Almost time to go home!

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Well, I guess one thing that is certainly universal is studying for final exams. The past couple of weeks, I’ve been hanging out in Pamplona with my friends here, since we have so little time left! We went out for Mexican and had a fun girl’s night last weekend. During the week, I’ve just been going to my classes and doing presentations and preparing for my dreadful exams this week, almost as if I were at Maryville! (Except even though I actually have to do work now, it is still WAY less than I’d be doing at MC!)

It’s been super cold and rainy for the past week and a half, so we’ve had to be creative to have fun! But Hanna and Jane and I went out to a mall about 45 minutes away, and got completely soaked waiting at the bus stop. I had my second to last lunch with my tandem language partner, Itziar, and she gave me advice about a small weekend trip to take this weekend.

So yesterday, Hanna and Jane and I went on the bus to San Sebastian, and then took a small train to Hendaye, France. I’m not going to lie, when we got to the train station there, my heart started beating really fast, and I felt sick to my stomach and nervous. I don’t think I’m going to be able to go on an actual train ride for a while…

I think either someone important died in the city or it was a holiday when we went, because everything was closed. (I looked it up, I think it might be VED- Victory in Europe Day from WWII, and there was a war memorial in Hendaye, so it was probably a big deal there). But the fact that everything was closed didn’t really matter because the ocean was beautiful and it WASN’T RAINING! I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We mostly just walked around the little French city, talking and taking advantage of the sunshine. It was a nice break from studying and from staying in Pamplona. So today, I just hit the gym and then cooked a big lunch. I’m about to spend the afternoon studying before going to church tonight. Everything is going well, overall. I just can’t wait to get these tests over with and go home and see everyone!!

Coimbra, Portual and the past couple of weeks

View of the city from the balcony of the chapel



Sunset after our concert Saturday night



With the other Cristina, in concert attire



Last weekend, going out for tapas with the girls!



Hey everyone :) Sorry to my 6 dutiful followers that I haven’t written in a couple of weeks. I’m certain that you are all devastatingly upset, so I will try to make this entry EXTRA fun to read! The main reason I didn’t write about last weekend is because I didn’t go on any grand trips or take very many pictures. I stayed in Pamplona and hung out with my girlfriends here. I went to the gym and went running along the Camino de Santiago. We took blankets and books outside to the Ciudadela (the old citadel in the middle of the city) to take in the sun. And Jane and I went to San Sebastian to hang out at the beach for a few hours on Saturday. That night, we all went out for pintxos because there was a competition for the best one in Pamplona. So we had to try them out! Mmmm. Sunday Hanna and I went to our Evangelical church, and had dinner together, and pretty much just took it easy. During the week, I did the usual: go to class, work out, cook food, etc. But I also made homemade tropical popsicles, which was probably the highlight of my Thursday!

So Friday at noon the choir sang at a prestigious academic awards ceremony at the university. When I walked in the building, there were 6 policemen acting as doormen who asked me what I was doing there. Talk about disconcerting! Geez. And during the program, I have a duet with another Spanish girl. While we were signing, they had about 7 video cameras right up in our faces. It was super distracting. And the program was realllyyy boring, especially since all the acceptance speeches were in Spanish, so I pretty much just tuned it out! Anyway, after the program, they provided lunch for everyone, and then all the girls got on the bus to leave for Coimbra!
The said 7-hour trip ended up being 10, but I didn’t mind because I was reading The Host on my Kindle, and I was so enthralled that I didn’t even notice the hours passing. Unfortunately, I finished that book, so the trip home yesterday wasn’t quite as pleasant. We got to the hotel around 1a.m. and went straight to bed. The hotel (Doña Inés) was really nice.

Saturday we went to the University of Coimbra to practice for our concert that night. The weather was gorgeous, and the campus is one of the oldest in Europe, so we had fun looking around. Saturday, the concert went pretty well, I thought, considering its informality. It was very different from the rigidity and professionalism of choir concerts that I’m accustomed to, but it was still fun. We celebrated with a big Spanish dinner that night, around 10:30p.m. As everyone got drunker, they started singing all of our songs. I felt really bad for the other people there, and I was kind of embarrassed because they just kept singing and singing! So around 1, I had someone walk me back to the hotel and I went to bed. But everyone else, the director and bus driver included, stayed out until 6 or 7 a.m.

Therefore, the next day, I had a “cara fresca” (fresh face) and was ready to go. Everyone else was in bed until noon, fighting hangovers. I just don’t understand, really I don’t… Anyway, we got to walk around the city some on Sunday. We saw the university’s famous old library and chapel. And then we went to the university’s choir concert, where they sang with two other choirs. I can’t lie, it was probably the worst concert I’ve been to in my life. The off-key signing hurt my ears so much that about one hour into it, I “went to the bathroom” and didn’t return. It was so bad, it was actually comical! But at the same time, I felt bad for the performers…
Sunday night, we went out for pizza and hung out in the hotel, and then got up yesterday morning to come back to Pamplona. The trip back took about 11 hours, because we stopped for a 2-hour lunch. It was good and all, but my American attitude of “grab something to eat and get back on the road” had me itching to leave by the time they brought out the coffees and dessert. Overall, it was a fun and laid-back weekend. We didn’t do a whole lot, but every meal was delicious and everything was paid for, so I got to experience Portugal and pay less than if I had bought groceries and stayed in Pamplona for the weekend!

I’m leaving in 3 weeks and 1 day. I’m definitely taking advantage of my time here and enjoying myself immensely. But I can’t wait to see my family and Wesley and Susan and Jess and probably anyone who cares enough about me to be reading this right now! I appreciate all of your continued prayers, and I will see you SOON! <3

“Dear France, I take back what I said earlier” and other stories from a week with my family

Madrid Square with mommy



Arc de Triomphe in Paris



Me and Sam in the Olite Castle



The family on the bridge to the Louvre in Paris



Me, Grace, and the Eiffel Tower


April 13, 2010:

After spending the entire month of April thus far traveling with my family, I am glad to say that all is well; I’m just super tired! I met up with Grace at the Hotel Voltaire in Paris on Good Friday. Mom, dad, Timmy and John met us there on Saturday morning. We spent the day sightseeing in Paris. We walked around for hours and saw the Eiffel Tower and tried lots of French food. I was just sooo happy to be with my family! I wish Sam could have come with them; he was definitely missed. But we had a cutout of his head, so we took some pictures with him, but for some reason, it wasn’t quite the same…

We spent Saturday and Sunday doing the regular Paris touristy things and having a grand time. We got to go to the Louvre, which was amazing. We also tried to go to a mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral on Easter Sunday, along with the 10,000 other people that had the same idea. Overall, it was a spectacular couple of days in Paris.

Monday was when the problem happened, changing my highly esteemed opinion of France on the whole. I took the train that my ticket indicated, from Paris to Bordeaux. After the train arrived at the last stop and the cleaning people got on the train, I asked if we were in Bordeaux yet, and they looked at me like, “oh you poor thing!” So I went to the desk to inquire as to my whereabouts, and found out that I was in the tiny NORTHERN French town of Saint Malo. The man at the train station didn’t speak very good English, but he just kept saying, “Not possible. Not possible. This is very bad for you, very bad.” Haha, thanks, monsieur! Anyway, to make a long and rather unpleasant story short, it was a French national holiday, and I had to take several small trains to end up in Bordeaux by midnight that night. I had to spend the night there, and then the next day, the same thing happened again. Apparently, the train changes aren’t indicated on the ticket. So I would stay on the train until the line ended, in the wrong city, only to find out that I was supposed to switch trains an hour earlier. A lot of frustration and many hours later, I made it back to Spain—31 hours after leaving Paris. I’m not going to lie, it was really stressful, but luckily my roommate was here in my apartment, so she could let my family in when they arrived and I wasn’t there. All in all, it was a pretty miserable couple of days, but by Tuesday afternoon, we were all reunited in sunny San Sebastian, and all was well. God definitely watched out for me during that long trip.

I showed my family my city Wednesday. They got to see where I go to school, and we went downtown and saw the bull ring and the Castle Square. Thursday we went to a small town called Olite, where there is a huge castle we toured. And as always, we enjoyed trying all sorts of different Spanish foods. We left for Madrid on Friday morning, and my friend Jane got to join us for the weekend. We enjoyed 75 degree sunny weather for the entire weekend. The boys left Saturday morning, but mom and Jane and I spent all day Saturday and Sunday touring Madrid. We went to three different art museums and saw lots of famous paintings and ate delicious tapas and saw the Royal Palace. But my favorite part was probably sitting in the city square eating ice cream, chatting, and taking in the sun. Beautiful weather can make everything all better!

Mom flew out Monday morning, and Jane and I returned to Pamplona on the bus. Less than an hour after we got back, I had to go to class. It was not very much fun to wake up from vacation mode and take notes, and I was super exhausted. But I’m so glad that I got to spend a wonderful week with my family and John, and I can’t wait to see them again when I come home next month! :)

Zaragoza

March 30, 2010:

Before I begin my account of Zaragoza this past weekend, I want to note a few interesting kinds of vending machines I’ve noticed here in Spain:

1. Pizza and hot sandwiches. Just wait 5 minutes, and it will be hot! (But not fresh.)
2. Helados. Yep, ice cream vending machines everywhere; not only in the beachy towns!
3. Coffee/ espresso. You pick how much sugar and cream you want, and it comes out in these tiny plastic cups. Just be careful not to burn your fingers!
4. Cigarettes. While I’m aware that these exist in the U.S., I’d be willing to bet they are a LOT more common here.
5. Last, but not least, Beer. Yes, they have vending machines for alcoholic beverages. I’m not even sure how that’s legal!


Okay, so here’s a little bit about our trip:

Jane and I left Saturday morning and took a bus to Zaragoza. We bought our tickets early, so we were sitting in the VERY front of the bus. We thought this would be good as far as bussickness goes, but we were WRONG. It felt like we were on a roller coaster with this huge glass screen in front of us. We could see how close the bus driver was to running into the cars in front of us, and we could distinguish every curve clearly. Needless to say, I was quite glad to remove myself from the bus after three hours.

We spent the day with Brian, sightseeing and enjoying the gorgeous, sunny day. We went to a real, genuine CASTLE, which made me very happy! And we went to the famous cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar. We spent the evening just walking around the city, and then we cooked dinner. (Taco night! Mmm)

Sunday, we headed out to find a church service, only to see that all the roads were blocked off and there were thousands of people everywhere. We accidentally stumbled upon one of the famous parade-journey things that go on during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I enjoyed the celebration of Palm Sunday, but the costumes did make us a little bit uncomfortable, because they are equivalent to those of the KKK, white robes and pointy hoods with eye holes. Although we’re aware that there are no racial ties to those costumes here, we still couldn’t fully appreciate the religious aspect of the parade with the discomfort we felt from their dress.

Anyway, there isn’t much you can do on Sundays in Spain because everything is closed, so we just ended up talking a long stroll through town and stopping for lunch before heading back to Pamplona around 5. It was a short trip, but we had a great time. And now I’m preparing to go to Paris to meet up with my FAMILY and Grace and John this weekend! I’m super excited!!!

Barcelona!

Some political building famous for when they hosted the Olympics; they had an amazing fountain show with lights on weekend nights.



Jane and I in front of a view of the city



My real Spanish friends! Astrid and Iosune



Inside the Barcelona Cathedral



A tiny part of the outside of la Sagrada Familia


March 23, 2010:

This weekend I went with a group from the university to Barcelona. My two roomies and my friends Jane and Michelle went, too, so we had a good group! We also met two ACTUAL SPANISH girls and made good friends with them. I was excited about that, because I really do spend the majority of my time here with other foreigners. Anyway, after realizing how long it took to tell my parents and Wesley about this weekend, I realize that I could probably write several pages about the weekend, and still not tell it all. But for the sake of brevity, I’m going to only mention the highlights of the trip. And one more thing, Barcelona is in the province of Catalunya, where they speak Catalán. Therefore, the signs were written all in Catalán, and the people spoke Catalán first, and Spanish second. But English was actually more prevalent in the city than Spanish, because of all the tourism. So, it really didn’t feel like I was in Spain at all!

Okay, so Friday afternoon when we arrived, we went to la Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral designed by Gaudí over a hundred years ago, and it is still under construction. A lot of cathedrals and buildings are under construction here for renovation, but la Sagrada Familia has yet to be completed. Yeah, it’s that amazing. I’ve never seen such an intricately designed building; it was breathtaking! While we were downtown, I made a trip to Starbucks, which was definitely a high point of the day. Later, the bus driver got lost trying to find our hotel, so we hired a taxi driver to follow to the hotel. But he got lost, too! So it took us almost an hour and a half to find our hotel in northern Barcelona. I would have been annoyed, since we’d already been on the bus for half the day, but it was just so ironic, we had to laugh! I mean, we ARE in the age of GPSs aren’t we, people!?

Saturday we spent the day with our tour guide. We saw the Barcelona Cathedral, also amazing, and some Roman pillars that had been part of the foundation of the city more than 1,000 years ago! The richness of the history of these Spanish cities never ceases to amaze me. We also saw the boatyard, where there are about 10 cruise ships docked at a time. Barcelona is second only to Miami in cruise stop destinations.

Sunday we had a free day, so we spent the morning in Gaudí’s Parque Güell. Famous with good reason, this park had benches and pillars and houses, all designed with Gaudi’s distinct and intricate style. In the early afternoon, we took the metro down to the beach, but it was very cold, so I didn’t get to sunbathe as I was hoping. Before we left, I made sure to grab Starbucks one more time! I don’t even go to Starbucks THAT much at home, but it’s just more special here, because there isn’t ONE where I live. Anyway, so that’s a little bit about my trip to Barcelona. Jane and I are heading to Zaragoza this weekend, so next time I write, I’ll tell you all about it!

Dear France, let's be friends.

Me at the beach!



With my friend Jonatón






Some of the Americans



Chocolate sculptures :)


March 14, 2010:

I think I’m in love with France. Yes, it is a pretty certain fact. Although the forecast for Saturday in Biarritz was 80% rain, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky the entire day. It was amazingly beautiful! My friends Jane and Fernanda came with me and the group from Florida and several Spaniards. We very Americanly split into groups of 10-15 people and shared cell phone numbers and meeting times. On Spanish trips, they just say, “The bus is going back to Pamplona at this time on this day, so be here.” Haha.

We walked around and saw a lighthouse and lots of pretty coastline. There were tons of people wearing almost nothing and sunbathing, despite the fact that it was around 48 degrees. I was wearing a jacket and a wool scarf, but to each his own! We visited the chocolate museum, which was really interesting. We saw a video of how cocoa trees grow, and I remember seeing them and trying the chocolate seeds when I was in Brazil when I was younger. The chocolate samples were amazing, and I had to seriously restrain myself from leaving that place with 40 Euros worth of beautiful chocolates.

All in all, I enjoyed the day in France, and I hope to go back one day soon. Maybe when it’s a little warmer, say in the 60s or so, and I can actually sunbathe, too!

Beach one day, Mountains the next!

March 11, 2010:
I’m almost a week late writing about last weekend, but better late than never! Last Friday, Jane and I took a day trip to San Sebastian beach. We were blessed with gorgeous weather, so we had an amazing time! There is a huge fort on the top of a mountain in the city, so we climbed up there first and had a wonderful view of the beach and the city. We walked around the town for hours and went from café to café trying different foods and pastries and coffee. When we went down to the beach, there were people surfing in wetsuits, which is fairly normal for a 55 degree day. But then we saw people in BATHING SUITS! Just swimming along in the water, like it wasn’t frigidly cold in there. I took off my shoes and walked barefoot, and that’s adventurous as I got! All in all, Jane and I had a great time exploring the old city of San Sebastian.

Saturday morning we went on the excursion of Navarra with the university exchange students. We basically just drove around in the mountains and looked at little towns and stopped at scenic points. It was a little bit boring, but we had an amazing lunch, which made it worthwhile. We had this meal included in our entry price: we went to a nice hotel and they served us SO MUCH FOOD. We were actually lunching for more than 2 hours. That’s how the Spaniards do it, I guess. They kept bringing baskets of bread and bottles of wine and we had this asparagus, egg, shrimp casserole thing and steak and French fries. Then, they had a smoke break; they brought around ash trays. It was so gross! I feel like I have a smoker’s cough due to secondhand inhalation here. EEW. But then, they followed with arroz con leche and coffee for dessert, so I was appeased.

Saturday night, some of my girlfriends and I went to our friend Michelle’s flat for her birthday dinner. She had been cooking and preparing all day for us to come, so we were obligated to eat a TON again. I think all of us were a little bit sick of food by the end of Saturday night! But overall, it ended up being a really fun day.

This week, I’ve been working with a mission team from Florida who is here teaching English. Since I happen to know English, as well, I’ve been helping teach the classes. And we’re all going to Biarritz, France for a daytrip on Saturday. So the next time I blog, I’ll write about that!

A Weekend of Grace

March 2, 2010: So last Thursday night, Grace McCord was coming all the way from Sweden to visit little ole me! I was super excited until I got her e-mail that because of one of millions of French air strikes, her plane was severely delayed. Alas, she would not make it to Pamplona before Friday. What could I do?

Well, I hopped on a bus to Madrid to meet her, that’s what! I couldn’t leave her stranded in this country without a translator. Plus, I didn’t have anything else to do on Thursday if she wasn’t going to be there. So, we met up in Madrid and had a spontaneous adventure! We stayed in a nice hostel, thanks mom and dad :) and Friday morning, we went to STARBUCKS. We may have spent a lot of money there, but we left feeling like we’d won the lottery. We were SO HAPPY to have real Starbucks Coffee! After our amazing caffeine boost, we wandered around the city taking pictures and taking advantage of the blue skies and the heat wave. It was like 63 degrees! We went to their huge park and walked around and we went to an art museum and we just generally had a wonderful, touristy day. Friday night when we got back, we just cooked some dinner and went to bed.

Saturday, we went running in the rain. And that was probably the only hour it rained the entire weekend. What good timing, right? I gave her a tour of my city for the afternoon, and then that night, we went to the ballet “Beethoven” in the old Teatro Gayarre downtown. We got to dress up, so that was really fun!

Sunday, we wandered around Pamplona some more. I got to show her my school and we went to where the old cathedral and citadel are. We saw the outside of the bullfighting ring (and I hope never to see the inside of that place!) We had such a fun weekend together; I was SO HAPPY she came to visit!

This week, I actually had to do some homework, which is strange because there isn’t much homework here. I’m going to be really busy just about every day. And then Friday I think I’m going to San Sebastian beach and Saturday I’m going on an excursion of Navarra with the university. I have plenty of adventures to come, which means more pictures soon! Thanks for reading this, now I’ll show you some pictures!

Salamanca

23 February 2010: Well, this will be an entry more of pictures than words, namely because I've been extremely busy and am really tired. But I'm posting because my darling Susan says that I have to :) First of all, I need to share a funny story. I looked up the weather in Salamanca on Thursday. The weekend forecast called for sunny skies and 77 degrees (25C). I was SO EXCITED. I packed flip flops and a t-shirt and I was talking to Fernanda, and we were both just SO EXCITED! So, Saturday morning at about 6:40, Fernanda tells me that something’s wrong. The weather is only going to be 7C (40ish F). So, I double checked, and my heart plummeted. Yeah, the weekend was going to be nice and sunny in Salamanca, MEXICO, but in Salamanca, Spain, it was cold and it rained. Luckily I had time to swap the flip flops for wool socks before we left. Oh well!!

So we went to Salamanca with a group from the school, but my 5 friends and I were the only exchange students. Everyone else was either really old (70%) or a Spanish student from the university (20%). By the way, I have no idea how all the old people came to be on the university trip, maybe it was a community trip or something. Sometimes the details here escape me...

Anyway, we saw many beautiful cathedrals, and visited the University of Salamanca, which was started in the year 1218 or so. I even bought a sweatshirt to prove my devotion to the trip to Salamanca. Or maybe I was just THAT COLD.

It was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures to prove it:







Mary holding Jesus inside the cathedral.



Only a part of the outside of it, at night. Beautiful!



Spanish bachelor party! Seriously. (We saw the bridal party in a cafe later and asked)
Just click on it to make it bigger, I don't know why it doesn't show up in the normal size?



Me standing on a famous, really old bridge.



The center of the old town. Gorgeous when the lights come on at dusk :)

Carnival in Bilbao

February 14, 2010: So, the scheduled “Excursion of Navarra” with the school was cancelled due to inclement weather, but I and my friends did not want to sit around Pamplona sulking about icy rain and snow for a whole weekend. So, we packed up and went to Bilbao on Saturday! It was a really spontaneous trip. My roommate Fernanda and I, along with three of our other friends, Jane, Hanna, and Pilar, hopped on a bus with no itinerary except that we wanted to see the Guggenheim. We arrived about three in the afternoon and decided to search out a hostel. The first one we found was a little more expensive than we’d have liked, so we walked halfway across the 6th largest city in Spain, backpacks heavier by the minute, maps in our hands.
We found the second hostel and it looked like a huge slumber party. Everyone there was around our age, there was music playing, coffee brewing, and Ikea-like furniture that made me feel like I was in a dorm. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any room because Saturday was Bilbao’s CARNIVAL! That’s right, we accidentally stumbled upon a huge celebration. This was really cool, except that we were told we might have a difficult time getting a place to stay. They were really nice, though, and let us use their computers and phones until we found a place with room. It was right in the middle of the Casco Viejo where all the fun was to be had later. “Perfect!” we thought.
So, we finally got there, our hopes of an afternoon trip to the museum dashed, because it was already about 6 by this time. We walked up three flights of the scariest, most uneven steps I’ve ever seen and were greeted by a chain-smoking “concierge.” Our room consisted of three small beds, not enough for the five of us, but we had to make-do because our backs were hurting and we really didn’t have that many other options. We just sat down on the checkered bedspread with striped and flowered pillowcases and laughed at the lime green and orange paint that clashed with the chandelier hanging overhead. We tried to look out the window, only to find it duck-taped shut.
After a coffee-break and small dinner, we walked downtown to where the parade was happening. Everyone in the city was wearing costumes, except for us! There were entire families of ladybugs and pirates and gypsies and sharks. We proudly wore our jackets and scarves, and one guy said as he passed me that I was Little Red Riding Hood. Why? Because my jacket is red, of course!
Later that night, we went outside to see what all the commotion was about. Little did we know that our hostel was right above the street full of bars that was where everyone was going to party for the entire night. They had music playing and people were just dancing in the streets (even though it was freezing and raining!) So, we danced with them! We were singing along to “Dancing Queen” with military men, mermaids, housewives, Mr. Incredible, a giant chicken, and some witches, among other costumes. The only thing was, at about 1, we were ready to go to bed. We went to our room, and we could hear them blowing whistles and singing the Spanish National Anthem down below. It was a miracle that I slept at all!
For Valentine’s Day, we got up early and visited the Guggenheim Museum, to take our minds off the fact that whatever boy we might love back home is very far away. It was a good distraction, though. The architecture of the museum, itself, is amazing. We spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon at the museum. Then we hopped a bus back to Pamplona, our weekend a certain success.