A weekend away in Seville

We spent this weekend in a city named Seville, or in Spainish, Sevilla, which is located southwest of Madrid. It was a loooong 6 hour bus ride, but luckily on the way there we made a much needed stop for snacks and they played air-bud. Needless to say munching while watching an old movie helped the ride. We left Madrid at around 6pm thursday after classes were over. We got into Seville at about 12am and went straight to our hostel. It was luckily a really nice hostel with a great, helpful staff, clean rooms, and free breakfast. In other words, heaven for us broke college princesses. We were all so tired we went straight to bed and woke up early to get our exploring started! Since there was 5 of us we were split up 3 and 2 in various rooms but we were right next to each other. We started Friday off with Sevillas most important attraction: it's Cathedral. It's the third largest in the WORLD and is absolutely breathtaking. I definitly managed to take a picture of every angle that we passed by it. Our hostel was in a great location right in the middle of the major shopping district, but tucked behind a little sneaky alley way. Sounds sketchy but it was a perfect little oasis. The walk to the chapel took only about 5 minutes and it was a beautiful walk past the city hall, bank and old plazas filled with cobblestone. None of us had ever been to the city before and it was exciting because it was a new experience for us all. I don't like the feeling of being lost in a city, but the map the hostel gave us was very helpful and lead us around town perfectly. It's not a huge city and considering La Giralda, the old muslim tower connected to the church, is so high you can see it from anywhere.

The cathedral opened at 11 and we were some of the first people to be able to enter. It's ceilings are HUGE and it's abosutely breathtaking. Words can't even begin to describe all of the detail and little beauties that surrounded it. I just stood and turned in a circle taking pictures of everything. It's a gothic cathedral so the ceilings are high and have lots of details in the stain glass windows. The altars are almost as high as the ceilings and ornately decorated with wooden panels and gold details inside of them. We didn't find this out until the next day, but turns out Christopher Columbus tomb is in the cathedral. It's rare because it's not in the ground, it is a statue of 4 men holding up a casket and we just thought it was a funny statue. Oops. Turns out it was good ol Cristobal. Good thing we got pictures of it at least! They also had a room of "treasures" of the church, which to me is like a candy store because everything was super sparkley. Who knew bishops enjoyed so much bling? Outside of the church was a large courtyard filled with fountains and orange trees. It was weird because everywhere in the city were orange trees, which you would never think of. But they were filled and it was hard not to reach up and grab a little treat, but I resisted. Attached to the church is a large bell tower named La Giralda. This was built when the city was still under Muslim rule (the Christains took it over in the 1200s) in 900 something. It's 34 ramps to the top and we made it a workout to the top! It turns out the reason it's ramps is because Muslim's pray 5 times a day and the bellman would ride a horse up the ramp to the top. He was lazy. From the top is a beautiful view of Seville in every direction and a greast view of the river the city is located on. It was a perfectly clear day so we could see till the horizon. After our adventure up the bell tower we visit the Alcazar, an old Muslim palace, located right next to the Cathedral. The Cathedral was originally the location of a mosque, but was torn down and the Christains built their church upon it in the 1400s. The Alcazar was beautiful and reminded me, obviously, of the Alhambra in Granada. Granada is the main, HUGE muslim fortree and Alcazar means palace and there are a few them located in Spain. The architure is filled with intricate details and beautiful ceramics along all of the walls. They also have amazing gardens with mazes that we found pretty amusing. A fun fact is that the Royalty of Spain will stay at the Alcazar if they visit Sevilla today. After all of this walking, we were starving and found a chinese restaurant randomly located nearby. We were all dying to have something delicious and ran inside. I was stoked because they had tofu which I hadn't of had in 3 weeks and I inhaled my whole plate. We may have been the only people in the restaurant, but we were beyond thrilled. On our walk back after lunch, we were stopped by gypsies who grabbed all of our hands to read our palms. They looked like nice little old ladies. Wrong. I tried to get away and she had a death grip on my hand. Then of course asked for money and I said I had none and she was reaching for my purse so I threw some change I had in my pocket at her and sprinted for the hills. All of us were in shock after how forward they were as they stuffed random little leaves in our hands. But we all escaped safely and no one got pick-pocketed. Laughing about it later we were telling our fortunes they told us....we're all going to have 2 kids, be filled with love, and live a long time. Shocker. After the gypsy attack we walked along the main shopping streets, taking advantage of those amazing "rebajas" or sales that are occuring this month and next in Spain. After having walked around all day our legs were tired and it was siesta time so most things were closing up. We headed back to the hostel for a little rest where I discovered the roof terrace. On top of our hostel was a perfectly peaceful rooftop with 3 little hammocks. Me and my roommate brought up our books and ipods and enjoyed a nice little break in the perfect day we were enjoying. It was around 65 degrees there, which is amazing compared to the 45 I've been living in in Madrid and it was magical. You couldn't see much besides other roof tops but you definitly got a nice breeze. Then everyone started to actually fall asleep and since I have issues with sitting still for 3 minutes I decided to go exploring and walk around the city. I found a cute little market full of street vendors, which are always amusing to see. They sell lots of incense on the streets and while walking down the roads it smelled amazing! The houses are all decorated beautiful colors and have lots of ceramics tiles lining them. It was a nice change of pace from the common sites of the high rises and grey stone of Madrid. I got back just as everyone was waking up and we all decided to go explore a little more and I showed them what I'd found. One of my roommate's best friends from home is living in Madrid as well but had spent the first part of her trip in Seville. She had met some people from various places and we decided to meet up with them that night for tapas. They were all studying in Seville, one from France, one from Italy and one from Germany. It was great to meet so many people from such various cultures and compare our lives because their all so different. Everyone has such different reason that pull them to Spain and just the fact that they can speak about 3 languages makes me wish I could as well. Their ambition and abilities to speak so many languages inspired me. We spent a good couple hours talking over tapas and feeling very spanish cultured. By this time it was getting late, for us, and we decided to call it a night. We thanked our new friends and went back to go to sleep.

The next day we signed up for a walking tour around Sevilla that was put on by our hostel. Our tour guide was great and she let us know a lot of Sevillas little secrets all over town. La Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a huge deal in Sevilla, because of the Cathedral being so important. She told us that the week is spent with the brotherhoods in Sevilla marching to the Cathedral and it's a very specific order and procession that is followed. People even rent out seats to watch the processions and it's a total heirarchy based upon where you sit. The prices go up to almost 1400 euro a seat. We also visited Tower de Oro, which is the origin of Christopher Columbus voyage out to the Americas. Although Sevilla is inland, this is where he was set off by Isabel y Ferdindad back in the day. We also saw the old Jewish quarters, which just contain a lot of sad stories because they were exiled so harshly out of the city. After our walking tour we enjoyed a nice little tapas lunch and walked around the city somemore. They have a musuem filled with original documents that C.C. sent to the King and Queen while he was away, original pictures of what the explorers thought the world looked like, their armoury, and more exciting things along those lines. Sevilla also has a large bull ring that we went and saw but unfortunately from the outside it wasn't anything too exciting. I still haven't decided if I can stomach watching a bullfight, but we'll see, I don't do well with dying animals. After that we walked across the river to Triana, a beautifully decorated little village right on the water. From there we walked back to the main plaza of the city by the Cathedral and enjoyed people watching for a while. Everyone was out in the nice weather with their families and it's always great to watch people of an other culture interact and live their common lives because it's so different than ours. It wasn't the big hustle and bustle of a big city like Madrid either so it was easy to appreciate the smaller-town feel. A city like Sevilla makes you fall in love with Spain. After an other exciting day it was unfortunately time to head back to the bus station. It left at 6 again and was going to be an other 6 hour ride back to Madrid. This time it definitly felt longer because of the poor selection of movies but we all sat and talked which helped it go by faster. We got home at around 1 am and were very tired and ready to sleep.

It was a great weekend and a great experience of a smaller town. We were able to accomplish a lot in the 2 days we were there and I would definitly go back if I had the chance.

Today I managed to make a tortilla! I burnt my first one but then successfully made an other littler one, which I must say was pretty delicious :). Now I can make them whenver I want and it wasn't very hard at all. Potatoes and eggs are cheap and easy to get here, so soon I'll have tortilla making down to a t. Sundays are pretty lazy days but I was able to get in a nice run, in the cold, at the park around my house. Back to an other week of school tomorrow and the start of February, which just blows my mind! Time's going by wayyy to fast!

Spanish Culture

I don't even remember blinking and this week is already half way over! Things are really starting to fly by which is both scary/ exciting at the same time! I haven't had any other major trips lately but I've been learning a lot about the culture of Spain from a class I'm taking: Spanish Civilization and Culture. It's all in Spanish and my professor is from Spain and we're going to cover everything to geography to the people of Spain. At first I wasn't so sure I'd like this class and was a little disappointed because I had high hopes. But this week my mind was changed. We've been talking about the food of Spain this week in class. I'm not going to lie, I really don't like the food here at all mainly because it's all meat but also I just feel as if, besides Paella, it doesn't have much to it. My teacher thought I was ridiculous for not eating meat and like my senora told me I should just try a piece of Ham because it's so flavorful. I winced and walked away. But he also was able to give us the background and history of the words Paella and Gazpacho, two very popular dishes in Spain. Paella comes from the Arabic word for "leftovers" and that literally is what Paella consists of: the leftovers of the week. They usually eat it on Thursdays and Sundays, Thursdays with Monday-Wednesday leftovers and Sunday with Thursday-Saturday leftovers. I found that very interesting. Paella is a rice dish, usually with a mixture of meats included but I'll enjoy mine with vegetables. It has a saffron seasoning and the rice part of it is delicious! Based on the various regions and what their specific type of meat they enjoy is depends on what the Paella in that region will look like. Secondly, we covered Gazpacho which to us is known as a cold soup, but in Spain it's not known as a type of soup because to them 'sopa' or soup is warm and gazpacho is cold. This word stems from the Greek word for leftovers and is also a mixture of whatever a senora is inspired to include. He told us everyone has a different recipe for "gazpacho" in Spain. We haven't finished our food conversation but today in class I'm sure I'll learn more about the typical foods.
Last night he took our class on an optional field trip walking around Spain. It was really cold yesterday and we woke up with snow on the cars, which was a big deal for me, but by midafternoon it had definitly warmed up by about 15 degrees and was a beautiful day. Which was great for our walking tour until the sun went down, then it got cold. But, only a few people showed up from my class which was a little disappointing because I saw it as a great opporuntity to experience Spanish culture. We visited Egyptian ruins that were a gift and are placed on mt. Principe Pio and overlook the countryside of Madrid. At night they are beautifully light up and surrounded by water. We then walked down by the river and visited the tomb of Goya in an old Greek church. The church was built during the neoclassical era and isn't very spectacular looking compared to the common Gothic churches seen in Spain but inside is a beautiful fresco covering the ceilings that Goya painted. He was Spaniard himself and is known as one of Spain's most famous artists. From there our teacher took us a little Spanish restaurant where we enjoyed cider and everyone else had chicken. The cider is a popular drink, but it just tasted like Martinellis sparkling apple cider to me. Since I don't eat meat I just nibbled on some bread and sipped my cider. Spain also has an abundance of fresh bread and wine everywhere, which I didn't known Spain was known for their wine but he assures us it is and is always telling us a little saying "Con pan y vino, andar el camino".
After dinner most people took the Metro home but I figured I'd walk even though it was around a 20 minute or longer walk, it's a pretty view of the palace and the city. Our teacher also walked back even though he lived farther than me so him and I enjoyed a(at first awkward) walk back together. It was a good way to practice my Spanish and I was able to ask him more random facts about Spain because this man is like an encyclopedia of knowledge on the topic. He is one of the most awkward acting and looking people I've ever met and I have no clue why he is a teacher but he's smart so it works. He has glasses with super thick lenses that make his eyes look like bugs and he's super skinny and lanky, kind of like an awkward teenager but he's really funny once he isn't afraid and shy. I told him how I live in California and he asked about Mexico, because he's lived in Spain his whole life. I told him also how I'm here to learn Spanish and he told me I need to practice with the locals and he told me the best way was to find a boyfriend. It was hilarious, I said I don't disagree with that I'd be happy to but their hard to find. He agreed and then told me how Spaniards don't like to date American women because their sensitive and one word will have them hurt and the Spaniards don't want to deal with it. I was laughing so hard but he was dead serious. Sadly, it's totally true. But, he did give me advice on ways to practice and immerse myself more in the culture so I'll definitly be taking up those opportunities. My awkward walk turned into a success and he definitly made my day :).
I actually am suprised by how many people stop my on the streets asking me for directions, thinking I'm from Spain. I personally do not think I look Spanish at all, but I'm absolutely flattered. Spaniards also have THE cutest children I've ever seen. They are all dressed with little bonnets, long pea coats and leggings, and I am envious! They are all adorable with flushed cheeks in the cold and speaking Spanish faster than I could ever comprehend but so precious.
There are all these little 7/11 type stores here, literally 2 on every block, called Alimentacions, but we call them Chinos because their all owned by chinese. (I'm not kidding-every single one). And here you can literally find ANYTHING smushed into these tiny closet sized stores. I nearly cried with happiness when I found soy sauce in one the other day and I've almost used a whole bottle to spice up my food in the past 3 days- it was an other successful find. It's also my goal while I'm here to try and make typical Spanish foods such as a tortilla (which I've heard is easy and my senora said she'd help me) and Paella, veggie of course! We have a full kitchen, with an interesting assortment of cooking equipment so we'll see how far it takes me. I really want to bake but I don't think the Spaniards are as into it as we are back home, I can't find cooking ingredients anywhere.

This weekend we're going to Seville which should be amazing and hopefully a little warmer, maybe in the 60s, which sounds like heaven on Earth to me. Also in two weeks we signed up for a trip t0 Cadiz, Spain in the second weekend of February for their annual Carnival which is the 3rd largest festival in the world I just found out so I'm excited to celebrate! Our winter break February 18-23 will be spent in Paris and Germany! We are trying to work out a trip to Istanbul and Greece for Spring Break which I am praying works out because it sounds like a dream come true if it works. Fingers crossed!

My first little stint of homesickness came this weekend seeing all of the new babies that we're accepted after rush in Theta. All the pictures from bid-day looked so fun. It made me sad I wasn't there, but excited to meet them all when I return. Welcome new little Thetas :), I'll meet them soon!

Now back to studying to learn every region, province and capital in Spain!

El Escorial

Today a group of us took a bus to San Lorenzo de El Escorial which is about an hour bus ride away from Madrid. It is a huge monastary in a little town up in the mountains that was built in the 1500s by Felipe II. It used to serve as a home for the kings and queens of Spain as well. Inside the monastary there is a massive basilica, library, musuem of paintings, architecture of the buildings and the Royal Pantheon. We just decided to do a walk through tour ourselves with our little maps and I'd share my knowledge from the first time I visited back when I first came. It was freezing and being inside the stone walls made it even colder. It was hard to walk through while it was colder inside than outside but it was beautiful. They were known for making tiles that are beautifully decorated and it outlined the walls, especially of the sleeping quarters of the Kings and Queens and they had displays of all of the details. They also have a large collection of paintings from the 1500-1600's. There is a massive library that has a painted ceiling that makes the room sparkle with gold. The views look over the countryside and it's back faces the mountains where the Valle de los Caidos, the grave of Franco, is located as well. We wanted to visit but unfortunately it was closed today because of restoration. I'd been there before but it was still a dissappointment that it wasn't open. We spent a few hours walking through the monastary and it felt like it just kept going forever. They had some of the rooms where the king and queens used to live and it was cool to get an idea what their beds looked like and sleeping chambers. It was used more as a summer residence which makes sense because it was so cold inside the stone walls. Around the outside of the monastary were beautiful gardens that looked like huge mazes.

In the bottom of the monastary is the Royal Pantheon where the royalty of both of the dynasties of Spain, the Bourbans and Habsburg families. One side has the Kings and Queens but for some reason you need a special pass to visit that or have a guided tour, which we didn't but I really wanted to see it again so I tried to play dumb like I didn't understand the security guard but no success, he ran after me. Oops. But the other side has a lot of the children and cousins that were still relatives but not quite as important. A lot of the children would die young and their graves were located there. Both of the dynasties have their families buried here.

After our visit we had a nice long Spanish lunch, well my friends ate it because it was meat and I had packed a PB and J on a delicious baugette of course. But, it was a menu del dia which gives you a 3 course meal for a very reasonable price. If everything didn't have meat I would of enjoyed some soup. After that we took time to walk around the city a little, which is full of cobble stone streets and hilly passages. It is an other city where it's beautiful to enjoy the old feeling of history of Spain.

This week I was able to go for a run for the first time since I've been here and it was great. We live right by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and they have a bike path that leads to a mountainous park that I ran up. It leads to a view of all of Madrid and although it was a little overcast on a clear day it'll be beautiful. It also has lots of subpaths and I'm excited to explore. I was happy to find some place close and had to run bundled up but it was worth it.

They don't eat peanut butter here but of course it was the one thing I've really been craving so I had to splurge and buy a bottle at the one store they sell them at, El Corte Ingles, which has everything and it's definitly worth the investment. Eating here is still a challenge, but I'm finding little tricks to find things I like, such as now PB and Js. Feels just like middle school again :)

We've also been planning trips for this semester and so far have Cadiz, Spain, Paris, Germany, and Amsterdam...more to come :)

Toledo!!

Last sunday we took a group trip with the school to Toledo, which is a small city about an hour bus ride outside of Madrid. It is one of the oldest cities in Spain, and it used to be the capital when Spain still was in power of Flanders when it expanded up to Holland. It is filled with tiny, narrow, winding streets and there's really only one way in and out of the city. It's located on top of a hill, surrounded by a river that kept it safe from intruders. There is also a wall built around the city to keep it safe. Within the city are all cobblestone streets and the buildings are a mixture of brick and stone. The more stone people had on the outside of their homes, castles, churches, etc, the more money they had. It was a symbol of wealth. The morning began with a walking tour of the city where we saw an old Jewish synagogue which was still intact. There's a lot of influence from the Moors here because they used to rule over Spain. It was filled with intricate details and you could tell the difference between the stones of the European look versus the marble intricate details of the Moors. We also were able to visit the huge Cathedral of Toledo located in the middle of the city. It has very high ceilings and is filled with many smaller praying rooms inside of it. I'd been to Toledo before and had forgotten how beautiful all of the details of the city are. It was the real first chance I'd been able to feel the history of Spain and learn more about it's past rulers from the Moors to all of the Kings. The city was once the capital before moving to more centralized Madrid. It's a very small city and doesn't take long to walk from one side to the other so we were able to see a lot that day. It has great views and picture opportunities everywhere you look.

For lunch we found a little restuarant and enjoyed a nice plate of Paella, which is a famous rice dish here in Spain. It's commonly eaten with seafood or meat, but I was able to find one with just veggies :). It was delicious and it was nice to finally enjoy a true Spanish meal. It's hard to find a good Paella place in Madrid mainly because it's so large and also because it's so modern. The more out of the city you go the easier it is to find true ethnicity of Spanish culture. It's also a better place to practice Spanish because English is definitly spoken less.

Toledo is also known for it's gold and armory. We had fun looking at some intense swords and armor suits built way back in the day. They also have craftsmen who make almost anything from little gold pieces they individually place on either jewerly, plates, and anything else you can imagine. We also got a chance to stop on the mountains surrounding the city and get a great view of what it looks like from an outside perspective and it lead to some great pictures. It was a great day to learn about Spanish history.

So, the laundry here is a little different than home. A) the washing machine is about 1/3 what they are at home and B) there are no dryers. I was the first one out of all of us to take a try at this new laundry machine. That wasn't a problem but I then had to hang all my clothes on clotheslines outside of our window in the courtyard of our building. I'm terrified somethings going to fall and considering we're 4 stories up I can't guarantee I'd get it back. I feel as if I'm living back in time because I've never had to lay my laundry out before. I also don't know how it's going to dry considering its 45 degrees outside, but I guess it's a large learning experience. I put some of it on my heater and am just hoping it doesn't light on fire.

UPDATE: I came home from school to find all of the clothes moved on the line and my senora told me she moved them all and some of them were randomly dried. I'm not sure what she did exactly but my clothes were perfectly hung out on the wires and some even hung in my room. I'm not sure how she knew they were my clothes but it was funny to see it all moved around.

Palacio Real, El Prado y Reina Sofia

Friday morning began with a trip down to Palacio Real which is the Palace in Madrid for the royalty of Spain. We've been talking with our Senora about all of the places to visit in Madrid and she's really helpful with advice on places to go especially with the touristy spots. The Palace was nice because it was only about a 15-20 minute walk from our apartment. We were also able to see more of Madrid from a street view and walking around through the town you realize it's not an exceptionally huge city size wise. It wasn't hard at all to get it. The palace is surrounded with beautiful gardens as well which were covered in snow the first time we passed it on the bus tour only a few days earlier. But now it's all melted and beautifully green! We were able to go inside and go on a self guided tour but were also able to listen in on the tours around us and learn about all of the rooms of the palace. For Europe, the Spanish palace and official Cathedral which is right next to the palace are not old at all. The palace was finished in the 1800s and the Cathedral oddly enough in 1994. I believe I've heard somewhere they were damaged by fire but I'm not 100% sure. But nonetheless it was just as beautiful as I remebered, we saw the official throne room, lots of the official place settings, dining rooms and other places of historical value to Spain. They have lots of rooms specificially designed based on other cultures, my favorite being the Asian inspired room with bright colors and porcelain walls. After the tour and millions of pictures we walked down to Sol, which is like the center of the "Old Madrid". The streets are cobble stone and it has a very historical feel to it, very different from our location in Moncloa. It has tons of shopping and restaurants. That day we stopped off at Chocolateria San Gine which is famous for its churros con chocolate. Delicious! Then we spent the rest of the day shopping with all of the rebajas! We also came across a vegetarian restuarant, Maoz which made my day :) after sitting in Plaza Mayor to enjoy a little feast we kept exploring and enjoying the old town of Madrid.

This is the area where Joy was that we went to the night before. The club is located in an old theatre and it was beautiful inside with gold accents on the walls and the night was perfect when a lady gaga impersonator performed.

Saturday we decided to visit two of Madrids most famous musuems, Reina Sofia and El Prado. We had to ride the metro here, but it was a quick ride across town. They are located near where I stayed the first time I was in Madrid. The Reina Sofia holds the famous "La Guernica" by Pablo Picasso, which is HUGE. The details and randomness of the whole painting can keep you entertained for hours. The whole exhibit about the civil war in Spain was really moving and depressing, but La Guernica was amazing. I definitly illegally snuck a picture on my phone without them seeing :) sneaky sneaky. The Reina Sofia is much more modern art and after exploring that for a few hours we stopped for a little rejuvination food and I enjoyed my daily tortilla espanola which is pretty much the only Spanish food I enjoy :). Then we headed over to the Prado after enjoying a nice walk through Madrid's Park. The Prado is filled with old paintings from artists all over Europe, some dating back all the way to 1300's. We saw various work from Goya, El Greco, Rembrant, Velazquez and tons more. The pamphlet for the musuem contains a section about all of the "masterpieces" within the musuem and we made a little adventure in finding every single one, which we achieved. It's kind of a big deal.

Tomorrow is a day trip to Toledo!

Classes

Officially started classes these past two days!
Wednesday was the first day of classes and it was definitly a different start to the semester than I'm used to.
My first class wasnt until 2:30 pm, so I forced myself to wake up around 11, even though because of the jetlag I could have slept longer, and went to the gym here that I joined! It was definitly different than an American gym, but not too extreme. The locker room was pretty standard and the gym had all of the typical machines; ellipticals, treadmil, stairmaster, bike. It also had weights and all that sort of equipment. I was the only one doing cardio at the time though so it was a bit awkward because I watched in the mirror as everyone stared at me. They were nice though and said Hi or Hola to me while I was on there. It was so hot in there though and I was definitly a sweaty mess. Walking home I was probably a hilarious sight with my workout clothes on and my huge coat over me. I didn't see any hilarious gym outfits, but I was hoping to. They were all wearing pretty normal workout attire with the exception of one woman wearing pants and this skin tight leotard looking top with a turtle neck, no sleeves and an open back. It was weird, but I can't like I wanted one.
Then I came home and showered and headed off with the roomies to class.
I started off with Spanish Literature which I have with Kelsey, one of my roommates. Our teacher is from Spain and it's going to be a good class that I can hopefully learn a lot of Spanish from as well.
Then I had Spanish Civilization and Culture which will also be amazing because we get to travel in Spain and I'll learn a lot about Spains history and the different regions of the country.
Then my day ended with History of the Modern World 1500-present day. That class wasn't too exciting but my professor seems interesting as he is British and has a fabulous accent.
Then I headed home and recapped the day with my roomies about our classes. It was cool to see people from orientation that we'd previously met and it was nice to see a familiar face. A lot of my classes have students from all over the world who are permanent students at SLU Madrid, so it's a nice difference.
Then, Wednesday night we headed out to a bar called Orange Cafe just two blocks from our apartment. It was very American but it was nice way to meet other students from Madrid and also get a taste of Spanish culture.
Thursday I had classes at 11am, starting with International Politics. My professor is great, he's from Germany but has a British accent because he went to school in London. He's really smart and knowledgable about the world so I hope to learn a lot from him. Then I came home ate lunch and got ready for my second class, Reinaissance Art History. This class is going to be very fascinating because we're in Europe where so many of these painting and scultures are so I can't wait to learn about them and be able to have the chance to see them first hand.
Then I came back, took a siesta and was able to skype with my bestie Jamie :) <3.
After we all woke up from our siestas we took a walk around our neighborhood for some food because we were starving and are still adjusting to eating later. We found a little place with a spanish tortilla thats inexpensive and it was delicious. Definitly made my night.
Now we are back trying to plan our "touristy" weekend ahead of us and getting ready for our first experience tonight at one of Madrid's most famous clubs, Joy.

Orientations

These past two days we've had our orientations for classes and learning about SLU- Madrid and everything about Madrid in general. We woke up to snow all over the ground, which I had never seen before. Our walk to school from our piso is only about a 15 minute walk but considering the streets were covered in snow we definitly had to walk a little slower. This snow stuff is definitly new to me. But luckily, as the day went on the sun came out and began to melt the snow a little and by the end of the day only a few places still had snow on the ground. At orientation we were all split up into groups depending on our last names and we spent the day getting to know the people in our group from all across the United States and learned about everything our school has to offer. It's a pretty small campus, especially considering only about 675 students are enrolled, so there is only about 2 main buildings where classes are held. We also were able to purchase Spanish cell phones at the same time which is nice because now we are all able to keep in contact much easier. We got tours of the neighborhood our school is in, but I was miserable on the walk because I'd never been in such cold weather before. There is a lot around the school and it wouldn't be hard to find anything you'd ever need. We also signed up for a day trip to Toledo on Sunday and although I've been before it's one of my favorite cities I've ever visited and I'm excitd to go back. I also met 3 girls from LMU who I didn't previously know and it was nice to have a connection from home all the way over here in Madrid.

After a little siesta, we all ventured out to find something to make for dinner for ourselves. It's difficult to plan meals and figure out what to buy because the food and grocery stores are very different and much more expensive with the exchange rate. It's just going to take time and trials to figure out what works, so far cereals the safest bet. The one thing impossible to find here is oatmeal which is quite unfortunate.

We've all been finding people we've met from SLU-Madrid on facebook which has helped us stay connected and see what other people are up to. Last night we ventured down to Gran Via to the bar El Tigre where we were able to meet up with a lot of other alumnos de SLU. They have a huge amount of Tapas with whatever you order and it's in a nice location in Madrid. It was also our first experience on the Metro and it's very clean and easy to use, we didn't get lost even with changes! It was a fun way to mingle with everyone from school and get a chance to talk with a lot of people.

Our second day of Orientation consisted of a bus tour throughout Madrid. Today the weather was a little warmer, but very rainy all day. After talking with our senora, she told me weather like this is very unusual, and she told me she hated weather like this. You could tell even out in Madrid that the locals weren't sure what to do with the snow. But, the bus tour was nice, but it was hard to see out the windows because they kept fogging up and the traffic in Madrid was horrible. We weren't told how long we were going to be on the tour for or any information about what we were visiting either so it was pretty much just a bus drive around the city. Luckily, I knew a lot of the places because I'd been to Madrid before and it was very cool to see the way it looked with snow because the last time I was here it was hot and summertime. We passed by all of the Museums and Palacio Madrid, both of which we plan to visit this weekend. The area around the Palacio is beautiful with cobblestone streets and historical plazas that really are the origins of Madrid. Unfortunately, by the end everyone was really carsick and really hungry and the tour just left us kind of in the middle of no where and we had to find our way back home, but the Metro ride was only one stop away and we came back and had a long much needed siesta, a beautiful part of everyday Spanish life.

Once we were all more rested we went exploring a little more and were able to find a gym only a block away to join that was very nice. I haven't gone running ever in the snow and definitly don't think I'd be able to handle it so I'm going to have to get used to a treadmil for a while. But, it's a great facility. Once it starts warming up I'm definitly going to explore the parks for good running paths. There were a few brave souls running in the snow at the parks, but I don't think I'm that brave. After not having ran in almost 4 days I'm excited for anything. Luckily, we walk everywhere and it's good exercise.

We also found a natural food market and although the prices were a little high, I was able to find tofu and other vegetarian options that are hard to find in a country like Spain where meat is a staple at almost every meal. It's definitly going to make eating out at restaurants a challenge.

Classes begin tomorrow, which is weird because I keep forgetting I'm here for school :)

I'm Here!

After a verrrry long flight(s) I made it to Madrid! 9 1/2 hours of turbulence joy. How bout that ride in, guess thats why they call it Madrid...(haha).
I'm living in a little flat with 3 other girls from all across the United States, specifically Long Island, New York, Iowa, and St. Louis, Missouri.
Our senora loves talking with us and lives right next door with her husband. She made us a typical Spanish tortilla consisting of eggs, potato and onion, delicious.
It was also my first time seeing snow fall from the sky! It was cold, but definitly worth it to see my first snow fall in Madrid :). I was definitly taking pictures right and left but snow is hard to capture in a picture. Nothing's open on Sunday's so my roommates and I had a great time trying to find dinner but thanks to El Cortes Ingles (massive department store) we managed to scavange a few things here and there. We are living completely independently with means of cooking here in our little pisa and we're bound to have many adventures trying to cook in there.
But for now we are all jet-lagged and currently blogging in our living room trying to plan future travels across Europe and Madrid in the upcoming weeks.

Orientation and pictures up tomorrow!!

Buenas noches mis amores :)