Week 24: It's Not Adios, Just Hasta Luego

"Porque Madrid, en realidad, no es nada especial. No tiene un gran río. Ni apenas rascacielos. Ni canales, ni lago. Ni gloriosas ruinas. Ni mar. A Madrid, le falta muchas cosas. Pero tiene la gente por las calles. El rincón inesperado. La variedad. El contraste. La animación constante. Y sus costumbres. Vale la pena levantarse temprano--por una sola vez--para vivir un día la vida de Madrid."

I stumbled across this gem this past week, and it only seemed fitting to include it in my last post. It says: in reality, Madrid isn't anything special. It doesn't have a great river. Or a lot of skyscrapers. It doesn't have canals or a lake. Or glorious ruins. Or the sea. Madrid is missing a lot of things--but the people, the madrileños, make up for it. The unexpected corners and plazas. The variety, the constrast, the constant movement. And the customs and traditiona, it's worth the pain of getting up early--at least once--to live a day in the life of a madrileño.

To me, this captures Madrid perfectly. When you hear people talk about the big European cities, Madrid seems to be overlooked in favor of Barcelona, Rome, Paris, London, etc. Because Madrid lacks a lot of the sights that most people associate with Europe, but Madrid has something better than that--the people and the madrileño lifestyle. I've never met people more friendly and in love with life. Living here for the past six months has taught me a lot, but most importantly its taught me how to be flexible and stop and smell the roses. Why waste the day stressing out over things I have no control over, when I can walk down the street to Parque del Oeste, Templo Dubod, or walk down Princesa and Gran Vía into Sol, or spend the afternoon laying in Retiro?  Madrileños, and Spainards, amaze me, and I'm bringing part of them back with me. 

This past week has been bittersweet because as excited as I am to be going home, seeing my friends and family, celebrating my birthday, and getting ready for my senior year at Purdue; it also means that I have had to say goodbye to all the wonderful people I've met and say goodbye to my favorite places in the city. 

To my parents, thank you for giving me the opportunity to live my dream and see the world. I've dreamt of living in Spain since I was a junior in high school, and now I can happily say I've achieved it. 

To Amy, Mamen, Diana and Ksenja, thank you so much for all the support and encouragement you have given us through the past six months. You encouraged us to completely submerge ourselves in la vida madrileña and gave us the opportunity to be completely independent here.

To Purdue Study Abroad, thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in the WIPT program. I first learned about this program when I was a senior in high school, and it's one of the main reasons I chose to do my undergrad at Purdue. After hearing all about the WIPT program, and now having participated in it myself, I can say that it truly is one of the best study abroad programs in Madrid.

To Madrid, I love everything about this city and I feel as though a piece of me is staying here. But, that's okay, because I'm coming back for it. So, I'll be seeing you real soon :)

Hasta luego y besitos,

Kelsey

Week 23: A Cautionary Tale of Fog, Skinny Jeans, and Goats (Also, Horse Drama)

Welcome back, dear readers!

I learned three very important life lessons this week and I can practically hear you all asking me: Kelsey, what do fog, skinny jeans, and goats have to do with any of that? My answer to that is all in good time, my dears, all in good time. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

This all started a few months ago, when my friend Amber told me about a national park, called Picos de Europa, up in Northern Spain. She really wanted to go and spend a few days hiking after finals, and I figured #YOLO (you only live once--espesh in Spain) so I got on board and we made all of the necessary arrangements and boom, here we are.

Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) is located between three different regions of Spain: Asturias, Cantabria, and Castilla y Leon. The name stems from way back when sailors would sail to Europe from the Americas, the Picos were the first glimpse of Europe they would see. The Picos is a massive park, we opted to stay as far into the park as we could, in Fuente Dé. We stayed at the Parador de Fuente Dé, which is literally the last bit of civilization before the mountains and the swankiest place I've stayed while in Europe. Our view was gorgeous, and it faced the mountains (which were huge--obvi).

Getting to Fuente Dé is a little hairy this time of year. We took a bus from Madrid to Santander (which I almost missed, thank you alarm clock), had a lovely little layover in Santander (in which I nursed a nasty migraine), took a bus from Santander to Potes, and finally a cab from Potes to Fuente Dé. It was quite the long day of traveling (12 hours of buses and cars), but so worth it!

Now, onto the life lessons. Life lesson number one: fog (and clouds) are cold. We learned this the hard way by taking the teleferico (the gondola-tram thingy) up to the top of one of the Picos, which had an altitude of 1,048 meters. It was foggy/cloudy and rainy all day, but that didn't stop us! When we reached the top, after going through the mist, we embarked on our planned 7-hour hike. Needless to say, the rain, fog-cloud, and wind prevented that. It was freezing. We played in the snow, got soaking wet, and then promptly decided we would be better of hiking at a lower altitude for the rest of the day. So, future hikers note this: even if you're wearing jeans, tennis shoes, a tshirt, a sweatshirt, and a jacket in the middle of June, fog is still cold. 

Life lesson number two: skinny jeans absorb water. Especially ones that have a heck of a lot more cotton than denim in them. How did I learn this lesson? The hard way, naturally. After coming back down the mountain, we had a lovely little break and ate some lunch and warmed ourselves up. We decided that, even though it was raining, we wanted to get out and wander around a bit. So we decided to go to Espinama, which is the next closest town to us and only 3.5 km away! So we bundled back up, and set off on our merry way. Even though we were freezing, and the rain just kept coming, the 7 km (roundtrip) walk was worth it. Picos is gorgeous and we found some pretty awesome views and an amazing river, as well as a trailhead for a new hike. However, by the time we got to Espinama my jeans were thouroughly soaked, as was Amber's jacket. So we decided to leave that trail for another day and headed back to the hostel. While we walked back, we regaled the Spainish mountainside with some good, old-fashioned American camp songs. Even though both Amber and I were completely drenched, it was still a ton of fun. Moral of the story: wear thick denim, and have a waterproof jacket--better yet, bring an umbrella!

Life lesson number three: when hiking, if you have a choice between the harder half of the trail and the easier, pick the easier one. As I learned, the harder half of the trail doesn't necessarily mean it has more rocks to climb over, it means that it is ridiculously steep and there are goats on the trail. Yes, goats. That probably sounds a little cray, but it happened. 

Amber and I got up and took the teleferico back up to the top and hiked down through the Picos. It was absolutely gorgeous--the views were amazing and it felt like we were in a movie (Think Lord of the Rings, or the end of The Sound of Music). We hiked about 10.5 km which took about 4 hours. After a quick lunch break, we headed onto our next hike, which was supposed to be a circle from Espinama through some other towns before ending back in Espinama. The hike was quite rigourous, we hiked some insanely steep hills, hopped over some really big puddles, saw some amazing waterfalls, and almost got stampeded by goats. Now, for those of you who don't know this about me, I'm not a big animal person--I'm terrified of birds (no, I haven't seen the movie the Birds, nor do I plan on it), and big, barking dogs kind of scare me. So, imagine my surprise when we're merrily hiking along, and what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a herd of goats being shepareded by three quite large dogs. Luckily, Amber was there and she appeased the dogs (who, were really quite friendly), and led me through the herd of goats while I hid behind her. It was quite terrifying. 

We proceded to hike along until we got to the halfway point and realized the trail for the other half of the hike wasn't very well marked and not very clear, so we hiked back along the carretera (freeway) to Fuente De. So, kids, what have we learned from this story? Pick the easier path. You probs will not have to climb super steep hills and you won't have to navegate through a sea of goats.

Now, where does the horse drama play into this, you ask. Welp, outside of our hotel room was a gorgeous view of the mountains, complete with horses and cows. Every day, Amber and I ate breakfast and dinner in our little sun room and watched the animals, that had some silly antics. Basically, a mini-Trojan war (complete with Hector, Paris, Helen, and Ulyses) was happening with the horses that lived in our field. It was quite entertaining to watch them chase each other around and fight over Helen (Amber and I took mythology together this semester and, as you can see, we've found ways to relate it to the real world). We also met Moo-Moo and Moo-Boo, who were the cutest little cow calfs I've ever seen.

All in all, Picos has been amazing. It was such a great way to relax after a stressful semester, seriously nothing is more relaxing than hiking through the mountains. 

Besitos,

Kelsey

Week 22: Madrileña Traditions

This week, dear readers, I spent some quality time in the city and I was able to experience two Madrid traditions. The first is la Feria de los Libros in Retiro. The Feria is pretty much a giant book market. Seriously, all of y'all who have been to the Taste of Chicago imagine that, but instead of selling food the vendors are selling books. It was pretty incredible to see so many people flock to Retiro and the different booths (each one was for a different bookstore/library). 

A few of my friends and I wandered aroud Retiro for a bit and we attempted to hide out in the shade of the park. Summertime has hit Madrid, this past week it was 95 and up. My piso has been pretty unbearable because of the heat and lack of A/C, fortunately for us the temperature has dropped about 20 degrees so we were able to enjoy being outside without absolutely melting.

The second tradition I saw was a bull fight; I'm not gonna lie, but it was definitely not something I would do again. The stadium was really pretty, and I liked all the matador costumes, and I didn't mind the first part of the fight where they tease the bull a bit, but the minute they started to hurt it, I was done. My friends and I only stayed for about half of it because we were starting to not feel so great while watching it. Though, I have to say, I'm glad I went because I have a feeling its going to die out pretty soon. Its a slightly controversial problem in Spain  because a lot of animal rights groups are very against it because its pretty much torturing the bull.

Anyways, I've only got fourteen days left in Madrid (Seriously, where did the past 6 months go?!?!), and the rest of this week I will be in the Picos de Europa hiking with one of my friends. Until next time!

Besitos,

Kelsey

Week 21: Summer!

Hello, everyone!

I'm in an extremely cheerful mood and I'm sure y'all are just dying to find out why. I have just completed my Complutense exam, which I think I rocked, which means I am officially on SUMMER now! I'm feeling really accomplished, I've taken two courses at one of the best universities in Spain and I managed to do fairly well! Now, we just have to play the waiting game until I get my grades back!

As for what I'm going to do for the rest of my summer in Spain, who knows? Explore my city, go the El Escorial, hit up the mountains for some hiking, go to the amusement park? No matter what I end up doing, I hope these next three weeks absolutely drag on because no matter how excited I am for all the shenanigans I have planned, its going to be impossible to say goodbye to Madrid. But, that's a problem for another day!

Besitos,
Kelsey

Week 20: Light at the End

Welp, folks, the title says it all. My first three finals are done and I don't have to start thinking about my last one for the next few days.

This week was rather bittersweet for many reasons. First, the family has left me to go home for the summer. Its quite sad because I've gotten used to having them on the same time zone as me and I really enjoyed being able to show them around my city :) Second, the end of Reunidas. While I'm really quite happy that my exams are over and I no longer have any more class, that also means that I only have ONE MONTH left in Madrid, which is a very sad and depressing thought--so I'm studiously ignoring that fact.

To celebrate being done with (most) of our classes, my friends and I decided to go to San Sebastian, which is up in Basque country. I think this is one of the trips that I was most excited about. One of my Spanish profs was from Basque country [oh, Ager...], and ever since I took his class, I've wanted to go!

Speaking of Basque country, they speak Euskara there. Its kind of fascinating because Euskara is, like, a phantom language--meaning no one knows where it comes from because it is not latin or germanic based. Its an odd looking language, but most everyone spoke Spanish, so we were fine.

The food was delish! They do pintxos (tapas) there, and when you go into a bar its just covered in different plates with different pintxos on them. Most of them were bacalao (cod) based because San Seabass is right on the ocean. They were really yummy!

San Sebastian is pretty much a cove--it has a huge beach (which is in the top 3 best beaches of Europe). Unfortunately it has been freezing here in Spain (seriously, Wheaton and West Lala have been at least 10 degrees warmer than Madrid/Spain has been for the past few weeks), so we didn't get to lay on the beach and swim. But we walked in the sand a lot.

We went to the aquarium while we were there. It was kind of awesome--they had a huge underwater tunnel with sharks and stingrays and green turtles swimming around. We saw some jellies, starfish, and these really awesome cuttlefish that we had an epic staring contest with. We also may or may not have sat in front of one of the giant tanks staring at the fish for 40 minutes.

We also went to the top of one of the mountains via the funicular (tramway). It was really fun. At the top there was a little amusement park, but a lot of the stuff was closed because it was empty.

All in all, I really liked San Sebastian and I would love to go back when its a bit warmer out!

XOXO,
Kelsey

Week 19: Catenas Take Spain (Round Two)

¡Hola a mis queridos lectores!

So, final exams are officially underway which means I'm a wee bit stressed out right now. For some reason, these exams have me way for stressed than normal--probably becuase they are 70% of my grade!

Anyways, while the fam was in Barça this week I was studying for finals. They got back to Madrid on Friday afternoon and we did some exploring around my neighborhood and got some dinner near Palacio Real.

We went to Segovia on Saturday. It was awesome, we got to see the Roman aquecduct, which was 9 miles long and carried water from the river and mountains by Segovia to the city. It's held together without any mortar, just these giant rocks! It was really incredible to see! We also went to the Catedral, which looked very similar to the Catedral in Salamanca. We went to the Alcazar as well. Unfortunately it isn't the original, but it was still cool to see. It's Mudéjar style, which means its a combination of Moorish and Christian architecture. Ross and I climbed 152 to the top of the tower and got to see and awesome view of the city.

Today, Mom, Dad, and Ross are headed to Granada and Sevilla before coming back to Madrid one last time before heading home. I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I'm having some technical problems so I'll just have to show y'all when I get home!

As for me, I'm going to San Sebastian in Basque Country next weekend! I'm really excited, I've always wanted to go there!

Its back to the books for me, wish me luck!

Besitos,
Kelsey

Week 18: Catenas Take Spain (Round One)

Hola!

So this week was pretty boring, just the average week: class, studied, saw some fireworks in Retiro. Oh, right, and MOM, DAD, AND ROSS ARE HERE!

Classes are winding down, I have to turn in my two term papers this week and I have 3 finals next week. I'm not really ready for them, and I have a crazy hectic schedule for group study seshs this week. But I just have to get through the next two weeks and then I have pretty much a solid month of pure Madrid and travel before coming home [with a Complu exam thrown in the middle]. It's so crazy to think that my semester is wrapping up. I'm part glad because I'm almost done with classes, but I'm also really sad because its getting closer and closer to July 1st [aka back to the States].

Anywhos, this week was the San Isidro festival in Madrid. San Isidro is the patron saint of Madrid, so there were tons of street fairs and cultural stuff going on. Unfortunately, I was bogged down with a ridiculous amount of studying in preperation for finals so I didn't get to participate in a lot of the things. But, my friends and I took a nice little study break to go to the fireworks in Retiro. They were some of the best fireworks I've ever seen--they were coordinated along to classical music. Seriously, the 4th of July fireworks had nothing on these!

On Saturday, I got up bright and early to pick up Mom, Dad, and Ross from the airport. I taught them how to navigate the metro and we did a lot of walking on the first day. We walked around through Sol, Plaza Mayor, and Old Madrid. We also went into Palacio Real--which was amazing. The rooms were so ornate and ridiculous! I couldn't imagine anyone actually living there. After that, we went to lunch at a cafe near my piso and I showed them my piso. We got dinner along Calle Fuencarral at this place called Lateral, which was really good, it was kind of interesting, but it was nommy!

On Sunday, we met up and went to the Prado. I swear, no matter how many times I go [I've been at least 10-12 times this semester] I see something new. The art was amazing as always, and I realized that I really like Francisco de Goya's Pinturas Negras [Black Paintings]. They're all really dark and kind of creepy/morbid, but I really like them. They were painted right before he died while he was going kind of crazy. He literally painted his nightmares onto the walls of his house. After the Prado, I introduced my parents to my Sunday tradition--100 Montaditos. While they went and explored Retiro and Sol, I had to take care of studying. We met up again for dinner in my neighborhood, we went to my favorite Mex-Mex restaurant, La Panza Es Primero. It was delicious, as usual. They serve these little centritos, which are basically fajitas. We also went to San Gines to get some churros y chocolate.

Today, they met me at Ciudad Universitaria and I showed them around my campus. They did a tour bus around Madrid while I was in class. We met up again for a traditional Spanish lunch--menu del dia in Plaza Mayor. After lunch, we went to Santiago Bernabeu [Real Madrid's Stadium], it was really awesome. Its absolutely massive! And they have a ridiculous amount of trophies [fun fact: Real Madrid was awarded best team of the 20th century by Fifa]. We got to see the locker rooms, press room, walk on the pitch, sit on their benches on the sidelines, and see the presidents booth. It was really awesome! We wandered through Sol before finally settling on a yummy tapas place for dinner. Tomorrow, they head to Barcelona until Friday.

Ross on the pitch

Ross and I overlooking the pitch

See ya next week!

Besitos,
Kelsey

P.S. I'm still having trouble posting pictures on here so I'll just have to wait to show you all in person!

Week 17: Adventures in Museo-land

 Happy Mothers Day!

This week I went to two museos [museums]: Museo Sorolla and La Reina Sofia. I absolutely loved the Sorolla because I love Sorolla. Joaquin Sorolla is a Spanish impressionist [like Monet and Van Gough], his museum here in Madrid is actually his house. It has a really adorable garden in front of it and its filled with his furniture and his paintings. If you like impressionists, I highly recommend going!

I also went back to my favorite [note the sarcasm] museum, the Reina Sofia, because they just got a Salvador Dali exhibit. The only word I can think of to describe it is weird. Seriously, I thought that his whole melting clocks and his obsession with ants was weird, but it got weirder [If you don't know what I'm talking about, google "La persistencia de la memoria" or just google Dali]. I really don't understand surrealism or cubism, which explains why I don't really care for Dali or Picasso. But, I'm glad I went, it was definitely a learning experience.

If I had to pick any Madrid museums for anyone to go to, I would say go to the Prado and the Thyssen. They  are my favorite museums here and they both have huge collections. Since coming to Spain, I've really had the opportunity to appreciate art. Maybe its because I'm lucky to live in a city that has, like, a bajillion art museums, but I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to actually learn about art.

Anyways, I'm in intense finals mode. I have two term papers due next week. I'm writing one about the painting "Saturno devorando su hijo" by flemish painter Rubens and the Spanish painter, Goya, and comparing their tecniques and how they use classic mythology as a theme in their work. The other is about a text by Maria de Zayas and comparing it to some themes from my La Mujer [Women in Lit] class.

Its crazy to believe that its already finals time. My parents and Ross get here in 5 days, I finish with classes in a little less than a month, and exactly 7 weeks from today, I will be on a flight back to Chicago. Where has the time gone?!?! I've got so much to do in the next 7 weeks and so little time!

What's coming up for me? Well, the San Isidro festival in Madrid, tackling northern Spain, possibly going to France or Italy and 4 final exams--wish me luck!

Besitos,
Kelsey

Week 16: Lovely Lisboa

Hello everyone!

Sorry this is so late--I've been having wifi problems!

So two weekends ago, we had a nice little 5-day break from classes [the puente de Mayo] and my friends Amber and Ray, and I decided to go to Lisboa, Portugal. Lisboa is absolutely amazing. It looks like its straight out of the 1800s with cute little tram cars, cobble stone streets, windy and narrow roads. It actually reminded us a lot of San Francisco [complete with a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge] because its set into a bay, its very hilly, and its got trams too!

trams

We stayed at Alfama Patio Hostel--if you're ever in Lisboa, I highly recommend staying there or at one of their sister hostels. It was awesome, they had walking tours and dinner every night (for only, like, 8 euro!). It was really great because we had full access to the other two sister hostels. We met a lot of really cool people: a Swedish couple, a girl from Australia/UK, and Manuel who was from El Salvador but living in Vienna. We ended up spending pretty much all day on Thursday and Saturday with him, which was nice because we could practice our Spanish while there!

Something really weird for us [espesh because it was our first time outside of Spain] was the language barrier. We can all read Portuguese pretty well, but speaking/listening to it is a completely different story. It sounds nothing like Spanish. It was weird not being able to communicate easily with people, and Spanish has become such a reflex for me that anytime I would bump into someone, I'd say "Perdona" or "lo siento". It was definitely really weird, but now that I've been to Portugal I really, really want to learn Portuguese.

We got there late on Wednesday, so we pretty much just wandered around and got ourselves oriented with the city. On Thursday, we did a walking tour with our hostel through Castle Hill and Alfama. It was really pretty and a lot of fun. We learned that Lisboa had a huge earthquake that caused fires and floods around 1750 so it had to be completely rebuilt in the early 1800s and which is why a lot of the architecture looks very 1800s-y. After the walking tour, we got some lunch with our friend Manuel. Before heading out to Belem [an area of the city, a little bit outside the city], we got Santini ice cream--seriously the best ice cream I've ever had. The fruit flavors are 100% fruit, no syrups or anything, they were amazing. We may or may not have gotten it every day we were in Lisboa!

While in Belem we went to the Torre do Belem which was along the river. We also went to the bakery where they sell Pastel de Belem, which are these delicious custard filled pastries. We also stopped by the Monestario de Jeronimos, which was really pretty.

On Friday, we did a day trip out to Sintra [Ams--Johnny Depp lives here!] with this company called We Hate Tourism [I know, the irony]. It was awesome! We started out nice and early and went to Sintra. We had some delicious ricotta-cheese pastries--they tasted exactly like monkey bread! We wandered around the town a bit before heading to one of the many castles near there. The one we went to was designed by a Portuguese free mason with the help of an Italian architect. It was really cool, there were all these tunnels connecting the different buildings and wells that we could explore. Not gonna lie, it was a little creepy and very spider filled, but it was still a lot of fun!
 
We got lunch at the end of the world. Cabo da Roca is the western most point of continental Europe. Supposedly on really clear days you can see the Statue of Liberty. It was incredibly to see, we could pretty much see for miles and miles and it was just clear blue water and blue skies.

We wrapped up our day trip with [another] trip to Santini's and the Belem bakery for some more ice cream and pastries. I swear, I ate so many sweets while I was there--but it was just so good!

On Saturday, we went to Lisboa's version of the Rastro and I got some really awesome street art! We attempted to find St. George's Castle, which meant that we had to climb Castle hill [again]. After walking around in circles and following grafiti-ed arrows that were painted onto buildings, we finally found the Castle. Unfortunately, the line was really long so we didn't end up going in because we had plans for the afternoon with one of the people we met in the hostel. We grabbed some kebabs [my fave!] and headed to the beach for the afternoon. The beach was so nice! Amber and I ventured into the freezing cold Atlantic, which was interesting because there was a huge shelf before it got really deep. We were pretty far out before the water even came up to our waists!

For anyone looking to come to the Iberian Penninsula, get yourself to Lisbon! It's absolutely amazing and its definitely one of my favorite places that I've been to! 

Besitos,
Kelsey

PS: Pictures to come--I'm still having some wifi problems! 

Week 15: Bumming on the Beach

Hola, Hola!

Hope everyone is going well! This past week was the same old, same old. Just doing school stuff and working on papers [I'm trying to finish them all before the family gets here, so I can focus on spending time with them instead of my homework]. This weekend, I went to the Canary Islands with some friends to catch some sun and take a much needed relaxing vacation. There's not to much to see in the Canaries, we spent both of our days there bumming on the beach...and that's about it. I got quite nicely sun burnt on  my back, it looks like I have lungs on my back. I'm not quite sure how exactly that happened, but it did!

Besides bumming on the beach, we had some really yummy food while in the Canaries, including SUSHI! I was so happy, and it was really, really good! I've been missing Maru, and while I didn't get to have my playboy roll, I did had some yummy California type roll thingy. I know, great description, but it was delish. Oh! And last night, we went to this italian-esque place, I got ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and parmesean--yum-o! It was amazing, serious some of the best ravs, I've had [but they've got nothing on homemade ravs at Christmas]!

I also got to experience RyanAir for the first time, which was interesting. For those of you who haven't heard of RyanAir, its a super cheap airline that you can fly around Europe, but it's got all these crazy rules and regulations. Like, baggage restrictions [only 1 carry-on, including your purse], and they try to sell you stuff like every 5 minutes. But, overall, it wasn't that bad.

Unfortunately, I did not take many pictures while in the Canaries, just a few of the beach on my phone and I'm feeling kind of lazy because the weather here is gross [seriously, its freezing here, like mid-40s right now--not fun] so I probably won't upload them for a while.

On Wednesday, I'm leaving for Lisboa, Portugal with my friends Ray and Amber, which I'm super excited about. It'll be my first time leaving Spain since getting here! Expect a long update with lots of pictures next week!

XOXO,
Kelsey

PS--Book recommendation: The Fault of Our Stars by John Green; its a little sad at the end, but really really good

Week 14: All About Barça

Hola, Hola, Hola!

Like most weeks, this one was fairly chill. I went to class, taught some English, studied, and went to Barcelona [oh, you know, no big deal ;)]. But before I get to the Barcelona stuff, here's an update on my classes: all of them are going pretty well. School is starting to wrap up a bit, and my schedule is about to get a little cray. This week is a four day week, then Friday-Sunday I'm in the Canary Islands [I know, it sounds so exotic!], then I've got two days of class, and Wednesday-Sunday I'm in Lisbon, Portugal! After that, I've got 2 weeks until finals which means I have to write 3 term papers and study for 4 exams before I can actually think about relaxing and traveling in June. One of my term papers/presentations is for my Cultura Andalusi class, its about Architecture in Andalucia. The second is for my La Mujer en Literatura Espanola and I have to read a short story and compare it to one of the ones we've read in class. My last paper is for my Prado class and I'm comparing and contrasting La Inmaculada Concepcion by Zubaran and La Inmaculada Concepcion by Murillo. So, basically, I'm going to be writing and studying A LOT the next few weeks while trying to balance out traveling.

Now, onto the good stuff: Barcelona! We had some travel hiccups, but none that were too terrible. My friend Ray and I got into Barcelona around 9, so we checked into our hostel, Casa Gracia, and grabbed some dinner. Casa Gracia was amazing, it was a little bit more expensive than the other hostels I've stayed in--but worth it! It had pretty much everything you could want in a hostel (breakfast and towels being the most important)! It was pretty much like a mini-hotel! It was in a really good location, right off the Blue Line of the Metro (only 3 stops from the train station in one direction, and only 3 stops from the Sagrada Familia in the other direction)! Basically, if you are staying in Barcelona, I highly recommend staying there.

We walked around a bit at night and checked out the Block of Discord, the area of Passeig de Graçia that has Casa Batllo and a few other modernisme [a style of architcture] buildings. Casa Batllo was built by Antoni Gaudi, the most famous modernisme architect [and a Barcelona native]. On Saturday, we saw the Sagrada Familia, which I may or may not have fangirled over. It was absolutely amazing, if you go to Barcelona it's the one thins you absoluetly must see. I've seen plenty of pictures of it, but seeing it in person is more impressive than the pictures could ever be. Gaudi put so much thought into every single detail of it, every architectural aspect has a specific reason and significance behind it. My favorite parts were the towers and the stained glass. We took the elevator to the top of the tower and we got to see an amazing view of Barcelona. It was so high even I was starting to get a little freaked out--and I'm not even afraid of heights! The stained glass was absolutely amazing as well, the interior of the Sagrada Familia is very white/light and airy and the stained glass is brightly colored so when the sun hits it, all the colors from the stained glass are splashed across the walls. The ceiling is absolutely amazing as well, Gaudi designed it to look like a forest, so the ceiling looks like the branches of a tree making a canopy over your head. Like I've said already, its absolutely stunning. If you only have time to do one thing in Barcelona, you MUST do the Sagrada Familia.

View for Torre Passion

Beautiful Stained Glass

Just hanging out!

Ceiling of Sagrada Familia

More beautiful stained glass

After the Sagrada Familia, we went to La Rambla which is the giant pedestrian street in Barcelona. It kind of reminds me of Calle Preciosa and the Rastro here in Madrid. There are 5 different ramblas that makes up this street and each has a specific thing they sell. For example, La Rambla de Flores sells flowers. Las Ramblas extend from Plaça de Cataluyna (Barça's Plaza Mayor) all the way to the sea. We stopped in the Mercat [Market] along the way. I got some delicious fresh kiwis and strawberries. There were some amazing street artist along the Ramblas as well. We ended up at Rambla del Mar, which is basically a giant pier. I almost died a couple of times--the seagulls there were absolutely massive and Ray had no problems pointing out when they were flying close to me [for those who don't know, I'm slightly terrified of birds...especially pigeons].

Las Ramblas

 On Sunday, we got up and went to Camp Nou, which is Barça's futbol [soccer] stadium, it's one of the largest in all of Europe. It was really cool to see. We headed back to the Plaça de Cataluyna and did a self-guided walking tour, courtesy of Rick Steves (my friends lent me their book so we could use it while in Barcelona). We ended up walking though the Barri Gotic, which is where the center of Barcelona was until about 1850, when the city started to expand. We saw the Catedral, a really cool bridge and some of the places young Picasso hung out. While we were in front of the Catedral, we were able to see a sardana, which is the dance of Cataluyna. It was really cool to see because during Franco's rule over Spain, the sardana and the Catalan language were outlawed, but people still learned it and passed it down to the younger generations. We also were able to see some Roman ruins along our walk. During the Roman era of Spain, Barcelona was the city of Barcino. Barcino was surrounded by a wall and had a aqueduct system that was still in use until the 20th century.

Camp Nou

Roman towers in Barri Gotic

Catedral

Reconstruction of an aqueduct

Overall, I enjoyed Barcelona, but it definitely wasn't my favorite place I've been. I much preferred Sevilla and Granada. As much as I love the architecture and history, Barcelona is a very touristy city and it didn't really do that much for me. I never quite got that "this is Barcelona" feeling like I've gotten in other cities. It was kind of interesting to be in Spain and not be able to speak the language because in Barcelona (and the rest of Cataluyna) they speak Catalan as their first language. Most everyone spoke Castellano (regular spanish) so we got by just fine!

Side note: Spain is a beautiful country. It's filled with rolling hills, giant mountains, little streams and creeks, and ruins nestled into hills and forests. Its absolutely gorgeous. If you're in Spain, I highly recommend busing or taking the train around instead of flying so you don't miss anything!

Well, that's all I've got. The next few weeks, updates may be a little off schedule since I've got a wacky break schedule going on.
XOXO,
Kelsey

Shout-out to all my Purdue peeps: Try not to get too stressed out this week! Good luck with finals, you can do it!

Week 13: Climbing the Walls

Hi everyone!

This week was pretty boring. I had my Prado midterm on Tuesday [which I found out I got an A on, phew!], and I got a package from Mom and Liz on Wednesday or Thursday! Which, I know I've said thank you billions of times already but once more can't hurt! THANK YOU!!! I got some great pictures from home and two new dresses!

The weather in Madrid has been pretty gross, cold and rainy for pretty much the past month [it's seriously rained pretty much every day. I think the sun has only popped out, like once]. But! I'm happy to say that this weekend, we finally hit the 70s and 80s! Springtime is finally here!

This past weekend was my program's overnight trip to Extremadura. Extremadura is a region of Spain that is above Andalucia and next to Portugal.

While we were there, we say 3 cities: Merida, Caceres, and Trujillo. The main claim to fame in Extremadura are all of the Roman ruins. We left Madrid on Saturday morning to to go to Merida. We were supposed to leave at 8, but because one of the people in my program was running late we ended up waiting 40 minutes for them to show up; which was kind of a pain because it cut into the free time we had in the city.

Once we got to Merida, we got to see some really awesome ruins. We got to see an amphitheater, the stadium where gladiators fought, and where chariot races were held. We also got to see the Alcazaba, which was the castle of the monarchs in Merida.

Ruins in Merida

After grabbing some lunch in Merida and visiting the Museo de Arte Romano [The museum where all the artifacts/art from the ruins is kept], we headed to Caceres. Caceres was really cool. We checked into our hotel and then we headed to the historic area. On our way, we passed through Caceres's Plaza Mayor. It was really cool, there were tons of people in the street botelloning and there was a band playing music. I really wanted to ditch out on the tour and join in with everyone in the streets.

The historic district was amazing. It is basically a preserved medieval city. It was really cool to see the differences between the architecture in Merida [which was strictly Roman] and Caceres. Caceres had a lot of Latin American influence in their architecture [because most of it was built after the discovery of the New World]. After we toured the historic district, we went on to dinner which was prepaid by our program [yay!]. Now, Spaniards love to eat, and when they eat it usually spans like an hour and a half, maybe two hours. But we sat down for dinner around 10 and we didn't finish until almost 1 in the morning. There were seven courses...SEVEN! They just kept coming and coming and coming, I seriously felt like I was going to explode. It was delicious, but so so so so much food!

The next morning we got up nice and early and did another tour of the historic district and another museum before attempting to head back to the bus. Little did we know, but there ended up being a marathon going through the city when we were trying to get back to the buses. They had completely blocked off the Plaza Mayor and a lot of the streets. My program ended up having to play a game of frogger with sixty people trying to cut through the marathong [while there were no runners, of course] while being yelled at by the people running the marathon. Once we cut through the race path, we ended up having to walk in a giant circle around the city to get to where our bus was. Needless to say, in the 45 minute bus ride between Caceres and Trujillo, we all passed out.

Catedral in Caceres

Another amazing view!

My friend Jake's and my reaction to the server bring out more food

After the craziness of Merida and Caceres, I think our tour guides [Pablo and Ricardo (Ricardo is my prof for my Prado class)] noticed how exhausted all of us were, and not to mention we were a solid hour and a half behind schedule. So instead of dragging us all over Trujillo, we stopped in the Plaza Mayor, they pointed out some architectural things and turned us loose on the city. My friends and I ended up going up the castillo [castle] and we basically acted like a bunch of kids. We were climbing up walls, running through the ruins and taking lots of silly pictures. The views from the top of the castillo were amazing. Before getting back on the bus, we grabbed some lunch at a cute little cafe.

View from the Castillo

Another amazing view!

Just messing around on the wall

Another view

And so wraps up another trip. It's hard to believe that as of today, I've been in Spain for 3 whole months. I'm amazed by how quickly time has gone by, but it also makes me sad. I know I've still got a solid two and a half months left, but it feels like it's going to be tomorrow and there's still going to be so much I want to do and see here--but hey, at least that's a reason to come back...right?

I'm also really excited to say that my friends Ray, Amber, and I have officially booked our trip to PORTUGAL! We're going for 5 days right at the beginning of May, I can't wait! That's all for now, next week: Barcelona!

XOXO,
Kelsey

Week 12: Back to Reality...

This week was my first week back after Semana Santa, and it was a long one! Even though we didn't have class on Monday I still felt like this week dragged on. I've been sick pretty much all week, which has not been fun.

This past week has been a "holy crap, I only have like a month left of classes" kind of week. I've kind of been neglecting my school work for the past few months, because (1) I never have homework, only readings and (2) I'm in Spain. But reality set in this week when I realized I only have like 6 weeks of class left and so much to catch up on. This week I've been attempting to study for my Prado midterm on Tuesday, its just been hard because our exam is only like 5 questions and we have 64 paintings to study. SIXTY-FOUR! Personally, I think it's a bit ridiculous, especially because after a while some of these paintings start to look the same...but what can I do? Just got to keep chugging along! [If you're interested, right now we're learning about Zubaran and Velazquez, and pretty soon we will get to GOYA!]

I can't remember if I've mentioned this yet, but I've starting teaching English to kids here. I've only got two students, one is a 14 year old boy who speaks English really well and just needs to practice his conversation skills. The other is a 3 year old girl who speaks zero English. It's been interesting trying to organize lessons for them because they have such different levels. My 14-year-old seems to know already know everything that I'm teaching him and my 3-year-old can be a bit sassy. But, it's still a lot of fun and good practice for when I'm a grown up [which is coming up surprisingly fast--I just registered for my SENIOR YEAR classes! Seriously, where did the past three years go?!?!?!]

Anyways, besides teaching and studying I went to a Master Class put on by DMM [Disfruta Madrid Mas] at the Museo Thyssen which was about their exhibition: Impresionismo y el Aire Libre. It was some seriously cool stuff, I got to see some Monets, Van Goghs, and Sorollas! I could have touched them, that's how close I was able to get to them! I think that impressionism is my favorite style of art and Sorolla is probably my favorite Spanish painter. I'm a little bummed that my Prado class doesn't get to study him at all--but hey, there's a museum here in Madrid specifically about Sorolla!

This week I officially booked my tickets and hostel to Barcelona (or as some of the Spaniards call it: Barceloca). I'm really really excited to go see the Sagrada Familia and all of Gaudi's works! Andddd, that's all I've got! Until next week everyone!

XOXO,
Kelsey

Week 11: Falling in Love...

Words can't even describe how amazing this past week was. I saw so much of Spain and I got to be a part of some incredible traditions. I went to Andalucia with 5 of my friends: Olivia, Maddy, Ray, Sarah, and Victoria. We started by taking the train to Sevilla and staying there for three and a half days, then we took the bus to Cordoba, then to Granada, and then to Malaga before taking the train back to Madrid today. And, I can now say I've been backpacking through southern Spain because all I packed in was a normal school backpack (shout out to Liz for giving me the tip to pack everything into Ziploc baggies before putting it in my backpack!).

Sevilla [Days 1, 2, 3, and4]

I got my first taste of Andalucia in Sevilla. After getting off the train, we decided to try to walk from the train station to our hostel because according to Google maps, it was only like a twenty minute walk. We may or may not have gotten lost in the pouring rain for an hour and a half, but we finally made it*!

| *Sidenote: Sevilla (and most of Andalucia) has really really narrow streets--and even narrower  | sidewalks! We almost got hit by a few cars/buses!

Our hostel [Sevilla Inn Backpackers] was in a fantastic location. It was on a little side street about 2 minutes away from the Catedral and city center. Since there were six of us we were able to have a dorm all to ourselves!

Since Semana Santa  [holy week] started on Sunday, we just wandered around the city and did some tapearing [went out for tapas]. On Sunday, we got up early and went to misa [mass] for Domingo de las Ramas [Palm Sunday]. It was a really interesting experience for me because I'm not Catholic and I've never been to a catholic mass before. It was really cool because we got to go to mass in the Catedral of Sevilla. The catedral is one of the oldest gothic style cathedrals in Spain (and all of Europe!). Also, Colombus' [or Cristobol Colon] tomb was in the cathedral too! After mass, a two of my friends had a Rick Steve's Spain guide book so we did a walking tour around the juderia. The juderia is the old Jewish neighborhood that all the jews in Spain had to live in during the Inquisition. A lot of the streets are very tiny and narrow, a lot of them are called "kissing lanes" because of how close together they are. We also found the statue of the original Don Juan and the hostel where he supposedly stayed and the play is based on. We also found a plaza that originally had a synagogue that was converted into a church, which was then destroyed by Napoleon when he invaded Spain. A bit of irony--the French consulate is right next to this plaza. It's also where Murillo is supposedly buried! If you go to Sevilla, I highly recommend checking out the juderia!

On Monday, we went to the Real Alcazar de Sevilla, the Alcazar is basically a giant palace. It's actually the oldest Royal Palace in Europe that is still in use. Basically that means that when the Spanish Royals are in Sevilla they stay in the Alcazar. It was really really pretty. There was a ton of moorish influence mixed with catholic architecture. There was a lot of tile and plaster work, with tons of intricate little details. We had a lot of fun taking lots of pictures. One of my friends is really into photography, so I tried to match her pictures by taking some "artsy" pictures. After the Alcazar, we had some paella and sangria* for lunch. After lunch, we decided to head to the Torre de Oro. The Torre de Oro was the place where all goods entered Spain way back when Sevilla was the main port in Spain. We were able to climb to the top where we got to see a pretty cool view of the city.

|*Sidenote: The sangria we had was like spiked sangria. Normally sangria isn't very strong (or at least the sangria I've had). After we had been drinking it for a|while, one of the waiters came up to us and told us to be careful when we stood up because it |ad black rum, vermouth, and wine in it. We were drinking it on an empty stomach, so that had kinda a damper on our plans for the afternoon! But after a nice long lunch, we were ready to go!

Both Sunday and Monday we were able to catch Semana Santa processions. For those of you who haven't ever heard about Semana Santa in Spain before, let me share some background info. Basically, each day there are processions at night that include penitents and a float carried by penitents. Pentinents are dressed from head to toe in robes (some are all white, others all black, some are red or purple, green or blue, it really all depends on which hermanidad [brotherhood] they are from), these penitents are people who are repenting their sins which is why they are walking around in the robes, so that they can hide their identity. Most of them walk barefoot and they also carry the floats in the processions. Each procession is sponsored by a different church/brotherhood. Each float depicts a different scene from Holy Week in the Bible. They were really impressive to see. I still can't believe that I was able to take part in the largest Semana Santa celebrations in Spain!

Tuesday morning, we packed up and check out of our hostel. Before heading to the bus station, we stopped by the Museo de Bellas Artes where we got to see some works by Zubaran and Murillo. I felt really artsy in there because I could compare the works and see the differences between the painters. For example, Zubaran's subjects tend to be very rigid, and sculpture-esque, whereas Murillo has a better use of light and his subjects are a lot softer and look more life like [thank you, Ricardo and Fran--my profs for my Prado class]. I felt very high-class after leaving because I could kind of understand what the paintings were meant to be about and why they painted a certain way :)

Cordoba [Days 4 and 5]

We were in Cordoba for exactly 24 hrs. I absolutely loved Cordoba--it was a great change of pace from Sevilla! Sevilla was very crowded and there was so much we wanted to cram into the three and a half days we were there whereas Cordoba wasn't very crowded and a much less stressful atmosphere. The main thing we went to Cordoba to see was the Mezquita/Catedral de Cordoba. The Mezquita is absolutely amazing. It has so many different styles of architecture for three different types of religious buildings! When you walk into the Mezquita the first thing you see are the arches (which is what it's famous for), the arches are part of the Moorish style of architecture. These arches are incredible, there are hundreds of them! They all are identically painted with red stripes. It's kind of eerie to see in the darkness of the building. Besides the Moorish arches and tilework, there is also a wing of a Visigoth church that the Mezquita was built on top of. And plopped right in the middle of all of that is a Catholic cathedral! It was really amazing to see how well it all meshed together with some fluidity even though each aspect was so different!

After walking around the Mezquita, we decided to explore a bit more of the historic district of Cordoba. Like the rest of Andalucia, it was filled with narrow, windy cobblestone streets. It was gorgeous! We found this little synagogue, which is one of the three synagogues left in Spain that predates the XIV century (all the rest had been destroyed by the Inquisition/Catholic Monarchs). The synagogue had actually been converted into a church at some point--there is a faded cross painted onto one of the walls. After leaving the synagogue, we stumbled across this little plaza. It was on a little off-shoot of the main road, you got there by walking down a narrow street that had little arches to walk under. When you get to the end of the street, you are greeted by two-store stone-faced buildings on three sides and a whitewall covered in potted plants with a staircase going up it. It was beautiful, there was a guy strumming flamenco guitar while we were there. It was in that little plaza that I had my Spain epiphany. It only took me three months to get there, but I finally had that "Holy cow, I'm in Spain!" moment. It was amazing.

We also got to see a procession in Cordoba. It came out of the Mezquita (all of them have to pass through the cathedrals in whichever city they are in), and it stopped literally right in front of us. We could see through the detail work and look at the guys who were carrying it! It was amazing to see. We could see every single little detail! This time the penitents were wearing white and purple robes, and most of them were wearing shoes. There were also a lot more kids in this one than in the other ones.

Granada [Days 5, 6, and 7]

We got to Granada mid-afternoon, so all we did was walk around the city. Our hostel [White Nest Hostel] was in a fantastic location. It was on Calle Santismo, which is really close to the Albazyn, which is the old Moorish neighborhood.

| Quick Spanish history lesson if you're wondering why Andalucia has so much Arab/Moorish influence. The first people to settle in Spain were the Visogoths, Celts, and Romans. After then in about 711 came the Arabs from Africa. They held domain over southern Spain until 1492 (when Colombus sailed the ocean blue...and all the Jews were kicked out of Spain thanks to the Inquisition and Catholic Kings). In 1492, The Reyes Catolicos [catholic kings] reconquered Granada, which was the capital of Andalucia.

We were right along the river, which flows underneath Plaza Nueva, which was the main square. While I was in Granada, I really felt like I was in Spain. I'm guessing that's probably because I could see the Alhambra [!!!!!] from my hostel room.

On Thursday morning, we got up pretty early and did another Rick Steve's walking tour through the center of Granada. We saw part of the old Silk Trail, the Cathedral, another large Plaza, and [my personal favorite] the Capilla Real! The Capilla Real is where the tombs of the Reyes Catolicos and their kids are! The Reyes Catolicos are Rey Fernando II of Aragon and Reina Isabel I de Castilla. They had a daughter, Juana la Loca [long story short, she was crazy] and her husband Felipe el Hermoso, are also buried there. [Juana and Felipe's son is Carlos I/V (I because of Spanish Emperor, V because of Holy Roman Empire]. It was really, really cool to see their tombs because they had such a large impact on both Spain's history and the history of the new world, after all without them Colombus never would have discovered the New World!

After the walking tour, we went to lunch and got kebaps. Kebaps are pretty much gyros, but you can get them with chicken or falafel too! They were my favorite food that we got on the trip, and when I was walking back to my piso after dinner the other night, I found a kebap place here in Madrid, so I'm super happy!

After lunch, we went to THE ALHAMBRA! I could write pages and pages and pages about the Alhambra. It was absolutely breath taking and amazing! I still can't believe that I've been there! For those of you who've no idea what I'm talking about, the Alhambra is a castle/city on top of a hill over looking all of Granada. Its where the Arab saltans from 1237-1492 lived and later the Reyes Catolicos after the reconquering of Granada. I learned tons of new things about it, for example, of the 22 saltans that lived there only 7 of them had enough money to build their own palace. And of the 7 palaces, only 2 are still fully standing. Like I said, it was absolutely incredible to be standing there and absorbing the history of it all. The Alhambra is the one place that I absolutely had to go to in Spain! I've been wanting to go there since like sophomore year of high school when I first learned about it, and now I can say I've been!

After the Alhambra, we went to Flamenco in the caves. It was really cool to see. The dancers were amazing! I really enjoyed the flamenco guitar as well. [Mom, Dad, when you come, we'll go see some in Madrid!]. After Flamenco we decided to get some kebaps and hang out in city center for the night. We knew that there was going to be a procession so we figured we would try to catch it, but we didn't know that the entire city of Granada was going to be crammed into Plaza Nueva. It was mobbed. We ended up loosing Maddy and Olivia for the rest of the night [no worries, they were together!] and we lost Ray for a solid hour. After meeting up with Ray, we gave up on trying to battle our way back to the hostel until after the procession. I'm glad that we stayed because the procession was called "El Silencio" [The Silence]. They turned off all of the street lights and everyone stood in complete silence as the procession passed. All the penitents wore black and had chains connecting them to each other, so as they walked all you could here were the chains moving against the ground. The float was of Jesus on the cross. It was such a somber and dark move compared to the rest of the processions we saw. It was absolutely incredible, even if we had to deal with some very rude Spaniards all night.

Malaga [Days 6, 7, and 8]

By the time we got to Malaga, all of us were completely exhausted. Our hostel was really really nice, they had a nice little bar and they made dinner there every night. Since we were only there for one full day, I spent the day laying on the beach and soaking in the sun. Maybe a bit too much sun because I'm extremely sunburnt and I think I got a little sun sick...oops! I'm much better now, but I've got some pretty awesome tan lines right now.
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Overall, Andalucia was absolutely amazing. If I couldn't have studied in Madrid, I definitley would've gone to Sevilla. As much as I enjoyed the trip, I definitely am planning on going back to Sevilla and Granada because I want to see what its like without all of the Semana Santa craziness going on.

This trip has got me thinking a lot about what I want to do after college, and its made me realize that I don't necessarily want to settle down in a high school or middle school right after college. There's still so much of the world that I want to see. So, I'm planning on talking to my coordinator about teaching English in Spain after I graduate. Who knows? Maybe it'll work out, maybe not, but I at least want to try!

Interested in seeing my pictures of Andalucia or the rest of the places I've been? Check out my shutterfly page: lavidamadrilenafotos.shutterfly.com

It's way easier than trying to get pictures on here or on facebook! I've got a lot of pictures to load so I'll be working on getting them all up within the week!

XOXO,
Kelsey

Week 10: Pre-Semana Santa

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give y'all a heads up that I will not be updating for a while. Semana Santa is next week, so I will be traveling through Andalucia (Southern Spain) with no Wifi! My schedule:

March 23,24,25,26: Sevilla
March 26,27: Cordoba
March 27,28,29: Granada
March 29,30,31: Málaga

I'm really excited to see all of the Semana Santa processions and celebrations! Expect lots of pictures and details in my next update!

XOXO,
Kelsey

PS--My friend, Jacob, went to las Fallas on Tuesday, when they burned them all down. He took this really awesome video, so I'm sharing it with you all. It's 10 minutes long, so unless you're a pyro (like me) I recommend watching the first minute/minute and a half and fast forwarding to the end to watch it fall.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151364690027861
 (it's linked to my facebook, so just click to see it!) 

Weeks 8 and 9: Midterms, Fireworks, and Las Fallas

Hello dear readers!

Never fear, I'm still here! Last week, but I honestly didn't do anything but study for my midterms. It was quite an exciting time for me and I figured y'all wouldn't have been interested in studying with me. My big highlight of last week [which seriously feels like eons ago] was going to another cooking class. This time, we made tapas! I learned how to make patatas bravas [yummy fried potatoes with a spicy sauce], croquetas [fried ham dumplings], tigres [basically mussel croquetas], and a type of gazpacho that I can't remember the name of. They were really yummy and pretty easy to make!

This past week,  I had two midterms on Thursday and then I left for Las Fallas de Valencia. Las Fallas is a huge festival in Valencia that is always between the 12 and 19 of March. It is the second largest festival in the world, with the first being Carnaval in Rio.  Before I go into deets, let me just say, Las Fallas was absolutely amazing and so much fun. If you're ever in Spain during that time, its a must do!

So, what exactly is Las Fallas? I'm glad you asked! Basically a falla is a float made out of paper mache and wood. Each section of the city creates their own falla; typically they are a satirical representation of some aspect of society. Along with the fallas there are also falleros and falleras. Falleros(as) are people of all ages dressed up in historical Spanish clothing who participate in processions throughout the city. The dresses that the girls wear are absolutely gorgeous. Each day fireworks are set off at 2:00 PM and 1:00 AM, and along with these people are setting off firecrackers pretty much all day long. On the last day, the judges pick the winner of all the fallas, and a piece of the falla is saved and put into a museum while the rest of it and the other fallas are burned.

Typircal Fallera dress

Now, onto the deets! We left for Valencia on Friday night after class and we took the Ave [the high-speed train]. It was so awesome, the seats were really comfortable and it's just generally very easy to use. Really random Madrid thing: the Atocha train station has turtles in it. Not like 3 or 4, like 100-200 random turtles in a little habitat in the middle of the train station. It's kind of really weird and really really random. Anyways, we got to Valencia and trekked our way to our hotel/hostel. Unfortunately because we booked it so late, it was pretty far from the city center so we had to take a cab to go into the city. But other than that, it was really nice. After finally making it to our hostel, we just grabbed some tapas and dinner and crashed for the night.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed into the center. We had no idea where exactly we were going or what to expect, all we had was a map that was missing about 85 percent of the street names and street signs that were in Valencian instead of Spanish, so that was an adventure! But we managed to navigate to the Plaza de Ayuntamiento where the first set of fireworks were [the ones at 2:00 PM]. There were tons and tons of people in the plaza, it was crazy! They shot off so many fireworks in the middle of the square that the smoke blocked out the sun [and not to mention, made all of us go a little deaf for a bit]!

                                       Kind of long, but all the fireworks in Plaza de Ayuntamiento


 After that we pretty much just wandered the streets and looked at all the different fallas in the city; we really only saw a small handful of them [there were 380 total, I think]. My favorite one was apple themed so it had a whole bunch of famous apple stories, like Adam & Eve, Snow White, Johnny Appleseed...and Steve Jobs.

Adam, Eve, and Steve Jobs?

It was really cool to see all the different ones, they were all so creative! We grabbed lunch at a paella place because Valencia is super famous for paella. We sat outside, which was nice because we got to watch all the falleros parade by in their costumes. After wandering around a bit more and munching on some delicious, freshly made churros we made our way to the fireworks. The fireworks at night were phenomenal. It was 20 minutes of explosions and craziness. I've never seen a more impressive fireworks display, and they only get bigger the further into the festival you get.

Noms, street churros!

On Sunday, we walked along the beach for a bit and I can say I've been in the Mediterranean Sea!

Me and the Mediterranean

Before heading back to the city center, we went to the museum districts and went to the Fallas museum. It's really cool because they have pieces from all of the winning fallas since like 1934 or something like that. There are also these really cool vintage posters that were used to advertise the festival. After that, we pretty much just wandered through the city in the parts we didn't go to on Saturday. The big part of the festival on Sunday was the procession. Over the next 2 days all of the falleros have to walk around all 380 fallas. It was so cool to see all of the different dresses and listen to all of the music.

                                                Procession through the plaza we ate lunch in



Life lesson learned: If a police officer tells you the parade is passing through at 3:30, it really means the parade is taking over the city at 3:30. My friend and I figured if we gave ourselves an hour to get to the bus station, it would be fine. Oh how wrong we were, the parade was everywhere. We were pretty much boxed in and we couldn't get through the main plaza because of the crowds. We ended up cutting through all these side streets with our not-so-helpful map and we had to run through the parade a couple of times. I'm proud to say that we made across half of the city in 20 minutes and made it perfectly on time for the bus back to Madrid. The bus back was awesome! It was an express bus, so it had these really big, comfy leather seats. I was able to stretch out a bit and got to watch The Avengers in Spanish on my individual TV. It was awesome, I'm definitely splurging the couple extra euro to take one of those buses again.

Overall, Las Fallas was amazing and I will gladly go back anytime. Maybe next time I'll actually get to see the fallas burn! Going to the Fallas really made me realize just how young of a country the US is. The earliest recorded mention of the Fallas was in 1784, its likely that the Fallas has been going on long before that as well. It really made me appreciate all of the history and traditions that I'm able to be a part of here because back home, we really don't have any huge festivals like these. Next time I go to Las Fallas, I'm definitely going to stay through the end so I can see them burned.

Random side note before I go: Most Spaniards cannot say/spell my name. In the past month and a half, I've been called: Kalasey, Calsey, Kalsie, Casey, Cassie, Katrina, Carsi and [my personal favorite] Clausi. Yes, Clausi, I'm still trying to figure out how they got that one [I even spelled my name for them!]. It's always really entertaining to see what my name ends up as!

That's all I've got for now, I might be a little late in updating the next few weeks; lots of traveling coming up [From now until the end of April/beginning of May, I'm only going to be in Madrid for one weekend]!

Besos,
Kelsey

Week 7: Settling In

Hola, Hola, Hola!

Que tal? [What's up?] This one is going to be short since I honestly haven't done a whole lot this week. Midterms are coming up in about 2 weeks and after that I'm going to Las Fallas de Valencia and going on my amazing Semana Santa vacay! This week, outside of class, all I really did was go running/swimming and study.

But, on Thursday, I did take a "Master Class" at the Reina Sofia that was all about Picasso's Guernica. I learned a lot about what was going on within Spain at the time and why Picasso chose to create a piece about the town of Guernica.

[And cue history lesson!] During that time, Spain was going through a civil war between the Republic and the uprising of support for the dictator, Franco. Also at that time, France was hosting the World's Fair and invited Spain to create an exhibition. Normally when a country is at war, they don't participate in these sorts of things, but Spain opted to participate as a way of asking for help from the other countries. So, Spain comissioned an art exhibition that was filled with propaganda about the civil war. For the main piece, Spain approached Picasso, who at that time was living in Paris. Picasso accepted the invitation in January and the work needed to be completed in July. For months, Picasso had no idea what to paint about. Then in April, the bombing of the town of Guernica happened. People were outraged and on Labor Day in France there were huge demonstrations asking for justice for what happened in Guernica. And that's when Picasso decided to create the Guernica [only 2 months before it needed to be completed!]. Unfortunately, the exhibition didn't do anything. No one stepped up to help Spain, and the civil war continued until it eventually ended with the dictator taking power. Something that I've really noticed is that talking about the dictator is completely taboo. Although he died about 30 years ago, its still an extremely sensitive topic for Spain to talk about and even today you can still see remnants of people rebelling against his rule in Spain. [And, end history lesson]

Like I said above, I've got some really amazing trips planned! This is what my travel schedule looks like:
March 15-17: Las Fallas de Valencia
March 22-30: Andalucia [Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, and Malaga]
April 13-14: Extremadura
April 26-28: Canary Isands
I'm so excited for all of these trips, the only other place in Spain that I've got to see is Barcelona! I know, I know, how could I not have scheduled Barcelona yet?! I just can't figure out when the best time to go is, but don't worry it's definitely going to happen!

I've been here for a month and a half now, and I feel a bit like I'm failing at the whole exploring the city and culture part. So, I've decided that I'm going to try to go to at least 4 cultural type things each week. What is a cultural type thing? Basically, I want to go to art museums, concerts, take some random classes, go explore a new area of the city, ride the metro and get off at a random stop, that sort of thing. And then at the end of each week, I'll fill you all in on what I've seen/learned about! Which means the ridiculously long blog updates will be making a reappearance quite soon :)

I think that's about it for this week!
Besos,
Kelsey

PS--If you haven't seen Argo, I highly recommend it! It's really, really intense though so be prepared!