I think part of the reason it’s taken me so long to write this entry is because it is presumably the last, and that makes me a little sad. It’s hard to believe that my summer, and my study abroad experience, have gone by so quickly. I still have a little more than three weeks before I move into my apartment in Harrisonburg, but between a family trip to Maine and a trip to Virginia Beach to see a good friend, those three weeks will fly, and my summer will go with it.
But I would not have it any other way. I had a fantastic experience. On May 14th my parents escorted a sniffling, nervous me to Dulles and we all (my dad included) tried not to tear up upon saying goodbye. But two months later I teared AGAIN, this time as I boarded my flight home. It’s hard to believe that I fell in love with a country that quickly but España, you’ll always hold a special place in my heart (and, of course, in my closet. I’ll proudly represent La Furia Roja in 2016!).
I wouldn’t say that I did everything right. Certainly it would have helped to be at each and every train station an hour early. (Oh, did I mention that we went to the wrong train station in Barcelona with 15 minutes before our departure? I demand to know why D.C., the capital of the United States of America, only has ONE train station — Union Station — and Barcelona has TWO. Sigh! Well, we STILL managed to make it, thanks to one SPEEDY taxi driver. But, third time’s the charm, as we arrived at Lyon’s train station a full two hours early. We were NOT going to miss Paris!) I should’ve packed a LOT less stuff. But you learn these things on the road. Besides the practical tips (pack less, bring your own Woolite, triple-check your departure station) I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of when traveling or studying abroad. I’ll echo Ksenija’s sentiment that she feels more competent in traveling alone, unafraid to ask for directions, unafraid to try the language or new food. I feel more alive, in some ways, like if I can get by navigating the Eurail system, hostels, and the occasional heat wave, I can take on the next big step.
…Which may in fact be more traveling! I’ve been bitten (badly) by the travel bug. Goabroad.com has helped me navigate several organizations that offer internships, volunteer and/or and study abroad opportunities around the world. Something is drawing me to South Africa… but I’m also feeling a strong pull toward South America. Six months ago I wasn’t sure I could picture myself in Spain for two whole months… now I’m not sure I can picture myself in Peru for a whole summer… but I know I’m well-equipped to handle most anything now! The world is my oyster, ya know? :) SO, I’ll keep you posted! Maybe there will be a littlespanishfrenchgirl: South Africa edition??
This may not in fact be the last post because my pictures are scattered between this computer, my mom’s laptop and various CDs — so, keep your eyes peeled for future photos! Let’s see how much I can catch up on now, however.
Ksenija and I enjoyed Barcelona. Highlights include: the Easter Island singers/dancers performing at the Parc Guell (video to come), sun-baking at the beach (I KNEW we should’ve bought sunscreen!) and — small world that it is — meeting a W.T. Woodson (our alma mater) Class of 2012 student at the Columbus statue in Barcelona one night. None of us were wearing WTW gear; in fact, I hesitated to ask him to take a picture of us because I was SURE he was German, but then we get talking, find out we’re all from Virginia, Northern Virginia (region), Annandale (city), and finally W.T. Woodson (high school!)— what a CRAZY world! As his mom said, “Don’t you feel old now? You guys are Class of ‘08 and he’s Class of 2012?” and we laughed.
We enjoyed Lyon, though we had our doubts that we would ever arrive there. Like I said, we ran into “trouble” (okay, I should’ve double-checked the tickets) getting on our train. Once we collapsed into our seats we were SURE we were in the clear, but the train made so many stops that we worried we would miss our connection in Montpellier. At one point the French police boarded the train. You figure it’s never a good thing when the police join you, but we still managed to make it to Montpellier (and therefore Lyon) on time so I guess it worked out. We enjoyed Lyon although lugging my new suitcase (and the old one) up four flights of spiral stairs to our non-A/C room was not a great moment. (But, hanging out at the park and enjoying the city made it worth it!)
And of course, what can you say about Paris. We LOVED it, even though it was Ksenija’s second time and my third time there. How can you not love Paris, though? The “City of Lights” shines day and night. Special thanks to her cousin, who gracefully allowed us to sleep in his apartment (and gave us his futon bed!) for the four days I was there (Ksenija stayed until Sunday). We loved hanging out with him in his beautiful apartment in the heart of Paris — a 10-min walk from the Eiffel Tower, 10-min from the Louvre, and 25-min walk from the Arc de Triomphe. His grad-school friends were so sweet to us as well. (And witty — I guess being an ex-pat, International Relations grad student in Paris does that for you!) Highlights include hanging out with them at night, watching the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day, the Musee d’ Orsay, and celebrating our last night together in Paris on the second floor of the Tower. COOL. Oh, and getting drenched to the bone by rain while waiting in line at the Louvre on Bastille Day. We had rain jackets but got soaked through our shorts. When we finally made it inside to the bathroom we ended up taking turns propping a leg up on the counter so we could use the hand-dryer to dry our still-wet pants. (Imagine the faces of the women in line!) We laughed so hard we nearly cried. What’s a trip to the Louvre without a little adventure, though?
So I could avoid any complications, I made sure I was at the airport three hours early for my 8 am flight on the 16th. (After going to bed at 2 — ouch!) Quick flight to Iceland, and no volcanic ash issues in Iceland so easy flight to JFK, where my dad picked me up and shepherded me home. Since then we’ve had houseguests (hi Patti! Hi Dotty!) so it’s been a good pace around here. Tomorrow we leave for Maine for a family vacation, so the “summer of the suitcase” continues. I wouldn’t have it any other way! :)
Photos!
Granada, at the Alhambra
The stone is so intricate and beautiful…
I promised my dad I wouldn’t put HIS souvenir photo online…but I didn’t say anything about ours :) At first I protested because of how cheesy these are, but I think it turned out alright…right? Right? (note: since the moment we put on the costumes I could not stop laughing, so in-between shots I had to think of sad things to stop smiling… like the time my first pet died. Oh man, it was hard to keep a straight face!)
We rented a car to get the four of us from Sevilla to Ronda to Granada, and lucky me because on the way we found some beautiful sunflower fields! So, naturally, they pulled over and let me frolick :)
Ksenija, unable to squeeze in the door to the lobby at the ranch in Ronda!
Their “other daughter” sneaks in for a “family photo”
Comfy on the trundle!
Check out that gorge!
Being toros at the bullfighting museum in Ronda!
Family portrait…can you find my dad?
There he is!
With Fabio and his wife after the Spain win!
Hitchhiking 101, thanks, Ksenija :)
Learning how to ride a Segway in Granada!
It takes a lot of concentration…
To be continued…
Home! (well, been home for almost a week, but close enough.) Had a great rest of the trip, pictures and stories to come!
Bonjour from Lyon! Im not going to write a long post because i cant get the hang of this different keyboard. Ill write about our adventure getting from Barcelona to Lyon later but for now I have to say, as far as the World Cup final tonight, VIVA LA FURIA ROJA! Go Spain!
Hi all! Quick upate. Ksenija is out touring the Sagrada Familia cathedral and Gaudi´s Casa Mila. I was tired so I decided to come back and take the world´s coldest shower (it was so nice!) and relax. We had quite the eventful past 36 hours, so I´ll give a quick recap here.
Tuesday night my parents left Granada for Madrid for their flight home. Ksenija and I moved to a cute hostel (Funky Backpackers Hostel) a couple blocks away and made ourselves at home. Wednesday we had all day to explore Granada before catching our 9:55 pm train for Barcelona. We split up and went shopping separately, reuniting for lunch and a little more shopping before we headed back to the hostel.
At Funky´s, Ksenija checked her email while I settled in the lobby with a magazine. Pretty soon these two American guys we had seen around earlier came in and sat down next to me to strike up a conversation. When Ksenija came down to the lobby we realized that she had met one of them, Nolan, earlier that morning. He and Jack are childhood friends, now 24, traveling around Europe to see ¨where the wind will blow them¨. Jack spent the past almost 2 years traveling around South America, eventually settling down in Chile to work as a pub crawl organizer. Nolan quit his job in California to try a new life, so they decided now would be the perfect time to check out Europe. They´re going to Morocco and Greece, two of the places Ksenija and I considered visiting, so we talked for a long time about their travel plans for those countries. It was cool to talk to other Americans, especially ones who are doing what I would like to do sometime in my 20s: travel with flexible plans, eventually stopping to work abroad. Though Ksenija and I were going to leave around 7:30 to make our way towards the train station (with the intent of stopping in a bar along the way to watch the Spain v. Germany game), when we heard that they were planning to go to a local bar, we decided to join them and a few other people we met at the hostel. So we left our luggage locked in the hostel and went out.
We had fun at the bar though we kept an eye on the clock to make sure we´d leave for the station on time. At 9:05 we grabbed a quick picture with the group, said goodbye and headed for the hostel. On the way, we popped into a bakery to say goodbye to the owner, a young woman whom we had befriended the day before. We didn´t factor in enough time for her talkativeness so we left a little late and sprinted back to the hostel, but it was only 9:20 so we thought we´d be okay, considering that we´d just call a taxi and get to the station within 5 min (versus a 15-min walk). Well, we got back to the hostel and could only find one other person there, one of the guests. The office door was locked and the worker was nowhere to be found. Without her keys we couldn´t get our luggage and Ksenija and I began panicking that we wouldn´t make our train. Luckily we found her within 10 min…bringing us to 9:30, with 25 min to go. Thinking a taxi would save us, she began dialing different companies before she realized that ALL of the taxi drivers in Granada were watching the World Cup game. So Ksenija and I did the only thing we could think of and RAN.
We SPRINTED down rocky side streets — 20 min to go. (Well, not exactly ¨sprinted¨— Ksenija wearing a large-frame true backpacker´s backpack and me pulling a small blue suitcase with a propensity to flip itself over every three feet — but we ran as fast as we could with the best directions we could manage.) We arrived at the station, breathless, at 9:51, threw our bags on the train and hopped on. But our eventful evening wasn´t quite over. As Ksenija attempted to store her backpack on the overhead shelf, a little old woman came over and began yelling at her in a mix of Spanish and Catalan that her bag wouldn´t fit there. Ksenija and I stepped backward to try storing it on the main luggage shelves and the woman followed us. Though Ksenija was nowhere near it, the woman continued to berate Ksenija, this time to warn her to stay way from her bag of groceries that was sitting (by itself) on one shelf compartment. Ksenija and I grew frustrated when we realized that Ksenija´s backpack couldn´t fit anywhere besides the overhead shelf. Meanwhile, this woman continued to yell at us and at all the other passengers to try to help us until finally she resorted to finger-wagging. It was rather frustrating, as I tried to explain to her that we were doing the best we could and no, we wouldn´t touch her groceries. Finally she sat back down and Ksenija and I crammed our stuff in as best we could. We found our seats… that were directly in front of this woman. Big sigh. Tired and hungry, amazed that we even made it on the godforsaken circa-1960s train, we began laughing at how ridiculously red and sweaty we were. We took out our food (bread, cheese and turkey) and made our sandwiches for dinner. After we cleaned up, I returned to my suitcase to take out my iPod and prepare for sleep. Ksenija helped me carefully carry the suitcase into the partition separating our car from the next so we wouldn´t disturb anyone…but our nosy neighbor wasn´t done with us. Even though Ksenija and I were nowhere near her bag and were whispering instead of talking, this woman came up to the sliding door and began again to yell at us in Catalan…with more finger-wagging. Ksenija and I managed to get my bag back in its spot and sat back down. We made ourselves as comfortable as possible (Spain jersey and sweatshirts tied around our heads to block out the overhead light) and fell asleep. Luckily the rest of the trip went more smoothly, though the finger-wagging returned after I stared at the woman when she put her feet on my armrest, but that´s not worth going into. Point is, we survived the 12-hour ride! The longest/worst train trip is over! And what good is a long train ride without a couple of good stories about crazy people, anyway? :)
(Sidenote: to continue the theme of crazy/unexpected happenings, our hostel here in Barcelona is pretty nice, though when we first walked in we were surprised to see two guests rolling marijuana joints. Ksenija and I didn´t know what to say, so out of surprise and shock, we just sort of shook our heads and chuckled before finding our room. Culture shock for sure — as a former Resident Adviser, I´m not ignorant of the number of people who do drugs, but I just didn´t expect it to be so out in the open. That´s Europe for you, I guess!)
We were able to check in to the hostel but our room wasn´t ready so with a couple of free hours, we headed to the beach. (Having sweated through my jersey at the bar and again while running to the train, it seemed like diving into the Mediterranean could only help us smell and feel better.) Unfortunately, we forgot sunscreen. I know I should´ve bought some at the beach (and I said so repeatedly as we walked the waterfront) but in the interest of saving Euros I didn´t, and that was a stupid, stupid decision. I burned all around my bathing suit lines, on my stomach, and on my shoulders. The worst is my face. I was already flushed but now I look — seriously — like a tomato. It still hurts but it probably won´t peel. It´s just a little unfortunate ´cause I look funny in all our Barcelona pictures :)
After the beach, we returned to hostel, showered, and went out to see the Parc Guell and the Magic Fountains. Exhausted, we returned to the hostel around 11:30 and passed out despite the sangria mixer-party raging in the lounge. Guess we´re not quite the party animals our parents feared. ;)
Today we walked up and down the Ramblas, a long string of stores, booths, and street performers over a 1-mile stretch in the middle of the city. I bought a second suitcase at El Corte Ingles, the Spanish equivalent of JC Penney´s or Nordstrom, a little because we need more packing space and also because Icelandic Airlines is allowing me to bring two 50-lb suitcases home (without charge!) on my flight to JFK… so of course we have to take advantage of that deal, right? :) And here we are. Like I said, Ksenija is out now but when she gets back we´ll probably grab dinner and head back out to walk the waterfront. Our next train is to Lyon, France early tomorrow morning, so tonight will be my last night in Spain. Que triste! :( It´s hard to believe how quickly it´s gone by. The irony, too, is that because we made our travel plans months in advance without World Cup consideration, we´ll be in Lyon during the final WC game, the game with MY team, España! (but Ksenija assured me we´ll find a little French bar without Netherlands fans where we can cheer on La Furia Roja :))
That´s about it. Unfortunately, when I sent my laptop home with my parents I forgot to put pictures on a jump drive so there probably won´t be any new ones up until I get home next Friday. (And luckily for my dad, this means I´ll probably forget to scan in the tacky souvenir photo he insisted we get at the Alhambra of all of us dressed as a Moorish family in a harem… so sorry! But don´t worry, my mom is putting it in the family Christmas card. ;)) Hope you enjoyed the stories. Enjoy your weekend and Viva La Furia Roja!
Besos,
Kerry
Hola and happy July 4th! As glad as I am to still be in Europe, I’m sorry that I’m not home for July 4th – I love the fireworks, the parades, the spirit and the food. I hope everyone in the US is enjoying their holiday!
We’ve successfully made it through Seville and Ronda and are settled in Granada for three nights. Seville was fun but HOT – nearly 100 degrees – so bad that as soon as you stepped out of the shower you would resume sweating. .. so despite how beautiful it was, I couldn’t wait to get out of Seville. Ksenija and I stayed at the Triana Backpackers Hostel, a cute little place across the river from my parents and about a 10-15-minute walk from the main sights. We met some interesting people at the hostel. One of our four roommates, Hannah (from Canada), is “WWOOFing” (working at organic farms for free room and board, more info HERE: http://www.wwoof.org/) through Spain and Portugal. She graduated with her Bachelor’s in Gender Studies and is thinking about getting a Master’s of Social Work next year, so we found common ground discussing social work issues and various graduate schools. We also met Louie, a 18-year-old Brit working at the hostel until he decides what he wants to pursue for university studies. We enjoyed talking about the US. He’s a fan of American movies, but not of the BP mess. (Can’t blame him!)
In Seville we visited the gravesite of Christopher Columbus. His coffin is held up by statues of the four kings of the four surrounding regions. I liked his memorial, though I found it interesting how much more elaborate it is than the graves of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the royals who granted him money with which to travel to the Indies (and which actually allowed him to discover the Americas). (Although, fun fact, only the Queen gave him money. Ferdinand thought it was a silly idea.) Their remains lie — in pretty basic coffins — in the royal chapel here in Granada. Granted, their remains were interred hundreds of years ago while Columbus’s have traveled between Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba before returning to Seville (hopefully his FINAL “final” resting place) at the beginning of the 20th century. Anyway, it was interesting to see the difference between the plain royal tomb and the elaborate memorial for the explorer.
Thursday the four of us hopped in a rental car and sped away to Ronda, a beautiful city southwest of Seville. Ronda is one of many gorgeous Spanish “white hill towns”, known as such for the white, heat-repellent buildings that help combat the hot summers. It also has a rather large, stunning gorge, from which we took a good hundred pictures or so. But the highlight was our accommodations – a ranch (with horses! with goats! with ducks! how city-girl am I?) about 10 minutes outside of the city. Oh, and it didn’t hurt that this ranch has two pools AND a private deck for some sweet stargazing (Good pick, Mom and Dad!) The ranch provided a nice evening respite from city sounds – no trains, no car honking, no voices here! – nothing but the sound of the wind through the trees and horses whinnying. I could’ve happily stayed there the rest of the summer, but since I couldn’t, I made a note in my journal: “MUST RETURN to Los Pastores Ranch, Ronda ASAP.”
Friday we made a quick day trip to Marbella on the Costa del Sol. Ksenija and I walked the beach for a couple of hours and then the four of us ate lunch at this fantastic health restaurant called Terra Sana. You know it’s a guaranteed good meal if when you try to narrow your choices down you accidentally add more and more options! (the California wrap, the hummus wrap, and the mezze plate all looked SO good.) Stuffed full of good food, we returned to the ranch and had a quiet night. Saturday we toured the city of Ronda, stopping at the bullfight museum and the gorge. We made it back to the ranch in time to watch Spain v. Paraguay with the manager of the ranch, Fabio. (Unfortunately, not to be confused with the model Fabio!) He answered my family’s many questions about soccer as quickly as I could piece together a rough translation, and he even brought out olives and sangria to share. His wife and youngest daughter returned from the beach in time to catch the second half and they set the standard for appropriate World Cup cheering: while we Americanos clapped and cheered when Spain scored, our hosts were even more exuberant, leaping out of their chairs, shouting and hugging before high-fiving each of us multiple times! Watching the game with them was very special, both because of how gracious they were and how cool it was to watch a World Cup game in a home instead of a bar. (So if you’re looking to visit Ronda anytime in the future be sure to ask for Fabio at Los Pastores!)
We said our goodbyes to our hosts this morning and made our way (a little remorsefully as Ksenija was sad she never said goodbye to the horses and I was sad I never made it down the water slide!) to Granada. We took a little bus tour of the city and did a little shopping, and now Ksenija and my dad are out to see the Alhambra vista at night. (My mom and I chose A/C over more walking. You can take the girls out of the A/C but not for long! :)) Tomorrow we’ll check out the Alhambra and then have a little more than a day together, all four of us, before my parents head back to Madrid for their flight home. It’s hard to believe how quickly their visit has gone by! I’m so glad they were able to come. I know they’ve had a blast and have more than enough travel stories to make for an exciting Christmas card come December!
I only have 11 more minutes of internet so I’ll try to get some of the pictures up later this week or so if/when we get better access. Happy 4th! Eat lots of red and blue jello for me!
Besos,
Kerry
Ps. Oh, I completely forgot the best part — and the reason behind the title of this post — on the drive from Seville to Ronda we passed miles upon miles of sunflower fields. I made my parents pull over and they snapped a couple pics of Ksenija and I “frolicking”. Heaven!
I have a lot of mixed feelings about the program ending. Part of me is really sad that study abroad went by so quickly, but part of me was also relieved to see my parents at the train station on Saturday. (Could be because I got a cold, too — every college student just wants their mom when they’re sick :)) Still, it was hard to see Vivian pack and go, and I teared up Sunday morning when Madre whispered in my ear (in English) “Be safe. I love you.” All in all, we were very fortunate to have the Madre we did (you rock, Rosa Ramos!) and the people we traveled with. I had a great experience, and I’ll probably tear up again as our train leaves the Salamanca station tomorrow morning. Espero que volveré pronto. (I hope I will return soon.)
Now the fun (without work) begins! Ksenija and my parents are here and Salamanca has managed to remain standing. Equipped with Rick Steves’ “Spain 2006” (Ksenija) and “Spain 2010” (my dad), we’re preparing ourselves to take Southern Spain by storm!
That is, if it stops raining first… (Ksenija in blue, I’m in yellow)
Ksenija and I unintentionally dressed alike today…and my mom is in a William & Mary t-shirt…you can see who her “favorite daughter” is!
That’s all for now. We’ll have limited internet access as we go so I’ll try to update here and there!
Un abrazo (an embrace — new vocab for ya!), Kerry
Hi everyone! Well, I did it— I survived my three finals! They all went pretty well though I won’t know what my actual grades are until I return to the US. I suspect that they do that so if we disagree with our grade, our professors will be too far away to go complain to ;)
It’s starting to hit me in bits and pieces that our program is over. After we finished finals yesterday, we had a nice lunchtime reception in the courtyard of one of the academic buildings. Spain v. Chile happened at 8:30, so just as we celebrated Spain v. Honduras last week we again dressed in our red and yellow to go support La Furia Roja! (pictures to come) We had a great time but got home with only 20 minutes in which to change, eat dinner, and head out to meet the others at the Plaza Mayor to go out. I literally shoveled food into my mouth — Vivian and Madre appreciated this, I’m sure — because we couldn’t be late. (We turned our cell phones in on Wednesday so for now it’s all about being prompt because we have no way of letting the others know if we’ll be late! It’s a flashback to the dark ages, for sure. :))
We went out to two bars — the first, a chupeteria (bar specializing in shots) where big flatscreens broadcast Spanish and American videos. Usually the group only stays at the first bar for 30-40 minutes but since it looked like everyone was really enjoying themselves, we stayed for almost two hours. The second bar, El Savor, was FANTASTIC! It is rather well-known in Salamanca as the best salsa bar (dancing, not condiment!) and we’re a dance-happy group so this was the perfect place to end the night. It also is the most multiethnic bar I’ve seen — lots of men (mostly men) from different African countries waiting to show you their salsa moves. Our time last night at El Savor would rank among my top España moments for sure — it was fun to see our group dance to the salsa/reggae band. We were quickly whisked away from each other onto the floor with various dancers. I danced with one who has been studying abroad in Salamanca for a year. I asked him where he was from and he said Gabon, a small country on the west coast of Africa.
(A map for your reference — I did a terrible job describing it!)
I responded with my classic line “No me digas!” (Don’t tell me, or, more similar to the English colloquial “Shut up!”) Two weeks ago I would have never known where in Africa Gabon was (or, to be honest, that Gabon was even in Africa), but as it was, I JUST finished a short story called “Fattening for Gabon” in my African short stories book (Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan, if you’re interested) about a man who attempts to sell his niece and nephew into slavery in Gabon. It was one of those “small world” moments that occur frequently in Salamanca — i.e. meeting a JMU alum in the Plaza the first week, running into the travel guide with ACIS, etc. I thought that was pretty cool, though — random but cool! — and I think he was rather surprised that I recognized his country!
We stayed at El Savor until about 3:20 when we realized how exhausted we were and how much we had to do in the coming day — go to the river, finish souvenir shopping, say goodbye to our favorite crossainteria — so we took a cab home with the nicest cab driver. He dropped us off with the words “the next time you’re in Spain, I will drive you!” :)
Today we met the Greenes for the last Daily Croissant fix, hung out at the Rio Tormes, finished shopping and ate lunch/took our siesta. I somehow caught a pretty bad cold in the last week (probably from the weather fluctuations — from 60 degrees Fahrenheit last week to 80s and 90s this week) so I took a longer siesta than usual, waking up around 6 pm (it’s 6:47 now). Vivian’s out souvenir shopping so it’ll give me a little more time to pull out my suitcases and puzzle at how I’m going to fit everything back in :) But the day won’t end that quickly — my parents’ train arrives in a little more than an hour so I’ll pick them up and take them to their apartment soon. After is the USA v. Ghana match so hopefully I can convince them to come check out our favorite cafe, Cuatro Gatos, and cheer on Ghana. :) And after that, we’ll see! Technically the night will still be young but as it’s the very last night of the program I know most of the others will stay out until the bus picks them up for Madrid and I’m not sure that with my cold I can last that long… but we will see! (Vivian will be picked up at 4:55 am — ouch, right?)
Sorry there aren’t pictures with this post — I’ll hopefully upload some more before we start traveling on Monday :) As for now, hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!
ps. If you haven’t heard the 2010 FIFA Anthem, check it out by clicking the link below. It’s Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” — I love it!
Besos, Kerry
ps #2. It’s thunderstorming outside — I love it! Nothing says summer quite like thunderstorms!
(Gotta love the alliteration :))
Hola! I’m happy to say that I am typing from the bench outside of my classroom. Yes, the rain in Spain finally let up (after a good week and a half) and this week promises to be in the mid- to high-80s. Bring it on, I say! I can’t think of better weather to end my study abroad with.
Hard to believe, but yes, my program is wrapping up rapidly. Classes end on Wednesday and finals are Thursday and Friday. Friday night we have a goodbye dinner, Saturday we have free, and Sunday the bus heads back to Madrid for everyone to fly home. Luckily, my adventure won’t end that quickly. My parents’ train arrives Saturday night and Ksenija comes Sunday morning, and from there the adventure really begins!
Finals shouldn’t be too hard. Unfortunately, our exams are our only grades so for two of my classes, these tests will determine everything. (For the third class, this test is worth 40%; a midterm constituted another 40% and the remaining 20% is participation.) So this week won’t be hectic but may be a little stressful. Apologies if there aren’t any more posts/pictures before Thursday or Friday!
Before I upload pictures from this weekend’s trip to Andalucia, I have a couple from the past few weeks to share. Apologies to my dearest Laura and for anyone else who is stuck with dial-up internet; this post is very picture-heavy. (Laura, I’ll print them out and show them to you later :))
At the beach in Lisboa (Caracas); isn’t the water beautiful?
Madre made us paella (a traditional Spanish dish with rice and various types of seafood) last week…delicious! (it had mussels, prawns, peppers, shrimp, and lots of spices)
Rosa! (aka “Madre”)
Upon my request, she brought out boxes of old photographs for us to look at after dinner.
Isn’t she beautiful?
Later in the week we had another visit from Clara and this time I remembered to take pictures!
Isn’t she adorable?
I don’t have many pictures from Madrid but I do have one I’d like to share. It has a great story. So I broke my camera back in January — we had New Member Notification for Student Ambassadors and as we were running through a dorm, I dropped it and then stepped on it without realizing what happened. As a result, my camera still takes pictures but you can only decently view the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Most of my pictures, therefore, are the result of much trial and error, but since it’s my fault I deal with it. At dinner in Madrid, I asked Nikolai (the Travel Writing professor’s 5-year-old son) to take a picture of my friend Pat and I. When I looked at the pictures later, I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t center us — until I realized that he placed us in the bottom left-hand corner intentionally, because that’s what he thought would come out. Pretty smart, huh?
(Note: Pat is a Celtics fan— I think his face foreshadowed their inevitable loss. LAKERS, BABY!)
Also from Madrid: the view from the Monasterio de El Escorial.
Cool sunset in the Plaza as we returned from the Spain v. Switzerland game. Sad game :( Fyi, I just asked Juan (sitting next to me) what the difference is between Switzerland and Sweden in Spanish and he said this (phonetically it’s pronounced like this though I believe the actual spelling is different):
Switzerland : suissa
Sweden: swessia
That’s not confusing, right?)
When we were in Madrid, we were informed by our coordinator Jesús that we would be joined by a videographer from JMU to document the end of our trip for a promotional video for the Office of International Programs. We met him in Madrid outside the Museo del Prado and when he introduced himself as Rusty Greene, a SMAD (School of Media Arts and Design) professor, I interrupted, out of surprise, “YOU’RE COLIN’S DAD?!” Everyone started laughing at my unexpected outburst. Colin Greene was my hall director freshman year. He’s a very nice and funny guy and put up with a LOT of pranks my friends (looking at you, Michela and Jeff) and I played on him (like putting his JMU identification card in Jello, a la The Office). I had heard a lot about his dad through various friends in SMAD and I couldn’t believe I was meeting him AND meeting him in Salamanca — it really is a small world. I later re-introduced myself to Dr. Greene, who actually seemed to enjoy my surprise. He poked fun at me when he told me that “my wife, Colin’s mom, and Colin’s sister will be joining us for Andalucia if you’d like to meet them too.” Sure enough, as I boarded the bus on Thursday morning I heard Dr. Greene say “Kerry, meet Colin’s sister, Erin.” I flushed and introduced myself to her and to her mom. I enjoyed getting to know them over the weekend (probably to Colin’s horror if he knew) and Dr. Greene asked to interview me on Wednesday for the video. So, looks like my exclamation of “YOU’RE COLIN’S DAD?!” wasn’t a bad thing after all. He also put up with my overuse of the line “I’m ready for my close-up, Dr. Greene” multiple times on the trip. :)
We had a great weekend in Andalucia. It was a whirlwind; we left at 7:30 am on Thursday and spent one night in each city (Granada, Córdoba, and Sevilla), returning to Salamanca last night around 8 pm. We packed a lot of visits into one trip but I felt like this trip was better than Madrid because we spent less time in art museums and more time in churches/mosques/palaces.
Beautiful view from our hotel in Granada of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Later we visited El Capilla Real, the chapel and burial grounds of the Catholic Spanish royals Ferdinand II (of Aragon) and Isabel I (of Castile and León). Isabel granted Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus) money with which to travel to India…that same infamous trip during which he brought awareness of the American continents to European consciousness. Cool, huh? We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so my apologies, but it was really neat to see. I think it’s also neat that since Ferdinand didn’t grant Columbus money but Isabel did (on behalf of Castile and León), only her dialect was spread to the people in the New World. (And that’s all I can tell you about that without Wikipedia-ing more info. Sorry!)
Thursday night we had dinner at a flamenco restaurant IN A CAVE. Pretty interesting! Jesús treated us to a little lecture on the surrounding gypsy population as we drove up the mountain to our cave-restaurant. After dinner and the show, we visited an overlook of the Alhambra at night.
Flamenco in a cave!
Friday morning we visited the Cathedral of Granada, ate lunch, and visited the Alhambra, “a palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid-14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus…one of Spain’s major tourist attractions, exhibiting the country’s most significant and well known Islamic architecture” (thank you Wikipedia for summarizing it better than I could. :)) Simply stunning. I can’t wait to go back with my parents and Ksenija.
Various nuts and spices at a market:
Anise:
At the top of the palace…crazy hair!
Flags from below
I fell in love with the Moorish architecture. So intricate and delicate. It made for an excellent backdrop!
That night we left for Cordoba. Saturday we visited the Mezquita (mosque) of Cordoba.
From Wikipedia :)
“Mezquita de Cordoba is a Roman Catholic Cathedral originally built as a Mosque on the place (and partly with materials) of what previously had been a Christian Visigothic Church[1] in the Andalusian city of Córdoba, Spain. It is regarded as perhaps the most accomplished monument of the Umayyad dynasty of Córdoba. After the Spanish Reconquista, it was turned into a church, with a Gothic cathedral inserted into the center of the large Moorish building. Today the entire building is used to house the Cathedral of the diocese of Córdoba in Spain.”
It was disconcerting to walk around this gorgeous mosque and find a cathedral in the middle. Personally, I’m a fan of the mosque pre-cathedral!
Shortly after seeing the Mezquita we left for Sevilla to see the Alcázar royal palace, originally a Moorish fort. 
We were supposed to then visit the Cathedral of Sevilla (which is the third largest in the world, after St. Peter’s in the Vatican and another in London AND home to the burial site of Christopher Columbus) but we missed our entrance time by 15 times. Luckily, that gave us the opportunity for some free time around Sevilla.
Adorable kids’ flamenco shoes outside a store.
And to cool off after a long day, Katie, Kristen, Vivian and I ordered a pitcher of sangria…or as Dr. Greene described it, “delicious fruit punch.” :)
…and churros con chocolate …
Looks like I can find Van Gogh wherever I… Gogh. (Oh, so bad.)
Sunday morning we left early for Mérida to view the teatro romano and anfiteatro. Old Roman ruins, check. We stayed there for a few hours and then returned through the mountains to Salamanca, passing beautiful fields of sunflowers on our way. I wanted to stop so I could frolic (the best word I can come up with for my fantasy of running through the flowers) but alas, the bus kept going. Looks like we’ll have plenty of pit stops to make when my parents, Ksenija and I return there in a little more than a week! :)
Mérida:
What a crazy, fun-packed weekend. Food was great, weather was great (mid-high 70s) and all theedificios we visited were simply beautiful. Like one Alhambra brochure claimed, it was “like heaven on earth.” Probably my favorite weekend by far!
Gotta run— I’ve spent so much time uploading all these that my Mac needs a nap! Hope you all are well!
One last picture for ya for now. :) Cheers!
Muchos besos (many kisses) from Spain!
Love,
Kerry
I spent the bus ride back from Seville writing a song for my dad for Father’s Day. The result is the attached YouTube video (accessible by clicking on the title of this post). Watch at your own risk. I am a good singer, I swear! :) (please, be gentle with your feedback ;)) Happy Father’s Day to all!
Hola! Back from Madrid! We had a great time — went to two museums, the Museo del Prado and the Reina Sofia, on Saturday, followed by a Spanish version of the musical Chicago. Sunday we went to the San Lorenzo Escorial monastery. Pretty packed weekend, enjoyed everything and slept soundly last night. :) I liked Madrid but I feel like we didn’t get enough time to just walk around and enjoy the city in our only night there. It’s not on our schedule for traveling post-program other than for a short layover between bus and train. :( I might not make it back for a couple years, but that’s okay. What I saw I enjoyed!
Quick post — I need to finish studying and go to bed soon — but I just wanted to say that today was the best food day so far in Spain (I am slightly obsessed with food!). Vivian saw Madre peeling cabbage before class so we were nervous that lunch would present us with another bad cabbage experience (see post from about two weeks ago) but I was able to make it through that plate… and the next plate was some thinly-sliced, well-seasoned chicken with apple slices cooked in butter. It was SO good. I told Madre several times that I LOVED the apple slices and wanted the recipe, and she literally told me “It’s so difficult. Wash. Slice. Simmer. Done.” :)
Dinner consisted of a type of chicken noodle soup, a quiche-esque tortilla española with asparagus, peas, and onion — and, last, our usual side salad, but she remembered that I once mentioned loving bleu (blue?) cheese so she bought some just for me and put it in my salad! <3 She’s so adorable!
Speaking of adorable, I sat in the park to do my homework earlier this afternoon and watched a group of four unsteady toddlers chase a duck. It doesn’t get much more precious than that!
Okay, gotta run. Luego!
Kerry
