
So I went to a stationery store today (aka like almost every day…I find excuses to browse the pens and notebooks and drool over the new soft-cover big moleskine notebooks….gahhh) to buy cheap scissors and a pencil sharpener (for the colored pencils, metallic pencils, watercolor pencils, etc that Julio bought me…he was like “I saw all of these and I know you like colors so I hope they work and don’t break and stuff and uh yeah” and I was like “Julio, really, this is great, they’re PENCILS, they won’t break any more than normal…thank you!!” and he was like “but I hope they don’t break…” which was pretty great) and I found some kiddie watercolors and was like “must get these” so I asked the guy how much they were and he looks at me and is like “…you know these are for kids, right?” and I had to be like “heh…yes…thanks…uh….how much are they?” Maybe he thought since I was clearly a giri (foreigner) I couldn’t understand Spanish packaging and assumed the Spaniards were just trying to make sophisticated watercolors a little cuter? Sigh. I love stationery stores, anyway. Haven’t had time to try them all out, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to this weekend.
Yesterday in music class (BEST. CLASS. EVER. It’s like a class version of “A Short History of Everything” by Bill Bryson, except not quite as funny and somewhat shorter…our professor knows SO MUCH and manages to make it all relate back to the music we’re studying…!) our professor was teaching us about some more Spanish folk music and one song title was “El lobo pardo” or something, and after teaching us about the history of prostitutes in Salamanca (pardo=dark, something to do with the tights prostitutes used to wear, blending in at night, I forget now), asked the class about the significance of the lobo aka wolf, in general.
Professor: ¿Qué significa el lobo?
Absurd mulleted trumpet player: ¿Madres?
Professor (with a smirk): No. El Diablo.
But I love my mom. See??
The other day in my political lit class (yeah, WHY am I in that class, again?? Hmmm…they tricked me, I thought it was just lit!!! oh yeah, because I like the professor and it’s something new), I handed in my ficha which is like a little card with your photo/name and address and contact info on it and the course name etc. On the back is where the professors make comments/grades on your work (here, we do a midterm, final exam, and maybe a paper tossed in there for each class, sometimes just a midterm and then a paper or an exam…senior year at Bowdoin is gonna be VERY interesting…). Anyway, the professor was like “oh, you’re from Boston? The only thing I know about Boston is from that twin movie with Hayley Mills! You know, ‘Tú a Boston y Yo a California?’ and I was like “…OHHHH, you mean the Parent Trap?? I didn’t realize Boston was in that movie!” and he was like “I’ve seen the Lindsay Lohan version, too” and then kind of rolled his eyes. Fantastic.
So I’ve been here about 6 weeks and I have about 9 weeks to go, not that I’m counting (58 days left!). I have one more IES trip to Toledo for a day, and Sammie and Julia are visiting, and then I’m going to Florence to visit Julia, Hallie, and Dasha. And then I’m going home. I’m almost halfway done (when I post this, it will be 7 weeks in, 8 to go).
Whoa.
-c-
So I went to a stationery store today (aka like almost every day…I find excuses to browse the pens and notebooks and drool over the new soft-cover big moleskine notebooks….gahhh) to buy cheap scissors and a pencil sharpener (for the colored pencils, metallic pencils, watercolor pencils, etc that Julio bought me…he was like “I saw all of these and I know you like colors so I hope they work and don’t break and stuff and uh yeah” and I was like “Julio, really, this is great, they’re PENCILS, they won’t break any more than normal…thank you!!” and he was like “but I hope they don’t break…” which was pretty great) and I found some kiddie watercolors and was like “must get these” so I asked the guy how much they were and he looks at me and is like “…you know these are for kids, right?” and I had to be like “heh…yes…thanks…uh….how much are they?” Maybe he thought since I was clearly a giri (foreigner) I couldn’t understand Spanish packaging and assumed the Spaniards were just trying to make sophisticated watercolors a little cuter? Sigh. I love stationery stores, anyway. Haven’t had time to try them all out, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to this weekend.
Yesterday in music class (BEST. CLASS. EVER. It’s like a class version of “A Short History of Everything” by Bill Bryson, except not quite as funny and somewhat shorter…our professor knows SO MUCH and manages to make it all relate back to the music we’re studying…!) our professor was teaching us about some more Spanish folk music and one song title was “El lobo pardo” or something, and after teaching us about the history of prostitutes in Salamanca (pardo=dark, something to do with the tights prostitutes used to wear, blending in at night, I forget now), asked the class about the significance of the lobo aka wolf, in general.
Professor: ¿Qué significa el lobo?
Absurd mulleted trumpet player: ¿Madres?
Professor (with a smirk): No. El Diablo.
But I love my mom. See??
The other day in my political lit class (yeah, WHY am I in that class, again?? Hmmm…they tricked me, I thought it was just lit!!! oh yeah, because I like the professor and it’s something new), I handed in my ficha which is like a little card with your photo/name and address and contact info on it and the course name etc. On the back is where the professors make comments/grades on your work (here, we do a midterm, final exam, and maybe a paper tossed in there for each class, sometimes just a midterm and then a paper or an exam…senior year at Bowdoin is gonna be VERY interesting…). Anyway, the professor was like “oh, you’re from Boston? The only thing I know about Boston is from that twin movie with Hayley Mills! You know, ‘Tú a Boston y Yo a California?’ and I was like “…OHHHH, you mean the Parent Trap?? I didn’t realize Boston was in that movie!” and he was like “I’ve seen the Lindsay Lohan version, too” and then kind of rolled his eyes. Fantastic.
So I’ve been here about 6 weeks and I have about 9 weeks to go, not that I’m counting (58 days left!). I have one more IES trip to Toledo for a day, and Sammie and Julia are visiting, and then I’m going to Florence to visit Julia, Hallie, and Dasha. And then I’m going home. I’m almost halfway done (when I post this, it will be 7 weeks in, 8 to go).
Whoa.
-c-
Kat's Visit to Salamanca (a late blog post)
La Fiesta del Virgen del Pilar—Puente! aka What I Did October 10-15
Hello all!
I still have no idea how many of you are reading this and with what regularity, but for those of you who have been reading from the beginning, those of you who comment (THANK YOU), those of you who just look at my photos, and those of you who are just starting, I hope you enjoy reading my blog and I hope you know that I love getting comments here/on my facebook profile/photos/emails, even if just to say “I read your blog, hi!” Also, if I put photos in my blog (not links, like actual photos), you can click on them to enlarge them in a new window. Cool tip.
At this point, I don’t have any internet at home, so my blog posts are kind of piling up. I write them in Word and then paste them into Blogger when I have time/internet, so sometimes I end up spending a whole week writing new posts and not posting any (as is the case now).
Anyway, I’m posting this a week late, but I hope it still all makes sense.
Onto the good stuff…!
So Kat is fantastic and decided midway through last week that she wanted to visit me! We managed to work it all out, although she kind of had to scramble to buy tickets and find a hostel, etc. It all worked out in the end, so let that be a lesson to you, those who are in Europe (or anywhere in the world, frankly) and decide to visit me at the last minute…ahem, ahem! Kat’s train got into Salamanca at 4ish, and Julio offered to drive me there to meet her (this will be a theme for the weekend) and then drive us to her hostel. Turns out it’s actually a university residencia that sometimes poses as a hostel, but whatever, the room was wicked nice (and had a mini-fridge and microondas that Julio was super jealous of).
To keep things simple, I’m just going to explain what we did in a few long run-on sentences and then link to Kat’s blog entry about her visit, because it summarizes the visit WAY better than I could ever do!
So we parked below the cathedrals, walked around and took photos at the Plaza de Anaya and all around the centro as well as the Cueva, got a snack at the Rua Mayor Café (aka where IES kids have coffee and tortilla every day during our break between classes), walked back to the car to get Julio’s jacket, ran into his uncle who lives down there (another uncle, not the one who owns the finca) and then apparently his parents, too (I’ve been to Julio’s house at least 4 times and his parents have been there twice and he still hasn’t introduced me…I was like “listen, should I be the one to just go say hi?!” and he was like “no, no, I’ll introduce you, I’m just a)stupid b)ashamed of them c)awkward and/or d)forgetful [or they’re ‘tired after work’]”…boys are stupid in every language, it seems).
Then we drove to Julio’s house, looked at photos from the day from his camera, drove around, had dinner at El Yunque aka the café/sandwich place where I usually end up going at least once a night, if not more, drove to Café Massé and played pool (Kat won?), met Jose outside, he drove us downtown and we left the car and walked to Café Erasmus where there was no space, ended up at Molly Malone’s and found a table, had a drink or two (aka the boys did), walked to El Yunque (yes, again) so Jose could have dinner, drove Kat to the residencia (nice boys!!), then drove home. Bedtime.
Saturday morning, I walked to Kat’s hostel aka residencia (I woke her up, oops) and we walked downtown and grabbed some chocolate con churros (amaaaaazingggg) at the Rua Mayor Café, walked around Calle Toro and snagged some super fantastic nice clothes for Kat, headed back to my house (the family was out collecting mushrooms and chestnuts at Mari’s family home…I swear), got me some lunch, headed out to Gadis (aka small grocery store) and bought our lunch aka babybel cheese, baguettes, sour cream and onion Pringles and fanta limon, obviously.
We walked to the Plaza and lounged about and leisurely ate our lunch, checked out the new cathedral, crashed some weddings, went to the Puente Romano, walked back to Kat’s place, rested, made plans with the boys via phone and nearly died from laughing when they decided to show off their English speaking skills (“Julio, you’re ridiculous” “Really? I am reedeeculus?” “Yes, completely” “Ai know, ai know”), visited Ashley at the residencia, walked to the plaza, met the boys, did nothing for an extended period of time, waited for Ashley to show up, did nothing aka fought about where we should go for Sangria/Dinner, boys left for botellón, we got our sangria in the plaza and Mexican food later, just as we’d originally wanted, all three of us gals walked home, Kat and I dodged some sketchy Spanish types near her residencia, prompting me to take a taxi home.
So Kat’s train left at 7:45 on Sunday and Julio had told us the night before that he’d probably still be awake by the time we’d need to be walking to the train station and that I should text him when I woke up to take a taxi to Kat’s residencia. So I did, saying that I hoped he was still sleeping and that taking a taxi was no problem. He writes back being like “no, I’m right around the corner, I haven’t been drinking in hours, seriously, let me drive you guys” so, hello, of course, thank you! He comes to get me in his car, we drive to get Kat, he drives us to the train station, I walk Kat inside, we say our dramatic and tearful goodbye and then Julio drives me home and I go back to sleep until Kat calls me to tell me that she’s made it home alive (well, no, I didn’t sleep THAT late).
Here’s Kat’s summary: http://kpasaconmigo.blogspot.com/2007/10/salamancanating.html
It was so great that Kat speaks Spanish and that she and I are chill and not like…super tourists or anything. Very low-key, goofy, fun, enjoyable all-around and I’m glad that she likes my friends and that they like her!! I’m so lucky. It was also good to know that Salamanca’s sights can pretty much be done in a day (well, maaaybe 2, if you stretch it out and spend a lot of time lounging in the plaza) and that the plaza is, in fact, a perfect place to kill an hour or four, especially if you love people-watching. Overall it was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for a better time! I’m sad that Kat and I are probably not going to get many (any?!) more chances to travel together this fall. Boooooo.
It was also good to commiserate about the fact that Gustavo (our professor for the first year and a half of Bowdoin who brought us together due to his amazing jokes and strange comments and Che dolls [yes, Kat, I know, I know] that nobody else understood, Peruvian, journalist, rebel, koala-look-alike, my professor for journalism this summer at middlebury, my advisor for a short period of time, THE MAN, twisted-movie lover) is abandoning us to teach at Stanford this spring and then go on sabbatical next year…can anyone say road trip to California?!? Kat’s dramatic and accurate quote about the situation is on my facebook profile, but for those of you who don’t have the privilege of viewing said quote/profile, here it is:
“DAMN YOU GUSTAVO FOR YOUR ILLOGICAL DESERTION OF US IN OUR TIME OF NEED!”
More entries to come (I’m so behind!!!),
Besos
-c-
Hello all!
I still have no idea how many of you are reading this and with what regularity, but for those of you who have been reading from the beginning, those of you who comment (THANK YOU), those of you who just look at my photos, and those of you who are just starting, I hope you enjoy reading my blog and I hope you know that I love getting comments here/on my facebook profile/photos/emails, even if just to say “I read your blog, hi!” Also, if I put photos in my blog (not links, like actual photos), you can click on them to enlarge them in a new window. Cool tip.
At this point, I don’t have any internet at home, so my blog posts are kind of piling up. I write them in Word and then paste them into Blogger when I have time/internet, so sometimes I end up spending a whole week writing new posts and not posting any (as is the case now).
Anyway, I’m posting this a week late, but I hope it still all makes sense.
Onto the good stuff…!
So Kat is fantastic and decided midway through last week that she wanted to visit me! We managed to work it all out, although she kind of had to scramble to buy tickets and find a hostel, etc. It all worked out in the end, so let that be a lesson to you, those who are in Europe (or anywhere in the world, frankly) and decide to visit me at the last minute…ahem, ahem! Kat’s train got into Salamanca at 4ish, and Julio offered to drive me there to meet her (this will be a theme for the weekend) and then drive us to her hostel. Turns out it’s actually a university residencia that sometimes poses as a hostel, but whatever, the room was wicked nice (and had a mini-fridge and microondas that Julio was super jealous of).
To keep things simple, I’m just going to explain what we did in a few long run-on sentences and then link to Kat’s blog entry about her visit, because it summarizes the visit WAY better than I could ever do!
So we parked below the cathedrals, walked around and took photos at the Plaza de Anaya and all around the centro as well as the Cueva, got a snack at the Rua Mayor Café (aka where IES kids have coffee and tortilla every day during our break between classes), walked back to the car to get Julio’s jacket, ran into his uncle who lives down there (another uncle, not the one who owns the finca) and then apparently his parents, too (I’ve been to Julio’s house at least 4 times and his parents have been there twice and he still hasn’t introduced me…I was like “listen, should I be the one to just go say hi?!” and he was like “no, no, I’ll introduce you, I’m just a)stupid b)ashamed of them c)awkward and/or d)forgetful [or they’re ‘tired after work’]”…boys are stupid in every language, it seems).
Then we drove to Julio’s house, looked at photos from the day from his camera, drove around, had dinner at El Yunque aka the café/sandwich place where I usually end up going at least once a night, if not more, drove to Café Massé and played pool (Kat won?), met Jose outside, he drove us downtown and we left the car and walked to Café Erasmus where there was no space, ended up at Molly Malone’s and found a table, had a drink or two (aka the boys did), walked to El Yunque (yes, again) so Jose could have dinner, drove Kat to the residencia (nice boys!!), then drove home. Bedtime.
Saturday morning, I walked to Kat’s hostel aka residencia (I woke her up, oops) and we walked downtown and grabbed some chocolate con churros (amaaaaazingggg) at the Rua Mayor Café, walked around Calle Toro and snagged some super fantastic nice clothes for Kat, headed back to my house (the family was out collecting mushrooms and chestnuts at Mari’s family home…I swear), got me some lunch, headed out to Gadis (aka small grocery store) and bought our lunch aka babybel cheese, baguettes, sour cream and onion Pringles and fanta limon, obviously.
We walked to the Plaza and lounged about and leisurely ate our lunch, checked out the new cathedral, crashed some weddings, went to the Puente Romano, walked back to Kat’s place, rested, made plans with the boys via phone and nearly died from laughing when they decided to show off their English speaking skills (“Julio, you’re ridiculous” “Really? I am reedeeculus?” “Yes, completely” “Ai know, ai know”), visited Ashley at the residencia, walked to the plaza, met the boys, did nothing for an extended period of time, waited for Ashley to show up, did nothing aka fought about where we should go for Sangria/Dinner, boys left for botellón, we got our sangria in the plaza and Mexican food later, just as we’d originally wanted, all three of us gals walked home, Kat and I dodged some sketchy Spanish types near her residencia, prompting me to take a taxi home.
So Kat’s train left at 7:45 on Sunday and Julio had told us the night before that he’d probably still be awake by the time we’d need to be walking to the train station and that I should text him when I woke up to take a taxi to Kat’s residencia. So I did, saying that I hoped he was still sleeping and that taking a taxi was no problem. He writes back being like “no, I’m right around the corner, I haven’t been drinking in hours, seriously, let me drive you guys” so, hello, of course, thank you! He comes to get me in his car, we drive to get Kat, he drives us to the train station, I walk Kat inside, we say our dramatic and tearful goodbye and then Julio drives me home and I go back to sleep until Kat calls me to tell me that she’s made it home alive (well, no, I didn’t sleep THAT late).
Here’s Kat’s summary: http://kpasaconmigo.blogspot.com/2007/10/salamancanating.html
It was so great that Kat speaks Spanish and that she and I are chill and not like…super tourists or anything. Very low-key, goofy, fun, enjoyable all-around and I’m glad that she likes my friends and that they like her!! I’m so lucky. It was also good to know that Salamanca’s sights can pretty much be done in a day (well, maaaybe 2, if you stretch it out and spend a lot of time lounging in the plaza) and that the plaza is, in fact, a perfect place to kill an hour or four, especially if you love people-watching. Overall it was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for a better time! I’m sad that Kat and I are probably not going to get many (any?!) more chances to travel together this fall. Boooooo.
It was also good to commiserate about the fact that Gustavo (our professor for the first year and a half of Bowdoin who brought us together due to his amazing jokes and strange comments and Che dolls [yes, Kat, I know, I know] that nobody else understood, Peruvian, journalist, rebel, koala-look-alike, my professor for journalism this summer at middlebury, my advisor for a short period of time, THE MAN, twisted-movie lover) is abandoning us to teach at Stanford this spring and then go on sabbatical next year…can anyone say road trip to California?!? Kat’s dramatic and accurate quote about the situation is on my facebook profile, but for those of you who don’t have the privilege of viewing said quote/profile, here it is:
“DAMN YOU GUSTAVO FOR YOUR ILLOGICAL DESERTION OF US IN OUR TIME OF NEED!”
More entries to come (I’m so behind!!!),
Besos
-c-
Monday, October 15, 2007
Some Photos of Kat's visit!
So Kat Grant (from Bowdoin, studying abroad in Granada this fall) visited me in Salamanca this weekend and we pretty much had a completely glorious time. Here is some of the photographic evidence...
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017297&l=46193&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017348&l=cacb5&id=4602208
I swear I'll write about what we actually DID in the near future, but as I said, I don't have internet at home...also, we did a lot, so it could take a while.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING, KAT!!!!!
besos,
-c-
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017297&l=46193&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017348&l=cacb5&id=4602208
I swear I'll write about what we actually DID in the near future, but as I said, I don't have internet at home...also, we did a lot, so it could take a while.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING, KAT!!!!!
besos,
-c-
Top 10 (well, 9) Worst Things About Salamanca so far
Hi!
Kat visited me this weekend and we had a glorious time, but that’s not what this update is about.
Wait for the next one. Heh.
So I’ve been meaning to post this list, because I’ve been slowly developing it as the weeks pass and I feel like I am happy enough here that it’s more like an observational list and less of an actual whiny and complainy list. Plus maybe some of you other kids studying abroad can commiserate…? I will say again and again that I DO love it here and I DO love Spain and I’m so glad I chose to study here for a whole year and I love my friends etc etc etc. but because I’m human and a giri (aka foreigner), there are some things about Salamanca that perplex me.
Here is a list, in case you were wondering what exactly there is to whine about in Spain…
Top 10 Worst things about Salamanca, so far (in no particular order)
1-The smoke. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Seriously, it is everywhere. 99% of bars, cafés, school buildings etc. are filled with smoke or people blowing smoke into your face. Parents walking baby strollers smoke, 13-year-olds smoke, people walking in crowded streets smoke and decide to let out a breath right as you walk by. IES kids have started wearing “smoke clothes” and “normal clothes” because there is absolutely no way to remove the smoke smell unless you wash your clothes, or unless you were smart or listened to Katie Grimm’s advice (aka not me, because I forgot, even though my mom reminded me lik 6 times) and brought Febreeze, which I swear they do not sell in Spain.
I have always maintained that at least in the US there is no excuse for anyone under 25 to be smoking, because we grew up KNOWING that smoke kills, there were plenty of campaigns to prove that no, smoking is not cool, and you can’t buy cigarettes if you’re underage, among other things. Here, they sell cigarette packs that say “smoking kills” in huge letters right on the box, and yet people keep smoking…I KNOW Spaniards are smart, I know they have a good healthcare system, I know they can READ what it says on the box, and I know they are cool enough without the smoking, SO WHY DO THEY PERSIST?! It drives me insane.
When it’s time for a break in between classes or a pause during a 2 hour class or if you’re leaving a school building for any reason at any time, there are always at least 25 kids (particularly outside San Isidro, where 2 of my IES classes are) crowded directly around the door, forcing you to hold your breath and squeeze through while trying not to swallow too much smoke. Theresa has asthma and I cannot for the life of me imagine how she survives. Gah. Sorry. It just drives me insane. And I hate smelling like smoke. Thank god Julio, Álvaro, Toni, Mario, Javi, and Luismi don’t smoke (Jose does, but he’s always really nice about it and goes far away, so much so that sometimes I don’t even remember that he smokes).
2-Milk is whole (yes, skim exists, but my señora maintains that whole is better for you) and is only refrigerated after you open it. In our house, since there are 5 of us, we tend to go through milk (which comes in much smaller bottles) so quickly that it’s never refrigerated. When you go to the supermarket, only orange juice is refrigerated. For those of you like me who love eating cereal with cold milk (or like putting ice in your refrigerated milk because even THAT isn’t cold enough), this is a major disappointment. At least my señora has started giving us cereal for breakfast some days. =)
3-For those of you who have been to my house in Carlisle, you know that my room gets morning light like nobody’s business. I am often woken up by the sun coming into my room and it is always well-lit only by the sun from sunrise until almost 3 or 4 in the afternoon, sometimes. In Salamanca, my room’s 1 window faces out onto the courtyard of the apartments. There is never any sunlight streaming into my window, much less any sky for me to see, unless I’m lying in bed and I crane my neck. We live on the 3rd floor of 8 and although there is plenty of sun in Manuel’s room and in the living room and on the balcony that all face the Avenida Portugal, Becca and I kind of got shafted in the natural light in our bedrooms department.
In addition, the fact that I can only ever barely see a sliver of sky and the fact that I’m always in the shade means that I often get deceived as to what the weather is like. This is not what I’d call a big deal, but it’s kind of depressing that every day, no matter how sunny and glorious, looks the same until I step out onto the balcony in the other room.
4-The euro. It’s not as bad as the pound, I know, I should consider myself lucky. Nonetheless, it did not really make me giggle with joy when they announced that the dollar-euro exchange was the lowest (highest? whatever) it had ever been. Couldn’t that have waited another year?!!? Gah.
5-Not being able to invite people into my house, both friends from home and Salamantinos. I know it’s a cultural thing that people don’t really hang out at home, but to have people over to hang out or for dinner or whatever, I’d have to have the express permission of my señora a few days in advance. Which I totally understand, especially with the food thing, but I’ve been to Julio’s house a few times with other friends and it just makes things so much easier if you need somewhere to hang for a little while and you don’t want to be wandering around in the street. I don’t know, it’s not really a complaint, it’s just a cultural difference I have to get used to. And my friends here understand. Also, I understand about the no-overnight-guests aka any visitors have to stay in hostels, but it’s kind of annoying, especially when the hostels are expensive or 30 minutes away or, like this weekend, when Becca is in Barcelona, it would have been cool if Kat could have just stayed in her room. But it’s against IES rules. Oh well. If I lived in the residencia, none of this would be an issue, but then I wouldn’t have anyone to cook meals for me and I’d live much farther away from the boys and the centro (well, not much farther).
6-If you want to travel outside of Spain you have to add travel costs and travel time to and from Madrid. Rumor has it, there is a plane from Salamanca’s dinky airport to Barcelona, but it’s kind of expensive etc etc. Apart from that, though, if you want to go ANYWHERE in Spain or in Europe, for that matter, you have to go to Madrid. Spain’s highway system is radial, aka everything goes to Madrid before it goes anywhere else. It’s not THAT far, it’s like 2.5 hours by bus or train and the train is very very convenient and like 30 euro round trip and the train station is 2 minutes from my house, but when you’re worried about making a plane out of Madrid or your plane into Madrid arrives late and you don’t want to miss your train home, it’s a hassle. Also, you have to avoid taking flights in and out of Madrid at weird hours so that you’re not walking to or from the train station (or dealing with being on the Madrid metro) at sketchy hours. Nonetheless, eliminating this inconvenience by studying abroad in Madrid would in no way be worth it, so it’s fine. =)
7-The fact that plenty of people here (especially my señora) express their opinions as if they were indisputable Fact. For example, Becca was eating her apple to start her meal and our señora was just like “you don’t eat fruit before your meal, it ruins your meal!” and she grabbed the apple and took it out of her hands. I know, fruit is dessert here, and our señora was the one who cooked our meal, but Becca is 20, and I think she knows what she’s doing by now. For example, Becca cut her hair the other day. I had mentioned a week or two ago that I kind of wanted to get my hair cut here, and now my señora has threatened me, saying “I’m gonna come into your room while you sleep if you don’t get your hair cut!” and I know it’s a joke, but she keeps harassing me about getting my hair cut and it’s like “listen, lady, leave me the hell alone, I’ll cut it when I want to.” These are crappy examples.
Oh, remember early on when my señora and Becca didn’t get along? And Becca was crying and our señora was like “I’m going to get mad if you keep crying, you’re 20, you have a boyfriend, you shouldn’t be crying, big girls don’t cry” and wouldn’t let up. Our señora’s latest catch phrase is that Spaniards don’t put up with silliness or silly people or silly things (she also loves starting sentences by saying “hay que…” which is basically like “you have to…” or “one should…”). Things that fall into that category? Crying, American stars, politicians who do stupid things, caring too much about fashion, being over dramatic, most things that Becca and I talk about just to make small talk. Point being, our señora is very opinionated and set in her ways and sometimes it makes me want to hit her.
8-MY INTERNET. For any of you who have tried to communicate with me via email, IM, facebook message, or skype, you already know what I’m about to say. I. HATE. NOT. HAVING. CONSISTENT. INTERNET. I know, I am lucky to even have it at all, I know, I know. BUT IT DRIVES ME UP THE WALL. Sometimes it works for 3 minutes at a time and then I have to turn off the airport, turn it back on, and re-sign in to everything. Sometimes it just doesn’t get a signal for hours at a time. Sometimes it says it gets a signal but no web pages will open. Now it’s decided to pick up the signal from like 3 other networks but all of them are closed with a password. Also, Becca gets perfect internet signal in her room. I’ve tried going in there, I’ve tried moving around the apartment. No dice. Her room gives me nothing. IT IS SO INTENSELY FRUSTRATING to play games with the stupid signal and hope it works when I want it to. I’ve probably wasted hours just waiting for the signal to come back. I hate it. With a burning, fiery, deathly and explosive passion. I want it to just come on and STAY ON.
UPDATE: I have no more internet at my house. There is now a password required for every network that my computer picks up. WHY, WHY, WHY?!?!?!?!?? There are no words.
9-Not having a printer. IES will only print tickets, visa-passport-type stuff, or schoolwork.
10-Uh. Something else. Not sure. There are only 9 frustrating/confusing things about Spain after all!
UPDATE on Kat’s visit to Spain to come v v soon!!!
Xoxo
-c-
Kat visited me this weekend and we had a glorious time, but that’s not what this update is about.
Wait for the next one. Heh.
So I’ve been meaning to post this list, because I’ve been slowly developing it as the weeks pass and I feel like I am happy enough here that it’s more like an observational list and less of an actual whiny and complainy list. Plus maybe some of you other kids studying abroad can commiserate…? I will say again and again that I DO love it here and I DO love Spain and I’m so glad I chose to study here for a whole year and I love my friends etc etc etc. but because I’m human and a giri (aka foreigner), there are some things about Salamanca that perplex me.
Here is a list, in case you were wondering what exactly there is to whine about in Spain…
Top 10 Worst things about Salamanca, so far (in no particular order)
1-The smoke. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Seriously, it is everywhere. 99% of bars, cafés, school buildings etc. are filled with smoke or people blowing smoke into your face. Parents walking baby strollers smoke, 13-year-olds smoke, people walking in crowded streets smoke and decide to let out a breath right as you walk by. IES kids have started wearing “smoke clothes” and “normal clothes” because there is absolutely no way to remove the smoke smell unless you wash your clothes, or unless you were smart or listened to Katie Grimm’s advice (aka not me, because I forgot, even though my mom reminded me lik 6 times) and brought Febreeze, which I swear they do not sell in Spain.
I have always maintained that at least in the US there is no excuse for anyone under 25 to be smoking, because we grew up KNOWING that smoke kills, there were plenty of campaigns to prove that no, smoking is not cool, and you can’t buy cigarettes if you’re underage, among other things. Here, they sell cigarette packs that say “smoking kills” in huge letters right on the box, and yet people keep smoking…I KNOW Spaniards are smart, I know they have a good healthcare system, I know they can READ what it says on the box, and I know they are cool enough without the smoking, SO WHY DO THEY PERSIST?! It drives me insane.
When it’s time for a break in between classes or a pause during a 2 hour class or if you’re leaving a school building for any reason at any time, there are always at least 25 kids (particularly outside San Isidro, where 2 of my IES classes are) crowded directly around the door, forcing you to hold your breath and squeeze through while trying not to swallow too much smoke. Theresa has asthma and I cannot for the life of me imagine how she survives. Gah. Sorry. It just drives me insane. And I hate smelling like smoke. Thank god Julio, Álvaro, Toni, Mario, Javi, and Luismi don’t smoke (Jose does, but he’s always really nice about it and goes far away, so much so that sometimes I don’t even remember that he smokes).
2-Milk is whole (yes, skim exists, but my señora maintains that whole is better for you) and is only refrigerated after you open it. In our house, since there are 5 of us, we tend to go through milk (which comes in much smaller bottles) so quickly that it’s never refrigerated. When you go to the supermarket, only orange juice is refrigerated. For those of you like me who love eating cereal with cold milk (or like putting ice in your refrigerated milk because even THAT isn’t cold enough), this is a major disappointment. At least my señora has started giving us cereal for breakfast some days. =)
3-For those of you who have been to my house in Carlisle, you know that my room gets morning light like nobody’s business. I am often woken up by the sun coming into my room and it is always well-lit only by the sun from sunrise until almost 3 or 4 in the afternoon, sometimes. In Salamanca, my room’s 1 window faces out onto the courtyard of the apartments. There is never any sunlight streaming into my window, much less any sky for me to see, unless I’m lying in bed and I crane my neck. We live on the 3rd floor of 8 and although there is plenty of sun in Manuel’s room and in the living room and on the balcony that all face the Avenida Portugal, Becca and I kind of got shafted in the natural light in our bedrooms department.
In addition, the fact that I can only ever barely see a sliver of sky and the fact that I’m always in the shade means that I often get deceived as to what the weather is like. This is not what I’d call a big deal, but it’s kind of depressing that every day, no matter how sunny and glorious, looks the same until I step out onto the balcony in the other room.
4-The euro. It’s not as bad as the pound, I know, I should consider myself lucky. Nonetheless, it did not really make me giggle with joy when they announced that the dollar-euro exchange was the lowest (highest? whatever) it had ever been. Couldn’t that have waited another year?!!? Gah.
5-Not being able to invite people into my house, both friends from home and Salamantinos. I know it’s a cultural thing that people don’t really hang out at home, but to have people over to hang out or for dinner or whatever, I’d have to have the express permission of my señora a few days in advance. Which I totally understand, especially with the food thing, but I’ve been to Julio’s house a few times with other friends and it just makes things so much easier if you need somewhere to hang for a little while and you don’t want to be wandering around in the street. I don’t know, it’s not really a complaint, it’s just a cultural difference I have to get used to. And my friends here understand. Also, I understand about the no-overnight-guests aka any visitors have to stay in hostels, but it’s kind of annoying, especially when the hostels are expensive or 30 minutes away or, like this weekend, when Becca is in Barcelona, it would have been cool if Kat could have just stayed in her room. But it’s against IES rules. Oh well. If I lived in the residencia, none of this would be an issue, but then I wouldn’t have anyone to cook meals for me and I’d live much farther away from the boys and the centro (well, not much farther).
6-If you want to travel outside of Spain you have to add travel costs and travel time to and from Madrid. Rumor has it, there is a plane from Salamanca’s dinky airport to Barcelona, but it’s kind of expensive etc etc. Apart from that, though, if you want to go ANYWHERE in Spain or in Europe, for that matter, you have to go to Madrid. Spain’s highway system is radial, aka everything goes to Madrid before it goes anywhere else. It’s not THAT far, it’s like 2.5 hours by bus or train and the train is very very convenient and like 30 euro round trip and the train station is 2 minutes from my house, but when you’re worried about making a plane out of Madrid or your plane into Madrid arrives late and you don’t want to miss your train home, it’s a hassle. Also, you have to avoid taking flights in and out of Madrid at weird hours so that you’re not walking to or from the train station (or dealing with being on the Madrid metro) at sketchy hours. Nonetheless, eliminating this inconvenience by studying abroad in Madrid would in no way be worth it, so it’s fine. =)
7-The fact that plenty of people here (especially my señora) express their opinions as if they were indisputable Fact. For example, Becca was eating her apple to start her meal and our señora was just like “you don’t eat fruit before your meal, it ruins your meal!” and she grabbed the apple and took it out of her hands. I know, fruit is dessert here, and our señora was the one who cooked our meal, but Becca is 20, and I think she knows what she’s doing by now. For example, Becca cut her hair the other day. I had mentioned a week or two ago that I kind of wanted to get my hair cut here, and now my señora has threatened me, saying “I’m gonna come into your room while you sleep if you don’t get your hair cut!” and I know it’s a joke, but she keeps harassing me about getting my hair cut and it’s like “listen, lady, leave me the hell alone, I’ll cut it when I want to.” These are crappy examples.
Oh, remember early on when my señora and Becca didn’t get along? And Becca was crying and our señora was like “I’m going to get mad if you keep crying, you’re 20, you have a boyfriend, you shouldn’t be crying, big girls don’t cry” and wouldn’t let up. Our señora’s latest catch phrase is that Spaniards don’t put up with silliness or silly people or silly things (she also loves starting sentences by saying “hay que…” which is basically like “you have to…” or “one should…”). Things that fall into that category? Crying, American stars, politicians who do stupid things, caring too much about fashion, being over dramatic, most things that Becca and I talk about just to make small talk. Point being, our señora is very opinionated and set in her ways and sometimes it makes me want to hit her.
8-MY INTERNET. For any of you who have tried to communicate with me via email, IM, facebook message, or skype, you already know what I’m about to say. I. HATE. NOT. HAVING. CONSISTENT. INTERNET. I know, I am lucky to even have it at all, I know, I know. BUT IT DRIVES ME UP THE WALL. Sometimes it works for 3 minutes at a time and then I have to turn off the airport, turn it back on, and re-sign in to everything. Sometimes it just doesn’t get a signal for hours at a time. Sometimes it says it gets a signal but no web pages will open. Now it’s decided to pick up the signal from like 3 other networks but all of them are closed with a password. Also, Becca gets perfect internet signal in her room. I’ve tried going in there, I’ve tried moving around the apartment. No dice. Her room gives me nothing. IT IS SO INTENSELY FRUSTRATING to play games with the stupid signal and hope it works when I want it to. I’ve probably wasted hours just waiting for the signal to come back. I hate it. With a burning, fiery, deathly and explosive passion. I want it to just come on and STAY ON.
UPDATE: I have no more internet at my house. There is now a password required for every network that my computer picks up. WHY, WHY, WHY?!?!?!?!?? There are no words.
9-Not having a printer. IES will only print tickets, visa-passport-type stuff, or schoolwork.
10-Uh. Something else. Not sure. There are only 9 frustrating/confusing things about Spain after all!
UPDATE on Kat’s visit to Spain to come v v soon!!!
Xoxo
-c-
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Time in Salamanca since Portugal
Hi guys!
This post has been written over the course of a few days, so apologies in advance if it’s a little more scattered than usual! It’s Tuesday night now and I’m taking advantage of the fact that my internet seems to be working to post this ASAP! The weather here has been utterly gorgeous lately, I had McDonalds (well, I didn’t actually eat it, it was Jose, but I was there) on a Roman bridge from the 1st century AD last night, I’m mailing more postcards tomorrow, I’m trying to organize trips for people to come visit me (YAYYYY you know who you are!!!!!), I can’t wait to see you all at Christmas, and I am thinking of you all more than you know (and 6 hours ahead!). Also, Happy Birthdays to Jesse, Alex, and Edie (and if someone is reading this and I am unaware of your birthday or just forgot because I’m a jerk, I’m so sorry!! Feliz cumpleaños anyway!!!!)! I wish I could have celebrated with you guys in person instead of via email!
At any rate, I come bearing photos and stories from the past week in Salamanca since returning from Portugal. To begin (I think I already told you this), it rained more last Monday and Tuesday (and Wednesday?) EACH DAY than it normally rains in the entire month of October. Good times. I managed to make it without buying an umbrella (Umbrella by Rihanna still plays at least 3 times at every bar in Salamanca and I keep having to translate it for non-english-speakers. “Paraguas…as…as…as” just doesn’t sound the same as “Umbrella-ella-ella-ella,” does it?!? I also had to translate a DMX song and “Magic Stick” into Spanish in the car Saturday…THAT was certainly educational!) and suffered through with my LLBean raincoat. My schoolbag was not happy, nor were my cold, sad feet, despite switching off pairs of sneakers while other ones dried in my room. I wish I’d taken photos of the water flooding down the sides of the avenidas in Salamanca and the whirlpools of rushing, whooshing, not-draining water.
Then it was Thursday, aka Back to School night at the Irish Rover. Toni, Julio, and Mario had been there since 10am (skipped class) working on decorations (huge pencils and paper airplanes hanging from the ceiling, etc etc), which meant they were pretty exhausted when I showed up, but the point was to meet them there. So “Back to School” night aka girls dressed as schoolgirls (I refrained from THAT madness and stuck with a normal dress and tights instead) and boys as dorks or professors aka they wore glasses and maybe a collared shirt or did nothing except stare at the girls. It SOUNDS sketchy, and it was, except for the fact that it’s always fun to dance there and it’s freeee! Also, I was with this crowd (I swear I’m wearing a dress!):
I also won a bizarre t-shirt when it “rained prizes” but unfortunately missed out on Ryan (rhinestone bowtie and all) winning 50 euro for his sexiest professor costume (and striptease?). Bummer. There was some IES drama stemming from the developments of our first inter-program couples. Sounds thrilling, right? Ha. =) It’s cute.
Then it was Friday the 5th, aka Julio’s birthday, which actually started on Thursday because we were all out until like 3ish. During the actual day I did nothing important, as far as I remember…oh, homework, errands. Sleeping. Walking around Salamanca. Eating. Worked on his birthday present (crafty casey-made thing that I finally gave him yesterday involving lots of stars, colors, and a glass bottle that I stole in Madrid…he apparently loved it…=D ).
Saturday the 6th: More errands. THE FINCA (see below). Chinese food. Dancing (see “Days Go By” facebook album at end of post). Out until 5.
THE FINCA!
If you’ve already heard this story, my apologies, I know it’s not that interesting anymore. If this is new to you, keep reading! So I ran into Julio and Ángel (his friend from Madrid, 24, his younger sister studied in Salamanca for a year recently and she’s friends with Julio, apparently Julio is like their brother) in the plaza around noon and they were like “oh hey, we’re going to the Finca, wanna come?” and I was like “well, lemme just tell my señora I’m not going to be eating lunch here…but sure, hey, why not??” So Ángel, Julio, Jose, and Álvaro and I drove (in Ángel’s sweet Peugeot with awesome GPS technology—so fun to play with!) to Linares del Riofrío which is like 40 minutes away. Apparently one of Julio’s uncles owns a hotel and ranch-y thing (aka finca or granja aka farm) and it was just…ridiculous. His abuela who is half-deaf and literally half Julio’s height made us French fries and gave us jamón (freshly shaved…from their finca!!) serrano, eggs, home-made bread, honey, milk, coffee, and cheese. It was heavenly.
Then we kids just wandered around the hotel (no guests…but it looks as if there could be some at any minute…except the kitchen was totally empty of food...but there were bathrobes folded on the beds and the hotel bar was full...?? the story is unclear), wandered into the chapel, checked out the 2 old horse-drawn carriage things, went to both (yes) bullrings and took stupid photos, said hi to the pigs, horses, and cows, and then the boys had some celebratory chupitos from the hotel bar. It was out of control. I felt like I was in a movie, I don’t know, maybe it was because it was such a nice day, such a surreal thing, and so bizarre in general (and so fun with those guys!). Julio was like “and where is the influence of this family in MY daily life?!” which was amusing. When we were leaving his abuela was like “you guys (and girl) are welcome any time, make this place your home, you are free to visit whenever” and all of us were like “juuuuliooo…….ahem, ahem.” So maybe we’ll get to go again. Ridiculous. I love this place.
Check out the photos:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017103&l=d15b2&id=4602208
Sunday the 7th: Homework? Pool with Ángel and Julio, showed them photos from the weekend and photos of home, Middlebury, Bowdoin, etc. Went to the Modern Art Museum with Julio, Jose, Toni, Mario. Didn’t understand ANY of the shows there, but the museum is free and super cool because it used to be a jail and there are still some cells and the big open hall with the scary stairs and grille door. There WAS one cool part of one exhibit by Christian Marclay which was 4 projectors set up so all 4 walls of a room were totally covered in images of people shooting (clips selected from movies). So intense!!! One of Julio’s professors had a show there, too, and we didn’t get that one either. I think Julio/Toni/Mario are doing a show there in the spring as part of Bellas Artes stuff...? Unclear.
Monday the 8th: Pool with Jose and Julio. Drive to get Jose dinner at drive through McDonalds, drive down to Puente Romano (1st century AD. Never gets old. Har har har. But seriously, never go by yourself at night. But it’s gorgeous.) to eat and hang out. Talked about the US and how they were planning on visiting next summer anyway and how they have to visit. Went to Café Erasmus around 1 and tried to talk to them in English. Taught them “ridiculous,” “you guys” and “silly.” Julio now loves to say “Ai knoe, Ai knoe” (I know, I know) in his silly accent because apparently I say “yo sé, yo sé,” all the time. He also kept saying “you are reedicu-lus” to Jose. Delightful.
And here we are, now!
It’s been 5 weeks since I got here and I can’t believe I have only 9ish weeks left. Gah! As you can tell I’m getting more and more excited about being home for Christmas so I can share all my stories/photos/goofy souvenirs with you guys and spend some quality time in the US (during the Chinese buffet madness on Saturday night I was asked if I’d been to Chinatown and when I asked “which one?” I was met with some super-confused stares… I had to explain that there was one in New York, Boston, San Francisco, and probably more cities…also, Rush Hour 2 was on TV during dinner and I was asked if Jackie Chan movies were very popular in the US…what would YOU have said in response??) with family, friends, and the internet. And no smoke. Gawd.
Of course, I’m also getting apprehensive about spending so much time away from a) the Spanish language and b) the Spanish people and c) Spain. If any of you guys speak Spanish, will you please try to talk to me so I can at least pretend I’m keeping up so when I come back in February I still seem like a year student and not some pathetic newbie?!
In academic news, I started my music history class that I am taking to replace my art history class that was hell on earth and mars and venus combined and let me tell you, I LOVE IT. The professor (IS NAMED PACO. Grace, I died.) is smart, nice, easy to understand, friendly, interesting, goes on educational tangents, and is organized! Our class is small-ish, so I’m hoping we get to know each other a little bit, despite the other 7 IES students (my other university class has NO other IES students so I figure it balances out). I already took a music history class (well, in theory…I went to the classroom and Paco spoke to all of us and I did some work, but I don’t know if that counts as class….ooh, burn) at Middlebury but I can already tell we’re going to learn more/different things in this class and I think having taken that Midd class will help me rather than make me bored.
Other classes are fine, nothing noteworthy. I still love Grammar second-best after music, am frustrated with my Regionalism professor (he LOVES tossing out English words/phrases, more to prove that he can speak English than to actually help with translation: “gran problemas…Beeg prowblems, yeys?” and “construyeron algunos parques…parks? Yeys?” and other such gems about the “goberment” and “prezeedent” that make me want to rip my hair out…he also does this thing where he literally stares you down until you answer him, which is extra annoying because he has a Hitler mustache AND half the time there are like 9000 potential answers to his questions and he makes you go through as many as possible while still staring you down even though it would have been a lot easier to just give the answer to the class because they are so trivial…the other day, we were talking about elections in spain on the general, regional, and municipal levels and Veronica and I got confused because he was explaining that even though Zapatero is president of PSOE, only madrileños actually vote for him because he’s only on THEIR ballot…this was confusing because he forgot to clarify about 6 quadrillion things, not to mention emphasize the fact that in Spain, parties are way more important than their individual members and that Zapatero is a diputado as WELL as the presidente, unlike here, where the president is just the president…are you lost yet?).
Days Go By (Salamanca 4) photos (to be updated until I fill the album):
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017059&l=7dc32&id=4602208
Just for kicks, for those of you care, here’s the music I’ve been listening to lately (the playlist is called “Keeping Dry”):
Best of My Love by So Solid Crew
Sunday Kind of Love by Etta James
Since You’ve Been Around by Rosie Thomas
Love’s Lost Guarantee by Rogue Wave
Ain’t No Love (In the Heart of the City) by Jay-Z (and Bobby Bland)
Gravity by Coldplay
Gravity by Sara Bareilles
Falling by Gaelle
Lullaby by Matt Costa and Jack Johnson
Little Things by Colbie Caillat
Breathe In, Breathe Out by Mat Kearney
Luna de Fuego by the Gipsy Kings
Last Request by Paolo Nutini
Time to shower and see if I’m hanging out with Jose and Julio tonight!
Good luck with school, all of you who are currently wrestling with late nights and rushed meals…!
Besos,
-c-
This post has been written over the course of a few days, so apologies in advance if it’s a little more scattered than usual! It’s Tuesday night now and I’m taking advantage of the fact that my internet seems to be working to post this ASAP! The weather here has been utterly gorgeous lately, I had McDonalds (well, I didn’t actually eat it, it was Jose, but I was there) on a Roman bridge from the 1st century AD last night, I’m mailing more postcards tomorrow, I’m trying to organize trips for people to come visit me (YAYYYY you know who you are!!!!!), I can’t wait to see you all at Christmas, and I am thinking of you all more than you know (and 6 hours ahead!). Also, Happy Birthdays to Jesse, Alex, and Edie (and if someone is reading this and I am unaware of your birthday or just forgot because I’m a jerk, I’m so sorry!! Feliz cumpleaños anyway!!!!)! I wish I could have celebrated with you guys in person instead of via email!
At any rate, I come bearing photos and stories from the past week in Salamanca since returning from Portugal. To begin (I think I already told you this), it rained more last Monday and Tuesday (and Wednesday?) EACH DAY than it normally rains in the entire month of October. Good times. I managed to make it without buying an umbrella (Umbrella by Rihanna still plays at least 3 times at every bar in Salamanca and I keep having to translate it for non-english-speakers. “Paraguas…as…as…as” just doesn’t sound the same as “Umbrella-ella-ella-ella,” does it?!? I also had to translate a DMX song and “Magic Stick” into Spanish in the car Saturday…THAT was certainly educational!) and suffered through with my LLBean raincoat. My schoolbag was not happy, nor were my cold, sad feet, despite switching off pairs of sneakers while other ones dried in my room. I wish I’d taken photos of the water flooding down the sides of the avenidas in Salamanca and the whirlpools of rushing, whooshing, not-draining water.
Then it was Thursday, aka Back to School night at the Irish Rover. Toni, Julio, and Mario had been there since 10am (skipped class) working on decorations (huge pencils and paper airplanes hanging from the ceiling, etc etc), which meant they were pretty exhausted when I showed up, but the point was to meet them there. So “Back to School” night aka girls dressed as schoolgirls (I refrained from THAT madness and stuck with a normal dress and tights instead) and boys as dorks or professors aka they wore glasses and maybe a collared shirt or did nothing except stare at the girls. It SOUNDS sketchy, and it was, except for the fact that it’s always fun to dance there and it’s freeee! Also, I was with this crowd (I swear I’m wearing a dress!):
I also won a bizarre t-shirt when it “rained prizes” but unfortunately missed out on Ryan (rhinestone bowtie and all) winning 50 euro for his sexiest professor costume (and striptease?). Bummer. There was some IES drama stemming from the developments of our first inter-program couples. Sounds thrilling, right? Ha. =) It’s cute.Then it was Friday the 5th, aka Julio’s birthday, which actually started on Thursday because we were all out until like 3ish. During the actual day I did nothing important, as far as I remember…oh, homework, errands. Sleeping. Walking around Salamanca. Eating. Worked on his birthday present (crafty casey-made thing that I finally gave him yesterday involving lots of stars, colors, and a glass bottle that I stole in Madrid…he apparently loved it…=D ).
Saturday the 6th: More errands. THE FINCA (see below). Chinese food. Dancing (see “Days Go By” facebook album at end of post). Out until 5.
THE FINCA!
If you’ve already heard this story, my apologies, I know it’s not that interesting anymore. If this is new to you, keep reading! So I ran into Julio and Ángel (his friend from Madrid, 24, his younger sister studied in Salamanca for a year recently and she’s friends with Julio, apparently Julio is like their brother) in the plaza around noon and they were like “oh hey, we’re going to the Finca, wanna come?” and I was like “well, lemme just tell my señora I’m not going to be eating lunch here…but sure, hey, why not??” So Ángel, Julio, Jose, and Álvaro and I drove (in Ángel’s sweet Peugeot with awesome GPS technology—so fun to play with!) to Linares del Riofrío which is like 40 minutes away. Apparently one of Julio’s uncles owns a hotel and ranch-y thing (aka finca or granja aka farm) and it was just…ridiculous. His abuela who is half-deaf and literally half Julio’s height made us French fries and gave us jamón (freshly shaved…from their finca!!) serrano, eggs, home-made bread, honey, milk, coffee, and cheese. It was heavenly.
Then we kids just wandered around the hotel (no guests…but it looks as if there could be some at any minute…except the kitchen was totally empty of food...but there were bathrobes folded on the beds and the hotel bar was full...?? the story is unclear), wandered into the chapel, checked out the 2 old horse-drawn carriage things, went to both (yes) bullrings and took stupid photos, said hi to the pigs, horses, and cows, and then the boys had some celebratory chupitos from the hotel bar. It was out of control. I felt like I was in a movie, I don’t know, maybe it was because it was such a nice day, such a surreal thing, and so bizarre in general (and so fun with those guys!). Julio was like “and where is the influence of this family in MY daily life?!” which was amusing. When we were leaving his abuela was like “you guys (and girl) are welcome any time, make this place your home, you are free to visit whenever” and all of us were like “juuuuliooo…….ahem, ahem.” So maybe we’ll get to go again. Ridiculous. I love this place.
Check out the photos:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017103&l=d15b2&id=4602208
Sunday the 7th: Homework? Pool with Ángel and Julio, showed them photos from the weekend and photos of home, Middlebury, Bowdoin, etc. Went to the Modern Art Museum with Julio, Jose, Toni, Mario. Didn’t understand ANY of the shows there, but the museum is free and super cool because it used to be a jail and there are still some cells and the big open hall with the scary stairs and grille door. There WAS one cool part of one exhibit by Christian Marclay which was 4 projectors set up so all 4 walls of a room were totally covered in images of people shooting (clips selected from movies). So intense!!! One of Julio’s professors had a show there, too, and we didn’t get that one either. I think Julio/Toni/Mario are doing a show there in the spring as part of Bellas Artes stuff...? Unclear.
Monday the 8th: Pool with Jose and Julio. Drive to get Jose dinner at drive through McDonalds, drive down to Puente Romano (1st century AD. Never gets old. Har har har. But seriously, never go by yourself at night. But it’s gorgeous.) to eat and hang out. Talked about the US and how they were planning on visiting next summer anyway and how they have to visit. Went to Café Erasmus around 1 and tried to talk to them in English. Taught them “ridiculous,” “you guys” and “silly.” Julio now loves to say “Ai knoe, Ai knoe” (I know, I know) in his silly accent because apparently I say “yo sé, yo sé,” all the time. He also kept saying “you are reedicu-lus” to Jose. Delightful.
And here we are, now!
It’s been 5 weeks since I got here and I can’t believe I have only 9ish weeks left. Gah! As you can tell I’m getting more and more excited about being home for Christmas so I can share all my stories/photos/goofy souvenirs with you guys and spend some quality time in the US (during the Chinese buffet madness on Saturday night I was asked if I’d been to Chinatown and when I asked “which one?” I was met with some super-confused stares… I had to explain that there was one in New York, Boston, San Francisco, and probably more cities…also, Rush Hour 2 was on TV during dinner and I was asked if Jackie Chan movies were very popular in the US…what would YOU have said in response??) with family, friends, and the internet. And no smoke. Gawd.
Of course, I’m also getting apprehensive about spending so much time away from a) the Spanish language and b) the Spanish people and c) Spain. If any of you guys speak Spanish, will you please try to talk to me so I can at least pretend I’m keeping up so when I come back in February I still seem like a year student and not some pathetic newbie?!
In academic news, I started my music history class that I am taking to replace my art history class that was hell on earth and mars and venus combined and let me tell you, I LOVE IT. The professor (IS NAMED PACO. Grace, I died.) is smart, nice, easy to understand, friendly, interesting, goes on educational tangents, and is organized! Our class is small-ish, so I’m hoping we get to know each other a little bit, despite the other 7 IES students (my other university class has NO other IES students so I figure it balances out). I already took a music history class (well, in theory…I went to the classroom and Paco spoke to all of us and I did some work, but I don’t know if that counts as class….ooh, burn) at Middlebury but I can already tell we’re going to learn more/different things in this class and I think having taken that Midd class will help me rather than make me bored.
Other classes are fine, nothing noteworthy. I still love Grammar second-best after music, am frustrated with my Regionalism professor (he LOVES tossing out English words/phrases, more to prove that he can speak English than to actually help with translation: “gran problemas…Beeg prowblems, yeys?” and “construyeron algunos parques…parks? Yeys?” and other such gems about the “goberment” and “prezeedent” that make me want to rip my hair out…he also does this thing where he literally stares you down until you answer him, which is extra annoying because he has a Hitler mustache AND half the time there are like 9000 potential answers to his questions and he makes you go through as many as possible while still staring you down even though it would have been a lot easier to just give the answer to the class because they are so trivial…the other day, we were talking about elections in spain on the general, regional, and municipal levels and Veronica and I got confused because he was explaining that even though Zapatero is president of PSOE, only madrileños actually vote for him because he’s only on THEIR ballot…this was confusing because he forgot to clarify about 6 quadrillion things, not to mention emphasize the fact that in Spain, parties are way more important than their individual members and that Zapatero is a diputado as WELL as the presidente, unlike here, where the president is just the president…are you lost yet?).
Days Go By (Salamanca 4) photos (to be updated until I fill the album):
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017059&l=7dc32&id=4602208
Just for kicks, for those of you care, here’s the music I’ve been listening to lately (the playlist is called “Keeping Dry”):
Best of My Love by So Solid Crew
Sunday Kind of Love by Etta James
Since You’ve Been Around by Rosie Thomas
Love’s Lost Guarantee by Rogue Wave
Ain’t No Love (In the Heart of the City) by Jay-Z (and Bobby Bland)
Gravity by Coldplay
Gravity by Sara Bareilles
Falling by Gaelle
Lullaby by Matt Costa and Jack Johnson
Little Things by Colbie Caillat
Breathe In, Breathe Out by Mat Kearney
Luna de Fuego by the Gipsy Kings
Last Request by Paolo Nutini
Time to shower and see if I’m hanging out with Jose and Julio tonight!
Good luck with school, all of you who are currently wrestling with late nights and rushed meals…!
Besos,
-c-
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Portugal: Part 3 of 3 (PHOTOS)
Hey all!
This is the 3rd and final blog post about my trip to Portugal last weekend!
Thanks for your patience and your comments! If anyone ends up traveling there this year or in their lifetimes, let me know what it’s like and what you think! I hope the weather is better for you than it was for us…!
In case you missed the photos, here are the 3 albums on Facebook:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016977&l=75175&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016979&l=1d397&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016980&l=9e7df&id=4602208
I left off at returning to the hotel on Saturday and watching trashy TV and siesta-ing before heading out. Do you guys remember the Body Worlds exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston with all the cool skeletons and muscles and real-people-kind-of-cool-kind-of-icky-cadavers? (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html) Well, Janna and a bunch of other girls found coupons in the hotel lobby for 3 euro off the exhibit and decided to go on Saturday evening (plus a student discount it was only 16 euro, which isn’t too bad! Plus they got to say they saw it in Portugal, which sounds way cooler than Boston…). I’d already been and Ashley wasn’t feeling up to the potential ick factor (her loss, it’s an AMAZING exhibit!!!!) so we just slept (best. nap. ever. Also, when we woke up, inappropriate joke time:
Ashley: Gawd, I’m exhausted. I’m ready to turn that siesta into bedtime.
Casey: You know what would wake you up real fast? [in a singsong voice] Bidet!). You were warned!
We took a cab (apparently they’re cheap in Portugal but I’ve never taken one in Salamanca so I can’t compare, but 5 euro to almost anywhere in Lisbon is great, especially with 4 girls in the taxi to split the tab!) to El Corte Inglés which is a 9-floor combination macy’s-target-wal-mart-harrods-grocery store-EVERYTHING giganto-store near downtown Lisboa. Everyone wants one in Salamanca (translation: residencia students), and I think it’s coming next year. Probably won’t be ready in time for us year students, but we can dream!
Micaela snagged 4 jars of peanut butter, 1 of hopefully-grape jelly. Ashley looked for contact solution and ended up with chocolate bars instead, I grabbed snacks for Sunday’s bus ride and some fun stocking stuffer candy and Janna, being the healthy one, grabbed fresh fruit. Caroline got peanut butter and a ton of toilet paper (she lives in the residencia with Janna, Ashley, and Micaela, among others and apparently they need to buy their own toilet paper and it was super cheap at El Corte Inglés). An important part of our trip to Portugal! Some food highlights:
Then it was dinnertime, and we were hoping to wander around el centro aka downtown to find some hot bars/cafés/restaurants/whatever and experience some more Lisboa nightlife. Turns out we were too hungry and tired to really wander much, and nowhere seemed open. Maybe it was too early (9pm)??, or we were in the wrong part of town, but we couldn’t find much other than a boring little restaurant with your typical small Iberian fare. We were disappointed and decided to walk a little farther and as luck would have it, guess what I spotted??
That’s right, it’s your favorite American diner! The Great American Disaster! We obviously had to go. Everyone ordered hamburgers, except me (stuck with a salad which was actually a huge disappointment, but it was the experience, not the food that we came for!). Favorite parts: the 2 waiters who served us kept being like “he’s crazy!” about the other waiter (they were like maybe 16 years old); the fact that the other diners were dressed like Amy Winehouse: strange hair, strange clothes, strange makeup, and strange piercings; the fact that my milkshake was basically cold milk blended with cola cao and maybe some ice aka it was just like chocolate milk but still delicious; the fact that menu items were named after people like Al Capone and James Brown; the shiny red vinyl seats and the very tasteful retro décor (no, seriously!). Not the best food ever, but cheap enough, worth the laughs, and definitely a good experience!
Back to the hotel, bedtime! Long day of…well, more bus time…ahead of us. We headed off in the pouring rain (yay….) after a breakfast during which we found out that the girls who had previously encountered the entire Dutch water polo team had ended up dancing Saturday night away with old drunk French couples and that Drew and Evan went to a casino and Drew ended up winning 40 euros.
By the time we got to Fátima, the sun had poked its way through 2 days worth of clouds and we were able to walk around the town and holy site in semi-sun. For those of you who don’t know, Fátima is a super super super holy site for Catholics. People make pilgrimages there, they hold gigantic services there (we were there on a Sunday morning, check out the photos in my facebook album!! There were people walking to the church/holy rock on their knees, from schooolkids to old people…some with kneepads, some praying, some crying, some with family members holding their hands…the church was so far away and crowded by so many people we couldn’t really get close, but they were holding a service and blessing/healing people and who knows what else).
Wikipedia can probably best explain the history, but essentially back in May of 1914 or so, three shepherd kids were hanging out near a rock and an angel appeared to them and told them to return to the site every sunday over the next month and not to tell anyone, but that the virgin would appear to them. The virgin ended up hanging out with them for the next 8 months or something and told them 3 secrets that they were only allowed to tell the Pope and which apparently became to known to the rest of the world throughout the 20th century. If I’m not wrong, the first one was predicting WW2, the second was that Russia would convert to Catholicism, and the third one was a vision of the Pope getting assassinated, which almost happened on May 3 (the anniversary of the first vision) in 1981, I believe.
Kind of cool. I like stories like that, even if I don’t like people walking places on their knees, bleeding and crying and begging for mercy from the virgin. Not my style. But a gorgeous and impressive place, nonetheless. I walked with Ashley to watch Peter and Danny buy some candles (good catholic boys!) and then light them (aka toss them into a raging fire/oven of candles burning all over the place…an inferno of prayers, of sorts). We had lunch in town afterwards at a packed café (pizza, SO GOOD) and used our traveling experience and did not touch the bread, nor the cheese, nor the olives on the table (they put them out there as if they are free but then you end up paying if you eat them…)
The drive home was generally uneventful, if not RAINY AS HELL and REALLY LONG. We passed 2 or 3 accidents on the way (including an 18-wheeler tipped on its side into the median, about 1000 meters before a gigantic bridge…could have been WAY worse) and I am sure our bus driver was swearing like a sailor in his head. His poor wife, when he got home that night, I bet he just threw his bag down and ripped off his coat and screamed for an hour and then was like “WHERE IS MY DINNER, WOMAN?! GET ME A CIGARETTE AND ALCOHOL. I am exhausted. I missed you. I hate my bus.” I’m just guessing. We made it back to Salamanca and everyone dashed home in the rain and joyously returned to our señora’s cooking! All in all, not what I expected of Portugal but better in certain ways and definitely worth it for the sights!!! I also like that our group got to bond more and get more comfortable with people we didn’t necessarily know as well before the 8 bajillion hours on the bus and 90 trillion photo ops. Yay IES!
And that’s all I’ve got on Portugal, folks!!
Thanks for reading,
More to come on this past week in Salamanca…!
Besazos y abrazos,
-c-
This is the 3rd and final blog post about my trip to Portugal last weekend!
Thanks for your patience and your comments! If anyone ends up traveling there this year or in their lifetimes, let me know what it’s like and what you think! I hope the weather is better for you than it was for us…!
In case you missed the photos, here are the 3 albums on Facebook:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016977&l=75175&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016979&l=1d397&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016980&l=9e7df&id=4602208
I left off at returning to the hotel on Saturday and watching trashy TV and siesta-ing before heading out. Do you guys remember the Body Worlds exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston with all the cool skeletons and muscles and real-people-kind-of-cool-kind-of-icky-cadavers? (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html) Well, Janna and a bunch of other girls found coupons in the hotel lobby for 3 euro off the exhibit and decided to go on Saturday evening (plus a student discount it was only 16 euro, which isn’t too bad! Plus they got to say they saw it in Portugal, which sounds way cooler than Boston…). I’d already been and Ashley wasn’t feeling up to the potential ick factor (her loss, it’s an AMAZING exhibit!!!!) so we just slept (best. nap. ever. Also, when we woke up, inappropriate joke time:
Ashley: Gawd, I’m exhausted. I’m ready to turn that siesta into bedtime.
Casey: You know what would wake you up real fast? [in a singsong voice] Bidet!). You were warned!
We took a cab (apparently they’re cheap in Portugal but I’ve never taken one in Salamanca so I can’t compare, but 5 euro to almost anywhere in Lisbon is great, especially with 4 girls in the taxi to split the tab!) to El Corte Inglés which is a 9-floor combination macy’s-target-wal-mart-harrods-grocery store-EVERYTHING giganto-store near downtown Lisboa. Everyone wants one in Salamanca (translation: residencia students), and I think it’s coming next year. Probably won’t be ready in time for us year students, but we can dream!
Micaela snagged 4 jars of peanut butter, 1 of hopefully-grape jelly. Ashley looked for contact solution and ended up with chocolate bars instead, I grabbed snacks for Sunday’s bus ride and some fun stocking stuffer candy and Janna, being the healthy one, grabbed fresh fruit. Caroline got peanut butter and a ton of toilet paper (she lives in the residencia with Janna, Ashley, and Micaela, among others and apparently they need to buy their own toilet paper and it was super cheap at El Corte Inglés). An important part of our trip to Portugal! Some food highlights:
Then it was dinnertime, and we were hoping to wander around el centro aka downtown to find some hot bars/cafés/restaurants/whatever and experience some more Lisboa nightlife. Turns out we were too hungry and tired to really wander much, and nowhere seemed open. Maybe it was too early (9pm)??, or we were in the wrong part of town, but we couldn’t find much other than a boring little restaurant with your typical small Iberian fare. We were disappointed and decided to walk a little farther and as luck would have it, guess what I spotted??
That’s right, it’s your favorite American diner! The Great American Disaster! We obviously had to go. Everyone ordered hamburgers, except me (stuck with a salad which was actually a huge disappointment, but it was the experience, not the food that we came for!). Favorite parts: the 2 waiters who served us kept being like “he’s crazy!” about the other waiter (they were like maybe 16 years old); the fact that the other diners were dressed like Amy Winehouse: strange hair, strange clothes, strange makeup, and strange piercings; the fact that my milkshake was basically cold milk blended with cola cao and maybe some ice aka it was just like chocolate milk but still delicious; the fact that menu items were named after people like Al Capone and James Brown; the shiny red vinyl seats and the very tasteful retro décor (no, seriously!). Not the best food ever, but cheap enough, worth the laughs, and definitely a good experience!
Back to the hotel, bedtime! Long day of…well, more bus time…ahead of us. We headed off in the pouring rain (yay….) after a breakfast during which we found out that the girls who had previously encountered the entire Dutch water polo team had ended up dancing Saturday night away with old drunk French couples and that Drew and Evan went to a casino and Drew ended up winning 40 euros.
By the time we got to Fátima, the sun had poked its way through 2 days worth of clouds and we were able to walk around the town and holy site in semi-sun. For those of you who don’t know, Fátima is a super super super holy site for Catholics. People make pilgrimages there, they hold gigantic services there (we were there on a Sunday morning, check out the photos in my facebook album!! There were people walking to the church/holy rock on their knees, from schooolkids to old people…some with kneepads, some praying, some crying, some with family members holding their hands…the church was so far away and crowded by so many people we couldn’t really get close, but they were holding a service and blessing/healing people and who knows what else).
Wikipedia can probably best explain the history, but essentially back in May of 1914 or so, three shepherd kids were hanging out near a rock and an angel appeared to them and told them to return to the site every sunday over the next month and not to tell anyone, but that the virgin would appear to them. The virgin ended up hanging out with them for the next 8 months or something and told them 3 secrets that they were only allowed to tell the Pope and which apparently became to known to the rest of the world throughout the 20th century. If I’m not wrong, the first one was predicting WW2, the second was that Russia would convert to Catholicism, and the third one was a vision of the Pope getting assassinated, which almost happened on May 3 (the anniversary of the first vision) in 1981, I believe.
Kind of cool. I like stories like that, even if I don’t like people walking places on their knees, bleeding and crying and begging for mercy from the virgin. Not my style. But a gorgeous and impressive place, nonetheless. I walked with Ashley to watch Peter and Danny buy some candles (good catholic boys!) and then light them (aka toss them into a raging fire/oven of candles burning all over the place…an inferno of prayers, of sorts). We had lunch in town afterwards at a packed café (pizza, SO GOOD) and used our traveling experience and did not touch the bread, nor the cheese, nor the olives on the table (they put them out there as if they are free but then you end up paying if you eat them…)
The drive home was generally uneventful, if not RAINY AS HELL and REALLY LONG. We passed 2 or 3 accidents on the way (including an 18-wheeler tipped on its side into the median, about 1000 meters before a gigantic bridge…could have been WAY worse) and I am sure our bus driver was swearing like a sailor in his head. His poor wife, when he got home that night, I bet he just threw his bag down and ripped off his coat and screamed for an hour and then was like “WHERE IS MY DINNER, WOMAN?! GET ME A CIGARETTE AND ALCOHOL. I am exhausted. I missed you. I hate my bus.” I’m just guessing. We made it back to Salamanca and everyone dashed home in the rain and joyously returned to our señora’s cooking! All in all, not what I expected of Portugal but better in certain ways and definitely worth it for the sights!!! I also like that our group got to bond more and get more comfortable with people we didn’t necessarily know as well before the 8 bajillion hours on the bus and 90 trillion photo ops. Yay IES!
And that’s all I’ve got on Portugal, folks!!
Thanks for reading,
More to come on this past week in Salamanca…!
Besazos y abrazos,
-c-
Friday, October 5, 2007
Portugal: Part 2 of 3 (PHOTOS)
Hey all!
Here goes part 2 of my trip to Portugal last weekend!
For photos, check out these 3 albums:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016977&l=75175&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016979&l=1d397&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016980&l=9e7df&id=4602208
While we waited for the bus after Batalha, there was a group of Portuguese (duh) skater punk 14-ish-year-old guys skating all over the edges of the stone wall around the plaza around Batalha. Not only did they have stellar mullets (Word accepts that as a word?!), but they would get frustrated when they couldn’t complete a certain move or who knows and would literally hurl their boards up into the trees. They also almost knocked into a few of us more than once. Granted, we were sort of in their way, but what kind of kids skateboard at a monastery?! One of them had a serious butterfly bandage on his eyebrow and looked like he was pretty pissed, as if he’d just crashed the other day and had to spend time off his board, recuperating so that it didn’t split again. Punks.
So there was Batalha, then we drove some more. This is a theme of the weekend. Bus time. Lots and lots of bus time. We got to Lisboa eventually, probably around….7:30 and checked into Hotel Alif, a three-star hotel a bit north of downtown. I roomed with Ashley, who you’ll see in a bunch of the photos in the “People” album from the weekend—she’s tall, skinny, pale, dark-haired, nose-ringed, very awesome. We had a sweet balcony looking out on a big bank complex and one of the main streets, a TV, a nice bathroom (with a bidet, as always….I don’t think we’ll ever get sick of making jokes about those…), and a very strange system of working the lights—you had to stick your hotel key into a little slot next to the front door or none of the lights worked. Which was fine because it meant you never forgot your key but also kind of terrifying at night, as you tried to make your way to your bed without hitting shins or elbows on corners.
Janna (another year student) and Micaela (year student, but 2nd half in Dublin) lived next door (yay!) so we all wandered in and out of each other’s rooms, watching strange strange strange Portuguese TV and getting ready to go out and grab some dinner. At least on the channels we watched (aka MTV, VH1), the Portuguese seem way more into Portuguese subtitles than dubbing, which is HUGE here in Spain. In general, actually, the Portuguese tended to speak Portuguese, English, and then MAYBE Spanish, in that order. Confusing. We wanted to practice our Spanish skills, but that’s sort of a touchy subject in Portugal. Anyway, Friday night and Saturday before our siesta we ended up watching roller hockey (never seen it in my life), a program about finding Bigfoot, a show about Britney Spears’ wealth, and some of the oddest music videos ever (Tony Parker aka Eva Longoria’s husband aka football star singing some song called “Premiere Love” aka French rap, incredible), and Made. We were hoping for a Portuguese “Next” but they didn’t seem to have it.
We four girls checked out one of the maps they had downstairs and decided to go down to the Docas aka Docks to grab dinner. We took a taxi, which was 6 euro for all 4 of us and one of the most convenient things I’ve ever done in my life! The views were fantastic (aqueduct, old, beat-up Lisboa, a cool hotel with green plants literally dripping off the ledges, old old buildings, night lights coming on in all buildings, planes flying overhead), we didn’t actually have to know where we were going (“Las Docas, por favor. Obrigado!”), it took way less than time than it would have to walk, cheap, safer, etc etc. The Docas was basically like one long dock that was lined with restaurants.
We ate at Dom Pomodoro, aka pizza for all of us and pasta for Janna. Amazing pizza, a bit expensive, but so worth it. Felt like vacation. We talked and laughed and bonded over the sangria (I was still sick so I had camomile tea instead, like an old lady) and amusing attempts to communicate with the waiters. When we left, there were more and more people outside with every passing minute, so we wandered up and down the Docas, looking up at the huge bridge that overshadowed the docks, watched low-flying planes, checked out the big jesus statue in the distance, and looked at the creepy schools of fish in the water that were drawn to the spotlights.
Ashley and Micaela decided to stay out a little later and grab drinks with the literally 20 IES kids who showed up via taxi as Janna and I were leaving. The next morning we heard quite the stories!!! Ashley and Micaela came home like 45 minutes later, but I think everyone else headed out to some Irish pub and a group of IES girls managed to meet the Dutch water polo team who were in general, tall and apparently very cute. And probably pretty sketchy, but whatever, the girls had an amazing time…
The next morning, we headed off to Sintra, one of the cutest and most picturesque towns I’ve seen yet. Before we left, Ashley harassed me for folding my pajamas (Janna and I can be semi-type-A together) and IES as a group discovered that trying to get downstairs from the 9th floor (breakfast) in 2 elevators that only hold 4 people each will take a lot longer than you think. We weren’t too late, but the day started off cloudy and we knew it would rain sooner rather than later so people were somewhat less animated than we’d been earlier. We went to the Palacio Real (Google it or look at my photos, oh man, I want to live there…or at least steal some ideas for my dream house when I’m older...red tile floors, anyone?!) and then had free time to wander up and down the tiny streets packed with souvenir shops and cafés. Some kids took the small tour bus up to the palace thing up on top of the hill overlooking the palacio real (probably will find views from there if you just google “Sintra”).
Then it was time to head to El Cabo del Infierno, aka westernmost point of Europe, according to David (Janna says she thought she’d already been to the westernmost point of Europe and it looked nothing like the place we went, so maybe they are confused….haha). Check out my photos of that, too. Unfortunately it was pretty grey and drizzly, but it didn’t stop the boys from taking off their shirts and people generally taking model-pose photos. As much as I might complain or spend time with Spanish kids, I do really love IES kids. I’m so glad we have such a small group and as such can all end up being friends of a sort without having to feel weird about it.
We were supposed to take the bus around the corner to Cascais, a cute small town where we had a lunch reservation. Turns out the bus was leaking fluid and the bus driver wasn’t sure how long it would take to fix so David called 10 taxis and we made it to lunch in time. It was pouring rain by this time, so I’m sure the bus driver was cursing the odds that he got stuck with that bus and that weekend to drive our whole obnoxious group to effing Portugal. He was pretty much almost always smoking from that point on, probably in a vain attempt to calm his nerves. Lunch was nice because I got to eat French fries, a football (british) game was on a projector, there was a huge bull head on the wall to stare at while I ate, Nathan hit his head on it twice, once when trying to sit down next to Gui with such enthusiasm that he didn’t even see it and the second time when he was getting up to go to the bathroom, and because of the people I sat with.
It was not nice, however, because it was fish. Janna and I asked for whatever the vegetarians had and ended up with weird pasta, but it was better than fish, and as I said, I got French fries. It continued to pour and pour rain outside and we had to carefully sprint to the bus, many kids in flip flops (smart one), nobody with an umbrella (I brought my raincoat to Portugal but we didn’t think it was gonna start raining until Sunday so I didn’t have it…I was pissed). I took some cool photos of Cascais but my favorite one is this one, from the bus window:
The Portuguese and especially Lisboans are amazing at those tiled sidewalks, with a different black/white pattern on almost every street! So from Cascais we headed back to Lisboa, to stop at the Tower of Belém which we ended up skipping because it was pouring rain (Google it anyway, it looks pretty magnificent in the sunlight!) and to stop at another monastery, Los Jerónimos. Again, it was disappointing that it was raining so much, even though it kind of made it cooler in its own right, but thinking back on Batalha and wishing it was that nice out for these cloisters/cathedral windows/etc was frustrating. Snagged some good photos anyway. Google it for history/etc. We saw a wedding in the chapel, too, which was crazy!!! I couldn’t fathom ever wanting to have a wedding at which it would be possible to have tourists watching or taking photos or sneezing awkwardly in the background. It was also weird that there were like maybe 20 people at the wedding. And it sucked that it was pouring. But so cute! Beautiful dress, beautiful purple bridesmaids dresses, cool Ford Model T to drive away in. And a beautiful beautiful cathedral, oh my god.
Going there and to Batalha also cemented the fact that I love cloisters. Gawd. I wish I’d had my black and white film camera….innnnncredible. Sighhh.
Then we drove back to the hotel and watched more trashy TV and siesta-d, as I said. Part 3 to come later.
Thanks for reading!!!
-c-
Here goes part 2 of my trip to Portugal last weekend!
For photos, check out these 3 albums:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016977&l=75175&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016979&l=1d397&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016980&l=9e7df&id=4602208
While we waited for the bus after Batalha, there was a group of Portuguese (duh) skater punk 14-ish-year-old guys skating all over the edges of the stone wall around the plaza around Batalha. Not only did they have stellar mullets (Word accepts that as a word?!), but they would get frustrated when they couldn’t complete a certain move or who knows and would literally hurl their boards up into the trees. They also almost knocked into a few of us more than once. Granted, we were sort of in their way, but what kind of kids skateboard at a monastery?! One of them had a serious butterfly bandage on his eyebrow and looked like he was pretty pissed, as if he’d just crashed the other day and had to spend time off his board, recuperating so that it didn’t split again. Punks.
So there was Batalha, then we drove some more. This is a theme of the weekend. Bus time. Lots and lots of bus time. We got to Lisboa eventually, probably around….7:30 and checked into Hotel Alif, a three-star hotel a bit north of downtown. I roomed with Ashley, who you’ll see in a bunch of the photos in the “People” album from the weekend—she’s tall, skinny, pale, dark-haired, nose-ringed, very awesome. We had a sweet balcony looking out on a big bank complex and one of the main streets, a TV, a nice bathroom (with a bidet, as always….I don’t think we’ll ever get sick of making jokes about those…), and a very strange system of working the lights—you had to stick your hotel key into a little slot next to the front door or none of the lights worked. Which was fine because it meant you never forgot your key but also kind of terrifying at night, as you tried to make your way to your bed without hitting shins or elbows on corners.
Janna (another year student) and Micaela (year student, but 2nd half in Dublin) lived next door (yay!) so we all wandered in and out of each other’s rooms, watching strange strange strange Portuguese TV and getting ready to go out and grab some dinner. At least on the channels we watched (aka MTV, VH1), the Portuguese seem way more into Portuguese subtitles than dubbing, which is HUGE here in Spain. In general, actually, the Portuguese tended to speak Portuguese, English, and then MAYBE Spanish, in that order. Confusing. We wanted to practice our Spanish skills, but that’s sort of a touchy subject in Portugal. Anyway, Friday night and Saturday before our siesta we ended up watching roller hockey (never seen it in my life), a program about finding Bigfoot, a show about Britney Spears’ wealth, and some of the oddest music videos ever (Tony Parker aka Eva Longoria’s husband aka football star singing some song called “Premiere Love” aka French rap, incredible), and Made. We were hoping for a Portuguese “Next” but they didn’t seem to have it.
We four girls checked out one of the maps they had downstairs and decided to go down to the Docas aka Docks to grab dinner. We took a taxi, which was 6 euro for all 4 of us and one of the most convenient things I’ve ever done in my life! The views were fantastic (aqueduct, old, beat-up Lisboa, a cool hotel with green plants literally dripping off the ledges, old old buildings, night lights coming on in all buildings, planes flying overhead), we didn’t actually have to know where we were going (“Las Docas, por favor. Obrigado!”), it took way less than time than it would have to walk, cheap, safer, etc etc. The Docas was basically like one long dock that was lined with restaurants.
We ate at Dom Pomodoro, aka pizza for all of us and pasta for Janna. Amazing pizza, a bit expensive, but so worth it. Felt like vacation. We talked and laughed and bonded over the sangria (I was still sick so I had camomile tea instead, like an old lady) and amusing attempts to communicate with the waiters. When we left, there were more and more people outside with every passing minute, so we wandered up and down the Docas, looking up at the huge bridge that overshadowed the docks, watched low-flying planes, checked out the big jesus statue in the distance, and looked at the creepy schools of fish in the water that were drawn to the spotlights.
Ashley and Micaela decided to stay out a little later and grab drinks with the literally 20 IES kids who showed up via taxi as Janna and I were leaving. The next morning we heard quite the stories!!! Ashley and Micaela came home like 45 minutes later, but I think everyone else headed out to some Irish pub and a group of IES girls managed to meet the Dutch water polo team who were in general, tall and apparently very cute. And probably pretty sketchy, but whatever, the girls had an amazing time…
The next morning, we headed off to Sintra, one of the cutest and most picturesque towns I’ve seen yet. Before we left, Ashley harassed me for folding my pajamas (Janna and I can be semi-type-A together) and IES as a group discovered that trying to get downstairs from the 9th floor (breakfast) in 2 elevators that only hold 4 people each will take a lot longer than you think. We weren’t too late, but the day started off cloudy and we knew it would rain sooner rather than later so people were somewhat less animated than we’d been earlier. We went to the Palacio Real (Google it or look at my photos, oh man, I want to live there…or at least steal some ideas for my dream house when I’m older...red tile floors, anyone?!) and then had free time to wander up and down the tiny streets packed with souvenir shops and cafés. Some kids took the small tour bus up to the palace thing up on top of the hill overlooking the palacio real (probably will find views from there if you just google “Sintra”).
Then it was time to head to El Cabo del Infierno, aka westernmost point of Europe, according to David (Janna says she thought she’d already been to the westernmost point of Europe and it looked nothing like the place we went, so maybe they are confused….haha). Check out my photos of that, too. Unfortunately it was pretty grey and drizzly, but it didn’t stop the boys from taking off their shirts and people generally taking model-pose photos. As much as I might complain or spend time with Spanish kids, I do really love IES kids. I’m so glad we have such a small group and as such can all end up being friends of a sort without having to feel weird about it.
We were supposed to take the bus around the corner to Cascais, a cute small town where we had a lunch reservation. Turns out the bus was leaking fluid and the bus driver wasn’t sure how long it would take to fix so David called 10 taxis and we made it to lunch in time. It was pouring rain by this time, so I’m sure the bus driver was cursing the odds that he got stuck with that bus and that weekend to drive our whole obnoxious group to effing Portugal. He was pretty much almost always smoking from that point on, probably in a vain attempt to calm his nerves. Lunch was nice because I got to eat French fries, a football (british) game was on a projector, there was a huge bull head on the wall to stare at while I ate, Nathan hit his head on it twice, once when trying to sit down next to Gui with such enthusiasm that he didn’t even see it and the second time when he was getting up to go to the bathroom, and because of the people I sat with.
It was not nice, however, because it was fish. Janna and I asked for whatever the vegetarians had and ended up with weird pasta, but it was better than fish, and as I said, I got French fries. It continued to pour and pour rain outside and we had to carefully sprint to the bus, many kids in flip flops (smart one), nobody with an umbrella (I brought my raincoat to Portugal but we didn’t think it was gonna start raining until Sunday so I didn’t have it…I was pissed). I took some cool photos of Cascais but my favorite one is this one, from the bus window:
The Portuguese and especially Lisboans are amazing at those tiled sidewalks, with a different black/white pattern on almost every street! So from Cascais we headed back to Lisboa, to stop at the Tower of Belém which we ended up skipping because it was pouring rain (Google it anyway, it looks pretty magnificent in the sunlight!) and to stop at another monastery, Los Jerónimos. Again, it was disappointing that it was raining so much, even though it kind of made it cooler in its own right, but thinking back on Batalha and wishing it was that nice out for these cloisters/cathedral windows/etc was frustrating. Snagged some good photos anyway. Google it for history/etc. We saw a wedding in the chapel, too, which was crazy!!! I couldn’t fathom ever wanting to have a wedding at which it would be possible to have tourists watching or taking photos or sneezing awkwardly in the background. It was also weird that there were like maybe 20 people at the wedding. And it sucked that it was pouring. But so cute! Beautiful dress, beautiful purple bridesmaids dresses, cool Ford Model T to drive away in. And a beautiful beautiful cathedral, oh my god.
Going there and to Batalha also cemented the fact that I love cloisters. Gawd. I wish I’d had my black and white film camera….innnnncredible. Sighhh.
Then we drove back to the hotel and watched more trashy TV and siesta-d, as I said. Part 3 to come later.
Thanks for reading!!!
-c-
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Portugal: Part 1 of 3 (PHOTOS)
Hi!
Part 1 of 3: Portugal!
First off, for those who are only here for the photos (can’t say I blame you…), 3 albums:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016977&l=75175&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016979&l=1d397&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016980&l=9e7df&id=4602208
We left at 6:30 on Friday morning, which is obviously pretty early, but I somehow have been lucky enough to get an internal clock that will wake me up when I need to be woken up aka if I go to bed thinking “I HAVE TO GET UP AT 5:15, I CANNOT MISS THE BUS” then my body pretty much takes care of it. I know, though, that 6:30 is pretty early and a little harder for some people to deal with. Not that it’s a big deal, but it sort of sets a precedent for some of the later craziness in Portugal…Becca and I almost missed the bus because she kept hitting snooze on her alarm and thus when I went to her door at 6:15 and said “Hey, are you just about ready?” she had yet to get up, get dressed, and eat breakfast…so we got to the bus like 10 minutes late and David (one of the leaders) called my cell phone as I was 20 feet behind the bus and is like “Where are you??? We’re about to leave. This is not okay.” and I was like “David, I can see the bus” and he’s like “No, where are you?” So of course when I get on the bus I’m not about to be like “Sorry, David, Becca overslept” but then I had to sit there feeling guilty and dealing with David making lots of deep disappointed sighing noises. Whatever, it all worked out okay and I know Becca didn’t mean to wake up so late, but it was a very…exciting way to start the trip!
Anyway, so we’re all on the bus, sleeping soundly or listening to iPods or whatever, and about an hour into the journey, a tire on the back of the bus suddenly bursts, making the bus tilt and everyone wake up in a shocked and confused state. I have no idea why the tire burst (David told me later that it had been replaced 3 weeks earlier and that in his 5 years with IES and Daniel/Concha’s 14 years, there had never been a flat tire…some people have all the luck…), but I do know that we pulled off to the side of the highway and sat there for 3 hours waiting for someone to come fix the tire. Our bus driver was less than impressed. It wasn’t so so bad, because it was still like before 10am and people just went back to sleep, but then people started needing to go to the bathroom…which is kind of hard to do when your bus is stopped in the middle of the road between the highway and an exit ramp and the guardia civil tells you it’s illegal to get off the bus. I wrote down a few quotes (what else is there to do when you don’t want to waste your iPod battery? Also IES kids say some of the most amazing things when you pay attention…), including the following:
Simone, threatening David, who told her that under no circumstances could she leave the bus: If I get a bladder infection…
David: It’s better than getting run over by a car…
Simone: Have you ever had a bladder infection?!
However, needing to go to the bathroom is needing to go to the bathroom, so eventually David convinced the guardia civil to let kids get off the bus 2 at a time. It was mostly girls, and at one point Ashley realized that a few guys in the back were watching out the window (to see what, I don’t know, but boys will be boys…?!) and yells back at them, “You can find that shit online, you guys!” Fantastic. Anyway, we got pretty punchy, and at some point realized that there was like…a park of black pigs across the highway.
Janna: Wanna go see if we can touch a pig?
Also during this time, David was sitting right in front of us and trying to sleep. At some point someone called him and he was talking to them in English and goes “I just want to tell them to shut the f#%& up!” At least we weren’t playing the name game for 3 hours (you say a name and the next person has to say a name that starts with the last letter of the previous name) and talking about Pokemon. I’m just saying. Later…
Ashley: My boyfriend always tries to squeeze ducks! It’s like his thing!
Maybe you had to be there. So finally we get on the road, drive for 3 hours (yeah, 6 hours on the bus, awful), skipping Coimbra where we were going to see the University and just heading straight to Batalha. Luckily it was sunny! The border crossing was totally anticlimactic and as far as I could tell, all that happened was that the bus driver told some official that there were 40 americans and 3 spaniards on the bus and the official waved us through. I wanted passport checks, drug-sniffing dogs, or at the very least, a passport stamp. Oh well.
Onto the sights...!
We took advantage of the sun (yayy) and a chance to get off the bus and headed to the monastery and cathedral at Batalha. Check it out online if you can, or maybe on Wikipedia for those of you more interested in the history of the place. Definitely look at my photos. The cathedral was one of those places that makes you wish you had a reason to go to church there. As I told Ashley, I’d go to church there if it was more like “casey-getting-alone-time-in-this-amazing-cathedral-with-beautiful-stained-glass-and-light-and-thinking-deep-thoughts” instead of churchy church. It’s an idea.
Parts 2 and 3 to come ASAP...
just so you guys know, my internet works in my house again, but it's VERY moody, so if we're talking online and all of a sudden, i sign off, that's why. same goes for skype (ADD ME, GUYS!!! caseyluna).
it's been raining so much here...it's rained more in the last 3 days EVERY DAY than it normally rains in all of october, and october is the first fall month and is normally very rainy. i don't even know. all my shoes are wet. i think we might get a reprieve this weekend, thank god....!!
i think of you all the time,
and i send good thoughts to those of you with birthdays, relationship troubles, work stress, projects of any kind to complete, crazy study abroad experiences, horrible roommates, and those of you who are lucky enough to sail on through life with minimal complications....
besos y abrazos,
-c-
Part 1 of 3: Portugal!
First off, for those who are only here for the photos (can’t say I blame you…), 3 albums:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016977&l=75175&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016979&l=1d397&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016980&l=9e7df&id=4602208
We left at 6:30 on Friday morning, which is obviously pretty early, but I somehow have been lucky enough to get an internal clock that will wake me up when I need to be woken up aka if I go to bed thinking “I HAVE TO GET UP AT 5:15, I CANNOT MISS THE BUS” then my body pretty much takes care of it. I know, though, that 6:30 is pretty early and a little harder for some people to deal with. Not that it’s a big deal, but it sort of sets a precedent for some of the later craziness in Portugal…Becca and I almost missed the bus because she kept hitting snooze on her alarm and thus when I went to her door at 6:15 and said “Hey, are you just about ready?” she had yet to get up, get dressed, and eat breakfast…so we got to the bus like 10 minutes late and David (one of the leaders) called my cell phone as I was 20 feet behind the bus and is like “Where are you??? We’re about to leave. This is not okay.” and I was like “David, I can see the bus” and he’s like “No, where are you?” So of course when I get on the bus I’m not about to be like “Sorry, David, Becca overslept” but then I had to sit there feeling guilty and dealing with David making lots of deep disappointed sighing noises. Whatever, it all worked out okay and I know Becca didn’t mean to wake up so late, but it was a very…exciting way to start the trip!
Anyway, so we’re all on the bus, sleeping soundly or listening to iPods or whatever, and about an hour into the journey, a tire on the back of the bus suddenly bursts, making the bus tilt and everyone wake up in a shocked and confused state. I have no idea why the tire burst (David told me later that it had been replaced 3 weeks earlier and that in his 5 years with IES and Daniel/Concha’s 14 years, there had never been a flat tire…some people have all the luck…), but I do know that we pulled off to the side of the highway and sat there for 3 hours waiting for someone to come fix the tire. Our bus driver was less than impressed. It wasn’t so so bad, because it was still like before 10am and people just went back to sleep, but then people started needing to go to the bathroom…which is kind of hard to do when your bus is stopped in the middle of the road between the highway and an exit ramp and the guardia civil tells you it’s illegal to get off the bus. I wrote down a few quotes (what else is there to do when you don’t want to waste your iPod battery? Also IES kids say some of the most amazing things when you pay attention…), including the following:
Simone, threatening David, who told her that under no circumstances could she leave the bus: If I get a bladder infection…
David: It’s better than getting run over by a car…
Simone: Have you ever had a bladder infection?!
However, needing to go to the bathroom is needing to go to the bathroom, so eventually David convinced the guardia civil to let kids get off the bus 2 at a time. It was mostly girls, and at one point Ashley realized that a few guys in the back were watching out the window (to see what, I don’t know, but boys will be boys…?!) and yells back at them, “You can find that shit online, you guys!” Fantastic. Anyway, we got pretty punchy, and at some point realized that there was like…a park of black pigs across the highway.
Janna: Wanna go see if we can touch a pig?
Also during this time, David was sitting right in front of us and trying to sleep. At some point someone called him and he was talking to them in English and goes “I just want to tell them to shut the f#%& up!” At least we weren’t playing the name game for 3 hours (you say a name and the next person has to say a name that starts with the last letter of the previous name) and talking about Pokemon. I’m just saying. Later…
Ashley: My boyfriend always tries to squeeze ducks! It’s like his thing!
Maybe you had to be there. So finally we get on the road, drive for 3 hours (yeah, 6 hours on the bus, awful), skipping Coimbra where we were going to see the University and just heading straight to Batalha. Luckily it was sunny! The border crossing was totally anticlimactic and as far as I could tell, all that happened was that the bus driver told some official that there were 40 americans and 3 spaniards on the bus and the official waved us through. I wanted passport checks, drug-sniffing dogs, or at the very least, a passport stamp. Oh well.
Onto the sights...!
We took advantage of the sun (yayy) and a chance to get off the bus and headed to the monastery and cathedral at Batalha. Check it out online if you can, or maybe on Wikipedia for those of you more interested in the history of the place. Definitely look at my photos. The cathedral was one of those places that makes you wish you had a reason to go to church there. As I told Ashley, I’d go to church there if it was more like “casey-getting-alone-time-in-this-amazing-cathedral-with-beautiful-stained-glass-and-light-and-thinking-deep-thoughts” instead of churchy church. It’s an idea.
Parts 2 and 3 to come ASAP...
just so you guys know, my internet works in my house again, but it's VERY moody, so if we're talking online and all of a sudden, i sign off, that's why. same goes for skype (ADD ME, GUYS!!! caseyluna).
it's been raining so much here...it's rained more in the last 3 days EVERY DAY than it normally rains in all of october, and october is the first fall month and is normally very rainy. i don't even know. all my shoes are wet. i think we might get a reprieve this weekend, thank god....!!
i think of you all the time,
and i send good thoughts to those of you with birthdays, relationship troubles, work stress, projects of any kind to complete, crazy study abroad experiences, horrible roommates, and those of you who are lucky enough to sail on through life with minimal complications....
besos y abrazos,
-c-
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