I love Jet Lag

HOME! After a frustrating day at the airport [only for me, not the rest of the group of course :P] I've made it to Bethel College! Matt picked me up from Chicago and we stopped at the first Taco Bell we found outside of the city. I literally cried about it. I cried about a lot yesterday though. It's very overwhelming coming back "home" when home has been somewhere else for 6 weeks. After getting back to Bethel, Matt returned to basketball camps and I met Sara and Allison, my former roomies, for a classic Chili's night :] Then Sara and I slept in Heather's bed and now I have a full day of NOTHING for once in a very long time to try and get used to the time difference.

I forced myself to stay up late tonight. went to bed at midnight [6am Spain time] but woke up at 4am [10am Spain time] ready to start the day. I did lay in bed dozing in and out of sleep until 8 but i couldn't do it anymore.

But - before I post any reflections or thoughts on my trip as a whole, I haven't posted anything about Madrid :]

This is what Madrid had to offer:

-Reina Sophia and El Prado - two internationally known Art museums with many very very famous masterpieces.

-A park comparable to Central Park in NY. loved it.

-amazing food.

-bull fight... hated. every. second. animal torcher at its finest. first time i ever witnessed an animal being killed - witnessed 2 of them actually :[

-El Rastro - a massive flea market only open sunday mornings. pick pocketer's paradise, but i got nothing stolen and got some AMAZING deals on some great gifts for family and myself :P

-El Palacio Real - the royal palace. it's depressing we couldn't take pictures. there's no way to describe the rooms in that place. most amazing thing i've ever seen.

Monday was the last full day in Spain and it was spent in Toledo, a town just outside of Madrid.

It was an "assignment" that we had to find out way there with one other person, then navigate through the very confusing streets of the city to find 7 different sites. Chelsey and I did it together and managed to get everything done 3 hours before our train left to go back. So we did like the Spanish and took a nap by the river :]

Now I'm home. I'll reflect later. Maybe after the pains of jet lag wear off.

Hasta Luego!

El Tiempo Esta Pasando Rapidooooo

Estoy en Madrid! La ultima ciudad de mi viajeee.

I am in Madrid! The last city of my trip!

Here is what I've been up to :]

Barcelona day 2 [Tuesday]:

1. In the morning as a group we went to a museum about the history and growth of Barcelona as a city. It was prettyyy interesting. It is a unique city - they even have their own language called Catalan; a mixture of Spanish and French I think - but that's just what I heard :P

2. After the museum we had an open afternoon to work on our 5 sites to visit as part of the course requirements. Chelsey and I did that together and found some pretty awesome places with the help of a friend we met at the museum! Again... Barcelona is HUGE.

3. It was a busy day. And since Barcelona is a pretty expensive city we hit up the grocery store for a more economic means of eating - so we just ate sandwiches and salad for dinner in the hotel - where we continued to relax the rest of the night [which i was NOT happy about. BUT. couldn't go out alone. sad day.]

Barcelona day 3 [Wednesday]:

1. Went to Camp Nou. It is the stadium for F.C. Barcelona [and for anyone who does not know who that is, like my grandparents... haha. they are one of the best soccer teams in the european professional soccer league. some would say they ARE the best].

-we weren't going to go in. it cost 22 euros (about $35 dollars)

- we got there and both Brandon and Emily were like 'if you want to go in we'll go too!'.

-once i saw the beauty of the stadium... i couldn't say no. i'm so happy i didn't. amazing.

2. We toured through the whole stadium... seeing the museum portion with the history of the club and all their trophies - A LOT of trophies!], the press rooms, locker room, other rooms i don't know what they were for, and up in various locations in the actual stadium bleachers

3. The three of us went back to the hotel, packed up, and headed to the BEACH!

4. spent the whole afternoon laying in the sand by the mediterranean sea. yahoo. i am brown :]

Thursday [today!]: took one of the worlds fastest trains from Barcelona to Madrid. i couldn't really tell a difference in velocity though... we got to Madrid around 2:30, ate lunch, and explored.

I hate to report that another student on the trip with us will also be leaving early as she just found out her grandfather died; it was like her father though as she was raised and grew up with her grandparents. rough times :/

We are now heading out to dinner [9:45pm-we've truly adapted to the Spanish culture!]. maybe explore a little. then rest. another long, adventure filled day tomorrow!

Hasta Luego.

[4 full days left. wow.]

Burgos. Bilbao. Barcelona.

Salamanca: 4 weeks. La Coruna: 4 days. Burgos: 1 day . Bilbao 2 days. Barcelona 2 days down, 3 days to go. Then to Madrid: 5 days [with a 1 day excursion to Toledo]. Home.

Woah.

Here is a re-cap of Burgos, Bilbao, and day 1 of Barcelona.

BURGOS:

1. First, I hated it - on a scale of 1-10 it was a 3. I can't remember why though...

2. Then Megan, Allison, and I went for a dinner adventure and saw a really cute art fair - of course I loved it. Even got a few new ideas for headbands! The rating moved up to a 6.

3. Then we ate dinner at a place we thought could be great. My pasta was in a package they put in the microwave. Megan's salad was below average. The rating moved down to a 2.

4. Then the next morning we went to the Cathedral, second biggest in Spain. Burgos ended on the rating scale at an 8. The cathedral was amaaaazing.

BILBAO:

1. Loved. Loved. Loved. After we finished at the cathedral in Burgos on Friday the 8th, we made the 3 hour trip up to Bilbao and went to the Guggenheim Museum. Absolutely amazing. I cannot describe all the awesome and weird art I saw there. We spent almost 3 hours inside exploring.

2. Saturday was a FREE DAY! we all went to the beach [the Atlantic ocean]. I did a good hard workout on the beach, with many stares as it is so uncommon for girls to be doing any kind of sport, let alone working out. one person even said to me "excuse me, but I have never seen a 6 pack on a girl like that" .... thank you?

3. In La Coruna, there were people playing soccer all over the beach - in Bilbao, at this particular beach there were great waves so there were a lot of surfers. So cool.

4. Chelsey and I left later than the group and had a small mis-hap on the metro ride back... where we were sitting, we couldn't see the all the lights indicating the stations would stop at. We could only see up to a certain point, but didn't realize it. So we missed our stop by 3 after we noticed we had been arriving at the same station for about 10 minutes. We had to get off, switch trains, and ride back :] We didn't get to our hotel until 10:00pm. Didn't leave for dinner until 11:00pm. but then splurged and had the best meal of our lives. We wanted to hug the chef.

5. Sunday morning we started the long journey to Barcelona. I'll admit my ignorance to the geography of Spain - I didn't realize Barcelona was on the far east coast, on the Mediterranean. Finding out it was an 8 hour trip was quite a shock.

BARCELONA [day 1]:

1. this city is HUGE.

2. had to buy a 3 day metro pass - a new experience :] trying to learn how to read metro maps and travel around a massive city hasn't been too difficult!

3. we went to La Sagrada Familia - it's a cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi and the construction was started in 1882, and it's still not finished!! they are predicting to have it done by year 2025/2030. it was beautiful!

4. after we had culturally fulfilling lunch at Burger King :P

5. we then hopped back on the metro to go to Parc Guell - also designed by Gaudi. it was incredible. the park was much bigger than we anticipated - we were there for over 2 hours! Chelsey, Brandon, Juan, and I found a great spot that overlooked the city and out into the Mediterranean [a video is being uploaded on my facebook of my tour guide skills at this part of the park].

6. there was a little confusion with the other half of our group about meeting up so the four of us who explored the park went with Chelsey to find her Harley Davidson store to buy her boyfriend and herself a shirt - they collect them from around the world. Saying she was thrilled to have bought them is not even close to the way she felt :P

7. Tonight is Juan's last night with our group, so we'll be going out for one last dinner together- he is a guy from Singapore than joined up with our group after being with us at DILE Cursos in Salamanca. One of the girls in our group had to go home early - so with the extra space we invited him to come - but he needs to go back to Singapore. our group is now a puny 7 students, plus Scott, Maria, and their 3 kids.

Hasta Luego :]

[no pictures again. too slow of internet. bummer dudes.]

Full Speed Ahead

Wow. 13 days left. I am slacking in updating because we are on the go non stop. I finally have time to catch my breath and give a little update! We left Salamanca on Monday morning and I actually was sad to walk out my apartment door for the last time! We loaded a bus and spent 6 hours traveling [with a couple stops, one for lunch, so it really was a 4 hour bus trip] and made our way to La Coruna, which is in Galicia [they have they own language, it's basically spanish, but has some differences]. It is on the ocean. It is beautiful. It is my favorite place in Spain so far - I'll upload pictures later to explain why.

This post was supposed to be "the walk to school" with pictures of what I saw during my 20 minute walk to DILE. but. with slow internet that wasn't ideal [the pictures were loading for about 25 minutes without much completed] so. this is Coruna!

1. muuuuuch bigger than Salamanca. but way more beautiful :] but don't be fooled, I still LOVE Salamanca and have actually been missing it.

2. Monday when we arrived around 5:00pm we immediately went to the beach where we could look out into the ocean and see some beautiful cliffs and city skylines all around us. [we also saw the beach life of Spain. absolutely magical the way someone can feel so comfortable wearing so little :] and we thought America knew the meaning of freedom!]

3. Tuesday we had an excursion to Santiago to go on part of La Camina Santiago [the walk of Santiago] it's a pilgrimage. some people start the walk in France. we only did 5k of it [3 miles]. it's hard to describe in details - so you should Wikipedia it real quick since that is the most reliable source in the world and see what it's all about! We also visited the MASSIVE cathedral there and attended the mass service. We were then free to explore the city for a few hours and went to a couple museums.

4. Wednesday [today] we visited El Torre de Hércules and it was awesome :] the weather was a bit rude while we were making the hike up to the lighthouse that the romans created. we were able to see some original stuff from the building and then go up and look out across La Coruna. Incredible. Then Juan, Chelsey, Annie, and I took a little adventure to some rocks on the ocean. we could see the lighthouse from where we were and took some pretty nice photos.

5. we leave tomorrow morning at 9am to a new city called Burgos. There apparently isn't much to do there since we will only be there one night. but it's a new city with new things to see! [and unfortunatly write a paper about in spanish!]

i will have a lot of work to do when i get back, trying to write up my portfolio of journals and analyses, but it will be worth all the memories and new things i've learned while being in this country. i say i am ready to come home soon. but i know once i'm home i'll miss Spain "like i get paid for it" as a friend told me today haha.

Hasta Luego!!!

[i will try and post some pictures soon - but the internet at the hotel is too slow to load even one!]