Andalucía (Córdoba and Granada)

One and a half weeks late, but better late than never!

The weekend before last our entire study abroad group (70 from the university in which I am currently studying and another 80 from a ''somewhat more prestigious'' university in Madrid) went to the south of Spain to Andalucía, which is ''Andalusia'' in English...at least I think that's how it's spelled. It was so fun! The best thing was that everything was already paid for and planned out so I didn't have to worry about much.

First we went to Córdoba, which was a four hour bus ride, during which my friend Kyle and I spent no less than 30 minutes talking in a British accent about the possibility of a half chair, half human person. Then my friend Amy and I spent at least another 30 minutes talking about awkward pictures that friends send you, meanwhile the rest of the people around us were talking politics. Conclusion: I am most likely very annoying and immature. BUT, I have a good time so I guess that's what counts.

The entire time I was in Córdoba I kept smelling poop, and for a while I thought maybe I had stepped in some, but it turns out that there are about 5 billion olive trees in southern Spain and olives smell like poop. Oh, the study-abroad revelations. Always profound. The hotel was very nice and pretty close to La Mesquita (Mosque) and cute little restaurants.

At night we went to a GENUINE flamenco show and it was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. The way they move their bodies! Gosh, I now desperately want to take flamenco classes, but I don't know if I could keep that serious face that the make the entire time.

So later that night we discovered that 150 college kids plus alcohol in one hotel equals disaster(ish). AKA, our group made a buttload (@Alicia Roll) of noise and the other guests/hotel manager got super pissed. We could definitely hear some yelling from our room. The best part though was when our program coordinators knocked on the door of our hotel room to tell me, Amy and Isela that whatever party we were having in our room needed to stop immediately. Now, this is hilarious because we were all in bed at this point and when I opened to the door to greet the coordinators, not only was I wearing my extremely patriotic red, white and blue striped boxers, but I also had my retainers in. On the bright side, the retainers helped me to achieve the Spanish lisp :)

The next day we went to Granada, which it turns out means ''pomegranate.'' Who knew? Well, I guess probably a lot of people knew, but I didn't. We saw La Alhambra which was beautiful and really made me feel like I was going back in time or visiting another planet or something. Very cool. Our tour guide looked about 8 months pregnant but still somehow managed to walk faster than all of us spry young ones.

That night we had a very non-vegetarian-friendly dinner (sorry guys) and then celebrated Tania's birthday by going to a club on the hillside that overlooked La Alhambra at night. It was all lit up and just all around visually appealing. Of course, going to the club meant being super exhausted the next day when we went to see the tombs of Fernando and Isabel (king and queen), but that's life, eh?

I was so sad to go home (Madrid home), especially since my time in Spain is coming to and end, so I'm going to have to go ''home home'' soon. Despite the creepy men and the smoking I FREAKING LOVE SPAIN! Studying abroad=one of the best decisions I've made in a long time.

First World Problems in Madrid

For reference, a First World Problem is something really stupid that people in Western countries complain about, but is not actually a big deal. Example: ''Oh no, I broke a nail!'' or ''I can't connect to Wi-Fi at Starbucks.'' The more exaggerated, the better! By the way, I did not make this up. I think the term was coined by some blogger my brother follows. Some of these quotes are from me and some are from friends here in Madrid. Try to see if you can figure out which ones I actually said :)

1. ''I hate carrying things. I wish I didn't have so much stuff.''
2. ''The only thing they have to drink is WATER?''
3. ''My hair dryer won't work because I don't have a converter.''
4. ''Ugh, Skype makes my computer soooooo slow.''
5. ''Drinks cost a whole 8 euros? Lame.''
6. ''Damn, the Metro only runs until 1:30 am. I have to take a cab.''
7. ''I'm so tired from traveling to Italy, Portugal, England, Morocco...''
8. ''My señora gives me too much food.''
9. ''I can't figure out where to buy nailpolish remover.''
10. ''Netflix doesn't work in Spain!''
11. ''Hulu doesn't work in Spain!''
12. ''That free shot hardly had any alcohol in it. Boo.''
13. ''I missed my siesta and now I'm cranky.''

London

London was cool, in both senses of the word! Freezing, especially compared to how hot it has been in Madrid until recently. Other downside, super expensive with the pound and all, worse than the euro! Besides those two things I had a really good time. We visited the National Gallery of Art, London Bridge, London Tower, Parliament, Big Ben, Abbey Road, went clubbing and to a traditional British pub. I have some pictures from the trip that I will upload soon.

We did loads of walking and now I'm super tired since I got home yesterday and had to get up at 7:15 for class, ugh. Two comical occurrences from the trip: this pretty cute Russian guy hit on me, and when I turned him down proceeded to hit on my friend; this really drunk guy came up to me at 3 in the morning to ask for directions and then went on to say ''you're shorter than I've ever seen a girl before...That's terrible!'' Ridiculous but hilarious.

Also, curiously enough most people from London that we interacted with were excited that we were from the US. People said things like ''God bless America'' and ''I love your accent.'' Weird right? I guess there feelings from the whole declaring-independence-from-England thing. Everyone there is very polite and sweet. If it wasn't for the weather, weird food and expensiveness I'd totally live there for a bit.

Hilarious exchanges between me and the woman (señora) that I live with

(Note: This is ALL in Spanish)

Me: I´m going to go to bed early tonight. I didn't sleep much last night and am feeling kind of sick.
Señora: No, sleep has nothing to do with it. You're sick because you went to the club last night and sweated a lot and then got cold.

Señora: I put a hook for you in the bathroom for your towel. How do you say hook in English? Hooker?
Me: Haha, no. Hooker means prostitute.
Señora: Oh, no. I did not put a prostitute in the bathroom for you.

Me: (Not knowing how to say snake charmer in Spanish) I saw those guys who play the flutes to make the snakes dance.
Señora: (Laughing) Wait, what you actually just said was ''I saw the guys who play with their flutes,'' like, you know, down there (pointing at crotch).

Maid (Yes, we have a maid and her name is Latifah, like the Queen): Bring back some boys from Barcelona!
Me: I don't think so, but we'll see.
Señora: No...She flirts with a lot of guys at the club, but she's a prude.

Me: Hey, I'm back from my run.
Señora: Is it raining outside or did you shower already?
Me: Neither. I'm just really sweaty...

Señora: Make your bed. It looks like a monkey slept there.

Señora: You go barefoot in the house? It must be because of your astrological sign.

Me: I couldn't sleep.
Señora: Why not?
Me: I had a headache and I think that's what kept me up.
Señora: Are you on your period?

(At the dinner table)
Señora: I'm a little bit _____ (word I don't know in Spanish).
Me: What does that mean?
Señora: Constipated.

Barcelona (like 5 million years later)

I went to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago and it was the most enjoyable amount of chaos I've ever endured. Our hostal was pretty far from downtown, so we had to take a bus to the train to the metro to get there. Phew, long commute! Some may say that we stayed in ''Barcelona County'' (ahem, Maira Hernandez).

The hostal was really nice though and even had a pool! There were nine of us sleeping in a hostal meant for six people, so that was rather Tetris-esque. It didn't really matter though because we only slept for 2 hours on Friday night and stayed out the whole night Saturday. No big.

The city is gorgeous, architecture wise and in terms of people, but I like madrileños better (people from Madrid). They're just nicer, or at least that's the impression I get. Nothing against Barcelona, I just really like Madrid.

There was this huge festival going on, though I'm not sure what for. Everytime there's a festival in Spain and I ask a Spaniard what it's for, they always just say, ''Oh, it's a festival.'' Not helpful! There was a long parade with people dressed up in giant costumes, like really large puppets. The coolest part was when they used this big projector to project a Mario type sequence on the face of the building so it looked like there were actually people running between the windows while the building was morphing. So awesome!

The second night we went to a concert/dance party with thousands of people. As you might expect, the night ended with us watching some girl pass out on the ground because she was too drunk. But we were all okay, and thankful for that.

The bus ride home was over 8 hours(!) and I conked out super hard. So hard in fact that I didn't even wake up when we stopped for the bathroom and subsequently left some poor soul behind at the gas station! I can't even imagine what I would do in that situation. Probably cry my eyes out until someone came to help me. Hooray for employing the helpless woman image!

Oh! Okay, so the part that was actually the coolest was going to the Picasso Museum! It was free because of the festival and we were able to make it just in time before it closed. He was...impressive, although apparently a ''pig'' when it came to women (here I would like to cite Fran Hopkins. Hi mom!). If you're ever in Spain make sure to visit this location. It's a fun city!

El Rastro

This has nothing to do with "the Rapture," although the two words sound similar. El Rastro is an enormous flea market that occurs every Sunday on the streets of Madrid. There are thousands of people roaming the through the stalls and everything is pretty cheap!

As you may have guessed, I went to el Rastro today for the first time and would highly recommend it to anyone who visits Madrid. I was able to buy two dresses, a pair of earrings and a pair of shoes all for under 20 euros. I freaking love bargains.

Some words of advice for those who venture to el Rastro:
-wear sunscreen/bring a hat because it's definitely sunny
-if you want to know the price of something, just say "Cuanto cuesta?"
-keep your purse/bag close to you and in you line of vision at all times
-it is extremely crowded, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who gets claustrophobic in large crowds

Also, I've heard that you can potentially bargain, but I wasn't brave enough to try that in Spanish yet. Maybe next time.

First week of classes...in Spanish!

So it turns out I'm not quite as bad at Spanish as some of the other students here, but I'm not an expert either. I keep having to make people repeat things, or else I just stare at them until they realize I have no idea what their talking about.

Classes are going pretty well so far. I'm taking Art, Colloqiual Spanish, another Spanish language class, Journalism, and Human Rights. Most of the teachers seem really cool, down to earth and nice. The only bummer is that I have classes at 9:30am which means waking up at 6 or 7 :/ Ironically, the at the same time that I'm getting out of bed, some of my classmates are getting into bed since the clubs close at 6. I guess I won't be partying too hard during the week unless I want to pay the price!

I've noticed here that people don't really make eye contact on the streets. In Santa Cruz everyone is friendly and smiles at strangers as they pass by but in Madrid people just don't. Maybe it's a a weird hippie thing.

Also, the metro (subway) is rather entertaining. When I'm not being leered at by older men (ew) I get to watch people try to sell things, usually to no avail. Yesterday there was a guy on the train who was attempting to sell pens that doubled as flashlights. Today a guy was playing the accordian (accordian!) while I was on my way home.

Hooray cultural experiences!