Leona got into Madrid on Thursday the 20th of November, safe and sound. After spending a couple hours getting our backpacks ready and everything to gether at my host mother's house, we headed to the hostel. Then, since we were starving, so we ate some doner kebab (pita bread with falafel tomatoes lettuce and cucumber sauce. After running a few more errands, we walked to a couple of my favorite "touristy" sites in Madrid such as Templo de Debod and Plaza de Espana. Because Leona's jetlag was kicking in, we called it an early night. The next day, we started off by buying Leona a larger memory card for her camera, then joined up with a tour at noon. It was really unique to learn the stories of a lot of the buildings that I had just casually walked past for a few months. After a few hours in Buen Retiro park, we went to the Prado Museum to see all the Dali and Picasso that I studied for class. The next day, we spent hours at the Reina Sofia Museum and in the evening, went to the incredible night club, Pachaa. On Sunday, we walked through the Rastro fleamarket/Lavapies until getting on our night bus to Paris.
The train wass really rickity and I was nervous about motion sickness, but I mostly slept. When we got to Paris early the next morning, we first went to the bus station to buy our bus tickets to Amsterdam, then headed to our hostel (I've been the navigator and have done a decent job of it so far). We started at Arc de Triomphe, working our way down Champs Elysee (which currently has a HUGE Christmas market going on, with tons of russian dolls and crepes and canadian goods), and then spent the day walking around in the centerr of the city, seeing sights as they popped up in front of us. Our dinner was a yogurt and fruit and we called it an early night. The next day, we got a flexi metro pass with unlimited rides for a day and we just went EVERYWHERE imaginable. Montmarte, Sacre Couer, Eiffel Tower, Petit Palais, Hotel D'Invalides, Latin Quarter; you name it, we saw it. It was tiring, but well worth it.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Traveling Europe!! November 20th through 30th
So we are a little more than one week into our Europe travels. We started in Madrid, and I learned a ton about the city through tours and spending times in the museums as a tourist with Leona. Then we headed to Paris via train, and it was absolutely beautiful, but getting a bit chilly. We TOTALLY conquered that city in a few days and I feel surprisingly comfortable with getting around the city. We've been in Amsterdam for a few days, and even with the cloudy and gray weather, it is and absolutely incredible city (although I still get a bit lost here without the map, sometimes). Today is our last day in Amsterdam and we are taking a night train to Prague in about an hour. Other than not being able to buy a bus ticket from Amsterdam to Prague because it was full (thus having to pay DOUBLE for a train ticket, gross), things have been running pretty smoothly. We're really great at budgeting and supermarkets are our best friends. Even the weather, up until today, has been pretty good, with some glimpses of sun. But now it is pouring and cold in Amsterdam so we are hoping the weather in Prague is better than this!
Sorry I have been bad about updating my blog and don't have much details about our travels yet. I will try to add some as soon as I can, as well as loading pictures, but we will see when that happens.
Love you all, and yes, you should be totally jealous :)
Sorry I have been bad about updating my blog and don't have much details about our travels yet. I will try to add some as soon as I can, as well as loading pictures, but we will see when that happens.
Love you all, and yes, you should be totally jealous :)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Morocco; Tangier and Tetouan, November 16th through the 19th
My friend from class who had studied in Rabat last fall really wanted to revisit Morocco for a few weeks after our study abroad in Spain, and since I had a few days before my friend, Leona would come from the USA for our big Europe trip, I decided to go on a little Morocco escapade for 4 days after our program ended.
We flew into Tanger and had a pension there for a few days. Our toilets had half-seats so we did not have to squat there, but it was one of few that we encountered on our trip there. We walked around and enjoyed the incredible weather and ate delicious fruit and vegetables that you can buy from stands right off the street. Our hostel room got really cold at night, but the thick Moroccan blankets really helped.
And of course, there is all the heckling from the Moroccan men. It's kind of interesting because I realize that although I am on the "lighter" side of "Indian people", skin color wise, I blend in really well with the Moroccans and their skin color, thus, some of the men think I am a non-jihab wearing, "American clothing wearing", possibly "super liberal" Moroccan woman. So even when I got back to Madrid, I realized some men were heckling me with Arabic "blessings"such as hamdulillah...it's kind of intense.
Anyways, our first day in Tanger was really nice. Our second day, we discovered the old town some more and walked the narrow streets until Kasbah, which is near a vista point where we can see the ocean meeting the mediterranean sea, which is absolutely breathtaking. We had a picnic on the beach with some fresh fruits and bread and avocado. It was sunny but a little windy so we had a bit of sandy bread, but it was not a big deal. We splurged for some Thai food and utilized their "real" bathrooms to the best of our abilities. In the evening, we sat on a little bench right outside the "Medina" (old city) and these really kind Arabic guys from Casablanca conversed with us. Of course we were nervous at first, holding our purses close and such, but they were really genuine, with no bad intentions, and we just talked about Tanger and their jobs (working at Pizza Hut, even though they are all university educated), etc. Our languages were a mix of my broken french, Hannah's broken arabic, and their broken english; very difficult to say the least.
The next day, we started off bright and early to Tetouan on a bus (we had found out the times of the buses the day before by walking to the station.). It was about an hour long bus ride with beautiful scenery, but I tried to sleep for it so I wouldn't get bus/motion sick. Tetouan's bus station was new and not as close to the inner part of the city as Hannah's Lonely Planet guide indicated, so we treked up to the inner city after asking directions.
Tetouan is really beautiful, with Rif mountains lining the sky and very white Moroccan architecture. We walked around the Medina a bit here as well, and utilized our Spanish skills to get around. We ran into some carpet dealers but did NOT end up buying their carpet (this is a rarity). They got really close to selling it, and even "agreed" to sell it to me for my 150 dirham price (15 euros), bringing the price down from 1,600 (haha), but I realized Moroccan carpets are similar to the Indian kashmiris that we already have in our house, so I was able to say that I don't have enough room in my bag to bring it back. Phew. We also were looking for a cyber cafe to inform people we are okay in Morocco and ran into this professor at a French/English/Arabic school near the cyber cafe who thought I was arabic, and was a little surprised that it was in fact Hannah who knew the language while I did not. Because he was VERY enthusiastic about Hannah knowing Arabic, we were able to use the computer's at the language school AND he treated us to a real couscous lunch and mint tea! We were stuffed to the rim. He was really kind and it was the best trade off; to spend some time with this man around the city and get a free meal out of it. It was enough to last us through dinner!
We took the bus back to Tanger that night to sleep in our pension. I ended up playing a few rounds of chess with the guys that work at the pension, some of the sweetest guys I have ever met. The next morning, we were sitting on a bench eating some more "tangerines"(the fruit, not the people :-P), and a hungry guy walked past motioning to his mouth as if he was hungry. Right behind him, ANOTHER guy did that, and although at first it seemed like the entire world was heckling us for some food, we soon realized the second guy was actually one of the kind men that works at the pension, and he was just mocking the guy in front of him (to get him to stop bothering us). We all laughed sooo hard for 10 minutes about that! It was one of those "you had to be there" kind of moments...sorry. Anyways, a little after that Hannah headed off for the bus station to get a bus to Rabat and I hung out with the guys until my taxi arrived to take me to the airport. On the taxi ride, there was beautiful arabic music playing on the radio with the Moroccan scenery going by and I knew I would really miss this place and should go back soon.
We flew into Tanger and had a pension there for a few days. Our toilets had half-seats so we did not have to squat there, but it was one of few that we encountered on our trip there. We walked around and enjoyed the incredible weather and ate delicious fruit and vegetables that you can buy from stands right off the street. Our hostel room got really cold at night, but the thick Moroccan blankets really helped.
And of course, there is all the heckling from the Moroccan men. It's kind of interesting because I realize that although I am on the "lighter" side of "Indian people", skin color wise, I blend in really well with the Moroccans and their skin color, thus, some of the men think I am a non-jihab wearing, "American clothing wearing", possibly "super liberal" Moroccan woman. So even when I got back to Madrid, I realized some men were heckling me with Arabic "blessings"such as hamdulillah...it's kind of intense.
Anyways, our first day in Tanger was really nice. Our second day, we discovered the old town some more and walked the narrow streets until Kasbah, which is near a vista point where we can see the ocean meeting the mediterranean sea, which is absolutely breathtaking. We had a picnic on the beach with some fresh fruits and bread and avocado. It was sunny but a little windy so we had a bit of sandy bread, but it was not a big deal. We splurged for some Thai food and utilized their "real" bathrooms to the best of our abilities. In the evening, we sat on a little bench right outside the "Medina" (old city) and these really kind Arabic guys from Casablanca conversed with us. Of course we were nervous at first, holding our purses close and such, but they were really genuine, with no bad intentions, and we just talked about Tanger and their jobs (working at Pizza Hut, even though they are all university educated), etc. Our languages were a mix of my broken french, Hannah's broken arabic, and their broken english; very difficult to say the least.
The next day, we started off bright and early to Tetouan on a bus (we had found out the times of the buses the day before by walking to the station.). It was about an hour long bus ride with beautiful scenery, but I tried to sleep for it so I wouldn't get bus/motion sick. Tetouan's bus station was new and not as close to the inner part of the city as Hannah's Lonely Planet guide indicated, so we treked up to the inner city after asking directions.
Tetouan is really beautiful, with Rif mountains lining the sky and very white Moroccan architecture. We walked around the Medina a bit here as well, and utilized our Spanish skills to get around. We ran into some carpet dealers but did NOT end up buying their carpet (this is a rarity). They got really close to selling it, and even "agreed" to sell it to me for my 150 dirham price (15 euros), bringing the price down from 1,600 (haha), but I realized Moroccan carpets are similar to the Indian kashmiris that we already have in our house, so I was able to say that I don't have enough room in my bag to bring it back. Phew. We also were looking for a cyber cafe to inform people we are okay in Morocco and ran into this professor at a French/English/Arabic school near the cyber cafe who thought I was arabic, and was a little surprised that it was in fact Hannah who knew the language while I did not. Because he was VERY enthusiastic about Hannah knowing Arabic, we were able to use the computer's at the language school AND he treated us to a real couscous lunch and mint tea! We were stuffed to the rim. He was really kind and it was the best trade off; to spend some time with this man around the city and get a free meal out of it. It was enough to last us through dinner!
We took the bus back to Tanger that night to sleep in our pension. I ended up playing a few rounds of chess with the guys that work at the pension, some of the sweetest guys I have ever met. The next morning, we were sitting on a bench eating some more "tangerines"(the fruit, not the people :-P), and a hungry guy walked past motioning to his mouth as if he was hungry. Right behind him, ANOTHER guy did that, and although at first it seemed like the entire world was heckling us for some food, we soon realized the second guy was actually one of the kind men that works at the pension, and he was just mocking the guy in front of him (to get him to stop bothering us). We all laughed sooo hard for 10 minutes about that! It was one of those "you had to be there" kind of moments...sorry. Anyways, a little after that Hannah headed off for the bus station to get a bus to Rabat and I hung out with the guys until my taxi arrived to take me to the airport. On the taxi ride, there was beautiful arabic music playing on the radio with the Moroccan scenery going by and I knew I would really miss this place and should go back soon.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Barcelona! November 4th through the 9th
Pictures are in my Barcelona Picasa Album and more will be up on this blog soon!
I decided to take a night bus between Tuesday night of November 4th and Wednesday, November 5th so my only way of knowing about the elections was holding my phone in my hand and praying that my parents call me as soon as they know the results, which happens to be around 5:00am. But luckily, after hearing Obama's voice giving the victory speech, I was in a great mood and I started off my Barcelona trip on a pretty good food.
When I first arrived at Barcelona early Wednesday morning, I met up a friend of a Carleton friend, Cris Alomar. Since she is a med student at Universitat Autònoma De Barcelona (the university an hour out of the city), she has class and labs almost all day, so after some croissants and good mornings, she headed off to school and Barcelona was at my disposal. After a little nap, I headed out towards downtown because Cris's sister's apartment (where she stays during the school year) is a bit out of downtown. I took this thing called “bicing” which is basically a city wide bike system (LOTS of biker's in Barcelona) and also one of the most horrendously maintained systems ever. Either every bike is broken, or the “stands” from which you take the bikes (electronic) don't work, or after your “half hour” with a bike is done and you are trying to return your bike, all the stands are full and you can't put your bike back (I just heard from everyone that you need to return it after half an hour...I have yet to know what happens if you have it out for more than half an hour). After being attacked by a bicing that sort of fell on me while I was adjusting the seat (yay being short) and then finally getting the bike to work but being lost, I decided to ditch it at the closest stand (which took about half an hour to find...hopefully Cris will let me know what happens after keeping the bike out for so long) and decided to walk downtown. Point being, it was a good story to tell, but it's much more of a “local” thing than for a tourist, so I will just stick to walking and public transport.
I got downtown and just meandered through “Las Ramblas” and Barri Gothic most of the afternoon. The architecture and the scenery of Barcelona are just breath taking. It was very touristy, with tons of street performers and such, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At around 8pm, Cris and I met up as planned in front of FNAC (Spain's equivalent of “Borders”) and headed through Barrio Born (looks like Barri Gothic but a few less tourists) for some pizza for dinner. On the way home from this area, Cris insisted on taking a bicing, making me sit on the back while she “stood and pedaled (hard work!!)” and I was kind of nervous the whole time, although it wasn't too bad. When we got to Monument de Colon, I realized that we were by the water at night time and since it was ridiculously beautiful, I wanted to take a stroll along the pier with her, chatting the whole time. We soon went back to her house (via metro) and it was a great day overall.
The next day, Cris's university was going to have a HUGE university wide festival, with tons of food and stalls and music and through time, this has evolved to a bit of a drinking thing too (Carleton kids: Think Spring Concert times twenty) and since she was the head of the budget committee for the med students, she had to be there all day so I went with her for a while. It was really fun to see all these students so excited about their school and departments and I loved seeing the “traditional human castillan (?)”. Around 3pm, I decided I would head back to Barcelona by myself and see a few more sights before Cris came back at night.
I first went Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous cathedral that has been in construction for hundreds of years but I was not impressed. Well, impressed, yes, but I did not find it that aesthetically pleasing, just a lot of stuff going on...way too much in fact. I was a bit nervous that I was the only person who did not absolutely love the Sagrada Familia but I later heard from Cris and several of Cris's friends that they felt the same way, with no offense to Gaudi, so that was a bit reassuring. Then I went to the Picasso Museum and coincidentally ran into another friend of a friend from Carleton and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening with her. Cris didn't come back until very late because I guess they ran into some huge economic issues and she had to try to fix them (which is kind of foreseeable when some college students are drinking during the day and trying to manage a food stand at the same time).
The next day, Cris skipped some morning classes to hang out with me and show me some more aesthetically pleasing Gaudi architecture. We also went shopping and bought the same kind of boots (we are a bit too similar) and had a picnic in a park. Then she had to go to a lab so I wandered around Barcelona a bit more. At this point, I knew the streets really well, and am pretty sure I knew it better than Cris herself (as she told me). Then I took a train to meet Cris at her school after her lab was over, and we drove to Premia, a town a bit outside of Barcelona where she grew up. We cooked a dinner and she had some friends over and it was really fun night, other than the frustrating aspect of her friends changing from Castellano (“Spanish”) to Catalan (a hybrid between Spanish an French spoken in Cataluña).
The next day, we spent the morning in Premia and went back to Barcelona in the evening. I took my first motorcycle ride from her house to the train station and that was really intense. The train ride from Premia to Barcelona was soo beautiful, right along the water at sunset. We went to Park Guell and then the fountains of Montjuic in the evening and it was all very dreamlike. I took a morning bus on Sunday morning to take back to Madrid and saw some more beautiful hills and greenery on my really long bus ride back.
I decided to take a night bus between Tuesday night of November 4th and Wednesday, November 5th so my only way of knowing about the elections was holding my phone in my hand and praying that my parents call me as soon as they know the results, which happens to be around 5:00am. But luckily, after hearing Obama's voice giving the victory speech, I was in a great mood and I started off my Barcelona trip on a pretty good food.
When I first arrived at Barcelona early Wednesday morning, I met up a friend of a Carleton friend, Cris Alomar. Since she is a med student at Universitat Autònoma De Barcelona (the university an hour out of the city), she has class and labs almost all day, so after some croissants and good mornings, she headed off to school and Barcelona was at my disposal. After a little nap, I headed out towards downtown because Cris's sister's apartment (where she stays during the school year) is a bit out of downtown. I took this thing called “bicing” which is basically a city wide bike system (LOTS of biker's in Barcelona) and also one of the most horrendously maintained systems ever. Either every bike is broken, or the “stands” from which you take the bikes (electronic) don't work, or after your “half hour” with a bike is done and you are trying to return your bike, all the stands are full and you can't put your bike back (I just heard from everyone that you need to return it after half an hour...I have yet to know what happens if you have it out for more than half an hour). After being attacked by a bicing that sort of fell on me while I was adjusting the seat (yay being short) and then finally getting the bike to work but being lost, I decided to ditch it at the closest stand (which took about half an hour to find...hopefully Cris will let me know what happens after keeping the bike out for so long) and decided to walk downtown. Point being, it was a good story to tell, but it's much more of a “local” thing than for a tourist, so I will just stick to walking and public transport.
I got downtown and just meandered through “Las Ramblas” and Barri Gothic most of the afternoon. The architecture and the scenery of Barcelona are just breath taking. It was very touristy, with tons of street performers and such, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At around 8pm, Cris and I met up as planned in front of FNAC (Spain's equivalent of “Borders”) and headed through Barrio Born (looks like Barri Gothic but a few less tourists) for some pizza for dinner. On the way home from this area, Cris insisted on taking a bicing, making me sit on the back while she “stood and pedaled (hard work!!)” and I was kind of nervous the whole time, although it wasn't too bad. When we got to Monument de Colon, I realized that we were by the water at night time and since it was ridiculously beautiful, I wanted to take a stroll along the pier with her, chatting the whole time. We soon went back to her house (via metro) and it was a great day overall.
The next day, Cris's university was going to have a HUGE university wide festival, with tons of food and stalls and music and through time, this has evolved to a bit of a drinking thing too (Carleton kids: Think Spring Concert times twenty) and since she was the head of the budget committee for the med students, she had to be there all day so I went with her for a while. It was really fun to see all these students so excited about their school and departments and I loved seeing the “traditional human castillan (?)”. Around 3pm, I decided I would head back to Barcelona by myself and see a few more sights before Cris came back at night.
I first went Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous cathedral that has been in construction for hundreds of years but I was not impressed. Well, impressed, yes, but I did not find it that aesthetically pleasing, just a lot of stuff going on...way too much in fact. I was a bit nervous that I was the only person who did not absolutely love the Sagrada Familia but I later heard from Cris and several of Cris's friends that they felt the same way, with no offense to Gaudi, so that was a bit reassuring. Then I went to the Picasso Museum and coincidentally ran into another friend of a friend from Carleton and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening with her. Cris didn't come back until very late because I guess they ran into some huge economic issues and she had to try to fix them (which is kind of foreseeable when some college students are drinking during the day and trying to manage a food stand at the same time).
The next day, Cris skipped some morning classes to hang out with me and show me some more aesthetically pleasing Gaudi architecture. We also went shopping and bought the same kind of boots (we are a bit too similar) and had a picnic in a park. Then she had to go to a lab so I wandered around Barcelona a bit more. At this point, I knew the streets really well, and am pretty sure I knew it better than Cris herself (as she told me). Then I took a train to meet Cris at her school after her lab was over, and we drove to Premia, a town a bit outside of Barcelona where she grew up. We cooked a dinner and she had some friends over and it was really fun night, other than the frustrating aspect of her friends changing from Castellano (“Spanish”) to Catalan (a hybrid between Spanish an French spoken in Cataluña).
The next day, we spent the morning in Premia and went back to Barcelona in the evening. I took my first motorcycle ride from her house to the train station and that was really intense. The train ride from Premia to Barcelona was soo beautiful, right along the water at sunset. We went to Park Guell and then the fountains of Montjuic in the evening and it was all very dreamlike. I took a morning bus on Sunday morning to take back to Madrid and saw some more beautiful hills and greenery on my really long bus ride back.
Class trip to Galicia, October 23rd through 26th
So right after the whole ballot not coming shindig, our class headed to Galicia, the little "pan handle" of Spain above Portugal, and although it isn't as famous as Andalucia (Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada), it is really gorgeous and a popular place for Spaniards to visit. Our first city there was A Coruña which, climate wise, I would compare it to Seattle because it is on the ocean and has a reputation of a lot of rain ("the rain in Spain stays mainly in Galicia"). Although the architecture revolves around this rainy weather with "galleries" that are glassed in porches, we got perfect weather for the few days we were there.Our four star hotel (!!) Pazo do Rio was incredible, with an old style main building and modern "casitas" which can hold entire, large, families, but we were able to share between one or two people. Then began the influx of food that never ended. We first ate at a restaurant with delicious cheesy potatoes and chicken with lots of wine. Then we walked around the city a bit, and it was time for dinner. Our class went to a tapas bar (meal pre-paid for by our professor), which began pretty inoccently with a LOT of eggplant lasagna. It then moved to mountains of "croquetes" and we were all content. Then we got some tortilla española (spanish "omlette"). Then came A TON of calamari with potatoes. Then giant plates of mussles. Then plates of lamb and potatoes. And even more tapas, and all this doesn't begin to describe half the food we ate. And with ever HUGE plate of food came 2 giant jugs of delicious sangria. The food kept coming, and so did the sangria. The freshness of the seafood made it so good and that night, I realized that maybe it is possible to explode from eating too much..but it was just too delicious to pass up.
The following day, we went to Santiago de Compostela, known for it's giant ornate cathedral at the end of the "camino", pilgrimage that many Catholics walk to this day. Santiago de Compostela is also "St. James", the saint of traveling, but has an alter ego as well as Santiago Matamoros. Basically, to this day, little statues in the cathedral show an angry faced Santiago on a white horse with a machete in his hand, with dying Moors underfoot. They have "covered" the lower part of this with a giant bouquet of white flowers, but it doesn't really help that much.
The next day day we walked 9 km of the beautiful Camino, saw bagpipers and shoemakers and a museum in a small town outside of Santiago. We got to talk to some locals and spend time with incredibly nice people. We had a "pilgrim's" lunch along the walk as well, with delicious chicken and lentils that are tastier than they look.
Our last morning, we took a tour of the A Coruña coast which is absolutely magnificent (take a look at my Galicia Picasa Album for more pictures) and learned about the histories of a lot of the random statues that pop up along the shoreline. Most exciting was a bench that is shaped just like the super slanted pool furniture that makes you fall asleep in seconds. A bunch of us took a really nice nap, listening to the lapping waves on the shore and with the sun on our faces. And undoubtedly, to continue with the theme of this trip, we ended our last day in Galicia with a ridiculously delicious lunch at restaurant, with TONS of fresh seafood and bread and more wine.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Awful Luck
As I was working on an essay today and chatting with a friend, my macbook froze. I tried to force quit everything but it did not work. Then I force shut it down holding down the button. After waiting a few minutes, when trying to turn it on again, I got startup sound, a gray apple on a screen, but nothing more. Ive done everything possible to fix it but I think its the motherboard and its a Sunday so every place here is closed, plus there is no mac store yet. I only needed my computer for a few more weeks before traveling Europe and Ill be able to live without it, it will just be tough to contact you all. I hope you are all doing well and send me emails and I will try to respond when I can...
Love,
Jojo
Love,
Jojo
Monday, October 27, 2008
...Absentee Ballot
It finally came on Thursday, October 23rd, which was the day I left for Galicia for a four day class trip.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Why voting abroad is awful
So last Friday, October 17th, after waiting and checking and bothering our Municipal clerk with emails (who assured me it had been sent last week; lost in the mail...?), and waiting some more for my ballot to come, I was beginning to lose hope that it would arrive (most of my other classmates here had already received theirs). Coincidentally, I received a Madrid_Warden "US Embassy in Spain" email in the morning before class. These always look like spam emails, but I think we were signed up to learn more about voting abroad, etc. The subject of this email was "Final Reminder to VOTE!" and a section that said "Ballot hasn't arrive yet?" recommended the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (also known as the "FWAB") which we can print and send or fill out at the embassy, as a back-up vote, if the absentee ballot never arrives. Note: if the absentee ballot DOES arrive later, you have to fill that out and send it back ASAP as well, because that's what they are waiting for. I checked the US Embassy website and it closes at 1pm, and I figured getting this ballot filled out before the weekend would be the best way to ensure that SOME sort of vote goes in, so I decided I would have to sacrifice a class to get this vote in.
So the US Embassy is inconveniently located in between some metro stations, but after a little asking around, arriving at the BACK of the embassy and having to walk around it, I finally was able to get there. Luckily, I was not one of the hundreds of people trying to get a passport so by the time I was done filling out my "FWAB", my "number" was called (it's like the DMV, with TONS more people). Granted, no one was at the window with my number on it, but I think they were a bit occupied with a more serious situation. An American woman who had stayed in Madrid for 10 days and was on her way to airport, suitcase in hand, when someone slipped their hand into her purse and robbed her on the metro (and her passport was also one of those things so she was trying to get a new passport before her flight left that same day). Terrible terrible luck. Note to self: even if it is the LAST day in Europe, never forget to guard my stuff with my life.
Finally, I got my vote in, got the consulate to sign as a witness, got everything taken care of, and for free, so I was more or less content. Trying to find the closest metro to get to school was tough because I was a bit misoriented and basically smack dab in between 4 metro stops all around me, but I figured it out and got to class with 10 minutes left (I felt really bad about...but the professor did not seem to upset...). This was my 2 hour adventure on Friday.
But wait, that's not all. Remember; this blog is about the adventures of Jojo. And my life seems to be full of them.
After the second class, I came home to a response from the Madison Municipal Clerk to my very angry email about not yet recieving my ballot (sent two nights prior), and they had conveniently attached my absentee ballot to this email...wish they could have done that before I went through all the hassle to go the embassy. I figured I'd continue to be patient and wait till Monday, especially because if my ballot did come in the mail by Monday, it'd be a lot easier to fill it out and send it back than finding a cyber cafe, paying to use internet/print off the ballot from my email, buy the stamp/envelope, the list goes on.
Well unfortunately, my ballot did not arrive by Monday and since I did "technically" recieve my absentee ballot (via email...does that even count?) and am supposed to send it in if do get it, I need to get it done before it is too late. I went to a cyber cafe Monday night (where I realized that every cyber cafe is run by Bengalis, just like me, although I think most are Bangladeshi), and printed off the pages. With help from my friend from class as a "US Citizen Witness", I filled out the ballot while sitting on a park bench near her house.
Tuesday morning, I realized I had some random envelopes so I didn't have to pay to buy some, so I filled everything out, with my name/address on everything, twice, and taped my envelope shut. I went to the bus station to buy my bus tickets to Barcelona and luckily, right outside the bus station was a "Correos" post office, and I just wanted to make sure my envelope was not overweight and would ACTUALLY get there (hopefully, in time!). When I asked for a regular stamp, the lady weighed my envelope and told me that it was .02 grams over the .2 gram limit, and thus would be about 1euro more. I commenced to open the envelope, tore off half a page which was just blank white, gave it all back to her, and it was perfectly fine (thank God), and I carefully watched her glue it shut and put it in the mail courier.
So after spending 2 euros on printing/stamps, but more importantly, probably about 4 hours of effort, my absentee ballot should be going in, as well as my back-up, Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. I am hoping that one of these votes will be counted for me and all this effort pays off with a president who will actually try stop the war, boost the economy (make the dollar worth a bit more in Europe?), help me pay off college loans and such, and actually make our lives better, overall.
So the US Embassy is inconveniently located in between some metro stations, but after a little asking around, arriving at the BACK of the embassy and having to walk around it, I finally was able to get there. Luckily, I was not one of the hundreds of people trying to get a passport so by the time I was done filling out my "FWAB", my "number" was called (it's like the DMV, with TONS more people). Granted, no one was at the window with my number on it, but I think they were a bit occupied with a more serious situation. An American woman who had stayed in Madrid for 10 days and was on her way to airport, suitcase in hand, when someone slipped their hand into her purse and robbed her on the metro (and her passport was also one of those things so she was trying to get a new passport before her flight left that same day). Terrible terrible luck. Note to self: even if it is the LAST day in Europe, never forget to guard my stuff with my life.
Finally, I got my vote in, got the consulate to sign as a witness, got everything taken care of, and for free, so I was more or less content. Trying to find the closest metro to get to school was tough because I was a bit misoriented and basically smack dab in between 4 metro stops all around me, but I figured it out and got to class with 10 minutes left (I felt really bad about...but the professor did not seem to upset...). This was my 2 hour adventure on Friday.
But wait, that's not all. Remember; this blog is about the adventures of Jojo. And my life seems to be full of them.
After the second class, I came home to a response from the Madison Municipal Clerk to my very angry email about not yet recieving my ballot (sent two nights prior), and they had conveniently attached my absentee ballot to this email...wish they could have done that before I went through all the hassle to go the embassy. I figured I'd continue to be patient and wait till Monday, especially because if my ballot did come in the mail by Monday, it'd be a lot easier to fill it out and send it back than finding a cyber cafe, paying to use internet/print off the ballot from my email, buy the stamp/envelope, the list goes on.
Well unfortunately, my ballot did not arrive by Monday and since I did "technically" recieve my absentee ballot (via email...does that even count?) and am supposed to send it in if do get it, I need to get it done before it is too late. I went to a cyber cafe Monday night (where I realized that every cyber cafe is run by Bengalis, just like me, although I think most are Bangladeshi), and printed off the pages. With help from my friend from class as a "US Citizen Witness", I filled out the ballot while sitting on a park bench near her house.
Tuesday morning, I realized I had some random envelopes so I didn't have to pay to buy some, so I filled everything out, with my name/address on everything, twice, and taped my envelope shut. I went to the bus station to buy my bus tickets to Barcelona and luckily, right outside the bus station was a "Correos" post office, and I just wanted to make sure my envelope was not overweight and would ACTUALLY get there (hopefully, in time!). When I asked for a regular stamp, the lady weighed my envelope and told me that it was .02 grams over the .2 gram limit, and thus would be about 1euro more. I commenced to open the envelope, tore off half a page which was just blank white, gave it all back to her, and it was perfectly fine (thank God), and I carefully watched her glue it shut and put it in the mail courier.
So after spending 2 euros on printing/stamps, but more importantly, probably about 4 hours of effort, my absentee ballot should be going in, as well as my back-up, Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. I am hoping that one of these votes will be counted for me and all this effort pays off with a president who will actually try stop the war, boost the economy (make the dollar worth a bit more in Europe?), help me pay off college loans and such, and actually make our lives better, overall.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Cordoba! Saturday, October 11th through Sunday, October 12th
Finally, I have some free time to blog about my trip to Cordoba (I was vigorously working on a presentation for class the last few days). So Hannah and I got on a bus at the bus station at 9am to head to Cordoba. At first, the ride was pretty smooth and it was easy to sleep for a bit. However, the road turns really windy and goes through some beautiful landscape and mountains after a couple hours, which makes it harder to stay asleep (and not be a little carsick).
After a break during the 5 hour bus ride, we finally got to Cordoba! The weather was a bit bad, but luckily, as soon as we got there, the rain stopped so that was pretty lucky. We asked the bus driver how long it would walk to get to our hostel instead of taking the bus, and he said about half an hour, so we just decided to walk and save that 1 euro and combine getting to our hostel and discovering the town. So although we had maps in our "guidebooks" and knew the general direction, it was a bit of an adventure figuring out where exactly we were especially because many narrow little streets aren't on the map, but walking through the gorgeous antique streets was really fun and we made it there safely and in a short amount of time.
Our hostel was very nice, connected to a little cafe (where we would get a free breakfast) and with the most helpful staff. In fact, they were really surprised that we were able to get a room in such a short amount of time because the phones were going off the hook for people looking for a place to stay in Cordoba. They gave us a map and helped us figure where the best sights are. After settling in our room, we headed off towards the "Mezquita", the largest Mosque in all of Spain (built when the moors made it their capital hundreds of years ago). Since it costs 8e to get in, people say that it's not worth that cost, and postcards seem to have a ton of pictures of the inside anyways, we just absorbed the essence from the gardens outside of it.
After Mezquita, we walked around a bit but since it was "siesta time" (in Spain, from about 2:30-5:30, other than restaurants, everything is closed for a giant lunch/nap break). So we headed back to the hostel and joined nap time. Right around this time, I started seeing tons of people in the streets with suitcases and backpacks, and the person at hostel front desk constantly telling every other person that walks in that they are full. It was evident that tons of people were thinking they could come to Cordoba without hotel/hostel reservations and easily find one, but they were just as wrong as we were. At that point, I felt soo lucky to have found a place to sleep in Cordoba that night that it didn't even matter how tiny the bathroom was. Finally, we went to the famous bridge, Puente Romano (built originally by Romans but very remodeled now) at night to take some night pictures. I think they turned out well. Afterwards, we went out to a jazz cafe and had some delicious drinks, but called a pretty early night around midnight.
The next day, we had a few more sites to see, such as the Alcazar de los Reyes, which is a castle and some gardens,both gorgeous and fullll of tourists. We also walked across Puente Romano some more and explored the other side. We relaxed a bit in a park and some friendly people with adorable dogs chatted with us (I have come to terms with my addiction to petting cute dogs and craving "zumo" or juice--although natural orange is always the best kind). After a mediocre lunch, Hannah and I trekked back through town (very efficiently this time) to the bus station, all the while having a VERY interesting debate about "feminism" vs. "feminists", a recent topic in class. The bus ride back was fairly smooth; I tried to sleep a bit but after a rest stop, we picked up our conversation and were back in Madrid before we knew it. It was all in all a great experience, and you should check out all the pictures of Cordoba, and more of Spain by looking at
My Picasa Albums
Please keep the comments coming!!! Will update about Madrid very soon!
Love,
Jojo
After a break during the 5 hour bus ride, we finally got to Cordoba! The weather was a bit bad, but luckily, as soon as we got there, the rain stopped so that was pretty lucky. We asked the bus driver how long it would walk to get to our hostel instead of taking the bus, and he said about half an hour, so we just decided to walk and save that 1 euro and combine getting to our hostel and discovering the town. So although we had maps in our "guidebooks" and knew the general direction, it was a bit of an adventure figuring out where exactly we were especially because many narrow little streets aren't on the map, but walking through the gorgeous antique streets was really fun and we made it there safely and in a short amount of time.
Our hostel was very nice, connected to a little cafe (where we would get a free breakfast) and with the most helpful staff. In fact, they were really surprised that we were able to get a room in such a short amount of time because the phones were going off the hook for people looking for a place to stay in Cordoba. They gave us a map and helped us figure where the best sights are. After settling in our room, we headed off towards the "Mezquita", the largest Mosque in all of Spain (built when the moors made it their capital hundreds of years ago). Since it costs 8e to get in, people say that it's not worth that cost, and postcards seem to have a ton of pictures of the inside anyways, we just absorbed the essence from the gardens outside of it.
After Mezquita, we walked around a bit but since it was "siesta time" (in Spain, from about 2:30-5:30, other than restaurants, everything is closed for a giant lunch/nap break). So we headed back to the hostel and joined nap time. Right around this time, I started seeing tons of people in the streets with suitcases and backpacks, and the person at hostel front desk constantly telling every other person that walks in that they are full. It was evident that tons of people were thinking they could come to Cordoba without hotel/hostel reservations and easily find one, but they were just as wrong as we were. At that point, I felt soo lucky to have found a place to sleep in Cordoba that night that it didn't even matter how tiny the bathroom was. Finally, we went to the famous bridge, Puente Romano (built originally by Romans but very remodeled now) at night to take some night pictures. I think they turned out well. Afterwards, we went out to a jazz cafe and had some delicious drinks, but called a pretty early night around midnight.
The next day, we had a few more sites to see, such as the Alcazar de los Reyes, which is a castle and some gardens,both gorgeous and fullll of tourists. We also walked across Puente Romano some more and explored the other side. We relaxed a bit in a park and some friendly people with adorable dogs chatted with us (I have come to terms with my addiction to petting cute dogs and craving "zumo" or juice--although natural orange is always the best kind). After a mediocre lunch, Hannah and I trekked back through town (very efficiently this time) to the bus station, all the while having a VERY interesting debate about "feminism" vs. "feminists", a recent topic in class. The bus ride back was fairly smooth; I tried to sleep a bit but after a rest stop, we picked up our conversation and were back in Madrid before we knew it. It was all in all a great experience, and you should check out all the pictures of Cordoba, and more of Spain by looking at
My Picasa Albums
Please keep the comments coming!!! Will update about Madrid very soon!
Love,
Jojo
Friday, October 10, 2008
Pre-aventura a Cordoba...
So my friend from the Carleton program and I agreed upon a short weekend adventure to Cordoba (the northern city of the southernmost province, Andalucia, which also has Granada and Sevilla). We then went to the station on Thursday to buy bus tickets (25e roundtrip) and were pretty set to go. We came back and started to casually email a couple cheap hostels for rooms. All of a sudden, we began to realize that all the rooms to the cheap hostels were taken, which was a bit odd and annoying, and I emailed them to let them know I already have tickets and to notify me of any cancellations. We started to enquire about more and more expensive hotels, and everything (under 100e) was taken! Literally, I called over 15 places and they all told me that they were "completo" or full for the ONE Saturday night we'd be there. The logic that one receptionist told me was that Monday is a holiday, and thus, everyone is traveling...but everyone to Cordoba? Maybe we'll discover some giant fiesta or festival going on. Anyways, we began to freak out a bit, because with tickets already bought, but no desire to pay 50+e each for a hotel/hostel, we started asking about couch surfing and I was considering tent options...no dice on anything. Finally, at around 4pm on Friday when we were ready to scrap the trip altogether, I received an email from one of the higher priced (25e per person/night) but still pretty cheap hostel (they range from 20-40e usually; under 20e is pretty lucky) that a room with 2 individual beds had freed up and they were waiting for us to confirm it!!! I called them right away and booked the room and so I'm leaving for Andalucia in about an hour and half (so I'll head to bus station right about now). Wish us luck, and pray for us that those predicted PM showers won't come!!!
More about our trip soon!
PS We found out there is a HUGE concert going on in Cordoba tonight. And the weather is amazing and it is FILLED with tourists. Longer update about our trip soon!
More about our trip soon!
PS We found out there is a HUGE concert going on in Cordoba tonight. And the weather is amazing and it is FILLED with tourists. Longer update about our trip soon!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Castilla...Friday, October 3rd
So I am writing this to you from a gorgeous hotel (Hotel TRYP) in Salamanca, while the rest of the group is out and about on a Friday night and I'm just hoping I feel better by tomorrow. I have a bit of a head cold, and it isn't too bad, but I just don't want it to get any worse because it's just awful to be sick in a foreign country (and city, nonetheless!).
Our trip to Castilla has been very exciting so far. Yesterday early morning, we went from to Valladolid (via coach bus; that is how we are doing all of our travels these few days), a gorgeous little city about 2 hours north west (?) of Madrid.
After dropping our bags off at our hostel, we first went to the "Museo Oriental" with tons of objects and art pieces from Asia, with a tour guide that explained the diligence that went behind ever piece. We toured the town a bit more and then went our separate ways for some Spanish "tapas".
We reconvened afterward to go to the Christopher Columbus Museum, because Valladolid was the last town he lived in before passing away. The museum was very modern and although it's not the most interesting information ever, it was very interactive and engaging. After that, we walked all around the town and saw a ton of stuff, but I think we we are all a bit lethargic at this time. After some cafe (or "zumo de naranja"=orange juice) for me, we met at the hostel at 8pm to go to a pueblo for dinner.
Last night, some students took a bit of a nap and woke up at 2:30 am to watch the VP debates. I wanted to but at 2:30 am when my alarm went off, I decided it'd be best for my health to just sleep some more. In the morning I felt really great when finding some breakfast with my roommate and it definitely was the best decision at that time.
The dinner was really good. Finally, we got some pretty tasty, authentic, Spanish food, with wine and sausage and tortilla (potato and egg dish). I loved my "arroz con leche" (rice with milk) dessert; it was the perfect sweetness and temperature.
This morning, we started off by going to a castle! It was in a rural area and it amazing and the plateau looks a bit like Nebraska. We next went to "Villa de Libro", an extremely rural pueblo, to visit a professor at St. Olaf who knows a lot about some antique and modern musical instruments in Spain. We ate a really delicious lunch in this tiny town, with rabbit and pork chops (yum). This town really felt like there was absolutely no one around (although we saw a couple people here and there). It was so calm and so completely different than Madrid, and I think a lot of us really enjoyed this change of pace.
After that, we went to the monestary of this town, another church in another town, and honestly, the images of Jesus Christ and GIANT churches in rural Spain are kind of melding together and floating around in my head. Being sick probably didn't help either. I think I'm forgetting a couple things, but basically, we got quite the taste of rural and religious Spain.
We arrived at Salamanca around 8pm and came to our hotel rooms. I chatted with people a bit before everyone decided to go out and I decided to try to connect to some free internet with my roommate's computer (thank you!) and wait for my NyQuil to kick in (which it's doing right about now).
I just finished watching a good chunk of the debates on youtube while writing this out. Joe Biden spoke better than I thought he would, although so did Sarah Palin (grr). I'm thanking god for this free wireless internet and hoping all of you are doing okay. Keep in touch, and I will post like, HUNDREDS of photos that go along with this post on Sunday night/Monday. Until then, keep in touch.
Much love,
Jojo
Our trip to Castilla has been very exciting so far. Yesterday early morning, we went from to Valladolid (via coach bus; that is how we are doing all of our travels these few days), a gorgeous little city about 2 hours north west (?) of Madrid.
After dropping our bags off at our hostel, we first went to the "Museo Oriental" with tons of objects and art pieces from Asia, with a tour guide that explained the diligence that went behind ever piece. We toured the town a bit more and then went our separate ways for some Spanish "tapas".
We reconvened afterward to go to the Christopher Columbus Museum, because Valladolid was the last town he lived in before passing away. The museum was very modern and although it's not the most interesting information ever, it was very interactive and engaging. After that, we walked all around the town and saw a ton of stuff, but I think we we are all a bit lethargic at this time. After some cafe (or "zumo de naranja"=orange juice) for me, we met at the hostel at 8pm to go to a pueblo for dinner.
Last night, some students took a bit of a nap and woke up at 2:30 am to watch the VP debates. I wanted to but at 2:30 am when my alarm went off, I decided it'd be best for my health to just sleep some more. In the morning I felt really great when finding some breakfast with my roommate and it definitely was the best decision at that time.
The dinner was really good. Finally, we got some pretty tasty, authentic, Spanish food, with wine and sausage and tortilla (potato and egg dish). I loved my "arroz con leche" (rice with milk) dessert; it was the perfect sweetness and temperature.
This morning, we started off by going to a castle! It was in a rural area and it amazing and the plateau looks a bit like Nebraska. We next went to "Villa de Libro", an extremely rural pueblo, to visit a professor at St. Olaf who knows a lot about some antique and modern musical instruments in Spain. We ate a really delicious lunch in this tiny town, with rabbit and pork chops (yum). This town really felt like there was absolutely no one around (although we saw a couple people here and there). It was so calm and so completely different than Madrid, and I think a lot of us really enjoyed this change of pace.
After that, we went to the monestary of this town, another church in another town, and honestly, the images of Jesus Christ and GIANT churches in rural Spain are kind of melding together and floating around in my head. Being sick probably didn't help either. I think I'm forgetting a couple things, but basically, we got quite the taste of rural and religious Spain.
We arrived at Salamanca around 8pm and came to our hotel rooms. I chatted with people a bit before everyone decided to go out and I decided to try to connect to some free internet with my roommate's computer (thank you!) and wait for my NyQuil to kick in (which it's doing right about now).
I just finished watching a good chunk of the debates on youtube while writing this out. Joe Biden spoke better than I thought he would, although so did Sarah Palin (grr). I'm thanking god for this free wireless internet and hoping all of you are doing okay. Keep in touch, and I will post like, HUNDREDS of photos that go along with this post on Sunday night/Monday. Until then, keep in touch.
Much love,
Jojo
Monday, September 29, 2008
Talavera de la Reina, Monday the 29th
So on Monday, we took a day trip out to a small-ish town called Talavera, a one and half hour drive outside of Madrid. After a little bus tour of the city, we explored a museum filled with ceramics, which is the famous speciality of this town. After getting a bunch of free books and postcards from them (they were so kind!), we went to a high school to see what high school is like for some students around our age.
The school was totally new so it was gorgeous and clean, but the students were a bit...immature, to say the least. I guess we'd just forgotten how high school students can be like. Then afterwards, we ate some "authentic Spanish food" in their cafeteria, which, I have some reservations about.
First of all, they Spanish really like their food very mushy, and I'm not sure why. They think this is "riquiissimmo" (delicious) and honestly, it's just a bit overcooked...and has some funky smells sometimes, but I'm probably just spoiled with the aromas of Indian food. Also, there tends to be this "surprise" chunk of hardboiled egg in some dishes...it's totally unexpected and I don't quite understand it, lol. Lastly, sometimes, the meat looks like it was just cut off the animal's bones, cooked, and served on a plate. No spices or sauces or anything! But some food is definitely tastier, especially the dessert and fresh squeezed orange juice.
After a very filling lunch, we went on an adventure to a little pueblo outside of Talavera, I think called Ospera (?), to see a picturesque castle and walk around. This area is just soooo calm and noiseless and beautiful, it's completely different than Madrid. I mean, it might be a bit too rural for me because sometimes I would feel a bit...stuck? It's not easily accessible and although there are a few stores, I'm sure it's very difficult to aquire ALL your necessities...and there's no "Corte Inglés" (the Super Walmart of Spain) either. But what is really strange is that I can envision a lot of people would love to enjoy their last days in a little town like this.
Which reminds me of the book we're reading right now (Palmar; I think this was the point!), La Lluvia Amarilla by Julio Llamazares. It's a beautiful poetic memoria about the last survivor of a pueblo in Spain. I'm pretty sure that every paragraph almost sent me to tears. Not in a bad way but in a really prophetic, realization about being alone and having to die someday, kind of way. That sounded really depressing, and although it is, it's definitely worth a read, kind of like a slap in the face of sorts. Or rather, a "gentle breeze brushing across your cheeks", to keep in synch with the book :). Find a translated version if you can!
More pictures are up on the link and I'll try to post them here too! Keep the comments coming!
Love,
Jojo
The school was totally new so it was gorgeous and clean, but the students were a bit...immature, to say the least. I guess we'd just forgotten how high school students can be like. Then afterwards, we ate some "authentic Spanish food" in their cafeteria, which, I have some reservations about.
First of all, they Spanish really like their food very mushy, and I'm not sure why. They think this is "riquiissimmo" (delicious) and honestly, it's just a bit overcooked...and has some funky smells sometimes, but I'm probably just spoiled with the aromas of Indian food. Also, there tends to be this "surprise" chunk of hardboiled egg in some dishes...it's totally unexpected and I don't quite understand it, lol. Lastly, sometimes, the meat looks like it was just cut off the animal's bones, cooked, and served on a plate. No spices or sauces or anything! But some food is definitely tastier, especially the dessert and fresh squeezed orange juice.
After a very filling lunch, we went on an adventure to a little pueblo outside of Talavera, I think called Ospera (?), to see a picturesque castle and walk around. This area is just soooo calm and noiseless and beautiful, it's completely different than Madrid. I mean, it might be a bit too rural for me because sometimes I would feel a bit...stuck? It's not easily accessible and although there are a few stores, I'm sure it's very difficult to aquire ALL your necessities...and there's no "Corte Inglés" (the Super Walmart of Spain) either. But what is really strange is that I can envision a lot of people would love to enjoy their last days in a little town like this.
Which reminds me of the book we're reading right now (Palmar; I think this was the point!), La Lluvia Amarilla by Julio Llamazares. It's a beautiful poetic memoria about the last survivor of a pueblo in Spain. I'm pretty sure that every paragraph almost sent me to tears. Not in a bad way but in a really prophetic, realization about being alone and having to die someday, kind of way. That sounded really depressing, and although it is, it's definitely worth a read, kind of like a slap in the face of sorts. Or rather, a "gentle breeze brushing across your cheeks", to keep in synch with the book :). Find a translated version if you can!
More pictures are up on the link and I'll try to post them here too! Keep the comments coming!
Love,
Jojo
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Some reflections, Saturday the 27th
Some bad news first.
I can not work at the AECC (Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer; sort of like the American Cancer Society) because to work with the kids, there's a law that I need to take a day and half long course. And this course isn't offered till October 22nd :( (which is less than a month before I leave). I even thought it'd be good to take the course and work for a month, but the lady I talked to suggested that the post-course volunteering should be a least 3-6 months, if not longer, and since I have class and can only work a few days a week, it's not worth it to take the course. Lamesauce. She does have my number so if there are any mailing projects I can help out with, she'll call me.
So blogger HATES me and only once a day lets me load a single picture onto my blog. It's as if some unknown force WANTS my blog to look as boring as possible!!! I'm so sorry! I will keep trying but I still suggest:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jojo.basu/
To see some fantastic pictures that dumb blogger won't let me decorate this blog with.
To me, it seems that when anyone speaks Spanish, their voice sounds less...high pitched? Shrill? It's subtle, but if you listen for it, you might agree. So little Spanish speaking girls are probably the cutest kids in the world, because they're little girls that sound wayyyy more mature just by speaking Spanish.
One of my favorite areas of the city is called Barrio de Huertas also known as Barrio de las letras (with street names after famous writers that used to live there), and with the well known Plaza de Santa Ana in this neighborhood's center. This area is very central, close to Sol (which is the heart of the nightlife), near the museums, and beautiful both in the day and night. I will try to take pictures and post them here if possible, but if blogger hates me, keep an eye on my Picasa albums. Oh and you should "google image" it!
I have yet to visit Templo de Debod and Palacio Cristal, but otherwise, I have most "main" tourist spots covered and will try to make a list with descriptions of these places soon. You may also be receiving a postcard in the next month or so with a picture of a famous site (sent a bit cheaper in the US, thanks to my parents)
If you read this and want a postcard, I need your addresses if you want a postcard! Please!
That's all for now. Keep the comments coming (especially with addresses!)
I can not work at the AECC (Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer; sort of like the American Cancer Society) because to work with the kids, there's a law that I need to take a day and half long course. And this course isn't offered till October 22nd :( (which is less than a month before I leave). I even thought it'd be good to take the course and work for a month, but the lady I talked to suggested that the post-course volunteering should be a least 3-6 months, if not longer, and since I have class and can only work a few days a week, it's not worth it to take the course. Lamesauce. She does have my number so if there are any mailing projects I can help out with, she'll call me.
So blogger HATES me and only once a day lets me load a single picture onto my blog. It's as if some unknown force WANTS my blog to look as boring as possible!!! I'm so sorry! I will keep trying but I still suggest:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jojo.basu/
To see some fantastic pictures that dumb blogger won't let me decorate this blog with.
To me, it seems that when anyone speaks Spanish, their voice sounds less...high pitched? Shrill? It's subtle, but if you listen for it, you might agree. So little Spanish speaking girls are probably the cutest kids in the world, because they're little girls that sound wayyyy more mature just by speaking Spanish.
One of my favorite areas of the city is called Barrio de Huertas also known as Barrio de las letras (with street names after famous writers that used to live there), and with the well known Plaza de Santa Ana in this neighborhood's center. This area is very central, close to Sol (which is the heart of the nightlife), near the museums, and beautiful both in the day and night. I will try to take pictures and post them here if possible, but if blogger hates me, keep an eye on my Picasa albums. Oh and you should "google image" it!
I have yet to visit Templo de Debod and Palacio Cristal, but otherwise, I have most "main" tourist spots covered and will try to make a list with descriptions of these places soon. You may also be receiving a postcard in the next month or so with a picture of a famous site (sent a bit cheaper in the US, thanks to my parents)
If you read this and want a postcard, I need your addresses if you want a postcard! Please!
That's all for now. Keep the comments coming (especially with addresses!)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Birthday!
Hey everyone,
So it was my birthday (yesterday) but I wanted to write about it today after "celebrations" and what not.
On Tuesday evening (September 23rd, the day before my birthday), we had a "meeting" with our professor to hear about letting her know when we travel outside of Madrid, what to do if someone gets ill, etc.
That meeting made me little nervous because I guess I run a risk of paying 300 euros if I'm caught being in Europe without a Visa for more than 90 days, but I'm only here for like 96 days, so I don't know what would be my best option. In the spring, off-campus studies office at Carleton told me that it's not a big deal, especially because I'm not just staying in Madrid for those last 28 days but traveling around Europe, but Palmar is making it seem a bit more serious due to newer laws and regulations. I'll have to ask my parents what I should do.
ANYWAYS, other than becoming nervous about my Visa situation, Palmar treated us to chocolate con churros (dipping churros into a really thick hot chocolate) and I ate so much that I had no room for dinner when I got home! I got a sweet Madrid calendar, a "móvil" charm (cell phone charm), and of course, a card, of course, signed by all my classmates in class when I was sick at home on Monday morning. Lol.
So I woke up early in the morning, around 7:45 AM on my to go online and talk to some friends, and of course, my super adorable mother and brother sing "Feliz Cumpleanos a ti" (Happy Birthday to you) and give me a card and a gift (which is this really cute potpurri thing to hang in closets to make it smell good, and this one is decorated with felt to make it look like a cute rabbit; the potpurri "sack" is it's belly).
After checking facebook a bit, I fell back asleep until about 11 AM. I had class at 12 PM, so I rushed over there (15 minute walk). We talked to a film director named Oskar Garcia and he was very interesting, I just wish I knew a bit more about his movies.
So afterwards, I came home just for a few minutes, thinking I was going to join some friends for lunch, but since I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, my host mother insisted that I eat some pasta and well, it's tough to say no to free food in this continent. We had a bit of a discussion about the European education system versus the American, and although she's convinced the European is just the best, I think there are elements to each that are both good and bad.
Finally, we all met up at the "congreso de diputados" and it was more or less a tour of a government building. In Spanish, of course. Then my friend Hannah and I walked around for a bit looking for a library which I totally failed to find. Then I came home and took another short nap until dinner. Dinner was delicious; homemade "french fries" and an egg (although my mother thinks it's the STRANGEST thing when I separate the yolk out and only want to eat the white of the egg). And of course, flan for dessert! After dinner, I spent a bit of time on the computer video chatting with friends and talking to my parents. Then around 10:30pm, I left the house to meet some classmates at 11:15pm, near my favorite neighborhood in Madrid, to go to a bar and celebrate my birthday. On the metro, a guy told me I was beautiful and asked me my name and tried to get my telephone number from me, even though I told him I didn't have one, twice or three times. Very. Very. Creepy.
After about 15 minutes of walking around in a group of thirteen, we ended up going to a bar that I had been to before for a friend's birthday last week. I remembered LOVING a red wine that my friend had ordered, so ended up getting...um, 4 bottles of red wine that night (it's a sweeter wine, with a great aftertaste, making it dangerously easy to drink). The bartender/waiter remembered us and when I told him it was my birthday, he bought me a rose from a street vendor who walked into the bar, it was very sweet of him! We had an awesome time reflecting and bonding with each other and finally left the bar around 1:15 AM to try to catch the metro. I finally made it home, in a very happy mode, around 2 AM and fell asleep dreaming dreams about missing the metro and getting pickpocketed...
So it was my birthday (yesterday) but I wanted to write about it today after "celebrations" and what not.
On Tuesday evening (September 23rd, the day before my birthday), we had a "meeting" with our professor to hear about letting her know when we travel outside of Madrid, what to do if someone gets ill, etc.
That meeting made me little nervous because I guess I run a risk of paying 300 euros if I'm caught being in Europe without a Visa for more than 90 days, but I'm only here for like 96 days, so I don't know what would be my best option. In the spring, off-campus studies office at Carleton told me that it's not a big deal, especially because I'm not just staying in Madrid for those last 28 days but traveling around Europe, but Palmar is making it seem a bit more serious due to newer laws and regulations. I'll have to ask my parents what I should do.
ANYWAYS, other than becoming nervous about my Visa situation, Palmar treated us to chocolate con churros (dipping churros into a really thick hot chocolate) and I ate so much that I had no room for dinner when I got home! I got a sweet Madrid calendar, a "móvil" charm (cell phone charm), and of course, a card, of course, signed by all my classmates in class when I was sick at home on Monday morning. Lol.
So I woke up early in the morning, around 7:45 AM on my to go online and talk to some friends, and of course, my super adorable mother and brother sing "Feliz Cumpleanos a ti" (Happy Birthday to you) and give me a card and a gift (which is this really cute potpurri thing to hang in closets to make it smell good, and this one is decorated with felt to make it look like a cute rabbit; the potpurri "sack" is it's belly).
After checking facebook a bit, I fell back asleep until about 11 AM. I had class at 12 PM, so I rushed over there (15 minute walk). We talked to a film director named Oskar Garcia and he was very interesting, I just wish I knew a bit more about his movies.
So afterwards, I came home just for a few minutes, thinking I was going to join some friends for lunch, but since I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, my host mother insisted that I eat some pasta and well, it's tough to say no to free food in this continent. We had a bit of a discussion about the European education system versus the American, and although she's convinced the European is just the best, I think there are elements to each that are both good and bad.
Finally, we all met up at the "congreso de diputados" and it was more or less a tour of a government building. In Spanish, of course. Then my friend Hannah and I walked around for a bit looking for a library which I totally failed to find. Then I came home and took another short nap until dinner. Dinner was delicious; homemade "french fries" and an egg (although my mother thinks it's the STRANGEST thing when I separate the yolk out and only want to eat the white of the egg). And of course, flan for dessert! After dinner, I spent a bit of time on the computer video chatting with friends and talking to my parents. Then around 10:30pm, I left the house to meet some classmates at 11:15pm, near my favorite neighborhood in Madrid, to go to a bar and celebrate my birthday. On the metro, a guy told me I was beautiful and asked me my name and tried to get my telephone number from me, even though I told him I didn't have one, twice or three times. Very. Very. Creepy. After about 15 minutes of walking around in a group of thirteen, we ended up going to a bar that I had been to before for a friend's birthday last week. I remembered LOVING a red wine that my friend had ordered, so ended up getting...um, 4 bottles of red wine that night (it's a sweeter wine, with a great aftertaste, making it dangerously easy to drink). The bartender/waiter remembered us and when I told him it was my birthday, he bought me a rose from a street vendor who walked into the bar, it was very sweet of him! We had an awesome time reflecting and bonding with each other and finally left the bar around 1:15 AM to try to catch the metro. I finally made it home, in a very happy mode, around 2 AM and fell asleep dreaming dreams about missing the metro and getting pickpocketed...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Indian Cooking in Spain
So after a weekend of a TON of reading and homework, and only a little going out at night (although I might have been out till 4am on Friday...), I finally came upon Monday.
I woke up in the morning feeling EXTREMELY nauseous for god knows what reason. Since I was pretty sick, I skipped one of my two classes of the day to rest a bit, but since I’m feeling a lot better now, I think it was a really good decision.
Anyways, after class and having a great lunch with my professor, Palmar, I came home and helped my mother prepare to cook tandoori chicken; to turn into murghi makhani (which was part of my gift to her; an Indian cookbook, some spices and teaching her how to cook some Indian food). She, my host brother, and his best friend were all invited to dinner that night.
Since she had once upon time eaten tandoori chicken and not enjoyed it, the night before when we were getting ready to marinating it overnight, my mother seemed extremely skeptical over everything I was doing. “You’re rubbing the masala into the chicken?” “You’re using lemon juice and not water to help marinate it?” ….the list goes on. Since instead of using boneless chicken breasts (to cut up into small pieces later when cooking) we were using drumsticks (which she insisted were tastier, along with insisting on keeping the “lean fat” on it), I was a bit skeptical myself. But since my real mom had reassured me that it wasn’t too big of a deal, I kept on trucking, assuring her that all the steps were correct.
So then, today was the day for baking and cooking chicken. If she had been insistant on her ways before, she was about ten times worse today. “You’re putting the casserole dish with the chicken on a tray with aluminum foil with water on it? How strange!” and “I know my oven; it is going to take WAYYY longer than 15 minutes to bake the chicken” and because of altitude, I figured she had a point and let her handle that part.
Finally, the chicken was pretty much baked and ready to be cooked. This part was more difficult for me, because my host mother a) did not want to use about half the spices on the list, saying “it’s too much, it’s too strong”, and b) we didn’t really have a blender to mix everything so I was beginning to doubt this chicken as well.
However, after using a mortar and pestle for the garlic (no ginger; it’s hard to get a hold of in Spain, as my host mother says) as soon as I started melting some garlic with the butter, I knew that I could cook at least a decent tasting sauce. I added a tomato (that she was VERY good at cutting into small pieces), some “ketchup-like-tomato-sauce”, a bit of the cumin and garam masala (that I had brought), the chicken and some of the lemon juice from the chicken’s marinade, that had been baked with it (which is partially why the recipe was a bit more acidic/tangier than usual).
However…after everything was said and done, the chicken came out marvelously! My host mother said, at least 20 times, that it was sooo good and she has never tasted something SOO tasty in her entire life. That was one of the most flattering things I have ever heard. Kudos to my mom for helping me follow through with my idea and teaching me how to make such tasty food! My host mother just couldn't stop raving about it! The texture, the taste, how well it blends with white rice and bread, how it was just the tastiest thing she had eaten, constantly saying that she didn’t even want to brush her teeth because she wanted to keep the taste in her mouth. Success! The chicken was different than what I had made in Madison, due to resources and lack of some spices, but it was definitely delicious in it's own way. After all her insisting and modifications, I was still able to help her learn how to make a chicken that she’ll never forget.
I woke up in the morning feeling EXTREMELY nauseous for god knows what reason. Since I was pretty sick, I skipped one of my two classes of the day to rest a bit, but since I’m feeling a lot better now, I think it was a really good decision.
Anyways, after class and having a great lunch with my professor, Palmar, I came home and helped my mother prepare to cook tandoori chicken; to turn into murghi makhani (which was part of my gift to her; an Indian cookbook, some spices and teaching her how to cook some Indian food). She, my host brother, and his best friend were all invited to dinner that night.
Since she had once upon time eaten tandoori chicken and not enjoyed it, the night before when we were getting ready to marinating it overnight, my mother seemed extremely skeptical over everything I was doing. “You’re rubbing the masala into the chicken?” “You’re using lemon juice and not water to help marinate it?” ….the list goes on. Since instead of using boneless chicken breasts (to cut up into small pieces later when cooking) we were using drumsticks (which she insisted were tastier, along with insisting on keeping the “lean fat” on it), I was a bit skeptical myself. But since my real mom had reassured me that it wasn’t too big of a deal, I kept on trucking, assuring her that all the steps were correct.
So then, today was the day for baking and cooking chicken. If she had been insistant on her ways before, she was about ten times worse today. “You’re putting the casserole dish with the chicken on a tray with aluminum foil with water on it? How strange!” and “I know my oven; it is going to take WAYYY longer than 15 minutes to bake the chicken” and because of altitude, I figured she had a point and let her handle that part.
Finally, the chicken was pretty much baked and ready to be cooked. This part was more difficult for me, because my host mother a) did not want to use about half the spices on the list, saying “it’s too much, it’s too strong”, and b) we didn’t really have a blender to mix everything so I was beginning to doubt this chicken as well.
However, after using a mortar and pestle for the garlic (no ginger; it’s hard to get a hold of in Spain, as my host mother says) as soon as I started melting some garlic with the butter, I knew that I could cook at least a decent tasting sauce. I added a tomato (that she was VERY good at cutting into small pieces), some “ketchup-like-tomato-sauce”, a bit of the cumin and garam masala (that I had brought), the chicken and some of the lemon juice from the chicken’s marinade, that had been baked with it (which is partially why the recipe was a bit more acidic/tangier than usual).
However…after everything was said and done, the chicken came out marvelously! My host mother said, at least 20 times, that it was sooo good and she has never tasted something SOO tasty in her entire life. That was one of the most flattering things I have ever heard. Kudos to my mom for helping me follow through with my idea and teaching me how to make such tasty food! My host mother just couldn't stop raving about it! The texture, the taste, how well it blends with white rice and bread, how it was just the tastiest thing she had eaten, constantly saying that she didn’t even want to brush her teeth because she wanted to keep the taste in her mouth. Success! The chicken was different than what I had made in Madison, due to resources and lack of some spices, but it was definitely delicious in it's own way. After all her insisting and modifications, I was still able to help her learn how to make a chicken that she’ll never forget.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Photos!
Okay, I found a really good website through which I can share photos (for those that don't have Facebook)...it's connected to Google, just like this blog.
Check it out for a good portion of my pictures. Hope you like them!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jojo.basu/
Let me know what you think! There'll be more soon!
Hope you're all doing well.
-Jojo
Check it out for a good portion of my pictures. Hope you like them!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jojo.basu/
Let me know what you think! There'll be more soon!
Hope you're all doing well.
-Jojo
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Totally Random Observations
Sooo I've been here for about five days and I have some random thoughts that I just HAVE to put out there.
In the morning, when I eat milk and cereal, so does my host brother. Except he toasts bread and spreads butter on it...and dips it in his cereal. It's not the grossest thing, it's just different. And fun to watch.
Speaking of host brother (who speaks a lot of Spanish to me...I'm going somewhere with this, lol), I'm realizing that I've made my worst nightmare come true. When Palmar's husband came into our class to talk about the linguistics/pragmatics used in textbooks for children during the Franco dictatorship, I kept feeling like something was not right, although he says everything correctly. Suddenly I realized. He says "Gracias", instead of "Grathias", like I do!!! I've picked up the "Spanish" accent AND I think that's the way Spanish should be spoken!!! Someone send me to Latin America right now so that I can fix this!!! Pleaseee!!!
Okay lies, other than to save myself a LOT of money (because everything here is MUY CARO--REALLY expensive...curse you, you worthless US dollar$!$!$! I watch my money go away, slowly, every day...it's so sad), I wouldn't want to leave Madrid for Latin America, at least, not until I'm totally broke (...although I am getting closer to that every day). It's a really amazing city, with a lot to do, places to see, easy to get around, very clean, nice people. Oh also, they're REALLY educated here.
I'm beginning to realize my mom and dad were right; we know nothing about the world in America. What have we even learned in school?! My host brother and his friends and I all played Trivial Pursuit the other the day, and they CREAMED me. Granted, I had quite the language barrier (I don't know half their vocabulary), I don't know ANYTHING about sports, they have different names for people/places (such as Alexander the Great is Alejandro Magno...okay?), and who has any clue about Spanish literature other than the Spaniards themselves, but STILL, in certain areas, I think they know more about both Europe, and MY country, than I, or any educated person in America knows. Plus, even an average Spaniard can speak Spanish, French, sometimes Italian, and a bit of English (I guess I have all of those languages to an extent, but I also have an different passion for languages; most people in the US barely know English) I have like, 2 years on them. Dang. Although, I think they memorize more than us, and we might be better at more analytical thinking type stuff, but maybe not. I don't know how the Spaniards do in the grand scheme of the world, but then again, I don't think I know anything anymore.
Also, my mom and dad would FREAK OUT if they came to Spain in other aspects. These VERY EDUCATED PEOPLE are VERY PDA. ALL. THE. TIME. I count how many couples I see displaying affection every day (I don't want to be too descriptive because my favorite little girls that I nanny might read this, but let's just say more than just hand holding. Way more than hand holding, sometimes.) and I've never seen less than 10. And I'm not out that much. It's that intense.
Alright, well that's all I have to say for now. I'm going to take a nap before going out to dinner with my class. Hasta mañana.
Besos. And please comment on the blog! It's really easy. Sorry if I write wayyy too much, I just have a lot to say.
In the morning, when I eat milk and cereal, so does my host brother. Except he toasts bread and spreads butter on it...and dips it in his cereal. It's not the grossest thing, it's just different. And fun to watch.
Speaking of host brother (who speaks a lot of Spanish to me...I'm going somewhere with this, lol), I'm realizing that I've made my worst nightmare come true. When Palmar's husband came into our class to talk about the linguistics/pragmatics used in textbooks for children during the Franco dictatorship, I kept feeling like something was not right, although he says everything correctly. Suddenly I realized. He says "Gracias", instead of "Grathias", like I do!!! I've picked up the "Spanish" accent AND I think that's the way Spanish should be spoken!!! Someone send me to Latin America right now so that I can fix this!!! Pleaseee!!!
Okay lies, other than to save myself a LOT of money (because everything here is MUY CARO--REALLY expensive...curse you, you worthless US dollar$!$!$! I watch my money go away, slowly, every day...it's so sad), I wouldn't want to leave Madrid for Latin America, at least, not until I'm totally broke (...although I am getting closer to that every day). It's a really amazing city, with a lot to do, places to see, easy to get around, very clean, nice people. Oh also, they're REALLY educated here.
I'm beginning to realize my mom and dad were right; we know nothing about the world in America. What have we even learned in school?! My host brother and his friends and I all played Trivial Pursuit the other the day, and they CREAMED me. Granted, I had quite the language barrier (I don't know half their vocabulary), I don't know ANYTHING about sports, they have different names for people/places (such as Alexander the Great is Alejandro Magno...okay?), and who has any clue about Spanish literature other than the Spaniards themselves, but STILL, in certain areas, I think they know more about both Europe, and MY country, than I, or any educated person in America knows. Plus, even an average Spaniard can speak Spanish, French, sometimes Italian, and a bit of English (I guess I have all of those languages to an extent, but I also have an different passion for languages; most people in the US barely know English) I have like, 2 years on them. Dang. Although, I think they memorize more than us, and we might be better at more analytical thinking type stuff, but maybe not. I don't know how the Spaniards do in the grand scheme of the world, but then again, I don't think I know anything anymore.
Also, my mom and dad would FREAK OUT if they came to Spain in other aspects. These VERY EDUCATED PEOPLE are VERY PDA. ALL. THE. TIME. I count how many couples I see displaying affection every day (I don't want to be too descriptive because my favorite little girls that I nanny might read this, but let's just say more than just hand holding. Way more than hand holding, sometimes.) and I've never seen less than 10. And I'm not out that much. It's that intense.
Alright, well that's all I have to say for now. I'm going to take a nap before going out to dinner with my class. Hasta mañana.
Besos. And please comment on the blog! It's really easy. Sorry if I write wayyy too much, I just have a lot to say.
An 5 day update of sorts
I'm getting around the city pretty well, I can usually figure out how to get to where I need to go, or ask people for help. Unfortunately, sometimes they speak WAY to fast and I realize they think I'm a native. That's what I get for being able to pronounce words (by knowing some other languages) yet not actually speak/understand THAT well.
So yesterday, I went to "The American Store" to try to find myself some peanut butter. And guess what? They have almost all the foods you'd want there except, well, you guessed it. They restocked last night but I don't feel like going back yet. I have their number now so I'll call and check before going next time.
Class is going well; we have a LOT to do in a really tiny amount of time, but hopefully, it'll be good nonetheless. I'm definitely getting better at understanding, I can almost fully understand my professor (Palmar) now and I remember not being able to earlier (especially when she starts talking CRAZY fast). I don't think I'm getting that much better at speaking, I need to practice my conjugations WAY more; they're not quite natural yet. I need to be able to take 300 level spanish classes and do well, dang it! Oh well. Tonight, our class is going out to dinner to celebrate the birthday of a couple students in our program! Maybe we'll go out for my birthday too! The food here tends to be REALLY tasty sometimes, when it's not super fried or bright red pieces of...pig butt; it's mostly hit or miss.
Also, after class today, I walked to the AECC (Asociación Española Contra de Cancer; I'm thinking, the equivalent of the American Cancer Society in Spain), which is less than a block away from the house I'm staying at, to ask if I could volunteer for a couple months. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll call me!! (it was siesta time, lol). I'll keep you posted!
Okay that was all the important-ish stuff. Next post=totally fun. I hope.
So yesterday, I went to "The American Store" to try to find myself some peanut butter. And guess what? They have almost all the foods you'd want there except, well, you guessed it. They restocked last night but I don't feel like going back yet. I have their number now so I'll call and check before going next time.
Class is going well; we have a LOT to do in a really tiny amount of time, but hopefully, it'll be good nonetheless. I'm definitely getting better at understanding, I can almost fully understand my professor (Palmar) now and I remember not being able to earlier (especially when she starts talking CRAZY fast). I don't think I'm getting that much better at speaking, I need to practice my conjugations WAY more; they're not quite natural yet. I need to be able to take 300 level spanish classes and do well, dang it! Oh well. Tonight, our class is going out to dinner to celebrate the birthday of a couple students in our program! Maybe we'll go out for my birthday too! The food here tends to be REALLY tasty sometimes, when it's not super fried or bright red pieces of...pig butt; it's mostly hit or miss.
Also, after class today, I walked to the AECC (Asociación Española Contra de Cancer; I'm thinking, the equivalent of the American Cancer Society in Spain), which is less than a block away from the house I'm staying at, to ask if I could volunteer for a couple months. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll call me!! (it was siesta time, lol). I'll keep you posted!
Okay that was all the important-ish stuff. Next post=totally fun. I hope.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Class...and a bar, Monday the 15th
So yesterday was our first day of class. It wasn't as much class as introductions, but we're starting to get a feel for what it's all about. It went from 9 am till 2:30 pm...sighs.
Rafa is a prof that's going to talk to us about social issues in Spain, and we have three little projects to write for him, I hope it's not too hard. Mostly involving newspaper articles and such.
Javier is an Art History prof, and his classes mostly meet at the museums, once or twice a week, and will end by the beginning of November. We'll have a comprehensive test then, but not too much more.
Palmar is our prof from Carleton College, and with her, we have a ton of work. One part is a project about an issue that has changed/developed over time in Spain. Our small group of 4 plus a "tutor" (which is both a hired friend/mentor for this project) is supposed to study women and gender roles. Our presentation is the first one, on Monday, October 6th, so we don't have too much time to prepare. But hopefully, getting that over with will help us focus on the second part of her class. We have about 6 books to read in a period of less than 10 weeks. So we read a book, meet the author, read another book, meet another author, and so on, throughout her course. We also visit various places throughout this course, and learn about themes in the books more "firsthand" (ex: we're reading a book about a "golpe de estado", or coup, of the Spanish government; next week, we'll visit government building where it happened).
So after our "introductions" to all these, we were sent off. A group headed towards a bookstore to buy books for Palmar's class, but I wanted to go back to my host family's house first. Then I went to the office of the cell phone company that was selling our class phones (but I didn't buy one earlier because I wanted to check if the European cell phone I'm borrowing from a friend was able to take their SIM card, then I could pay only 50e for that, instead of 50e for the SIM plus 109e for the phone. The convenient part is we can sell the SIM/most of the phone (minus 5e per month, so 15e total) back to the company at the end of our stay here).
I meet up with a student from Carleton at the office, so we went to the bookstore together afterwards, where I paid 74 euros for 3 books (I have a couple more to buy as well!!! Ahh!!).
Afterwards, I came home and played some Cluedo (Clue) and Trivial Pursuit (in Spanish) with my host brother and his friends, which was a lot of fun. Although, I have no clue about ANYTHING European History or Spanish Literature. So much for my education...
After that, I ate a bit, chatted online for a bit/sent some emails, then found out that some friends were going out to a bar to celebrate both a birthday and Mexican Independence Day! So I took a train out to the heart of the city, meet up with four friends, and we went to a bar. I didn't order anything myself (although I did finish off my friend's red wine, which was AMAZING compared to the box stuff I've tried before, hehe), but it was a lot of fun spending time with the friends. I came home around 1:45am and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Rafa is a prof that's going to talk to us about social issues in Spain, and we have three little projects to write for him, I hope it's not too hard. Mostly involving newspaper articles and such.
Javier is an Art History prof, and his classes mostly meet at the museums, once or twice a week, and will end by the beginning of November. We'll have a comprehensive test then, but not too much more.
Palmar is our prof from Carleton College, and with her, we have a ton of work. One part is a project about an issue that has changed/developed over time in Spain. Our small group of 4 plus a "tutor" (which is both a hired friend/mentor for this project) is supposed to study women and gender roles. Our presentation is the first one, on Monday, October 6th, so we don't have too much time to prepare. But hopefully, getting that over with will help us focus on the second part of her class. We have about 6 books to read in a period of less than 10 weeks. So we read a book, meet the author, read another book, meet another author, and so on, throughout her course. We also visit various places throughout this course, and learn about themes in the books more "firsthand" (ex: we're reading a book about a "golpe de estado", or coup, of the Spanish government; next week, we'll visit government building where it happened).
So after our "introductions" to all these, we were sent off. A group headed towards a bookstore to buy books for Palmar's class, but I wanted to go back to my host family's house first. Then I went to the office of the cell phone company that was selling our class phones (but I didn't buy one earlier because I wanted to check if the European cell phone I'm borrowing from a friend was able to take their SIM card, then I could pay only 50e for that, instead of 50e for the SIM plus 109e for the phone. The convenient part is we can sell the SIM/most of the phone (minus 5e per month, so 15e total) back to the company at the end of our stay here).
I meet up with a student from Carleton at the office, so we went to the bookstore together afterwards, where I paid 74 euros for 3 books (I have a couple more to buy as well!!! Ahh!!).
Afterwards, I came home and played some Cluedo (Clue) and Trivial Pursuit (in Spanish) with my host brother and his friends, which was a lot of fun. Although, I have no clue about ANYTHING European History or Spanish Literature. So much for my education...
After that, I ate a bit, chatted online for a bit/sent some emails, then found out that some friends were going out to a bar to celebrate both a birthday and Mexican Independence Day! So I took a train out to the heart of the city, meet up with four friends, and we went to a bar. I didn't order anything myself (although I did finish off my friend's red wine, which was AMAZING compared to the box stuff I've tried before, hehe), but it was a lot of fun spending time with the friends. I came home around 1:45am and fell asleep pretty quickly.
The first reunion, Sunday the 14th
On Sunday, our class was to meet up with each other in Retiro, a gorgeous park. Since I live close to Noe, we were going to meet up early with some other classmates, but we got lost for about 40 minutes in the center of the city...lol. Finally, we found them, and then we went the park. We got talked to about lots of things, such as buying a metro pass for the month, meeting for class, etc. Afterwards, some of us went to buy the metro pass (the metro is SOO easy to get around), and then a couple left right after that. However, six of us decided to get some authentic Spanish food. We walked through some strange streets which seemed like "dark alleys" as we would call them in America, but they've got some more expensive shops for Spain (such as Billabong, Quicksilver, etc). We made our way to this little, awesomely authentic restaurant for tapas and it was amazingly greasy but tasty, although the cheap beer was kind of awful. But otherwise, a pretty cultural day.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Noche en Blanco, Saturday the 13th
Sooooo, I'm beginning to settle down in Madrid. On Saturday afternoon, my professor, Palmar, called me with a list of home numbers of students that are already here. So I called a few of them to see if they wanted to go to Noche en Blanco with me (which they did).
Noche de Blanco is essentially a huge cultural night where everyone is out at night, going to watch movies, going to museums, listening to music, for free! The streets are blocked off so you can only walk around, and it goes from 9 pm till 7 in the morning. So we all decided to meet at 8:30 near Banco de Espana (a HUGE building which I think is now a post office? Or not a bank anymore...? I can't remember exactly). We went to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes and saw a Goya exhibition, but otherwise, we mostly walked up and down the streets, which had TONS of people.
When we finally decided on a place to eat, we got TOTALLY ignored by the waiter who told us "there was no more bread for the sandwich we ordered" (even though all the customers around us, who came after us, were able to get sandwiches). I'm so glad that they treat us Americans sooo well. A little bit after that, we all dispersed. But just getting a feel for the city was an awesome experience that first night, despite being a bit ignored.
Noche de Blanco is essentially a huge cultural night where everyone is out at night, going to watch movies, going to museums, listening to music, for free! The streets are blocked off so you can only walk around, and it goes from 9 pm till 7 in the morning. So we all decided to meet at 8:30 near Banco de Espana (a HUGE building which I think is now a post office? Or not a bank anymore...? I can't remember exactly). We went to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes and saw a Goya exhibition, but otherwise, we mostly walked up and down the streets, which had TONS of people.
When we finally decided on a place to eat, we got TOTALLY ignored by the waiter who told us "there was no more bread for the sandwich we ordered" (even though all the customers around us, who came after us, were able to get sandwiches). I'm so glad that they treat us Americans sooo well. A little bit after that, we all dispersed. But just getting a feel for the city was an awesome experience that first night, despite being a bit ignored.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Amazing City
Okay, that was enough boring blogging about my travels. I have my bags, I'm settled in, everything is perfect. Today, I walked around my neighborhood with my host brother a bit, then hung out at the house and waited for my backpack. After it came, I hung out with my brother and his friends and we playe "Cluedo" (Clue). After that, I went to Noche en Blanco with a few friends from Carleton, and it was really fun, although we were all really hungry and there was problems finding food. Finally, I came home halfway by myself on the metro and it was superfacil (easy). I'm starting to get a hang of this city, and I think if I get a bit better at my Spanish and used to the city, they won't know that I'm NOT a Madrilena. I'm trying to post my pictures on this but I'm not totally sure how to. I can add a couple pictures to previous posts, and my other pictures are on Facebook. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I ADORE this city. I actually look sort of like the people here! It's crazy. I'm glad I didn't tan too much this summer; I would have stuck out a bit more.
Once again, I have TOTAL internet access and want to hear from all of you. I'm working on responding to emails/comments right now. Keep commenting, por favor!
Hasta luego,
Jojo
Friday, September 12, 2008
I'm finally in Madrid!
So as I was about to board the plane from O'Hare to Philly, they tell the last 20 passengers boarding that there's no room for carry ons, and we have to check them in (so basically, that heavy third bag got checked in for free). Luckily, my big backpack has a little detachable daypack on it, so I put my computer/some papers/neck pillow in there and then I "checked" in my huge bag. So although that was nice because I didn't have to deal with it, it was AWFUL when I got here and waited for all the luggage, just to find out that my backpack is still in Philly. It should be getting in on tomorrow mornings flight, so I should have it by noon, and luckily, other than medicines/etc, there wasn't anything too important in that bag (plus I don't really need the big bag until later, when I'm backpacking). OH NO, i just realized my toothpaste/toothbrush were in there; thankfully, I have my Listerine.
So on the last leg of the trip, we got some food on the long plane ride, I talked to these girls from Austin College the whole time (that are going to study in Granada) and because both my TV broke and my reading light couldn't turn off, I couldn't get any sleep. So I got here, finally figured out my backpack stuff (it should be coming in tomorrow...), transferred my money to Euro (120 dollars=84 euro. Blah.) and took a taxi to my host mothers house.
My spanish with the taxi driver was really comfortable, I could both understand and speak, and I was getting pretty confident, but when I arrived at my host mother's house, boy, was I wrong about my Spanish. They speak SO fast, and with their Spanish accent, I'm just terrible at following what they say sometimes. But some good things you'll like to know.
One, although the house is small, it is extremely beautiful and VERY clean, with a GORGEOUS bathroom. Two, my host mother can read english and loves the cook book and has hardly any spices so she is excited to learn how to cook some food. Three, my host brother has internet/router/wi-fi, so I am always connected online, never have to bring my computer to the cyber cafe, and can chat/email/video chat with any of you from the flat. The family seems REALLY nice and they've hosted other Carleton students before so they're already really helpful. Hopefully that keeps up!
Unfortunately, I just realized that my power cord is three pronged and my converter is two pronged (dumb dumb Jojo), so I'm going to save some battery power and hope that these posts keep you all a bit more updated. Thank you for all the comments; I will definitely respond to them when I'm not in such a power crisis!
Love,
Jojo
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
SKYPE SKYPE SKYPE!
Do any of you have skype? Or AIM? Or G-talk? Please please let me know. Or add me:
Sykpe: reallycrazyjojo
AIM: reallycrazyjojo
G-talk (google talk): jojo.basu
Many thanks,
Jojo
Less than 48 hours...
So I'm almost ready to go to Madrid. I'm 98% packed, minus a few things I still have to use tomorrow/today (since it's already 2 am on Wednesday), and I've finished reviewing most of these looming readings that I'm supposed to get tested on, although I'm still uneasy about how I'll do on the test, but oh well. I'm getting really really sad about leaving my family, my friends, and of course, my adorable dog. I also continue to wonder how it would have been to go back to Carleton this fall, to meet new people and see familiar faces, although, as a friend once reminded me, no matter how bonding and exciting fall is, after Carleton's six week break between Thanksgiving and New Years, winter will somewhat be like starting all over again for a lot of the students (especially the freshmen). But other than these petty thoughts, I'm just getting anxious about being in Spain, possible language barriers, how my host family will like me, whether or not it will be difficult not speaking any english, etc.
So my host family is a single mother and her seventeen year old son, I think...(I only think this because she specifically writes "the son's father" in reference to an email, although that might just be cultural...?). She has been on vacation for a month now to San Sebastian and seems very excited about my arrival, and is really caring and interested in what foods I like and other such motherly things. Speaking of food, since she seemed so interested in what I like/don't like, I decided to get my host mother an Indian cookbook and some Indian spices so that as she teaches me to cook Spanish food, I can teach her how to cook some Indian food (which I personally think is just a bit tastier than American food; no offense to any die-hard hamburger lovers out there :-D). Hopefully we can all enjoy this gift together.
Interesting fact; the three foods I don't care too much for in America all start with "P" in Spanish: cucumber (pepino), peppers, green/red (pimiento, verde/rojo), fish (pescado). (although I'm not too picky; I can tolerate all of them in tiny amounts.)
So this entire month has really been dedicated to planning out the post-Madrid Europe traveling plans with my two friends Leona and Ryan. We have a "tentative" itinerary yet pretty solid itinerary, thorough research about hostels vs. hotels etc, maps with train stations/hostels marked out, lists of attractions to see (which will soon be marked on the maps as well), and we're getting pretty close to having a almost-travel-agency-planned trip. Leona and Ryan have a lot to take care of when I'm studying in Madrid, but it seems they've got it under control and I'm hoping that our trip is as fantastic as possible (although I'm a bit worried that Leona might freeze to death; she barely made it through the 50 degree weather tonight).
So I still have some studying/goodbye-saying/cleaning up my room stuff to do. My dad mentions that if I can pack all I need for 3 months into two suitcases and a backpack, how come I can't just take that to Carleton when I first move in? If my dad is talking about lessening some of my clothing, he just has no idea what it's like to be a girl (sorry we can't wear the same grungy tee shirt and socks for 3 days in a row; no offense to those that don't do that). Also, things like furniture, extra school supplies, lots of clothing and shoes for ALL types of weather add up(ex: I'm not bringing snow boots to Europe). I'd hope I'm not packing all that stuff for Europe!
So hopefully, I packed light enough so there's room for presents and souvenirs (I totally failed at spelling that word; yay for spell check) bring back on the way back. I'm not at all worried about space, just weight because I'm at about 30 lbs for each suitcase now. If worse comes to worse, I'll pay $25.00 more and the airlines shouldn't complain too much...I hope.
To my big group of mafia friends this summer (no, we're not actually part of the mafia); I've been missing you for a couple weeks and I hope all is going well in your respective cities/colleges. I want your addresses so you guys can get postcards (though they might end up being sent from the states...we'll see how my budget does).
To the Fantastic Four; I'm going to miss you like crazy (for the next 2 or 3 months) so please don't forget to keep in touch.
To my amazing friends at college that I won't be seeing until 2009; please write to me on this blog and facebook so I remember to write you postcards (hopefully you all have the same address!).
To my wonderful wannabe-emo-kids-that-sit-on-the-couches-in-front-of-the-auditorium-sometimes friends from high school; I still miss you like crazy! Please give me your addresses so that I can at least write to you.
To all my other random friends; addresses, please! Pronto!
To my family; I love you all dearly and will hopefully be seeing you someday soon. Reminder addresses would be superb, especially for those of you that have just moved!
To my parents; I love you so much, thank you for putting up with me this summer. You know I'll want to buy all of Europe for you........sooo.... some extra spending money might be nice, just a thought :)
Much love,
Jojo
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Anticipation...
So I'm finally getting ready to go to Europe. Things are being bought, packets are being read, parents are being concerned, and I'm beginning to say my last goodbyes. It's been an excellent summer '08, full of friends, fun, and relaxation. Hopefully next summer can live up to this one. I'm going to Europe with sort of an open mind, after all the information I've read, it seems that it can either be an amazingly smooth and hassle free trip, or one full rocky adventures, making it all the more memorable. Let's hope I don't get pick-pocketed or lose all my luggage, but if something bad does happen, we're bound to meet fun people and see new places on the way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
