Estoy como un Cangrejo

I write to you as a new person, in the Canary Islands my sunburn was so bad that my entire top layer of skin peeled off and I am now a little tanner and full of a lot more freckles, probably skin cancer prone also, but I am trying to stay positive. These past two weeks have been very fun and adventure filled here in good ole Espana!

First of all that Friday for lunch I was surprised by my madre with Kraft macaroni and cheese for lunch, obviously I freaked out. It was left by one of her old students and we laughed and I took pictures of our epic meal. Our plane left for Tenerife from Santander a city located about two and a half hours away so we met up at the bus station around three and enjoyed listening to the classic American music they played and watching the A-team in Spanish. We flew with Ryanair, a very cheap low budget airline, which allows you one carryon, or you can pay 25€ to check a bag. We just bring backpacks and pray they are small enough to fit into the overhead bin. We arrived in Tenerife after a three hour flight around 11:30 pm. Our hostel was about 15 minutes from the airport by taxi and I have to say this was the most accommodating hostel I have ever stayed in. That night we ran down to the beach, a two minute walk, and walked around the pier and shore area, there are like a million cockroaches there at night too, so that was a little scary.

Tenerife is an island volcano, and is home to many black sand beaches in the north from the volcanic ash. The next morning we got up and made the two hour bus trip to the north side of the island to find these beaches. It was Sunday and a lot of things were closed and the only sunscreen we could find was 20 € for a small bottle, so we judged that I was cloudy enough for us to avoid any real trouble, wrong. We found the black sand beach and it was absolutely incredible, I smuggled home a sample. The ocean water was fairly warm so we played in the water, running from and jumping over waves. The rip tide was pretty powerful so we were really careful whenever a huge wave would knock us off our feet. Eventually we were tired and it was still a little cloudy with more clouds lingering around the volcano so we assumed we would be safe for a nap. I woke up about an hour later in the blazing heat and I could already feel the burn. I am the only fair skinned person there, so alone I relocated to the shade for an hour while the others continued to soak in the rays. We went swimming again later and explored the pier area where there were crashing waves and crabs. Around six we began our bus ride back down north, and stopped for about an hour halfway through to eat snacks and get café.

It was on our bus ride home that the effects of the sunburn really started to sink in, I am pretty use to sunburns but my other tanned friends had never been sunburned badly before in their lives. We got back to our hostel and our first mission was aloe, it’s funny that we are too cheap to spend 20 € on sunscreen, yet then we will drop 30€ on aloe. We ordered pizza up to our hostel room and spent the evening lathering each other up; it was really quite the bonding experience, and trying to move as little as possible. The next day Hanna and I were hiking up to the volcano and had to be up and ready to go by eight, we were slightly concerned about the state of our bodies. The next morning was worse than the day before, I was redder and couldn’t lift my hands above my head; this was not one of my shining moments. You could hear people as they would get dressed because they would softly moan and whimper; we were pathetic.

Our amazing hotel staff offered to drive us to the mountain bus station for free so we got into a cheap van with one of the staff who told us his life story and some fun facts about Tenerife. Finally we boarded the bus and it was a 3 ish hour drive up through the windy mountains to get to the top. I don’t know how but somehow I have changed in Spain and I don’t get that motion sick anymore! So finally we drove up above the clouds and made it to the base of the volcano. There is only one bus a day from our southern location so we only had about five hours before we HAD to be back on the bus. We stopped by the tourist information center and they gave us a map and some shorter trails to hike at the base of the volcano. The volcano was absolutely gorgeous, and it was a beautiful clear day. We hiked around on old lava flows, the last eruption was 1796 I believe, and obviously I collected a few rocks. The paths were beautiful and always had a great view of the volcano, Teide, in the background. We tried to do some lizard hunting. Hanna actually succeeded in catching one once but the tail detached and she freaked out. It was pretty winding up in the volcanic valley and the surrounding mountain ranges prevented you from seeing the ocean, Teide is the highest peak in Spain and is the third largest volcano in the world after two Hawaiian Volcanoes, so I’m happy we went.

The bus ride home was a lot faster, and slightly more frightening winding down hill but we made it back to our hostel and found Carrie and Corinne napping from their lazy beach day. We decided to stroll down town stopping at the beach for awhile and hitting up the supermarket. That evening we ordered pizza for the second night in row and relaxed and watched youtube videos.

The following day was our last day and we were pretty sad to go. Our plane didn’t leave till four so we hung out on the beach for most of the day. I sat in the shade, still wounded by the sun. Wind surfing is really popular in Southern Tenerife since it is so windy so we watched the traditional surf board with a sail, but then also there were people on wakeboards who would hold onto a parachute and use the wind to jump of waves and do tricks, it was pretty amazing. Carrie and Corinne found a beauty place where fish eat the dead skin off your feet like in Korea and had to try it, it was pretty funny to watch them giggle and laugh and see all the old people come into watch. Oh I don’t know if I have mentioned this but Tenerife is the number one German and old people vacation get away in the world. The signs were in Spanish and German and when we asked people to take our pictures we had to use more English and thank them in German, was bizarre.

Eventually we got back on the plane and I made it through security with many rocks and smuggled sand. We made it into Santander at 9 pm and unfortunately buses to Oviedo stop running at 8 and resume again at 3:30 in the morning. We had a long time of sitting in cafes and hanging out, outside the bus station.

All in all it was a very fun and successful weekend. I got to miss two days of school so it made last week’s classes a breeze to sit through. By sun burn had entered the blister peel phase so my constant itching is causing me to shed dead skin all over our house, I feel bad for my madre. The rest of the week was spent hanging out and catching up on school work.

This last Saturday I went on the school trip to Picos de Europa national park for the most beautiful 21 km hike I have ever been on. We picnicked in beautiful fields of wildflowers and hiked through caves and along the edge of a canyon gorge. Spain doesn’t have safety regulation so you literally hike alongside a 50 foot + drop without a railing or anything, I got the best pictures. Our hike left us exhausted but ready to go out that night. My madre told me she was amazed by the energy of the youth and didn’t know how we did it! Sunday was spent sleeping till about noon, and then hitting up night mass with all the other old people in Oviedo.

Last weekend was a little cheaper but equally amazing Picos de Europa was on my things to do list and we actually didn’t know that was where the school trip was going! What a pleasant surprise. My mommy comes tomorrow and we head off to Ireland for a week on Friday! I am so excited we will have too many adventures I am sure. I have two sets of pictures, one from Tenerife and one from Picos de Europa on the the Ruta de Cares.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=349777&id=563560128&l=d823e1397b  Tenerife

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=350928&id=563560128&l=b28523298d Picos de Europa

I can’t believe it is already April and how fast time has flown here, I only have about six weeks left! I am sure they will fly by and I can’t wait to return to America and see all of you!

Things I have learned:

1.      Hotel staff courtesy goes a long way with helping you figure out bus schedules and things to do.

2.      Bananas in Tenerife are grown in huge white tent complexes and bagged with a blue plastic bag when they have matured enough to attract animals.

3.      In Tenerife they don’t speak Spanish with a lisp like they do in Spain, it sounds a lot more like Mexico.

4.      Spaniard shout when angry, happy, sad, or just having a normal conversation, it tough to feel out the mood of the people in the next room.

5.      Kids here wear jump suits and track suits to school, all matching and in uniform.

6.      They literally do play soccer in the streets.

7.      I have grown accustomed to ironed underwear and socks.

8.      The game Parchís in Spain is very similar to Parchisi in the US and is highly competitive between old women in cafes.

9.      When you tell someone you are sunburned you say “estoy como un cangrejo” like a crab instead of lobster.

10.  Black sand is the best sand! 

Baby you're a firework...

I am alive!! Sorry I have taken so long to write, Spain has been keeping me real busy, but I have a lot of cool things to catch you up on so here I go. Two weekends ago, March 18-20 was Las Fallas a crazy festival in Valencia, Spain. Las Fallas is an event where all the different districts and neighborhoods work together all year in secret constructing these huge mannequin things that they then display around the city for a week then on the final night set them all on FIRE! It was quite the adventure getting to Las Fallas from Oviedo, it’s located on the southeast coast and it’s impossible to find direct buses or cheap flights. So we left Friday night at 12:30 am, technically Saturday, and bused for five hours to Madrid. Then a group of very tired girls had to navigate their way from the bus station to the train station. I have been spoiled in my travels thus far, both Korea and Italy have simple to navigate train stations with signs everywhere and time boards, Spain has none of this. So after thinking we figured it out, freezing cold in the small waiting room, we boarded a train to take us to our other train outside of the station. Luckily we found some other college kids heading to Las Fallas and we followed them. Our train finally headed out around nine am and we had a six hour trek to Valencia. The trains were fairly comfortable I’ll have to admit, and we spent a lot of time sleeping and watching Spain’s central desert land fly by outside the window. I would have to say the view very much reminded me of old movies of Mexico and South America with ghost looking like towns, sand, and tumbleweeds.

Finally around 2 in the afternoon we rolled into Valencia, and boarded yet another train/metro thing to the center of the city. Las Fallas is such a huge festival it was impossible to get a hostel for one night under 100 euros, thus we decided since our train home left at eight a.m. the following morning we would just stay up all night, easier said than done. Immediately after stepping into the fresh air we heard the load bang of fireworks. The whole weekend all I heard were explosions and it literally sounded like what I image a war zone to sound like, I was jumpy the whole time. We packed really light, everyone with just a purse, and our first stop was a place to freshen up and change out of our travel clothes into jeans etc. We found a small fruit smoothie bar where we borrowed the bathroom and the woman working was really helpful in explaining how to go about seeing all the statues and how the festivities of the day would work.

We set out and spent the afternoon looking at these huge incredible statues and taking pictures of them. They were so detailed it was insane, I have included pictures at the bottom! There were also a ton of shops and places to buy churros and other little snacky Spanish food. I have honestly never seen so many people before in my life, and it took forever just to cross the street. The police had all the roads blocked off to cars and they were jam packed with people. We walked over to the Torro Plaza hoping to maybe see a bull fight, but we got distracted by the many women dressed in traditional clothes trying to win the Miss Las Fallas title. We continued to walk around and found a park in the central of the city with the most amazing half real half fake tree I have ever seen. It was a real tree that they built up with cement and other things to resemble a tree from the lion king. We played around on that, as small children threw fireworks all around us. I’m really surprised we didn’t see anyone get hurt, on the news when we got back some people had died but not as many as I would have thought. Things just got more and more dangerous as the night went on, people were drunk and everyone would just throw bomb like fireworks in the middle of a group of people without warning. I was on my game all night.

We knew we had 17 hours to kill before we could get back on the train home so we really tried to pace ourselves. We saw probably almost every wooden statue and finally allowed ourselves to eat dinner around nine. We are really big on donar Kebaps here and obviously that had to be our dinner. They had huge picnic tables set up in the center of the city with little vendors all around so we got our dinner and sat for about an hour talking and deciding which statue we wanted to watch burn. We decided on the giant man, since he was located in a large plaza and we figured we would be able to find a good place to stand. The burning supposedly began at 12-1230 so around eleven we headed back into the mannequins to stake out a good seat. People were everywhere, more foreigners than Spaniards, and we literally had to fight and push our way through the crowds. People started getting restless around 12 waiting for things to happen, we stood and waited patiently meeting some people from Iowa and Nebraska around us, I met some boys from Creighton prep. People were so jammed packed it was literally like a river current as people pushed and filed through. We watched a few fights break out, watched paramedics fight their way into the crowds. It was crazy.

Finally around one they shut off the lights and it was time to begin, an hour late. We were located behind a fence parameter of the statue and a park; the firefighters had tied up the trees and were continuously spraying them with water. Then from not far in front of us they set off the best firework show I have ever seen, it lasted for about five minutes and was warm, and close, and totally shamed the fourth of July. After the fireworks it was time to burn the huge mannequins along with another firework show right in front of it. The heat wave was crazy and the whole think took about ten minutes to burn down. It was probably one of the top five coolest things I have ever witnessed. I can’t describe to you how many people were they cheering and taking pictures.

After the fire everyone, drunk, is trying to figure out what bar or club they want to go to and the firework throwing increases. We decided we wanted to get away from all the dangers and crowds so we found a café that was open till three am and we played cards and drank hot chocolate. After that we headed to the north side train station, our train station was on the south side, but we sat inside and played slumber party games and talked till six am. Finally we boarded the subway train to our train and I slept for six straight hours on the train ride to Madrid. If you sat by the window you also sat right next to the heater, it was delightful. After an hour in Madrid we were back on the bus and arrived back to Oviedo about 9 pm that night. All in all it was 22 hours of travel for 17 hours in our destination; I’ll have to say it was well worth it to see Las Fallas.

The following week of school was mini courses, so we had a week off of our regular classes to enjoy two cultural classes that involve the different talents of our professors. I took fotoperiodismo or photo journalism and photography. It was pretty fun to just get the time to walk around the sunny city and take pictures. That Friday we had an all school assembly and presented our work and watched performances from the dance and theater groups, I actually had to do more work that week than I typically do.

The next weekend, March 26-27 was my friend Carries 21^st birthday so we had to celebrate hard. Saturday night we rented a hostel in Gijon and that afternoon we headed into the coastal city about a half hour away to spend time on the beach. Sadly it was cloudy and slightly rainy so we decided to check into our cheap 20 euro a night hostel. Best decision ever made, lo and behold it was a huge apartment style hostel, with two bedrooms, a private bath, and a huge conference living room. We had 16 chairs in one room. We played cards and hot lava waiting for our other friends to arrive for a birthday dinner. Carrie wanted Italian so we found a great pizza restaurant and everyone was too excited for their meal, after we headed back to the apartment for more games and finally hit up the seaside bar scene later that night. I would say successful birthday, that Sunday was spent with naps, homework, and church.

So there is a quick version of what has been happening in good ole Espana these last two weeks. Yesterday was 80 degrees and absolutely beautiful, yet old people still wore their fur coats.

Pictures of Las Fallas can be found at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=345384&id=563560128&l=66f7f58942

I am leaving for Tenerife later today, part of the Canary Islands I cannot wait to share my stories and pictures with you when I return on Wednesday. Until then I love you and I miss you and here is what I have learned recently.

1.      When cars park in Spain they do it in small spots and have no problem hitting other cards to fit in.

2.      Flip flops in March will get you many disapproving stairs from older people.

3.      Public displays of affection are getting a little disgusting.

4.      Bottles of water are as big as my arm.

5.      It’s common for people to also own a weekend home in the country.

6.      Chickens and rosters run free in the city.

7.      The bus station ticket window lady and I have a first name relationship.

8.      Little girls dress way too maturely for their age.

9.      The tax and tariff office is evil.

10.  People of all ages sing the spongebob theme song in Spanish when they are drunk on the weekends. 

The Ultimate Party Weekend…

Hola,

I hope this email finds you well and gearing up for spring. This past week was Carnaval here in Spain and let me begin by saying it ultimately shames our Halloween. Image a weeklong celebration for people of every age and people of every age dressing up in elaborate costumes. Thursday night we kicked off our carnival celebration with a group meeting at Cicero bar where we talked about our hiking trip in the mountains, then we hit up the bar street and enjoyed the wonderful lights and carnival decorations. Friday was the same with more costumes bar hopping and dancing.

Saturday began the true Carnaval festivities with our attendance at the Aviles Carnaval. Aviles is a City located about thirty minutes away and it is known for having one of the best carnavals in Spain! We arrived around three with our costumes stored in the train station lockers and we were dressed in ratty clothes prepared for the foam party at six. We really didn’t know what to expect at this foam party I assumed there would be about an inch of shaving cream in the streets. We sat in a park and basked for a few hours watching kids in adorable costumes and families dressed up in intense matching costumes. We began to notice people were wearing full on rain gear and boats, mind you it is a sunny day. We headed into a grocery store a little before six and I suggested we buy some trash bags to cover ourselves just in case, best decision ever made. We headed into the streets where there were huge orange barriers dividing the rain coat people in the middle from the older well costumed adults on the outside. There were big blue cannons positioned all around the streets and people were beginning to gather under them in anticipation. We pushed our way to the middle of a group and admired the incredible decorations and costumes. This parade/foam party takes place around apartment building so it is tradition for people to stand on their balconies and throw eggs and water on the people below.

Finally it was time to start this foam party and they fired up the cannons. Foam sprayed out all over us and we screamed and jumped and everyone squished together under the falling foam. We were all so squished together that the foam began to build up on our shoulders until I noticed I could no longer see the sky. Everyone had the same panic attack that we were going to suffocate in foam at the same time and fought to break out from the pack. You’d think I would learn my lesson after such a near death experience, but I couldn’t resist the draw of the puffy white foam!

The street also served as a parade route and these huge, incredible floats, unlike anything I have ever seen before would  come barreling down the streets as the police pushed people out of the way just in the nick of time, mind you every float was full of people drinking and smoking. People were drinking and smoking pushing the floats! I think my favorite aspect though was the toboggan. They took toboggans and attached wheels then they would ride the streets and scoop children out of the way with long kayak paddles, all while holding glasses of alcohol. We played in the foam party, getting completely soaked from head to toe; our hair looked like we had lathered with soap in the shower, until we were too cold to function. Then we went back to the train station to change and return for the concert and after party. I went shopping at the chinos stores the week before and found a legit Chinese shirt and rice field hat so I obviously went as mulan, my friend Carrie went as my panda bear. We also had with us a police officer, 50’s guy, pajama party girls, cowboy, and several pirates. We stopped for dinner at a donar kebap restaurant, a Turkish food and my new obsession before heading back into the party. The streets were so full of people it was amazing and when they dress up they do it big.

Finally it was time to brave the foam again and make it back into the center of the city. The foam had depressed to about ankle deep but it was still a pain in the butt to walk through. We found two stages, basically facing each other, one was an older band playing classic American hits and the other was a DJ skankily dressed women singing modern dance moves. We switched stages about ever forty five minutes when the other would take a break. We had so much fun dancing and singing and admiring the many, many costumes. Because Aviles is such a crazy important carnaval the buses run all night, we finally got on ours at 4 a.m. The next day, Sunday, I slept in till ten then went to church with my friend Megan. After mass since it was such a glorious day we decided to sit for awhile in the sunny park and bask on the benches with the other old people. We happened upon several groups dressed up in traditional costumes playing the bagpipes and performing traditional dances. We thought we had struck the customs mother load with our find, but apparently they do that every Sunday. That night we headed back out to our favorite bar Cicero’s for more fiestas and carnaval activities.

Monday morning we woke up around ten, mind you we have been going to bed around four or five every night since Thursday, and Hanna, Megan and I set off for a hiking adventure in the mountains. We had heard of a trail and hopped on a bus, after stopping in a grocery store for cheese, ham, bread, and snacks. I know I mentioned before that nothing gets refrigerated here, but let me remind you that it is ok to carry around cheese and ham in your back on a hot sunny day for multiple hours before finally consuming it. The trail was absolutely gorgeous and followed a gorge along the trails. The drop was really steep and luckily the trail was pretty empty being a Monday. We hiked for about an hour and a half before stopping for lunch on the side of a mountain.  

We made it back really fast and had about an hour to kill before our bus would be back so we did some wonderful basking right on the edge of the gorge. If you can’t tell yet the theme of basking is very popular here, we treat it like a sport. So we lay in the sun listening to the million cow bells clamoring around us and the wind in the trees until time forced us back to the bus stop. That night was the carnaval celebration in Gijon, another nearby town town so we all got ready and headed out around nine o’clock. Gijon was a lot of fun but not as exciting as Aviles. We arrived just as the parade was ending then spent a lot of time getting lost and trying to locate the rest of the group. That night we hung out with a lot of people from our program not from Iowa, like people from Ohio and California. They can’t party with us Iowans though, they claim it’s because we have nothing better to do in our state.

After dancing at another big stage, this time with strictly Spanish music, we wandered into the bar district and joined other thousands of people. Hanna and I went to the bus station around 3 am hoping there all night buses as was the case in Aviles but we had no such luck. The first bus out was not until 6:30 a.m. There was a serious sea breeze that night and I could not warm up. Hanna and I headed into a Donar Kebap restaurant to join Corinne and Carrie for some wraps and it was decided we would splurge for a taxi home, the total cost was forty euro and we decided we would pay ten euros each to get home at a decent time and be warm. The taxi ride was extremely foggy and the driver could not understand our instructions about where to be dropped off so we ended up about an hour’s walk away from our houses. At this point none of us were happy and I was more than excited to crash in my bed around five am.

Tuesday was relaxing and spent hanging out with friends then that night continuing the carnaval festivities at Bar Campa where we met some people from Africa and shared our life stories. Wednesday we went back to school, lame, but still went back out to Bar Campa that night for more activities. Thursday night was our night out as a group again and we went to Cicero’s and pestered our favorite bar tender and played card games.

Friday night kicked off the carnaval celebrations in Oviedo and the entire city was decorated with lights and costumes, the main event was Saturday night, with a concert and parade but we would be hiking in the mountains as a group. That night we went out to our favorite park to play games and hang out before heading to bed decently early, one a.m., in preparation for our hiking the following day. Saturday morning we met up at ten a.m. and headed off into the mountains. We all stayed in a huge hostel with two giant rooms filled with bunk beds and we left our stuff there before hitting the trails. The trail we took was a new one for our coordinators, Luna and Paula; they are geologist and avid hikers. We walked up a huge hill then somehow ended up in the thick of the forest on the side of a mountain. We kept weed wacking, bush wacking, our way through trying to find a trail. I was wearing Capri’s and my ankles were seriously scratched up from all the thorns. Finally we found the trail again and our hike could continue. We have people in our group from all walks of life and the girly girls were not having it. Paula and Luna kept reassuring us that we were through the worse, or so they thought.

We stopped about two hours in for lunch, they commented on how slow we were walking, I don’t think they factored in the fact that we all left our machetes at home. But they told us we had to pick up the pace or we wouldn’t make it for hours. Challenge accepted. Little did we know we were heading into a mud zone and our shoes would never be the same. We waded through so much mud, and people were losing their shoes left and right. But it was worth it to see some of the incredible views. Along the way we picked up two dogs, and by picked up I mean they literally followed us on the trail for miles ending with us at the hostel. I don’t think the hostel owners were very happy when they had to drive them home the next day.

So after five hours of hiking we were bloody and muddy and exhausted. We spent a few hours just hanging out in the backyard/field of the hostel playing soccer, rugby, exploring, and telling stories. The whole trip felt like a trip back in time where people still use crazy clog shoes to wear outside, and till their fields with old tools. We took a quick nap before dinner, only in Spain do they make you walk all day then refuse to feed you till nine p.m. Finally it was time for dinner and we had the most delicious chicken, bread, and soup I have ever tasted. Our coordinators brought some of their Spanish friends to go hiking with us and I sat next to their friend Miguel. Miguel didn’t speak any English so my friends and I decided we would tell him crazy stories about everyone at the table and see if he would believe us. We had a lot of fun and I still don’t think he actually knows that we were kidding. After we ate it was time to dance.

The hostel bar was suppose to stay open for us all night and we turned it into our own special dance floor. We played different dancing games and card games. We taught the Spaniards the cha cha slide and the cupid shuffle in exchange for some shakira dancing moves. We also interlude with all the Spaniards and taught them all the moves, we have it filmed on facebook.  The party lasted till about three a.m. when the bartender was too tired to keep watching us.

The next morning we woke up around ten a.m. for a breakfast of bread, hot chocolate, and cookies, then we returned to bed and lounged around giggling till our bus came at one p.m. that afternoon I spent time watching tv with my madre and going to church at the Cathedral at 6:30 p.m. That night was recovery time and I was in bed real early. All in all it was probably the craziest week of my life and I loved every moment. Spain does costumes and party right!!

Here are some more useful tips/observations:

1.      Costumes are meant to be inventive and expensive not slutty.

2.      Spanish movie titles do not translate correctly in English, like at all!

3.      Cows still wear the traditional cow bell, and when they are all walking in the pasture it sounds like a banjo playing.

4.      Picnicking is not common place.

5.      Sheep dogs are huge and aggressive.

6.      Spain will literally make your liver ache.

7.      Safety is not the number one priority; it actually probably doesn’t make the top ten.

8.      Children were out till four a.m. with their parents on carnaval.

9.      Meat without fat is rare.

10.  Eating a half loaf of bread with every meal is normal.

I love you I miss you, I have pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=341827&id=563560128&l=64eedda559

Kisses – ELIZABETH 

London Bridges

Ello Gov’nor,

Greeting from dreary Londontown. Monday and Tuesday were rainy days spent with school, homework, and cafes all in preparation for our Wednesday London departure. Carrie and I left at noon for the one hour bus ride to the airport, we were flying easyjet to London, a cheap airline company that sold us flights for 80€ round trip, taxes and fees included. The flight itself wasn’t very long, only an hour and a half but the plane was not very high quality. Easyjet allows one free carry on that can be stowed in the overhead compartments so everyone has a roll suitcase and then struggle and fight to push it into the space. My ears popped probably close to one hundred times, not well pressurized and Carries popped then never unpopped. So eventually we make our way into London and approach customs. We fill out our little entry sheets and pass the machine gun carrying police men to the counter. One of the questions on the sheet was where we were staying, address, and I didn’t know my friends address so I left it blank. A big black woman starting yelling at me in a British accent, thrilling and terrifying all at the same time, she asked me the address and I told her I didn’t know and she responded, “You better know.” Carrie and I pow-wowed in the back and luckily had a small tourist map with us we had just picked up for free off the plane. We picked a street and a number and hoped for the best, luckily 76 Oxford street London, seemed legit enough. The lady then began drilling us with questions like where we were going, what we were doing, how long we were staying, show me your ticket home, blah blah blah. Honestly London, you are not that special and the whole thing was not necessary.

So by the time those shenanigans were all over the time was 3:50, London is an hour behind Spain. This particular airport is located an hour outside of the city and I had bought us bus tickets for four p.m. We were literally running across the airport trying to find the bus terminals, and made it just in the nick of time. Already so much excitement, I know. So we enjoyed an hour bus ride through foggy, rainy London and we were dropped off at Liverpool Street, where Megan Furey, my friend from high school who is studying in London, was waiting for us. Carrie and I decided to only take out 50 £ which is about 85-90 dollars, in an ambitious attempt to save money. I didn’t think we were going to make it considering our first metro ride on the tube, a one way, cost us 4£. But we made it back to Megan’s around 6 p.m. and stopped in a grocery store to buy some food. We got cookies, cereal, peanut butter, milk, popcorn, and juice. Megan made us a delicious pasta dinner that night and we played some cards and relaxed watching zombieland and leap year. Megan lives in the dorms of her university, everyone has single rooms that are clustered in groups of ten and share a big kitchen. Her room was decently sized and Carrie and I slept on the floor, her floor was hard cement with a thin layer of carpet, luckily I was still exhausted from Granada so I was able to sleep better than expected.

The next morning Carrie and I woke up at nine and got ready to go to Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guards. Megan wasn’t feeling the well the whole weekend and stayed home to rest. Thursday we bought an all day metro pass for 7.30 £ that ran all day except during the peak hours of 4-7, inconvenient. So our metro ride took about thirty minutes, then we had a 20 minute walk to the palace. By this point I was in accent overload, I loved it. Children, old people, teenagers all speaking in British accents was the most glorious thing my ears had ever heard. If it wasn’t so expensive and I had the opportunity to study abroad again after Spain, London would be a great choice. So we made it to the palace and we are walking in front of the gates when we are stopped by the police and asked to step back so a car can pass through the gates. After police escort we see a man dressed in military attire, blue suit with tassels and lots of buttons and pins, pass through and everyone is like that’s Charlie, that’s princes Charles, Charlie. So yes…I feasted my eyes on the prince Charles, clarification, not the young cute ones, but the father of the young cute ones. So we were feeling pretty excited and we went to take our spots and wait the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard ceremony is a huge tradition with a big parade and music and the fury hat guards march all around the palace and the streets. The place was packed but we managed to find a spot and stand and wait. We got there an hour early, and after an hour of waiting, the guards put up a sign that said, no changing of the guards today. We were livid. So we took some pictures of Buckingham and decided we would return tomorrow even earlier and see this spectacular sight. We left Buckingham and walked through a park full of people and swans towards the city center where all the great tourist attractions are. This is the area of Big Ben, Parliament, the eye of London, and Westminster Abbey. Everything costs about 16£ to get into and see so we settled for taking pictures of the outside and imagining. The summer 2012 Olympics are being held in London, so unfortunately a lot of things were being renovated in preparation and everything was covered in scaffolding. We walked on the outside of Westminster and walked all the way around parliament. We crossed the river to get a better view and took lots of pictures and avoided the many joggers of London. After our downtown adventure, it was about 2 o’clock and hunger was setting in. We hoped back on the metro and went to kings cross station, hoping to get a picture with platform 9 ¾ but it was closed off and being renovated. Boo. Kings Cross is located really close to the British Library, and Carrie is a nerdy English major so we decided to go. Great decision, the thing was free, plus number one, also this houses the king’s library and the oldest collection of books I had ever seen. We saw the oldest written works of Shakespeare and the original Alice in Wonderland books. Also they had original Beatles lyrics that they had handwritten on napkins and envelopes. There was a whole biblical section and had parts of pages from third century bibles. They also had original illustrations from Leonardo Da vinci and other famous scientists, oh and the original music of Bach and Beethoven.

After our cultural lesson, we hoped back on the subway and shipped out to Camden town, a shopping market area Megan told us to explore. In Camden town I found the typical London I was looking for, everyone dressed in Gothic clothes and people protesting in British accents on megaphones about the evil of coca cola. We found a little outdoor stand area with a million types of food and settled on chicken sandwiches and French fries for only 4£, the bargain hunters strike again. We sat by the river and ate with the other million Londoners there then explored the shops laughing at everything American there. They have an obsession with Mario, and if I had had the money/suitcase space my brothers would have been completely outfitted. After wandering we decided to hop back on the metro while our passes were still valid and go back to Megan’s. At Megan’s we played more cards and rested debating whether or not we wanted to go back out that night. Our decision became easy once we discovered Megan had the Lord of the Ring extended versions and we spent our evening watching the first one and eating a popcorn and peanut butter dinner.

The next morning, Friday, Carrie and I were up and out the door by 9:30 heading back to Buckingham to see these damn guards change. I had youtubed it the night before so I knew the best spot to stand, pretty resourceful eh? We got there around the same time and took our spots right against the railing outside the main gates. People didn’t realize they make you move behind the metal barriers so they would be S.O.L and out of my line of vision. The ceremony began with a huge parade of horses, men with guns, a band, other guards all walking into Buckingham palace. A lot of pacing and weird marching took place, then the band set up to play music. You will never guess what the royal band played outside of Buckingham palace. First came Indiana Jones theme, followed by the Star Wars theme, then the Olympic theme, and the performance ended with some old British songs, I was laughing hysterically. Then they open the main gates of Buckingham, where I was standing, and march back out into the street, front row baby, great pictures. After Buckingham and the hour long ceremony, we hopped back on the tube and set off on our hour long metro ride to Wimbledon. Wimbledon is located on the outskirts of town but Carrie is a huge tennis fanatic so I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss it. After our hour metro ride we then had a half hour walk to the museum. Of course it is under renovation, but we could still see a lot. We paid our 9.5 £ and toured the museum, where they had original trophies, uniforms, and rackets, then went to the 360° glass view of center court. It is a lot smaller than I imagine, Carrie was spouting out a million and one tennis facts and we left about an hour after arriving. We were both, again starving, it’s around 2 p.m. now and the half a cup of cereal from the morning just wasn’t holding us over. We bought some cheap food at a little convenient store and started our hour and a half metro ride back to Megan’s. Megan was finally feeling better so we decided we would hit up an English pub that night. We relaxed and watched more Lord of the Rings and ate a popcorn dinner before heading out. We went to a place about ten minutes from her door and enjoyed strange English beers and talking. She had a field trip the next day really early and we had to leave early so we headed back around eleven to finish our Lord of the Rings marathon. The next morning Carrie and I left around 8:30 and hit up the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We then moseyed our way back to Liverpool Street and we were picked up by our bus back to the airport at 11.

Our flight back was easy, a little bumpy, and scary when we landed into a very foggy Spain. We couldn’t see the ground until the tires touched! After our hour bus ride home I spent the early evening relaxing and watching TV till ten. Around ten thirty, I met up with the rest of the Iowa group and we hung out dancing etc. till late. The next morning I went to church then spent the day talking to my madre and finishing up some homework.

All in all it was a pretty incredible weekend full of new sights and the blessing of English, we could read everything. This week’s list of things I learned is England inspired.

1.      English Children are spoiled and throw tantrums everywhere.

2.      The crowd outside of Buckingham palace was the most diverse I have ever been a part of, from several languages to many different styles of clothes and ethnicities of people.

3.      People still do wear chains on their clothes and dress strictly in black.

4.      Pigeons beg to be kicked.

5.      You can’t actually get close to the guards to try to make them laugh.

6.      Driving on the other side of the road isn’t as thrilling as expected.

7.      Old British couples are cutest, especially when you over hear them gossiping.

8.      There are Ben and Jerry’s vending machines everywhere.

9.      Always mind the gap.

10.  Lord of the Rings is better in England.

I miss you and I hope you have a great week, I can’t believe it’s already March. Click here for pictures, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=338916&id=563560128&l=713635f1cd

Elizabeth 

Get a Grip Granada

Hola, 

I am sorry I haven’t written in a while but I couldn’t justify sending an email after an email of not traveling and relaxing so I decided I would wait until I ventured to a new city. Alas I have two weekends to catch you up on now, one in Oviedo and one in the southern city of Granada. Let’s begin with the previous weekend. After Salamanca and Madrid our wallets were begging for a break so we decided we would take a relaxing weekend off to explore more of Asturias and Oviedo. 

But before I get into my weekend let me start with Monday. I had gotten an email from my conversation partner Javier who had been emailing me. Obviously my friends and I had made up elaborate schemes about how he was going to be so attractive and become my Spanish love. The day came to meet up at a certain statue and he emailed me that he would be wearing glasses and a striped shirt, intriguing right. I am standing next to the statue scooping out every man with glasses and stripes; there are surprisingly a lot, until I feast my eyes on a large, balding, man barreling towards me. My Javier. Out of breath we dos besosed and were off to a café to get to know each other. Javier is a 29 year old math student, hoping to be a professor, who attends class in Oviedo, lives in a small town outside of Oviedo, and works in Gijon, another city outside of Oviedo. That’s a lot of driving every day. He is interested in improving his English so we decided we would spend our Monday evening speaking half Spanish half English. Javier is hilarious, he lives at home with his parents, common here, and has incredibly funny stories to share. I am so happy he is my partner, I love talking to my host mom but it is nicer to have a younger person, especially a boy since I never get to practice talking to men since I don’t have a padre. We chatted for an hour and a half getting to know each other and him giving me advice on fully utilizing my time in Oviedo, I look forward to my meeting with jolly javie every week. Wednesday night was ladies night and four of us girls enjoyed playing games and listening to music in the park. We had a translation test on Thursday we were not in the best shape for the next day but I still manage to pull a B, imagine how good I will be when I actually start studying. Thursday night we were out with our contact partners and enjoyed hitting up the club scene and dancing and singing. 

Friday after class it was a beautiful day and after a week of rain and Spanish homework, or lack of, and we decided to visit the beach in Gijon a city on the coast just thirty minutes north. We were getting hilarious stares in our flip flops and shorts, and we understood why when the wind picked up and the sun went down. We had a great time on the beach though playing beach volleyball and lounging by the ocean. I never would have imagined I would be sitting on a beach in Spain in February. After the beach we were a little hungry and in the mood for a taste of home and had to stop at McDonalds. Traveling here is a lot different than in camp when you are paid and have access to an American grocery store and people are use to traveling hard core and cheaply. We have a few more spoiled first timers who get $300 from mommy and daddy every week, so resisting the spending urge has become a lot more challenging. We were home in time for dinner then met up again that night to hit up the town and dance. We played traditional American games in the park like flippy cup and beer pong. I would like to say that for never playing flippy cup I was second place.

The next morning after waking up late and eating lunch we met at parque invierno, a park across town near some mountains, with the full intention of going on a hike. Instead we lay in the grass and basked in the sun talking and laughing for a few hours in our exercise clothes. We went out again Saturday night, if you aren’t out on the town you are sitting in your house alone on the weekend. We decided to hang out at sidra street for a while then three girls and I went to an Irish pub and play cards before calling it quits. The next morning my friend Megan and I met up to go to mass at eleven in the same church I attended a few weeks ago with the children’s choir. It was cold as always but I actually was able to make out some of the reading and homily. After mass Amparo and I had a nice long lunch and chat then I met up with Carrie for some standard cards and colacoa.

This brings us up to this last week, see above would have been a waste. Javier and I met on Monday again, he showed me typical Spanish beer, tasted disgusting and we talked for an hour about soccer, I now know far more than I ever cared to about the dirty Italian defense. Wednesday was a very interesting day. My friend Corinne had been talking about getting a tattoo here because they have a studio called, pardon my language, fuck ink, and she wants to be able to say she got a tattoo in Spain at fuck ink. So she had gone in last week to look at their designs and have them draw up la vida bella, the beautiful life, to put on her rib cage. We all went in to look at her sketch up and the guy offered to do it right then and there. She bravely said yes and had four girls holding her hand as the Spanish tattoo artist cracked jokes and kept repeating, “I’m fucking good.” After the random tattoo experience we went to a chino store, a dollar store run by Chinese people, there are a million and a half of them, to buy colored paper for our valentines celebration on Thursday, with our contact partners. They were making envelops and we were to write valentines for everyone in the group in Spanish then we would read them and pick our favorite from our envelope and read them to the group. Then Luna and Paula would decide who had the best and there would be a prize. I take prizes very seriously so I was ready to go dictionary in hand. We bought paper and headed back to the school cafeteria to write. We decided that we wanted to make dirty Spanish valentines and thus the laughter and inappropriateness began. Often we would simply put a phrase like I want to drive a school bus with you, and then add the word naked to the end. We also had to have alter egos to make them anonymous so I signed all my Enrique Iglesias.

Thursday night came and it was time for the competition. I am proud to say Enrique Iglesias took first place, with Carrie and Hanna, or should I say meow and Pedro, with the promise of a chocolate massage, riding horses naked, and being lovers. It was a really funny activity and people got extremely creative. We learned that you asking people if they want to go to the party in your pants in English does not logically translate in Spanish and it was hilarious when they asked us what we meant by “Quieres ir a una fiesta en mis pantalones?” After our game we hit up the bar street and enjoyed a bar called Metropolis where they played American music and we danced and sang the night away.

Friday night we met at the bus station and boarded at 7:30 p.m. we arrived in Madrid at 1 a.m. and switched buses and arrived in Granada at 6:30 a.m. I have a friend from junior high, Eric Fjare, who is studying in Granada and he agreed to call us on Saturday night and take us out on the town since he has been living there for a month and a half. So we arrive in Granada early and can’t check into our hostel until 9 a.m. We sat in the bus station cafeteria till eight thirty eating toasted bocodillo ham and cheese sandwiches and playing cards. At eight thirty we decided we would figure out how to bus to our hostel. I was without a map this weekend, relying solely on Rick Stevens book hand drawn maps so we got on a tried to find down town, we were told the bus would be a twenty minute ride to the city center, but after twenty minutes we found ourselves through the city and in the mountains on the opposite side. So we got off and got on another bus going back to the city center. We found our stop the second time around and wandered a bit till we found our hostel Macktub Adventure Guesthouse tucked away on a side street. This hostel looked legitimate online and was only 16 Euro so we weren’t too picky. The receptionists were not excited to see us at 9:30 in the morning and couldn’t figure out why we were so early, they were trying to write down my passport information and I am pretty sure they were still drunk from the night before. We were told we wouldn’t be able to get into our rooms till later that afternoon since checkout was at eleven so we changed in the office and left our bags behind the counter. The hostel, for all of its sketchiness was pretty cool. It was run by four friends who live there for free and their only job is the care and maintenance of the place. It had an old staircase that led up to four flights of rooms all of which had old furniture and old time photos on the wall. Also there was a string attached to the lock of the door that ran up the length of the stair case so you could pull on it and open the door from any level, pretty useful.

So we packed up our day bags and we were off to find the Alhambra, the main sight of Granada and almost one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Alhambra is the last Moorish palace and stronghold from the Christian Reconquista in Spain. They remained in power over Granada until 1492, and then fell to the Christians. The palace is full of gardens and ornate palaces with stucco, plaster stalactite, and color, there are also amazing views of the city and water (fountains, ponds, etc.) everywhere. So we walked to the Alhambra, up a very steep mountain that it sits on top of and wandered a long ways to the ticket office. The way tickets work is you buy a 12 Euro pass into the Alhambra then on your ticket you are given a specific time to visit the Palacios Nazaries. We arrive around ten thirty and our palace ticket wasn’t till one so we knew we had a lot of time and needed to go slow and savor it. Our first area of visit was the General life gardens. This is where the sultan had his vegetable garden during the summer time. It reminded me a lot of Alice and wonderland with high bushes with carved out tunnels to walk through. There were also a ton of fountains and water staircases, with water running down the side and the middle. This was our first view of Granada from the top and the white buildings and surrounding mountains were stunning. Next we wandered into Charles V’s palace area. Here there was a huge Christian, ornate church that had been built after the Reconquista and Charles V’s was the conquering king. This area had a lot of gift shops and café’s also. The next area was the Alcazaba or the fort region. This is where the 2,000 Muslims living in the Alhambra were defended during battle. We had fun climbing the towers and enjoying many more views of the town and mountains.

Finally it was one, we were all pretty loopy and tired from the trip so everything was funny, and it was time to head into the palace. We were literally falling asleep on each other in line and ready for our hostel nap after this palace trip. The Palacios Nazaries was the Moorish royal palace. The place was beautiful and full of carved wooden ceilings, stucco stalactites, ceramic tiles, and molded wall plasters. There were also a ton of open courtyards and fountains for sun bathing, the sultans use to lay there on large pillows smoking hookah. The Quran forbids figural images in decoration so all of the plaster decorations were patterns or words from the Quran. One of the most important or most famous rooms in the palace is the courtyard of the lions. This fountain was a gift from the Jewish leader and the twelve lions represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Unfortunately the lion fountain is under restoration but we were able to look at these famous lions in a side room under high security.

That basically concluded our tour of the Alhambra and we next headed back into town in search of a grocery store to buy lunch, we hadn’t eaten since seven a.m. We headed back to our hostel and took a two hour nap in a freezing cold room, I was literally wearing socks on my hands then woke back up around seven and decided to do a bit more exploring. We wandered around down town Granada and marveling at how many college kids were out and how many people spoke English, Granada has a population of 300,000 people without college students and 400,000 with, so there are a lot of students. After getting lost we finally made it back to our hostel around nine and Eric called asking if we wanted to meet up at eleven. We got dressed and decided that we wanted to hit up a hookah bar before we met up with them. Granada is as far south as they come and has a huge Moroccan influence. There are a ton of Moroccan shops and hookah bars everywhere. We found a place right next to our hostel to enjoy a multi-fruit hookah experience. Hookah is simply tobacco smoked through a bong like apparatus with a long hose. I have smoked hookah in the past but nothing as strong as this stuff. We were running late so I picked up Eric and his friend Leland and brought them back to the bar. We finished and enjoyed some catching up then headed off with them for a night on the town. We ended up in this cool cave club near our hostel and were up dancing till six a.m. I believe the European transformation is almost complete. We crawled into our hostel bed at six thirty and were up three hours later packing our stuff up and heading off to Church.

The Cathedral in Granada is the second largest in Spain and is basically a huge white ice box. The cathedral was freezing as always and contained hardly any paintings or designs. Mass was easier to understand, and after we settled for some shopping and eating. I purchased a hookah for very cheap from a man, so we can all try it when I get home. We got back on the bus at two p.m. and arrived in Oviedo at 2 a.m. it is now safe to say I hate buses.

Though it was a long weekend of traveling it was very worth it and I have a lot of fond memories of Granada. Eric was a great tour guide of the city and the Alhambra was gorgeous. On Wednesday Carrie and I are leaving for a four day trip to London to visit my friend Megan Furey who is studying abroad there, I am very excited, I’ll keep an eye out for Harry Potter. Pictures can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=336874&id=563560128&l=d394402730

I hope you all have a great rest of the week and I can’t wait to tell you all about London!

Tal lluego, Elizabeth

This week list of things I learned:

1.      Key fights are just as common as knife fights.

2.      People live with their parents till they’re thirtyL.

3.      As my Spanish gets better my common English skills get worse.

4.      Spaniard don’t have big foot or the boogie man, instead children fear witches flying in their room, evil mermaid on the ocean, and a forest monster who steals all the water.

5.      There is such thing as umbrella etiquette, never hold it in the center.

6.      Hooded sweatshirts are few and far between.

7.      Q-tips have two parts, a fat cotton ball with a smaller cotton ball sticking off it.

8.      Spaniards don’t use trashcans but a plastic bag in your bedroom.

9.      Every window has a heavy duty set of blinds that will keep all lights out allowing you to sleep all day; they are literally plastic panels that lower down over the glass.

10.  Children here are far more spoiled than in the U.S.

The oldest university in Spain

Salamanca, 

Can you believe it is already February, I can’t and I do not like how quickly my time as a Spaniard is flying by. I left you on Wednesday and as I reflect on the rest of the week days nothing outstanding comes to mind. Thursday was spent buying bus tickets to Salamanca and shopping around/playing cards in the afternoon. That night was our typical fiesta night as a group, we had high hopes to practice the ancient art of Karaoke but unfortunately that dream did not become a reality, but in good time I am sure. Friday morning nine a.m. class is always rough, but luckily I am back in bed enjoying my Spanish siesta by eleven a.m. We discovered a website called project free tv, this website is ruining my life in that I have at my disposal hours and hours of American programming and I no longer need to watch full house and bob esponja, its beginning to take a toll on my sleeping. Amparo woke me for lunch and I spent the afternoon skyping my parents on their 22 wedding anniversary and talking to my madre. Friday night we headed off to the spaceship mall, a huge mall that resembles a launch pad for a rocket, or a giant clam shell, the debate continues. We shopped around for a while and indulged in gelato and burger king French fries, obviously the meal of champions, or grease starved Americans. We had received news that a giant party was going on at the stadium that day, were young people literally party all day and all night so obviously we had to check it out before dinner. I have never seen so many drunken college students in a huge stadium before and it was amazing, the party was in full swing when we arrived around eight and people were beginning to stumble home to dinner. There were boxes of wine and crushed glass everywhere, a huge mosh pit consumed the middle and it was just all around incredible. Unfortunately we missed the party in that after dinner most people head to the bars, but we will be keeping our ears open about more outlandish celebrations in Oviedo. That night I went to bed early in preparation for our Saturday morning 7:30 a.m. departures to Salamanca, people are starting to get very angry about the early morning bus rides. 

I don’t know why six a.m. is always more unpleasant than anticipated but four zombie, sluggish ladies met at the train station ready to get on board and sleep. I thought my chair was broken for the first half of the ride and attempted to sleep sitting straight up, until half way through when Carrie offered to switch me and we discovered that I was simply weak and the chair was more than capable of reclining. It was a five hour bus ride to Salamanca complete with about five stops in other cities to drop off and pick up people. I really enjoy the bus rides through Spain, I have seen some of the most beautiful mountain lake scenery imaginable and watched old stone fences and crumbling churches pass by. There is so much history here and everything feels so ancient. The smaller towns still reveal what I imagine to be a peasant village with sheep in the fields and herders chasing them around with horses and dogs. Also I see many people tending to their small gardens with old fashion ho’s and mending the huge stone walls.  

We arrived in Salamanca around 12:30 and splurged on a taxi ride to our hostel, instead of trying to navigate our way on a map, it was only one euro per person. When we arrived at our hostel, Hotel Reise, the man behind the counter only had reservations for yesterday and said we were not scheduled to stay there Saturday night. Of course everyone gets really quiet and scared and it’s up to Elizabeth to be the demanding American. I told the man I knew for a fact that I had made the reservations for Saturday night and already paid an eight euro down payment on the room, after refusing to move and demanding to see my online reservations we were put up in a lovely room with four beds and a private bathroom. As we unpacked we opened our windows and were surprised to hear traditional music floating in from the streets. It was then I realized I had forgotten my bocadillo on the bus and I was in desperate need for some lunch. We decided to head down and see what source the music was streaming from. We were greeted by many old women dressed in traditional Spanish garb declaring it was the day of the woman, dia de la mujer, and we, as women were welcome to walk with them and join their festivities. We followed them as they sang and danced their way to the main plaza. We made a quick stop into the grocery store to grab our lunch, chips and chocolate, the meal of champions, before we found the Plaza Mayor. In the plaza tons of people were gathered, woman in all sorts of outfits were standing in circles dancing and singing with each other. Each circle group had one man dressed in traditional black clothes that was beating a drum and playing a recorder at the same time, pretty impressive. The women were absolutely adorable to watch they were clapping and stopping and more than happy to pose for pictures. We stayed for a long time at Plaza Mayor just watching and laughing and trying to figure out what the festival was about from the old men smoking cigars and watching from the sidelines, the only thing we were able to conclude was that it was a festival for woman, further research is underway. We decided next to wander the beautiful streets and sandstone building of Salamanca in search of the cathedral.

Things are pretty compact in Salamanca and we were standing in the shadow of its immaculateness in less than ten minutes. I had read in Rick Steves that you could climb to the bell tower of the cathedral for 3.5 Euros so obviously that was our first stop. Italy has given me a lot of church climbing experience so I was prepared for whatever stair situation Spain was prepared to throw at me. The stairs were not numerous but we did get to stop in a bunch of historical rooms, enter the cathedral in the top sections and look down at the interior, and explore the roof top. I am quite proud of my pictures but it isn’t too challenging when every way you look at the church it’s glorious. After spending a lot of time challenging each other in the artistic picture game and fighting pigeons we decided to trek to the old Roman Bridge that crosses the river Tormes. On our way we stopped into a civil war museum, because it was free, and saw some pretty interesting mannequins set up like they use to in secret society meetings. These puppets had on black cloaks then eyes from computer paper taped to their faces, unfortunately the eyes were never even and often space way to far apart. After our boredom in the museum we continued to the river Tormes. In my class intro to Hispanic lit this last semester at UNI we read the famous Spanish story Lazarillo de Tormes and what do you know but right next to the bridge and the river Tormes is a huge statue of Lazarillo and the blind man. We took several pictures to send back to our professor. I have forgotten to mention how beautiful of a day we had in Salamanca, the sun was brightly shinning and we spent the next hour basking it its rays while lying on the ancient roman bridge. It’s set on the outskirts of the old town so we had a great view of the city. 

Eventually we headed back into town and meandered around exploring other churches and monuments. The cathedral opened up for visitors and we spent time on the inside of the beautiful church in awe of its size. Stef, the atheist Jew, was especially impressed. On the outside of the church in the beautiful façade is an astronaut, during a restoration a man thought it would be funny to add an astronaut about twenty years ago and it has become somewhat of a game for people to locate him. Salamanca is a huge university town and the old university buildings, the first in Spain, are everywhere. Christopher Columbus visited here before he sailed to the America for advice from the professors. After poking around in the many university stores and seeing many Universidad de Salamanca sweatshirts and t-shirts we found the main entrance to the university. On the university façade there is a frog located on one of the skull decorations. It is said if a student can locate the frog without help they will succeed in their exams. I cheated and followed the pointing figures of the other thirty people there so we will see how this semester turns out. The frog has become a huge deal there, aka the star of all Salamanca mugs and t-shirts. Next we found the old sandstone public library and the front is covered with shells. 

The sun was setting and we were getting a little sleepy and chilly, siesta time obviously, so we stopped back by the grocery store to pick up some dinner then headed back to our hostel. After enjoying peanut butter sandwiches, chips, bagel bites, and more kinder sopresas it was time for a nap. We awoke around ten, haha great nap right and decided we would play so games in our room before hitting the town later that night. We enjoyed many of Carries crazy card games and talking till about one when we decided we would go see what Salamanca had to offer at night. After wandering for a while and growing more tired we simply concluded we need to go to bed and returned to our hostel. 

We awoke the next morning around nine, Salamanca is great for sleeping apparently, and Stef, the atheist Jew and I headed off for church around ten thirty. We went back to the cathedral and got to sit up front in the gated area as about thirty of us celebrated mass. We had about eight priests at the altar though so the service was beautiful and I was actually able to comprehend some. After mass we met up with the other girls for some last minute shopping, more basking in the sun, then enjoying ice cream at the Ben and Jerry’s bar. My madre texted me again saying she hoped I was having fun, and everyone was jealous again! Our bus departed around two and the bus ride home was more beautiful and fast than the bus ride there. That night my madre and I had a long dinner, she demanded we talk for an hour since she knew I was speaking English all weekend and so we spent time talking politics and how we both didn’t like talking politics but our crazy mothers did. 

All in all Salamanca was a fantastically relaxing, beautiful weekend with great company. Everything was ancient and foreign and made me so proud and excited to be learning this different language. Things I have learned Spanish wise this week include:

1.      Zapatero is the President of Spain, his name means shoemaker.

2.      Fat people do not just exist in the United States.

3.      It just became illegal to smoke in public establishments on the first of January, no one is happy.

4.      Cookies are common place at breakfast.

5.      Bring your own toilet paper to bars!

See my pictures at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=332784&id=563560128&l=46b03ae7a5

Miss you,

Elizabeth