Semana Santa Extravaganza

    So during Holy Week all of Spain has this big festival that basically consists of processions and pastries.  I felt like it should be something that I experience while I'm here, so I came home from Germany a few days early to experience some of the fiesta.  However, when the weather is not cooperating this really isn't the best thing to see.  All week long there are processions that correspond with what day of Holy Week it is.  The coolest part is that people carry on their shoulders these huge images that depict a scene that corresponds with the day.  These images are HUGE  and weigh a lot, so it's pretty impressive to see people carrying them for hours.  However, none of the processions can go on if it is raining because the images are not supposed to get wet. It rained everyday off and on.  For the three days I was home I was able to see one and a half of the seven processions there were supposed to be.  :(  But it was still pretty neat.  Also, in the procession are people who wear these hats that cover their faces.  At first it's a little intimidating, but once you get used to it, they weren't so bad.  They wear them to hide themselves from the public so they can remain mysterious and make promises with God.  It was neat to see, but I wish the weather would have been better.

Gallivanting around Germany

I finally had a ten day break from school and got to spend my time relaxing in Germany with my friend Lee! :)  Now, I know what some of you may say (I don't even have school on Fridays) but believe me it was a much needed break.  Germany was great!  It was a really nice trip, relaxing, full of site seeing, hanging out with Lee, and meeting some of the nicest people I have ever met.  I was greeted at the airport with flowers, and then driven to Lee's house where there were American Flags flying and a bottle of champaign waiting to welcome me to Germany.  It was so nice and I couldn't have imagined anything more welcoming.  

Lee and I in a HUGE PURPLE chair!

My first full day we took the train into Hamburg with Lee's Parents.  We walked around, took some boat rides, and explored the harbor.  Lee's Dad works in Hamburg so he knew a lot about the city and was really excited to share what he knew with me.  Lee and I climbed over 400 steps to look out on the city of Hamburg from St. Michael's Bell Tower.  That was my workout for the day, but definitely worth it!  We came back to Bargteheide (Lee's home town) and had a barbecue and then Lee and I went back into Hamburg with her friends later that night to explore the German night life.  It was a really long, but very fun day.

Lee and I in a beach chair

On day two we went to Lubeck which I think was my favorite town in Germany.  It was all so old and really pretty.  The whole town looked like a Medival Fortress.  It was all so different from any other city I have seen in Europe. In Lubeck we had marzipan which is a sugary dough like candy.  It was good, but kind of had a different taste.  After Lubeck we went to the coast and had ice cream by the Baltic Sea.  Then we finished the day by having supper with Lee's Grandparents, Parents, and Aunt and Uncle.  They were all so nice!!  It was really fun to just hang out with a whole family again and chat.  That's something I haven't had a chance to do in awhile.

The next two days we spent in Berlin.  They were a blast!  We took a boat ride and got to see some of the main attractions.  Then we went to a Jewish Memorial, the Berlin Gate, and the Dom (Dome).  The Dome is supposed to be similar to St. Anthony's church in Rome.  It was so big and gorgeous.  I could have spent hours in there and not have been bored, because there was so much to look at!  That afternoon we headed to the 1936 Olympic Stadium.  At this stadium we actually got to go inside and look at the field and the swimming pool.  It was really nice, I'm glad that we got to go in.  We finished the night by having amazing Turkish food for dinner. :)  

Me and the Berlin Bear

Our second day in Berlin was pretty relaxing because we did so much the first day. We started the day by going to where pieces of the Berlin Wall are.  That was really neat and really informational.  We even got to watch a movie (in English not German) which was really interesting.  I think the wall was my favorite part about Berlin.  Then we went to find this church that was bombed during WWII and only the tower was left and so they built a really modern church onto the tower.  However, when we got there the whole building was covered in construction tarp! :(  We weren't able to see any of it.  That was sad, but we did get to try currywurst there.  It's a type of sausage that is well known in Berlin.  It was really good.

We made our way back to Bargteheide for my last day there.  Lee and I went to a concentration camp that is outside of Hamburg.  I really enjoyed that, because I am not really into history very much, but WWII was one of the things that I did like learning about.  So it was kind of neat to be somewhere where that history actually occurred.  It was pretty sad but really informational.  We came back and had asparagus dinner.  I've never had asparagus before, but I now know that I love it!  :)  

And maybe my favorite part of the whole trip was that in between all the sight seeing, traveling, and meeting new people, Lee and I would watch Gilmore Girls!!  Oh how I have missed that show! :)

I can back with three days left of my break to experience the joys of Semanta Santa in Granada. I was really excited to see all of the extravaganzas of Semana Santa but then...to be continued.

I was welcomed with American Flags

A Weekend of Spanish Fun in the Sun

           This weekend I didn't have any trips planned, so you may think that I had a nice relaxing weekend at “home”.  Well, I guess that’s kind of true, but it was so busy!  First, let me just say that Spanish Sun is HOT!  Really hot!!  I can now say that walking to school for thirty minutes is not fun at all!  I think I would have to leave an hour early so I could walk leisurely so I could avoid sweating, but that probably still wouldn't help!

            The weekend started out kind of rough because we had class on Friday. J Yes my new idea of a rough weekend is one when I have class.  What a life!  Saturday we had activities planned with my program to do in Granada.  We walked up to The Sacramonte Caves in the morning.  Can I say again how hot it is here and it was an hour walk from my house up a very large mountain?  When we got there we got to see houses that are built into the mountain.  They look like a little hut from the outside, but then they’re basically caves inside.  We learned about what they used to use them for and how they made, baskets, cloth, and lots of other things. 

Bullfight Arena

            Then that night we went to a bullfight.  If you are like my Mom, no I did not participate. J  It was a bullfight in a stadium, not like a bullfight when you run down the street with bulls running after you.   A bullfight normally consists of six bulls and three bullfighters.  However, this bullfight was a benefit for kids with Down Syndrome, so there were the six best bullfighters from Spain and seven bulls.  If you don’t know about bullfights, I’ll tell you that they kill the bulls at the end, and it takes about a half an hour for each bull.  I sat for 3 ½ hours to watch a bullfight! Crazy!  I didn’t really find it really gross or too sad.  It was sad, but I know that it’s a big custom here so I just kind of thought about it like that.  There first two bulls were new and interesting to me, so it was fun to watch and observe everything that was going on.  The first bull they did the whole thing on horses which was really neat.  That one was probably my favorite to watch and the most frightening as well.  The other six they all did by starting out on horses but then doing the rest on the ground.  But after watching the first two I just got kind of bored.  I think it was because I didn’t know much about it or what makes the bullfighter “good”.  It was interesting to see the entire crowd react and yell.  It was kind of just like a football game.  There was even a bad playing.  It was quite an experience!

            And to finish off the weekend, I spent the day at the park in the sun.  This seemed like a good idea at first because it was so hot and all I would have to do is lay there and do homework. If I didn’t move a lot maybe it wouldn’t feel as hot.  This was a very bad decision.  Spanish sun is a lot stronger than Stockton sun.  I am really burnt.  But I have learned my lesson and hopefully I’ll come back tan. J

Dublin' Around

Another successful trip!  I was able to spend three lovely days in Dublin, Ireland!  Well, they were great but the weather could have been nicer.  This is coming from me who is used to Granada's 70+ degree weather, so I guess that's not saying much.  It was a little chilly and windy with a little hail thrown in there, but the trip was great.

  We got there early evening Friday, so we didn't really do much that night except go out to eat and settle in to our hostel.  We made friends with the person at the front desk and got advice to go on a day trip to Wicklow.  So Saturday we got up and had breakfast (Yes real breakfast!  Eggs, ham, sausage, hashbrowns...in Spain we get two pieces of toast every morning, so this was a gold mine!)  Then we took a bus tour to Wicklow.  Our bus driver was a cute little old man with an Irish accent, who made the trip ten times better.  And he sang to us to keep us entertained.  We got to drive by a place where they filmed some of Braveheart and we stopped to take pictures on a bridge where P.S. I Love You was filmed!!  That was pretty cool!  Then we stopped and had lunch in a town called Avoca, where they filmed the tv show Bally Kiss Angel.  I have never seen it before, but now I can say I have ate at the restaurant of that show.

  

 Sunday, we went to The National Leprechaun Museum!  Yes, I'm sure you are jealous...I would be.  We were really excited for this, but then once we got there is was most definitely not worth 8 euros.  I may have been cool for 4 year olds, but not so much for us.  We did get some fun pictures though, and learned about Leprechauns(real ones, not the Lucky Charm version) and other Irish fairies.  Our tour guide told us a story of how the government paid 12 million dollars to make a road way out of the way, so they wouldn't have to chop down a fairy tree.  These people take their fairies seriously!  Then we went and saw St. Patrick's cathedral.  We didn't go inside, just looked at it.  Then we finished the day at The Guinness Museum.  It was pretty interesting and fun to see.  Some of my friends became certified Guinness Pourers.  They even got a certificate.

 It was a very good trip, but unfortunately I didn't have any luck finding a four leaf clover. :)

The Magical Land of Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona with a few of my friends.  It was so much fun and very pretty!!  If you ever have a chance to go you definitely should!  I had a blast!  However, if the trip would have turned out like our trip started, I may be saying something different.

    We left Thursday after class to take a bus to Malaga to catch our flight.  We were kind of cutting it close on time so we (okay maybe just me) were worried a little bit. We ended up getting to the airport and through security in plenty of time for our flight.  Heck, we were basically the first people at the gate.  But of course, when the guy came around to check tickets, he looked at us, asked us if we spoke spanish (we said yes) and then said we need to go get a stamp on our ticket, but we needed to hurry, like run, because they were boarding!  Oh my goodness!  We have never had to get a stamp before for any of the other flights I have taken, so we didn't get one this time either.  We ended up running all the way across the airport, we had to go outside of security, and then to the other side of terminal 2 just to get a stamp on our ticket!  Then we ran all the way back, through security for the second time, and when we got back to the gate...it hadn't moved at all!  There was no point in even running!  But at least we made the plane.
 

Who's America's Next Top Model

    Once we got to Barcelona though things calmed down.  Well kind of, but the rest of the running around that we did we decided to do ourselves.  On Friday, we got to see La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, the 1992 Olympic Stadium, and el Fuente Magica, and we went on a bus tour.  La Sagrada Familia is a HUGE chapel that started being built by Gaudi but he never had a chance to finish it.  So people have been and still are building it to how he wanted.  It has never not been under construction!  I don't think it's supposed to be done until around 2020.  Then we took a bus tour of the city, just so we could get a chance to see everything that Barca has to offer.  After the bus tour, we had a picnic in Park Guell, which also has some beautiful architecture of Gaudi, complete with houses that reminded me of Hansel and Gretal/gingerbread houses.  In Park Guell, there is also an area where America's Next Top Model was shot!  That's right, I got to be a model for a day! :)

 After Park Guell we went to visit the 1992 Olympic Stadium.  It was so cool!  We couldn't go inside the stadium, but we got to look in.  It was pretty neat, it's the first Olympic Stadium I've seen.  There was also a cat inside the stadium!  I named him Oly short for Olympics. haha  After the stadium we visited el Fuente Magica, the Magic Fountain.  Every Friday and Saturday, there is this gigantic water fountain that lights up and has a water show with music.  It was so pretty and lots of fun.  We stayed for two of the shows.  The first one was to 80's music!  My favorite! And the second was with Classical Music.  It was really cool.  Then we took some cheesy touristy photos in front of it.

el Fuente Magica

 Saturday, we went to Camp Nou, the FCBarcelona Futbol Stadium, and got to have the Camp Nou Experience.  It was lots of fun!  We got to see the field from the press boxes, from the sidelines, we saw the locker rooms, press conference area, the team's church, and I even learned the Barcelona Fight Song.  It was so much fun, and I'm not even a big fan of soccer.  But it was really cool to see how into the sport the people of Spain are.  It reminded me a lot of being back home in my house. :)  After the Camp Nou Experience we spent the day at Las Ramblas, which is like a tourist shopping street with lots of street performers.  And, I got to stick my foot in the Mediterranean Sea!  Really cool, but really cold!  It was such a great trip!  I would go back again when I ever get a chance.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Dublin,!  May the luck of the Irish be with me!

Whirlwind

 Last week…I don’t really even remember what happened last week.  I think mostly just school.  On Friday my program had a trip to Madrid.  I was really excited to go because everything was paid for and planned out already, so I was thinking it was going to be like a mini vacation.  The truth is, it was my least favorite trip so far.  The weather was really bad, so that didn’t help at all.  Madrid is really big, which I don’t like, and all of the Spanish cities are kind of starting to look the same.  I also didn’t really get a chance to do a whole lot.  I wanted to see the Guernica while I was there but that didn’t end up working out.  But I did get to see inside the palace, which was really pretty, old, and interesting to see, but the tour was a little boring.  I also got to go to The Prado and see some of the paintings I learned about from Ms. Huso.  It was pretty cool to see in person, things that I read about in a Spanish IV book.  It made it all seem a little more real.  My favorites were El 3 de Mayo by Goya and Las Meninas by Velazquez.  While in Madrid I also got to experience my first Spanish play, La Fuga.  It was pretty interesting and funny because of the actions of the characters, but they talked so fast!!  I was able to understand the plot of the play, but it was kind of frustrating because when something funny happened, everyone would be laughing in the audience and we were sitting there wondering what was going on.  It was a great experience though, and the play seemed like it would be pretty good!

 On the way to Madrid we made a pit stop in Toledo.  I enjoyed Toledo more than Madrid.  We had a tour guide take us around the city and tell us a little about the history.  When we say “Holey Toledo!” it comes from Toledo, Spain, because it has 80 churches!!  And trust me, we saw at least 15 on our hour long tour.  In Toledo we also got to ride an 8 million dollar escalator that is in the side of the mountain, so people can get from the bottom of the city to the top!  It was amazing!!  Very cool!  We ended our trip in Toledo, with a trip to a sword factory!  Toledo is known for its stainless steel swords and knives.  That was pretty cool, and I got to whole a sword, so what’s not to like about that! J 

So I think at the beginning of this trip, I kind of started to hit the “this isn’t as fun as it used to be stage”.  It’s not that I don’t like it anymore or am not having fun anymore, but I’m just starting to miss the luxuries of home.  I miss being able to take a hot shower for as long as I want.  I miss knowing exactly what to do when I walk into a restaurant.  I miss being able to understand everything that people say to me, instead of trying to use context clues.  I’m just getting a little frustrated, but this week helped because I had visitors!  Kyle and his family came over for the week to experience a little Spanish Culture. They came at the right time because I think now that I had a little taste of home that I have a second wind to keep exploring and learning new things. I have midterms the next two weeks. :/  The only one I’m really nervous for is my Literature one.  That’s Monday so I should get studying. The next two weekends I have trips planned already and then it will be Spring Break.  These next two months are going to fly by!