Life Lessons from Barcelona!

Things I learned in Barcelona this weekend:
1. Katie, Rachel, and I can master the public transit system in Barcelona, and do it in style!
2. It’s always more fun to search for castles the rugged way, climbing Mount Montjuic rather than taking the bus on a road with the other tourists.
3. Never trust the older hippie lady staying in youth hostels… she will steal your drinks and painkillers.
4. If a random man tries to give you tons of pamphlets flyers, ignore them!! It’s a distraction method pickpocketers used…Kayln’s phone got stolen this way :( adios to her dear Droid!
5. Pictures can’t begin to describe or encapsulate Gaudí’s architecture… my pictures just don’t do any of it justice!
6. Leaving your camera at the hostel while touring is a very sad thing… I have no pictures from day 2!! :(

75 hours.
16 of those hours on a bus.
1 backpack.
8 wonderful people.
1 incredible city.

We (Katie, Rachel, Amanda, Ashley, Chester, Kayln, Rebecca, and I) began our adventure at 5:00 on Saturday... after this crazy man yelling at us about our tickets to Madrid and some issues with our tickets to Barcelona, we finally got on our bus for our 8 hour night bus ride. I slept a little, but badly (of course) and we rolled into Barcelona about 5:45am. Hmmm. I guess we didn’t think this out all the way. We planned on taking a later bus, so we’d get there about 7:00am, but we had to change buses. So here we were, in Barcelona, super hungry, exhausted, and unable to check into our hostel for 6 more hours! Let the group bonding begin!

Thankfully, this little café was open and we were able to get a fabulous breakfast (picture included). Can I just say… Spain knows how to grow amazing oranges and to make incredible orange juice! Ahhh it’s so good! The guy that ran the café was so nice we stopped by this morning to get breakfast again before we left!

After a teeny bit of trouble, we found our hostel, which was very chic and clean… a nice surprise as we just found in online for 10€ a night… you never know what you could get! :) the guys running it were very cool and locked our stuff up for us so we could sightsee before checking into our rooms. And so begins the longest day ever! Pretty much on no sleep, the 8 of us explored the city like pros (with some advice from the guy at the hostel). Everything in the city is just so beautiful!!

Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, which I had been absolutely dying to see for ages! I did a speech this year on this building, which has been under construction for over 100 years, and is massive, but still not even close to being done! In all my pictures you can see all of the construction! We walked the main streets, checked out all the amazing architecture in the city, and walked the street with all the designer stores on it. Exhausted, we stopped at a grocery store to grab some lunch before siesta… it was almost too perfect!

(Perfect Lunch!!!)

Later on Katie, Rachel, and I shopped a bit at Zara’s, and then when out for some delicious tapas!!! They seriously had the best patatas bravas ever! (potato hunks with tomato sauces and cheese stuff… I really can’t even describe it!).

The next day we explored Las Ramblas (a main stretch of street with a giant outdoor market and really cool stores)… but I left my camera in our room and, sadly, have no pictures :( Katie, Rachel and I went to the Olympic Stadium (it was in Barcelona in 1992)… and that was so neat! And we knew that there was a castle right near the Olympic Stadium, over a “mountain” right on the coast. We decided to try to find it, but this little adventure ended up taking about an hour and a half and involved us climbing a mountain!!! We laughed about it… 3 American girls wearing leggings and boots, our big handbags, and Katie’s Burberry scarf… it wasn’t exactly what we had planned on doing that day! But the castle, the view of the entire city, and the Mediterranean Ocean was SO worth it!!!! It also started to rain so there was a huge rainbow over the whole city  and it turns out… there was a road to get to the castle and buses that could take you up there! Oh well, our way was fun!

Phew, we had some grand adventures this weekend! But I’m so exhausted!!!

¡Besitos!

If I look a little bit chubbier...

... this is why.

This is my lunch. For one day. The bocadillo (sandwich) is almost as big as my arm and full of meat. They pretty much use a whole loaf of bread for it. And why my host moms think I need 2 oranges, an apple, and a banana is beyond me. The bad thing is... my stomach has stretched and I can eat it all!!!!!!!!!! Like, without feeling full.

In case you don't recognize me when I come home, I'd like to share 5 ways Spain is changing me:

1. I can’t stop listening to Justin Beiber.

2. I love leggings. They have them everywhere here, for like 3€. There’re so comfy I can hardly take them off.

3. I speak with a Spanish “lisp”… you’ll notice it if you ever speak Spanish to me! I now say "Gra-thi-as” (instead of "gra-ci-as"). Here, hard c’s and z’s are pronounced like "th"!

4. I eat meat. Every meal, every day. I pick meat off bones and I eat sausage that clearly looks gross. And the worst part is… I like it! Spanish meat is soooo good (because it’s not as mass produced). And the fish is phenominal!!!

5. I am becoming “rude,” like a Spaniard. I no longer try to be nice to people working at stores (because that’s just weird! You don’t do that! They will look at you like a crazy person), you don’t smile at people on the street, and you don’t move out of the way of people walking the opposite direction as you. If you need to be where someone else is, you “bump” them a bit. It's not that Spanish people are not nice, they are super warm and sweet. There is just no need to be friendly or nice to strangers here!

Ps: today at the grocery store I saw wine in juice boxes. You can also order beer at Ben and Jerrys. Haha Spain is so funny!!

BESOS! (kisses :)

Oh, one more thing: My mom made me these awesome socks and I need to share!!! :) isn't she crafty?

las calles

Las calles. The streets. I love the streets of Alcalá. Today, I stepped out my front gate to go meet the student I was going to tutor for the first time. I realized that this was the very first time that I was walking to the plaza (about 20 minute walk) alone. It wasn't dark out, I wasn't going to get lost, and the streets of Alcalá are extremely safe, but I still felt like I was going on a scary new adventure! I love watching the many people on the streets- little old men in coats and plaid hats, kids coming from school, telling their parents about their day, young couples with babies in strollers. Everyone is super bundled up today because its freezing for Alcalá (high-30s I'm guessing!). It's funny when we try to tell them how much snow we have where we live!

The girl I tutor, Paula, is 14 and soooo funny. She's so cute, has big dimples, a raspy voice, and I fell in love with her immediately. She really wants to learn English from an American, as many here do! But not everyone can afford a private tutor like she can. Tomorrow for my service learning class I'm starting as an English teacher's aide, which will be more at the other end of the socio-economic status- these kids are more lower SES, from what Susana tells us. I'm really excited to meet my teacher tomorrow!

I'm still waiting to hit the "I just wanna go home" wall! I haven't yet... maybe I won't? I had a few moments of it the first week, but I feel so at home in my piso and at my school now.

Besitos, mi dulcitos! (kisses my darlings!)
Ana

Madrid!

Ashamedly, it’s been almost a full week since I’ve written. I’ll try to do better in the future, I promise! There’s just so much going on! On Friday all the new students went on a tour of Madrid, and it was amazing! I can’t really do it justice at all, and my pictures only partially describe it all. We saw so many things, and Javier (our teacher and tour guide, who knows so much about Spain!) told us so many things, I can hardly remember it all. I should’ve taken notes. We saw so many amazing historical sites and “famous” buildings that I’ve learned about. We saw the Prado (but didn’t go in, I’m going in 2 weeks!!), the royal palace, el Parque Retiro, the Plaza Mayor, the Gran Via, and sooo many more incredible things! Check out my pictures on Facebook, if you can! I took so many, my camera died right when we made it to this amazing market. It killed me to not have my camera when I was in the presence of such beautiful food!


(Last picture at the market before my camera died!)




So I didn’t get to take any pictures of the royal palace either, which is really sad!! It is beautiful and incredible, and makes the White House look a bit shabby! It has thousands of rooms and brilliant architecture, but we were all very disappointed to learn that Juan Carlos doesn’t live here, but lives in a smaller palace about 20 miles away. Oh, well.

We walked around Gran Via, which is basically the central street with tons of stores, and the central square (pretty much like Times Square in New York, but prettier), and we got to eat our lunch by the fountain and then wander around for awhile. Chester, who had been to Spain before, remembered this Churrería (shop that sells churros) that he went to before that was nearby, so a few of us went there, and it was amazing! Churros are a popular breakfast/brunch dish here (usually on the weekends), and its basically a long friend doughnut dipped chocolate. The chocolate has a consistency between hot cocoa and melted chocolate… it is sooo fabulous! The picture will make your mouth water!

(Churros y chocolate... yum!)




(Part of the main square/Gran Via area, it's impossible to get it all in one picture)



We also got to see the Plaza Mayor, which is also beautiful and well-known! I read about it all the time in high school, so it’s weird to actually be there in real life!

(Plaza Mayor!)





I took almost 200 pictures while my camera was still alive, mostly because all of the buildings in the downtown places we were are gorgeous!! Like, super amazing. So I was really obsessed with everything I saw and took tons of pictures. Here are a few of my favorites!






Here are a few more of my favorite pictures of the day...

(Beautiful views from the Parque Retiro)







(There were some amazing statues at the Parque Retiro, like this mermaid!)






Pretty much, I spent the weekend recovering from the long day in Madrid and planning some future trips... we're heading to Barcelona next weekend, so except 300+ pictures from there! I'm so excited! We also booked tickets to Rome, Dublin, and various other locations in Spain! Soooo exciting!

Hasta luego!

This is real life.

Ok, I'll make a confession. I like having homework in Spain. I do, I like it. Crazy, huh? Why, you may ask?
I feel so much more "at home" in my piso when I'm doing homework at my desk. It helps me remember that I'm not going back to Ohio anytime soon, and I'll be here for the whole semester! It's definitely a good thing! So this is real life, after all?

I know this is real life because it was grey and pretty cold in Alcalá today. Cold being a relative term... it was about 45 degrees I think (I never know because everything is in Celsius...) and all of the locals were bundled up and muttering things about the cold under their breath. Even I felt a little chilly, which helps me look more like a local, haha! Thankfully, we see the sun here almost everyday and there is NO snow!

Not much else is going on today except siesta and homeworking. However, in closing, I will say that, in theory, Cauliflower and mayonnaise sound like probably like grossest combination ever. I am here to tell you that, in reality, it's delicious!

Hasta luego mis corazones!

Sleep and other such nonsense!

Sorry I haven't written in so long, it's because I've been sleeping. No, really. I've been sleeping. I got really sick on Thursday, and pretty much slept until Saturday. Rather than getting used to my new time zone, I decided to sleep enough to cover all of the time zones. I would wake up for meals, then go back to sleep. Thanks to Spanish schedule, la siesta makes this rather easy to do!

However, yesterday, I actually left our piso (apartment), and went shopping at Alcalá Magna (commonly referred to as "the mall of the future" by Katie and Rachel). It's pretty amazing, I love all of the stores (ps: the store H&M is even better in Europe!)... but my favorite part of this centro commercial (shopping mall) is the pickle stand!! Truly, there is a stand in the mall that is devoted to pickled things. Olives, big pickles, little pickles, pickle sandwiches with tuna and peppers in the middle... it's crazy! Best choice of tapas (late afternoon appetizers) ever!!

"Mall of the future"!!!

This is to help you visualize what a "piso" looks like! A family might have part of a floor as their apartment, and most have a small balcony. These are right across from my building.

Something I'm still not used to about España is the fact that everyone goes "out" all the time! At 11:30pm, along the streets of Alcalá, I didn't only see teenagers/young adults. I saw young parents with a baby in a stroller. I saw 70 year old couples. I saw middle schoolers. My host moms go out with all of their friends every Saturday night!! It's so much part of this culture to hang out outside, in the streets, in bars and cafés. I love this part of Spain! But the reason everyone spends time like this is because no one invites people into their homes! Homes are for families. Kids don't have their friends over to play, they meet their friends at the park or plaza. Homes are private, and "going out" is for seeing friends. I kind of like it! But I also miss just watching movies with a bunch of my friends, because that just doesn't happen here!

However, I do get to hang out at our piso with my roomie Chelsea, who I love dearly! I had to include this picture of us from last night... "I'll be the more creepy one!" -Chelsea. Haha, crazy!

Y ya está.

I feel like I'm sort of getting into a routine here, and that's a good thing! I'm used to the walk to school, I'm used to the eating and sleeping schedule. Life goes on, but I feel like, for now, there's always so much going on!

I started my service learning class today, which meets once a week to plan English lessons to teach, either to adults trying to get jobs, or students who have trouble in school or maybe even have dropped out. It's going to be a challenge but I think it's going to be amazing! Susana (our coordinator) gave us a stirring Spanish pep-talk today, talking about how we could help and change the world. Y ya está. (literally this means "it already is" but it's used as "and there it is" or "and that's it."
We are going to make an impact on the world by teaching these English classes. Y ya está. I love Susana.

In other news, I bought tickets to visit my friends in England in February and we're going to the Canary Islands over spring break! Wowww! Europe is great! I'm still convinced that this, indeed, is not real life.

It was gorgeous and sunny today, at least 60! Katie and I ate our bocadillos (packed lunches) outside in the sun :) Fantasico.

Hasta pronto, mis guapos! (See you soon, my lovelies/darlings/sweeties/pretties/cuties/babies/hotties...it's really a good word, it can mean all of that. Spanish is cool like that.)

Deep breaths - Day 5

Phew. Today was exhausting mentally but it's definitely manifesting itself physically also!! All I want to do is sleep - thank God for siesta! Today I had class from 9:00-1:30 which normally wouldn't be too bad, but my brain is still transitioning into "Spanish mode" and trying to stay focused for 4 1/2 hours of Spanish lecture is hard! Much harder than I thought! Let's just say toward the end of the 3rd class I wasn't following much of what my teacher was saying, and all I could think about was Pilar's lunch and my bed waiting for me! I'm sure it'll get easier, but today was exhausting!

Plus, Katie and I started running today! We made the resolution to run while we were still in BG, and it felt really good to get out and see part of the city we'd never seen before! My legs already hate me though...I've never been a runner.

For lunch we had puree (soup from potatos and squash...I think!) and really thin steaks. In the U.S. I hate meat and think it's horrible but here the meat tastes soooooo fresh and they usually pound it so it's really thin and rub it with delicious spices! Then they pan fry it... how could you go wrong?? For dinner we had fried zucchini and delicious fish!! Ahhh the Pilars spoil me so much! Tomorrow I have class from 10:30-1:30 and then from 3-whenver we get home from the school we teach at. So that means I have to miss la comida and la siesta :( sad! But I get to have my first bocadillo, which is basically a packed lunch of bread with whatever you want in the middle!!

I went shopping again today... we went for school supplies but ended up with waaaay more than that. Of course. The shops here are way too cute!

And that is my life in Spain thus far... eating, siesta, school, shopping, walking, exploring. It's pretty awesome here :)

Hasta!

Lentajes y pan

Today was the first day of classes and a tour of Alcala! I am so relieved, because I love my profesoras and I feel better about all the work I'll be doing!

When I came home for lunch at 2:30 (which, by the way, is awesome that a lot of people here go home for a long sit-down lunch and siesta!) Pilar's grandson Dani was there, and he is toooo adorable! He's 3 years old and used to be quite scared of me, but now he actually talks to me! He likes to practice counting in English because he learns it in school... cutest thing ever! We had delicious lentils (lentajes) for lunch, which has carrots and chorizo with it, and you eat it with pan (bread). Butttt it turned out that I also had a huge plate of pollo (chicken) to eat so I ended up eating twice as much as normal and was super stuffed! But that's okay because you don't end up eating again until around 9:30! The food here is muy rico (verrryyy delicious!) :) I don't know why everyone said I'd lose weight... the Pilars just love to watch me eat, and don't listen if I refuse more food!!! It's adorable!

Some of us walked around the plaza tonight (even though it keeps raining :( and went to a few shops. They have the prettiest scarves, jewelry, and everything else! Which may turn out to be a bad thing! :) As soon as it stops raining I'll take and post more fotos de Alcala!

Hasta muy pronto!
Ana

Day 2!

Things I LOVE about Alcala:
-The little stores! The town is absolutely full of them, and they are full of everything you could ever want! The “fruterias” (fruit stores) are the prettiest! I’ll take some creepy “tourist” pictures soon!
-The “pisos” (apartment buildings) that everyone lives in…they are all have little balconies where they dry laundry.
-Siesta! Eating a big meal and chilling from 2-5 in the afternoon? Whoever started this was a genius.

Things I’m not used to yet:
-The shower! It is a tub with a sprayer attached… I’m still very awkward when I try to use it!
-The eating schedule… pastries/coffee at 9, la comida at 2:30 (the big meal), la cena at 9:30. Plus great snacks in between. I love it, but my body isn’t used to it yet!
-Being stared at. Here it is completely acceptable to stare openly at people, whether they’re having a bad hair day or you think they’re really attractive. (Being American doesn’t help either!)

Finalmente.

Travelling is a funny thing, almost surreal in a way. I left mi casa in Lima at 9:00am on Thursday, waited in the airport until 2:30, flew to Washington D.C., waited while our plane was delayed for "security reasons" (great, that's what everyone wants to hear, right?!), left D.C. at 7:30pm, arrived in Spain at 2:30am (8:30am their time!), waited for our luggage, then napped in the airport. Finally, after what easily could have been 5 days, but was really only about 24 hours, I arrived in Alcala at mi casa nueva (my new house!). Thousands of miles away. How crazy is that?

After many comments of “this is not real life!” and expressions of our nervousness, my travelling companions and I didn’t feel like we were actually going to Spain. To live. For 4 months! Now that I’m here, I’m still not sure it’s real! My host mamas are both named Pilar, and they chat at the same time in Spanish while I try to follow as much as I can! My Spanish is suuuuper rusty, but I hope I can learn quickly! At dinner Pilar made us fried fish and delicious salad—I love Spanish food already. It’s almost as fun as the conversation that comes with dinner!!!

On the 8 hour plane ride from D.C. to Madrid, our seats were messed up so I ended up sitting by a lady with her four year old daughter, Samira, and her 2 year old son. They spoke only in Spanish at first, and I chatted with the girl a little. I assumed they were from Spain because of their fluency in Spanish but they were actually from the U.S., visiting the women’s family. I quickly saw that her daughter, as well as she and her son, could fluidly switch from Spanish to English and back again—second nature to the children. I was amazed at their bilingual abilities, and also superrr jealous. I’ll be struggling to learn this language for the next 4 months, and probably the rest of my life, when they could just switch back and forth flawlessly. Between my quick naps and my new friends, the flight went quickly but we were all sooooo relieved to finally land in Espana!

Tomorrow we have orientation and a tour of the city… and I’m assuming the jetlag will really set in. Who thought time zones were a good idea??? (It’s 10:30 at night here… and 4:30pm in the Ohio…!!!)

Hasta pronto!
Ana

Our flight was delayed :(

My room! :)

The view from my desk!

Espana!

In 12 hours, it all begins when I arrive at the airport! :)

I feel... (shocked? dazed? confused? excited? insane? sentimental?)

Hmmm maybe a little bit of each. But mostly, I feel ADVENTUROUS.

Tres.

In tres dias (3 days!) I will be finishing my packing and experiencing the uncomfortable feeling of my "last night" in the United States...

There are clothes in my suitcase. I have my airplane ticket. When is it going to feel like I'm actually leaving for Europe?!? :)

I'm erasing my expectations, ignoring my fears.

Hasta pronto! :D