Day 21
Sunday July 19th: Today was rather restful. I woke up at about 10 expecting breakfast to be ready. It wasn’t. this wasn’t a hug deal since I didn’t have to be anywhere until 11. I finally knocked on the door at 10:30. Still no breakfast ready. I ate around 10:40 and made the mistake of asking if she had made bocadillos for lunch (she said she was going to do so). After several minutes of me apologizing for not telling her (which I definitely did), I left without lunch. I met Nate and Mike at a metro stop near El Rastro. This is similar to Las Ramblas in Barcelona. It is a giant market that is open on Sunday from about 9-3. If you need anything touristy, this is the place to get it, or even if you just need something. Everything from clothing, to furniture, to old camera supplies, to stolen video game equipment is available. It was slightly entertaining trying to guess which stalls were legitimate and which ones were selling things on Sunday and stealing things the rest of the week. The former was definitely in the majority. I headed home and got there just in time for lunch at 2. Lunch was good, it was a noodle soup, with some chicken after, then the ever present watermelon. After lunch I learned about the joys of mafia wars on face book, and answered emails, then took a nap. After my nap I headed toward Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas, which for those of you who remember, is the bullfighting stadium. Nate and I grabbed dinner in the same grocery store as last time, except this time he brought bread from home so we didn’t have to buy any. The only problem was that he only brought enough bread for one sandwich each, and we had enough meat and cheese for at least two and a half each. The end result was a sandwich with all of the meat and cheese on it that it would hold. It was entertaining watching the older Spanish couple on the bench next to us watch us eat. We met up with Paul and Reed and grabbed our tickets. Our seats were a little better this time, but the fights were not. I nearly saw a horse thrown on its side by a bull, and at the same time, the rider of said horse, had to jump clear in order to keep his foot, and really his life as the horse was thrown off balance. I took pictures with Nate’s camera while he recorded it with his video camera. I got some good pictures and together we maxed out a 2gb card (though he has all his photos from the trip on it I think). After the bullfight, we all headed home and slept well preparing for what Monday might bring.
20 July 2009
18 July 2009
This Pig Certainly Isn't Flying Anymore (Day 20 Saturday July 18th)
Apologies for the long posts tonight but here is another one.
I hope to put up pictures in the next day or two.
Day 20
Saturday July 18th: Today we went to Segovia. We took a bus about an hour an 20 minutes North Of Madrid. When we arrived we walked about five minutes past the statue of the guy who invented cochinillo, which is roast suckling pig, to the aqua duct. He said that if you couldn’t slice it with the edge of a plate it wasn’t tender enough. He is holding a plate:
The aqua duct was very cool. Left over from roman times it is still standing without cement or mortar of any kind. You can even see the holes in the sides of the stones where they were picked up by some sort of crane system. I really wanted to climb it just because it looked like it might be fun, but I didn’t. We took the stairs to the top and were able to look out over the city of Segovia which was a pretty sweet view. Pictures:
From the aqua duct we walked to the cathedral of Segovia, which is the most prominent building in the city. Easily the tallest, and probably on the very top of the hill that Segovia is built on. We weren’t able to take pictures inside but the outside I can show you.
It was amazing. There was a wedding about to start in one of the side rooms where mass is held every week (or more often I’m not sure), which got me thinking about how crazy it would be to get married in this gigantic cathedral that is hundreds of years old, at an alter that is covered with enough gold to pay for the wedding ten times over. We ventured into the courtyard where I was able to take a couple pictures (since I was outside) of the stone work and the bell tower.
After we left the cathedral we hit up a vantage point overlooking the countryside surrounding Segovia, that was near the alcazar, which is the Arabic word for fortress according to fodor’s travel guide. This particular alcazar was the inspiration behind the castle that shows up at the beginning of every Disney movie with the star over it. Also, a very cool place to see. Here is the outside:
My camera started to die and so I didn’t’ take many pictures, but I got a few, including the thrones used by Ferdinand and Isabella.
Yes, they were the ones who Columbus bothered enough to let him sail to America. We got to see some cool suits of armor (that I didn’t take a picture of, but Nate did so I’ll get his pictures at some point). After a quick tour through the bottom floors of the castle we headed towards the tower. Which is the square section at the front of the building in the pictures of the outside. Also, it had a moat, many feet (or I should say meters) below. The tower could only be reached by a very tight spiral staircase. I had to pass some people on the way up and it got a little tight. However, once at the top I got some very cool pictures of the countryside and the city itself. Including one of La Mujer Muerta, which in translated the dead woman. This is really just a silhouette of a woman lying down that can be seen in the nearby mountains:
and the moat:
After we left the alcazar four of us and a random German girl that John had made friends with (she wasn’t with the school, but knew someone so was able to go with us), headed toward the nearest restaurant that served cochinillo. Before we got there we stopped to watch a newly wed couple (from the wedding that I mentioned earlier) walk to their car and hae rice thrown on them. I was surprised that they still used rice. It is Europe I guess. We found the restaurant pretty quickly. They had a menu del dia, that included a serving of Paella, cochinilla, and flan, of which I had never tasted. The Paella, as always in this country was excellent. The cochinillo was amazing.
It was super tender, and juicy, and I wonder how they pull it off. The flan was, interesting. It had a strange texture to it that I couldn’t quite place, and I expected it to be warm, which it wasn’t, except for one bite. The meal was overall amazing, I just wish that we had been able to take more time to enjoy it. We had to meet the bus at 3:45 and we finished the meal at 3:35 and it was a 5-10 minute walk back. Then half way there I discovered that I left, my ISIC, Taylor ID, and IN Driver’s License sitting on the table with my credit card. As soon as I figured it out I handed my bag to someone in the group and started sprinting for my life back towards the restaurant, hoping beyond hope that it was still there. I got there and as I arrived I checked my pockets one last time just to be sure so I didn’t bother them unnecessarily, and lo and behold, it was in my back pocket slipped in my map. I felt pretty dumb. But I still had to make it back to the meeting point in about 5 minutes on a wonderfully full stomach. I did so but it didn’t fell great. I was just happy that I am not as out of shape as I thought I was, and that I didn’t lose three forms of identification and a credit card in a foreign country. I even beat my professor back to the meet point, and only missed the group by about “10 seconds.” We took the bus home and the other two guys in the apartment with me thought they heard our host mom say that she was going to be gone for dinner tonight and tomorrow for breakfast and lunch, so on the way home they purchased a couple frozen pizzas for dinner. We tried to turn the stove on and it wouldn’t work. So the logical thing to do is obviously pull it out from the wall right? I was ready to forget it and figure out a different way to get dinner, but they couldn’t be dissuaded. They pulled it out and it was unplugged, so they switched the plug with the washer that is right next to it and put everything back the way it was and turned on the oven. Also, Dan had come home with us and was luckily in the back room, when our host mom shows up. She doesn’t like us to have visitors. I stay with Dan figuring that I can stall if she comes back so she doesn’t yell at him while she goes into the kitchen only to see the oven on and heating. She flipped out. Completely, I’m not sure exactly what she said, but it was something along the lines of don’t touch that, the American girls that were here before you started a fire in the apartment and everything was black in the kitchen. Our conclusion is that first the girls that stayed here before were idiots. We have heard stories of them breaking things and getting drunk and being loud all the time. So we are pretty sure that she thinks we are the same way. So Reed goes to put the oven back the way it was and she flipped out again understandably. We told her we would fix it and that it would be fine and finally got her calmed down and assured her that we wouldn’t touch it again. All this time, dan is hiding under a bed in the back room hoping that she doesn’t come in and turn on a light (they aren’t the biggest beds ever. As in I reach both ends of the bed with a good 6 inches of my feet sticking out the end.). She unloads the washer and hangs the clothes up the dry. We then gave her a table clothe that Reed had purchased in Segovia for her. She loved it and kept saying “gracias, Por que?” And, “que chicos este” which roughly translates to, thank you, why?, and “what boys are these” roughly. The entire thing was really funny once we were able to take a step out of it after she left to go make dinner, but in the situation I was doing my very best to smooth things over, for some reason I’m the favorite, and I don’t quite know why. Dinner was paella and pollo, while we talked to Valentin about his haircut and what we did today. The rest of the night holds emails and sleep hopefully.
I hope to put up pictures in the next day or two.
Day 20
Saturday July 18th: Today we went to Segovia. We took a bus about an hour an 20 minutes North Of Madrid. When we arrived we walked about five minutes past the statue of the guy who invented cochinillo, which is roast suckling pig, to the aqua duct. He said that if you couldn’t slice it with the edge of a plate it wasn’t tender enough. He is holding a plate:
The aqua duct was very cool. Left over from roman times it is still standing without cement or mortar of any kind. You can even see the holes in the sides of the stones where they were picked up by some sort of crane system. I really wanted to climb it just because it looked like it might be fun, but I didn’t. We took the stairs to the top and were able to look out over the city of Segovia which was a pretty sweet view. Pictures:
From the aqua duct we walked to the cathedral of Segovia, which is the most prominent building in the city. Easily the tallest, and probably on the very top of the hill that Segovia is built on. We weren’t able to take pictures inside but the outside I can show you.
It was amazing. There was a wedding about to start in one of the side rooms where mass is held every week (or more often I’m not sure), which got me thinking about how crazy it would be to get married in this gigantic cathedral that is hundreds of years old, at an alter that is covered with enough gold to pay for the wedding ten times over. We ventured into the courtyard where I was able to take a couple pictures (since I was outside) of the stone work and the bell tower.
After we left the cathedral we hit up a vantage point overlooking the countryside surrounding Segovia, that was near the alcazar, which is the Arabic word for fortress according to fodor’s travel guide. This particular alcazar was the inspiration behind the castle that shows up at the beginning of every Disney movie with the star over it. Also, a very cool place to see. Here is the outside:
My camera started to die and so I didn’t’ take many pictures, but I got a few, including the thrones used by Ferdinand and Isabella.
Yes, they were the ones who Columbus bothered enough to let him sail to America. We got to see some cool suits of armor (that I didn’t take a picture of, but Nate did so I’ll get his pictures at some point). After a quick tour through the bottom floors of the castle we headed towards the tower. Which is the square section at the front of the building in the pictures of the outside. Also, it had a moat, many feet (or I should say meters) below. The tower could only be reached by a very tight spiral staircase. I had to pass some people on the way up and it got a little tight. However, once at the top I got some very cool pictures of the countryside and the city itself. Including one of La Mujer Muerta, which in translated the dead woman. This is really just a silhouette of a woman lying down that can be seen in the nearby mountains:
and the moat:
After we left the alcazar four of us and a random German girl that John had made friends with (she wasn’t with the school, but knew someone so was able to go with us), headed toward the nearest restaurant that served cochinillo. Before we got there we stopped to watch a newly wed couple (from the wedding that I mentioned earlier) walk to their car and hae rice thrown on them. I was surprised that they still used rice. It is Europe I guess. We found the restaurant pretty quickly. They had a menu del dia, that included a serving of Paella, cochinilla, and flan, of which I had never tasted. The Paella, as always in this country was excellent. The cochinillo was amazing.
It was super tender, and juicy, and I wonder how they pull it off. The flan was, interesting. It had a strange texture to it that I couldn’t quite place, and I expected it to be warm, which it wasn’t, except for one bite. The meal was overall amazing, I just wish that we had been able to take more time to enjoy it. We had to meet the bus at 3:45 and we finished the meal at 3:35 and it was a 5-10 minute walk back. Then half way there I discovered that I left, my ISIC, Taylor ID, and IN Driver’s License sitting on the table with my credit card. As soon as I figured it out I handed my bag to someone in the group and started sprinting for my life back towards the restaurant, hoping beyond hope that it was still there. I got there and as I arrived I checked my pockets one last time just to be sure so I didn’t bother them unnecessarily, and lo and behold, it was in my back pocket slipped in my map. I felt pretty dumb. But I still had to make it back to the meeting point in about 5 minutes on a wonderfully full stomach. I did so but it didn’t fell great. I was just happy that I am not as out of shape as I thought I was, and that I didn’t lose three forms of identification and a credit card in a foreign country. I even beat my professor back to the meet point, and only missed the group by about “10 seconds.” We took the bus home and the other two guys in the apartment with me thought they heard our host mom say that she was going to be gone for dinner tonight and tomorrow for breakfast and lunch, so on the way home they purchased a couple frozen pizzas for dinner. We tried to turn the stove on and it wouldn’t work. So the logical thing to do is obviously pull it out from the wall right? I was ready to forget it and figure out a different way to get dinner, but they couldn’t be dissuaded. They pulled it out and it was unplugged, so they switched the plug with the washer that is right next to it and put everything back the way it was and turned on the oven. Also, Dan had come home with us and was luckily in the back room, when our host mom shows up. She doesn’t like us to have visitors. I stay with Dan figuring that I can stall if she comes back so she doesn’t yell at him while she goes into the kitchen only to see the oven on and heating. She flipped out. Completely, I’m not sure exactly what she said, but it was something along the lines of don’t touch that, the American girls that were here before you started a fire in the apartment and everything was black in the kitchen. Our conclusion is that first the girls that stayed here before were idiots. We have heard stories of them breaking things and getting drunk and being loud all the time. So we are pretty sure that she thinks we are the same way. So Reed goes to put the oven back the way it was and she flipped out again understandably. We told her we would fix it and that it would be fine and finally got her calmed down and assured her that we wouldn’t touch it again. All this time, dan is hiding under a bed in the back room hoping that she doesn’t come in and turn on a light (they aren’t the biggest beds ever. As in I reach both ends of the bed with a good 6 inches of my feet sticking out the end.). She unloads the washer and hangs the clothes up the dry. We then gave her a table clothe that Reed had purchased in Segovia for her. She loved it and kept saying “gracias, Por que?” And, “que chicos este” which roughly translates to, thank you, why?, and “what boys are these” roughly. The entire thing was really funny once we were able to take a step out of it after she left to go make dinner, but in the situation I was doing my very best to smooth things over, for some reason I’m the favorite, and I don’t quite know why. Dinner was paella and pollo, while we talked to Valentin about his haircut and what we did today. The rest of the night holds emails and sleep hopefully.
Day 19
Friday July 16th: Today class was spent being nervous for my test, and this state of being was not helped by the fact that I hardly understood anything today. I felt like most of it was going right over my head, and I was not encouraged. The second half of class today was spent taking a test. As soon as we got the test and the teacher walked out of the room to start administering the oral portion, all but four (those of us from Taylor) started cheating on the test. Obviously and outright. They were talking loudly comparing answers, and it got so bad I couldn’t concentrate on my own test and said something to the loudest of them and everyone quieted down after that. The written section seemed to go fairly well. We are required to get 35/50 right on each section (the written and the oral) in order to stay with the same class as they move up, and I think I had ~37 before I started the final twelve point essay section, which, who knows how they are grading that. I then took the oral part of the exam which started off a little rocky but I think I found my stride and it went pretty well. I don’t know officially how I did but I am optimistic about my chances for an A. After class Dr. Treber called an impromptu meeting and told us about exams next week (we all knew that we would have one from him and from the school, but now he is telling us that we will probably have two from the school (theirs are much much harder than his are), and one from him. As much as I like the idea of having more grades I think I would prefer he took the better of the two scores from the school and then the score from his test. I’m not sure that anyone was happy with the result. Those that took a test today don’t want to take another, and those that didn’t wanted more chances for a better grade. We will see what happens but I have a feeling that next Friday will be a two test day. After class we headed to the park for about an hour to chill and talk before I headed home to lunch. Lunch was interesting. My host mother somehow has the idea that I like beans, which definitely is not the case. Because of this (incorrect) notion she gave reed a small bowl full, paul about a normal helping, and my plate was nearly over flowing. I ate literally by the grace of God and was thankful when I could eat the chicken and watermelon. I finished lunch feeling fuller than I have in a long time. After lunch I met Nate and Mike in the park and we headed to a sporting goods store to try and find a Frisbee. We found one of the largest selections of shoes, and hiking, fishing, soccer, golf, tennis, and even skiing that I’ve ever seen, and in the entire store they sold one model of Frisbee. It was easily under 140 grams with the cardboard. Needless to say we were disappointed. It seems that no one in this country or at least this city likes to play Frisbee. After we failed to find a Frisbee we started walking back toward their apartment and stopped at a Corte Ingles. In which we found 1.5L waters for 24 cents, and at least an hour of entertainment as we saw these and other crazy products:
Yep those are ham flavored potato chips. We then headed outside and found a park bench and watched the multitude of skateboarders try, and many fail, to ollie over a palette. It was free entertainment. When we left we stumbled on this:
This is a toilet cylinder. You pay 30 cents (more than my water by the way), and you can use the “water closet” right in the convenience of… a busy street, as you get off the metro, which is behind me. At this point we split and I walked home, where I emailed my parents and sarah and then had the biggest meal of my life. I thought I was praying hard to get lunch down. Dinner was even bigger. Dinner consisted of a mounded plate (about the size of a Frisbee) of spaghetti with sausage pieces in it. This was followed by the strange vegetable dish that I described earlier, which I have figure out is spinach and celery pressure cooked beyond recognition. This plate was also mounded, and it had five 1.5 inch meatballs on top. I felt like I was going to throw up I ate so much food for dinner. On top of everything, then she dished up an unhealthy serving size of ice cream. I managed to convince her to half mine (which I think she came close to doing and gave me the bigger half, but I‘m grateful). I came down stairs and couldn’t move for about ten to twenty minutes. I finally sat up and took my shoes off and got myself moving again and then talked to Brent Gerig online for a few minutes, and then Sarah came on. I’m headed to bed now and I leave for Segovia at 9am. I’ll post things later.
here are some random other pictures from the day. They won't have descriptions because I don't anything about them except where they are, which won't mean anything to anyone. (by the way, the tree is metal and not just some random tree)
Friday July 16th: Today class was spent being nervous for my test, and this state of being was not helped by the fact that I hardly understood anything today. I felt like most of it was going right over my head, and I was not encouraged. The second half of class today was spent taking a test. As soon as we got the test and the teacher walked out of the room to start administering the oral portion, all but four (those of us from Taylor) started cheating on the test. Obviously and outright. They were talking loudly comparing answers, and it got so bad I couldn’t concentrate on my own test and said something to the loudest of them and everyone quieted down after that. The written section seemed to go fairly well. We are required to get 35/50 right on each section (the written and the oral) in order to stay with the same class as they move up, and I think I had ~37 before I started the final twelve point essay section, which, who knows how they are grading that. I then took the oral part of the exam which started off a little rocky but I think I found my stride and it went pretty well. I don’t know officially how I did but I am optimistic about my chances for an A. After class Dr. Treber called an impromptu meeting and told us about exams next week (we all knew that we would have one from him and from the school, but now he is telling us that we will probably have two from the school (theirs are much much harder than his are), and one from him. As much as I like the idea of having more grades I think I would prefer he took the better of the two scores from the school and then the score from his test. I’m not sure that anyone was happy with the result. Those that took a test today don’t want to take another, and those that didn’t wanted more chances for a better grade. We will see what happens but I have a feeling that next Friday will be a two test day. After class we headed to the park for about an hour to chill and talk before I headed home to lunch. Lunch was interesting. My host mother somehow has the idea that I like beans, which definitely is not the case. Because of this (incorrect) notion she gave reed a small bowl full, paul about a normal helping, and my plate was nearly over flowing. I ate literally by the grace of God and was thankful when I could eat the chicken and watermelon. I finished lunch feeling fuller than I have in a long time. After lunch I met Nate and Mike in the park and we headed to a sporting goods store to try and find a Frisbee. We found one of the largest selections of shoes, and hiking, fishing, soccer, golf, tennis, and even skiing that I’ve ever seen, and in the entire store they sold one model of Frisbee. It was easily under 140 grams with the cardboard. Needless to say we were disappointed. It seems that no one in this country or at least this city likes to play Frisbee. After we failed to find a Frisbee we started walking back toward their apartment and stopped at a Corte Ingles. In which we found 1.5L waters for 24 cents, and at least an hour of entertainment as we saw these and other crazy products:
Yep those are ham flavored potato chips. We then headed outside and found a park bench and watched the multitude of skateboarders try, and many fail, to ollie over a palette. It was free entertainment. When we left we stumbled on this:
This is a toilet cylinder. You pay 30 cents (more than my water by the way), and you can use the “water closet” right in the convenience of… a busy street, as you get off the metro, which is behind me. At this point we split and I walked home, where I emailed my parents and sarah and then had the biggest meal of my life. I thought I was praying hard to get lunch down. Dinner was even bigger. Dinner consisted of a mounded plate (about the size of a Frisbee) of spaghetti with sausage pieces in it. This was followed by the strange vegetable dish that I described earlier, which I have figure out is spinach and celery pressure cooked beyond recognition. This plate was also mounded, and it had five 1.5 inch meatballs on top. I felt like I was going to throw up I ate so much food for dinner. On top of everything, then she dished up an unhealthy serving size of ice cream. I managed to convince her to half mine (which I think she came close to doing and gave me the bigger half, but I‘m grateful). I came down stairs and couldn’t move for about ten to twenty minutes. I finally sat up and took my shoes off and got myself moving again and then talked to Brent Gerig online for a few minutes, and then Sarah came on. I’m headed to bed now and I leave for Segovia at 9am. I’ll post things later.
here are some random other pictures from the day. They won't have descriptions because I don't anything about them except where they are, which won't mean anything to anyone. (by the way, the tree is metal and not just some random tree)
Day 18 Thursday July 16th
Day 18
Thursday July 16th: Today my class was ridiculous. The teachers have become familiar with everyone in the class and the class has become comfortable enough with each other that conversation flows freely, in about four languages. Sometimes we have to translate through three languages to tell someone the right word. For instance, armadillo, in Spanish is armadillo, but in German is something that starts with a G. We had to find it in Spanish first, and then find it from Spanish into German. Also, Giacomo the Italian that knows four languages already, is loud and ridiculous in general. After class we all headed to the park for a little while. Nate and I came close to finishing our homework for the day (yep we got homework the day before a test), and then I came home to lunch. I took a quick nap and headed back to the park to study for the test tomorrow with Nate. It started as studying at 4:30 and sometime around 7:30 we were no longer on topic, but I still learned what I think I need to know that I didn’t before, and it was good to get to know Nate a little better. After we finished studying and talking I walked home and talked to sarah for a while before dinner. Dinner was good, we had pasta and then a “potato sandwich.” This “sandwich” consisted of a potato baked, then cut in half. In the middle was ground beef mixed with salsa, and the salsa was also on top with a covering of shredded cheese. It was really pretty good. After dinner I spent some time studying and then headed to bed to get a good nights sleep.
Thursday July 16th: Today my class was ridiculous. The teachers have become familiar with everyone in the class and the class has become comfortable enough with each other that conversation flows freely, in about four languages. Sometimes we have to translate through three languages to tell someone the right word. For instance, armadillo, in Spanish is armadillo, but in German is something that starts with a G. We had to find it in Spanish first, and then find it from Spanish into German. Also, Giacomo the Italian that knows four languages already, is loud and ridiculous in general. After class we all headed to the park for a little while. Nate and I came close to finishing our homework for the day (yep we got homework the day before a test), and then I came home to lunch. I took a quick nap and headed back to the park to study for the test tomorrow with Nate. It started as studying at 4:30 and sometime around 7:30 we were no longer on topic, but I still learned what I think I need to know that I didn’t before, and it was good to get to know Nate a little better. After we finished studying and talking I walked home and talked to sarah for a while before dinner. Dinner was good, we had pasta and then a “potato sandwich.” This “sandwich” consisted of a potato baked, then cut in half. In the middle was ground beef mixed with salsa, and the salsa was also on top with a covering of shredded cheese. It was really pretty good. After dinner I spent some time studying and then headed to bed to get a good nights sleep.
Day 17 Wednesday July 15th
Day 17
Wednesday July 15th: Today was great. We woke up, had breakfast, and headed to school. Class was about normal. Learned some cool things about indirect and direct objects along with some more comparisons. We had a short break so that we could get out in time to go to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Yeah I don’t know how to pronounce it either. We call it the Thyssen. I did some looking last night and found out that there is quite a lot in this museum. The Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza collected a bunch of paintings from the old masters including but definitely not limited to: van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Cezanne, Rembrandt, and more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. There is a full list here: http://www.museothyssen.org/thyssen/artistas . And then his son got into modern art. There isn’t as much but he still had good taste: braque, Picasso, weber, Dali, O’Keefe, Mondrian, and more. All in all I spent probably 4 hours in the museum and only left because I needed to study. They are also having a matisse special this month, that I opted not to go into, one it cost more money, and two I wanted to see it with fresh eyes with my parents despite them telling me not to save anything for them, and I needed to study some before Carmen. I left the museum and tried to head home. I tried to use a different metro stop than I normally do and it was super sketchy. It was very poorly lit, there were no signs immediately upon entering telling you which way to go and there were probably 6 homeless people in view as I walked down the stairs. I also noticed another couple sleeping in boxes in dark corners. I think it was a wake up call to laurel who opted to walk to the stop near retiro (not a far walk at all). We got on the train and I went home. I studied for a while, took a short nap, and then got changed for Carmen. I had heard very good things about carmen before and was rather excited to go. I’m going to complain about the next few hours a little but I really enjoyed them despite me pointing out the negatives. They were minor annoyances and nothing more. I truly had a good time and enjoyed the show. We met at the metro stop and walked the two blocks to the theater where we hung out until Dr. Treber showed up and collected our tickets and handed them out. We made our way into the theater and sat down. They made the announcement about cameras and cell phones to be turned off and the show started. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t opera. It was a recording of opera. I was slightly disappointed. I would like to see carmen in opera form some time. What was cool was that it was Flamenco dancing. They were very good, at least as far as I could tell. The next complaint is about the girl in the row in front of me and two seats over. She pulled out her camera in the middle of the show, mind you the audience is in complete darkness (only light provided is from the stage). The light from the back of her camera lit up the theater behind her for a good twenty rows, and then a light came on, on the front of her camera that lit up the rest of the rows in front of her. Super annoying! My eyes, due to lasik, gave all the dancers little glowing halos around them during some of the darker scenes, but after camera girl took her three pictures, it took my eyes a good five minutes to re-adjust. The other thing that made the experience a little less enjoyable was the guy behind me attempting to sing, clap, and tap his foot along to the music. You would think that he would have taken the hint of both nate and I half turning to look at him, but nope. He continued to tap and clap and sing through the entire show. He was tapping hard enough that I could feel it through my seat. Awesome mister. I just hope he had a good time. Overall Carmen was a good experience. I would like to see the opera version sometime with people actually singing it instead of lip-syncing. I headed home and was nervous the entire time because I had about 50 euros on me (I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to pay for my ticket or what other costs there would be and it was either a 10 or a 50. So I’m dressed well, listening to my Mp3 player on the train carrying 50 euros. I was glad to get home and I slept well that night.
Wednesday July 15th: Today was great. We woke up, had breakfast, and headed to school. Class was about normal. Learned some cool things about indirect and direct objects along with some more comparisons. We had a short break so that we could get out in time to go to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Yeah I don’t know how to pronounce it either. We call it the Thyssen. I did some looking last night and found out that there is quite a lot in this museum. The Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza collected a bunch of paintings from the old masters including but definitely not limited to: van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Cezanne, Rembrandt, and more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. There is a full list here: http://www.museothyssen.org/thyssen/artistas . And then his son got into modern art. There isn’t as much but he still had good taste: braque, Picasso, weber, Dali, O’Keefe, Mondrian, and more. All in all I spent probably 4 hours in the museum and only left because I needed to study. They are also having a matisse special this month, that I opted not to go into, one it cost more money, and two I wanted to see it with fresh eyes with my parents despite them telling me not to save anything for them, and I needed to study some before Carmen. I left the museum and tried to head home. I tried to use a different metro stop than I normally do and it was super sketchy. It was very poorly lit, there were no signs immediately upon entering telling you which way to go and there were probably 6 homeless people in view as I walked down the stairs. I also noticed another couple sleeping in boxes in dark corners. I think it was a wake up call to laurel who opted to walk to the stop near retiro (not a far walk at all). We got on the train and I went home. I studied for a while, took a short nap, and then got changed for Carmen. I had heard very good things about carmen before and was rather excited to go. I’m going to complain about the next few hours a little but I really enjoyed them despite me pointing out the negatives. They were minor annoyances and nothing more. I truly had a good time and enjoyed the show. We met at the metro stop and walked the two blocks to the theater where we hung out until Dr. Treber showed up and collected our tickets and handed them out. We made our way into the theater and sat down. They made the announcement about cameras and cell phones to be turned off and the show started. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t opera. It was a recording of opera. I was slightly disappointed. I would like to see carmen in opera form some time. What was cool was that it was Flamenco dancing. They were very good, at least as far as I could tell. The next complaint is about the girl in the row in front of me and two seats over. She pulled out her camera in the middle of the show, mind you the audience is in complete darkness (only light provided is from the stage). The light from the back of her camera lit up the theater behind her for a good twenty rows, and then a light came on, on the front of her camera that lit up the rest of the rows in front of her. Super annoying! My eyes, due to lasik, gave all the dancers little glowing halos around them during some of the darker scenes, but after camera girl took her three pictures, it took my eyes a good five minutes to re-adjust. The other thing that made the experience a little less enjoyable was the guy behind me attempting to sing, clap, and tap his foot along to the music. You would think that he would have taken the hint of both nate and I half turning to look at him, but nope. He continued to tap and clap and sing through the entire show. He was tapping hard enough that I could feel it through my seat. Awesome mister. I just hope he had a good time. Overall Carmen was a good experience. I would like to see the opera version sometime with people actually singing it instead of lip-syncing. I headed home and was nervous the entire time because I had about 50 euros on me (I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to pay for my ticket or what other costs there would be and it was either a 10 or a 50. So I’m dressed well, listening to my Mp3 player on the train carrying 50 euros. I was glad to get home and I slept well that night.
15 July 2009
Day 16 Tuesday July 14th
Day 16
Tuesday July 14th: Today really was just class and homework. I spent the morning in class learning more about indirect and direct objects, at the break had a bite of a really good croissant from the corner store, and then finished the morning in class. I spent some time with the group at Park Retiro. After a talk about string theory and whether aliens exist and if they do why we won’t ever find them, I came home to lunch with my host mothers son. Meals are still feasts every time I sit down (except for breakfast which is entirely meager). He spoke a bit of English so we were able to ask him where to find a Frisbee. He pointed us in the right direction along with showing us on google maps where we can go swimming in Madrid if we so desire. I took a nap this afternoon, and struggled a bit with my homework but managed to figure it out fairly well. Dinner was interesting. One of the guys I’m staying with decided to take an authentically Spanish meal of tortilla de patata (potato omelette) and mix some cheese in and have my host mother microwave it to melt the cheese. When he started to add cured ham she refused to heat it up for him, which proved to be entertaining. For the sole reason that I have eaten everything that has been placed in front of me she seems to hold me in rather high regard. Also I know the most Spanish of the three of us. I end up translating at meals. Which makes me wonder how they get along when I’m not there (for instance the bullfight and Carmen tomorrow night). Due to the nap I had a little trouble sleeping and it proved to provide interesting dreaming.
Tuesday July 14th: Today really was just class and homework. I spent the morning in class learning more about indirect and direct objects, at the break had a bite of a really good croissant from the corner store, and then finished the morning in class. I spent some time with the group at Park Retiro. After a talk about string theory and whether aliens exist and if they do why we won’t ever find them, I came home to lunch with my host mothers son. Meals are still feasts every time I sit down (except for breakfast which is entirely meager). He spoke a bit of English so we were able to ask him where to find a Frisbee. He pointed us in the right direction along with showing us on google maps where we can go swimming in Madrid if we so desire. I took a nap this afternoon, and struggled a bit with my homework but managed to figure it out fairly well. Dinner was interesting. One of the guys I’m staying with decided to take an authentically Spanish meal of tortilla de patata (potato omelette) and mix some cheese in and have my host mother microwave it to melt the cheese. When he started to add cured ham she refused to heat it up for him, which proved to be entertaining. For the sole reason that I have eaten everything that has been placed in front of me she seems to hold me in rather high regard. Also I know the most Spanish of the three of us. I end up translating at meals. Which makes me wonder how they get along when I’m not there (for instance the bullfight and Carmen tomorrow night). Due to the nap I had a little trouble sleeping and it proved to provide interesting dreaming.
Day 15 Monday July 13th
Day 15
Monday July 13th: Today was spent in class like any other except that I found out I have a test on Friday. Also, we gained two students from Italy. One of them speaks 4 languages already and reads Spanish so quickly that I can’t keep up. I’m slightly intimidated . When I found out about the test I was disappointed that it wouldn’t be next week but now I’m glad because it means that I won’t have two the Friday after. My professor is giving us all the same verbal and oral quiz and determining our grade based on that. I’m not quite sure how that is going to work but I’ll let him worry about that. We also found out our grades for the cultural test that we took on the bus on the way to Madrid. I missed one. The thing that gets me is there are people in the class who failed it. Partly on purpose I’m sure since they don’t need the cultural class to graduate, but at the same time why wouldn’t you want at least some of the information about where you are? Oh well. Class went well, we started comparisons and Indirect and Direct Object Pronouns. I’m not a fan. I have had the material I think this will be the third time and it is finally starting to make sense. After class I came back to the apartment and did a lot of homework. But before I did my homework I went to Plaza Mayor with Nate, Mike, and John, and had some churros con chocolate (Spanish snack that I’ve never had in the US though we do make them). Those cups are full of chocolate not coffee.
After we finished our churros we headed to Corte Ingles, which is the giant department store similar to Macy’s. Mike was looking for as he put it “man soap” instead of everything that he could find that was packaged for women and in the makeup section. After looking through all seven floors he finally found some in the first spot we looked. We also spent some time in sporting goods trying to find a decent Frisbee, since no one brought one. We were unsuccessful on the Frisbee front. Mike did find the inflatable mattresses though and I forgot how to keep my finger out of pictures...
And Nate found the escalator and was excited it…
And for good measure this is John being pensive...
We all took the subway home and I had dinner then finished my homework. I slept well that night.
Monday July 13th: Today was spent in class like any other except that I found out I have a test on Friday. Also, we gained two students from Italy. One of them speaks 4 languages already and reads Spanish so quickly that I can’t keep up. I’m slightly intimidated . When I found out about the test I was disappointed that it wouldn’t be next week but now I’m glad because it means that I won’t have two the Friday after. My professor is giving us all the same verbal and oral quiz and determining our grade based on that. I’m not quite sure how that is going to work but I’ll let him worry about that. We also found out our grades for the cultural test that we took on the bus on the way to Madrid. I missed one. The thing that gets me is there are people in the class who failed it. Partly on purpose I’m sure since they don’t need the cultural class to graduate, but at the same time why wouldn’t you want at least some of the information about where you are? Oh well. Class went well, we started comparisons and Indirect and Direct Object Pronouns. I’m not a fan. I have had the material I think this will be the third time and it is finally starting to make sense. After class I came back to the apartment and did a lot of homework. But before I did my homework I went to Plaza Mayor with Nate, Mike, and John, and had some churros con chocolate (Spanish snack that I’ve never had in the US though we do make them). Those cups are full of chocolate not coffee.
After we finished our churros we headed to Corte Ingles, which is the giant department store similar to Macy’s. Mike was looking for as he put it “man soap” instead of everything that he could find that was packaged for women and in the makeup section. After looking through all seven floors he finally found some in the first spot we looked. We also spent some time in sporting goods trying to find a decent Frisbee, since no one brought one. We were unsuccessful on the Frisbee front. Mike did find the inflatable mattresses though and I forgot how to keep my finger out of pictures...
And Nate found the escalator and was excited it…
And for good measure this is John being pensive...
We all took the subway home and I had dinner then finished my homework. I slept well that night.
13 July 2009
Day 14 (Sunday July 12th)
Day 14
Sunday July 12th: This morning I woke up and watched the running of the bulls in Pamplona on TV. The reason that I decided to watch this day and no other this week during the feast of San Fermin, is that today my classmates ran. They survived and I spotted them only after they returned and they showed me where they were. Here is the video of what I saw on the news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiP82XX7Pro&feature=popular . It is a short video (no more than 7 minutes long. After I watched the running of the bulls I ate breakfast with my host mother and then realized that I had told her 8 for breakfast and I really didn’t need it until about 8:45 or 9. So instead of trying to explain this after I had already gotten her out of bed, I left after eating, and came back to bed for about 40mins. I woke up around 9 and headed for the train station so that I could meet Abigail and Angelica for church with the Treber’s and I thought some other students. I found the stop where we were supposed to meet and I waited until about 9:45 (church is supposed to start at 10). When I realized that they weren’t going to show I decided to try and find it myself which resulted in my realizing that I had not brought directions with me. Therefore, I ran back to the apartment (figuratively) and grabbed my directions. I found the metro stop and got off and even found the road that the church was supposed to be on but it took me close to a half hour to find the church at the address listed. The address given to me was Trabaldos 2. I found trabaldos 5, 3, and 1, but couldn’t find anything lower than 4 on the other side of the road. I ended up asking four different people for directions and getting different directions each time. After finding it I figured out that both the cul-de-sac and the street were both named, and labeled “Calle De Trabaldos” (Street of Trabaldos). So I found the place and explained to Abigail and Angelica and Dr. Treber what had happened. I arrived around 10:45 (I was told worship started at 10 and the service started at 11. The whole thing started at 11 and so I wasn’t late at all. I understood very little of the sermon because he was speaking pretty quickly, but it was explained to me that it was a five point sermon on honesty and that spain as a country is a dishonest country (shopkeepers account for 10-20% loss of revenue to employee theft, according to the pastor, and this statistic is normal and shopkeepers plan for it). After church I went home and found my host mother not ready for lunch at the usual time of two so I can back down to chill for a little while and wait and ended up taking a short nap until around 2:40, at which point I went upstairs and was welcomed by a hot meal just being finished. After lunch I tried to convey the idea that I wouldn’t be at dinner because of the bullfight with the school group. I couldn’t get this across for some reason (I think it was the lack of hearing due to the whistling hearing aid). I spent the afternoon checking email and face book, trying to figure out plans for the evening. I knew that I was going to a bullfight at seven and so I took a short 30minute nap because I also knew that I wasn’t going to get a large dinner. I met Nate and Mike at the Plaza del Toros Las Ventas. We walked to the closest grocery store got some cheese bread, meat, and water for dinner. We then waited outside Las Ventas for the rest of the group to show up around 8. We found Dr. Treber, and bought our tickets from him. I am pretty sure that there wasn’t a bad seat in the house and all the tickets were 5Euros.
Here begins the description of the bullfight. I took this directly from wikipedia because the description there was far more accurate and concise than the one I just deleted.
If you are a bit squeamish just jump to the **
Spanish-style bullfighting is called corrida de toros (literally running of bulls) or fiesta brava (the ferocious festival). In traditional corrida, three toreros, or matadores, each fight two bulls, each of which is at least four years old and weighs 460–600 kg. Each matador has six assistants — two picadores ("lancers") mounted on horseback, three banderilleros ("flagmen"), and a mozo de espada ("sword page"). Collectively they comprise a cuadrilla ("entourage").
The modern corrida is highly ritualized, with three distinct stages or tercios, the start of each being announced by a trumpet sound. The participants first enter the arena in a parade to salute the presiding dignitary, accompanied by band music. Torero costumes are inspired by 18th century Andalusian clothing, and matadores are easily distinguished by their spectacular "suit of lights" (traje de luces).
Corrida in Sevilla, Spain
Next, the bull enters the ring to be tested for ferocity by the matador and banderilleros with the magenta and gold capote ("dress cape").
In the first stage, the tercio de varas ("the lancing third"), the matador first confronts the bull and observes his behavior in an initial section called suerte de capote. Next, a picador enters the arena on horseback armed with a vara ("lance"). To protect the horse from the bull's horns, the horse is surrounded by a peto — a protective matress like covering and there is some metal in there. Prior to 1930, the horse did not wear any protection, and the bull would disembowel the horse during this stage. Until this change was instituted, the number of horses killed during a fight was higher than the number of bulls killed. [10]
At this point, the picador stabs a mound of muscle on the bull's neck, weakening the neck muscles and leading to the animal's first loss of blood. The manner in which the bull charges the horse provides important clues to the matador about which side the bull favors. If the picador is successful, the bull will hold its head and horns lower during the following stages of the fight. This makes the bull's charges less dangerous while enabling the matador to perform.
In the next stage, the tercio de banderillas ("the third of flags"), the three banderilleros each attempt to plant two razor sharp barbed sticks (called banderillas) on the bull's flanks, as close as possible to the wound where the picador drew first blood. These further weaken the ridges of neck and shoulder muscle and increases the loss of blood.
In the final stage, the tercio de muerte ("the third of death"), the matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape (muleta) and a sword. It is a common misconception that the color red is supposed to anger the bull, despite the fact bulls are colorblind.[11][12] The cape is red to mask the bull's blood. [13] The matador uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, demonstrating his control over it by bringing the bull especially close to himself. The faena (literally job) is the entire performance with the muleta, which is usually broken down into "tandas" or "series". The faena ends with a final series of passes in which the matador with a muleta attempts to maneuver the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart. The act of thrusting the sword is called an estocada.
Occasionally, if the public or the matador believe that the bull has fought bravely, they may petition the president of the plaza to grant the bull an indulto. This is when the bull’s life is spared and allowed to leave the ring alive and return to the ranch where it came from.
This a good description though it doesn’t quite capture what I experienced completely. There is a lot of strutting by the matador, and the goal is not to kill the bull quickly, but well. The matador will turn his back on the bull during the last tercio, sometimes he will stay on one knee instead of standing for the passing of the bull. Also, the matador will try to keep the bull making continuous passes before it pauses. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and was fascinated by this strange art form (it is in the arts section of the newspaper, not the sports section). Here are my pictures of the event and stadium:
I like this picture:
A Padded Horse:
The inside of the stadium:
The outside of the stadium
Sunday July 12th: This morning I woke up and watched the running of the bulls in Pamplona on TV. The reason that I decided to watch this day and no other this week during the feast of San Fermin, is that today my classmates ran. They survived and I spotted them only after they returned and they showed me where they were. Here is the video of what I saw on the news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiP82XX7Pro&feature=popular . It is a short video (no more than 7 minutes long. After I watched the running of the bulls I ate breakfast with my host mother and then realized that I had told her 8 for breakfast and I really didn’t need it until about 8:45 or 9. So instead of trying to explain this after I had already gotten her out of bed, I left after eating, and came back to bed for about 40mins. I woke up around 9 and headed for the train station so that I could meet Abigail and Angelica for church with the Treber’s and I thought some other students. I found the stop where we were supposed to meet and I waited until about 9:45 (church is supposed to start at 10). When I realized that they weren’t going to show I decided to try and find it myself which resulted in my realizing that I had not brought directions with me. Therefore, I ran back to the apartment (figuratively) and grabbed my directions. I found the metro stop and got off and even found the road that the church was supposed to be on but it took me close to a half hour to find the church at the address listed. The address given to me was Trabaldos 2. I found trabaldos 5, 3, and 1, but couldn’t find anything lower than 4 on the other side of the road. I ended up asking four different people for directions and getting different directions each time. After finding it I figured out that both the cul-de-sac and the street were both named, and labeled “Calle De Trabaldos” (Street of Trabaldos). So I found the place and explained to Abigail and Angelica and Dr. Treber what had happened. I arrived around 10:45 (I was told worship started at 10 and the service started at 11. The whole thing started at 11 and so I wasn’t late at all. I understood very little of the sermon because he was speaking pretty quickly, but it was explained to me that it was a five point sermon on honesty and that spain as a country is a dishonest country (shopkeepers account for 10-20% loss of revenue to employee theft, according to the pastor, and this statistic is normal and shopkeepers plan for it). After church I went home and found my host mother not ready for lunch at the usual time of two so I can back down to chill for a little while and wait and ended up taking a short nap until around 2:40, at which point I went upstairs and was welcomed by a hot meal just being finished. After lunch I tried to convey the idea that I wouldn’t be at dinner because of the bullfight with the school group. I couldn’t get this across for some reason (I think it was the lack of hearing due to the whistling hearing aid). I spent the afternoon checking email and face book, trying to figure out plans for the evening. I knew that I was going to a bullfight at seven and so I took a short 30minute nap because I also knew that I wasn’t going to get a large dinner. I met Nate and Mike at the Plaza del Toros Las Ventas. We walked to the closest grocery store got some cheese bread, meat, and water for dinner. We then waited outside Las Ventas for the rest of the group to show up around 8. We found Dr. Treber, and bought our tickets from him. I am pretty sure that there wasn’t a bad seat in the house and all the tickets were 5Euros.
Here begins the description of the bullfight. I took this directly from wikipedia because the description there was far more accurate and concise than the one I just deleted.
If you are a bit squeamish just jump to the **
Spanish-style bullfighting is called corrida de toros (literally running of bulls) or fiesta brava (the ferocious festival). In traditional corrida, three toreros, or matadores, each fight two bulls, each of which is at least four years old and weighs 460–600 kg. Each matador has six assistants — two picadores ("lancers") mounted on horseback, three banderilleros ("flagmen"), and a mozo de espada ("sword page"). Collectively they comprise a cuadrilla ("entourage").
The modern corrida is highly ritualized, with three distinct stages or tercios, the start of each being announced by a trumpet sound. The participants first enter the arena in a parade to salute the presiding dignitary, accompanied by band music. Torero costumes are inspired by 18th century Andalusian clothing, and matadores are easily distinguished by their spectacular "suit of lights" (traje de luces).
Corrida in Sevilla, Spain
Next, the bull enters the ring to be tested for ferocity by the matador and banderilleros with the magenta and gold capote ("dress cape").
In the first stage, the tercio de varas ("the lancing third"), the matador first confronts the bull and observes his behavior in an initial section called suerte de capote. Next, a picador enters the arena on horseback armed with a vara ("lance"). To protect the horse from the bull's horns, the horse is surrounded by a peto — a protective matress like covering and there is some metal in there. Prior to 1930, the horse did not wear any protection, and the bull would disembowel the horse during this stage. Until this change was instituted, the number of horses killed during a fight was higher than the number of bulls killed. [10]
At this point, the picador stabs a mound of muscle on the bull's neck, weakening the neck muscles and leading to the animal's first loss of blood. The manner in which the bull charges the horse provides important clues to the matador about which side the bull favors. If the picador is successful, the bull will hold its head and horns lower during the following stages of the fight. This makes the bull's charges less dangerous while enabling the matador to perform.
In the next stage, the tercio de banderillas ("the third of flags"), the three banderilleros each attempt to plant two razor sharp barbed sticks (called banderillas) on the bull's flanks, as close as possible to the wound where the picador drew first blood. These further weaken the ridges of neck and shoulder muscle and increases the loss of blood.
In the final stage, the tercio de muerte ("the third of death"), the matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape (muleta) and a sword. It is a common misconception that the color red is supposed to anger the bull, despite the fact bulls are colorblind.[11][12] The cape is red to mask the bull's blood. [13] The matador uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, demonstrating his control over it by bringing the bull especially close to himself. The faena (literally job) is the entire performance with the muleta, which is usually broken down into "tandas" or "series". The faena ends with a final series of passes in which the matador with a muleta attempts to maneuver the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart. The act of thrusting the sword is called an estocada.
Occasionally, if the public or the matador believe that the bull has fought bravely, they may petition the president of the plaza to grant the bull an indulto. This is when the bull’s life is spared and allowed to leave the ring alive and return to the ranch where it came from.
This a good description though it doesn’t quite capture what I experienced completely. There is a lot of strutting by the matador, and the goal is not to kill the bull quickly, but well. The matador will turn his back on the bull during the last tercio, sometimes he will stay on one knee instead of standing for the passing of the bull. Also, the matador will try to keep the bull making continuous passes before it pauses. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and was fascinated by this strange art form (it is in the arts section of the newspaper, not the sports section). Here are my pictures of the event and stadium:
I like this picture:
A Padded Horse:
The inside of the stadium:
The outside of the stadium
Day 13 (Saturday July 11th)
Day 13
Saturday July 11th: Today I went to Toledo. I was the only one of three in my group that woke up for breakfast this morning or maybe even woke up this morning, I’m not sure. The other two left for Pamplona around 2pm this afternoon. They want to run with the Bulls. Estan locos. I chose the much less expensive, much less dangerous, and more “cultured” approach to things. Toledo is about an hour southwest of Madrid where I am living right now. Take a look at google maps for a rough idea. We met the school group at 9:00am and left shortly after. We arrived in Toledo around 10:15 or so and were given an opportunity to take pictures of the city from a nearby hill. Here is what came of that.
We then were driven to one side of the city and told that we could get back on the bus that would take us home at 4pm on the other side of the city. I was fine with this and it seemed like a good way for me to learn my way around during the day and explore a little bit of the city that is slightly less traveled. Then I was told that we had to stay with the group for the entire day with a tour guide who only spoke Spanish. While I love the opportunity to learn Spanish, I would also like to know about the art that I’m looking at in this church and why it is important. I did the best I could and asked the fluent Spanish speaker a lot of questions. Our first stop in Toledo was the cathedral. This church puts the one that I was in in Barcelona to shame in terms of size. It was huge. I felt the goal of the architect to demonstrate the awesomeness of God in a single building. We weren’t allowed to take pictures which many people around us were doing. I wish I wanted to break that rule but I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t let myself, so I get to describe it for you. If you don’t want to read a long description jump to the **. We were allowed to go into the choir of the church and walk around seeing the organs and where the choir sat, in straight backed wooden chairs. The podium where the conductor would have stood was about eight feet tall (as tall as most normal ceilings) and the front depicted an eagle in mid flight. It was slightly intimidating. From the choir we were shown the “parade object” for lack of a better term. I can now say that I’ve seen the sword that was carried by Franco. (He won the Spanish civil war with some help from Nazi Germany). There was also a table, that I’m not sure what it was made of, but it was cool. There were four angels as the legs holding it up and I mainly noticed the details in their clothing. There was a design on the outside of their robes that was only noticeable from about a foot away (behind glass). We then went into the art room. Paintings by El Greco, Van Dyck and others covered the walls. In a side room were the priests robe seemingly from the last two to four hundred years. From the art room we ventured into what used to be the legislative center of Toledo (still in the church) where the records were kept (we didn’t get to see them). The sculptures and paintings integrated into the architecture of the church itself were amazing an no matter how hard I try I can’t describe it to you, just know that it was amazing. Here are some pictures that I found online of people taking pictures despite the signs and guards and respect for the rules…
Here is the Choir podium
And here is the sweet table
**
From the Cathedral we headed to the synagogue. I have a single picture of the main room here:
And the rest was just museum. We then had a break for lunch which was an hour and a half to eat and do some shopping/exploring, but I didn’t want to get too lost so I stayed relatively close to the meeting place and did some shopping (with eyes only) with Nate. After lunch at around 3:15 we went into another church that wouldn’t let us take pictures but was also cool. In this church “hangs” (it is painted on the wall) a paintinig by El Greco, called The Burial of Count Orgaz. As soon as we were done there we headed to the bus and were allowed a few short minutes of picture taking on the way out of the city of the puenta of san martin (the bridge of Saint Martin). We then headed home where I organized some things checked emails, and face book, had dinner and talked with Sarah before going to bed. So ends July 11th.
Saturday July 11th: Today I went to Toledo. I was the only one of three in my group that woke up for breakfast this morning or maybe even woke up this morning, I’m not sure. The other two left for Pamplona around 2pm this afternoon. They want to run with the Bulls. Estan locos. I chose the much less expensive, much less dangerous, and more “cultured” approach to things. Toledo is about an hour southwest of Madrid where I am living right now. Take a look at google maps for a rough idea. We met the school group at 9:00am and left shortly after. We arrived in Toledo around 10:15 or so and were given an opportunity to take pictures of the city from a nearby hill. Here is what came of that.
We then were driven to one side of the city and told that we could get back on the bus that would take us home at 4pm on the other side of the city. I was fine with this and it seemed like a good way for me to learn my way around during the day and explore a little bit of the city that is slightly less traveled. Then I was told that we had to stay with the group for the entire day with a tour guide who only spoke Spanish. While I love the opportunity to learn Spanish, I would also like to know about the art that I’m looking at in this church and why it is important. I did the best I could and asked the fluent Spanish speaker a lot of questions. Our first stop in Toledo was the cathedral. This church puts the one that I was in in Barcelona to shame in terms of size. It was huge. I felt the goal of the architect to demonstrate the awesomeness of God in a single building. We weren’t allowed to take pictures which many people around us were doing. I wish I wanted to break that rule but I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t let myself, so I get to describe it for you. If you don’t want to read a long description jump to the **. We were allowed to go into the choir of the church and walk around seeing the organs and where the choir sat, in straight backed wooden chairs. The podium where the conductor would have stood was about eight feet tall (as tall as most normal ceilings) and the front depicted an eagle in mid flight. It was slightly intimidating. From the choir we were shown the “parade object” for lack of a better term. I can now say that I’ve seen the sword that was carried by Franco. (He won the Spanish civil war with some help from Nazi Germany). There was also a table, that I’m not sure what it was made of, but it was cool. There were four angels as the legs holding it up and I mainly noticed the details in their clothing. There was a design on the outside of their robes that was only noticeable from about a foot away (behind glass). We then went into the art room. Paintings by El Greco, Van Dyck and others covered the walls. In a side room were the priests robe seemingly from the last two to four hundred years. From the art room we ventured into what used to be the legislative center of Toledo (still in the church) where the records were kept (we didn’t get to see them). The sculptures and paintings integrated into the architecture of the church itself were amazing an no matter how hard I try I can’t describe it to you, just know that it was amazing. Here are some pictures that I found online of people taking pictures despite the signs and guards and respect for the rules…
Here is the Choir podium
And here is the sweet table
**
From the Cathedral we headed to the synagogue. I have a single picture of the main room here:
And the rest was just museum. We then had a break for lunch which was an hour and a half to eat and do some shopping/exploring, but I didn’t want to get too lost so I stayed relatively close to the meeting place and did some shopping (with eyes only) with Nate. After lunch at around 3:15 we went into another church that wouldn’t let us take pictures but was also cool. In this church “hangs” (it is painted on the wall) a paintinig by El Greco, called The Burial of Count Orgaz. As soon as we were done there we headed to the bus and were allowed a few short minutes of picture taking on the way out of the city of the puenta of san martin (the bridge of Saint Martin). We then headed home where I organized some things checked emails, and face book, had dinner and talked with Sarah before going to bed. So ends July 11th.
El Fin De Semana (the weekend)
Day 12
Friday July 10th: I woke up this morning and went to class as usual. They made us fill out a form evaluating the week. Everything went well from my perspective. After class a few of us stayed and went to a lecture over bullfighting. I was pretty excited about the opportunity to learn about this art form. When I got there however, I spent an hour and a half and didn’t learn a single thing that I didn’t already know because the entire thing was in Spanish and she was speaking so fast that I understood one in every 10 words and by the time I had figured out what she had said, she was three or four sentences beyond where I was. I left that and went to lunch at home. I can’t seem to remember what it was but it was tasty and filling as always. Afterwards I took a nap and woke up to Dan and Abigail’s voices coming through the window. The three of us and Reed decided to walk around for a while and so we did. We walked in a big circle beginning heading towards the gym were we dropped Reed off, and ending at Plaza de Toros Las Ventas. This is the main venue to watch bullfighting in Spain in. It is huge and pretty cool. I apologize that I don’t have pictures but I didn’t have my camera with me. After our walk ended at Las Ventas we went our separate ways and I came home. I then just hung out until dinner talking to Sarah. Dinner was good and we managed to communicate that Paul and Reed weren’t going to be there for lunch and Dinner the next day or breakfast nor lunch on Sunday. This is because they went to Pamplona to run with the bulls. I think they are crazy. We also managed to communicate that I was going to Toledo on Saturday. I’ve heard some great things about Toledo, and am excited to go. After dinner, I met Mike and Nate at the park retiro where we walked around for quite a while and then walked past their house and hung out sitting on a street corner drinking sprite and watching cars go by. I found my way home after leaving them after an adventure finding a metro stop that I’ve never used before. I had to stop and look at a map in the middle of the night in a mostly empty street in Madrid. Then the metro stop was under construction. There might have been 10 people in my train car instead of the normal 60 or more. It was creepy.
Friday July 10th: I woke up this morning and went to class as usual. They made us fill out a form evaluating the week. Everything went well from my perspective. After class a few of us stayed and went to a lecture over bullfighting. I was pretty excited about the opportunity to learn about this art form. When I got there however, I spent an hour and a half and didn’t learn a single thing that I didn’t already know because the entire thing was in Spanish and she was speaking so fast that I understood one in every 10 words and by the time I had figured out what she had said, she was three or four sentences beyond where I was. I left that and went to lunch at home. I can’t seem to remember what it was but it was tasty and filling as always. Afterwards I took a nap and woke up to Dan and Abigail’s voices coming through the window. The three of us and Reed decided to walk around for a while and so we did. We walked in a big circle beginning heading towards the gym were we dropped Reed off, and ending at Plaza de Toros Las Ventas. This is the main venue to watch bullfighting in Spain in. It is huge and pretty cool. I apologize that I don’t have pictures but I didn’t have my camera with me. After our walk ended at Las Ventas we went our separate ways and I came home. I then just hung out until dinner talking to Sarah. Dinner was good and we managed to communicate that Paul and Reed weren’t going to be there for lunch and Dinner the next day or breakfast nor lunch on Sunday. This is because they went to Pamplona to run with the bulls. I think they are crazy. We also managed to communicate that I was going to Toledo on Saturday. I’ve heard some great things about Toledo, and am excited to go. After dinner, I met Mike and Nate at the park retiro where we walked around for quite a while and then walked past their house and hung out sitting on a street corner drinking sprite and watching cars go by. I found my way home after leaving them after an adventure finding a metro stop that I’ve never used before. I had to stop and look at a map in the middle of the night in a mostly empty street in Madrid. Then the metro stop was under construction. There might have been 10 people in my train car instead of the normal 60 or more. It was creepy.
09 July 2009
Day 11
Day 11
Thursday July 9th: Today I had a hard time clearing my head of sleep. It took me a very long time before I was alert. It was really annoying. But I got to class were we discussed the homework from yesterday. Then we worked on verb conjugation for a while and learned the difference between este, ese, and aquel. This is essentially this, that, and that which is over there. After school nate and I finished part one of 4 of our homework in Park Retiro. I met up with the group and we talked about why or why not to re-read books. During the discussion I made some comment about it isn’t the destination it is how you get there, and Bundick told me that I spoke like a true runner. I then came home and on my way purchased a 10 trip metro ticket entirely in Spanish and I was quite proud of myself for doing so. We had paella for lunch which was really good along with some chorizo sausage and a cheese that none of us recognized but reminded Paul of mozzarella. This afternoon I took a nap about an hour after lunch. And then worked on my homework for a while in an attempt to finish it before dinner. I almost made it. For dinner we had verduras (vegetables) and fish. After dinner there was supposed to be a get together with the school at a karaoke bar. I decided to tag along with Paul and Reed just to see who was there. Alas, only a drunk Frenchman, and a semi drunk German. The whole drinking scene just doesn’t make any sense at all to me. I don’t understand why one would want to lose all inhibition or act as though one had. It really boggles my mind. I stay just long enough for my eye to start stinging from the cigarette smoke, and my head to hurt from the volume of the music and the terrible singing from the karaoke. I came home by myself and it was nice to be alone for a while. I finished my homework and went to bed.
Thursday July 9th: Today I had a hard time clearing my head of sleep. It took me a very long time before I was alert. It was really annoying. But I got to class were we discussed the homework from yesterday. Then we worked on verb conjugation for a while and learned the difference between este, ese, and aquel. This is essentially this, that, and that which is over there. After school nate and I finished part one of 4 of our homework in Park Retiro. I met up with the group and we talked about why or why not to re-read books. During the discussion I made some comment about it isn’t the destination it is how you get there, and Bundick told me that I spoke like a true runner. I then came home and on my way purchased a 10 trip metro ticket entirely in Spanish and I was quite proud of myself for doing so. We had paella for lunch which was really good along with some chorizo sausage and a cheese that none of us recognized but reminded Paul of mozzarella. This afternoon I took a nap about an hour after lunch. And then worked on my homework for a while in an attempt to finish it before dinner. I almost made it. For dinner we had verduras (vegetables) and fish. After dinner there was supposed to be a get together with the school at a karaoke bar. I decided to tag along with Paul and Reed just to see who was there. Alas, only a drunk Frenchman, and a semi drunk German. The whole drinking scene just doesn’t make any sense at all to me. I don’t understand why one would want to lose all inhibition or act as though one had. It really boggles my mind. I stay just long enough for my eye to start stinging from the cigarette smoke, and my head to hurt from the volume of the music and the terrible singing from the karaoke. I came home by myself and it was nice to be alone for a while. I finished my homework and went to bed.
Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit... or Day 10
Day 10
Wednesday July 8th: Today is great. I spent the morning in classes after eating breakfast at home and trying to communicate with my host mother that we wouldn’t be here for lunch because we went to the Museo del Prado. Class is great. Everyone has loosened up a little and we are starting to joke around a have fun the with activities that we have to do for the class. For instance today we described our dream home in Spanish in front of the class and drew a picture of it as a group. There were some interesting things put into some houses: pools, four car garages with limosines in them, floors of gold, etc… After school though, we had a twenty minute break during which I bought a loaf of bread and had that as a snack knowing that lunch would be later if I got one at all. Then, we went to the Prado. The school was required to show us the Goya and the Velasquez paintings and so they rushed to those which was really frustrating to me. It was similar to reading cliffs notes for the middle of a book and expecting to be caught up. However, I met up with John Bundick and we spent a good 3-4 hours in the museum while most students left after the requisite 40minutes to an hour. I got to see Spain’s most famous canvas in Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. Which while an amazing painting (I think I looked at that alone for about 10-15 minutes) was not my favorite part of the museum. My favorite part of the museum was marveling at the sculptures and how they were made without modern tools and techniques. I have been craving good conversation and today has been abounding in that. I had a great afternoon talking with John about art and faith and just trading stories back and forth as we walked through the museum. I was able to teach him a little about art and he a little bit to me about faith. The afternoon was spent looking at great art and with good conversation. It has been nice not having a huge meal for lunch. I like feeling hungry instead of completely way beyond full. We pretty much kept talking right up until I got off the train at my stop, in fact I almost missed my stop. I then came back and answered and sent some emails before dinner. Dinner was very interesting. It was the first time that something had been put in front of us that none of us liked. I’ve never been fan of beans much less bean soup, but I didn’t really have a choice. Then out came the salad which I have a picture of.
Yes those are anchovies that have been halved. You eat them whole, tail and all. All in all the meal was, as always, filling it was just a struggle to put down at times. Dinner was good though because we were able to have a full conversation with our host father. We spent a good 30-40 minutes talking with him while we ate, which is unusual. After dinner talked to Sarah for a while then I finished my homework which was to come up with 10 differences between the US and Spain. That is a discussion for another time. After I finished my homework I went to bed and slept soundly.
Wednesday July 8th: Today is great. I spent the morning in classes after eating breakfast at home and trying to communicate with my host mother that we wouldn’t be here for lunch because we went to the Museo del Prado. Class is great. Everyone has loosened up a little and we are starting to joke around a have fun the with activities that we have to do for the class. For instance today we described our dream home in Spanish in front of the class and drew a picture of it as a group. There were some interesting things put into some houses: pools, four car garages with limosines in them, floors of gold, etc… After school though, we had a twenty minute break during which I bought a loaf of bread and had that as a snack knowing that lunch would be later if I got one at all. Then, we went to the Prado. The school was required to show us the Goya and the Velasquez paintings and so they rushed to those which was really frustrating to me. It was similar to reading cliffs notes for the middle of a book and expecting to be caught up. However, I met up with John Bundick and we spent a good 3-4 hours in the museum while most students left after the requisite 40minutes to an hour. I got to see Spain’s most famous canvas in Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. Which while an amazing painting (I think I looked at that alone for about 10-15 minutes) was not my favorite part of the museum. My favorite part of the museum was marveling at the sculptures and how they were made without modern tools and techniques. I have been craving good conversation and today has been abounding in that. I had a great afternoon talking with John about art and faith and just trading stories back and forth as we walked through the museum. I was able to teach him a little about art and he a little bit to me about faith. The afternoon was spent looking at great art and with good conversation. It has been nice not having a huge meal for lunch. I like feeling hungry instead of completely way beyond full. We pretty much kept talking right up until I got off the train at my stop, in fact I almost missed my stop. I then came back and answered and sent some emails before dinner. Dinner was very interesting. It was the first time that something had been put in front of us that none of us liked. I’ve never been fan of beans much less bean soup, but I didn’t really have a choice. Then out came the salad which I have a picture of.
Yes those are anchovies that have been halved. You eat them whole, tail and all. All in all the meal was, as always, filling it was just a struggle to put down at times. Dinner was good though because we were able to have a full conversation with our host father. We spent a good 30-40 minutes talking with him while we ate, which is unusual. After dinner talked to Sarah for a while then I finished my homework which was to come up with 10 differences between the US and Spain. That is a discussion for another time. After I finished my homework I went to bed and slept soundly.
08 July 2009
Dia Nueve
Tuesday July 7th: Today was the first full day of class that we had here in Madrd. I feel pretty overwhelmed. Like I said yesterday the class is entirely in Spanish, and I am having trouble understanding much of what is said in class. I guess that I’m getting better at understanding but I don’t see any real progress while I’m in class. I guess it depends on the day. We are still going over ser, hay, and estar. We went to the park after class and hung out with people while they ate their packed lunches. Paul, reed, and I then came home to another feast. We had spaghetti, pan (bread), and breaded chicken, and then to top it off we had some helado (Spanish word for ice cream). After lunch I came home and did my homework and worked out a little bit. I posted yesterday’s blog as well. Today I have really been craving more than just basic communication. I want a real conversation. I was able to have the longest communication yet with my host mother at dinner today. She asked me a question and I was able to answer fully without searching for a word and then she asked a follow-up and I was again able to answer fully. The afternoon was spent online and then napping after that huge meal. I woke up and spent the intervening time talking to people online and looking at the gross number of pictures that John Bundick has posted on face book of me. It is slightly entertaining to know that my picture count has almost doubled because of this trip alone. Dinner was very entertaining. My host father, Valentin (I think this is how to spell it), taught us the word mear. while the word means to pee, the reason it was entertaining was he danced around the room for about five minutes imitating holding it while we tried to figure it out. When we finally did we all had a good laugh. After dinner I walked to the park, which I discovered is probably not the best idea ever. The park around 8 in the evening is packed. The park at 10 is not so much. The park itself is perfectly safe after dark due to the number of lights around but the entrance is through a tunnel under a major road. The tunnel is light but there is an area around it that is not. I walked rather quickly into and out of the park. Also, I would like to watch a sunset in the park sometime. There is a pond in the middle of the park that would be a great place to watch it from. After my walk in the park I took the metro home and went to sleep.
07 July 2009
Day 8 Monday July 8
Monday July 6th: Today was the first of 15 classes in Madrid. We already have homework. We woke up this morning to a car honking. Outside the open window of our apartment. Had a very light breakfast compared to the gigantic meal we had last night and headed off to school with our host mother. She showed us which stops to get on and off at in order to get there on time. We arrived at the school and everyone shuffled into a classroom that was packed with both chairs and eventually people. We had our introductions and orientation and then we took a test. This test was quite hard. The entire thing was in Spanish and I couldn’t finish most of it because I hadn’t learned it yet at Taylor. I guess it was semi-impressive that I knew the imperfect tense so I was placed in a little higher than about half the group. There are three other taylor students in my class along with two people from France, two from England, and one from Germany. Most of them speak both their native language and one other and all of them seem to be picking up on Spanish faster than all of us. Then entire class was conducted in Spanish and we were given a short homework assignment filling in blanks with the three forms of “to be,” hay, ser, and estar. I had a question on one of them and so I asked my host mother who proceeded to correct my homework. After class we took the metro back to our apartment and waited around until 2 when we at lunch (we got out of class at 12:30). I thought dinner last night was a large meal. I was wrong. Lunch today was one of the largest meals I have ever eaten. We started with a pasta dish that was penne with a red sauce that was mostly olive oil and spices with a few tomatoes in it. Then she brought out the sliced tomatoes and hamburger meat. Everything was really good and when I thought I was done she took the dish of pasta and divided it onto our plates giving us just as much as we got the first time. I won’t starve that is for sure. After lunch I couldn’t help but take a nap because of all the food in my stomach. Fortunately for me most things all but shut down in the afternoon. Around 4 or 5 they start back up again and don’t seem to stop until around 10:30. After my nap I finished my homework and walked to Park Retiro hung around there for a while and then walked back. I wrote a few emails and talked to some people online. Nothing of great consequence happened between my walk and dinner. We then ate dinner, which like the night before was a large meal, but it paled in comparison with today’s lunch. After dinner, I essentially went straight to sleep.
sorry for the lack of pictures but I don't carry my camera around with me at school.
enjoy
-Scott
sorry for the lack of pictures but I don't carry my camera around with me at school.
enjoy
-Scott
06 July 2009
Bye Billy
found this recently. Billy Mays the Oxy-Clean guy is dead.
you will have to click on it to view the whole thing since it won't fit.
you will have to click on it to view the whole thing since it won't fit.
Day 7 Sunday July 5th
We spent today on a bus. And by today I mean, We left IBSTE at 10am after breakfast of toast and cereal (normal breakfast), got into Barcelona around 11:00 waited until the bus left at 12 and then we were on a bus until this evening when we arrived in Madrid. When we arrived we met the owner ( think he was the owner) of Estudio Sampere. This is where we are going to be studying for the next three weeks. As soon as we met up with him we hopped on a series of trains and met our host mothers. Almost immediately we were swept away in a flurry of Spanish and headed off to see where we are staying for the next three weeks. My host mother seems to be the owner of an apartment complex of which we are staying in one. We (Paul, Reed, and I) have two bedrooms with another empty one with two beds in it, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom, to ourselves. We think she told us that there would be two more people staying in the other room for 4 days sometime soon. Then we were rushed off to eat dinner at 9:00, which I’ve come to find is normal timing for eating dinner and my stomach has become accustomed to this. Dinner happened so fast I barely knew what hit me. We sat down at the kitchen table and immediately there appeared coke and gazpacho(of which I’m not a huge fan, but I finished anyway). Next, out came the bread, and my host mother whose name is palmida or palmi for short, started cooking eggs and chicken(in separate pans) in olive oil. Less than twenty minutes after we had sat down a full two courses of food had been served. After the chicken and eggs she brought out a salad, and some melon (we aren’t sure what kind). All this time we are struggling to converse in Spanish and succeeding through what seems sheer dumb luck. One of us would be able to hear what was said and between all three of us we would come up with the semi-correct response. Nearing the end of the meal we figured out how to ask for internet and figure out the word for password. Discovering that we had to pay and figuring out how much took us about 30 minutes to sort out. We finally did and I was able to get online and talk to sarah for a few minutes before I got to sleep. For some reason being on a bus all day wears one out. I suppose on top of that constantly trying to figure out what people around you are saying is a struggle. I fell asleep with the light on before the other two guys were even done getting ready.
Here I would like to insert a little anecdote about the bus. On the bus the movie Transformers was playing. I figured I would watch it for a while, and so searched the bus audio channels for English and when it wasn’t found I found it in Spanish thinking I would at least try to keep up. The subtitles helped me immensely. But, I found myself watching and waiting for the time when they were going to start speaking English with familiar voices instead of Spanish with voices that almost match. The only voice that came close was Optimus Prime because they had to edit it and deepen it. It never happened, at least not before I fell asleep for about twenty minutes.
Also, we took our culture quiz, which consisted of 150 questions straight out of Fodor’s guide to Spain, word for word. I had spent some time studying unlike most of the group that didn’t care because Spanish is all that they needed to graduate, and one credit hour isn’t going to lower their GPA, and because I had studied, I finished in less than 5 minutes, and as far as I know only missed one. The only reason I relay this is because I was excited to take the test and actually asked him to take it early (which he wouldn’t let me do), and it felt really good to know that I knew for sure that I have an A for the cultural part, or at least that portion of the culture class.
-Scott
Here I would like to insert a little anecdote about the bus. On the bus the movie Transformers was playing. I figured I would watch it for a while, and so searched the bus audio channels for English and when it wasn’t found I found it in Spanish thinking I would at least try to keep up. The subtitles helped me immensely. But, I found myself watching and waiting for the time when they were going to start speaking English with familiar voices instead of Spanish with voices that almost match. The only voice that came close was Optimus Prime because they had to edit it and deepen it. It never happened, at least not before I fell asleep for about twenty minutes.
Also, we took our culture quiz, which consisted of 150 questions straight out of Fodor’s guide to Spain, word for word. I had spent some time studying unlike most of the group that didn’t care because Spanish is all that they needed to graduate, and one credit hour isn’t going to lower their GPA, and because I had studied, I finished in less than 5 minutes, and as far as I know only missed one. The only reason I relay this is because I was excited to take the test and actually asked him to take it early (which he wouldn’t let me do), and it felt really good to know that I knew for sure that I have an A for the cultural part, or at least that portion of the culture class.
-Scott
04 July 2009
Mes Que Un Club (more than a club)
Day 5
Friday July 3rd: I awoke this morning around 8:00am I’m noticing that as the week goes on fewer and fewer people are coming to breakfast on time, or some not at all. The morning was spent in class from about 9:30 until 1:30. I felt like I was drowning in Spanish. He covered everything from pronunciation to verb conjugation in the present and preterite tenses along with accent marks in words and even a little bit of direct and indirect object pronouns. We then had lunch which consisted of something that isn’t coming to mind right now. I think it might have been another form of Paella that we had earlier. After lunch, Nate, Paul and I headed into Barcelona for the afternoon. Paul found a record shop in the gothic quarter that caught his attention and he wanted to go back, while Nate and I headed toward the Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona stadium. We got off the train at a station called Barcelona Sants(pictured in last post). This is Barcelona’s main train hub for the city. Every train in the city goes through this station. Needless to say it was more than a little crazy. We found our way out and headed in the general direction that we thought the stadium was in. With a little help from our map we found the stadium. It was huge. We made our way inside the complex and got our tickets for the tour.
We were able to walk through all three tiers of the stadium, see the press room, even the small church for the teams before they come onto the field pictured here:
The whole experience was really cool. At the end of the tour there was a museum with old soccer jerseys and biographies of the current players and most of the history of the team. this is an old Jersey:
this is the Current Jersey (apology for them being sideways)
Lionel Messi is only 2 months older than I am and the best player in the world right now. As I walked out into the stadium in the middle tier I looked down and noticed that the floor wasn’t made of concrete anymore. The floor that I was standing on was marble. Also, upon closer inspection of the seats in that section I noticed that the chairs were covered in leather. Futbol is a big deal. The only disappointment on the day was the fact that the field wasn’t there. Instead there was a gigantic stage from the U2 concert yesterday and the day before. I was hoping to be able to see the field but I guess no such luck. Also, as we were walking out of the stadium we passed a section where I suppose that they were collecting the kegs from the night before because there was an organized pile of 3x20 stack of kegs that was taller than me. After the stadium we made our way back to the train station using our map, wits, and eagle scout training (Nate is one as well). We made it safely back to the train station and figured out the chaos including our train coming on a different platform than was scheduled. We made it back to IBSTE just in time for a meal of spinach casserole that seemed more like soup and some kind of white fish. I spent the evening studying and uploading pictures. I ended the night with a headache and an early bedtime.
-Scott
More Pictures
so I'm just going to upload more pictures and hopefully get the labels right. We'll see. If you want to see a bigger version of any picture just click on the picture and it will open in a new tab or window.
this is the Barcelona Sants Train Station
This is a sideways picture of a Gaudi Building right outside the train station at which we normally get off when we go to the city.
this is Back of La Sagrada Familia. My camera died so I this is best I have
this is the front of La Sagrada Familia
This is the front of the top of La Sagrada Familia.
more later.
-Scott
this is the Barcelona Sants Train Station
This is a sideways picture of a Gaudi Building right outside the train station at which we normally get off when we go to the city.
this is Back of La Sagrada Familia. My camera died so I this is best I have
this is the front of La Sagrada Familia
This is the front of the top of La Sagrada Familia.
more later.
-Scott
03 July 2009
first,
yesterday the picture labels are wrong. They should be switched.
next the purpose of this is to give you the pictures from the past few days that I didn't put up yesterday.
Here is the view from my balcony. The Mediterranean is about 10 minutes that way.
This is my professor next to a pan of paella.
This is a random Castle. I'm not entirely sure what it was because I didn't write it down right away. I saw this before being really tired.
This is a tour bus similar to what we were riding in.
That is all for now.
-Scott
yesterday the picture labels are wrong. They should be switched.
next the purpose of this is to give you the pictures from the past few days that I didn't put up yesterday.
Here is the view from my balcony. The Mediterranean is about 10 minutes that way.
This is my professor next to a pan of paella.
This is a random Castle. I'm not entirely sure what it was because I didn't write it down right away. I saw this before being really tired.
This is a tour bus similar to what we were riding in.
That is all for now.
-Scott
02 July 2009
okay here is a long one. I have been keeping up to date on posts despite not having internet so here is what I have been up to the past four days:
Spain Journal
Day 0
Sunday June 28th: I left Indianapolis at Noon on Sunday and took plane to Atlanta. I was expecting some sort of customs transition when I got there because I was flying out of Atlanta straight to Barcelona. I walked right from one gate to the next and grabbed some Arby’s for lunch around 4pm. I then sat in the airport watching the departure time for my plane get pushed back a half hour then an hour and then an hour and a half. I ended leaving Atlanta at 6:45 when originally I was supposed to depart around 5:15. My time in Atlanta was interesting. I also ran into another student from the trip. He and I passed the time as best we could charging our computers. When I finally was able to get on the plane I found myself next to a girl from Taylor headed to Barcelona to study with Dr. Treber as well. The flight was fine. No major turbulence issues to speak of. I found myself unable to sleep for most of the flight though I did manage a couple hours of solid rest. The two meals that were served on the plane were much better than I ever remember airplane food being. The teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner was great, and for being packaged, the brownie was sill somewhat moist and rather tasty. I did forget to take a picture which is unfortunate but it was pretty standard fair at most high schools. Breakfast consisted of an egg sandwich with orange juice.
Day 1
Monday June 29th: We arrived in Barcelona and the customs agent was completely lacking interest. They made us fill out a form on the plane and the customs agent didn’t even look at it much less collect it. The three of us then found a taxi and after a minute while the cab driver put in the address into his GPS we were off. The most striking thing that I noticed was the landscape. The beach was right off the freeway and the hills that would be called mountains in Indiana were beautiful. We found were we were staying and paid the taxi. We had just about enough time to put our bags down in our rooms before we were off to the beach with the group trying to find lunch, which at noon in Spain is impossible. Most restaurants don’t serve food until 1 or 2 at least so we ended up finding a small grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly. About the least adventurous meal I’ve had since I was a kid. We then came back to IBSTE which is a seminary during the year, where we are staying and took a siesta. Everything in the city essentially closes from 3-5 every afternoon. We had a little bit of time before we headed into the city of Barcelona for dinner. We took a train in and found a charming Thai place that provided an absolutely wonderful meal. this was one of the few places open because once again our American stomachs were a couple of hours early. About the time we finished dinner was the time that business was picking up for them. We walked the streets of Barcelona for a while until it was obvious that at 10pm we were too early for the nightlife and too late for the shops to still be open. We found a train that should have brought us back to the station right near where we are staying but we read something wrong and it didn’t stop here and took us another twenty minutes beyond into the next little town. The only problem was we had found the last train out of Barcelona and there weren’t any more running the other direction. So we found a taxi back to the school and went to sleep.
Day 2
Tuesday June 30th: Today started around 6:00 for one, 8:30 for us that are sane and 9:20 (breakfast ends at 9:30) for the rest of the group. After breakfast the morning was spent in the classroom (I’m calling anything before lunch, at 2pm, morning). We filled out a few forms for taylor and took a test to figure out what we know. I know very little I found out. I’m going to have to study a lot if I’m going to do well here. The afternoon we had free. I tried to get my computer working and failed after which I took a siesta. We just hung out here resting and then had dinner where I found out that my professor participated in the running of the bulls twice as a student here. It sounds tempting, but I also know that it is dangerous. I know that most of the group has the intentions of going at least to watch while some want to participate. After dinner we took a short (10minute) walk to the beach where we just walked up and back for about an hour and a half to two hours. Walking along the beach with the waves gently lapping at your feet (or shooting up your leg) slows your down. I found myself several times just standing in the Mediterranean watching the waves come and go as the sun set. When we came back I read for a while and then hung out with people. I also talked to Brent and tried to figure out what is wrong with my internet. He is stumped. Hopefully this gets sorted before I get back to the states. I talked to Sarah on a borrowed computer and then went to bed.
Day 3
Wednesday July 1st: This morning I woke up around 5am. I’m not sure why this happened but I was awake. It is a little difficult to blame it on jetlag because it would have been about 11pm back home. Anyway I thought I would try and get some more sleep until it was 6am and I still was not back to sleep. I decided to get up and take a walk to the beach to see the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful. I am one of those people who thinks that sunrises are more beautiful than sunsets. There is something a bit more pure about a sunrise. It is fresher and newer and cleaner somehow. However, I don’t get to see them very often because I don’t generally wake up in time to see them. I guess it helps here that there a beach to view them from instead of cornfields. I took nearly 200 pictures this morning trying to capture the beauty of the moment and I’m not sure than any of them did. I’m not sure what it is about early mornings when no one is up and moving yet but I love it.
this is the sun at 6:00AM
this is the sun at about 7:00AM
After breakfast, we took a trip into the city instead of having class. Dr. Treber arranged for us to have a bus tour (double decker bus with headphone jacks explaining what you are driving past) with this particular one we had the ability to get on and off at will throughout the day (and the next if we wanted). This was a great way to see part of the city as it gave us some flexibility with what we wanted more information on or a closer look. So we took the bus around the city and then found one of two local mercados (or markets) and bought some meat, cheese, bread, and some fruit for lunch. Some found the cheese too dry, but I rather enjoyed the flavor of it. It is monchego cheese from the La Mancha region of spain and is made from sheep’s milk. After lunch sitting on a bench kicking at pigeons to keep them off the food we made our way through what seemed to be narrow alleyways but were in fact the streets of the gothic quarter to the Museo de Picasso. The museum gave an interesting view of Picasso as most of the works were from before he started using cubism. My legs were quite tired so, knowing that I was coming back with my parents I spent 1 of the two hours sitting on a bench resting with some of the other group members, in the room with Picasso’s study of Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. After seeing Picasso’s take I’m interested to see the real thing when we travel to Madrid. After the museum we found our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. After resting our feet for a few minutes to take pictures outside the church we made our way inside. As we entered the church there was a boy’s choir from Britain singing and it filled the entire space with the sound of their voices. I had seen pictures of cathedrals before this time, but absolutely nothing compares to walking inside of one yourself. Nothing that I can say will do justice to what I experience as I walked inside. I took a seat and just sat and listened to the music for a while before I even thought about taking pictures. I’ll put some up so you know what it looked like but looking at a picture on a computer screen you don’t feel small. I felt small as I walked into that church. When we got back I had some dinner that consisted of Paella (pi-ay-a). Really the only way to describe it is rice cooked with seafood and vegetables cooked in with saffron. After dinner I took a short swim with Nate Ringenburg and then studied for a test that is coming on Saturday or Sunday(it isn’t that I don’t know, well I don’t, but it is that communication between Dr. Treber and us, the students, is not the best.) I then went to bed early due to my early wake up and three hours of sleep and walking all day long.
Day 4
Thursday July 2nd: Today was spent much the same yesterday was, except that I slept beautifully. I awoke around 8am and grabbed some breakfast. After which, we took a train into the city. Upon arrival we began to walk toward the Plaza de Catalunya (I’m pretty sure this is the Catalonian spelling). We were almost immediately sidetracked by Zara. Zara is essentially Spain’s Macy’s. three of us stood outside and people watched, all the while commenting upon different things we saw while we waited for those in our group without a Y chromosome to finish up. Eventually we gave up and moved on telling them to meet up with us later. Those that didn’t want to shop found our way to the plaza and found the FC Barcelona store. I purchased a scarf while others purchased official jerseys. I considered it and then decided that I would much rather save my almost 90 euros that it would cost me to get a jersey with a name on the back. Now I just have to make sure that it doesn’t fall out of my luggage while in Madrid (Barca‘s rival). By this point the girls had caught up and we headed toward Las Ramblas, which contains La Boqueria, which is the second of the two markets mentioned yesterday. Las Ramblas is a stretch of road that is entirely aimed at tourists and has anything and everything for sale. It reminded me of the county fair (without the animal smell) or riley days. We made our way through Las Ramblas to La Boqueria and found much the same fare as yesterday for lunch. After lunch the group split into two groups with mine heading back out of La Rambla to the bus. However, on the way we saw a couple of the shell game scams. Everyone in our group thought that it seemed really simple. I thought it did as well until I realized that they were being sloppy on purpose at points. They also had a friend with them, “stocking the pond” might be the best way to put it. The mixer would mix and then the friend would guess incorrectly. The mixer mixes again and then people walking by guess at which shell the bead is under. Every guess costs money and if you guess wrong well they keep it. After wondering why people even would guess we got on the bus and headed to the second loop of the bus tour (today was focused on Gaudi architecture. One of the first stops was next to La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi spent 40 years of his life designing the church and it wasn’t finished before he died in 1926. It is still being finished on pace with entrance fees as people come pay to go inside. The church is massive as it stands and I took as many pictures as I possibly could before my camera died (I hadn’t noticed it needing to be charged) So I only got the front and side of the church before it died. But I’ll post pictures of the church that once again made me feel tiny. We got back on the bus and headed to park Guell where the longest park bench in the world is located. The entire park was designed by Gaudi and the architecture that seems out of place in the middle of the city with its wavy lines and curving structures fits right in, in a park setting. I was a little disappointed that a place so obviously designed to be a quiet and peaceful place has turned into a tourist trap with street vendors (who are there illegally) all over the place. It was still cool to see how seamlessly the buildings were integrated into path ways and the plants around. After meeting up the Treber family we got back on the bus and finished the tour. For some reason the route changed and we couldn’t go see the barca soccer stadium which was sad but I might go back later to see it. We finished the tour and headed back to Ibste where we had another Spanish dish of something that I think is called tortilla de potato. Essentially potato and egg casserole. Luckily for me there was ketchup. It was actually pretty good without, but better with. After dinner I talked to the amazing Brent Gerig, without whom I would not be posting this right now. He helped me find my missing network connections and I was able to speak with the wonderful girl back in Kentucky. I’ve pretty much just fiddled online and written this this evening. I get to look forward to an actual day of class tomorrow morning and a free afternoon. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
I've run out of time and will post the pictures later. Enjoy the sunrise
Spain Journal
Day 0
Sunday June 28th: I left Indianapolis at Noon on Sunday and took plane to Atlanta. I was expecting some sort of customs transition when I got there because I was flying out of Atlanta straight to Barcelona. I walked right from one gate to the next and grabbed some Arby’s for lunch around 4pm. I then sat in the airport watching the departure time for my plane get pushed back a half hour then an hour and then an hour and a half. I ended leaving Atlanta at 6:45 when originally I was supposed to depart around 5:15. My time in Atlanta was interesting. I also ran into another student from the trip. He and I passed the time as best we could charging our computers. When I finally was able to get on the plane I found myself next to a girl from Taylor headed to Barcelona to study with Dr. Treber as well. The flight was fine. No major turbulence issues to speak of. I found myself unable to sleep for most of the flight though I did manage a couple hours of solid rest. The two meals that were served on the plane were much better than I ever remember airplane food being. The teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner was great, and for being packaged, the brownie was sill somewhat moist and rather tasty. I did forget to take a picture which is unfortunate but it was pretty standard fair at most high schools. Breakfast consisted of an egg sandwich with orange juice.
Day 1
Monday June 29th: We arrived in Barcelona and the customs agent was completely lacking interest. They made us fill out a form on the plane and the customs agent didn’t even look at it much less collect it. The three of us then found a taxi and after a minute while the cab driver put in the address into his GPS we were off. The most striking thing that I noticed was the landscape. The beach was right off the freeway and the hills that would be called mountains in Indiana were beautiful. We found were we were staying and paid the taxi. We had just about enough time to put our bags down in our rooms before we were off to the beach with the group trying to find lunch, which at noon in Spain is impossible. Most restaurants don’t serve food until 1 or 2 at least so we ended up finding a small grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly. About the least adventurous meal I’ve had since I was a kid. We then came back to IBSTE which is a seminary during the year, where we are staying and took a siesta. Everything in the city essentially closes from 3-5 every afternoon. We had a little bit of time before we headed into the city of Barcelona for dinner. We took a train in and found a charming Thai place that provided an absolutely wonderful meal. this was one of the few places open because once again our American stomachs were a couple of hours early. About the time we finished dinner was the time that business was picking up for them. We walked the streets of Barcelona for a while until it was obvious that at 10pm we were too early for the nightlife and too late for the shops to still be open. We found a train that should have brought us back to the station right near where we are staying but we read something wrong and it didn’t stop here and took us another twenty minutes beyond into the next little town. The only problem was we had found the last train out of Barcelona and there weren’t any more running the other direction. So we found a taxi back to the school and went to sleep.
Day 2
Tuesday June 30th: Today started around 6:00 for one, 8:30 for us that are sane and 9:20 (breakfast ends at 9:30) for the rest of the group. After breakfast the morning was spent in the classroom (I’m calling anything before lunch, at 2pm, morning). We filled out a few forms for taylor and took a test to figure out what we know. I know very little I found out. I’m going to have to study a lot if I’m going to do well here. The afternoon we had free. I tried to get my computer working and failed after which I took a siesta. We just hung out here resting and then had dinner where I found out that my professor participated in the running of the bulls twice as a student here. It sounds tempting, but I also know that it is dangerous. I know that most of the group has the intentions of going at least to watch while some want to participate. After dinner we took a short (10minute) walk to the beach where we just walked up and back for about an hour and a half to two hours. Walking along the beach with the waves gently lapping at your feet (or shooting up your leg) slows your down. I found myself several times just standing in the Mediterranean watching the waves come and go as the sun set. When we came back I read for a while and then hung out with people. I also talked to Brent and tried to figure out what is wrong with my internet. He is stumped. Hopefully this gets sorted before I get back to the states. I talked to Sarah on a borrowed computer and then went to bed.
Day 3
Wednesday July 1st: This morning I woke up around 5am. I’m not sure why this happened but I was awake. It is a little difficult to blame it on jetlag because it would have been about 11pm back home. Anyway I thought I would try and get some more sleep until it was 6am and I still was not back to sleep. I decided to get up and take a walk to the beach to see the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful. I am one of those people who thinks that sunrises are more beautiful than sunsets. There is something a bit more pure about a sunrise. It is fresher and newer and cleaner somehow. However, I don’t get to see them very often because I don’t generally wake up in time to see them. I guess it helps here that there a beach to view them from instead of cornfields. I took nearly 200 pictures this morning trying to capture the beauty of the moment and I’m not sure than any of them did. I’m not sure what it is about early mornings when no one is up and moving yet but I love it.
this is the sun at 6:00AM
this is the sun at about 7:00AM
After breakfast, we took a trip into the city instead of having class. Dr. Treber arranged for us to have a bus tour (double decker bus with headphone jacks explaining what you are driving past) with this particular one we had the ability to get on and off at will throughout the day (and the next if we wanted). This was a great way to see part of the city as it gave us some flexibility with what we wanted more information on or a closer look. So we took the bus around the city and then found one of two local mercados (or markets) and bought some meat, cheese, bread, and some fruit for lunch. Some found the cheese too dry, but I rather enjoyed the flavor of it. It is monchego cheese from the La Mancha region of spain and is made from sheep’s milk. After lunch sitting on a bench kicking at pigeons to keep them off the food we made our way through what seemed to be narrow alleyways but were in fact the streets of the gothic quarter to the Museo de Picasso. The museum gave an interesting view of Picasso as most of the works were from before he started using cubism. My legs were quite tired so, knowing that I was coming back with my parents I spent 1 of the two hours sitting on a bench resting with some of the other group members, in the room with Picasso’s study of Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. After seeing Picasso’s take I’m interested to see the real thing when we travel to Madrid. After the museum we found our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. After resting our feet for a few minutes to take pictures outside the church we made our way inside. As we entered the church there was a boy’s choir from Britain singing and it filled the entire space with the sound of their voices. I had seen pictures of cathedrals before this time, but absolutely nothing compares to walking inside of one yourself. Nothing that I can say will do justice to what I experience as I walked inside. I took a seat and just sat and listened to the music for a while before I even thought about taking pictures. I’ll put some up so you know what it looked like but looking at a picture on a computer screen you don’t feel small. I felt small as I walked into that church. When we got back I had some dinner that consisted of Paella (pi-ay-a). Really the only way to describe it is rice cooked with seafood and vegetables cooked in with saffron. After dinner I took a short swim with Nate Ringenburg and then studied for a test that is coming on Saturday or Sunday(it isn’t that I don’t know, well I don’t, but it is that communication between Dr. Treber and us, the students, is not the best.) I then went to bed early due to my early wake up and three hours of sleep and walking all day long.
Day 4
Thursday July 2nd: Today was spent much the same yesterday was, except that I slept beautifully. I awoke around 8am and grabbed some breakfast. After which, we took a train into the city. Upon arrival we began to walk toward the Plaza de Catalunya (I’m pretty sure this is the Catalonian spelling). We were almost immediately sidetracked by Zara. Zara is essentially Spain’s Macy’s. three of us stood outside and people watched, all the while commenting upon different things we saw while we waited for those in our group without a Y chromosome to finish up. Eventually we gave up and moved on telling them to meet up with us later. Those that didn’t want to shop found our way to the plaza and found the FC Barcelona store. I purchased a scarf while others purchased official jerseys. I considered it and then decided that I would much rather save my almost 90 euros that it would cost me to get a jersey with a name on the back. Now I just have to make sure that it doesn’t fall out of my luggage while in Madrid (Barca‘s rival). By this point the girls had caught up and we headed toward Las Ramblas, which contains La Boqueria, which is the second of the two markets mentioned yesterday. Las Ramblas is a stretch of road that is entirely aimed at tourists and has anything and everything for sale. It reminded me of the county fair (without the animal smell) or riley days. We made our way through Las Ramblas to La Boqueria and found much the same fare as yesterday for lunch. After lunch the group split into two groups with mine heading back out of La Rambla to the bus. However, on the way we saw a couple of the shell game scams. Everyone in our group thought that it seemed really simple. I thought it did as well until I realized that they were being sloppy on purpose at points. They also had a friend with them, “stocking the pond” might be the best way to put it. The mixer would mix and then the friend would guess incorrectly. The mixer mixes again and then people walking by guess at which shell the bead is under. Every guess costs money and if you guess wrong well they keep it. After wondering why people even would guess we got on the bus and headed to the second loop of the bus tour (today was focused on Gaudi architecture. One of the first stops was next to La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi spent 40 years of his life designing the church and it wasn’t finished before he died in 1926. It is still being finished on pace with entrance fees as people come pay to go inside. The church is massive as it stands and I took as many pictures as I possibly could before my camera died (I hadn’t noticed it needing to be charged) So I only got the front and side of the church before it died. But I’ll post pictures of the church that once again made me feel tiny. We got back on the bus and headed to park Guell where the longest park bench in the world is located. The entire park was designed by Gaudi and the architecture that seems out of place in the middle of the city with its wavy lines and curving structures fits right in, in a park setting. I was a little disappointed that a place so obviously designed to be a quiet and peaceful place has turned into a tourist trap with street vendors (who are there illegally) all over the place. It was still cool to see how seamlessly the buildings were integrated into path ways and the plants around. After meeting up the Treber family we got back on the bus and finished the tour. For some reason the route changed and we couldn’t go see the barca soccer stadium which was sad but I might go back later to see it. We finished the tour and headed back to Ibste where we had another Spanish dish of something that I think is called tortilla de potato. Essentially potato and egg casserole. Luckily for me there was ketchup. It was actually pretty good without, but better with. After dinner I talked to the amazing Brent Gerig, without whom I would not be posting this right now. He helped me find my missing network connections and I was able to speak with the wonderful girl back in Kentucky. I’ve pretty much just fiddled online and written this this evening. I get to look forward to an actual day of class tomorrow morning and a free afternoon. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
I've run out of time and will post the pictures later. Enjoy the sunrise
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