Semana Santa

It's SPRING BREAK!!!!! (as of 2 hours ago!!)

Over Semana Santa (holy week) I will be doing a tour of Andalucia, which is an autonomous community on the southern coast of Spain. Here's my itinerary :)

Tuesday (today): Tonight, my train leaves at 7:54 p.m... I am traveling with Kristen Mages, and we will be staying overnight in Madrid in a hostal once we arrive.

Wednesday: Bus to Sevilla leaves at 10 a.m. We will be exploring Sevilla and seeing the world-famous Easter processionals that occur the entire week and that culminate on Friday. It's likely that I'll get to meet up with some friends there too so that should be fun! Leaving Seville Friday.

Friday: Bus from Sevilla to Málaga. Málaga is a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea, and we will be spending one night there. I'm sooooo excited to relax on the beach!! That might be one of my highlights of the trip :)

Saturday: Bus from Málaga to Granada. On Sunday, we will go to Easter mass, find a nice dinner somewhere, and visit the Alhambra (a Moorish palace and fortress) at 6 pm!

Monday: Bus from Granada to Córdoba. Visit to the Mesquita (a really famous mosque) included.

Wednesday: Bus from Córdoba to Madrid to Pamplona. Home sweet home :)

I'll be back next week on Wednesday night. I hope you all have a good Easter; I'll be sure to let you know how mine goes here! ¡Hasta luego!

Barcelona! and March in general...

First of all, I'm sorry it's been awhile since my last blog entry! I suddenly got busy with class projects, orchestra, and trips to Barcelona and Madrid... so here's an update!

Barcelona

Two weekends ago, I went to Barcelona (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) on a trip that the University planned for international students. There were about 35 of us, and 15 engineer students from San Sebastian joined us... they were nice and it was fun to see some new faces! We left on Friday morning, arrived 4 or 5 hours later, checked into our hostel, and started exploring. The hostel was actually really nice- the rooms were really clean and open and the breakfast room was huge with tables and chairs, flat screen tv, computers, and a snack bar. Breakfast was really good and included cereals, toast, fruit, coffee, juice, water, tea, and small breakfast cookies and cakes (common here) ... I was happy with how that turned out.

 

(Kristen Frank in the hostel at breakfast!)

The first thing we saw in Barcelona was Las Ramblas, which is a street with a really wide boulevard in the middle for pedestrians, with all kinds of vendors and tourist shops with palm trees lining the edge. On the sides of the street were shops, restaurants, a huge open food market, and at the end, a harbor with a pierre and bridge stretching out ahead of us. It was dark and the water was beautiful, sparkling in the street lights... we even got to see a big cruise ship come in! For dinner, we ended up at an octopus pincho-style restaurant... it was a local kind of place and they had whole raw octopus waiting on the counter just eagerly waiting to be cut up and eaten... overall though, a really fun first impression of Barcelona :)

The next day, we went on a general tour of the city, going through the gothic neighborhood and seeing one or two cathedrals, narrow tall streets of apartments and shops, and other neat things... I felt like it was a true taste of traditional Spanish-style city. After the tour, a smaller group of us went along Las Ramblas again towards the harbor, stopping at vendors along the way and eventually resting on a ledge by the sidewalk on the harbor and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather. Our next endeavor was to walk to the actual beach, and when we arrived I was so glad we did- it was beautiful. The Mediterranean Sea was a pretty blue color stretching out to the horizon, and the sand beach was perfect. We took our shoes off and went down to the water and took pictures- it felt so amazing. I absolutely loved it :) We ate lunch outside at a café on the beach and made our way back to the main plaza to meet the rest of the group again at around 4. Next, I saw La Sagrada Familia- a cathedral that Gaudi designed that's still being built- it was unlike anything I've ever seen... I can't decide if I like it or not, but it's definitely interesting. It's a giant piece of art, and a religious monument. After was La Pedrera, a house that Gaudi designed that has no perpendicular surfaces and that has a roof that kind of reminded me of wonderland... really interesting. Overall, a good day.

(one side of La Sagrada Familia)

(the other side!)

(on the roof of La Pedrera)

Sunday: after having breakfast at the hostel, we went as a group to this giant park that Gaudi designed that sits on top of a big hill (or small mountain I guess) ... it was originally meant for housing, but at the time people hated it. I can't understand why... it was absolutely wonderful, and it was sunny and at least in the 60s with a clear blue sky. There was a giant terrace at the beginning supported by huge pillars and decorated with tiles and other carvings... and there were winding paths with (good) street musicians for atmosphere. One path led up to one of the highest points of the park and had a rock monument that I climbed up, and at the top had a birds' eye view of the park and Barcelona below. Another path led to a really cool Spanish house which reminded me of class Spain... the park was amazing overall. Next, a smaller group of us went to Las Ramblas for lunch and ate a small Pasta-Pizza Restaurant, and then went home on the bus. Overall, I just loved Barcelona. I have to go back someday... it was an amazing weekend, and my favorite place this semester so far I think.

Madrid

Last Wednesday, I took a field trip to Madrid with my culture and civilization class- we left at 8 in the morning, got there at 1:30, went to the Senate, National Library, and an archaeology museum, left at 6:30 and got home around midnight. The Senate was kind of interesting... my favorite part was this old library, and all of the walls were comprised of dark intricately-carved wood... there was a little balcony that ran along the edge, for access to more books, and two of the corners had spiral staircases enclosed in wood to get to the balcony. There were also newspapers from all over the world in there, including the New York Times from the day before... overall, LOTS of driving for 5 hours in Madrid... I have to go back sometime and really explore. It sounds like it could be a really neat city :)

Orchestra

On Friday, we didn't have class and the orchestra went to Irun to rehearse with the Irun orchestra. For this concert, we're playing together in one big orchestra... we rehearsed for 5 1/2 hours on Friday, for 2 1/2 hours in Pamplona on Saturday, and gave our Pamplona concert on Sunday night! We played arrangements of 1812 (Tchaikovsky), Rakastava (Sibelius), St. Paul's Suite (Holst), and Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saints). Peñi, Antonio, and Antonio's brother Miguel came to watch me, and they really liked it! :) It felt good to give an orchestra concert again- I miss orchestra at home and will really enjoy playing in it next year. Orchestra here's been pretty fun overall, and I've met some really nice and fun people :) Our concert in Irun is on Thursday night.

What else is new?? I have a lot of class projects to do, and spring break is starts next week! Peñi mentioned today that Sunday is Palm Sunday, so we're going to go to the Pamplona Cathedral to see the palm processionals. I can't BELIEVE that Easter is in a week and a half... where has the time gone? It's going to be April before I know it! The weather yesterday and today has been beautiful- 60s or 70 and sunny. It's so nice to not have to wear a coat to school when it's only March.

Well, time to go for now... so hasta luego!!

Half-Way Through

I can't believe that I'm already half done with my Spain experience. I've been here for two months, and finals are in another two months- the time seems to have flown, but at the same time it's hard to imagine my life before I came here and before I knew all of the amazing people I've met, my host family, the culture, Pamplona in general, the language... I'm curious to see how the last two months go compared to the first two. I have a feeling that they'll fly- I'll have lots to do! For example, next weekend, I'm visiting Barcelona through a university-planned trip, the next week I'm taking a field trip to Madrid with my culture class, the next weekend I have 2 days of orchestra rehearsals and then two concerts, and at the beginning of April I have 12 days of spring break! Then, there's only 3 weekends between break and finals. It's hard to believe...

I think I've pretty much got a routine down now- I've noticed that not as much surprises me anymore and that I feel pretty comfortable with life here, which probably means that I've really been learning the culture and adjusting to the lifestyle. Yesterday, I took a nap and dreamed in Spanish for the first time that I can remember- I've heard that once you dream in a foreign language then you really are immersed in it. I can pretty much understand Spanish tv, or radio, and catch most of what Spaniards say to me... it's pretty neat. I know I have a TON to learn still, but I've heard from a lot of people that my Spanish sounds good to them! That's encouraging :) I learn so many new words each day, and a lot of it I think is due to my host family- they're constantly helping me and teaching me new words. I'm going to miss them a lot once I leave...

As far as classes, I've noticed that there are WAY less projects and homework assignments than at Concordia, but what we do have to do is graded more heavily (in my experience so far)... it's interesting because at home I generally been able to practice various skills on homework assignments to learn how to do it well and to know what the teacher expects from me... it's interesting how students here can do well when there's so little out-of-class work. Studying for finals is going to be intense! It might bring me back to how studying for Advanced Placement tests in high school was, where the entirety of the class is scored on one test. I think I'll be fine though :) It's just something different than what I'm used to. I feel like a happy medium between Concordia-style teaching and this would be perfect.

I've heard that there are four stages, emotionally, of studying abroad. First, you're in the honeymoon stage, where everything is new and exciting, and you just can't believe you're actually living in a foreign country! Then you hit the lowest point, and kind of miss your old life and can get culturally fatigued... next, is the stage where things gradually get better and you start to notice things you do or don't like about the culture. At the end, you realize that the culture has become a part of you and leaving might be hard. I feel like I'm in the third stage, where I'm noticing what I like about Spain and miss about the United States. For example, the food schedule (lunch at 2:30 or so, dinner at 9:30 or 10) is ok here, but I kind of miss my old routine because then I'm not so hungry in the morning and early afternoon, and I don't have to go to bed on a full stomach! I also miss doing things like watching movies with friends- so far, I've only watched one movie while I've been here. On the other hand, I love how outgoing and friendly the people here are. I can talk to pretty much anyone on the street if I need directions or something, and they're usually more than willing to help. One time when I needed directions, the lady that I stopped even walked me to where I needed to go... I also love talking with other international students and learning about their culture. For example, earlier this week I was talking to a friend from Taiwan and a friend from Japan and we were all comparing languages... it was interesting to see how Mandarin and Japanese work and are different from more European-type languages. I feel like leaving will be bittersweet- I'll be happy to go home, back to friends, family, Minnesota, and to what I've always known, but at the same time it will be hard I think to leave my host family and all of the new friends I've made here.

What else is new?? I think that's about it for now! I miss you guys at home, and hope you are all doing well.

¡Hasta luego!