BARCELONA TRIP!!!! (Thanksgiving, Biar)

First of all, I am so impressed with our program here in Alicante, because I honestly believe that our directors and professors could not possibly do anything more to make our experience here more amazing than it already is. On Thanksgiving, our Academic Director (and professor) José Ramón took us to Biar, his hometown. We walked around the city, went to a cool museum, and even got to see a real candy factory where they make turrón (turrón is this really good candy type thing that is popular around Christmas time. They have all different sorts. It comes in a bar form, thicker than a candy bar and a little bit bigger) and it was really cool to see how they make it, package it, etc. Biar is a mountain town, so when we got there, the air was so fresh, the city was clean, and the people were soooo nice. I loved it. We got to go into this old Renaissance era church, which was totally cool. Biar is just a beautiful town.

That night, we all got dressed up and went to this restaurant where our program had prepared this HUGE Thanksgiving dinner, complete with Turkey, Cranberry sauce and all. It was intense. It was so nice to have dinner with everyone. There were some people that stood up and said what they were thankful for, we had a photograph contest, where we got to see different people's photos of Alicante, artistic photos, funny photos, etc. and there were also a few girls that at the end o the night, played and sang Christmas songs to prepare for the Christmas season. I literally thought I was going to cry during Silent Night because the whole room was singing. It was awesome. :)

The next day we went to BARCELONA!!!! I am in love with this city. It is gorgeous, it's huge, they have some of the best shopping I've ever seen (and not all of it expensive thankfully), and the people are amazingly nice. On the way there, we went and visited a bodega de cava (champagne winery) which was really cool. we had already been to a few bodegas de vino (wine) but it was interesting to learn about the different processes used to make Champagne. Then we got to taste some. It was a bruit (=not that good, at least, I didn't think so), but it was still fun. Then we arrived in Barcelona and just driving through the town to get to our hotel was cool. It is such a huge city, I loved it. It just convinced me that someday, I really would love to live in a huge city.

Saturday was devoted mostly to walking around the city and shopping, although we did get to see the Gaudí houses. They were super cool, although we did not go inside because there was a huge line! (will post pictures of these in a bit).

Sunday we woke up (late) got on the bus and went to the Parc Güell which is a super famous park created by Gaudí, where he used to live. This place was huge! I'm sure you have heard of the famous Gaudí benches in Barcelona. Well, if you haven't, this is where they are located. We walked around the whole place, and there was just so much interesting stuff to see, then at the end we finally came to the benches, and I was super excited. It literally is this huge terrace with a wavy sort of bench curving all along the exterior. The bench is decorated with a mosaic theme throughout, and no two parts look alike. It was awesome. I walked around and took pictures of all of my favorite parts. My recommendation: absolutely do NOT go to Barcelona without seeing this. It was amazing. (the history of this is really interesting.... look it up here on Wiki... and yes, that is my information source for everything.)

Sunday we also went by the Sagrada Familia, which is a huge Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, also built and conceived by Gaudí. We did not get to go inside, and the building is currently (and has been for a while) undergoing massive reconstruction due to damages it suffered during the Spanish Civil War. (If you want to read more, go to Wikipedia).

At Parc Güell...mosaic lizard

I have a ridiculous number of pictures of this bench,
every part was different, it was so beautiful!

...Parc Güell...

Parc Güell still

Sagrada Familia... too bad they were doing tons of construction... oh and our program only gave us about 20 minutes to walk around and look at it, we couldn't even go inside! I plan on returning to see it again someday (like, maybe when I live in Barcelona?!)

One of the Gaudí houses at night.

A la bodega de cava... there was champaigne everywhere,
rows and rows, and rows, going on forever.

Catie Jane and I being super excited about going to Barcelona

The girls and me at Thanksgiving.

El Castillo de Biar (the castle in Biar)

Me and Catie Jane atop the castle... notice: we are eating
Chupa Chups (aka, the best sucker ever made...
I'm bring home tons for Christmas! lol)

nieve¡SNOW!neige

Today is a sad day. It is snowing in Boulder, and I am not
there. Winter Park got six inches of snow in the last 24 hours....
I am to the point where I dream about snowboarding....
29 more days.... And then I'll be in the mountains again...
reunited with my true love... fresh, powdery, SNOW! lol

ONE More Month

My time in Spain is quickly coming to a close. Only 30 more days. It feels a bit weird to be saying that. I have noticed that the older I get (which thank God I'm still young... haha) the faster and faster time seems to go by. Sometimes, it is a comfort, and sometimes it is frustrating. I feel like I just got here, and at the same time, I feel like I've been here forever. It's strange that our conception of time is so skewed from reality. I feel as if time is the one thing that keeps me constantly guessing.

I was talking to Jeremy a while ago and we were talking of the possibility that time could actually move slower some days than others, and not simply because we have nothing to do, but that two individual people could think that a day went by slowly of their own accord. The question is, did time actually move slower that day? Or was it just those two people's conception of time, that for some reason or another, intertwined? Who knows. Life is weird. 30 days and counting.....

Finally a Quiet Saturday... oh wait, Friday

So one great thing about Spain is that I don't have classes on Fridays. This means that when I wake up and feel like it's Saturday (mostly until halfway through the day and then I remember, almost gloriously, that it's only Friday, and you would think that I would get used to it, but no. I'm pleasantly surprised every week. Kinda nice, no?)

So my midterms are finally over, let's just say they were intense. And when I mean intense, they would have been intense if they were in English. Add the factor of writing Spanish essays for like, 2 hours for each class, and you'll feel a little bit of my pain.

To celebrate the end of midterms, all the girls got together last night for the botellón (explanations upon request). It was fabulous. We always meet new people going out, and the best part is, nobody ever knows I'm not Spanish until I tell them. And then they flip out. It's actually kind of hilarious. I love the facial expressions of shock when I tell people I'm American. And then when I go back to the States, nobody is going to be impressed by my American-ness. Darn. But literally, I could be having a conversation with someone for a good ten, fifteen minutes, and then one of my American friends will come over and start talking to me in English, and then people normally get super confused. hahaha. It's great. And then they still insist that it's super strange that I seem so Spanish. I mean, what can I say? I guess I've just turned into and española. sweet!

So it is getting to that point in the trip. Whenever you live in a foreign country (because this is my second time) I feel like it always gets to this point. The point is where you know you're in the home stretch of the trip and you're thinking a lot about all the fabulous things you're going to do when you get home, and how much you miss everybody and what it's going to be like (and for me, you can't wait to snowboard, drive, eat at Chick-fil-A, etc.) so you psych yourself up for it waayyy too much so that you are super ready to go home. BUT. Then you have those days where it's just pure happiness and you realize how much you love where you are living, love your friends, can't believe that you only have four more weekends to go, don't want to think about the prospect that you won't be able to speak Spanish very much ever, and that when you go back to the States, you're going to have some very weird habits which include the following: the tendency to want to give dos besos to every new acquaintance; the desire to always have a piece of fruit after cena, not to mention that you have la comida at 2 and la cena around 10; you can't imagine going out around 9 or 10 and only staying out until 2 when the bars close, oh ya, I can't legally drink in the US (forgot about that one); you feel that a meal without pan (bread, like a baguette), is definitely unacceptable; you feel that leggings and tights are perfectly acceptable attire for every day of the week, no matter what; you are going to want to send text messages in Spanish (and you also call and hang up if you want to tell someone you're either thinking about them/waiting for them/you got their message/or you are replying 'yes' to their text message); you'll want to meet your friends out on the street to sit and talk rather than inviting them inside your actual house; etc...

I could go on, but I won't bore you with the Spanish ways which I know and love. Mostly, I can't wait to come home to go snowboarding, have Christmas with my family, real Mexican and American food, drive my car, see my puppy, play my piano, see my friends, and see some SNOW! But I will miss Spain with its crazy Spaniards, weird time schedules, siestas and all.

Craft Fair!!

Some of you may not know, but my mother is really talented at making jewelry. She has recently gotten really into it, and has been looking for a while into getting involved in some craft fairs. In Highlands Ranch, it is super competitive to get into them, and the jewelry category is the most competitive because there are a ton of people that do it. My mother's first real craft fair is tomorrow (today for me already). I am SO EXCITED for her!!! I have this tendency to steal a lot of the jewelry she makes because it is so beautiful. I just wanted to wish her luck, and I know she is going to do AWESOME!! I can't wait to get back to Colorado so I can steal some more of her jewelry.... hehehe. :) Isn't she just so cute?! I love you mumma!

Next Semester Rocks My LIFE!!

So I have just finished registering. Yes, this early. Really. Want to know why so early? Oh yes, it's because I'm finally old enough to have more credits than the majority of the 30,000 other people that attend CU Boulder. So these are the classes I am taking: (don't laugh)

FREN 2110: Advanced French Grammer II
PORT 2350: Portuguese for the Spanish Speaker
SPAN 3100: Literary Analysis in Spanish Literature (with Sarah Levy!!)
BCOR 2000: Accounting & Financial Analysis (I'm dreading it!)
BCOR 2300: Adding Value with Management (such a breeze)
(online) ECON 3403: International Economics & Policy (fun times...not)

so yes, business and languages. I mean, what else is there in life?? Apparently not much for me!

It's That Time of Year Again...

Oh yes. That's right. The time in the semester when everything catches up to you and somehow your professors think it's the exact right time to add in a ton more homework. I have midterms this week and next, just found out for my Politics and Terrorism class that in addition to the midterm that we have on Monday and the 8-10 page research paper we have due on the 26th, we are going to do an in-class debate. Then he proceeded to hand out the HUGELY thick packets of information that we are supposed to read entirely as well as do some outside research in order to prepare for the debate we are having this Wednesday. I mean, don't professors understand that we have other classes too? Oh yes, and his midterm is essay question format. Those are the worst to study for. Thanks, profe, you're the best. In another class, we are starting to read La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende. This book is huge, with very small writing, oh yes, and completely in SPANISH. I don't even want to think about how long it will probably take me to read this book. But we only have less than two weeks to do it. Now that would be a little hard with an English Literature book, let alone one in Spanish. Well, I suppose it's all towards the goal of making me smarter, right? Riiiiggghhhttt...... I love Spain.

MIREIA'S PUEBLO.... BENISSA!!

For last weekend, my Spanish friend Mireia (who is pretty much my twin, except Spanish) invited my friend Erica and me to spend the weekend with her at her parent’s house. We hopped on the bus and rode about an hour North of Alicante, until we came to BENISSA. We went to her parent’s house first, where her mom served us the most amazing delicious chicken stuff that I have ever had! I seriously ate way more than I probably could have, just cus it was really just that good! haha. That night, we went around and saw some of the sights in a nearby town, mainly a cathedral, and walked atop the hill where the cathedral was where we could see the whole city, and drove back home for dinner, which was tortilla de patatas (a typical dish in Alicante province, which is basically an omelet with potatoes cooked in it, sooo good!!) along with some other stuff.... p.s. have I told you how much I LOVE Spanish food? Spanish food, the Spanish language, Spanish music, Spanish men... and here I start to go off topic.

The next day we woke up and Mireia’s dad took us on a huge hike up one of the mountains in her town. It was soo much fun! It reminded me of how much I really miss living in Colorado and having the opportunity to hike the flatirons pretty much whenever I want to. It was an intense hike too! Her dad was a real trooper. On the way up, he was telling us the whole history of this house, and that tree, and all about all the plants that were native to this part of Benissa. It was really interesting. We finally arrived at the top, where we encountered a cave. We rested for a bit, then got down on hands and knees and crawled through the cave to the other side of the mountain. When we came out on the other side, it was literally like a fairy tail. There were green vines hanging down from the roof of the cave and everything was so green. The best part though, was definitely the AMAZING view of the city and the sea right next to us!! I couldn’t believe it, it was the coolest thing ever. I wish my parents could have been there, they would have loved it! I’ll definitely post pictures when I get them from Erica because it was definitely a sight not to be missed!

GRANADA - OCT 26-28

Our program took a trip to GRANADA, SPAIN two weekends ago. Granada is one of the most widely known cities in Spain. It is an ancient Muslim city located in the South of Spain, close to Morocco, so there is a lot of influence from Morocco and there is a strong population of immigrants, many of which speak Arabic (how cool is that?!) The city itself looks like two worlds that are colliding together. One the one hand, you have all the ancient Muslim streets, which are really tiny, and curvy, don’t make any sense, and have no sort of order. It’s like trying to walk through a maze, and you have no idea where you will come out. One the other hand, you have huge streets that are newer, where buses run, and there are cars everywhere, traffic lights, cross walks, the works. It is so interesting because there is literally some of each everywhere you go.

It was a five hour bus ride to Granada, most of which I slept, but when I wasn’t sleeping I was taking in the beautiful countryside of Spain, which is absolutely gorgeous, full of hills, trees, mountains, and smaller towns (each one with its own castle, of course!). The first night we arrived in Granada, we walked around the city a bit, and ended up hanging out in our hotel room playing cards with a bunch of our friends. Spanish culture is kind of weird in that it is not really a custom to invite your friends over to your house at all really. They only invite over their closets friends, and even then, it is not often. So we all enjoyed being a little American for a bit and hanging out with each other “at home”. The next day we woke up and had an amazing breakfast in the hotel (which I was VERY excited about) and then we set off to see the sights.

We walked to the historical center of the city, visited the Cathedral of Granada, which was huge! The Cathedral was designed originally in the Renaissance era but later a few Baroque touches were added. It was really interesting. Inside there are huge vaulted ceilings and many different paintings, sculptures, old sheets of music (which were huge, and super interesting to look at), and overall just really cool. (The sad part is that Notre Dame kind of ruined the magic of it, it was definitely not as cool after having seen Notre Dame). Right next to the Cathedral is Capilla Real where Queen Isabel and King Fernando are buried along with Princess Juana la Loca and Prince Felipe el Hermoso (“the crazy” and “the handsome” respectively). The history with them is that Felipe el Hermoso cheated on Juana all the time, and then he died, after which Juana la Loca went to visit and take care of his corpse every day for 20 years after he died. She was definitely crazy.
This is a picture of inside the Cathedral...

Afterwards, we went to Corral del carbón that is an ancient Muslim house. In my Society and Territory class we are studying ancient Muslim cities. A normal Muslim house is not decorated very much at all on the outside except for the door, which is usually very ornate. When you walk in, you come to a patio that always has a fountain in the middle. From here, the rest of the house is extremely ornately painted and decorated. It was amazing to see pictures and learn about this and then actually go there and see the real thing! Next, we took a walk along the Alcaicería which is the ancient part of town, the old Muslin streets, which are barely large enough for one person to walk through, and went shopping! There were TONS of stores all with really cool purses, scarves, jewelry, lamps, incense, and any number of other things that really made you feel like you were actually in Morocco instead of still in Spain. So Erica, Catie and I went and got lost shopping for a few hours, then went and found lunch at a restaurant.

Later we went and visited the infamous ALHAMBRA. If you ever are anywhere near Granada, it is an absolute MUST to go see this. It was literally breathtaking! It is an ancient palace that belonged to the Kings of the Moors. Now it has been converted into a museum. “Alhambra” in Arabic means the red, which is derived from the red color of the clay used to make the surroundings of the fort. There is absolutely no way I could explain the beauty or intense décor of this place, so I am just going to post a picture… ☺


That night, we had the opportunity to go and see a real Flamenco show. It was soo much fun! The dancers (guys and girls) were all really impressive, although my favorite was this old lady who looked like she should not be dancing at all who got up and not only danced really well, but also sang, it was awesome! We all had a really good time and laughed at the end when the dancers made some of us get up and dance with them. The best was our director, José, dancing with one of the ladies. We all had a good laugh.

On Sunday, we went to visit Alcazaba, and Palacios Nazaries and Generalife, which are all palaces that are connected, located on the top of this huge hill. It took us so long to walk around and we got a tour of the entire place! There were all these different gardens, and huge pathways, different buildings with the same amazing architecture and details as the Alhambra. Then we rushed around a bit, buying last minute scarves and got on the bus for the five hour ride home!

Trip with Politics and Terrorism Class to a MOSQUE in Alicante, Spain

Last week our class took a trip to a Mosque in Alicante (who knew there would be one?!). At first, we walked in and were shown around the few classrooms that they have where they teach about Islam and they also have classes of Arabic for non-native speakers and classes of Spanish as well. We met the Imam (which is their version of a priest) who was dressed up in his normal attire – an all white robe with white pants to match and a head scarf that was white as well. He was a very soft spoken, but intense person. He spoke a little bit of English and a little bit of Spanish, mixing the two together the majority of the time. We listened to him talk in Arabic while an interpreter would translate into Spanish. It was really cool to listen to what he had to tell us about the history of their mosque, how prayers normally work, and how they all worship together. He has a wife, and sons and daughters, just like any normal person.

The praying area of the mosque is broken up into two parts: one for the men, and one for the women. It is not really a superior/inferior thing, but rather, so that the women can undress a bit if they are uncomfortable, feed their babies, etc. and not have to worry about being completely properly dressed while they are in the mosque. The Imam’s wife had made us lunch which was rice with chicken, and it was honestly the best thing I have ever had! I told him I wanted the recipe and he just laughed at me. We also had soup and a sort of salad thing.

During lunch we got to ask the Imam questions and here him talk about his daily routine, and what he thought about radical Islam. Islam, he said, is a peaceful religion, and you are only allowed to fight against another when they fight against you first. The overall atmosphere in the mosque and when he was talking were mesmerizing. He would call each one of us “hermano/hermana” (which means brother/sister), and explained to us that anyone who feels like it can enter into the mosque with no questions asked and come pray with them, or come to the Imam and tell about a problem they are having in their life, and it is the duty of the Imam to freely give advice and help whoever seeks his advice.

It was so interesting to actually see the reality of what is Islam rather than just try to imagine what it must be like, while trying to forget the stereotypes and all the images of terrorism that we are used to associating with it. I think I might take up Arabic. It looks so pretty and sounds so beautiful, I think. We’ll see what’s in store for the future….

Trip with Spanish Civil War Class to ALCOY, Spain

I am taking a class about the Spanish Civil War at my University in Spain. The other day we took a trip to Alcoy (which is about an hour South of Alicante, where I live) to see the bomb shelters where the people stayed during the Spanish Civil War to escape the bombs. It was really interesting because they have turned it into a museum. We walked through and read (in Spanish and Valencian) about the history of the bomb shelter, what people had to do, the lack of air, space, and how they would stand in the darkness, with a bunch of strangers, in silence, just listening to the bombs dropping outside. The province of Alicante was one of the last to be converted during the war, so it was hit last, and there were many bombs dropped in lots of places around the city. There was a map of the city that had pictures of bombs based on how many and where they had been dropped.

The absolute best thing about visiting Alcoy was that it is in the mountains!! We stepped off the bus (and I was not expecting this) and I almost screamed because I was so excited about being in the mountains. Another girl from my program is from Boulder and she exclaimed, “If you just close your eyes, it almost smells like Boulder!” And it was true. The crisp mountain air is definitely something that I have been missing. I was in heaven for the entire time we were there, and the mountains looked GORGEOUS! I cannot wait to get back to Colorado and go snowboarding with my family and friends (and drive my car….).

Pictures from Paris

All of these pictures are backwards.... But that's okay. :)

The BEAUTIFUL view from atop the Eiffel Tower. Absolutely gorgeous!!

The Basilique du Sacre-Coeur lit up at night.... behind us we could again see the entire view of the city of Paris lit up at night...

MOULIN ROUGE!!! This was so cool for me because I am absolutely obsessed with the movie Moulin Rouge... I love Ewan McGreggor. Anyone who hasn't seen it, should definitely do so asap!

Where Erica and I had lunch... we thought we'd take a little Senior picture just for fun. Everything in Paris is so picturesque!

I LOVED this tree. It made me think of my Nana... she would have loved it!

Fall at the Palace of Versailles

Beautiful painting by Monet

Erica at the Place des Vosges

Of course, the amazing Eiffel Tower

The view of the Sienne looking towards Notre Dame

FINALLY! Another update about PARIS

So the next day we went to NOTRE DAME which was absolutely breathtaking. It was really cool because there was this choir of students that were singing the most beautiful classical music ever, so Erica and I sat down and just listened for a bit. It really made me realize how much I miss singing, especially in choir, and classical music. I must find a remedy for this. Thinking about buying classical choir cds.... or something. I was also amazed at how huge the organ in the church was, when they were playing it, it was honestly so loud, it was ridiculous!
After that, we went and say the EIFFEL TOWER for reals for the first time, and it was soooo big. Way bigger than I had imagined. And there were TONS of people. It was really cool, and we took a ton of pictures, but we decided not to go up it right then, cus there was a huge line... we would wait until another day.
The next day we took a lovely little walk from our hostel and walked right next to the Sienne and down this really pretty part of town to the Place des Vosges which is a little park surrounded by this building and you can walk in and Erica and I sat there and had lunch. It was really pretty because there are all these fountains and trees and there are just people everywhere eating, talking, sleeping, doing homework. It kind of reminded me of being on campus at CU. It was such a beautiful day, I didn't want to leave. But we had lots of things to do that day. After that, we went and saw the PICASSO MUSEUM which was really interesting. It is amazing to me how his work can be something that doesn't make sense at all until you read what it is, and then you can actually see how he thought about it, and it becomes real. His creativity amazes me. Next we went to the Musée de l'Orangerie which focused on impressionism and especially Monet. We walked into these two circular rooms where they had nothing but these huge Monet paintings (specifically speaking, those on the water lilies for which he is so famous) that stretched across the entire walls. It was really impressive. The colors were so vibrant, and you could actually see the paint rising off the canvas. It was really cool. The rest of the museum had other Money paintings as well as paintings from other important impressionist artists such as Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume.
The next day we hopped on the trains and took an hour ride outside of Paris to visit the PALACE OF VERSAILLES. First of all, we spent the entire day here. It was HUGE! We literally walked around the entire thing for the whole day, and I still don't think we saw everything. It was surrounded by beautiful woods where there were bikers, and walkers, it was gorgeous. Especially since it was fall, and all the leaves were falling everywhere. It definitely made up for the fact that I missed fall in Boulder at home. The palace has a huge lake that is kind of shaped in a huge cross. Erica and I decided to rent a little paddle boat and take ourselves for a little ride and enjoy the scenery. Needless to say, we were the only two people that WEREN'T a couple in a boat. How embarrassing. But we got over it. Rowing a boat is actually a lot harder than it looks. We had to take turns. It was really cool though because this swan swam up to us and I actually thought it was going to try and get in our boat because it was so close. I guess it thought we had food or something. Ha, right. Are we college kids or what? The statues and gardens in the rest of the palace were beautiful, but we couldn't go inside or inside Marie Antoinette's house either because they were closed for the day (although it was probably better that way... the tour was 20 euros!).
The next day Erica and I were going to go to the Natural History Museum, but it was closed (go figure... it was Wednesday...). So we walked around the surrounding parks and came to the top of a hill where there was a little gazebo type thing and we had a picnic there. The gardens were gorgeous! It was literally like being in the middle of a forest with pathways in the middle of a huge city, weird! Then we went to the Pantheon. I was so excited when we went downstairs and we got to see where Victor Hugo is buried (for those of you who don't know, he wrote Les Miserables. If you still don't know who that is, shame on you!) The architecture of the building was amazing, and we got to take a tour (where we heard everything first in French, then English, then Spanish) and got to walk up these really windy staircases up to the outside on top of the Pantheon where we could see around the whole city. It was pretty cool. I also loved the huge pendulum that was swinging in the center of the Pantheon. There is a story to it, it's cool. Look it up (too long to write).
That night Erica and I were going to go up the Eiffel Tower, but it started POURING! So we decided against it and ended up at the MOULIN ROUGE. I was super excited! There was a huge line to get in for the show and we were informed that tickets started around 60 or 70 euros per person! We were definitely not that interested. So we started walking down the street to see if there was anything else interesting and did not realize that we were apparently in the Sex district, because all we kept passing were tons of sex stores, and cabaret shows, etc. We decided to get out of there pretty quickly. We got back on the Metro and headed toward the Basilique du Sacre Coeur which we know is lit up at night. It was really pretty.
The next day we went to the Natural History Museum which was really interesting, but I won't bore you with details. Then we walked through the gardens again, and went and saw some of the graves, which were really interesting. The last thing we did was we ended up at the Eiffel Tower and we actually went up and it was SO COOL! We were able to see the entire city. It was soooo amazing! That is the end, and I will post pictures soon! :)