St. Patrick's Day!

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to experience the jolly green blur that is St Patrick's Day in Dublin. After traveling to Ireland two years ago with one of my WashU classes and falling in love with the place, people, and culture, I couldn't wait to go back. We arrived in the land of the leprechaun on Friday morning with plenty of time to go out and explore. After checking into our hotel, Adi, Elena, Shelly, and I took the shuttle into the city center and went straight to Trinity college. The campus was just as beautiful as I remember it, with old stone buildings bordering lush grassy areas. We went in to see the Book of Kells, a manuscript containing the four gospels of the New Testament that was created around the year 800. Even though I'd seen and learned about it in my class two years ago, I still couldn't help but marvel at the lavish decoration and intricate calligraphy.

Throughout the weekend, we used our mornings to walk around the city and see the sights, including St. Patrick's Cathedral and Dublin Castle. Later in the afternoons, we'd venture into the lively Temple Bar area to check out the pubs and mingle in the streets. It seriously seemed like everyone and their mother was in Dublin this weekend. I ran into people from so many different parts of my life, it was honestly a little disorienting! A ton of WashU friends were there, either visiting from other study abroad countries or from St. Louis for spring break. I also had several HPHS reunions with random people I haven't seen in years. This made for an extremely touristy nightlife experience (it truly felt at times like there were more Americans in Dublin than Irish people) but it was great to see friends and hear about other abroad experiences.

Beautiful Dublin Castle

So happy to run into Brooke!

Monday was a holiday in Madrid, which meant we were able to stay in Dublin on Sunday which was officially St. Patty's day. Despite the early morning snowstorm (??) people filled the main city streets to watch the parade, which was complete with music, dancers, floats, and crazy green displays. It was so much fun to watch. Afterward, we continued our weekend pattern of wandering in and out of bars, running into friends on the streets, and enjoying the Irish cheer. A highlight of the weekend, though, was in one of the less touristy bars in the Temple Bar area on Saturday afternoon. A group of my friends found our way inside to warm up and refill, and there happened to be a live musician just starting up his set. He was amazing - just a guy and a guitar, but he played for hours and sang the best singalong songs (Country Road, Hey Jude, Wonderwall)...so we stayed through the afternoon singing loudly and dancing along in the crowded but comfortable pub.

Ringing in St Patty's with the locals

So the weekend was a lot of fun, but needless to say I was exhausted and ready to get back to Madrid come Monday morning. Now it's Thursday and I'm leaving tomorrow for my spring break travels! I can't believe it's already Semana Santa...can someone please get the time to slow down? Paris, Prague, Vienna...here I come!

A dinner story

The other night, Ana made fish for dinner. Nothing new, we eat fish pretty often. So why was this fish different from all other fish? Well, when we sat down at the table, Ana proceeded to give Jordana and me very specific instructions regarding how to remove THE ENTIRE SPINE from the fish before eating it. Meat here is rarely deboned before being sold or cooked, but I've never had to take out an entire backbone from my meal before eating it! Jordana and I succeeded in the operation with a lot of help from Ana, and then the spine just chilled there on the other half of my plate while I ate the fish (which was delicious, like everything else she makes). New experiences!

¡Carnaval!

Sorry I haven't updated in so long! I actually had work to do last week...huh? Anyway, what follows is a long overdue recap of my weekend in Cádiz celebrating Carnaval. For two weeks leading up to Lent, Cádiz holds some of the biggest Carnaval festivities in the world, complete with parades, comedic performances, crazy costumes, and botellónes (a cool word to justify the act of drinking in public). Pretty much a Spanish equivalent of Mardi Gras. So, two weekends ago, a bunch of friends and I packed our bags and our tutus and flew to Jeréz, right outside of Cádiz. Side note: first successful plane ride in Europe! Didn't miss my flight! Nice. So we landed at the Jérez airport early Friday morning, breathed in some of that fresh Andaluz air, and found our way to a bus that would take us the half hour journey to Puerto de Santa María. The bus dropped us off and after a brief (long) period of wandering, we found our hotel. The first thing we had to do was buy ferry tickets to Cádiz from Puerto de Santa María, the port of which was conveniently located right next to our hotel. Both Friday and Saturday we took this 25 min ferry ride to and from Cádiz, which was part of the whole Carnaval experience. We really must have looked like a boat full of crazies in our costumes. After purchasing the tickets and getting some lunch, we donned our masks and boas and began the festivities on the rooftop pool of our hotel. The weather was amazing - high 60s and sunny all day, and we were right next to the beach! 

Rooftop ready!

Space friends

After the short ferry ride, we reached land in Cádiz and followed the crowds into the main plaza which was filled with hundreds of people - a mix of tourists and locals, little kids and older peeps - wandering the streets. I met a few mimes, chatted up some adult babies, and made friends with at least 6 different versions of the pope.

Elf friends

Both Friday and Saturday were filled with street-wandering, friend-making, and fun-having by everyone. When it got chilly at night as we started to make our way back to the ferry, we warmed up in the best way we knew how: con un bocadillo caliente y más vino. It really was a great weekend, and though I didn't get the full tourist experience due to the whole Carnaval thing happening, Cádiz seems like a wonderful little city. This trip also got me super excited for the travel plans I have coming up this semester. Next stop...Dublin for St Patrick's day! 

Check out all the gente!

Toledo and Spanish Bathroom Norms

In the middle of my Spanish lengua class today, the profesora stopped class to have a little discussion with us about going to the bathroom. Apparently, getting up during class to go to the bathroom is considered both strange and "maleducado," or ill-mannered, in Spanish culture. This little informative chat took me by surprise because I've never thought twice about doing this at home during a class. This got me thinking about other cultural differences that have stuck out to me since settling into Spain. One of the biggest is taking coffee to go. They don't do that here! Coffee is a social time for sitting, chatting, and sipping. As much as I'd like to get on board with this charming image of a leisurely European breakfast-time, sometimes a girl needs her coffee to get through that hour and a half medieval history class. Not that images of Gothic architecture don't pump my blood with adrenaline, but I gotta say a latte for the walk to class would be nice. Oh well.

Last Friday my program took a day trip to Toledo. We spent the day discussing the city's historical importance, especially during the reign of the Christian kings. We walked through some magnificent cathedrals and two of the remaining Jewish synagogues from those times. Walking around these shuls, walls lined with Hebrew verses and arks still in tact, I felt such an immediate connection to my own heritage and past. It was a really cool feeling to stand in the same place where Jews came to pray so many hundreds of years ago.

Ark in Toledo synagogue

After some more cathedrals and a bakery run for some unreal marzipan, we headed back to Madrid. It was a great day in a truly historic and beautiful place. It's easy to forget how much history there is in this country and how far back it goes, and visiting a city like Toledo was a good reminder.

Overlooking the city!

This weekend, I am traveling with a few friends to the southern city of Cádiz to celebrate Carnaval. From what I've heard Carnaval in Spain is sort of like a combination of American halloween and Mardi Gras...I can work with that. I'll report after the weekend!

Exploring

Every weekend, I try to find a new area of Madrid to walk around in. It seems like there are endless options of places to explore, which is overwhelming and exciting at the same time. Last weekend, I walked around the Chueca area which is sort of like the Boystown of Madrid. It's filled with cool shops and restaurants and a great place to spend an afternoon or go out at night. I also went to el Palacio Real, the official residence of the Spanish royal family (but they don't actually live there; it's more for ceremonial purposes). Built in the 1700s, the palace is huge and the architecture is breathtaking. One thing I love about walking around Madrid is that every street boasts old and beautiful buildings. I guess this is typical of any European city, but this kind of architectural history is not something we have so much in the US and it makes walking around here all the more enchanting! We've also had some really nice and sunny days here recently. One of my favorite places anytime, but especially when it's nice out, is el Parque Retiro. Always a perfect spot for a picnic, a run, or a nice paseo.

Perfect day for Retiro!

On Sunday I finally had my first visit to the Prado and I already can't wait to go back. Highlights included the Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch (I could stare at this for hours), Las Meninas by Velásquez, and so many paintings by Goya. Afterwards, Gillian and I discovered the wonder that is 100 Montaditos. This fast food-esque sandwich shop (a montadito is like a mini-sandwich) offers everything on the menu for 1 euro on Sundays and Wednesdays. Score. We each picked a few sandwiches and pulled off a 3.50 euro lunch tab!

On Friday my program is taking a day trip to Toledo, and next weekend I'm going with some friends to Cádiz to celebrate Carnaval. Very excited about both of these trips - updates to come!

First Day of School!

As you may have inferred from the title, today marked our first day of classes at Carlos III. Woohoo! This past week we had orientation and registration for classes. Other than our required lengua and cultura classes, we got to choose 3 courses from the university. At least one of those 3 had to be a "grado" course, meaning a class we take with Spanish students. I signed up for art history (grado), teatro español, and historia de España. The latter two are taken with other American and international students, but still taught in Spanish.

Today, I had the lengua class and history of Spain. Lengua was sort of boring - filled out a worksheet and gave introductions. Felt a lot like middle school Spanish but hopefully that was just day one. After lunch and a couple hours of break, I came back for history of Spain. It sounds like it's gonna be a pretty straightforward and general history class, which might be boring but it's a subject I feel like I should be familiar with. Also, the professor seems great - friendly, engaging, and told us that he is open to suggestions about the course. My schedule every week is generally pretty good; even though I start at 9 am on Wednesdays and Thursdays, the other days I don't start before 12:30 pm and I don't have class on Fridays. Three day weekends wassup. The commute to Carlos III from my apartment takes about 45 mins. Since I didn't have to leave here until 11:30 this morning, I went for a nice run in Parque Retiro.

Speaking of school, I think this would be an appropriate moment in my blogging timeline to share some things I've learned/observed as I come up on my 3 week mark in Spain.

• Babies and young children here are cuter than in America. No explanation. 
• If you can say the word "vale," you can pretty much get through any conversation with a Spaniard (thanks for the heads up, Deb!)
• If you walk down a street without seeing at least one Museo del Jamón (basically Madrid's ham shrine), you are probably lost. 
• Spaniards dress for the season, not for the weather. Case in point: this past Saturday was perfect out - 60 and sunny all afternoon. However, all the señores y señoras were walking around in their fur coats and winter hats...??
• Bidets.
• When you buy a movie ticket, you get an assigned seat. Also, you can't go into the movie theater until 15 minutes before your movie actually starts. Huh?
• Milk doesn't always have to go in the refrigerator. I still don't get this one.
• Chocolate con churros (see photo below) is the best thing to eat at 5 am when you're still drunk and waiting for the metro to reopen at 6 taking an early morning stroll.

YUM

That's all I have for now...wish me luck on my second day!

A week in Granada

¡Hola! This week we traveled to the south of Spain to spend 10 days in Granada for program orientation and intensive Spanish language classes. Granada is a small and beautiful city with a lot of history and cultural importance, which made it the perfect place to start our Spanish culture class that will continue throughout the semester. Every day we had an excursion in the morning, lunch together at a restaurant in the central plaza, Spanish classes from 3-7 pm (oy), and free time at night. Our morning outings included La Alhambra, a visit to García Lorca's summer home, and olive oil tasting at a 15th century olive oil factory. Walking around La Alhambra was incredible, even though we were all running on 4 hours of sleep from staying out at a discoteca the night before! It's pretty mind-boggling to think about how the fountains, walled structures, and intricate design patterns have stayed strongly in place for so many centuries.

In front of a reflection pool at La Alhambra

How do we look?

In the afternoons, we sat through 4 sometimes painful hours of Spanish class. Even though it felt like a reaalllly long time to concentrate, learning colloquial Spanish has already been extremely helpful. The accent in Andalucía (the southern region of Spain) is distinct from the accent in Madrid. After class, the school we went to (Escuela Don Quixote) held optional classes on the very important topics of Spanish curse words and insults and salsa dancing. Then, most of our nights were free which left us to explore the countless tapas restaurants in Granada (birthplace of the tapa!) and go out together. In most of these places, each drink you order comes with a free plate of food. Love it. On one of my favorite nights in Granada, we went as a group to see a flamenco performance inside of a cave. It was a small and intimate setting, and the show was incredible. Three women danced on stage to the music of a live guitarist and singer. I was totally enraptured by the performance - the music, dancing, and unbelievable rhythmic syncopation held in unison by the five performers was unlike anything else I've ever seen.

La Alhambra lit up at night. The girls and Ramiro!

The stage is set for flamenco!

Another stand-out day was Saturday when we spent the morning touring a 15th century olive oil mill and the afternoon walking through los pueblos blancos. At the olive oil mill, our guide taught us all about the process of turning olives (aceitunas) into olive oil. At the end of the tour, we had a tasting! A word to the wise, extra virgin is the only way to go. Afterward we had lunch as a group and headed to the gorgeous Andalusian hillside towns, los pueblos blancos. Our guide, Juan, moved several years ago with his family from Madrid to one of these small and rustic pueblos. He cited the reason for this significant move as a desire to explore "el mito del sur" - the enchanting myth of the south. Walking through these whitewashed villages against a backdrop of lush hills and orange tree orchards, the allure of the pueblos was easy to understand. He told us about his family's life there and how they adjusted to a rural setting after living in Madrid for many years. To finish our tour, we walked up a steep cobblestoned hill to a breathtaking home overlooking the pueblo. An older couple lives here and rents out rooms to travelers as a sort of bed and breakfast. They welcomed us into their home and offered us tea and cakes, allowing us to walk around and take in the magnificent views. It was amazing!

Pretty rainbow over los pueblos blancos

A hilly walk led us to this beautiful view of La Alhambra and La Sierra Nevada

After a wonderful 10-day excursion to the south, I am ready and excited to be back in Madrid. This week, we start orientation at Universidad Carlos III, sign up for classes, and prepare for school to start next week. More to come soon!