2010: Verano en Madrid

Final Reflections

I’m back in boston again now, and i’m glad to be back, it feels like coming home…BUT…in spite of heat, mosquitos, language barriers, and robbery, I’m really glad I went.  SUCH a learning experience.  Different culture: separate stores for everything, formando el grupo, different horario of eating, sleeping, everything.  Living in spanish.  This i miss the most.  I feel like i’m going to perder mi español, in spite of keeping in touch with my roommate conchi and people from work to try to keep all of it.  Everytime i hear people walk by me speaking spanish in boston now, i get really excited and try to eavesdrop haha…i think it would be really cool to find a job where i get to at least hear, maybe even speak, spanish everyday :)  but who knows whether that’s possible!  Also am listening to spanish music on youtube and feeling kind of sentimental about it haha.  i also think it will be sad when my spanish deodorant runs out because i really like it lol.  and even though i’m sick of it right now, i’m sure i’ll come to miss jamón y croquettas…thankfully for me there’s that dali tapas place in harvard square :)

I just feel like i learned so much, and as my dad said, you don’t even realize it completely until you come back.  I learned a different way of life, even the toilets look different (i still do a double take now everytime before I flush the US one haha).  And on the one hand, I feel like with more time in Spain i could have become even more fluent and really gotten even way more out of it.  But i am glad to be back and continue on with what feels more like real life, and i just hope i can take this experience and use it and keep as much as i can of it.  I think i’m going to start watching spanish TV to keep it up a bit.  Alicia *did* invest in the entire boxed set of “cuentame” hahaha…  And I’m probably going to turn into one of *those* people…you know, the ones who talk to cleaning people in spanish…oh wait, i already did that in the boston airport bathroom…  and maybe i’ll just go to spanish class office hours, just to talk more in spanish haha we’ll see :)  well, welcome home…what a trip!

Being tourists

Andre came to Madrid and I finished work the next day, and then we set off being tourists, even though it was really, REALLY hot outside!  We did some shopping yayy (andre didn’t like that part) and sightseeing, and coffeedrinking, restaurant-trying.  We also spent an interesting evening sharing order-in pizza with my two roommates conchi and amalia, and conchi’s boyfriend jose.  Andre was of course pretty confused about what they were saying, but i translated for the most part :P

Then, we set off on a bus to Málaga where we checked into our ADOOORABLE hotel :D  which was also across the street from the beach.  At first, we had some issues with the fact that you had to slide the key into a slot in order to make the electricity work in the room, meaning you couldnt leave the AC running while you were gone.  but THEN i had the idea of hmmm does any card work?  turns out it does!  so we used andre’s charlie card to keep the room cool while we were gone teehee…  we went to the beach a lot, and climbed a mountain (andre didnt like that part so much either), and did more sightseeing, and wandered around their really cute downtown area, and also ate AMAZING FOOD!  if you want good food, go to malaga!  We ate at this one chinese restaurant, i think it was called the Royal Gong, like 3 times because it had the best spring rolls everrrrr and the other food was delish too!  Also ate at a deli-grill called La Parrilla which had the BEST meat and wine ever!!!  My duck was amazing and andre’s lamb was too.  We ate there only on our last night or we may have gone back :P  Also, the ice cream was pretty tasty in malaga haha.  We were also there for the feria de malaga, meaning there were fireworks on the beach and running of the bulls and bullfights and live performances and all sorts of fun stuff like that!

We were going to take a day trip to granada, but we liked malaga so much that we just stayed there instead!  then on the last day we checked out of our hotel but we didn’t have our bus to sevilla till that night, but never fear, andre had the amazing idea of renting 2 beach chairs with an umbrella and so we did and just chilled on the beach all day and it was great!!  And i only got a little sunburned.  and weirdly, andre got just as sunburned through the umbrella…of course, he didnt have sunscreen on though.

Sevilla was pretty i guess, but really, it was mostly hot, humid, and fly-infested (caused by the numerous horse-drawn carriages there).  The only really nice part was walking by the river at night!  So after two days there we decided to go back to madrid.  We were going to go to Cádiz, but then we decided a day trip wouldnt do it justice anyway, but we’re going back in the future cuz it sounds beautiful! :)

Then, back to madrid, andre flew out a day later, and i packed up my life again, said goodbye to everyone and traveled back across the world.  crazy, huh?

Things I´m excited for…

I think I´m a bad blogger cuz I blog in chunks all in one day and then not again for weeks, but whatever :P

1) Andre comes on Thursday AM!!

2) We´re going to Málaga on Monday, where I can go to the beach and our hotel has AC

3) Granada for the best tapas in Spain

4) Sevilla where our hotel also had AC

5) Cádiz for the beach and the awesome history

6) Having my drivers license, debit card, credit card again!!!!!!  Yay andre´s bringing them

7) Showing Andre Madrid, and eating at that Mexican place again, and dessert of churros con chocolate yummy!

8) Coming back to the US so that I´m no longer broke, and I have a climate-controlled, smokefree, self-decorated space, shopping at trader joe´s where the strawberry yogurt isn´t flavored with strawberry “aroma,” taking a walk on the esplanade and loving Boston, my fall semester schedule, and having my friends around me again…or at least closer, and a phone with free nights and weekends :) 

Segovia

I realized last week that i havent really traveled as much as I would have liked too…starts to add up after a while, i dunno.  But i should have taken day trips to Toledo, El Escorial, Segovia…

So last saturday, Chris, Risha, and I got me started with a day trip to Segovia.  The train fair was so cheap…12€ roundtrip, and the sites were well worth it, though I will say, for the capital city of Castilla y León, it was a pretty small town :P

We first saw the ancient aqueducts: legend is that a girl made a deal with the devil that she would give him her soul if she didn´t have to carry water from the river anymore.  So the devil started building this aqueduct the following night.  But the girl realized what she had done and prayed for salvation…so God sent the sun into the sky a bit early, catching the devil before he finished the aqueduct, with just one stone missing.  So the girl got to keep her soul, and God decided that the acqueduct was so useful that he would allow it to stay there.

Then we wandered around the old city, seeing various churches, parks, plazas, statues of Juan Bravo, who is a big deal in Segovia history but i dunno why, and a memorial to those that died due to fascism under Franco…but it was interesting because the grass at this memorial was like 3 feet tall, and it was very unkempt…but why?  Only the govt can say…the things they *don´t talk about*

We then went to the catedral of Segovia, which had more gold in one place that i´ve ever seen in my life, and was just totally gorgeous!!  It was a little creepy that a bunch of rich, important people bought their own capillas and are buried there with little shrine-like things of themselves though…  Also, we couldn´t figure out why, maybe the high ceilings and the stone, but the church as cool inside, like as if it had very well-functioning AC, but it didn´t, and it was like 90 degrees outside…amazing!

Last big thing we saw was the alcazár, which is an ancient castle, on which Walt Disney supposedly based Cinderella´s castle in Disney World.  It was pretty legit, even had a moat (though no water in it) and towers and gardens.  And actually, it was pretty cool inside too.  I think I should live in a stone house when I grow up :P  We also saw some cool knights´armor there and various other historical replicas, of things like the royal bedroom and such.

We stopped for a late lunch at a little cafe that shockingly had a vegetarian menu for Risha, and enjoyed a menú del día.  I had pasta, then trout with french fries, then a chocolate tart for dessert.  And the 3 of us got a bottle of wine to share too.  Taking the train back, i may have taken a nap…maybe…but it´s ok because i got to see all the pretty spanish countryside scenery on the way there :P

Pics coming of this place later too!!

Paris 2

*Sigh* just tried to reblog a post from grace, but computer network access denied it…sooo much computer security!  Well i´ll do it later :P

Going back to paris with grace, and seeing arti there, was just what i needed after being robbed…really helped me to get back in the positives of traveling mindset.

Having seen all the tourist stuff in weekend 1, we really got to relax and enjoy this weekend!  Started off with both me and arti arriving on friday night, me having a french kebab and real french fries haha and then thankfully we got beds, even though there were like 7 people staying in grace´s apartment haha.

The next day we saw canals, a bunch of parks and had lunch at a cute cafe in Bercy village.  My fav was the park with all the waterfalls which i can´t remember the name of right now but will caption it in the photos i post later.  So much fun!  Reminded me how much i like outdoorsy hiking-type stuff.

That night we went out to a club that was down in a basement and sooo hot haha but still fun, and they had lots of american music, and the DJ was really nice and arti got him to play like the only french song she knows, alons on danse or something like that…

Sunday grace and i went to another park while arti went shopping, then we had lunch in this woodsy place before i had to catch my flight home.  There was way less actual content in this trip i guess, but it was just the relaxing thing i needed, and i feel like i actually got a more authentic view of paris.  very cute!!  and as always, the food was amaaaazing.  so.much.better.than.spain.  grace, can i have that bakery next door to your apartment, please??? mmmmmm