Hace frío!!!

So, I have never been a fan of the cold and I think I am ready to die because of it here. Haha... Two days ago at night the temp was at 2 degrees celsius! Not my style. I bought a peacoat for €35.90 and it has been my life save! Along with the gloves and pashminas I bought. All very necessary. I think I need a pair of longjohns too! Haha. And I am going to be in Amsterdam in a couple of weeks which will only be colder and for my Christmas break I am planning on a UK trip with my friend Sarah to visit her old SF roommate in Whales and hopefully Dublin or London too. So this kind of cold is only preparing me for my next vacations. The month of November seems to be pretty packed for me schedule wise. In some of my classes I have midterms and midterm projects due, I have a vacation/excursion/party planned already for everyweekend. I can´t wait! More blogging will come once these events start happening. Its Halloween weekend and all the American students are excited to dress up... I might just wear some ears or something. Along with 30 layers of clothes. Haha!

These are the girls in Madrid that I love. Ellie Kiesel is on the left, she´s from Chico and goes to Chico state. She´s a total sweetheart and luckily for all of us her bf lived here for a year before and is back with us again and has been showing us where all the cool spots are. The second from the left is Miss Emma Kerss. She was born and raised in Sacramento and moved to Long Beach for school... we know a whole bunch of the same people, we just didn´t know we knew eachother. I love her too! We always end up finding people, events, places that we have in common back in LB. Then we have Darlene Powell... probably the one I understand the most. She´s complex, but I understand her. She´s boy crazy and fluent in spanish for the most part. Her mom´s from Nicaragua so she´s been raised speaking the language. She´s from a city just outside of Palm Springs and goes to SDSU. The girl on the right of Dar is Jessica Cheney. We were suitemates the first couple of weeks in the dorms. She and I don´t hang out much, but I love it when we do. I guess I would consider her my escape. We both have impecable skills when it comes to finding our way and giving directions. Haha...They´re my closest friends out here.

And these are the boys I´ve mentioned. Phil and Dylan. I´m not as close to them as I would excpect, but they definately have the big bro thing going.

This is my bedroom at Marquez de Viana, 57... the bed/door.

This is my desk and a bit of the sliding door...

And this is the view I have... yes, the trash cans are right in front.

So in order to escape from the piso that I don´t care much for I frequently find myself here. El Parque del Buen Retiro. This is a huge lake that you can take paddle boats out onto. It is so peaceful and gorgeous. Not as big as NY´s Central Park, but big nonetheless. On Sunday afternoons (during summer apparently) they have huge drum circles and they´re cool.

This is James, he´s the main guy that roomed/fed/showed us around Granada...

and this is Aaron, his roommate. Who bought blankets for us to crash on and didn´t step on us while walking in and out of his room. Haha...

this is Gabi... another one of the boys that gave a couple of us a place to sleep and shower as well as joined us on our excursions...

and then we have Ferny who did the same...

lastly we have Ben. He didn´t house any of us, but he just lived too far. But what is in his hands is more important right now. That is a Döner Kebab... DELICIOUS! They are Spain´s version of a burrito. Mmmmmmm

This is the giant wall I wrote about in the last blog. There is only a tiny row of crumbling bricks that we had to climb in order to get to where we are. It was soooo amazing.

One of my best friends from home, Sarah Chase, just paid me a visit... isn´t she awesome!

And we also just recently had the first couple of birthdays... We threw a suprise party for our friend Jacque.

Granada

So I just got back from Granada, Spain yesterday at like 7:30 after the metro and what not. And I will say one thing first: I have never had such an amazing and awesome vacation ever.

This is sooo true. I can´t really describe it. I mean, nothing went wrong. There were 7 girls and no one fought or bickered. The guys from the Granada IP program were the best tour guides/photographers/big bros/waiters/cooks we could have asked for. I mean, they bought extra blankets and pillows for us and food so we would have something to eat when we got hungry. Who really goes that far out of their way for people they met briefly a few weeks ago? It was so awesome... and two other boys allowed us to crash at their pads a few of the nights too. Which was greatly appreciated becuase 4 of us on the floor in one piso was a bit much.

So here is the day by day play by play, and hopefully some pictures if I can figure it out.

Friday:
We all met at the Dar, Emm, and Ellie´s place, then trucked over via the metro to get to the bus station. After an interesting situation where my friend Sara got yelled at by what we think was a bumb asleep on the bench, we made it to our bus on time and headed out of Madrid. I sat next to Ellie and we watched the weird movie that was playing on the bus and listened to our ipods and hit each other when we wanted to show them something out the window. The bus stopped about halfway through at a rest stop kind of thing so we could eat, strech, and use the restrooms. I have to say that driving through Spain seemed very similar to a drive through the 5 from nothern California to southern California, without really hitting any major cities though. Only Granada once we got there.
We had all packed for a rainy weekend and most of the girls had nothing other than winter clothes. So the slight rain and intense wind didn´t bother us too much when we were getting in to the taxis to head to James and Aaron´s house. After a brief botellón and a the arrival of a few more of the Granada kids we all headed out to a club about 12:30 or 1. We would get a free drink if we arrived before 1. Haha... So the place we went to was soooo cool! It was basically a cave. We had to climb up a really huge hill, or a few I should say, but it was worth it. The area that all the IP kids live in is covered with EARSMUS students, so we heard a lot more english being spoken as we walked down the street as opposed to Spanish. Apparently one of the Granada guys, Ferny, had his 20th birthday the previous Monday so he bought 2 rounds of tequilla shots for all 12 or so of us that were there. The music was very american and we all had a blast dancing and sweating up a storm until 6 am. Our only relief was to go out on to the beautiful deck and enjoy the strong winds blowing. On the way home we stopped by a Döner Kebab place calle Kebab King and enjoyed our first delicious bites of kebabs. Then me, Ellie, and Emma crashed out at James & Aaron´s place while the rest of the girls went with Fern to his house since he had more space.

Saturday:
We all woke up around 1 I believe and began getting ready. I was the first one at our place to take a shower and as soon as the hot water turned on the house almost went up in flames because they´re water heater had been smoking up for a few days already. Haha... so needless to say we all enjoyed cold prison showers instead. You only use the water when necessary and be prepared for a headache if you decide to wash your hair. Haha. Once we all met up again the boys took us up the same hill as the night before and then some so we could see the city from one of the best vistas in the town. Apparently we brought perfect weather with us becaus it wasn´t to hot and it was far from cold. It was perfect. After our mission and a half up the hill we made it to the wall they recommended we climb. One of the boys, Ben, had almost convinced me not to (pretty much did) climb the wall because it wasn´t worth it. But once I saw the rest of the girls making their way up, freaking out, and making James spot them as the scaled the small wall I decided I would do it too. Because there is a slim to none chance that I would ever get the opportunity again. Without guidance from anyone because they were either up on the wall already or they were taking pictures I made my way up the wall. And it was SO worth it. It was still pretty windy when we got up there so we didn´t stand much, but the second it slowed a bit we were all over that wall. After we climbed down with a bit of verbal guidance from the ones already on the ground we headed back down the hill.
The guys took us to get gelato at what they said was the best place in town and then to see the Cathedral and the market surrounding it. All of which was amazing as well. I bought 2 pairs of earrings from one of the vendors, but happened to leave them at James´ place so he´ll have to bring them next time he´s in Madrid. At this point we decided to reconvene later on for tapas and to head out to a really cool club that we had to be ridiculously dressed up to get in to and we couldn´t let on that we were americans. So I was nervous because I don´t do clubs. I certainly don´t have the proper attire to go out to them either. But luckily I pulled something together and borrowed a pair of heels from Darlene for the night. We were all starving by the time we made it to the tapas bar and literally inhaled the food the second the boys would put the plate down in front of us. I think most of us were more interested in getting food as opposed to drinks. Haha. We headed back to James´place to pick up the rest of the crew and pre-drink a bit before heading to the club. By this point my feet were already killing me and I was not in the mood for a night full of painful feet.
We headed out to the club, Mai West, I believe is the name and I walked over with one of the guys named Ben, he´s from Chico and knows my friend Torrie that has lived there since we were in 8th grade. So it was cool. To prepare ourselves we kept our convos to spanish only and we were planning on going in in small groups so they couldn´t really deny us entrance. But somehow while me and Ben were in line a group ahead of us had been denied so we walked over to another club. Knowing that this club was a walk in the complete opposite direction I took the heels off and went barefoot until I got to the line. Haha... This club was so much fun! I think almost all of the Granada group made it there and we all danced and drank (I was stoked on getting 2 free drinks with the price of admission & didn´t spen any money at the bar). A few of us headed back to James´place a tiny bit earlier than the rest, but once they all came in with kebabs again I was determined to have one too. Me and Sara were going to be the ones to stay at Ferny´s that night and since Kebab King was on the way, I took one for the road. Haha.. I don´t think I said a single word the whole walk there.
Sunday:
Sara, Fern, and I woke up around 2 when the other girls called to see if we were headed back yet because they had just woken up and were getting ready. We had planned on eating and going to see the Alhambra. Sara and I went to James´place and I took a quick cold shower without washing my hair because I still felt gross from the night before. I still felt gross because I hadn´t washed my hair, but it was manageable. We stopped at a tapas bar for a meal before we began climbing the staircase that would lead to the Alhambra. While we were sitting there, we not only saw one man dressed in a Spiderman suit, but 2! Haha... And they both went in to the mexican restaurant nearby. We think the younger one lost because he came out first. Haha...
After nearly dying on the walk uphill again we walked through an aquatic display near the Alhambra. It had posters filled with pictures and facts about the worlds water supply and usage. Some of it was rather heartbreaking and others were just plain interesting or cute. Like the picture of an elephante swimming. We found out that the Alhambra couldn´t sell any more tickets for the day and went out towards the terrace where access without tickets was still allowed. Then we went back to James´place to rest and watch Weeds and Entourage on his laptop.
Around 7 we decided to get ready to go to a Flamenco show/dinner. Only James and Fern joined us this time. Gabi, Ben, and Aaron chose to stay in for a bit instead. They missed out. The show was absolutely breathtaking. We believe the guitarist and the dancer were a couple by the way they would stare in to each others eyes and she had so much expression while she danced. It almost made my eyes water. And the dinner was delicious. Most of us opted for pizza since it was the cheapest thing on the menu and and we all shared jarras of sangria. Dar, Fern, Sara, and I grabbed some ice cream and watched one of the coolest street performances ever. Monday was a holiday so all the performers were in renaissance attire and there were bagpipes, flames, drums, clarinettes, and a unicylce involved. haha... so sweet! And I almost forgot to mention that earlier that afternoon while watching tv a firework went off right next to James´ place and scared the crap out of us! Especially Jacque, me, and Sara... Me and Jacque ran for the bedroom and Sara hit the floor. Haha... it was too funny. I think I had a mini heart attack. Haha
We decided to take it easy Sunday night since we planned on going to the Alhambra at 7:30 so we were sure we´d get tickets and enough time to see the place. So we went to the pub across the street and watched american football (Woo! the 49ers lost!) of course the SF boys were all pretty upset about that. All the girls except for me and Dar went home at around 11 or 12, but I had planned on crashing at Fern´s house again so I could have a warm shower so I stayed out for while too. After noticing Darlene across the street with a kebab I got one too and headed back to James´place to eat and watch tv with the girls. I didn´t end up getting back until about 2 and James came pretty much at the same time. There were already 3 girls on the floor and one on the couch, so I was going to see if I could join Dar and Jacque at Gabi´s, but Dar didn´t feel like waiting for the show to end so I found a comfy spot and watched tv til I fell asleep.
Monday:
Sara´s alarm clock went off at 7. Then her phone rang at 7:30 and it was Jacque asking if we were up and getting ready yet to head to the Alhambra. After hanging up Sara asks us if any of us are ready to get up, I don´t remember who, but they responded with "no, its still dark outside. We can´t get up." And it was settled. Haha... All 6 of us stayed sleeping. Then about an hour later the doorbell rings and I had to get up and answer it. Looking like crap and without shoes, Dar, Gabi, and Jacque weren´t very suprised to see that we were all still sleeping. That changed almost immediately and none of us showered, we just got up, put clothes on, brushed our teeth, did our hair and make up and we were off. We stopped and got Napolitanas de chocolate y crossaints on the way and headed up the hill again.
The Alhambra was beautiful. I took soooo many pictures. If I can figure it out I´ll try and make a blog just with the pictures from the Alhambra. Most of us weren´t able to enter the main building of the Alhambra until 12:30, so we just roamed the rest of it and took lots of pictures. Around 12:30 though we started heading back to James´ place to pack and grab one last döner kebab for the road and we left. I ended up leaving the two pairs of earrings that I had bought behind and Ellie left her Klean Kantine which she takes everywhere. We ended up back in Madrid at about 6:50 and I was at home and showering by 7:30. It was very necessary. Haha.

This was a life changing trip I´d have to say. I would really love to go back again before I leave Spain. And if the day were to ever come and it were possible for me to fly my entire family over here... I´d get married in the Alhambra or one of the churches I saw in Granada. It was that beautiful. Wow.

More stuff to say

So, I was having 1€ tapas and jarras de cerveza last night with a few friends, one of which is from El Salvador and had his one year anniversary of living in Madrid yesterday as well. Anyways, he asked a question that kinda suprised me. Its something I´d never heard of as being an issue, or non-issue... depends on how you look at it. But he asked if in the U.S. we are taught that being from the United States and being American are interchangeable? Which is true. We, people from the U.S. are Americans. No question about it right? But what about him? Is he not an American as well? He is from the americas, just the one further south. It was a first time hearing that for me and I was pretty suprised by it. I was just wondering if anyone else I know has ever considered the same topic.
Anyways, life is going well for now. I am actually able to afford a three day trip to Granada where hopefully we will have a free place to stay with the other kids from the IP program. Me and 6 other girls are leaving tomorrow at 18:30 and come back Monday about the same time. I guess we´ll be missing a parade and a festival, but it doesn´t seem to be too big of a deal, so I´m okay with missing it. and next weekend one of my best friends, Sarah Chase, is coming to visit!! Super stoked on that! Its weird that I have people nearby to visit and to have visit me. Who would have really thought this would happen in Europe? I mean, I can barely get people to visit me when I live in Long Beach, which is an amazing city itself as well.

Still catching up on the blogging... kinda long again.

Hi again. So I have some time to kill for a bit so I figured I would write a little bit more about whats happening in my life here in Madrid. I don´t really know where to start, so don´t be too suprised if its really scattered in thought. Try and keep up and I apologize ahead of time.

So for the first month of being here we had to take intense language, history, and culture classes. Those just finished last Thursday. And they were intense. I loved them though... for the most part that is. The grammar and composition class we had was really really helpful for me, especially since I didn´t do well with using spanish regularly once last semester ended. And the history and culture class were pretty awesome too. I learned a lot in both of them. I honestly came to Spain knowing very little about the country and the people. I knew a bit about their political interests and their economic crisis, but thats it. I now know about their political system, their recent political history (post-Franco), and their population issues. I never knew for the last 15 years or so there has been a massive immigration from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. In culture the most interesting fact I can say I learned was that the number one cause of death in women is due to spousal abuse. Isn´t that insane! That lecture was really intense. Almost unbelievable. And of course they explained the gastronomy of the culture and how its based on olive oil, fish, ham, and wine.
If you don´t know me well enough to know, I am a very picky eater usually. If it doesn´t look good I don´t touch it. Or if I don´t know exactly what it is. However, that has totally gone out the window since my arrival here. For one reason, during our first two weeks in the dorms we had no choice in what we ate or when for that matter. If you didn´t like it you either went without eating or you paid for it elsewhere. I kind of liked the food situation there though because it forced me to try new things every day. I eat fish now... big shocker to some of you. Just earlier this week I went to a restaurant that has foods from Galicia, which is in the north of Spain. They´re main diet consists of fish of course. I willingly ate calamari, not the kind I´m used to though.. these rings were huge and very fishy.
My favorite foods so far have been tortilla española, mixtos con huevos, napolitanas de chocolate, and cheese. Haha... tortilla española is basically eggs and potatoes with greens and such mixed in. I don´t know how its cooked, but it is delicious cold and hot... I prefer hot though. Mixtos are grilled bread with ham and cheese, and con huevos is with eggs too. I tend to make these at home now. Napolitanas are great! They make them with ham and cheese too, but I had a bad experience with one once and just don´t want to give it another chance. Haha... I prefer the ones with chocolate cream and chocolate sprinkles on them, but they make them with like a custard in them too. They´re crossaint-like too. And cheese is everywhere. When you go to the tapas bars. You buy a drink and they give you a small serving of a normal food. I.E. I order a beer and they give me a small bite-sized piece of bread with jámon serrano (cured ham), queso, tortilla española, or some other sort of topping, like a tomatoe paste. So you kill two birds with one stone by going to a tapas bar and drinking and getting dinner in too. I really like that law here. It goes way back... If you want I can give you the history of the tapas too. Haha... There are a few tapas bars that I really like and when people come to visit I will surely be taking them there. One of them is in the downtown area and is run by three brothers. They´re very nice and friendly, and they give you a LOT of tapas with your drinks. So it makes up for a jarra being 7€. I think I come out of that one more full than tipsy.

We had a week break between last Thursday and yesterday, which was our first day of our fall semester. I stayed in Madrid and did some traveling. I already mentioned how I went to the Reina Sofia and saw many of Pablo Picasso´s paintings, drawings, sketchings and all. It was sooo amazing. I just have to mention it again. During the break I also roamed town a bit on my own. I chose to go pack to El Parque Del Buen Retiro and took a few pictures of statues and the lake there. I sat and enjoyed the weather for a while on a hill next to the lake and read a book in spanish and listened to music on my ipod. Haha, but the first time I went to Retiro was on a Sunday and it was amazing! I love drum and bass music and hadn´t yet enjoyed a drum circle back in the states. But every Sunday at Retiro near the giant staircase into the water there are several small drum circles and its amazing. So many people are in the park on Sundays, walking, playing the drums, laying out in the sun, having botellones (which is when the youth meet in public places and drink calimochos or cervezas... usually a preparty, but can occur at any time of day.). The police are in constant patrol there. Its so amazing though. I´m hoping to make it the huge market they have on Sundays called the Rastro. The last two Sundays its been rainy, just recently rained, or looks like it will rain, so I haven´t gone yet.
Like I said, we just started our first semester of courses yesterday. And as of now I´ve only had two classes. La Mujer en Literatura Hispañola. I´m enjoying it so far, but then again we´ve only lectured on women in the Bible so far. And thats an interesting topic to me anyways. I´m really suprised at how well I´m understanding my professors so far. I need it to be relatively quiet though. Any small noise and I loose my train of thought and get lost in what the instructor is saying. The other class I have is Relacciones Internacionales. Which is what my major is pretty much and I´ve taken a course very similar back at LB. The issues Spain and the U.S. have are very similar in the highest levels. So I´m grasping the concept pretty well so far. Eventhough the instructor is really hard to understand. Those are just my Thursday/Friday classes though. On Monday/Tuesday I´m taking an advanced grammar class, a class on the geography of Spain, and a class on the economy of Spain. The hardest class for me will probably be grammar. I´m positive about it. Haha.

Oh! I almost forgot to talk about the music here in Spain. Music is one of the things in life I can´t live without, so go figure when we had to do a presentation on an aspect of spanish culture for class I chose music. Basically they listen to a lot of american music and foreign made music. When you listen to Los Primeros 40 FM station more than half the songs aren´t in spanish, and a good 80% of those songs are in english. Crazy right. They´re much more international here when it comes to music. Me and my friends also had the chance to go to a huge music festival held here on the university campus by the Metro company. Its called Metro Rock. And it was AWESOME!!! Haha... It was two Saturdays ago and we had been seeing the signs all over since we got here. But I was the only one that had mentioned really really wanting to go, but I wasn´t about to go by myself. So when the girls called Saturday morning to say they wanted to go, I jumped up and headed over. It was so great. It would take me forever to describe it all. I have a bunch of pictures and videos up from it. There were soooo many people there! It was insane. Me and the girls got there really early, shortly after it opened. We bought tickets from scalpers because they were 10€ cheaper than buying them at the window. There were two stages. One for bands and rock music I guess you could say, and the second was mostly electronica. And both were absolutely fabulous. We listened to a couple groups that I really really liked. One is the group called Elbicho, they´re a spanish group and in their performance they remind me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The other artist I was totally into was Melendi. But I had alreaday known I liked him. Haha. He´s hot. Haha. There was a reggae-like band called El Tio Calambres that I liked too. I haven´t had the chance to give them any more of a listen though. The electronica stage was off the hook when the DJ started. His name was Alexander Kowalski... he was amazing. I didn´t stop moving until Emma needed to sit or else she would faint. There was a drum circle that acted as a filler between acts on the main stage. They were soooo awesome as well! Our first trip to give them a listen was fairly early in the day and we didn´t dance much, but after we saw Elbicho we got down with the drum circle... Haha! It was sooo fun!!! The last DJ didn´t go on until 2:30 AM! I would have totally been down to stay the entire time if I had someone else to stay with me and a safe way to get home. My place is kind of the main tracks, so I wasn´t sure if the nocturnal buses would have gone my way and I didn´t want to test it and have to pay a lot of money for a taxi back, especially if I ended up waking up my roomates. Gosh, after that show all of our feet were nasty black and brown from the dirt at the electronica stage. Haha... such a great time though! My favorite adventure here so far.

For a while I was planning on moving out of my apartment and finding a new place, closer to my friends and the downtown are, and cheaper too if I could find it. But I wasn´t having much success and was able to get more comfortable at my current place, so I chose to stay. I live with 2 other women. One is probably in her late 20s or early 30s, she´s from Africa, but used to live in the NY. She speaks english perfectly fine. She has a 6-yearold girl that lives with us, and right now her mom is visiting. The other girl is probably in her early 30s too and is from Venezuela. She only speaks spanish, so I get some practice in, but she was just on vacation for 2 weeks and got back on Wednesday I believe. So we haven´t had much talking time. I live in a barrio called Tetuan. It has a lot of immigrants. No very many Spaniards. But its cool. I´m okay with it.
I really don´t know what else to say, so I´m just going to leave it here. Have a great day everyone!