Rye Trip Spain and Portugal 2010

Sorry everybody, this took a while.

At the beginning of March I left on a bus trip with all the other Rotary students that are currently living in Spain for this year. There were 36 of us on a bus with only one chaperone, and I became close with students of all different ages and backgrounds from all over the US. We went into Andalucia (Souther Spain) and visited the Alhambra in Granada and then to the mosque in Cordoba. After that we spent a few days in Sevilla. We headed to Portugal taking a pit stop in Huelva to see the port and the Christopher Columbus replica ships. We arrived in Portugal and enjoyed a couple days at the beach along Costa de Caparica. We then spent a few days in Lisboa sightseeing and shopping in their open air flea market. We headed back towards the coast to see some small villages (Sintra and Estoril) and then drove to beaches at the farthest west point in continental Europe. We came back into Spain in the providence of Extremadura and visited the cities Mérida and Cáceres. We then headed up to Salamanca, famous for the first university in Spain. After Salamanca we returned to Madrid.

The whole trip was absolutely amazing, I got to see amazing places and build strong relationships with people I will most definitely be friends with for the rest of my life. Out of 36 of us we had one Canadian and two Germans. The interesting thing about Spain this year, is that Rotary does not have a lot of students from all over the year. We are almost all Americans. Therefore, the trip was full of english, english and more english. Not what I expected when coming to Spain, I thought I would be speaking spanish with most of the exchange students because that would be the common language.


First we went to Granada, Spain, the capital of the southern Providence of Andalusia. It’s famous for its Moorish palace, the Alhambra, which was built in the fourteenth century. The Alhambra was both an Islamic palace and fortress that was built for the last Muslim Emirs (kings). Even after the city was reclaimed by the Christians and Los Reyes Católicos ruled, the buildings weren’t destroyed. Some were converted into palaces for kings. The Alhambra consists of dozens of buildings and gardens. We only got to tour half of it, which took about 4 hours. It is remarkably huge.









Next we went to Córdoba, an ancient Roman city in Southern Spain that was once one of the largest cities in the world. It now only has a population of around 350,000. We visited the Mosque of Córdoba, which is separated into four different sections, all constructed in different centuries beginning in the sixth century. Later it was converted into a Catholic Cathedral. The Mosque and Cathedral is probably my favorite historic building, I have been in in Europe so far. It was breathtaking to be in a building that ancient with that much history, along with beauty. I will also add that Córdoba is my favorite city I have been to in Spain. It has a very Spanish. historic feel to it, that I absolutely loved.


This is part of the flooring that was in the Roman Catholic church in the six century, before the Mosque was built on top of it.




The streets of Córdoba!
After that we went to the city of Sevilla. When I first visited Sevilla at the beginning of this year, I was not too fond of it, when I went back with Rotary I ended up loving it. The downtown, ancient part of the city is surrounded by a wall (the city was once a fortress). Inside the wall you can find a labyrinth or narrow streets, gorgeous parks, and monuments. We spent two day there visiting mainly parts of the ancient city. Including the Royal Palace, in which the Royal family still stays in to this day, the Jewish part of the city which is built in a labyrinth and Plaza de España.





We left Andalusia and made our way across the border into Portugal! First stop, Costa Capa Rica. After staying in 2-3 star hotels and literally eating the same thing for every meal, we were surprised to find out we would be staying in a 5 star hotel right on the beach, with buffet style meals. We hopped off the bus, enjoyed some delicious food and then spent time on the beach...




Next we went to Lisboa, the capital of Portugal, lies right by the ocean and has a bridge that is modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The bridge is named the 25th of April Bridge. Because of the bridge, Lisboa’s hills, street trolly and its colorful buildings it feels a lot like San Francisco. We explored the city visiting an outdoor open market, shopping in the downtown center and salsa dancing in night clubs in neighborhood atop the hills, Barrio Alto (High Neighborhood)
Coming into Lisbon..


Monastery in Lisbon..

Streets of Portugal, picture in San Fran? and the street market(thats all ivory)..









We drove up the coast out of Lisbon on day and stopped at some beautiful small coast towns. Sintra and Cascais, this was one of my favorite days of the trip. I have decided I want to buy a house there one day.










After that we left Portugal and traveled around Extremadura. We visited some Roman ruins.






We moved on to Salamanca, a huge university city. It has the oldest university in Spain and the fifth oldest Western university, The University of Salamanca, which was founded in 1218. The city houses over 300,000 university students. It's also famous for it's two cathedrals placed right next to each other, an old and a new. On the cathedral there is a hidden frog, and if you can see it, you are said to have good luck. The city also has a gorgeous Plaza Mayor. We spent our last two days here together touring the city and enjoying the night life.







The last night we all went out in Salamanca and enjoyed the time together.



The next day we hopped on the bus and drove back into Madrid. Before everybody had to catch their trains home, we enjoyed a beautiful St. Pattys day in the park and popped a bottle of champagne and enjoyed so Indian food. Saying good-bye was actually a lot harder that i thought it would be. It is a trip to say good-bye to people you may never see again, but I made some amazing relationships that I will definitely keep forever.

A trip to the city of love, Paris

Hello everybody, sorry it has been awhile. Before I left for Paris, I wasn't doing much in Madrid, just school and the usual. I left for Paris on the 21st of February and just got back last night, the 28th. I spent 8 days there with a boy named Julien who was an exchange student last year in Tahoe. I stayed with him and his family, they live about 45 mins outside of Paris so we took the train everyday into the city. I got to see pretty much everything and more. It is an absolutely beautiful city and I really enjoyed it. I also got to learn a lot about French culture because I was in a French household. Luckily Julien was there to translate everything though, because I don't know ANY french.

My first day, Julien and I went to the Eiffel Tower, of course, and I was blown away at how big it actually is. We went to sushi in the Latin Quarter, which is a neighborhood with tons of fun restaurants. We then walked the city at night time, so my view of Notre Dame and the Louvre was at night! It was absolutely incredible. I can't ever describe how big the buildings are. Throughout the week I got to see Mulan Rouge, Notre Dame, Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart), Napoleon's Tomb, the Opera buliding, Champs-Élysées, Arc of Triomphe, a trip to Versailles and much much more. I was also honored to eat delicious home cooked french meals at Julien's house. Including Snails and frog legs. Along with, lots of Nutella and crepes that I will miss. At the end of my trip Victoria Canu, an exchange student that was in my high school 2 years ago and a great friend of mine, met up with me. We climbed the Eiffel Tower, Musée D'Orsay and went out to a french meal in the Latin Qurater along with eating the best crepes I have had in my life.
The trip was truly incredible, I learned so much about the french ways and I am interested in learning french and going back one day.
My First view!
The best picture I took
Moulin Rouge
The Arc
Notre Dame


Opera Building
Sacred Heart
Catacombs, there was walls an walls of bones like this.
The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
In the Louvre
From the Eiffel Tower
Napoleon's Tomb
Mona Lisa and me SO excited
Van Gough at the Musée D'Orsay
The people that made it happen, Julien and Victoria
Other than that I have just been going to school and enjoying Spanish life. I will be leaving on March 8-17 for my Rotary trip with all the exchange students in Spain. We are going to Cordoba, Granada, Seville, Lisbon and Salamanca. Then 2 friends from the US that I worked with at Jakes are coming to visit me and another one of their friends on March 20th. Spring break i will be spending with my sister and friends in Barcelona for 6 nights.
So as you can see I have a busy March with lots of traveling, but I am very excited. Once January hit, time has started getting faster and faster. Before I know it I will be heading home, but for now I am enjoying every minute. and I am really looking forward to my Mom coming at the end of April! I can't wait to show her everything I have been doing this year.

Hope all is well at home! Miss you all! Besos

Silly little things..

I find these lists a little hard to write now because I have become so accustomed to everything here but i had these jotted down in my journal so I thought I might share them with you...
1. Spanish school is very traditional. Teachers literally lecture the whole 40 min of class. There is no discussion within the students or hands-on projects. Teachers talk and students take notes in every class.
2. Students call their teachers by their first names.
3. Cell phones are generally expensive here. For example it is really expensive to call a mobil phone from a house phone and a mobil phone from a mobil phone, but it is free to call a house phone from all phones.
4. Most people here absolutely love the movies and know a lot about actresses and actors.
5. Eggs, rice and tomate frio (which is like ketchup but more tomato-y) is a common lunch meal.
6. When spanish people study, they STUDY. Like they don't leave their house for a week and study every day.
7. Spain is a really energy conservative country. Almost every household air-dries their clothes along with being super conscious of how many lights are on and such and there is tons of wind energy here also.
8. Soup kind of like "chicken noodle" but with out the chicken, peas and carrots. So just noodles and broth is super common here along with lentils, and garbanzo beans cooked with sausage and meat.
9. The health-care system here is wonderful I was recently sick and had to go to the doctor so my housekeeper Pepi walked me to our clinic that is right across the street from my house, I showed them my ID and health insurance card and waited for about 15 mins. The doctor asked me my symptoms, checked my breathing then put all the information in a computer that was in the room. He diagnosed me and wrote me a prescription for the medicine.
10. Spanish men are very upfront with woman they don't know. For example it is common for older men to whistle and scream "guapa" which means beautiful at a woman walking down the street.
11. People don't say thank you as much as Americans do. When I first got here I found people looking at me funny when I would say thank you for everything.
12. I was recently 10 mins late to school because of traffic and when I entered the common area the secretary wouldn't unlock the door to the hallway. If you are able to get into the hallway, once you open the door to the classroom you must ask permission to come in.
13. I experienced a fire drill the other day at school and this is how it went. A bell that sounds exactly like our in between classes bell went off. Everyone looked around and was confused because clearly class was not over. The teacher then said...everyone outside it is a practice fire drill. So every ran outside in a chaotic state and then everyone realized it was raining. So the whole entire school huddled under the entrance to apartment buildings next to my school. We were not in any form of organization. I didn't even know where my teacher and rest of my class was. Very sufficient , wouldn't you say?
14. No one really moves out of their house with their parents until they are out of university or even older. 25 or 26.
15. My favorite word that spanish people say in english is cousin. They pronounce it like this "cowsin" haha

Here are a few silly things I miss from the US...
!. Bagels. We have no such thing here.
2. Hanging out at home with friends only because here in Spain you almost never have friends over. Your house is generally a place for only the family. I found this super hard to grasp when I first got here.
3. Hot-tubbing. I have yet to see a hot tub here and this is the typical thing to do in Tahoe.
4. Mexican food mexican style. This is impossible to find here.
5. Snow! I never thought I would miss it, but i miss those days where you know it is a snow day without even getting out of bed.

El Fin de las Fiestas

Hello all!

Sorry it has been a little while since I updated everyone. My holiday season has come to an end, here in Spain. I will say it was great, but I was not used to it being as dragged out as it was here. I went to Barcelona with my host father and I have to say it is hands down the coolest city I have ever been to next to San Francisco. The only way I can really explain it is by saying it had SO much history along with TONS of life. When we arrived, on Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my aunt's house, Anna my host Father's sister. We had raw salmon, shrimp, bread, crab and chicken. After, she set up a scavenger hunt with clues to our presents hidden throughout the house. It was lot's of fun. During our stay my host father stayed at his sister's house and Nerea and I stayed at Anna's best friend's house, Nuria. On Christmas Day we woke up and the weather was sunny for a change and prepared for a big Christmas lunch at Nuria's house. Nuria's Mother made typical Chritmas food for Catalunya. We had a soup that had huge pasta shells in it for starters and then cooked garbanzos, potatoes and sausage for the main course. And then of course for dessert we had what's called Turrón which are a typical holiday sweets here in Spain. There a couple different kinds but they are usually similar to peanut brittle, but chewier. After lunch we went to the center of the city and Nuria and my host father gave me a walking tour. Keep in mind in Barcelona they speak two languages, Castilian Spanish, and Catalan. Therefore, many times I was quite confused in fact I remeber asking my sister what they were speaking and she just looked at me with a blank face and said, "Catalan." I felt stupid at first, but by the end of the trip I had picked up a couple words. It is super similar to spanish but some words are cut off for example "pan" means bread and in Catalan "pa" is bread.
These are some pictures of the things I got to see on my night tour on Christmas, some of which are on the famous street, Passeig de Grácia.

Here we have two of the famous Gaudí houses, Casa Milá and Casa Batlló



Here is a picture of the "Macy's of Spain" lit up in Plaza Catalunya.

Here is probably the prettiest Cathedral I have ever been in, in Spain. I am sorry, but I do not remember the name.





The next day I got to see more of the city along with the famous La Sangrada Familia by Gaudí and Parc Güell also designed by Gaudí. I was honestly blown away by the architecture in both places, I completely feel in love with Gaudí.





During the rest of my stay I got to see a lot of places of Barcelona that the typical tourist wouldn't see. Along with Tibidabo a church and Theme Park on the top of a moutain that overlooks Barcelona. In the following pictures: Me below the famous Christopher Columbus statue. He is said to be pointing to the Americas, but he is clearly pointing at the Mediterranean and then
view from Tibidabo.


While in Barcelona I also got to of course walk the famous Las Ramblas and go to the famous St Josep market.




After returning from Barcelona I celebrated New Years here in Madrid with my sister and host father. We had dinner at home, oven baked fish, and then at midnight we ate 12 grapes at countdown. This is a tradition for good luck in Spain and it is a lot harder than it looks. Nerea and I then went out with some friends at 3:45am, we got hot chocolate and churros for breakfast and then finally returned home at 9:00am. This is typical for Spain. I then spent the rest of my break hanging out with friends and relaxing. The weather here in Madrid has been quite chilly. We actually got a lot of snow this past weekend and Emma, Sam and I all went to Parque del Retiro and took pictures of the pretty snow covered park.


I am now back in school and my next big adventure is Paris! At the end of February.

I wish you all a happy New Year from 9,000 miles away.
Besitos!

Photos below:
I took this picture because i thought it was really cool to see some kids skateboarding in front of the Royal Palace. People come from all over the world to see this, and this is literally where spanish teenagers just hang out.
The table set for Thanksgiving dinner
And the Christmas lights that line Gran Vía, a famous street in Madrid. The whole city is decorated and looks incredible.

Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to send you an update and wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Everything is going great here in Spain. It is everything i expected and much much more. My birthday was wonderful, i spent the night at Emma's house the night before and then in the morning her family made me an apple pie and put candles in it and sang to me. Then the following weekend was Emma's birthday and we went out to a dance club called Independence with some of my friends. On Thanksgiving I attended a huge Rotary dinner with all the exchange students in Madrid as well as the Rotarians. We had an interesting meal that consisted of a drumstick and a small serving of potatoes. Dessert was an orange cake that was not very sweet, but I can't blame them considering they don't celebrate that holiday here.

I wish I had tons to say, but honestly everything I do here has become my life, I go to school, hang out with friends and occasionally travel to Southern Spain (Jerez) to visit my host Mom. I just got back from their yesterday, I went down to celebrate and early Christmas with her. It was great, the whole house was decorated with a tree and lights, very similar to the US. For Christmas dinner we had shrimp( by the way they serve it with the eyes and whole head attached) along with raw salmon and lemon as appetizers, and for the main course lamb that was marinated solely in salt and olive oil (like everything here), and salad. For dessert an apple tart and chocolates. After dinner we opened presents and my host mom got me a cute sweater dress and a beautiful scarf.

Here in Spain Christmas is celebrated a little different than the US, most people now a days celebrate it like we do, with Santa Claus on Christmas eve and ect. But some people celebrate what is called "Tres Reyes" the The Three Kings, on the 6th of January. Little kids leave their favorite pair of shoes out and the Three Kings come and fill them with candy and presents, like stockings. Then they leave a present, like Santa. But, my family has always celebrated Santa Claus, therefore we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day.

Tomorrow I am going to Barcelona to spend christmas with my host father and his sister, along with my host sister and host brother who has returned from the US, do to problems he had there. I am really looking forward to getting to know that city, because my host Dad grew up there so its a perfect opportunity. Other than that, the language and everything else is starting to click here, and I feel more at home every day.

I attached a few photos of what i have been doing: