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
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
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
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
Monday, May 20, 2013
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.
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!
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!
Monday, May 13, 2013
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
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!
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!
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 |
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!
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