Sorry guys, I just wanted to post a frustration really quickly:
So throughout Semana Blanca (our week break), I was under the impression that I was going to have a culture exam AND a linguistics exam this upcoming Wednesday (the 29th). However, during culture today, my professor decided to change the day to a week from today (the 3rd). So I was pretty excited about that, because then I could study for each exam individually and still do well. But THEN in my linguistics class, my professor decided to change the date of my exam as well. What day did he change it to, you ask? Yeah, next Monday. Dangit! AND I have a culture presentation the tenth, but I'm not going to be in town the 6th-9th (AT ALL) and my partner also has both of those tests the same day AND her boyfriend is coming into town tomorrow or the next day. So basically, my next two weeks are going to be very busy school-wise... lovely.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Venice!!
And... my Venice update.
We had quite the interesting time finding our hostel. It was on the mainland (and pretty far in), so we had to take a bus, but the directions from the hostel were really bad, so we ended up at the Marco Polo airport. We found the street on the way back (after asking in two different pizza parlors), but then the street address didn't exist. We found a building that had the same name as our hostel, but when we buzzed, no one answered. So we were out there for about an hour before this Italian woman came in her car and let us in. And she only spoke Italian so we couldn't be like, "where the heck were you? We've been here for an exceptionally long time." But we got it all figured out (we just didn't end up going back into Venice because we were so tired of trying to figure out travel situations). The hostel was really pretty; it was more like a mini-apartment, which was great. We did wake up to a rooster crowing, though...
We also just walked around in Venice, since we only had one day to explore. We went to Saint Mark's Square (but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I was going to be because it was just the cathedral and then a big open space with a bunch of shops all around it). We also took a boat to Murano and got to see a blown glass demonstration, and it was phenomenal. He made this little glass horse in like five minutes. The only thing is that when he finished, as people were leaving, he took it and just pitched it! It was crazy that he didn't just sell it to someone.
But Venice was really pretty. We did get lost like four or five times because a lot of the streets ended at a canal, or just ended for no apparent reason.
We were all pretty ready to head back to Granada, though. We did have one heck of a travel day. To save the unnecessary words, I'll just list our itinerary:
411 bus from hostel to island of Venice
Arrive 430ish
540 shuttle from Venice to Treviso Airport
Arrive 640ish
8am flight from Venice to Rome
Arrive 9am
115pm flight from Rome to Madrid
Arrive 330ish
530 bus from Madrid to Granada
Arrive 1030
Home.
It was SUCH a long day. We did keep ourselves occupied in the early morning hours (the first two buses) by discussing (in GREAT detail) what we would do if zombies attacked. No joke. The conversation lasted probably around two hours.
But I am glad to be home, and will be posting another update immediately following this one documenting my new situation!
We had quite the interesting time finding our hostel. It was on the mainland (and pretty far in), so we had to take a bus, but the directions from the hostel were really bad, so we ended up at the Marco Polo airport. We found the street on the way back (after asking in two different pizza parlors), but then the street address didn't exist. We found a building that had the same name as our hostel, but when we buzzed, no one answered. So we were out there for about an hour before this Italian woman came in her car and let us in. And she only spoke Italian so we couldn't be like, "where the heck were you? We've been here for an exceptionally long time." But we got it all figured out (we just didn't end up going back into Venice because we were so tired of trying to figure out travel situations). The hostel was really pretty; it was more like a mini-apartment, which was great. We did wake up to a rooster crowing, though...
We also just walked around in Venice, since we only had one day to explore. We went to Saint Mark's Square (but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I was going to be because it was just the cathedral and then a big open space with a bunch of shops all around it). We also took a boat to Murano and got to see a blown glass demonstration, and it was phenomenal. He made this little glass horse in like five minutes. The only thing is that when he finished, as people were leaving, he took it and just pitched it! It was crazy that he didn't just sell it to someone.
But Venice was really pretty. We did get lost like four or five times because a lot of the streets ended at a canal, or just ended for no apparent reason.
We were all pretty ready to head back to Granada, though. We did have one heck of a travel day. To save the unnecessary words, I'll just list our itinerary:
411 bus from hostel to island of Venice
Arrive 430ish
540 shuttle from Venice to Treviso Airport
Arrive 640ish
8am flight from Venice to Rome
Arrive 9am
115pm flight from Rome to Madrid
Arrive 330ish
530 bus from Madrid to Granada
Arrive 1030
Home.
It was SUCH a long day. We did keep ourselves occupied in the early morning hours (the first two buses) by discussing (in GREAT detail) what we would do if zombies attacked. No joke. The conversation lasted probably around two hours.
But I am glad to be home, and will be posting another update immediately following this one documenting my new situation!
Florence!!
So... this is my Florence update. : )
Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.
On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.
Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).
Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.
I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.
Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.
Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.
On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.
Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).
Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.
I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.
Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
ROME!
Holy cow, I'm in Italy!!!
I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.
So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.
Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.
Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).
Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.
We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.
Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.
So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!
I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.
So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.
Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.
Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).
Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.
We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.
Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.
So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Italy!!
Hi Everyone!
Starting tomorrow, I am going to be traveling through the fabulous country of Italy for the next ten days! I will try to update during the trip, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online.
Right now, I need to go home and pack (and try to figure out how to fit ten days' worth of stuff plus a laptop into my backpack without it exceeding 10kg or the weird dimension requirements... yay?)
If nothing else, I will let you all know how it goes when I get back!
Italy, here I come!!!
Starting tomorrow, I am going to be traveling through the fabulous country of Italy for the next ten days! I will try to update during the trip, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online.
Right now, I need to go home and pack (and try to figure out how to fit ten days' worth of stuff plus a laptop into my backpack without it exceeding 10kg or the weird dimension requirements... yay?)
If nothing else, I will let you all know how it goes when I get back!
Italy, here I come!!!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Morocco??
Oh. My. Goodness. This weekend was absolutely insane. We spent SO much of it either traveling or waiting to travel; it was absolutely ridiculous. We left Granada at one on Friday to get to the boat station, only to find out (after the three hour bus ride and being at the port for about 1.5-2 hours) that there were no boats going out because of the bad weather. So we had to spend the night in this sketchy "hotel" that we nicknamed the Bates Motel, because it was seriously that sketchy. It was dirty and the beds were uncomfortable and a lot of the windows didn't lock so they kept flying open because of the wind and the showers mostly just dripped out of the shower heads. We were seriously in the middle of a crazy windstorm, though. I was sitting with Maggie and Kelly and all of a sudden, half of their blind got RIPPED off and flew away. The three of us started screaming and Kaitlin and Katie (who'd walked in just in time to see it get ripped off) started laughing. It was really quite scary.
After dinner, a bunch of us girls decided to brave the storm in search of a grocery store. Holy cow, it was SO windy! Two girls lost their shoes and had to chase them down, and two girls almost got swept away, it was so windy. We were honestly walking at like 45-degree angles for parts of it because the gusts were just so strong. It was the worst when we'd cross a street; Devon actually had to accept the help of this sketchy guy because otherwise she was literally going to blow away. I was really the only person who wasn't really having problems with the wind, which was odd considering I was the smallest in the group. It was a lot of fun, though, and we have some interesting stories, so that's good.
Saturday we had to wake up early to be at the boat station by nine so we could "get on a boat", but we got there and found out there wasn't a boat until eleven. Then when eleven rolled around, we found out that there still weren't any boats, and we might just be going home. About two minutes later, though, they told us that there WAS a boat at one that we were going to take. The boat ride rocked a bunch of people, though, because the water was really choppy so a bunch of people (in our group and not) got motion sickness. It was also really foggy so the boat ride took longer than it should have.
We finally made it to Africa but had to cross the border from Spain to Morocco (because Spain has two cities on the continent of Africa that belong to them, so we docked in Ceuta). There, the travel agent decided to tell us that our guide didn't speak English OR Spanish, and only Arabic and French. We were like, "seriously, can anything ELSE go wrong on this trip?" The guide came on the bus and started talking in Arabic, but then switched to English and Spanish. Dear travel agent: that was NOT funny.
We made it to Tetuaon, but I was really sketched out by it. I swear it was a city FULL of men. There were pretty much literally no women on the streets, and all of the men just stared at us as we walked by them. So uncomfortable. I'm also pretty sure we walked past the black market, because there was this street that was just lined with car parts and electronics and all of this other really random stuff. Then we got to this market-thingy and I was pretty grossed out by that because there was all this fresh meat just hanging out (not refrigerated) and some of it had flies on it. Gag. I think it was the combination of the fact that it got dark really fast and the weather wasn't good and it was just really dirty, but I was not a fan of Tetuaon. They also took us to a Moroccan rug shop (Moroccan rugs are apparently some of the best rugs in the world, second only to Persian rugs, which means they're EXPENSIVE). I thought it was weird that they took a bunch of poor college students to a place where they were asking like a thousand euro for a rug.
Our hotel for Saturday night was MUCH nicer than the "hotel" on Friday night; it was only three months old so everything was brand new, clean, and much more comfortable. The only downside to this hotel was that the showers were definitely all COLD. But the food was good, and it was just someplace to sleep for the night.
On Sunday we went to Chef-Chaouen, and I liked it a LOT more than Tetuaon. It wasn't so much a city as a smaller town, and the weather was nicer, and it was just all around prettier. Everything was blue and white (their colors) and with the nice day, it was just really pretty. We did get roped into going into a blanket shop (they must have had a deal with these places or something), but they wouldn't barter (which IS weird here), so one of the guides took a couple of my friends to another store where they would barter and were selling basically the same things. It was kind of scary, though, because he left with them and then came back alone, and we were like, "what did you do with our friends?!?" They did come back eventually (after we'd left the blanket place), but it was just kind of scary for the moment. I got to go shopping, though, and bought little things for some people, so I'm excited that I actually have stuff to give to people when I get home. (Don't worry, I did get something for myself too).
All in all, with all of the traveling and waiting we did, we spent about 26.5 hours in Morocco out of the 58.5 hours in the weekend (from 1pm Friday to 1130pm Sunday). AND, out of those 26.5 hours we spent in Morocco, I think we only spent 14 hours not traveling or sleeping. It was kind of upsetting, and I think we're going to try to get some of our money back (if for no other reason than the fact that the "hotel" we stayed in on Friday night was no where near as nice as the one we were supposed to be staying at (The one we stayed at on Saturday night). We also didn't get to ride a camel (because we were supposed to do that in Tangiers, but skipped the city all together because we didn't have time). Don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but i would have liked more time in Morocco with less traveling/waiting.
After dinner, a bunch of us girls decided to brave the storm in search of a grocery store. Holy cow, it was SO windy! Two girls lost their shoes and had to chase them down, and two girls almost got swept away, it was so windy. We were honestly walking at like 45-degree angles for parts of it because the gusts were just so strong. It was the worst when we'd cross a street; Devon actually had to accept the help of this sketchy guy because otherwise she was literally going to blow away. I was really the only person who wasn't really having problems with the wind, which was odd considering I was the smallest in the group. It was a lot of fun, though, and we have some interesting stories, so that's good.
Saturday we had to wake up early to be at the boat station by nine so we could "get on a boat", but we got there and found out there wasn't a boat until eleven. Then when eleven rolled around, we found out that there still weren't any boats, and we might just be going home. About two minutes later, though, they told us that there WAS a boat at one that we were going to take. The boat ride rocked a bunch of people, though, because the water was really choppy so a bunch of people (in our group and not) got motion sickness. It was also really foggy so the boat ride took longer than it should have.
We finally made it to Africa but had to cross the border from Spain to Morocco (because Spain has two cities on the continent of Africa that belong to them, so we docked in Ceuta). There, the travel agent decided to tell us that our guide didn't speak English OR Spanish, and only Arabic and French. We were like, "seriously, can anything ELSE go wrong on this trip?" The guide came on the bus and started talking in Arabic, but then switched to English and Spanish. Dear travel agent: that was NOT funny.
We made it to Tetuaon, but I was really sketched out by it. I swear it was a city FULL of men. There were pretty much literally no women on the streets, and all of the men just stared at us as we walked by them. So uncomfortable. I'm also pretty sure we walked past the black market, because there was this street that was just lined with car parts and electronics and all of this other really random stuff. Then we got to this market-thingy and I was pretty grossed out by that because there was all this fresh meat just hanging out (not refrigerated) and some of it had flies on it. Gag. I think it was the combination of the fact that it got dark really fast and the weather wasn't good and it was just really dirty, but I was not a fan of Tetuaon. They also took us to a Moroccan rug shop (Moroccan rugs are apparently some of the best rugs in the world, second only to Persian rugs, which means they're EXPENSIVE). I thought it was weird that they took a bunch of poor college students to a place where they were asking like a thousand euro for a rug.
Our hotel for Saturday night was MUCH nicer than the "hotel" on Friday night; it was only three months old so everything was brand new, clean, and much more comfortable. The only downside to this hotel was that the showers were definitely all COLD. But the food was good, and it was just someplace to sleep for the night.
On Sunday we went to Chef-Chaouen, and I liked it a LOT more than Tetuaon. It wasn't so much a city as a smaller town, and the weather was nicer, and it was just all around prettier. Everything was blue and white (their colors) and with the nice day, it was just really pretty. We did get roped into going into a blanket shop (they must have had a deal with these places or something), but they wouldn't barter (which IS weird here), so one of the guides took a couple of my friends to another store where they would barter and were selling basically the same things. It was kind of scary, though, because he left with them and then came back alone, and we were like, "what did you do with our friends?!?" They did come back eventually (after we'd left the blanket place), but it was just kind of scary for the moment. I got to go shopping, though, and bought little things for some people, so I'm excited that I actually have stuff to give to people when I get home. (Don't worry, I did get something for myself too).
All in all, with all of the traveling and waiting we did, we spent about 26.5 hours in Morocco out of the 58.5 hours in the weekend (from 1pm Friday to 1130pm Sunday). AND, out of those 26.5 hours we spent in Morocco, I think we only spent 14 hours not traveling or sleeping. It was kind of upsetting, and I think we're going to try to get some of our money back (if for no other reason than the fact that the "hotel" we stayed in on Friday night was no where near as nice as the one we were supposed to be staying at (The one we stayed at on Saturday night). We also didn't get to ride a camel (because we were supposed to do that in Tangiers, but skipped the city all together because we didn't have time). Don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but i would have liked more time in Morocco with less traveling/waiting.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
MOROCCO TOMORROW!!!
I'm so, so excited to travel outside of Spain, I can't even tell you. And I'm going to be with a group of like 25-30 other people, so I'll be safe, and I'm just really excited. Plus, it was 190 euro for everything (travel, food, hotel) so how could I pass that up?
I'll let you all know how that goes on Tuesday when I get back and have Internet access again (because Monday is Columbus day and that's apparently a big enough deal to not have classes. AND have everything else in Spain be closed...)
I'll let you all know how that goes on Tuesday when I get back and have Internet access again (because Monday is Columbus day and that's apparently a big enough deal to not have classes. AND have everything else in Spain be closed...)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Complain-y
So... I just found out yesterday that my grammar exam that I thought was next Thursday is actually this Thursday (a.k.a., tomorrow) because of an error in the syllabus...
SURPRISE!!!
Also, I'm going to be really glad when Semana Blanca is over, as awful as this sounds, because I am tired of planning a trip for five other people who are actually getting annoyed at the fact that I'm planning things. I've been sending everyone in the group e-mails with updates and such, and I had to send another one because I found some trains that we could take while we're over there, and I told a girl in the room that I'd sent her another e-mail, and she was like, "another one??" like it was really so terrible to just read the e-mail and think about it for a second or two and then respond to it. Sorry for making your lives easier by taking care of everything so you don't have to think about it at all. My bad...
SURPRISE!!!
Also, I'm going to be really glad when Semana Blanca is over, as awful as this sounds, because I am tired of planning a trip for five other people who are actually getting annoyed at the fact that I'm planning things. I've been sending everyone in the group e-mails with updates and such, and I had to send another one because I found some trains that we could take while we're over there, and I told a girl in the room that I'd sent her another e-mail, and she was like, "another one??" like it was really so terrible to just read the e-mail and think about it for a second or two and then respond to it. Sorry for making your lives easier by taking care of everything so you don't have to think about it at all. My bad...
Monday, October 6, 2008
Weekend Update/Travel Plans
Good news: I am feeling one hundred percent better!! YAY!!!
So this past Friday, I went to Cordoba with half of my classmates and, I have to be honest, I was kind of disappointed in how not impressive the city is. The only thing really to see there is this Mosque-Cathedral that, coincidentally, Cordoba is famous for. It was a mosque way back in the day and then the Catholics came and turned it into a Cathedral and it was just really pretty and impressive (especially considering it was built a SUPER long time ago and is still standing).
In other news, I am signing up today to go on the trip to Morocco this upcoming weekend, which I am super excited about, because it's going to be my first real trip outside of the Granada area, and a lot of my friends are going.
I'm actually pretty excited about the next couple of months, because this is when I'm going to be doing all of my traveling. The itinerary is as follows:
10-12 October: Morocco
17-26 October: Italy (17-21 Rome, 21-24 Florence, 24-26 Venice)
31 October-2 November: chilling in Granada (after Italy, I figure I'm going to need it)
6-9 November: Madrid visiting Megan!!
13-16 November: Barcelona
21-23 November: Switzerland!! (Hopefully Ticino, but I actually have to plan this first)
28-29 November: Sevilla (assuming I have enough money)
5-8 December: chilling in Granada and preparing for finals
12-14 December: preparing to go home; Malaga (yeah hanging out in the airport all night with ALL of my stuff!); HOME!!!
So yeah, as you can see, I'm going to be pretty busy, but I'm so thrilled about it all, I don't even care how busy it's all going to make me. :) And I feel like I'm not really traveling outside of Spain too, too much (three trips outside of Spain, three trips inside Spain, plus the Alpujarras and Cordoba trips, and Megan visiting Granada, so like six trips inside Spain, plus all the weekends that I've spent just chilling here). So I still feel like I'm enmeshing myself in Spanish and not abandoning it completely in favor of English-speaking countries or whatever.
So this past Friday, I went to Cordoba with half of my classmates and, I have to be honest, I was kind of disappointed in how not impressive the city is. The only thing really to see there is this Mosque-Cathedral that, coincidentally, Cordoba is famous for. It was a mosque way back in the day and then the Catholics came and turned it into a Cathedral and it was just really pretty and impressive (especially considering it was built a SUPER long time ago and is still standing).
In other news, I am signing up today to go on the trip to Morocco this upcoming weekend, which I am super excited about, because it's going to be my first real trip outside of the Granada area, and a lot of my friends are going.
I'm actually pretty excited about the next couple of months, because this is when I'm going to be doing all of my traveling. The itinerary is as follows:
10-12 October: Morocco
17-26 October: Italy (17-21 Rome, 21-24 Florence, 24-26 Venice)
31 October-2 November: chilling in Granada (after Italy, I figure I'm going to need it)
6-9 November: Madrid visiting Megan!!
13-16 November: Barcelona
21-23 November: Switzerland!! (Hopefully Ticino, but I actually have to plan this first)
28-29 November: Sevilla (assuming I have enough money)
5-8 December: chilling in Granada and preparing for finals
12-14 December: preparing to go home; Malaga (yeah hanging out in the airport all night with ALL of my stuff!); HOME!!!
So yeah, as you can see, I'm going to be pretty busy, but I'm so thrilled about it all, I don't even care how busy it's all going to make me. :) And I feel like I'm not really traveling outside of Spain too, too much (three trips outside of Spain, three trips inside Spain, plus the Alpujarras and Cordoba trips, and Megan visiting Granada, so like six trips inside Spain, plus all the weekends that I've spent just chilling here). So I still feel like I'm enmeshing myself in Spanish and not abandoning it completely in favor of English-speaking countries or whatever.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Uhhnnnh....
So... I have contracted my first (and hopefully only!!) illness while abroad: a stomach virus.
Oh joy.
The ONLY upside to me being sick was that I got to experience Spain's free health care system. Quite the experience. We didn't need an appointment or anything; we just went and I got pretty much right in and she diagnosed me right away. The visit was 40 euro (that is going to be reimbursed back to me when I get back to the States) and the medicine (some liquid for the stomach virus and pills for the aches and pains) was FOUR euro. I know, pretty ridiculous. Thank you free health care (and people of Spain for paying your taxes so my medication could be so cheap).
In other news, I took my first linguistics exam a couple of days ago, and I'm not sure how I did, but that's not the point of me putting this in here. I realized something interesting while I was taking it. I knew most of the stuff and the stuff I didn't know, I thought about but didn't freak out about the fact that I didn't know it because (here it is folks....) it's JUST a grade. And this is this new and scary revelation for me. Because school has always been really important to me. And it's still important, but people are so much more important than school could ever be, and it's okay to take breaks and spend time with them.
I'm not sure if this makes a whole bunch of sense, but I'm really excited about it, because I'm excited to get to spend more time with people and less time freaking out about school.
Oh joy.
The ONLY upside to me being sick was that I got to experience Spain's free health care system. Quite the experience. We didn't need an appointment or anything; we just went and I got pretty much right in and she diagnosed me right away. The visit was 40 euro (that is going to be reimbursed back to me when I get back to the States) and the medicine (some liquid for the stomach virus and pills for the aches and pains) was FOUR euro. I know, pretty ridiculous. Thank you free health care (and people of Spain for paying your taxes so my medication could be so cheap).
In other news, I took my first linguistics exam a couple of days ago, and I'm not sure how I did, but that's not the point of me putting this in here. I realized something interesting while I was taking it. I knew most of the stuff and the stuff I didn't know, I thought about but didn't freak out about the fact that I didn't know it because (here it is folks....) it's JUST a grade. And this is this new and scary revelation for me. Because school has always been really important to me. And it's still important, but people are so much more important than school could ever be, and it's okay to take breaks and spend time with them.
I'm not sure if this makes a whole bunch of sense, but I'm really excited about it, because I'm excited to get to spend more time with people and less time freaking out about school.
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