Miles and miles

Today definitely felt like a Monday. For those of you in the US, congrats on a day off, but it turns out that Spain doesn't celebrate US holidays. So, we went to school and it was business as usual. After a quick- might I add interesting- lunch in the park, we decided to for-go our boney chicken sandwiches and eat some delicious pizza in our favorite little cafe. We of course made friends with all of the workers there so now they say "hasta luego" instead of "adios" when we leave. We hope if we go often enough, they'll give us free stuff :)

This afternoon we were bound and determined to buy postcards to send to people back home. This task is actually much more difficult than it seems. Our area of town isn't super touristy so we had to travel to Gran Via with a detour to Chueca after we walked miles around our area asking every local magazine stand where we could buy "tarjetas postales" and stamps. I also bought some beautiful prints of the lake at Retiro and the Plaza Mayor to hang in my room.

This afternoon we returned from our ridiculously long journey to find our friend Max that lead us around only a week ago back from his trip to Italy. We got to catch up and eat dinner together. He's off to the US tomorrow.

Tonight we had paella with chorizo for dinner and then--big shocker-- gelatto from our favorite little cafe. We met Caitlin and Kimberley there and had a great time just chatting. From there we spent some time in a little plaza across the street just writing our postcards and watching lots of old people play cards. It was precious.

El Rastro

Today we went to the Rastro. This is a local flea market held on Sunday mornings with local vendors and honestly....cheap junk. We got there around 9 when it opened and enjoyed strolling from booth to booth. I bought a beautiful flamenco poster and a ring. All for 8 euros. Cheap. Fabulous.

Then we came back and took a long siesta. On this lazy Sunday afternoon we strolled down to our favorite coffee shop and had some cafe con leche.

Later, I went to the same church we went to last week. It was a really good sermon on Luke 22. "Los que tienen oidos que oigan" (those that have ears let them hear).

Iglesia Evangelica Bautista

Afterwards, Allison, Caitlin, and I met up with our friends David and Marcos and went out for smoothies. I got a naranja y mango smoothie and we just sat and chatted in this cute little store.

Caitlin, me, and David

Life like a Postcard

~SEGOVIA~

Today was our excursion to Segovia. It took us about an hour by bus to get there. When first went to the Roman Aqueducts that have supposedly been standing since the time of Christ. They are magnificent and it's hard to believe it was built with no machines.

The Aqueducts

Then we split into our small groups and toured the town sharing information about the landmarks we were responsible for researching. We ate lunch in front of the Castle (supposedly the Castle Sleeping Beauty's Castle was based off of). Then we toured the Castle. This is where Isabel and Ferdinand lived for a while. It was beautiful and my favorite parts were the intricate ceilings and the throne room. We also climbed the torre (tower). Let me tell you it's a major climb. After 152 steps (yep, we counted) that were really steep, winding, and narrow we made it to the top and could overlook the city. It was gorgeous!

El Castillo

Allison and me at the top of the tower.

We also toured the Cathedral. It was so grand and intricately decorated. After that, we went souvenir shopping and I bought some brightly hand-painted bowls and I'm really excited to use them in my kitchen! Before getting on the bus, we all went for a pastry called Puche that Segovia is famous for. It's so hard to describe but here it goes: it's a doughy square with some sort of cake/cream layers on the inside. It was good but very rich!

Puche

We headed back to Madrid around 4 and me and Courtney have been resting ever since. We had some great salad with apples and some sort of Chinese noodles for dinner. It was tasty. We still had a craving for gelato tonight so we went down the street to the same heladeria and we could tell the guy behind the counter recognized us. I had some dark chocolate with banana- YUM:)

**My favorite part of the day: We were waiting outside of the metro when a man started to talk to me. He said he just got me confused with one of his Spaniard friends.

It's official, I have arrived. I have been mistaken for a Spaniard.

GDEV

*Gracias a Dios es viernes!*

(Thank God it's Friday!)

Today was a long day. This morning was class as usual and then a quick lunch of pavo (turkey) and an orange in the park. We then came home and took a super-rapido siesta because we had to meet the group at the Prado Museum at 3:45.

Meeting up with the group has been quite the challenge. We got left behind on the bus tour on the first few days we were here and had some issues finding the Prado today. We'll get a hang of the city soon but there are so many metros and small streets that it's a miracle we aren't perpetually lost.

The Prado was magnificent. I really do love art and it was incredible to see such large pieces from the original pintores. My favorites were (click for a link):

Velazquez's Las Meninas- He played with perspective and natural light. It's cool because the picture shows Velazquez painting the king and queen which you can tell by the mirror in the background. The focal point is actually where you are because the whole room is looking at the royal couple as they are being painted.

Van Dyck's La serpiente de metal- This shows the story of Moses in Numbers 21 when he held up the serpent on a pole and all that looked at it would be saved. One of my favorite stories.

Matthias Stomer's La Incredulidad de Santo Tomas- Thomas feeling the wounds in the side of Christ.

So now I'm feeling pretty cultured after seeing so much Spanish art.

Tonight for dinner we had a vegetable and rice soup with a salad. It was delicious. Then me and Courtney went back to the store Blanco and I bought a blue scarf and some flowers to clip in my hair. Then we went to the pasteleria/ heladeria (pastry/ ice cream shop) across the street from our apartment. It was such a cute local place and we had gelato and talked for a looong time. It's been a great restful night.

Tomorrow we leave for Segovia, a province north of Madrid, for the day. I'm excited to see what it's all about.

funny story for the day: There's a big full length mirror in the downstairs hallway of our apartment building and we always stop to make sure we look good before we leave. One time, this sweet old man that lives in the building came around the corner as we took our regular spots in front of the mirror. He chuckled at us, and now every time we see him we all laugh :)

Y Jehová dijo a Moisés: Hazte una serpiente ardiente, y ponía sobre una asta; y cualquiera que fuere mordido y mirare a ella, vivirá.

Numeros 21:8

And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

Numbers 21:8

Chocolate and Churros

Class was good today. That's about all I can say about that. We have a lot of homework but we got it done this afternoon.

After a quick siesta, me and Courtney explored the other side of where we live. We discovered that to the left on Calle de Alcala there are tons of cute boutiques, cafeterias, and popular stores but its pretty unknown to tourists so the crowds aren't as big as in Gran Via. Courtney bought a beautiful dress. We will definitely be shopping there again when we have more time.

We also stopped in for some cafe con leche at the most beautiful coffee shops I've seen. It was a great afternoon.

Look how precious!

Tonight for dinner we had some sort of hot tomato soup with garbanzo beans and chorizo with a salad with potatoes in it. It tasted good but made us feel kind of horrible later.

We went into the store called Blanco and ended up talking to the Colombian security guard instead of shopping. You could tell he was from Sudamerica because he was super friendly. He wants us to come back and visit him. He was a ray of sunshine in our day.

After dinner we went exploring at Gran Via and met up with our Spanish friends again. They showed us around a huge music store called fnac and then took us to the Palacio Real because we had only seen it from a distance. It was so majestic and beautiful as the sky got darker and it began to light up. We had fun taking pictures there. Somehow, this would only happen to me, I ended up playing with a precious French girl about the age of 4 who ended up thinking we were best friends. It was precious.

After this we met up with some other girls at a chocolateria... YUM. We had hot chocolate and churros. The guys bought us all roses from a street vendor and we had a good time chatting. They told me some good Spanish music to find and are good at trying to help me understand the colloquial part of the language.

Chocolate and Churros :)

While we were walking toward the palace, what did we see except an ENTIRE store devoted to gummy bears. Oh well and so much for a unique American gift.

Today I bought a beautiful small notebook at the Casa de Libros to take with me and start recording words I don't know and things I want to learn. I was excited for my first purchase and also excited that my Visa worked.

Courtney, Marcos, David, Esteban, and me in front of the palace.

Es un chiste :)

We had fun discussing the refrains we found yesterday in grammar class this morning. Also, my culture presentation on Catalonia went well. After that a group of girls went over to Retiro Park to eat lunch. Mary showed us the perfect spot. We sat on the step of a huge monument over looking the lake with paddle-boats. It was a beautiful place to picnic and Im sure I will be back there again.

Our view for lunch

We opted out of siesta today. Can you believe it? Well... instead we went shopping for about an hour on Grand Via. This is where H&M, Zara, Starbucks, and the nicest McDonald's you'll ever see are located. I actually bought nothing. Once again, hard to believe. I was looking for something super Spanish and pretty cheap. This isn't really the street for that type of shopping. Just wait til the Rastro market on Sunday- I'm SURE I can find something to buy there.

We then came back to eat an early dinner of the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. We are so blessed to have a madre who is a great cook. Other have had to eat tuna fish sandwiches and sardines.

We then went to a concert of Samford's dean of the music school. I guess he's on tour for the summer. He sang and a guitarist played. It was good and they're talented.

My homework for today was to talk to a Spaniard I haven't met and ask them to share with me a Spanish joke (chiste). This is actually much more difficult than it sounds. The Spaniards you encounter are mostly silent in the metro and have a hard exterior like many people that live in big cities. It's difficult to strike up a conversation, not be awkward, and ask someone who barely even smiles to tell you a joke. Maybe I can crack one of them tomorrow...

We have decided to call it an early night (due to the lack of siesta) so hopefully tomorrow we'll wake up well rested. Hasta luego.

Me at the beautiful monument where we ate lunch near the lake.

Ositos

This means ¨little bear¨and is the Spanish name for gummy bears. I thought I was bringing my madre a unique American gift of gummy bears but I've seen them like 7 times around town. So me and Courtney decided to eat them and throw them at each other instead.

Today has been a good day. We went to school and all the lights stayed on! Grammar is always fun-- never thought I would say that. We discussed existentialism today and how time is actually one eternal moment. Weird. Culture class was good but always makes me sleepy.

We ate a quick lunch in Retiro with our small groups and discussed activities we have to do and report on and our responsibilities for our trip to Segovia this Saturday.

We spent a little time this afternoon taking a shorter siesta and doing homework. Then we explored around where we live a little. There's actually a Burger King and a Dominos close to where we live. There's also some cute little shops. We made it to the Ventas bull fighting ring where we change trains and got on the metro there. It is actually one of the prettiest buildings I have seen.

Plaza de Torros

We met with Allison, Caitlyn, Kimberly, Taylor, Justin, and Logan to go to church. When we got there, we only found 3 guys (Marcos, Carlos, and David) because the rest of the youth were studying for their exams. The rest of the americanos had to go eat dinner so me and Courtney went with the guys to eat at El Museo del Jamon. We turned it into a picnic outside of the Prado Museum. It was beautiful. From there they walked us through the city and we ended in La Plaza Callao. It was a fun night for sure.

Mi made and my new friends taught us many sayings in Madrid. I'm sure there are some English equivalents. Here are some of the prettiest:

*Mas vale pajaro en mano, que ciento volando. --It's better to have one bird in your hand than many flying around.

* Haz el bien sin mirar a quien-- Do good without looking for whom

*one of the funniest: Las chicas buenas van al cielo y las malas a todas partes-- Good girls go to heaven and bad girls go all over.

They also taught us "Que freaky!" which really means how freaky, awkward, or geeky.

We taught them the awkward turtle. The caught on pretty fast and started using it right away.

It was so nice to actually interact with real Spaniards! Pray that these relationships would grow and continue!

Las Clases

Today was our first day of classes. We made it to the school early with no problems- which is quite a feat because we changed trains 3 times! My grammar class was first and we only had about 7 Samford students that make up our class. The rooms are very small because the school rents a flat in a very expensive part of town. Our professors names is Marcos and he is 30. He is hysterical, especially when he attempts to relate to us in English because everything he knows about Alabama he learned from Forrest Gump. We basically spent an hour and a half getting to know each other and reviewing the basics. It was a good warm-up.

The lights in the building kept going on and off for the first hour. We ended up having class in the dark for almost 30 minutes. It was quite a challenge.

After a short break we had our first culture class. We shoved about 15 Samford students into the same sized room with another teacher, Rosa, and talked about our expectations of Madrid before we came on the trip.

I already have homework! I have to read a newspaper for my grammar class and do a presentation on the region of Catalonia on Wednesday for my culture class.

After a quick lunch in the park, me and Courtney headed home for the best siesta of my life. We left the lights on and the windows open and still passed out for a good two hours.

We then woke up and ate paella mediterranea with chorizo and a cauliflower pie with Minnie and Ann, the other girls staying with us. After that, we went back near the school to hang out with all the Sampere students and have some sangria.

We're back at home now...exhausted. Que duermas bien.

A crazy afternoon

I usually find time to update my blog during siesta... around 2-4pm. So you haven't quite heard all of yesterday's story:

Our bus trip was an adventure in itself. We left our house with plenty of time to get to where we were meeting the bus... if of course we knew where it was and didn't get lost. So in the process of meeting up with other girls and some guys in our group, we were running late. Moral of this story: don't follow girls that don't know where they're going, and don't follow guys that say that they do. Anyways, we turned the corner and saw our bus tour drive off and leave without us! A panicked phone call later, we hop on the metro to meet the others at the tour's first stop. From there on it was smooth sailing. We saw that Madrid has tons of beautiful architecture and many more sights to see. I hope we have a chance to experience them all.

From there we attended a Baptist church service near Atocha, the train station turned tropical garden that was bombed by the ETA terrorists. The preacher spoke ridiculously fast even though he said he would try to slow down for the "americanos". The people were really nice and some of the youth joined us for dinner later. A group of us are planning on attending the youth group prayer meeting tomorrow and interacting with real Spaniards.

We then went to eat in the cuevas underneath the Plaza Mayor. There are many restaurants under the Plaza that specialize in a certain "plato tipico" of Spain. We had the best tortilla de patata ever! We had our own private room in the back and squeezed around in a circle to eat this delicious meal. It's all family style and you just eat off the same plate as the people around you. We also tried chorizo (yummy) and green peppers with salt which were both good.

Headed back home, some of the girls decided to get gelato. I had coffee flavored which was delicious and helped me get a little coffee fix since I haven't had any in a few days. I'm starting to make more friends and really love the adventurous and sweet-spirits of the people on this trip. Continue to pray for me: that I will have more opportunities to meet the locals and won't feel tired all the time.

Steven, Ashley, Allison, me, Mary, Taylor

and JT outside of El Meson de la tortilla

where we ate dinner.

Kilometro Cero in La Puerta del Sol: the point where everything in Spain is measured from.

Nuestro Primer Día

After 12 hours of sleep, me and Courtney woke up to a strong knocking on the door from our madre. We had nutella, bread, and some interesting milk for breakfast. The milk was more like concentrated creamer with a wild after taste, like it didn't actually come from a cow- or worse, it came straight from the cow.

Then we took the metro like the soon-to-be Spaniards that we are and went to our school to take a placement test. We both tested into advanced spanish classes even though Samford is split into two different classrooms for grammar, we're in the same class for culture. My class schedule will be--starting tomorrow-- 9-10:30 is grammar and 11-12:30 is culture.

From Estudio Sampere we went with a group of girls to eat our packed lunches in El Parque Retiro across the street. It is a beautifully hot day with not a cloud in the sky. This is probably the coolest park I've seen. It has huge shaded areas for picnicking and a huge lake for paddle boat rides. Supposedly there's a botanical gardens at one end but we didn't quite make it that far. Carmen, our madre, packed us un bocadillo del jamón (ham sandwich) and an apple. Yep, Mom and Dad, I bit into that apple and looked so healthy doing it. And I also put some little daisies in my hair. I told you I would come back Spanish!

We had a chance to walk around the park for about an hour and saw beautiful fountains, tons of little dogs, and lots of roller-bladers. Now we're back in our house for siesta time--it's a miracle that we made it in because we "thought our keys didn't work", turns out we were trying the wrong door. We'll leave in an hour to go on a bus tour of Madrid. Later tonight we'll eat tapas in las cuevas (the caves) under the Plaza Mayor. I can't wait!

Me and my frigo dedo popsicle in El Parque Retiro

Kimberly, Ashley, Courtney, and me picnicking in the park.

The lake at Retiro

We made it!

Yesterday's/ Today's travels turned out to be quite the adventure.

We arrived at the B'ham airport at 11am in the pouring rain. Five delays and five hours later we actually board the plane headed to Atlanta. We finally took off at 4:45pm and arrived in ATL around 6:25pm. Our international flight was scheduled for 7pm so we took off running (mostly for dramatic effect, we probably could have made it walking) through the ATL airport and made it for our flight. Needless to say, one poor girl coming from Tennessee didn't make it so we're still waiting on her to arrive in Madrid.

All of the waiting turned out to be a God-given time to bond with the group coming from Birmingham. We played phase 10 for a really long time and just got to know each other. It's a really good group going. they were all really open to meeting new people and trying new things.Fun-loving and Jesus-loving... exactly what I was praying for.

I was exhausted by the time we took off and forced myself to stay awake through dinner. And I thought I was going to need Benadryl to put me out... haha. I felt like I just shut my eyes for 5 hours and no sleeping actually occurred sitting up. Oh well.

Me and Courtney are proud to say we did not participate in "siesta" today because we want to go to bed early and be DONE with jet lag.

So we arrive in Madrid, board a bus and head to meet our madres at Estudio Sampere (our school). From there we meet sweet Carmen who grabbed us a taxi and took us to her cute but tiny 3 bedroom apt. To our surprise, she still has 2 study abroad guys from Washington and Lee in Virginia staying in her other bedroom. So, we got to chat with them in English which was good for our tired brains. They gave us tons of suggestions and insights and then us four: Jack, Max, Courtney, and me all took the metro to the Puerta del Sol and then walked to the Plaza Mayor. It was breath-taking! There were so many people and little tables set up to eat in the plaza. We shared tapas for lunch outside and we had:

patatas bravas (basically potatoes covered in some type of hot sauce),

tortilla de patata (omelet with potato which was my favorite),

calamari (yes, I did try this... it's kind of like a chewy onion ring),

bread,

and croquetas (fried balls of ham and cheese= delicious).

The city today is crazy because of the futbol championship game that will happen tonight. Germans and Italians cover the city and the metro and continually scream their equivalent of a fight song.

The guys that showed us around will be leaving tonight or tomorrow and another two girls will come to live in this apartment too. Who knew? I've already learned to be super flexible this trip so "suceda lo que suceda" (come what may).

The plan for the rest of the night: Eat dinner, maybe explore the cute shops on our block, and head to bed early. I can't wait for a good night's sleep.

Statue of King Charles III in the Puerta del Sol.

The bustling Plaza Mayor.

Courtney and me eating tapas in the Plaza Mayor.

Adios America

The packing is done and I'm headed for the airport. My plane leaves Birmingham for Atlanta at 1pm, then I'll leave for Spain around 7pm. We'll land in Madrid at 9:30am (2:30am Alabama time) and have a full day ahead of us. Please be praying that I will be able to rest on the plane and that no massive volcanic explosions will keep us from landing safely! Love you all and see you in 10 weeks!

Courtney (my roommate) and me at the airport.

2 Weeks and Counting...

It's exactly 2 weeks until I board the plane for Spain! I've registered for classes, met my roommate- Courtney Connell- and done the necessary paperwork. Now all that's left is the daunting task of packing. For a chronic over-packer, this is going to be a challenge...