Week One

It's been one week since I've been in the United States!

A week in Espana - and 3 full days in Barcelona! So far, so good. It's so overwhelming to be in a new, huge city - especially one where everyone speaks a different language! So far though, I'd say I've been doing a pretty good job! Hopefully getting adjusted doesn't take too much longer, because I only have 5 weeks left here!

We use the metro system, busses, or taxis to get most places - as well as A LOT of walking! I have class every day from 10am - 2pm. It's a Spanish Language and Culture class, and so far I really like it!

We've done some exploring, but I feel like I'll never be able to see all of the amazing things that this city has to offer. There's so much history, architecture, and culture to take in - plus lots of shopping and fun to be had! I'll post about some of the amazing places we've been in the next few days.

Speaking of shopping, supposedly all of the stores in the city begin their huge sales tomorrow! I can't wait to buy some of the beautiful things I've seen in all of the windows here.

Yesterday we went to the beach after class - my first beach trip of the summer! The beach we went to was pretty tourist-y, and I think later this week we'll try to go to another beach farther away from the crowds.

I have so many thoughts and plans and things I want to write about running through my head! I can't keep them all straight to write them here. But I guess a basic summary would be that I'm having a great time and loving the city!

Miss you all!

xoxo, Lauren

We made it!!

Hola mis amigos!

Estoy en Barcelona!

After a loooong bus ride (most of which I slept through) we made it into the city. We got off the bus to find all of the senor's y senora's waiting for us with paper signs with our names on them (you know, the way the limo drivers at the airports do? so cute!)

My senora's name is Rafaela. She's 73 years old and is the tiniest woman! She's very nice and I could understand almost everything she said, as well as get her to understand what I was saying (most of the time!). Maggie and I have a little room with twin beds, a closet and a dresser, and 2 windows (one of which we almost broke) that look out onto the city streets. We share a bathroom with each other and eat breakfast and dinner with our Senora every night!

Tomorrow is our placement exam at the university to see what classes we'll be in for the next few weeks. We'll see if my Spanish is as good as I think it is!

Pictures and more on Barcelona to come soon!

xoxo

Lauren

Toledo!

Hellllooo from Toledo! We left Madrid around 9am and took an hour-long bus trip to Toledo – one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been! There was SO much history to take in here, and I’m sure I didn’t catch all of it, but the basics are that at different points in history, it was ruled by leaders of all three of the major religions of the world – Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Walking through the streets felt like I had stepped into a time machine or a part of Disney’s Epcot or something. The narrow, windy cobblestone streets, old buildings, and beautiful religious sanctuaries were unlike anything I’d ever seen. For the first time since I’ve been here (which I realize has only been like, 3 days) I felt like I was in a foreign country. Madrid was different and beautiful and great, but it could have just as easily been Washington, D.C. with a lot of Spanish speakers!

Our tour guide told us that Toledo is described in 5 words – Santos, Cantos, Cuestas, Sabios, y Encantos (I hope I got those right!) Santos means saints, referencing all of the religious significance of the city. Cantos means pebbles, referencing the pebbles that come from the river surrounding Toledo and line the streets. Cuentos means hills – self-explanatory! Sabios means wisdom, or wise men, also self explanatory. Encuentros translated means “charm” or “charms,” referencing the city’s overall charm as well as all of the little charming places and things you can find walking around.

After climbing up the steep hills (not kidding – really steep), we went to San Juan de los Reyes Monastery. It was built by Queen Isabel (well, she planned for it to be built – a famous architect actually did it but I forget his name) as a thank you to God when she was awarded the throne of Spain…sometime in the 1400’s. It was home to Franciscan monks and nuns – all of whom must have been in really good shape, because the walk to get there and the walk up and down the stairs was pretty exhausting! I could have misunderstood the tour guide, but I think he said that there are only 7 Franciscan nuns left in the world!

After the Monastery we went to what used to be a synagogue, but has been turned into a museum for the Jewish faith. There were only 2 Jewish people in my group (2 and ½ if you count me!), and according to our tour guide, there are only 2,500 Jews in Spain. You could see in the building where the men were allowed to worship, and the upstairs portion where women and children under 13 years old had to go. There was also a museum with all of the different parts of the Jewish faith – the Torah, menorahs, etc… plus explanations of all of the different Jewish ceremonies and traditions.

Our last stop was at a beautiful church that was decorated by the famous painter, el Greco. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I snuck a few =] We didn’t stick around there for long, though – just long enough to hear about the significance of the beautiful painting by el Greco showing the contrast between the “people” in heaven and those on earth.

I was really impressed with this city. We had some time after our tours to get lunch and shop – two of my favorite activities! I had paella, a traditional Spanish food made of rice and seafood. It was delicious!

We shopped a little bit and then went back to the buses to check into our hotel. After some time at the pool and a meeting about our classes, we decided we hadn’t seen enough of the city, so we went back out to watch the USA world cup game at an Irish pub that we found earlier in the day. After that a group of 4 of us ate dinner at this really cute Italian restaurant! It was delicious!

Now it’s time for bed, since we have to wake up at 7:45 to begin our 7-hour bus ride to Barcelona to meet our Senora and begin to get settled in for the next 5 weeks! I can’t wait to meet her, to be able to unpack and stop living out of my suitcase, and to explore Barcelona.

Soon I'll put all of my pictures on facebook! The internet connection isn't great though, so hopefully it will get better soon.

Adios for now!

Xoxo

Lauren

Hola from Espana! (a two-day catch up!)

Hi everyone!

I made it Madrid! I only get 30 free minutes of internet in our hotel, so I've been typing blog posts and saving them to put up when I went to use the internet - sorry in advance for the long post, but it's 2 days worth!

Thursday, June 24

Finally! I’m sitting in my bed at our hotel in Madrid.

After one of the most stressful travel days ever, we’ve finally made it to Spain – together, and with all of our luggage. You’d think that it wouldn’t be that hard to get two people, two suitcases, two carry-on’s, and two purses from Philadelphia to Madrid – otherwise why would anyone travel?! Well, if that’s true, today was an exception to that rule.

First of all – our flight out of Philly was delayed an hour (which should be no surprise to anyone familiar with the Philadelphia airport!) So, after the 7 hour plane ride, Maggie and I found ourselves running through the London Heathrow airport because our flight got in late, taking a 10 minute bus ride to another terminal, going through security again, running to our gate, which had no plane outside of it, but rather a bus to take us on another 3 minute trip to our plane. After all that rushing, we sat on the runway at the London airport for close to 2 hours because – ready for this? - French air traffic control is on strike, meaning that no one (or very few people) can fly in their air space. So after we got rerouted to God-knows-what-path around France, we got into Madrid at 1:30 – 2 hours late. We missed the opportunity to travel to the hotel with our group travel director, so we had to take a taxi there. Thankfully we met some other people who are in ISA (our group) and we were able to get to the hotel with them. (On a good note, I heard Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” and Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” in the taxi ride, so that was fun!) So here’s hoping that a) today was not an indication of what the rest of the trip will be like and b) French air traffic control decides to stop being on strike by the time we need to fly in their air space again!

Once we got to the hotel, we showered and went on a bus tour of Madrid. It’s a really beautiful city with a lot of history and beautiful architecture. I want to post pictures, but they take a long time to load and I don't want to waste my 30 minutes of free internet!

We explored a little bit after the bus tour and found somewhere to eat with some girls in our program. Ordering at the restaurant took some effort – but we figured it out! The food was great! (As a side note, I couldn’t help and think that if my family was to travel here, or anywhere foreign for that matter, they would have a pretty hard time finding places to eat! You have to be adventurous with willing to try things that you’ve never imagined you’d eat before!)

Hopefully once I’m not so exhausted (I think I’ve had 2 hours sleep in the last 36 hours!) we can go explore it some more before we have to leave. Tomorrow morning we have tours at two famous museums with some free time to explore and get lunch, and then the whole evening to ourselves. Saturday we leave for Toledo, where we spend one night, and then on Sunday we take the long bus trip to our final destination – Barcelona! Can’t wait!

Thanks for following me!

Xoxo

Lauren

Friday, June 25

Today we started out with a tour of Madrid’s most famous museum, and one of the most famous art museums in Europe, El Museo del Prado. We had the choice of going with an English-speaking or Spanish-speaking tour guide, and I picked the English-speaking one. I’m glad I did, because I was able to understand what she was saying and learned a lot about 3 famous Spanish artists – Velazquez, el Greco, and Goya. I’d learned about these artists and their works in Spanish class in high school, but it was pretty cool to see the originals and learn even more about them! We couldn’t take any pictures in el Prado, but you can take my word for it- it was a really beautiful museum.

During our free time, a group of 8 of us walked around the city trying to find somewhere to get lunch and just explore. We ended up at a very American-ized restaurant called Vitamina. After lunch we walked around some more and then met the group for a trip to our second museum of the day, Reina Sofia. This is Madrid’s contemporary art museum, and apparently the only museum in Spain where you can see the works of Salvador Dali. We also saw works by Picasso (obviously) and Juan Miro. The tour guide explained something interesting about how cubism and surrealism came to be such prominent forms of art– since many people often comment that “it isn’t really art; anyone could do it.” These two types of art came about when photography and cinematography came onto the scene. All of sudden, a snapshot could be taken and could be a more accurate representation of a scene than any artist could ever paint. So, works of Picasso’s like this one: were a way to challenge the way we look at art and make us not only look at the painting, but make the painting evoke some sort of emotion from us.

Again, I wish I could post pictures...but at some point I'll have blog posts with pictures and I'll post them all on facebook!

We napped after the museums, and I think tonight we’ll go out somewhere to find a place to watch Spain in the world cup game tonight! Tomorrow we leave for Toledo at 9am!

Sorry for the extra long, 2 day post, but so much has happened in the last 2 days, I’ve got to have it all written down!

Xoxo,
Lauren

what we've all been waiting for...

(and when I say we all, I really just mean me!)

First of all, I've been waiting all summer to start this blog! I love reading other people's blogs and I love writing/journaling, so I figured blogging would be something great to get into. I just didn't know what to blog about! Which brings me to the second thing we've (I've) been waiting for..

...i leave for SPAIN in less than 48 hours!

At 6:30 on Wednesday night, Maggie and I will get on a plane to Madrid (by way of London) to begin our 7-week study abroad trip (and, who are we kidding, vacation of a lifetime!). We fly into Madrid, and then after a 2-day tour of the city venture to Barcelona where we'll be taking a class and living in a homestay right in the city.

I've wanted to go to Spain for a loooong time. In fact, my cousin Reghan and I used to plan trips to Spain - always putting it off until a summer came when we'd be older, have more money, etc... (which, by the way, is another reason I'm so excited for this trip - Regz will be in Spain this summer too! She'll be in a different city, but we'll get to meet up with her at the end of our trip, which I can't wait for! I never thought we'd actually make it to Spain together =] )

I credit Spanish class in school (from 3rd grade all the way through Spanish 5 my senior year of high school) with giving me the desire to go so badly. Let's hope all of those years of Spanish come back to me once I step off the plane in Madrid!

I've spent the last two nights packing - not an easy job for someone with a lot of clothes and a bad case of indecisiveness. Thankfully, I picked up a pack of (in my opinion) the greatest things ever invented...space saver bags! Check these out...

Cool, right? There are five bags there...and 4 pairs of jeans, and a whole bunch of dresses, shirts, shorts, pajamas, t-shirts, etc... which alllll fit into this suitcase!

...along with toiletries, accessories, and shoes of course. And, the part that I'm proudest of is that it weighs in at 49.2 lbs! Exactly 0.6 lbs under the baggage weight limit for British Airways.

The packed suitcase has made me realize that this is actually happening...though I'm still having trouble believing it. I've been planning, talking about, and getting ready for this trip for so long - it's so hard to believe that June 23rd is just about here! I can't wait to keep this blog updated so that everyone at home can keep up with me this summer and so that I'll always have a way to remember everything that happens. I hope you'll follow me!

xoxo,

lauren