Almost Home

With all this talk about how much I'm going to miss this place and this experience, I feel like I need to give Ohio some justice. Here's a list of things I'm excited to go home to:

1. Friends, family, loved ones, etc.
2. SHOWERS. Wasting water. The first thing I do when I get home will be take a 30 minute shower. I kid you not.
3. Food...there are plenty of foods from here I'll miss but for the most part I miss our normal eating schedule and (surprisingly) smaller portions of food at lunch and dinner than I have to force myself to eat here.
4. Working out/being healthy
5. Sitting on a couch watching American tv
6. Great service at restaurants..hotels...stores...everywhere
7. Making money again, not just spending like its my job
8. Biology classes- I never thought I'd say I'm excited to get back to Denison's classes but I picked biology as a major because I like it and I definitely solidified that decision after a semester of other classes.
9. People speaking English. Day to day life will be so much easier in my native tongue.
10. Never getting on a plane again. Or at least for a year or so. I can't take another weekend of traveling right now...except that I have to spend 2 days traveling home this weekend!

There are plenty more things, but I figure a list of 10 is sufficient. The picture is of the sunsetting over Granada last weekend. I now have 2 finals left and 4 days in Spain before my adventure ends so I'm going out now to make the most of it.

10 Days

I have 10 days left here, and as ready as I am to go home, I am going to miss Granada and this entire experience. I cannot believe it's been over 4 months since I left Ohio, scared and anticipating this adventure. I never pictured myself being able to understand almost everything in Spanish or being able to communicate with natives of Andalucia, where the Spanish accent is so thick it's almost impossible to understand. I could barely picture myself traveling around Europe without fear, jumping from metro to bus to train to plane without the help of my parents. I definitely never pictured myself missing certain things from home, like bowls, real showers, boneless chicken, BBQ sauce, and American TV. I've made some friends here that have helped shaped this experience in a way I never expected. It was a struggle at some times, and there were plenty of bad days with the good, but my friends here formed a support group for each other to help us through all of these strange emotions. I never expected to meet people to rely on like that in an 18 week program. I am FOR SURE goiing to miss the ice cream here, and many other foods like Spanish tortilla, schwarma, tapas, papas bravas, natilla, real bread with olive oil, and cafe con leche. I remember my first few weeks here, thinking the food was so plain and wondering how I would survive eating it all semester, and I definitely never expected to say that I'd miss it. I will miss going out for tapas and just getting a glass of wine (or two) or some tinto de verano and laughing with friends about how ridiculous we look as Americans in Spain. I will miss speaking Spanish, and I really want to go to South America now to further develop my speaking skills. The number one thing I will miss is my host mom, because she has been an amazing part of this trip and I would not have had the same experience without her.

I learned a things here that I didn't expect to learn. I expected to become more independent, and I did. I expected to learn more Spanish, and I did. I expected to be more confident in my travel abilities, and I did. I expected to learn about who I am and who I want to be, and I did. I didn't expect to learn to appreciate what I have more. I've learned my whole life that as I guest I have to say please and thank you and offer to help and obey by the rules of the house, and I've done that all semester as a guest in my host mom's house. I realized through saying thank you everytime she does my laundry, cooks my meals, and cleans my bathroom, that I barely say thank you to my own mom for doing chores like this. I never thank my mom for making me dinner or for washing my clothes. I may only live at home for a few months a year, and this may be the last summer I spend at home, but I have learned that when I go back I need to be more gracious and respectful to my parents. We may not agree about everything, but they paid for me to go to Spain for 18 weeks. They are paying for me to get a college education. They let me, for the most part, make my own decisions even if they don't agree with them. They have taught me so much and made me into this person who was capable of going to Spain for 18 weeks by herself and making the most out of it. That must've been a challenge. I will definitely take that lesson home with me.

Above is a picture from a 12 mile hike in Cabo de Gata that I did with my program last weekend. That is a view I will miss when I'm back in Ohio.

Road Trip!

Last weekend, my friends and I rented a car and took a road trip through Sevilla to Faro, Portugal. There was a festival in Sevilla called Feria, which pretty much consisted of a bunch of extravagant tents owned by restaurants or families and all of the Spaniards dressed up in flamenco outfits and ate and danced in these tents. It was a beautiful festival to see, with all the flamenco dresses and people being carted around on horse back. We then went to a bull fight in the Plaza de Toros, which was the MOST interesting experience I've had since I've been here. It was slightly disturbing at first, and I was a little shocked when they first started impaling the giant bull with little knives, but overall it was such a beautiful ceremony. It's amazing how humans can possibly battle bulls, and everytime the bull ran at the matador I would scream in terror. The audience would cheer everytime the matador did something cool, and their cheers were comparable to our football cheering. It was awesome, even though I had to close my eyes a few times.

We then drove to Faro, and I have to say that driving to Portugal was the most anticlimatic experience I've ever had. We were so ready with our passports to go through border control and get a stamp, but there was no border control. There was a sign that said "Portugal", not even "Welcome to Portugal" like American states have. Either way, we made it safely to our hotel and then spent all of Saturday at the beach. I got a little sunburned, but it was really relaxing to spend time at a beach instead of sightseeing and touring more cathedrals. We walked around the town of Faro in the evening, which took us all of 20 minutes because it is a very small, old town that we concluded is not much of a tourist trap.

On Sunday we drove back to Granada, once again happy to be back in our temporary home. Sunday was the Dia de los Cruces in Granada, or the Day of the Crosses. It was really weird to see the city flooded with thousands of tourists, but this festival also consisted of flamenco outfits so it was really pretty. Every plaza had a giant cross filled with flowers and lights, and that's about all we got out of the festival. My host mom later complained about the number of tourists in the town, which felt weird because I initially thought of myself as a tourist when I got here but now I was able to sympathize with her on the iritatance of tourism here.

The picture is of my friends and I in the Plaza de Toros right before the bull fight.

Paris

Although I didn't have a voice the entire weekend as I continue to battle whatever weird European disease I've been plagued with, my 3 days in Paris were amazing! What an incredible city. We stayed in a hostel near the Moulin Rouge, which happens to be one of my favorite movies so it was awesome to see it in real life. We went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, which was unbelievably tall. I was scared to be up so high, and I'm not usually afraid of heights, but it had a spectacular view of the city. Words can't even describe how it felt to be looking at the Eiffel Tower when we first saw it- that is a moment I have dreamed about my entire life so I had to give myself a few moments to take it in. We saw the Arche de Triomphe, which was also very cool to see. My roommate has a friend who lives in Paris, so she brought us to her favorite restaurant for lunch and we had real French fondu, which was DELICIOUS. She then walked us around a few non-touristy cute neighborhoods, where we ate crepes (also delicioius). We went to the real Notre Dame Cathedral, which was very beautiful. For dinner we bought bread and cheese and just enjoyed it- something I have always wanted to do in Paris. The next day we saw the Opera house, which was the location of the Phantom of the Opera. We then went to Lafayette, which is a famous upscale shopping building. In the afternoon we took a trip out to Versailles, an incredible palace.

Saturday evening we went to the 22 birthday party of my roommate's French friend, who lived in a suburb of Paris. It was quiet the cultural experience. For a 22 year old's birthday party in the United States, there would be a lot of alcohol and dancing and it would be loud with a lot of people. A Parisian birthday party was the complete opposite: we stood around with about 20 college students, eating quiche and not drinking alcohol. We spoke to each other calmly and quietly, and there was light music in the background. When the cake was cut, we all had a glass of really expensive French champagne to toast to another great year for the birthday girl, who then was handed a present from everyone who attended. Everyone was dressed elegantly, and all of the girls brought along very attentive boyfriends who stayed by their sides the entire evening. We brought a bottle of wine to be good guests, but when we handed it to the birthday girl she looked at it strangely and then hid it outside on the porch. It was such an elegant and calm party that you would never know it was a college student's birthday.

Lena, my friend from Germany who was an exchange student in Dublin in my Junior year of high school, met me in Paris and traveled around with us. I hadn't seen her since she visited me for my high school graduation, and it was so good to spend time with her. It was weird that since I'd last seen her, so much has happened in my life and I've changed so much, but we still clicked like the best friends we were when she lived in Dublin. It always baffles me how much people can change separately from each other and still remain good friends. The picture above is of the two of us in front of the Eifel Tower.

On our way back to Spain, we took the normal metro/train/plane/bus transportation system that has defined our traveling around Europe so far. We got back to our apartment and discussed how we only have 4 weeks left here before heading back to the States. It has to be the most bittersweet ending I've ever had to a period of my life, but I still have a month to enjoy before I tell you all about that.

Italia

I went to Italy for my spring break and thoroughly enjoyed it. We started out in Rome, and after 14 hours of traveling we got in a cab only to experience how crazy Italian drivers really are. They didn't have lanes in the road..it was just a free for all. It was perhaps the scariest experience of the trip, and we definitely did not get into another cab for the rest of the week. We went to a restaurant near our hostel on the first night there, and our hostel was in a suburb of Rome so it was an all local restaurant. Thus, nobody spoke English, and it was my first experience in a situation where I didn't speak one bit of the language and had to get by. We managed, and had some of the best pasta ever and a liter of the best wine ever (only 2 euro for the wine...I'm not kidding when I say wine is cheaper than water over here). It was weird to feel like foreigners again, and really made me appreciate how comfortable I am with the Spanish culture now. The next day we went to the Vatican City to see St Peters Basilica, which was surprisingly a let down for being the largest cathedral in the world. I definitely think St Pauls in London takes the award for the most impressive cathedral. We then went to the Colosseum and the Palatine Ruins (which was the original city of Rome, very cool to see) and experienced more real pasta and pizza. The next day we hit up the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the steps where Caesar was killed, and a few more piazzas. That was our final night in Rome, and as we had an early train the next morning we went to sleep very early. At 3:30 AM we woke up to a strange shaking of our beds, and although it took us a few minutes to figure out what was going on, we realized we were in an earthquake. We took shelter under the door frame, and luckily our hostel was far enough away from the center of the quake that we didn't get hurt. It was a scary experience, though, and a lot of people did die outside of Rome. I am appreciative to be safe, and to have such attentive family members at home to worry about my safety :)

The next morning we were eventually able to get out of Rome and took a train to Florence. Wow. I'm going to retire in Florence. I loved the city! It wasn't as touristy and American as Rome, and it was a cute little town that reminded me of the Italian version of Granada. The next day we went on a bike tour around the Tuscan countryside, about 45 minutes out of Florence, and this was definitely my favorite part of the trip. The bike trip started out at a castle that bottles and stores wine and olive oil, which we got to tour and then taste. After riding our bikes through breathtaking scenary, we came to a family owned restaurant and had the best meal of the trip. We then rode our bikes for another hour before ending the tour. That night we had another amazing meal (calzones and gelato) and visited il Duomo, another cathedral. It was a unique building on the outside, but once again did not compare to St Pauls. While we were there, we also did plenty of shopping, people watching, walking, and eating. I was able to relax in Florence, which was much needed after the whirlwind that has been these past 3 months.

We took another train to Venice and once again traveled for way too many hours. Venice was such an interesting city with all the canals and no cars. Our first night there, the city was covered in an eerie fog and we were a little creeped out walking around the silent, foggy streets. When we came back the next morning, the city had a completely different fog-free feel. We went to the Guggenheim and took a water taxi to a nearby island, Murano, which is famous for glass blowing. As this was the end of our Italian experience, we had to have one last pizza and cone of gelato. We then spent 16 hours the next day traveling back to Granada, and it felt so good to be back "home".

That had to be the best week of food I've ever experienced, cruises included. I definitely connected with my Italian roots while I was there. I even carried on a few conversations with the locals, in Italian! I looked up a few key phrases before going, and then used my Spanish to get around the rest of the phrases I didn't know. It made me really want to learn Italian, but I'm pretty sure it would interfere with my Spanish knowledge. I also discovered that my default language is no longer English, it's Spanish. Anytime we were approached by someone speaking Italian, I would never respond in English... I always reverted to Spanish and then switched over to English since it was more likely that they spoke some English. I was glad to take a break from a Spanish speaking country to discover how much my Spanish has improved the past few months. Another thing about our trip was that we realized we took pretty much every form of transportation to get around: city busses, long distance busses, planes, trains, cabs, vans, boats, bikes, walking, and metros. What an experience! I'm pretty confident in my ability to navigate any city now, no matter what language they speak.

The picture is of me and the 3 girls I traveled with in the Colosseum. Stay tuned for more blog updates- I only have 6 weeks left but still have 2 more countries to visit!

Barcelona

I went to Barcelona to meet up with my family last weekend..what an adventure! I had some trouble with the plane ticket on the way there, but after buying a second last minute ticket I made it to Barcelona after all. It was relieving to see my family in the hotel when I got there, knowing that I didn't have to plan or stress about traveling for a few days. We saw a Gaudi Museum, Picasso Museum, the Sagrada Familia, walked along the sea, went to Parc Guell, climbed Mount Juic, visited the 1992 Olympic Stadium, and enjoyed tapas and helado. My favorite was Parc Guell, which was a park designed by Gaudi. I'd studied the park in high school and had been wanting to visit it since. Naturally, my dad took us on educational and historical walks through the old parts of the city, thanks to Rick Steves. I don't know where American travelers in Europe would be without good old Rick.

I had initially planned on studying abroad in Barcelona instead of Granada, and I came to the conclusion that I'm glad I didn't. Barcelona is in a province of Spain called Cataluna, and that province hasn't been on good terms with Spain throughout history. They don't consider themselves Spaniards, nor do they only speak Spanish. Catalan is the native language there, and I was surprised to see how much Catalan they actually spoke. I wasn't able to read most menu's there because they were in Catalan instead of Spanish. This was not only confusing, but also very frustrating. I enjoyed my time in Barcelona, but I was glad to return to Granada at the end of the weekend.

Showing my family around Granada was a lot of fun. It was good to have visitors, and to show them everything about this city that I've fallen in love with. At the end of their time here, they came over to my apartment to have tapas with my host mom. I really enjoyed translating for them and watching them interact with each other. When my family said goodbye, it was kind of bittersweet. I told my mom that I'll be coming home in less than 2 months, and she asked if that's good or bad- I honestly had to think about that question. While there are many things I look forward to at home, I'm definitely loving my time in Spain. It will feel good to look back on this entire experience and see how much I've learned, but I'm not ready for it to be over yet. I can't even imagine how 10 weeks flew by and I only have 8 left! Luckily the next 4 weeks will be the most exciting of the trip: a week in italy, 4 days in Paris, and a weekend in Portugual! I'm excited to see more of Europe, but sad to leave Spain for so much time.

London

Two weeks ago I went to London for 3 days, and I've been too busy to update this blog until now! London was a really great time, and I'm so glad I went. After spending 8 straight weeks in a Spanish speaking country, we figured it would be super easy to travel in an English speaking country. We were actually quite wrong. There were a lot of things that just didn't make sense about traveling there and that were so inconvenient, but we were definitely grateful to be able to ask for help in English instead of Spanish. There was a point where we asked 5 different people the same question about where to catch a bus to the airport and we got 5 completely different answers, none of them actually leading us to the bus stop we needed. We also ended up looking like complete idiots when we tried to operate the metro and train systems for the first time, but in the end we figured it all out and learned a lot about traveling in Europe outside of Spain. We also had our first hostel experience, which was indeed an experience. We ended up having a 10 person room, which was 7 boys and the three of us girls. Totally unexpected.

As far as sightseeing goes, I pretty much walked around the entire city gasping at everything. Our first morning there, we walked to see the Parliament Building, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Queen's Collection Museum. All of these buildings were absolutely breathtaking. I took over 30 pictures of Parliament alone. That afternoon we decided to take a trip out to Windsor to see the Windsor Castle, where the Royal Family actually lives. This was my favorite part of the weekend- what an amazing castle/town!! I wish I could've taken more pictures, but a lot of it prohibited photography. That night we took a ride on the London Eye, which was a giant ferris wheel on the river overlooking the whole city. This was beautiful and breathtaking as well.

Day 2 was also full of sightseeing. We saw the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London (complete with a tour from a real Beefeater), the HMS Belfast (a WWII ship), St Paul's Cathedral (the most beautiful church I've ever seen), Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Abbey Road, and the Tate Modern Art Museum. By the end of the day, we were so worn out from walking for two days straight that we went to bed super early.

Overall, I loved London. The people were all very friendly and all of the history was so interesting. It couldn't even imagine living around all of those monuments and castles. I realized that I cannot understand the English accent AT ALL. I felt like everyone was speaking a different language! It was so weird to see all of the sights that I've seen in pictures and movies my whole life and never thought I'd ever see close up. I'm glad I got to test the waters of traveling out of the country before my 10 day spring break trip to Italy next week. The picture above is of me in front of Big Ben!