Hola y bienvenidos! If you don't already stalk me on Facebook, I'm going to use this blog to document my time studying abroad in the beautiful country of Spain. Feel free to comment or say hi, and hopefully you're not bored and enjoy reading about my adventures :)
So my professor of my siglo de oro class went to speak at a conference in Maryland for a week and half, so we didn't have 3 classes (yay). The sad thing is that we have to make it up now (boo). Everyone's schedules conflicted so that we could only agree on 1 time for the make-up classes. I have siglo de oro on Monday usually from 10:45-12:15, and that's my only class that day. Our time for our make-up classes for the next 2 weeks is 5:45-7:15...so I'm stuck here in the school with 5 hours to kill, so I have time to make some observations.
So here's my random thought. NO ONE HERE WASHES THEIR HANDS WHEN THEY COME OUT OF THE BATHROOM. Seriously, I don't understand why these people aren't dying from bacteria infesting their bodies. I first noticed it a while ago when a girl came out and didn't wash her hands. I thought to myself, well that's really gross but maybe she was rushing or she's just disgusting. Then it kept happening. Every time a Spanish girl came out of the restroom stall, she just walked right out. One time a girl came out and washed her hands, and I was really excited...before I noticed she was American and from my program.
The Spanish girls all do the same exact thing every time. They walk out of the stall, put their purse on the sink, check themselves out in the mirror, fix their hair, and walk out. I'm not kidding, they do the EXACT same thing. I don't know if that's a Spanish thing, or a Spanish girl thing, but I don't care if it's "different," I just think it's plain disgusting.
Anyways. That's my random thought. I have class in 15 minutes, but I'll post soon about our UC trip to Córdoba y Granada :D
As a student in Carlos III, I get the chance to participate in university activities, which includes clubs and sports teams as well. When we first got here, they gave us a presentation on what we could do. We could do anything from play tennis to be on a dance team to acting in their theater group. What caught my eye though was el coro, or the choir group. So I told Rocio, our director, that I wanted to participate and she talked to the director for me. I guess it was unusual because they usually don't let people join at this point because I'm only here for a couple months. Also, Rocio told me that right now in their coro they have twice the amount of girls they want and not enough men. However, for some reason the choir director let me go!
I wanted to participate really badly because I usually take gospel choir. When I heard the details of the choir, it didn't look as attractive. First of all, choir practice isn't in Getafe. They meet in Leganes, another Carlos III campus, so I had to find a way to get there. Second, practice is every Friday night from 6-10pm. 4 HOURS. On a Friday night. Interesting.
I decided to check out the coro anyway. I had already told Felix, one of the directors, that I would go and I didn't want to make our program look bad. He told me that my audition was at 5:45 before practice at 6. So I left at about 4:50. Goodness gracious it took a long time to get there. I had to take the Metro to Sol, switch to another line, go to Atocha and switch to another train, then go to another station and switch back to another Metro line. THANK GOODNESS I had my iPod touch. It has an app called "Metro" where you can download Metro systems from around the world. I just put in my starting Metro stop and where I wanted to end up, and after that it wasn't too hard. It just took an hour to get there, and that included me literally running to make every connection and barely making the next train. Each time, the train would arrive in the station right when I was descending the stairs. Let's just say I was a bit sweaty when I got to Leganes.
Before getting there, I had looked at Google maps to see the street view so that I could kind of see where I would end up. I knew that the building I needed to get to was across from a Burger King. When I got off the Metro, I saw a few people that looked like college kids, so I was a creeper and followed them. Jesus was definitely with me because after a brisk 10 or 15 minute walk, the street led me right to the Burger King, and there was the building right where it was supposed to be. I must have looked confused because the security guard inside showed me which rooms to go to and was really nice. I got there at exactly 5:45. Too bad the director wasn't on time. I waited about 15 minutes more for her to finish practicing with some guys. Finally my audition began.
She asked me what I was, and I told her that in gospel choir I'm usually a first soprano. She told me that she would probably put me as an alto because they have way too many sopranos. I thought that was interesting, since in gospel choir, the altos outnumber the sopranos, tenors, and bass put together. She played some exercises on the piano, and I sang along with the piano. I think she was testing my range and whether or not I could actually sing on key. Then she said to sing any song I wanted, and I had chosen "Always Forever" by Phil Wickham because that has been the song I've been listening to over and over lately. In the end I passed.
Then I joined the others. The choir has about 40-45 people but only like 23 people were there (sounds like gospel choir). It's SO different though. I was surprised because it was made up not only of college students but older people as well. Almost all of the other altos (except for maybe 3) were in their 40's and older. All the sopranos were college kids. So for the next 3 hours straight, we sang. We sang songs in Latin, so I felt like I was singing in a church or something. The thing about these kinds of songs is that even though it sounds beautiful when it's put together, it's also always depressing. Beautiful, but depressing. Then we had a 20 minute break, and I got to meet a few other people. I met Laura who was super nice and speaks pretty fluent English, and I met this other lady whose name I forgot who speaks a million miles an hour. I also met Eric, who is the other American in the choir. I guess he's from Vermont or something, but he's really good at playing the piano. Then for the next hour, we sang again. I love to sing, but I have to say that last hour felt like an eternity. I tried not to check the time every five minutes.
Also, for the first half practice was with only the women and we had a different director. That director was really nice and was patient with us. After the break when all the men and women were together, the director that auditioned me led it. She's more strict and has less patience for error. Seriously, she was going so fast through the music, I felt like my head was going to spin. She was seriously like, "Ok sing this. Sopranos good, altos again. Okay better, sing this now. All together. Ok good, next song." By 10pm, I was glad to get out of there. I was so tired. Now, I had to make the hour commute back to Madrid. At 11pm I finally made it home.
I don't think I'm going to join the choir. Not only is it far and at a weird time, but you have to come to every single practice every single Friday. We have weekend trips with our program and other things planned so I wouldn't be able to make it every week anyways. Plus I'd be gone every Friday from about 4:30-11pm. I'd rather do homework.
Well that was my experience with el coro. I think for now I'll just stick to singing in the shower and humming on the Metro on the way to school.
Last weekend I had the chance to visit the beautiful city of Barcelona. Angela, Ariel, Nic, Nikki, Nery, and I (wow I just noticed all the alliteration in there...) traveled with Erasmus - the exchange program here in Europe. They had this pretty good deal where we paid 95 euros for a 2-night, 3-day stay in Barcelona, which included transportation to and from Barcelona as well as accommodations in the hostel (which included breakfast). All we had to pay for was lunch and dinner, which our host parents are supposed to take care of anyway. Some of my friends had their moms pack sandwiches for them. My mom gave me 35 euro for the weekend for food - not bad!
So we were supposed to meet at a hotel off of the Atocha Metro at 11 on Thursday night. When we were getting on the bus, for some reason my name wasn't on the list. I paid with my friends, and their names were all on the list. I was number 48 to sign up out of the 51 available spots, but my name disappeared somehow. They were making phone calls to people to check my name, but no one was answering because it was midnight. I was getting really upset because I paid 95 euro for the trip, and I was going to be extremely sad if I couldn't go. After like 20 minutes, they let me on the bus and just had me sign my name on the bottom. Thank goodness.
The bus was an interesting mixture of students from the United States, Russia, Germany, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and other Spanish students. It was cool meeting people from other countries. The only bad thing was that we had to spend 9 hours on the bus and would arrive in Barcelona the next morning. It was a LONG bus ride because I couldn't sleep, my legs were cramped, and it was stuffy. Also we had to make 2 stops for 45 minutes to let the bus driver rest, which made it seem even longer. But we finally made it!
Barcelona is absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of Madrid, and the buildings are very similar, except the ones in Barcelona are a little whiter and cleaner. The air is cleaner, and the streets are SUPER clean. Even the small alleyways are absolutely litter-free, which surprised me. The only weird thing is that most of the signs are in Catalan, so it's a bit hard to understand what they're saying. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel (which was surprisingly clean) and took a mini tour around our area in Barcelona. We walked by the Cathedral, and we walked to the pier and the beach...which looks a little like Long Beach, as you can see from the picture to the right.
After that we had some free time until the official tour later in the afternoon. We walked around and ended up having lunch at this small place where there were only locals (a very good sign). We got 3 courses plus water, wine, and bread for 10 euros, which isn't bad. It filled us up so much that we were stuffed. I don't think we even ate dinner, we were so stuffed. At like 3 or 4 half of the people on the us showed up for the tour, which was just going to take us around the area. The tour guide was a person from Erasmus (who are all students too, or recently graduated students), and we waited for 15-20 minutes in the cold for this person to show up. After that, we were just like forget it and decided to give ourselves a tour. Nic has been to Barcelona before, so he was kind of showing us around. We walked through some alleys with stores and restaurants/bars and ended up at the Cathedral.
HANDS DOWN this cathedral is my favorite so far. Outside it is really detailed and looks kind of like every other cathedral in Europe. Inside it is absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't stop taking pictures. The problem was that for some reason I suddenly felt homesick. I think it reminded me of the cathedral in Mexico, which reminded me of Shayne and Haley, which reminded me of my other friends in SB, which reminded me of my parents, which reminded me of my church, which reminded me of my friends at church...it was a long process. I know you'll probably think I'm really sappy but I suddenly wanted to cry. I kind of separated myself from the others and sat down on one of the benches and just took in my surroundings for a while, thinking. (By the way, my pictures do not do the church justice at all. You have to physically be there.)
After a while, we left and Angela asked if I was okay. I told her about my sudden onset of homesickness and talking with her made me feel better. We then went through the various stores and shops, and hanging out with them made me realize that yeah I do miss things back home, but I have this awesome group of friends here in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The homesickness can wait.
You know the 95 euro we paid for the trip? Well it included free entrance into a couple discotecas as well. The one we went to was pretty cool. It was underground, and it had several couches, pretty purple lighting, and it opened onto a terrace that faced the beach. I had fun dancing with my friends and making memories...except for the fact that my phone got stolen. I think it happened while I was dancing. Seriously though, my phone cost 5 euro, who would steal a cheap phone like that? I did not mind too much because the phones are easily replaceable, but I was just upset because I had just put 10 euro on the phone. I have a new phone now, but I had to call and deactivate my old one.
I think I'll talk a little about the hostel. It was my first time staying in one, and to my surprise it wasn't as shabby as I thought it would be. I thought that hostels were supposed to be gross and smelly and horrible, but this one wasn't that bad (in my opinion). The bed you see to your right is with the suitcase it mine - I know you're jealous. It actually wasn't uncomfortable, the only thing was that we had to bring our own towels and blankets. The hostel was interesting because they have rooms with different occupancies. Some can accommodate 6, 7, up to 18 people. Our room was for 14 people. It's made up of little "cubicles" with a bed, a small safe/cabinet thing, and a curtain to close at night. There's a wooden wall separating each cubicle. Above each cubicle is another that can be reached by a metal ladder. What surprised me was that the cubicles on top were HIGH. The picture you see above? It's on the second floor, and my room was for 2 people. Seriously, I was just waiting for the moment that I would slip on the ladder and fall to my death...okay not to my death, but maybe a broken bone. It was pretty clean though. The community bathrooms on each floor were clean as well. The only thing was that after 2 days sharing a room with 13 other people...it can get a bit smelly. Let's just say when we got back to Madrid on Sunday, we were glad to have our own beds and our own rooms.
The next day after breakfast, we headed to the Casa Milà, which is known for its architecture and was designed by Antoni Gaudi. It was insane, especially the roof. You can just Google it, I don't feel like explaining it all. In short, it used to be a house and has several rooms with pretty antique furniture. As you can see from the picture to the left, the architecture is pretty random, but it was beautiful. After making a quick stop at Starbucks (SO expensive here. Well then again it was beside a Jimmy Choo store...), we went to el Parque Güell, which is kind of a giant garden/park with a lot beautiful and Gaudi architecture. It's huge. We had a couple hours, so we walked around and explored. Because it is on the top of a hill, the view is AMAZING. Every time we'd turn a corner and see a new angle of the view, we'd draw in our breath and ooh and ahh. You can see a panoramic view of the city with the Mediterranean sparkling in the distance.
By that time it was early afternoon, so we headed back to the hostel on our bus. One thing about Spain that we all love is their siestas. We had started the day with breakfast at 8 or 9 after a night of dancing, so by this time we were pretty tired. We got to take a nap for an hour or two before getting lunch and continuing on our next tour. We were supposed to go to La Sagrada Familia, but I guess it was closed or something? I don't really know, but they decided to postpone it until the next day, and we ended up just walking around Barcelona. We went on the main avenue where the Casa Milà was and walked by all of the expensive high-end stores and ended up at la Casa Batlló, which is famous for its Gaudi architecture also. The name escapes me at the moment...Well, then we walked to Las Ramblas, which is an outdoor flea market-type thing. It's kind of similar to El Rastro in Madrid, except it's a bit fancier. You do have to be extra careful about pickpockets though.
The next morning, we visited La Sagrada Familia. The architecture is CRAZY, and what I thought was interesting was that it is still being built. It has been around for hundreds of years, and it has never been finished. Interesting. I was extremely sad though because we didn't have time to go inside. Still, it was amazing being there.
Then we headed back to Madrid. It was a long bus ride back, but because it was in the daytime it wasn't as bad. I ended up sitting next to this guy that is from San Francisco. I guess he had gone on his own to see La Sagrada Familia, and I got to see his pictures and be jealous and everything.
All in all, it was a fun trip. I love Barcelona, it's a beautiful city...but I love Madrid more. To be fare, I only spent 3 days in Barcelona, but to me I like the hustle and bustle of Madrid and the "realness" of the people here, if that makes any sense at all. I definitely want to come back to Barcelona in the future!
*Okay, so I took a lot of pictures in Barcelona and I can't show them all. Still, I will post a significant amount. Also, to make the "slide-show" more enjoyable, I shall post a song that is stuck in my head because it's played everywhere so you can listen to it while you view the pictures. Enjoy :)
Barcelona ♥
The pier
The outside of the Cathedral
Angela y yo
Nikki and me representing UCSB!
Yay friends!
Happy lobster?
One wall of the hostel
Another picture from inside the Cathedral - AMAZING
Hey all! I'm finally going to tell you a bit about my trip to Toledo last weekend - partly because I feel bad I haven't written in a while and partly because I'm procrastinating and don't want to do my homework just yet...
So to continue, last weekend, our little group went to Toledo. So the plan was we were to meet at Sol because it's at the center of everything. We were supposed to meet at 9:15 I think, and being a person who panics if I'm not on time, I got there almost exactly at 9:15. The only problem was no one else was there, and they would be 45 minutes late. Well in between that time I decided to wait by one of the 2 large fountains in the square. I sat down, and I saw this Indian man pacing in front of me and he kept glancing my way. I kept praying that he wouldn't come over, but he did. He asked if I was Indian, and I said no. Of course my accent gave me away, and he could tell I wasn't from there. I told him I was from California, and he was like, "Oh ok, I thought you were Indian." Mhmm. Then he sat down near me, and I wasn't sure what to do. He knew English and was talking to me, and I was waiting for Ariel and Zacile, and I kept glancing around, hoping he would arrive soon. He didn't. The Indian guy (who was like 40-50 years old) told me I had a nice face, and asked if I liked coffee. He asked if I wanted to get some with him, and in my head I was screaming, "NO I DO NOT, YOU'RE CREEPY!!! GO AWAY!" But I just said no thanks, and I told him that I was waiting for my boyfriend who would arrive any second. After he found that out, he left a few minutes later, saying he didn't want my "boyfriend" to see us together. After he left, a random woman came up to me and starting telling me the gospel and that Jesus loved me. I mean, it was a nice change from the creepy Indian man, but apparently I was in the spot where everyone wants to talk to you. So I moved. Finally at 9:45 the other 2 showed up. Well, did I have a story to tell them.
We finally made it to the station and took a train and in half an hour we were there. It's a beautiful, small, and old city. My nerdiness is going to come out here, but the main city part or centro of the city reminded me of Minas Tirith in the Lord of the Rings. The street to the top winds slowly up and back and forth until you reach the main plaza. From there there is a beautiful view of the rest of the city. It was really fun because we took the long way into the city, and it lead you through random small alleyways past beautiful antiquated buildings. It's the perfect postcard setting for Europe.
After that, we went to the church - well the main church. Each city has like 10 churches, kind of like Simi Valley where there's a church literally on every corner. We went to the side that was free, and it was really pretty.We didn't really want to spend a lot of money, and they were about to have mass so we decided to sit on the grass (actually it was turf) outside of the church. It was a chilly day, but the sun was beating down on us, and we lay down and ate our snacks, and it was so relaxing! We saw some other groups from our school who decided to go to Toledo too, and we saw and talked with them as well.
After that we met up with the rest of our group (who we had left behind...oops) and went to grab some lunch. We has seen this place advertised at a bus stop that gave you an appetizer, entree, dessert, water, and bread for 6.50€ which isn't bad! When we went in, it was filled with locals which was a good sign. We got glasses of wine for 1€ each, and we had a very cheap and filling lunch - the best kind!
We had a couple hours to kill before our train departed, so we went to 2 museums where we could get in free with our student ids. First we went to this army museum where they had armor, weaponry, etc. from old wars and everything. It was interesting. They had an exhibit about Filipinos, and they were laughing at me because I got excited and was saying, "It's my people! It's my people!" After we got bored with that museum, we went to another where they had religious paintings and beautiful sculptures, artwork, and decorated tiles. After that it was time to go, so we took the fast way down the stairs on the other side of the city, and it was so beautiful because we got to see the sunset as we walked down. We train was pretty empty so we had a car pretty much to ourselves. A few people took naps, and when we got back, a few of us went to a bar near Ariel's house (which is near Sol and my house also) and we had tapas and tried the Tinto de Verano, which is a Spanish drink that is a mixture of wine and Sprite, or some kind of soda. It was really good. After that, we all headed home before the Metro closed. Overall, the trip was really fun, and it was nice getting to spend another day with my new friends and get to know them better :)
To my parents: If you're worried about the creepy Indian guy, don't worry I was in Sol (Times Square), so there are always policeman around so I won't get kidnapped or something.
To my mom: Don't watch Taken. Ever.
Next time I'll tell you about my trip to beautiful Barcelona!
Aslan
One side of the church
Car trying to get through a narrow crowded street. Good luck.
My lunch! Vegetable meatballs, fries, and wine.
I was tired.
Flan!
In the gardens of one of the museums
Resting with Zee and Angela
On the train ride back with Zee
The Atocha train station - apparently it has a jungle...
