Too many goodbyes, Toledo, and Madrid

Goodbye Salamanca 
The end of our time in Salamanca was very bittersweet. It's nice being done with school, but it was hard to say goodbye to Nicol(my host mom) and the city where we lived for 6 weeks. We were pretty familiar with it by the end. Friday night we were taken to a very nice restaurant for a 5 (small)course meal which included wine, salad, octopus, fried veggies, rice, and duck. On Saturday, Bridget, Alyssa and I gave the final presentations on Toledo while everyone ate ice cream, we said our goodbyes to Zach and Caleb who were leaving early, we packed, and Karen and I took a walking tour of the city getting pictures of all our favorite spots which ended with our last mass at the round church, St. Marcos' which was built in the 12-13th century. I also said my goodbyes that night to Nicol's friend Heli and her son Carlos(Caqui). Sunday morning Nicol sent us of with our last sack lunch and told us to come see her again before we went to meet the bus at 8am.


Toledo
Like most of our other day trips with Mester, Toledo was a very quick trip but we saw some cool stuff. For one, Toledo is known for its metallurgy(metalwork for swords, sheilds, jewelry, etc.) and there were storewindows everywhere filled with swords and other awesome stuff. Another cool sight was the painting by 16th century artist El Greco called The Burial of Count Orgaz which we had studied for our culture classes. Third, we saw the cathedral of Toledo. Things to remember from inside were the beautfiul white pillars with black and white tiled floor and El Transparente, a baroque work that covers a whole wall with sculpture and painting, and is lit by a window cut in the ceiling for that specific purpose. They also had museums with lots of old church books

After the cathedral we made our way slowly down to the bridge over the river and to meet our bus. Toledo has the windingest roads of all of Spain, I'm pretty sure. None of the cities align to a grid like in the US, but Toledo has especially small and twisty roads that cars barely fit through(but still do!). The bridge was beautiful, I got some pictures. The bus took us to Madrid where we checked into our last hotel as a group and ate our last dinner together. It was really hard seeing everyone for the last time in Spain, especially with my stomach ache still continuing and my future so uncertain.


Madrid
The next several days have all been focused on a combination of relaxing and experiencing a little of Madrid. On Sunday night I was advised to take it easy and to treat it as a stress ulcer with antacids, a bland diet, and no worrying so that's what I've been trying to do. On Monday all we did was check into our Hostel and stay in the rest of the day. Karen and Catherine each took a four hour nap and I went for an hour walk around the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol(mile marker reference point for Spain's highways)We paid an extra 5 euro a night each to have air conditioning, TV, and a private bathroom and it's been really worth it so far. The room also has wifi included so that's where I'm updating the blog from. 


Tuesday was an eventful day. We went to el parque del buen retiro(the park of good rest) and explored several gardens and sat on lots of shady benches for abut 5 hours in all. You can also rent boats for 5 euro, but I haven't been feeling up to it, unfortunately. After our time in the park we went to El Museo del Prado, a very famous museum for its collection of greatest works of the last five centuries. It's free from 6-8pm so we went in for about an hour before going back to the hostel for dinner. Karen has been leading the charge in shopping at the nearby grocery store and fixing us nice meals in the kitchen provided at the hostel, so we're really living fairly normal lives but in a hotel atmosphere on a semi-spanish schedule, and I'm trying to rest extra for my stomach.


Yesterday we stayed in the hotel room all day until going to el Prado again. Karen and Catherine went out to buy some food but I stayed inside trying to be stress free. We went to el Prado from about 6-8 so we got the whole free time experience. Catherine gave us a special presentation on a work by the 16th-17th century artist Velázquez called Las Meninas on the way because she had written her research paper on it and wanted to help us appreciate it more, which we did. Although we went to el Prado when we first arrived in Spain, it's so much better now that we've studied a number of the artists in class and can recognizes their works and styles. Karen and I also spent the last half hour in the pre-15th century section which had some really cool religious works. After el Prado, we ordered tickets to see the Harry Potter premiere tonight (preceded by year 7 pt.1) and then found the Half-Blood Prince online to watch since I hadn't seen it before. We watched about half of it(which we finished today) and finished the night by Skyping our friends in Costa Rica followed by Karen and Catherine's mothers.


Today has been much like yesterday with a lot of relaxing in the hotel room(and finishing Half-Blood Prince). We won't be visiting el Prado today because we have to leave early on the bus if we're going to make it to watch both Harry Potter movies tonight. Tomorrow we're hoping to make one last visit to the Park and el Prado before we go our separate ways on Saturday. I may update tomorrow with my impressions of the end of Harry Potter, but I don't expect to have much internet access next week so I may not be able to update my blog until the end of next week.


Lastly, an update on my stomach. It continues to bother me, but I upped my Tums dose today because I realized I was taking it more on the "calcium supplement" level according the instructions. Later I am going to the pharmacy to check for a better antacid like pepcid. As of now, I haven't changed my flight to go home early, so I'm still set to be here another week. Keep me in your prayers! My flight to Rome leaves at 6:30am, saturday morning(11:30pm Friday on Missouri time).

I finished my paper!

I finished my paper!


I am now officially done with coursework in España and can enjoy myself for two more weeks. I'm really proud of my achievement. This was the first time I didn't stay up all night starting a research paper due the next day and I don't think it turned out too badly. Also, I got an A- on my coursework with Mester so my chances of getting a 4.0 for my 12 credit hours here is pretty high. My classmates also did very well on their work and tonight is time for celebrations.


On a more worrisome note, I've had a stomach ache all week that hasn't gone away so I finally talked to Sra. Pites about it. She thinks I have a virus and suggested a diet and a medicine I can pick up at a pharmacy on the way home. If that doesn't help, she will take me to the doctor tomorrow while I still have insurance here. I'll be fine, but please keep me in your prayers. I'm really nervous about the next two weeks if this can't be sorted out quickly.


Finally, to answer Laura's question, Salamanca is a very safe city. It's recommended that girls walk accompanied at night, but during the day there's no concern.


Tonight we are going out to celebrate(I'll be drinking water and going home early though), I have a brief presentation on Toledo tomorrow at 1:00pm and then we leave Salamanca forever on Sunday. From Salamanca we'll go to Toledo for the day and at night end in Madrid where the group spends its last night in Spain. On Monday, Catherine, Karen and I will be on our own.


I'll try to update you on my health as soon as possible, but it may be a few days before I have a computer.


God bless!

Thought of the Day

Dr. Pites decided last week that to help us get through our final exams and papers, she would ask us each to take a turn sharing a Thought of the Day. So, we've all been receiving daily e-mails with an inspirational quote from her and two quotes/messages from our classmates. There have been a lot of message saying to just keep moving, it'll be over soon, and remember to smell the roses along the way because we're still in Spain and it's awesome. Tomorrow is my turn so I just sent her mine and thought I'd share it here. It's pulled from favorite quotes on my Facebook page, so some of you might recognize parts.

Here it is:

To go along with the theme of fight the good fight, push through, I would like to share this inspirational message from a 5 year old who taught me the mysteries of life, death, and heaven.

Describing death, he said to me: "It's like when you have to poop but it's really hard and you have to squeeeze it out, but you can't because it's really hard. And then you go to Heaven!"

Breaking from that trend, however, I want to share a story from www.catholic.org about Teresa of Ávila. Malicious rumors about her spread quickly because many within her order didn't want to be reformed, and her scandalous spiritual raptures were an easy target. She complained to Jesus in prayer, and He said to her, "Teresa, that's how I treat my friends." To which she replied, "No wonder you have so few friends." but she continued working for reform because she thought if He had so few friends, they should be good ones.

Take that to inspire you as it will.

If you want to read more about St. Teresa of Ávila, I recommend her page on catholic.org. You can find her under the saints tab if you run a search or by clicking the link above.

Also, as of last night I have 2.5 pages written. Halfway there!

Today is a good day

Right now I want to count my blessings.


This weekend was really rough. The group went out to Tapas(drinks and small sandwich portions), but I had to go home in the middle because I was nauseous. Then, Saturday night we were supposed to meet to celebrate Aaron's birthday with cake and happiness, but there was a miscommunication and I wandered around town for an hour trying to find everyone and never did so I went home and watched TV until Preston came back. It was bad. But! As titled, today is a good day.


My blessings:
-I just got an e-mail from dad telling me about 4th of July celebrations and encouraging me.
-It's Independence Day! And what a great country it celebrates.
-I read the comments on the last blog entry which reminded me of friends and support from back home.
-Last night I went out for helado(ice cream) with Karen after mass.
-Even though I missed the birthday party, Preston and I hung out and studied till 2 in the morning.
-Even though I spent 6 hours studying on Saturday(at least) and more on Sunday, I now know the history of Spain very well. Its kings, its governments, its artistic movements, and more.
-I have met a lot of new friends on this trip: Molly, Alyssa, Caleb, Preston, Jackie, Cait, Emily, Courtney, Isabella, Aaron, Andrew, Samantha, Jessie, and Emily G. all of whom I could go on about.
-I've gotten to see a ton of beautiful churches and countryside and live in a spanish city for 6 weeks
-Sra. Pites has been a joy, despite the work. She has a lot of faith in us and always wants to encourage us.
-the food is great! (as long as I don't have a stomach ache) :)
-I still have two more weeks in Europe after this one.
-Assuming I can get tickets, I'll see Deathly Hallows pt. 2 seven hours before my friends back home
-Thursday Bible Studies
-my 22nd birthday
-lots of correspondence with home
-magdalenas (little muffin things we get at breakfast to take to school and eat on breaks)


I'm sure there are many more, but I'll be late for lunch.


¡A-Dios! y gracias a Él por todo.

Update on School

I don't know how much I've communicated it through my blog entries, but I have been really stressed about my paper due next week. Most conversations between myself and others of the group these days have been  more or less "I can't believe we have so much work to do! Pites expects so much" "I'm just trying to remember that I'm in Spain and not let grades or work get me down. Plus, we ARE getting 12 credit hours in 6 weeks, and this is a lot less work than a regular semester." "Yeah, you're right, we can do this!"


Anyway, the point of all this to let you know that now my conversations are becoming more like "I'm making really good progress on my paper! I've found all my sources and Pites approved my thesis! Now I have a whole week to start writing!" "That's great Joe! Do you want to study party this weekend!" I've been working hard this week and life is looking pretty optimistic. Keep me in your prayers as I enter the last week of coursework. I have an exam of spanish culture and history on Monday and a grammar final on thursday. My research paper is due on Friday. After that I'm done and can enjoy two weeks of freedom in Europe! Thanks a lot to Dad&Mom for helping me with the trip.


In other news, we talked about Euthanasia in my conversation class today. Based on what I think I know of church teaching, I argued that no particular pain or suffering merits giving up on the goodness of life. Of course, that's not something you can just tell a person who is in such suffering, as my opponents argued. As I am right now, I'm still willing to fight to make it illegal, but more importantly do my best to comfort those close to me and encourage others to do the same so that we don't need laws, but love and support one another freely and willingly.


Anyway, talk is talk and action speaks louder.


¡Hasta luego!

Santiago de Compostela! and other news

My trip to Santiago de Compostela was awesome. We got in around 8 pm, checked into our hostel(50 beds to a room), and explored the city by evening. It was very relaxing, and the sunset was beautiful, but the real excitement came the next morning.


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History of Saint James and the Camino de Santiago(Santo Iago=St. James):
When the apostles went out to spread the gospel, St. James landed on the Iberian Peninsula. Having much success and being well loved, his bones were shipped back to Galicia in Northwest Spain after he died. Centuries later, as bones were rediscovered and a large cathedral built on the spot. It then became the largest pilgrimage sight in Christendom as Christians throughout Europe would travel across northern spain on foot, strengthening their faith, and building up the economy of the route. It's famous for it's giant incensor which swings from the ceiling, pushing back the stench of sweaty pilgrims.
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After getting to see the incensor(which takes 6 Brothers to manage the pulley), we attended mass and spent the day exploring the city. We ate lunch in a big park across the way from the Cathedral where we could see it in the distance. I had a loaf of bread and some peach marmelade that I bought at a local supermarket. In the evening we took the bus home.






Sunday was also exciting because the feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated at the Cathedral followed by a procession. They had the full choir out for the occasion, many priests and seminarians, and there was a whole section in the procession just for first communicants(who enjoyed throwing rose petals on the monstrance during the benediction). Mass was a little hard to understand because of the echo, but it was worth it to get to walk in the procession afterward. 8 men carried the large gold and silver monstrance through the streets with loudspeakers projecting words for reflection and songs from the choir. It was really cool.


Today however, we're back to the daily grind of classes. Not many more though! We have a test a week from today and another next thursday and then we're done. As for my research paper, (almost)everyone has a lot of work yet to do and I just e-mailed my professor for some help. It'll be a struggle, but I'll get it done.


¡Dios te bendiga!

Since it was asked...

My friend Laura, who is studying in Costa Rice right now on a similar trip, asked how many days a week we have class and if we take weekend trips.


To answer her question, we have class monday through friday and take day-trips on the weekend. The only homework we really have to do is study for weekly vocab quizzes(3qz/week), two compositions for Pites, and a research paper at the end of Pites. Depending on your teacher, you might have to write two 150word compositions each wk, but mine has us write them in class and they're easy. Also, some teachers will ask you to finish grammar exercises at home, but they never take more than 10 minutes and aren't collected.


So far we've only taken two weekend trips(Segovia/Ávila, Sierra de Francia), but this weekend a bunch of us have gotten together and are excursioning to Santiago de Compostela(Saint James of the Field of Stars) in Galica, the northwestern-most province of Spain. We're going up tomorrow, staying in a hostel, and coming back Saturday evening. It'll be a nice change from the Andalucía in the south, which we got to know so well the first 9 days of the trip.


¡Hasta pronto!

Long time no see.

It has been a very busy week. I had to make corrections on my first paper which was returned to me, I started making study guides for our final exam on culture, and started getting stressed about my second composition(due this Friday) and my research paper due in two weeks. The biggest issue is that I have very limited computer access because I did not bring my own. Mester, as I've told you, has very limited hours, I'm not a member at a library, and it takes a lot of planning and compromise to borrow someone else's computer because they need it too. I'm still trying to enjoy myself and make it through. I have 4 weeks and 4 days left in Europe, and I intend to continue getting the most out of them.


Last weekend we took a day trip to Segovia and Ávila. Segovia was really cool, but Ávila was a bit of a disappointment. In Segovia we visited the Alcázar as a group, which was a palace/fortress that looked like a disney princess castle. We got to see inside and see where the family of Queen Isabella lived when she was young. It was built both as a home and as an army base, so they had both bedrooms and battlements.

In Ávila, we walked through the city to the main plaza, bought some pastries, and walked back to the bus. The main attraction of Ávila was the wall surrounding it, though they mentioned it being a hotspot for conventos. Before we left Ávila we did get a chance to visit a stone cross in the distance outside the city walls. The stop was mostly so we could get nice pictures of the city from afar.

To me, when I think of Ávila I think of Santa Teresa de Jesús who was born there. She's also known as Santa Teresa de Ávila. She was a mystic and is a doctor of the church. Her writings were very controversial at the time(and probably still would be to many) for relating her mystic experience in sexual terms so that the average person could understand. She is also known for reforming the Carmelite order of nuns during the Counter-reformation, the Catholic Church's internal reformation in response to the protestan reformation during the 1500s. St. John of the Cross(Juan de la Cruz), author of the spiritual work as Noche Oscura del Alma(Dark Night of the Soul), was a friend to Teresa and fellow counter-reformer who revitalized the male carmelites. 

The week was more or less as I told you. On Friday night I went out with a few friends to a public garden behind the Cathedral and hung out until Midnight when we went to the Discotecas(dance clubs) to meet the rest of our group and dance the night away. Although they are all very loud, and I tucker out quickly, I have a good time at the bars and discotecas and like to go out on the weekends.

A typical day in Salamanca is get up at 8:45, eat a breakfast of corn flakes and a glass of juice(sometimes coffee), get dressed and be out the door by 9:15 or so to get to school at Mester. Grammar class begins at 9:30 and goes until 11:05 when we get a break until 11:30. I like to buy a cheep snack/soda to get me through the day at the nearby Carrefour supermarket(think european walmart). From 11:30 to 1 is Conversation class where we practice our conversation and writing skills. Depending on the day we either get free time afterwords or have class(Tues-Thurs) with Sra. Pites where we take vocab quizzes, give presentations on cities and famous persons of spain, and catch up on business details of papers and excursions. At 2pm, Mester closes and I go home for lunch at 2:30 and siesta. Lunch and dinner are always two course meals, often with a soup first, a basket of bread chunks, and all the water you can drink. The TV is generally on the news or cheap entertainment talk shows and course two of the meal is almost always a variant on pork loin(which I like very much). Sometimes we have seafood. After lunch, I take a nap if I can and get back to Mester about 4:00 to take a Salsa class(Tues&Wed) or use the computer until our presentations. Starting at 6pm we attend a 1-hour presentation on the history of spain, literature, or art, and sometimes there are two. After conferences, Mester closes at 8 again and I have 2 hours to do homework or whatever I need to do before dinner at 10. Depending on how much food Sra. Nicol pushes us to eat and the dinner conversation, dinner can take from 30 min to an hour. At that point, I finish up anything I have to do for Mester or Pites and try to get to bed by 12 or 12:30. Fridays I go out and saturdays I wander around the city and parks trying to take in the scenery. Sundays I go to mass with Karen, and relax for the day. Also, on thursday's the CCF kids host a bible study that I like to attend.

Now you know what I'm doing every day!

I should also mention that yesterday we went on an excursion into the Sierra de Francia mountains, but it wasn't very exciting. We visited 3 very old towns and a bonus stop with a park so the driver could take his siesta. In the first town, La Alberca, we just walked down to their plaza, bought some sweets, and left. The second town, Miranda de la Castañar, had a small fortress/castle and we ate a very memorable lunch sitting on a wall with a view out into the mountains(on which we were very high). The third stop, the siesta, was Béjar and we didn't do anything their but fill up our waterbottles at a fountain and sit in the park across from the bus station. Lastly, we went to Candelario, which had streams of water running down its streets from the mountain snow. They were also famous for their waist high extra outer doors which were invented so they could get out of the house when the snows came.

That was all for our excursion! I'm still missing home and can't wait to come back, but I'm also looking forward to my time back in Madrid and in Italy, which I'll have to clue you in on later.

¡Adios!

P.S. I forgot to mention our visit to el convento de San Estaban. I don't want to forget it for the next post.

¡Las Catedrales!

Just a quick update to say woohoo it's Friday! This week was rough for academics. I had to type a paper to turn in today and I didn't have a computer! I had to use the school's computer before they closed and also borrow a friend's. I did manage to visit the public library here in Salamanca, though. It has four floors, but is relatively small. It used to be someone's house hundreds of years ago and is named Casa de las Conchas(house of shells) because of the shells he decorated it with. I'll probably be spending more time there as my research paper's due date draws closer.

Today we visited the two cathedrals of Salamanca. They are referred to as the old and the new although even the new one is several centuries old. The original is in the romansque style and the second in gothic style, but they share a wall which makes for quite a church. We were able to climb the stairs and walk along the outer walls of the new cathedral. I snapped a few photos so you'll get a glimpse of it.

Have a good weekend! Tomorrow I'm visiting Ávila and Segovia.

Un cumpleaños, un fin de semana, y recuerdas de Sevilla

Ok, first the birthday. I was center of attention again for class, but this time it was actually about me. The class sang happy birthday and then everyone had to come up with an imaginary gift for me and why they chose it. To make things fair, I had to give everyone a special thank you and wish them well. Very fun. Our game of fútbol was very fun and we're hoping to make it a Fridays tradition. We saw Pirates in the theatre, but it wasn't very good. I think it was made better by being in a foreign language. Afterwards we went out to a bar where a sangría and a lemon soda were bought for me. I love the lemon soda here(the sangría was unremarkable). Oh! I almost forgot our cake celebrations. The cake Karen baked for me didn't turn out because of the elevation so we had to go buy cake last minute. We had one chocolate and one Dulce de Leche. The Dulce de Leche was delicious and my friends made a birthday crown for me out of the styrofoam cakebox.


One more thing on my birthday! We were invited to the town hall with other newly arrived international students for a welcome message from the secretary of culture in Salamanca. It was a rare opportunity to go inside, and very cool.


The rest of the weekend was pretty good too. Saturday I just walked around town as I often do to pass the time. At night I went out to the bar again to watch the soccer game and was bought two more drinks as belated birthday presents. We had a really good time and I ended up staying out very late sitting in a park with Catherine Attewell enjoying the night air and conversation. Sunday was mass again at the cathedral and a two hour nap in the afternoon. The bible study that was planned for the afternoon by the protestants in the group got rained out, so I spent some time in a café staying dry over some tea. That was most of my day(plus a short spelling lesson from our host mom's friend before dinner).


Something else I want to mention from last week before I move to my last day touring, I want to mention another highlight of my week. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had dance lessons in Salsa and Sevillanas. I think we have the opportunity for continued lessons every week so you can be sure I'll be taking advantage of them. Also, if I haven't mentioned them, we have art and history conferences every evening. Last week we learned about El Greco, Spain under roman influence, and the history of the moors and the reconquest. We also attended a presentation on the literary movement Realismo which didn't interest me much at all.


Ok, lastly some memories of Sevilla before we finally came to Salamanca. Then I will be finished telling about my adventures before Salamanca. I wish I had time to go into even more detail with every day even here in Salamanca but I just don't have the time with a computer. And I need to be out living the adventure, not just writing about it.


Anyway, Sevilla. From where I left you, I had one full day in Sevilla to go, one more night, and a morning to say farewell. The big event of the second day was visiting la Catedral de Sevilla, which is known as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and rivaled only in size by St. Paul's in London and of course St. Peter's in la Ciudad del Vaticano. The cathedral was of course beautiful and contained the/a tomb of Christopher Columbus(Cristóbal Colón). The reason I say 'a' tomb is because his remains are actually in a couple places as he was moved around and parts were left behind. I think I took a picture of the tomb. We also saw the burial stone of one of his sons. Another fun fact about this cathdral is that it has a painting of St. Anthony which I think is very famous and you would recognize if you saw it. Anyway, what makes this fact fun is that the quarter of the painting containing the Saint was cut out and stolen in I think the 1920's. A worldwide notice was put out and it returned by a small shopkeep in New York who stumbled upon it in his shop, although at first he didn't realize what it was. The shopkeep returned the painting refusing the VERY high reward. Thus, the joke became that St. Anthony, patron Saint of lost things, even found himself.


I went out to explore the streets at night again and this time ran into two spaniards and a german. We ended up walking down along the river exchanging cultures. Some other friends(Alyssa&Bridget) had the opportunity to experience a community festival. Apparently during the month of may, neighborhoods host parties with drink and live music.


My time in Sevilla ended on Friday morning with mass in the cathedral. I by chance snapped a photo the day before of the chapel we had mass in so you can see it later once I post it.


Time's up! Mester is closing so I have to sign out. After Sevilla we drove to Salamanca, met our host moms, and moved into our new homes. Since then I've been very happy here as I hope you've seen in my blog. The past two sundays I've been in the cathedral for mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Loneliness(Nuestra Señor de la Soledad), so I am in good company if I start to miss home.

¡Hasta luego!

Feliz cumpleaños!

This just a quick update between classes to send everyone well wishes on my birthday. Feel free to think about how thankful you are to have me in your life. I'm having a great day so far. I got my placement test back today from yesterday and did really well so I think I get to move up a level!


This afternoon we're playing a game of fútbol(soccer), having a little fiesta with pastel(cake!), and later tonight going to see Piratas del Caribe al cine!


Adios! Vos quiero mucho! Ahora tengo que ir a clase de conversación.

Hola!

This will be another fairly short entry because I only have 20 minutes. We'll see how much I can get written. There's always so much! Basic things, it's only been a day so things haven't changed much in Salamanca. I'm still happy with my host mom and roommate, classes were a little better today. Also, our host mom hosts french highschool boys, too. New ones come every tuesday and leave on saturday so we met this week's pair at lunch. They were pretty quiet, but I guess we were too since Spanish is not native to any of us.

Conversation class was very exciting today. When I was introducing myself to the teacher and class yesterday, I mention my love of the Catholic church and studying philosophy/theology(really, apologetics) and the teacher asked me to give a presentation on the church for the class. Her thinking was that we have a few chinese students in the class who would be totally unfamiliar with christianity and I could introduce it because it's so huge in Spain(94% Catholic). So, when we walked in today she asked me to take her teachers chair and I ended up spending the whole hour and a half giving an introductory survey of the christian and more specifically Catholic faith. The first 45 minutes was more or less lecturing and the last 45 minutes was feilding questions ranging from what catholics really believe about the Eucharist to why priests can't get married. I had lot of help from the teacher and MANY corrections on my grammar, but I spoke entirely in spanish to my German/Estonian/German classmates and even my catholic teacher learned a few things. It was so much fun, I didn't even realize how much practice I was getting with my spanish!

Ok, so that was my excitement for today(that, and Salsa dance lessons tonight!), but I need to get back to telling of my travels. After Granada we went to Córdoba to see their mezquita(mosque) turned cathedral, and then took the bus to Sevilla to check into our hotel for the night. The Cathedral was really incredible. They maintained almost all of the original structure of the mosque(some hundreds out of the more hundreds it had before) and put a huge altar and choir in the center. As long as you were between the choir and the altar, it seemed like any other cathedral, but as soon as you stepped out it turned into a muslim world. The columns reminded me of the Mines of Moria from the Lord of the Rings movie. Something else that fascinated me was the number of private side chapels along the outer walls. There were probably more than 30 different chapels lining three of the four walls of the mosque. As you wandered through the columns away from the central altar, you would eventually come back to a very christian outer wall. I didn't take many pictures because I was burned out from the Alhambra, but I did grab a brochure with some good shots. I'm sure images.google.com can help you out too. It was really amazing.

I also want to mention the monstrance they had there for the feast of Corpus Christi. They said the one in sevilla was bigger, but even this one was as tall as me. It was incredible. So much gold and intricate design. I can't wait for the feast to see the procession here in Salamanca. It won't be Santa Semana, but it'll be pretty cool. It's coming up in just a few weeks!

Before leaving Córdoba, we took a little time to wander through the town and jewish quarter. We were shown a pretty street of flowers with a famous view of the bell tower, but I didn't think it was a very big deal. Pretty, but not too special. We also saw a small, long-unused Jewish temple. It was built by jews and decorated by a muslim under christian rule. The big deal was the mix of culture that is present throughout all of southern spain. It was pretty cool, I guess. I really loved Andalusia as a whole.

We finished the day in Seville, all trying to recover from the long day. My favorite memory was walking down to the Guadalquivir river a few blocks from our hotel and just looking out from the bridge. It was very peaceful and made me realize how much I love rivers in general. We took a little walk along its edge and then headed home for bed.

Now I have to go to a history lecture(we have a presentation on either history or art every night). Last night we learned about the early civilizations, particularly Romans, in Spain and about the art of El Greco. Very interesting stuff.

Hasta luego!

Una entrada pequeña

¡Hola, amigos!

I can't post a lot today because siesta time is almost over and I have another class to get to. As some of you saw on Facebook, I am in Salamanca and have been since Friday. I love it here. The Plaza Mayor, Las Catedrales, my host mom, the parks, the arquitectura(architecture), everything. The food is delicious but their's too much to list since I have to catch up on so much. For now, I don't want to go into too much detail because I have to catch up on the week of traveling I didn't blog!

Jumping back to last Tuesday where my adventures left off, we got on the bus that morning and rode to Granada where we spent the day and stayed the night(in a very swanky hotel, I might add. We felt very underdressed). The two important sites we visited were the Capilla Real and La Alhambra. The Royal Chapel was very beautiful and the burial sight of Los Reyes Católicos, Isabel y Fernando who forced the moors out of spain after 700 years and united the country under a single flag and religion. They're a little controversial in the history books for their treatment of other religions, but experiencing the history gives so much depth to the situation than you can read in a classroom. In the transept of the chapel there were marble statues of the king and queen and you could take a staircase down to see their caskets below. Very cool. There was also a small museum off the side of the chapel with paintings and religious objects used by the king and queen. It was all very beautiful and probably cost a fortune. 

For lunch(thinking of you, mom) most of us went to lunch together at a small restaurant near the chapel. If I haven't explained Menú del Día to you yet, it's a popular restaurant tradition. The restaurant serves three courses(two main and a desert) for about 8-10€. Each day they give about 3 options for each course that you can choose from. I love it. I think that day I had a salad for the first course and a chicken dish for the second, but it's hard to remember. The salad wasn't quite like what you get at home. Instead of a pile of lettuce with a few other veggies on top, it was equal-serving portions of corn, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, some lettuce, and maybe something else I've forgotten. The chicken was the best course. Yum!

The other event of the day, the Alhambra, was very tiring, but also very beautiful. I felt like I lived behind my camera a bit too much, but I took lots of pictures! The Alhambra was at different points in its history a military fortress and a palace. It was built by the muslims and possessed by los reyes católicos after the defeat of Granada in 1492. It remained in use for some time before the royal family moved elsewhere(Madrid?). The name Alhambra actually means the Red Castle which is a very adequate description as you'll see from my pictures(although it's really the most red at sunset). One of the most beautiful parts of the tour were the gardens of the Generalife gardens(pronounced hen-ey-rah-lee-fey) which were a part of the muslim king's summer home. You'll have to look at the pictures(which will be up soon! I promise!). The other most impressive part was the throne room. You'll really have to see pictures of the ceiling in there. Throughout the whole palace, there are so many intricate designs covering the walls. Apparently they never depicted humans or animals, so they decorated with a lot of patterns and words of the Qur'an. 

Lots of history, lots of sunsets. I should also mention going to the top of the watchtower to overlook Granada. Amazing. Oh, and being next to the Sierra Nevada. They were beautiful to have in the distance. Rumor has it there's a ski resort at the top, but we didn't have time for that. Anyway, we finished our day back at the hotel and went straight to bed after dinner so we could journey to Córdoba and Sevilla the next day.

Sadly, those adventures will have to wait until next time because I have to get back to class. I have afternoons free from about 1 to 5, but I'm in class between 9:30AM and 1PM and then varying times in the early evening. 

Hasta luego!

Más y Más de Benalmádena

5/22/2011 Benalmádena

10:40 - I missed my update yesterday, but do not worry! I still remember everything that happened. Still, this entry may be shorter because I don't have a lot of time on the computer. Yesterday I woke up at 11 am and got down to the beach about 11:30 after applying lots of sunscreen. Everyone else had been down on the sand for over an hour already, but we still splashed around and laid on our towels for almost two hours. It was very relaxing. The water, of course, was cold and salty, but I loved every minute of it. We went back to the hotel to shower before our vocab quizzes.

    For lunch about seven of us walked down to the boardwalk to check out the restaurants there. I had a tomato and tuna bocadillo(a toasted baguette sandwich). It was very delicious. Conversation was awesome too! I was sitting with a friend from Newman(Karen! Surprise!) and two students involved at CCF(campus christian fellowship) who were asking questions about Catholicism. Of course, I could hardly say enough. Afterwards, we split up in some different groups and Karen and I went walking through the town with two of the other guys on the trip. We did find the church, but we got lost a few times(there aren't a lot of street signs) and went to a different church for mass anyway. But we did get some ice cream at a nearby heladería(ice cream shop) as a reward for traveling so far!

     After that, we went back to the hotel and I slept for two hours. The nap led into dinner(again, mediochre and I don't remember what I ate) followed by a very traditional Spanish event: the flamenco dance! We took a bus a few kilometers down the road to a find Pepe Lopez's Flamenco Show. It was incredible. We were all amazed. And we got two free drinks with the ticket! The dancers were so impressive and worked well as a team. You could tell they all worked very closely and had good chemistry. Their movements were so quick and slow, graceful yet aggressive. Look it up on Youtube, but it will never be the same as being right there.

5/23/2011 Benalmádena

10:55PM -  Sorry! Had to cut out because the computer I was borrowing got taken away. Continuing on...

Basically al that happened for the rest of the night Saturday was sitting on a friend's balcony with a few people chatting the night away(including more talk on my favorite subject!). I had also stayed up late Friday night on the balcony talking to my roommate and friend Catherine. It's so peaceful with the breeze blowing and watching the moon rise over and reflect off the sea. Hermosa(beautiful). It's cool getting to know people I would never run into just at school. We're really a great little microcosm(minus our spanish affiliations) of the whole school. There are a wide array of majors and extracurriculars represented.

     Sunday was a very exciting day from the beginning. There were about 12 of us (out of 20!) that went to mass together. And only 6 or so of us were catholic and several had never been to a mass ever. I had to laugh because the church we went to happened to be dedicated to la virgen del carmen(the Virgin of Mt. Carmel). So there were images of the Blessed Mother holding a Scapular ALL over the church. I thought it was beautiful, but some others weren't sure what the think. It was awesome how I could still say the english prayers under the spanish and everything was so much the same! After mass we walked through an incredible park full of so many plant varieties and then we went to lunch(a spanish omelette for me, very tasty and very unique. Look it up!).

     It was around 4 by the time we finished lunch. At that point I was ready for just a little more time on the beach for some swimming and laying on the towel before dinner. I don't remember well, but I think I just relaxed in my room until dinner. After dinner I started blogging but then went to bed early. I did catch some news commentaries on the presidential elections as they came in! El Partido Popular(PP) won, but I don't really know what that means. Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep fairly quickly to rest up for my big trip today!

    Today was a trip to Mijas, Spain. It was a pueblo up on the mountain above Benalmádena. Some people woke up at 6:30 to see the sunrise, but I slept in until around 10:30 and just looked at their pictures. It did look beautiful. About 8 of us chose to hunt down the bus for Mijas at 11 and took the journey all on our own. It was unforgettable. My pictures will be up eventually, you'll just have to wait. The first stop we made was a small chapel built as a tower over a cliff. It turned out to be the site of a Marian apparition: La Virgen de la Peña(The Virgin of the Rock). The images of her were mystifying. I sat and dedicated a small prayer for Grandma Flori and read the history. She appeared to a boy and girl, Juan y Asuncion, in the 16th century who were playing on the hill. I also bought a rosary with the image on it, though it's a bit small to see details.

    There were so many wonderful things about Mijas. We really felt like the other twelve missed out, but the 8 of us were very happy. After the chapel, we sat down for lunch in the shade. In the sun it was hot, but where we ate we had a breeze of perfect coolness brushing by. We all agreed we could sit there all afternoon but had to get moving. We had the option of riding burros(donkeys) around the town, but decided to save our Euros. We thought we could explore the town on our own, but we ended up walking down a very long dead-end residential street away from the more tourist-welcome areas. We were interested to see where people really lived, but happy to find our way back to public squares. We walked up past the bull ring, passed two churches, and then found another spanish park full of their marvelous plant life. The second(third, fourth?) best part of the adventure was sitting down at the edge of the park looking over the edge of the cliffs toward the sea. We all just sat and looked and absorbed it all. Pictures can't do it justice.

     The last thing we did in Mijas was finding a small ice-cream shop. Because one of us couldn't eat sugar, we ended up going to an out of the way frozen yogurt shop in a hidden away corner. It was barely a hole in the wall and the woman(early thirties?) seemed like she was new to the town herself, but the yogurt tasted better than any frozen yogurt I had ever eaten. It tasted like regular yogurt, but very cold and the consistency of ice cream. Along with your yogurt you got three choices of toppings. I had watermelon, pineapple, and honey(the best decision of all!). None of us could get over it, and the woman seemed like we were answered prayers to have so many customers at once.

    As we finished our frozen yogurt, we sat to wait for our bus and quizzed vocab on benches in the shade. The perfect end to the perfect trip(minus the vocab and having to finish our yogurt). Coming back to the hotel, we had a short time to collect ourselves back in our rooms before our vocab quizzes and dinner(still in the same unimpressive hotel restaurant). Pites treated us to a little helado(ice cream, but it's extra creamy here) and I tried the rum and raisins flavor. It was unique to say the least, but I did enjoy it. After that, I came back to the hotel and here I am blogging, checking e-mail and facebook. Tomorrow we leave for Granada and then to Cordoba and Seville the next day(with two nights in Seville; I'll let you know if I see any barbers!).

I'll update as soon as I can!

Bienvenidos a españa!

Welcome to my new blog! This is for all of you living through me right now while I'm in spain. I'm trying to take lots of pictures for you, and I've been journaling each night so far. Here are my entries! You can find pictures on facebook. And so there's no confusion, we're doing some tourism before landing in Salamanca for classes and there is nothing between Karen and I even though her name appears a lot in my journal. We just happened to do everything together. I should also mention Samantha who has spent a lot of time with us and is very nice.

5/18/2011 Madrid

9:12AM – “We just arrived at the hotel! Madrid is bellísima. Our shuttle driver from the airport was very chatter and our hotel is caro to say the least. Very nice. We arrived to soon for our rooms to be ready, though, so we’re all tired and hungry in the lobby. Nonetheless, very excited!

     “For myself, I’m trying to ease into the culture. I started speaking Spanish when the plane landed, but it’s been back and forth. I was able to converse with the shuttle driver at least. He told us all about places to see around the hotel as we drove past. Most notable was el Puerto de Alcalá(think Arc de Triomphe), which you’ll see pictures of later. The city is filled with trees, old architecture, and lots of sunshine.

   “Today our plan is to recover from travel. I’m going to take my camera out tomorrow after I’ve had some rest. This trip is not about sightseeing for me, though. It’s about experiencing and learning. I’ll be keeping a comfortable pace. I don’t want to try to see everything, and that’s my attitude. I’m very content. Let’s hope it doesn’t hit too hard when the novelty wears off!

     “We’ll be in Madrid for two nights and then head south to Benalmádena for three nights. Benalmádena is a sort of suburb of Málaga on the southern coast of Spain. We’ll get 3 days on the beach and a flamenco show.

“So much to do ahead, but for now it’s time to rest my eyes. Hasta luego!”

11:07PM – “I’m getting ready to sleep again, but this time for the night. Many more exciting things happened today and I wanted to write about them while they are still fresh on my mind. First of all, we got into our room and were very pleased. It has all the amenities of an American hotel and we have a large floor-to-ceiling window which opens up to a view of the botanical gardens full of trees. There’s a street right below that some might think is too loud, but my roommate Preston and I like the cool breeze and sounds of the city. It’s very relaxing.

     “I took two naps todays, and ate lunch in between. Lunch was served at the late hour of 2 o’clock and was huge! I had a plate of paella, a mix of various meats in rice, as my “first course” and French fries with a sort of seasons pork as course two. The paella was fun to eat because it had shrimp, clam, oyster, and chicken all together. By the second plate, I was really too full already. I should also mention the flan I had for desert(a sort of egg-gelatin). It was all too much but very delicious.

     “After lunch was nap #2 followed by a trip to the Reina Sofia art museum. There was a bit too much cubism and other strange forms of art for my taste, but there were many pieces of work I did enjoy. They had a number of pieces by Salvador Dalí(but not the melting clocks) which were cool. I especially liked seeing Picasso’s “Guernica.” It was huge! Guernica was a civilian town in Spain that was bombed by Germans assisting the Nationalists during the Civil War in the 1930s. Historians considered it a practice run for the WWII blitzkriegs. It’s one painting I’ve seen a lot in my textbooks.

     “After the museum, I had a pesto spaghetti for dinner and came back to the hotel for bed. Now I’m here, showered, jounaled, and ready for sleep and tomorrow.

                                                                 “Buenos noches!”

5/19/2011 Madrid

10:35PM – “Day 2 survived! So much happens every day it feels like two or three days. We started the day with an awesome continental breakfast, took a vocab quiz, took a tour bus around the city, stopped and explored several notable locations, ate lunch somewhere in the middle, walked to a city park, went to Madrid’s largest museum El Prado, and finally ended with dinner and heading up to bed. If I didn’t mention in my last entry, Madrid is a beautiful city and I am very thankful to experience it.

     “Our breakfast was lots of fresh fruit, juice, bread, and cereal options. I had a large slice of fresh artisan bread, a glass of mango-pear juice, and a kiwi for round one. Round two was a bowl of cereal with dried mango chunks on top and some yogurt with other dried fruits. It was delicious. The vocab quiz wasn’t bad afterward, and then the real fun started with heading to our tour bus which was an open-roof double-decker.

     “When we stepped out of the hotel, my friend Karen and I began a competition of taking the most photos to help me remember to take pictures, which I think was a success. Some of my photos are just of buildings and environment, but I tried to get a lot with people in them. If you look through them(right now on facebook only) you’ll see the Puerto de Alcalá, a GIANT flag, lots of domes for which Madrid is famous, and the library. The bus ride was okay, but more exciting were the stops.

     “Our first stop was a small park with a monument dedicated to the writer Cervantes who wrote Don Quixote. The monument was a tall pillar with scenes from his stories on two sides, a fountain on a third, and Cervantes himself looking over large statues of Don Quixote and his faithful friend Sancho Panza and a reflecting pool.

     “The second stop was the old Palacio Real(Royal Palace) walking tour. We entered by its plaza and walked up the welcoming steps as any foreign dignitary might have many years ago. We weren’t allowed photography inside, but it was royal to be sure. Many of the walls had hand embroidered fabric wallpaper. There were huge tapestries and gold everywhere. The flows were made of intricately designed inlaid marble patterns. Masterfully carved, tall wood doors separated each chamber along with wallpaper matching drapery. My favorite rooms were the oriental room covered in embroidered silk and the smoking room which had porcelain walls so it wouldn’t absorb the smoke. Karen and I also found the armory off of the plaza which displayed old suits of armor, helmets, swords, shields, and horses prepared for both battle and jousts. That was my favorite part.

     “For lunch we bussed to the Plaza Mayor(Greater Plaza). I had half a pizza and a tomato&spiced sausage sandwich. Yum. We peeked into the middle of the plaza, but spent most of our time resting in the small cervecería outside where we ate. We did see, as we were leaving, a youth demonstration on some political matter. The Presidential elections are this weekend and they were camping out on the street for their cause.

     “Although we did explore a nice Spanish flavored central park, the big activity of the approaching evening was El Prado, the art museum. This gallery was much more my style(less abstract). My favorite section was a series of religious paintings by El Greco which were based on mysteries of the faith(annunciation, nativity, ascension, crucifixion, and others). I also liked appreciated seeing Velasquez’s Crucifixion painting in person(another textbook wonder). Christ was about life size and very real. We saw some pieces by the famed Goya, but it wasn’t much to me. The museum of course had many other workds, but I couldn’t possibly describe(or have seen!) them all.

     “Dinner was a chance to finally relax. I had a small plate of cannoli followed by a plate of delicious mystery fish. The rest of the evenings has been resting my feet and stopping by the McDonalds next door to journal while friends used the wifi. I didn’t have time to use it myself , but I’ll be on soon enough. For now, it’s time to head to the room to get ready for bed.

    “Recuédame en vuestras oraciones!”

5/20/2011 Madrid&Málaga

9:55PM – “Today has been much less eventful. After breakfast, we left for the train, and once on it I did see a lot of beautiful Spanish countryside. We were on our way here to Málaga. After arriving at our destination, we settled into our hotel and were given free rein to relax with no schedule.

     “The chief attraction of Málaga is its beach, from which we are staying less than a block away. For this reason we spent a lot of time there today. It also turns out to be a popular vacation point for the UK. I had a burger, chips(fries), and a beer at a very English establishment. Shortly after, I walked along the shore with a group of my fellow travellers and spent an hour just splashing in the tide. It was very relaxing.

     “I can’t say enough how beautiful Spain is, especially here on the Mediterranean, but I do miss home. Being with the group so much and exploring gets tiring. Dinner was less exciting tonight and the novelty of restaurants is wearing off. It seems I’m hitting the culture shock a little quickly. Hopefully the recovery will be accordingly swift. I am making new friends and there is plenty to be excited about, but I’ll also be trying to find quality time both alone and with the people I enjoy most.

     “In addition to praying for me, please enjoy the comforts of home. For those of you in Cape, take a stroll down by the river. Mom&Dad, enjoy your evening popcorn. Jadie, practice a little extra piano and guitar for me. Everyone else, consider a nice PB&J for lunch, there’s nothing quite like it. And don’t worry about the fresh seafood and rice I get to eat!

“Vos quiero.”