So I have big news. A Spanish first.
I had coffee with a spanish girl after class today. Let me do a little backtracking to explain how this happened. So I had my small group session of Social Psychology today, which had about 25 kids. I actually really like the class, the professor is really nice and given that fact that everyone else can understand his jokes and laughs a lot, I would bet that he'll be pretty funny when I get a better grasp on the language. Anyways, the students stopped laughing when he was explaining a research project we're going to have to do, which involves finding journal articles, which are basically ENTIRELY in English. Sitting in class I couldn't help but let a smile creep on my face. Thoughts going through my head: I'm back on top! Ahh how great it is to see English! I'll be able to understand this better than anyone in my class! and lastly, it dawned on me, this might give me a way to meet people...
For a reason I can't remember, my professor had already called me out and established in front of the entire class that I was American. When the rest of the class was freaking out about these articles in English, one girl kind of turned to me and was like, Kristen will help me, and I heard her say that she barely knew any English. So at the end of the class I took a deep breath, and offered her my email address to help her with the articles when she needed it. We walked out of the classroom together and she asked if I wanted to "tomar un café" aka- get a coffee with her. So exciting!!! Thoughts running through my head: SPANISH FRIENDDD! STUDY BUDDY! OH GOD PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME WHEN I'M SPEAKING SPANISH!
Thankfully she could generally understand me, and I think we're going to try and do like a language exchange thing, where she practices/learns English with me and I practice my Spanish with her. So yeah! That's my exciting news of the day!!
Spanish phrase of the post (I know I've been forgetting about this)
Get a coffee = tomar un café
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Transition
So that was a longer hiatus than expected, my sincerest apologies to my faithful readers. To be honest there were multiple times that I had considered posting an updated, but I never really felt like I had enough to say. This has been a very interesting two weeks. The best word to describe it really is Transition. Let's just imagine being in this small city in Spain, living in a hotel with 15 other Americans your age, and having 3 roommates. Having ridiculously easy classes that end at 1:00 everyday, trips and excursions planned for you, and the most amazing program director- Julian. All of the you're on a 10+ hr train ride to a brand new city with 5 other people. Now all of the sudden I'm living in a house with a genuine Spanish family by myself, with no one else who speaks English. I found myself feeling very lonely and isolated a lot, which obviously just opens the door and beckons for homesickness to walk right in. Apologies to Mom, but there was even one day when I saw she was calling me on Skype and I couldn't even answer. I haven't cried (yet) but it definitely hasn't been easy.
I'm sorry this is so depressing, and I really don't want to freak anyone out, because I am having a great time! It's just that I think this is normal, and important for me to not forget. Studying Abroad is obviously fun, but it's a lot of work too. It's work to learn a language, to force yourself into social situations you might not feel comfortable in, and I haven't even touched on the work that classes is going to take.
That being said, things are getting better and better every day. One day, all of the sudden my little sisters were obsessed with me, which is definitely a good thing, but they are a handful. I'm apologizing in advance to any friends that my 9 year old sister, Maria, calls on Skype without me knowing. I've established a rule that she can't go on Skype unless I'm in the room, so hopefully that rule will be followed. I've also realized that I just have to keep moving, and I can't just sit in my pink floral wallpapered room. Even if that means going to a café by myself in the morning, I just have to move. It's when I'm not doing something is when I start to drive myself crazy.
Well some exciting things happening soon: Andy and Emily visiting for a long weekend Oct 8th, Mom and Dad coming Oct 29th, and I'm going to London to visit Ross Nov 12th!
Love you all!
I'm sorry this is so depressing, and I really don't want to freak anyone out, because I am having a great time! It's just that I think this is normal, and important for me to not forget. Studying Abroad is obviously fun, but it's a lot of work too. It's work to learn a language, to force yourself into social situations you might not feel comfortable in, and I haven't even touched on the work that classes is going to take.
That being said, things are getting better and better every day. One day, all of the sudden my little sisters were obsessed with me, which is definitely a good thing, but they are a handful. I'm apologizing in advance to any friends that my 9 year old sister, Maria, calls on Skype without me knowing. I've established a rule that she can't go on Skype unless I'm in the room, so hopefully that rule will be followed. I've also realized that I just have to keep moving, and I can't just sit in my pink floral wallpapered room. Even if that means going to a café by myself in the morning, I just have to move. It's when I'm not doing something is when I start to drive myself crazy.
Well some exciting things happening soon: Andy and Emily visiting for a long weekend Oct 8th, Mom and Dad coming Oct 29th, and I'm going to London to visit Ross Nov 12th!
Love you all!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Photos
Just a few pictures of this beautiful city! I'm loving it more and more every day.
My apartment is on the 3rd floor of the yellow building. It's a 19th century building...and oh did I mention that there's no elevator? My legs are lovinnggg it!
My apartment is on the 3rd floor of the yellow building. It's a 19th century building...and oh did I mention that there's no elevator? My legs are lovinnggg it!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Arrival
Well I have made it to Coruña, my home for the next 9 months! To say the least, it has been a crazy, whirlwind transition. Shall we start with the trip here? Naturally, the universe would not let me get away with a smooth and hassle-free trip here!
So first of all, I think the reality of the fact that, on a train only YOU are responsible for your luggage (aka- no checking bags or anything like that) didn't really hit us until we got to the train station. The 6 of us were standing in the train station, surrounded by about 12 HUGE pieces of luggage, not including our backpacks. Thankfully one of our program directors, Rafa, met us at the station to help us see us off on our trip.
So here's the play-by-play:
- Train comes, we all rush up to the doors with our 50 lb bags
- **Simultaneous thought process** = Crap. 3 tall stairs to get from the platform onto the train. Two men. Two different train cars.
- James and Rafa basically throwing our bags onto the train
- Rafa having to jump off the train before it leaves with him on it
- 4 of us standing in the little area in front of the train doors, surrounded by the largest pieces of luggage that you've ever seen in your life.
- 45 minutes of putting our luggage onto the little bars above the train seats, and trying to move around other passenger's bags on the shelf without having them think that we're stealing it
- Due to a miners strike our train stops twice for 30 minutes (if we do that math that equals 1 hour of not moving)
- We originally had a 20 minute "layover" before our connecting train. We did the math (as shown above) and then begun to freak out. The conductor told us that our connecting train would wait for us, so we calmed down.
- I ate my weight in cereal and chorizo sandwiches due to a terrible combination of boredom and stress eating.
- We prepared ourselves, and got our luggage down from the racks about 15 minutes ahead of time before getting off at the connecting station
- We got ourselves and all of our luggage off the train, when all of the sudden a conductor comes up yelling at us to hurry up to get on the next
- We moved faster than ever before, throwing 12+ pieces of luggage onto the train, and within 5 minutes of getting the last bag and person on, we were off!
As we approached into Coruña we all started to get reallly antsy, nervous, and excited. As soon as the doors to the train opened we saw a huge mass of people including all three program directors, and a bunch of families. I met my family, and gave each of them "dos besos" (aka- the very euro double cheek kiss). We obviously drove home to my beautiful, early 1900s, ornate, yellow building. The apartment is on the third (top) floor, and there is no elevator, but hey, my butt needs a little work out anyway. My room is small but pink, floral decoated, and just over-all adorable. Pictures of the building, home, and my room to come!
My family is great, my "padres" Ignacio and Silvia are so kind and patient with me. My little sisters, Maria and Camino are also adorable, but most definitely a pair of dramatic divas. A little proof:
It has definitely been a transition from Pamplona, where I was basically with English speaking friends 24/7 to all of the sudden living with this random family by myself. On top of that I've been feeling a little sick and have had a really bad sore throat for the past few days, which have just made everything a little harder. I feel myself getting better though, and the awkwardness is slowly starting to dissipate as well. I still don't feel like I know the city very well, and I haven't gotten to see the beach, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll have time for a nice long walk to get my bearings and take some pictures!
Letters or packages are always greatly appreciated, so here's my new address:
Kristen Carlson
Ferrol 12, 3º
La Coruna 15005
Spain
So first of all, I think the reality of the fact that, on a train only YOU are responsible for your luggage (aka- no checking bags or anything like that) didn't really hit us until we got to the train station. The 6 of us were standing in the train station, surrounded by about 12 HUGE pieces of luggage, not including our backpacks. Thankfully one of our program directors, Rafa, met us at the station to help us see us off on our trip.
So here's the play-by-play:
- Train comes, we all rush up to the doors with our 50 lb bags
- **Simultaneous thought process** = Crap. 3 tall stairs to get from the platform onto the train. Two men. Two different train cars.
- James and Rafa basically throwing our bags onto the train
- Rafa having to jump off the train before it leaves with him on it
- 4 of us standing in the little area in front of the train doors, surrounded by the largest pieces of luggage that you've ever seen in your life.
- 45 minutes of putting our luggage onto the little bars above the train seats, and trying to move around other passenger's bags on the shelf without having them think that we're stealing it
- Due to a miners strike our train stops twice for 30 minutes (if we do that math that equals 1 hour of not moving)
- We originally had a 20 minute "layover" before our connecting train. We did the math (as shown above) and then begun to freak out. The conductor told us that our connecting train would wait for us, so we calmed down.
- I ate my weight in cereal and chorizo sandwiches due to a terrible combination of boredom and stress eating.
- We prepared ourselves, and got our luggage down from the racks about 15 minutes ahead of time before getting off at the connecting station
- We got ourselves and all of our luggage off the train, when all of the sudden a conductor comes up yelling at us to hurry up to get on the next
- We moved faster than ever before, throwing 12+ pieces of luggage onto the train, and within 5 minutes of getting the last bag and person on, we were off!
As we approached into Coruña we all started to get reallly antsy, nervous, and excited. As soon as the doors to the train opened we saw a huge mass of people including all three program directors, and a bunch of families. I met my family, and gave each of them "dos besos" (aka- the very euro double cheek kiss). We obviously drove home to my beautiful, early 1900s, ornate, yellow building. The apartment is on the third (top) floor, and there is no elevator, but hey, my butt needs a little work out anyway. My room is small but pink, floral decoated, and just over-all adorable. Pictures of the building, home, and my room to come!
My family is great, my "padres" Ignacio and Silvia are so kind and patient with me. My little sisters, Maria and Camino are also adorable, but most definitely a pair of dramatic divas. A little proof:
It has definitely been a transition from Pamplona, where I was basically with English speaking friends 24/7 to all of the sudden living with this random family by myself. On top of that I've been feeling a little sick and have had a really bad sore throat for the past few days, which have just made everything a little harder. I feel myself getting better though, and the awkwardness is slowly starting to dissipate as well. I still don't feel like I know the city very well, and I haven't gotten to see the beach, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll have time for a nice long walk to get my bearings and take some pictures!
Letters or packages are always greatly appreciated, so here's my new address:
Kristen Carlson
Ferrol 12, 3º
La Coruna 15005
Spain
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Fun Stuff
After that novel that I wrote earlier this week, I've decided to go to the other extreme. This is just a little stream of consciousness post that has a little bit of everything, in a pretty concise manner!
Things that Spain love and Hate
Love: Rotaries, yogurt (especially activia), parks, playscapes, mullets, dreadlocks, genie pants, red pants, winding roads through mountains, pork, fried meat, wine, bread, gummy candy
Hate: Street signs, refrigerated milk, salad dressing, granola bars, peanut butter, paper towels, air conditioning, iced beverages, pizza, red meat, opening stores on Sundays
A Few Memories
- Extremely attractive, but probably not the nicest "professor" Felipe
- Singing and dancing to we're off to see the wizard with Emily, Andy, and James
- Four in a row, linked arms with the same people above
- Drew and I chatting with 2 spanish boys on our way home
- Learning that school here costs about $4,000 a year
- Eating at Café Iruña
- Learning new ways to throw a frisbee, also learning that I'm actually pretttty good at it
- Meeting a 9 year old by from Morroco who moved to Spain 4 weeks ago, yet has learned to speak Spanish almost as well as us from watching TV
- Listening to James play the guitar while sitting on their porch drinking wine and eating Tortilla Española (like a quiche with potatoes)
Tomorrow (or today, in about 9 hrs) I leave for Coruña, where I'll be for the next 9 months. I'm anxious, nervous, sad, happy, excited... I'm basically feeling every emotion possible right now. I've made some great friends here, that I probably wouldn't have gotten to known had we all stayed at Holy Cross, so I'll be sad to leave them. I'm so excited to get to Coruña though, see this beautiful city, and meet my family that has only been described with words such as "amazing" "the best" and "so loving". Well I'm off to bed, next post will be after a 10 hour train ride, when I'm in my bedroom in La Coruña.
Spanish word of the day: besos --> kisses, also a casual, yet not romantic way of saying goodbye in a letter.
¡Besos!
Things that Spain love and Hate
Love: Rotaries, yogurt (especially activia), parks, playscapes, mullets, dreadlocks, genie pants, red pants, winding roads through mountains, pork, fried meat, wine, bread, gummy candy
Hate: Street signs, refrigerated milk, salad dressing, granola bars, peanut butter, paper towels, air conditioning, iced beverages, pizza, red meat, opening stores on Sundays
A Few Memories
- Extremely attractive, but probably not the nicest "professor" Felipe
- Singing and dancing to we're off to see the wizard with Emily, Andy, and James
- Four in a row, linked arms with the same people above
- Drew and I chatting with 2 spanish boys on our way home
- Learning that school here costs about $4,000 a year
- Eating at Café Iruña
- Learning new ways to throw a frisbee, also learning that I'm actually pretttty good at it
- Meeting a 9 year old by from Morroco who moved to Spain 4 weeks ago, yet has learned to speak Spanish almost as well as us from watching TV
- Listening to James play the guitar while sitting on their porch drinking wine and eating Tortilla Española (like a quiche with potatoes)
Tomorrow (or today, in about 9 hrs) I leave for Coruña, where I'll be for the next 9 months. I'm anxious, nervous, sad, happy, excited... I'm basically feeling every emotion possible right now. I've made some great friends here, that I probably wouldn't have gotten to known had we all stayed at Holy Cross, so I'll be sad to leave them. I'm so excited to get to Coruña though, see this beautiful city, and meet my family that has only been described with words such as "amazing" "the best" and "so loving". Well I'm off to bed, next post will be after a 10 hour train ride, when I'm in my bedroom in La Coruña.
Spanish word of the day: besos --> kisses, also a casual, yet not romantic way of saying goodbye in a letter.
¡Besos!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Busy Week = Long Blog Post
So before writing this post, I had to take notes to figure out everything that happened this week. I can't believe I'm writing blog post outlines. I take this seriously, peeps, so you better appreciate it. Anyways, these weeks are long, crazy, exciting whirlwinds. Things are already starting to get a little mixed up, and I hope I'm not forgetting little details.
Monday was a pretty chill day, and a good way to start off the week. After class, and most likely a little siesta, Emily, Elena and I walked to a park downtown. Emily and I found a shady spot and did some journaling while Elena went for a run. Little did we know that a men's league soccer team was doing some running around the grassy area that we were laying in. All of the sudden we saw this heard of men coming at us, and like split in half just to run around us. It was a little ridiculous, especially since it happened, ohh, 3 times?
Tuesday we had an excursion to Olite, Spain. It was a verrrry small town, that had a huge castle! It was so old, and really cool just to walk around. We also got a taste of Holy Cross as we walked up the millions of stairs to get to the tops of the turrets. After Olite we took a stop at another small rural town, where there was no castle. There wasn't much there, but Julian and Nekane (the program directors) bought a baguette and some chorizo and made us all a little chorizo sandwich that was delicious! It was so nice of him to get it, and adorable to watch him cutting the bread and meat like at the register in this little corner grocery store. They also bought us some weird sweet, milk/juice product that is apparently made from potatoes? That was a little weird for my taste, but they made up for it by buying little marshmallow treats that they call "nubes" (clouds).
Wednesday we didn't have anything after class so Emily, Dan, Andy, James and I took a walk to the center of town. We first stopped at this park that has a little "zoo". It's hard to describe, but it's more just like an area where you can watch peacocks, ducks, chickens, goats, and deer all roam free in this green area. There's about a 20 ft stone wall around it, and us humans just look down on them. After watching the animals we were just walking around the park when all of the sudden we saw a huge group (50ish people) of young people appear. They had been swimming/playing in a fountain, were all chanting/yelling something and were clearly drunk. Naturally, the 5 of us American were intrigued, so we all kinda of shimmied in closer, and sat on a bench watching as the police came, talked with some of the kids, and observed who left and who stayed. We were all dying of curiosity of what was going on, so we finally worked up the courage to ask 2 Spanish guys. When we asked what it was they said that it was a "novatada" none of us had any idea what this was, but they kindly gave us an explanation that we quickly translated to mean, hazing. Although not many collge students in Spain ever live in dorms on campus, I think that when they do it's all years/ages. So apparently every year they have hazing for the first year students! It was pretty exciting just to watch it all unfold, police drama and all. It was also pretty exciting that we had some contact with a Spanish person our own age.
On Thursday we had Rumba dancing! It was about a 20 minute walk into town, and literally 2 minutes into the walk it started to rain a little, 5 minutes into the walk it was POURING. Emily, Elena, and I all tried to fit under a baby umbrella, but clearly that didn't work out. Nobody had rain jackets, and Emily was the only one with an umbrella. We had to walk a little bit to get to a bus station that would get us to the right place, but at least we didn't have to walk all the way there. We were all soaked, but I think everyone just kind of laughed it off as a "what are the chances" kind of thing. The dance class was SO much fun. I'd never really done anything like that so it was just a good time to try something new. I would also describe it as "Bikram Dancing" due to the fact that the dance studio had no A/C or fans. After dancing a group of us stayed downtown with Nekane (our culture class teacher who's around 25 years old) and she brought us to this really fun store where we could get some pretty good deals. I got a couple shirts, a bag, and a belt (first clothing purchases in Spain, woot woot!). After shopping we went to get pinchos (tapas) where I got a dish called Tortilla with ham and cheese. It's kind of like quiche that has potatoes in it, and in the middle it has a layer of ham and cheese. It was a pretty big triangle, with a peace of bread, all for 1.50 euros.
On Friday after class Emily, Dan, James, Andy, a girl named Brady, and I all walked into town. After some shopping Dan and Brady both left to go back to the hotel. Emily, Andy, James and I kept walking around and got some ice cream at our favorite spot. We were planning on going to a park called La Ciudadela to see if there was a concert going on, so James and I spontaneously decided to buy a bottle of wine to bring with us. There was no concert but it was fun to just sit under a tree in the park, share a bottle of wine without any glasses, and talk. There were 2 weddings going on, so it was really good people watching. The four of us were there for over an hour just talking about ourselves, and just kind of learning about each other.
On Saturday we had a trip to Bilbao, the fifth largest metropolitan area of Spain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao). We first took a stop at a town called Loiola where St. Ignatious of Loyla (who found the Jesuits) was born. There's a basilica there that was beautiful, and we got a tour of his house, which is huge! Once we got to Bilbao we first went into the Guggenheim Museum. Emily, Andy and I stuck together and really took our time with it. We got the audio tour things, which were really helpful to help us know what we were looking at it. There was a filming of some video for an orchestra going on which was actually really cool, because there was basically a full out concert going on and echoing throughout the museum. If anyone wants to do some googling, I would highly recommend searching "Anish Kapoor Yellow". I think it looks cool in the pictures, but that might just be because I know how amazing it looks in the museum. Definitely my favorite. After the museum we walked into Bilbao's old city and went into one of the most gorgeous churches. They had some music playing, and it was really peaceful to just sit there and contemplate these last 2 weeks.
So yeah! That was my week in a very large nutshell! I hope everything's going well at home, and I better receive updates of interesting things in people's lives! Love and miss you all!
Monday was a pretty chill day, and a good way to start off the week. After class, and most likely a little siesta, Emily, Elena and I walked to a park downtown. Emily and I found a shady spot and did some journaling while Elena went for a run. Little did we know that a men's league soccer team was doing some running around the grassy area that we were laying in. All of the sudden we saw this heard of men coming at us, and like split in half just to run around us. It was a little ridiculous, especially since it happened, ohh, 3 times?
Tuesday we had an excursion to Olite, Spain. It was a verrrry small town, that had a huge castle! It was so old, and really cool just to walk around. We also got a taste of Holy Cross as we walked up the millions of stairs to get to the tops of the turrets. After Olite we took a stop at another small rural town, where there was no castle. There wasn't much there, but Julian and Nekane (the program directors) bought a baguette and some chorizo and made us all a little chorizo sandwich that was delicious! It was so nice of him to get it, and adorable to watch him cutting the bread and meat like at the register in this little corner grocery store. They also bought us some weird sweet, milk/juice product that is apparently made from potatoes? That was a little weird for my taste, but they made up for it by buying little marshmallow treats that they call "nubes" (clouds).
Wednesday we didn't have anything after class so Emily, Dan, Andy, James and I took a walk to the center of town. We first stopped at this park that has a little "zoo". It's hard to describe, but it's more just like an area where you can watch peacocks, ducks, chickens, goats, and deer all roam free in this green area. There's about a 20 ft stone wall around it, and us humans just look down on them. After watching the animals we were just walking around the park when all of the sudden we saw a huge group (50ish people) of young people appear. They had been swimming/playing in a fountain, were all chanting/yelling something and were clearly drunk. Naturally, the 5 of us American were intrigued, so we all kinda of shimmied in closer, and sat on a bench watching as the police came, talked with some of the kids, and observed who left and who stayed. We were all dying of curiosity of what was going on, so we finally worked up the courage to ask 2 Spanish guys. When we asked what it was they said that it was a "novatada" none of us had any idea what this was, but they kindly gave us an explanation that we quickly translated to mean, hazing. Although not many collge students in Spain ever live in dorms on campus, I think that when they do it's all years/ages. So apparently every year they have hazing for the first year students! It was pretty exciting just to watch it all unfold, police drama and all. It was also pretty exciting that we had some contact with a Spanish person our own age.
On Thursday we had Rumba dancing! It was about a 20 minute walk into town, and literally 2 minutes into the walk it started to rain a little, 5 minutes into the walk it was POURING. Emily, Elena, and I all tried to fit under a baby umbrella, but clearly that didn't work out. Nobody had rain jackets, and Emily was the only one with an umbrella. We had to walk a little bit to get to a bus station that would get us to the right place, but at least we didn't have to walk all the way there. We were all soaked, but I think everyone just kind of laughed it off as a "what are the chances" kind of thing. The dance class was SO much fun. I'd never really done anything like that so it was just a good time to try something new. I would also describe it as "Bikram Dancing" due to the fact that the dance studio had no A/C or fans. After dancing a group of us stayed downtown with Nekane (our culture class teacher who's around 25 years old) and she brought us to this really fun store where we could get some pretty good deals. I got a couple shirts, a bag, and a belt (first clothing purchases in Spain, woot woot!). After shopping we went to get pinchos (tapas) where I got a dish called Tortilla with ham and cheese. It's kind of like quiche that has potatoes in it, and in the middle it has a layer of ham and cheese. It was a pretty big triangle, with a peace of bread, all for 1.50 euros.
On Friday after class Emily, Dan, James, Andy, a girl named Brady, and I all walked into town. After some shopping Dan and Brady both left to go back to the hotel. Emily, Andy, James and I kept walking around and got some ice cream at our favorite spot. We were planning on going to a park called La Ciudadela to see if there was a concert going on, so James and I spontaneously decided to buy a bottle of wine to bring with us. There was no concert but it was fun to just sit under a tree in the park, share a bottle of wine without any glasses, and talk. There were 2 weddings going on, so it was really good people watching. The four of us were there for over an hour just talking about ourselves, and just kind of learning about each other.
On Saturday we had a trip to Bilbao, the fifth largest metropolitan area of Spain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao). We first took a stop at a town called Loiola where St. Ignatious of Loyla (who found the Jesuits) was born. There's a basilica there that was beautiful, and we got a tour of his house, which is huge! Once we got to Bilbao we first went into the Guggenheim Museum. Emily, Andy and I stuck together and really took our time with it. We got the audio tour things, which were really helpful to help us know what we were looking at it. There was a filming of some video for an orchestra going on which was actually really cool, because there was basically a full out concert going on and echoing throughout the museum. If anyone wants to do some googling, I would highly recommend searching "Anish Kapoor Yellow". I think it looks cool in the pictures, but that might just be because I know how amazing it looks in the museum. Definitely my favorite. After the museum we walked into Bilbao's old city and went into one of the most gorgeous churches. They had some music playing, and it was really peaceful to just sit there and contemplate these last 2 weeks.
So yeah! That was my week in a very large nutshell! I hope everything's going well at home, and I better receive updates of interesting things in people's lives! Love and miss you all!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Best Weekend Ever
First let me apologize for my little break from blogging. I really have no excuse except for the fact that I'm just trying to take in every moment that I'm here! Part of that includes this past weekend, which might just have been one of the most amazing 2 days of my life? Bold statement, I am aware. Anyways, let me start from the beginning!
Saturday we got up at 8:30 to board onto a bus at 9:00 that would eventually bring us to Saint Jean Pied de Port (or in Spanish- San Juan de Pie de Puerto) which is in France! I should have been forewarned when our culture professor who was accompanying us on the trip told us that she had medicine for when you get carsick with her for the ride. Little did I know that the "highway of the mountains" that went through the Pyrenees mountains, honestly had the same, if not more, amount of tight twists and turns as oh..Superman at 6 Flags. It was ridiculous. I was pretty cocky about it getting onto the bus, like oh puh-lease, I can read books in the car...no problem. A quick stop at this beautiful lookout about 30 minutes into the ride, I was basically praying to God that our professor, who's name is Nakane (nah-kah-nay) still had more dramamine. Thankfully, my prayers were answered, and as soon as the drugs kicked in I was good for the rest of the day.
Anyways, that quick stop that we made was to look at La Foz de Arbayún, which I would consider to be like the Grand Canyon of Spain. We were so high up into the mountains, and this canyon was so low. It was absolutely gorgeous:
Next was a small pueblo (village) named Ochagavía. The town was adorable and it was really cool because they were having their annual culture festival. Everyone in the town was dressed up in traditional clothing, and kind of have little stations of old food and activities. It was kind of like sturbridge village/amish county except it was real town residents just acting like it for a day. They had this really delicious stuffing-esque thing that was just being made on huge pots over fires on the ground, and everyone just grabbed leaves off of the trees to make little plates to put the stuffing on. Best part? It was freeee!!
We also made a stop at a town called Roncevalles, which is the first stop on the Camino de Santiago. There wasn't much going on there, and I think we were all pretty anxious to get to Fraaannnceeee! Woo! It was so cool driving there, because all of the sudden our program directors were just like, oh heyy left side of the bus is in France, right side is in Spain. Then all of the sudden, it was like what up. You're in Spain. I might have altered their words and/or language a bit, but you get the point. No border patrol, police, passport checking, nada. Maybe the U.S and Mexico can take some notes from this Spain/France relationship? Just an idea. Anywho, I'm off topic (what? me? A.D.D?). France was absolutely gorgeous! The entire town was on this huge mountain, so I think all of our legs were a little confused thinking that we weren't going to encounter any of that now that we're away from Holy Cross. I also think our brain's were a bit confused as to what language we should be speaking. They don't speak English...so Spanish? Crap, they don't know that either...uhh sign language? Spanglish? Bon Jour? It was tough, but I got my iced tea (aka- carbonated nestea in a can. Strange to say the least) and other people got their coffees. Of course, being that San Juan de Pie de Port is on a mountain, here's a pic of the gorgeous views!
On Sunday we didn't have a planned trip, but we all wanted to go to the beach, so our program director (who I may or not be in love with) Julian offered to accompany us to San Sebastian, Spain. Although we somehow got onto the 2 hour bus, when it's normally only 1, it was completely worth it. The city was gorgeous, ornate, and just very Spanish overall. We also got lunch at this sandwich place which was delicious, fresh food that we'd all be craving. The beach was honestly one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my life. It was kind of enclosed by the mountains that wrapped around it so the beach was kind of shaped like a crescent moon. It was also interesting to see the way Spaniards go to the beach. By that I mean the lack of tops, and very small bottoms on both men and women. Also, it's completely acceptable to let your infant boys run around and do cartwheels naked on the beach. Seems like a lot of work to get the sand out from every nook and cranny...but that's just my opinion! As has been the theme of this post, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I now present you with San Sebastion!
So yeah! That was my weekend! It was one of those that just seemed to last forever, and was so amazing. I remember sitting on a step in front of a little store in France with my friend Emily, and we just said how content we were feeling. It wasn't like we were elated, or joyful but we were just happy and content with everything that was going on in our lives. It was a great moment, that I think I'll be seeing a lot more of this year. I hope everyone is enjoying reading these. I love the comments, and feel free to e-mail me too! I've added new pictures on facebook, so if you go back a couple posts and click on the link, you'll get to see some more pictures like the one's that you just saw!
Love you all <3
Saturday we got up at 8:30 to board onto a bus at 9:00 that would eventually bring us to Saint Jean Pied de Port (or in Spanish- San Juan de Pie de Puerto) which is in France! I should have been forewarned when our culture professor who was accompanying us on the trip told us that she had medicine for when you get carsick with her for the ride. Little did I know that the "highway of the mountains" that went through the Pyrenees mountains, honestly had the same, if not more, amount of tight twists and turns as oh..Superman at 6 Flags. It was ridiculous. I was pretty cocky about it getting onto the bus, like oh puh-lease, I can read books in the car...no problem. A quick stop at this beautiful lookout about 30 minutes into the ride, I was basically praying to God that our professor, who's name is Nakane (nah-kah-nay) still had more dramamine. Thankfully, my prayers were answered, and as soon as the drugs kicked in I was good for the rest of the day.
Anyways, that quick stop that we made was to look at La Foz de Arbayún, which I would consider to be like the Grand Canyon of Spain. We were so high up into the mountains, and this canyon was so low. It was absolutely gorgeous:
Next was a small pueblo (village) named Ochagavía. The town was adorable and it was really cool because they were having their annual culture festival. Everyone in the town was dressed up in traditional clothing, and kind of have little stations of old food and activities. It was kind of like sturbridge village/amish county except it was real town residents just acting like it for a day. They had this really delicious stuffing-esque thing that was just being made on huge pots over fires on the ground, and everyone just grabbed leaves off of the trees to make little plates to put the stuffing on. Best part? It was freeee!!
We also made a stop at a town called Roncevalles, which is the first stop on the Camino de Santiago. There wasn't much going on there, and I think we were all pretty anxious to get to Fraaannnceeee! Woo! It was so cool driving there, because all of the sudden our program directors were just like, oh heyy left side of the bus is in France, right side is in Spain. Then all of the sudden, it was like what up. You're in Spain. I might have altered their words and/or language a bit, but you get the point. No border patrol, police, passport checking, nada. Maybe the U.S and Mexico can take some notes from this Spain/France relationship? Just an idea. Anywho, I'm off topic (what? me? A.D.D?). France was absolutely gorgeous! The entire town was on this huge mountain, so I think all of our legs were a little confused thinking that we weren't going to encounter any of that now that we're away from Holy Cross. I also think our brain's were a bit confused as to what language we should be speaking. They don't speak English...so Spanish? Crap, they don't know that either...uhh sign language? Spanglish? Bon Jour? It was tough, but I got my iced tea (aka- carbonated nestea in a can. Strange to say the least) and other people got their coffees. Of course, being that San Juan de Pie de Port is on a mountain, here's a pic of the gorgeous views!
On Sunday we didn't have a planned trip, but we all wanted to go to the beach, so our program director (who I may or not be in love with) Julian offered to accompany us to San Sebastian, Spain. Although we somehow got onto the 2 hour bus, when it's normally only 1, it was completely worth it. The city was gorgeous, ornate, and just very Spanish overall. We also got lunch at this sandwich place which was delicious, fresh food that we'd all be craving. The beach was honestly one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my life. It was kind of enclosed by the mountains that wrapped around it so the beach was kind of shaped like a crescent moon. It was also interesting to see the way Spaniards go to the beach. By that I mean the lack of tops, and very small bottoms on both men and women. Also, it's completely acceptable to let your infant boys run around and do cartwheels naked on the beach. Seems like a lot of work to get the sand out from every nook and cranny...but that's just my opinion! As has been the theme of this post, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I now present you with San Sebastion!
So yeah! That was my weekend! It was one of those that just seemed to last forever, and was so amazing. I remember sitting on a step in front of a little store in France with my friend Emily, and we just said how content we were feeling. It wasn't like we were elated, or joyful but we were just happy and content with everything that was going on in our lives. It was a great moment, that I think I'll be seeing a lot more of this year. I hope everyone is enjoying reading these. I love the comments, and feel free to e-mail me too! I've added new pictures on facebook, so if you go back a couple posts and click on the link, you'll get to see some more pictures like the one's that you just saw!
Love you all <3
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