Ahora estoy en Barcelona. And I am having a difficult time switching between English and Spanish. But we´ll see how posting today goes.
Everything´s been really busy since we made it here by train on Sunday. Every morning I´ve gotten up to do something, then gone to class, then walked an hour back to the residence for dinner, then sometimes went out or did something with people (depending on the night). Here is the list of things I´ve seen here. I´ll probably miss a few.
1. La Sagrada Familia
2. The Museum for Pablo Picasso
3. The Museum for Salvador Dalí
4. Cuatro Gatos (the cafe where Picasso once hung out)
5. The Museum for the Contemporary Art of Cateluña
6. Montjüic
7. Güell Park
8. The Church of Santa María del Mar
9. Girona
Lots o´stuff. Anyways, you can look up the facts of any of the places above, if you really want to. For now, all I have time to tell you is that Barcelona is gorgeous, Dalí was nuts (but brilliant), and that the sunrise tomorrow morning better be worth waking up for. Adios!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
New things and things I forgot
Well I just got back from a three hour walk around Madrid with Robin. We first simply tried to get used to the area we´re living in, and then took a long walk through El Parque de Madrid. The park is pretty big, and despite the fact that it´s not quite as big as Forrest Park I like it more. First of all, there isn´t a golf course, and second, it just feels more... natural in a way. There is a pretty big pond/lake in the middle where we sat for awhile and watched the sunset with some guys playing drums in the background. I am attempting to take some fun pictures while I am here, and I plan to return on my own at some point with just myself and a camera and see what happens. That was basically the day today, with other random things like seeing Winnie the Pooh on the street and all the artistic cows (for those of you from Chicago, yes, the same ones).
In other news, after going to the bar last night, four people decided to go clubbing afterwards and I decided to come along. What I didn´t realize was that this excursion would keep us out until 7:30 in the morning. I had fun for most of the time, when I wasn´t tearing up from the cigarette smoke. It was amusing to watch the Spanish guys keep coming over to try and pick up the American girls. Some of them had more success than others, and at least one clearly did not understand the word no (it´s the same in Spanish and English, so no excuses). Despite that, we had a good time. Afterwards, we went to a little cafe in Sol that is open for 24 hrs a day and serves only churros and melted chocolate, which was excellent. If any of you visit Spain, I highly recommend it. It puts the churros in the High School cafeteria to shame (not hard to do I admit, but it´s my only point of reference).
All right, it´s time to go pack for tomorrow´s train ride to Barcelona. More updates to come afterwards.
In other news, after going to the bar last night, four people decided to go clubbing afterwards and I decided to come along. What I didn´t realize was that this excursion would keep us out until 7:30 in the morning. I had fun for most of the time, when I wasn´t tearing up from the cigarette smoke. It was amusing to watch the Spanish guys keep coming over to try and pick up the American girls. Some of them had more success than others, and at least one clearly did not understand the word no (it´s the same in Spanish and English, so no excuses). Despite that, we had a good time. Afterwards, we went to a little cafe in Sol that is open for 24 hrs a day and serves only churros and melted chocolate, which was excellent. If any of you visit Spain, I highly recommend it. It puts the churros in the High School cafeteria to shame (not hard to do I admit, but it´s my only point of reference).
All right, it´s time to go pack for tomorrow´s train ride to Barcelona. More updates to come afterwards.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Well, Here We Are
Hello everyone!
Well, I´m finally here, in Madrid Spain, living with a family by myself... Exciting! Actually, to be truthful, four people from WashU are living in the same building as me, but I am the only person living with this particular family. I arrived yesterday (Thursday) at around 3 pm local time, with little difficulty. My fencing equipment didn´t show up on time, much to my chagrin, but it has since arrived, and I am excited to start fencing when we get back from Barcelona and Granada. After getting the rest of my luggage, the other WashU people on the plane and I looked for Romiro (our WashU guide/teacher), who drove us to our respective houses. I met the Suarez´s, who I will be staying with for the next several months. They are very nice people, and the food thus far has been excellent (and healthy, gasp!). I had dinner, went and got pictures for my metro pass, and went to bed.
Today myself and the other students went to a short orientation session by Romiro about our WashU course and then went home for lunch. This afternoon he gave us a guided tour of ¨Sol,¨ the central plaza of Spain, which is similar (I suppose) to Times Square, except much older and with a lot more history. He showed us where the different types of shops are and gave us some basic information about certain slang words we would not be aware of (all of which I have forgotten, being the kind of person I am). Right now, I am sitting in an internet cafe typing to you all because we don´t have internet access in my apartment. Tonight some of us are planning to go to a bar in town somewhere that one of the guys that has been here before knows of. Tomorrow is free (plans TBD) and on Sunday we leave for Barcelona for a language intensive (which I desperately need).
It has been interesting getting to used to things here. The first thing I noticed is the size difference of just about everything. The cars, the shops, the elevators, the beds (unfortunately for me), among other things, are all smaller. Other small things are also difficult to get used to. For example, you have to open the door to the metro yourself, something Robin Meyer and I discovered when we almost missed our stop. The metro trains come in the opposite direction than I am used to, although the cars drive on the right side of the street, which in combination I find strange (explanation anyone?). Final on my list (although clearly not describing all of it) is a more present concern: typing. Below is the list of all the things not on our typical keyboard.
¿¡Çªº¬€
More frustrating, however, is the following list of things that are not in the normal place I am used to.
()/?;:{}][#@\/
It´s just a tad bizarre, and it took me about a minute to figure out how to type brackets (there is a separate button for a third option on the key which I was not aware of). However, given all these oh so complicated difficulties, I am very excited about my time here. I can´t imagine spending the whole five months and starting to become comfortable and adopt this culture, but clearly it will happen by the time I leave in June. I hope everything is going well at home, and I wish you all the best!
Well, I´m finally here, in Madrid Spain, living with a family by myself... Exciting! Actually, to be truthful, four people from WashU are living in the same building as me, but I am the only person living with this particular family. I arrived yesterday (Thursday) at around 3 pm local time, with little difficulty. My fencing equipment didn´t show up on time, much to my chagrin, but it has since arrived, and I am excited to start fencing when we get back from Barcelona and Granada. After getting the rest of my luggage, the other WashU people on the plane and I looked for Romiro (our WashU guide/teacher), who drove us to our respective houses. I met the Suarez´s, who I will be staying with for the next several months. They are very nice people, and the food thus far has been excellent (and healthy, gasp!). I had dinner, went and got pictures for my metro pass, and went to bed.
Today myself and the other students went to a short orientation session by Romiro about our WashU course and then went home for lunch. This afternoon he gave us a guided tour of ¨Sol,¨ the central plaza of Spain, which is similar (I suppose) to Times Square, except much older and with a lot more history. He showed us where the different types of shops are and gave us some basic information about certain slang words we would not be aware of (all of which I have forgotten, being the kind of person I am). Right now, I am sitting in an internet cafe typing to you all because we don´t have internet access in my apartment. Tonight some of us are planning to go to a bar in town somewhere that one of the guys that has been here before knows of. Tomorrow is free (plans TBD) and on Sunday we leave for Barcelona for a language intensive (which I desperately need).
It has been interesting getting to used to things here. The first thing I noticed is the size difference of just about everything. The cars, the shops, the elevators, the beds (unfortunately for me), among other things, are all smaller. Other small things are also difficult to get used to. For example, you have to open the door to the metro yourself, something Robin Meyer and I discovered when we almost missed our stop. The metro trains come in the opposite direction than I am used to, although the cars drive on the right side of the street, which in combination I find strange (explanation anyone?). Final on my list (although clearly not describing all of it) is a more present concern: typing. Below is the list of all the things not on our typical keyboard.
¿¡Çªº¬€
More frustrating, however, is the following list of things that are not in the normal place I am used to.
()/?;:{}][#@\/
It´s just a tad bizarre, and it took me about a minute to figure out how to type brackets (there is a separate button for a third option on the key which I was not aware of). However, given all these oh so complicated difficulties, I am very excited about my time here. I can´t imagine spending the whole five months and starting to become comfortable and adopt this culture, but clearly it will happen by the time I leave in June. I hope everything is going well at home, and I wish you all the best!
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