Friday, May 17, 2013

Finals Week

“Final exams start tomorrow at W&J - how did or how will your final exams compare to those you’ve had at W&J? Will they be cumulative, multiple choice, or will a paper replace an exam? What classes were most enjoyable or useful and why?” 

My final exams at UPO were much less challenging than my final exams at W&J. My Intercultural Communications exam was last week, and it was a combination of short answer and multiple choice questions on material that we’ve covered since the midterm. This was probably the hardest test compared to my other finals, because there were a lot of tricky questions. I love my Communications major, but I was so happy to be finished with this class. I thought that the structure, or lack there of one, made the class very confusing. I’m the type of person who likes to be organized and have an exact schedule, which made this class my least favorite of all because it was the complete opposite.

My oral exam on Tuesday for my Spanish conversation class went very well! I studied by looking over the topics that I would be discussing with my professor the following day. Fortunately, I only had to prepare for the material that we covered after the midterm for this class as well. The worst part of that morning was the fact that the metro stopped working on my way to school, so I was stuck in a standstill for 15 minutes which made me almost miss my time slot. As soon as I arrived at school, I sprinted to the classroom, turning what is normally a 12-15 minute walk into 6-8 minute run. When I finally arrived, I was three minutes late and sweating profusely, but luckily the oral exams were running behind schedule anyway. I really enjoyed this class throughout the semester; my teacher was really sweet, and I could tell that my Spanish really improved.

I had my Historical Ties between the U.S. and Spain exam on Wednesday, and it could not have gone any better. To prepare, I spent a few hours writing out a detailed study guide of what I would write in my essay. For the exam, I had the choice of writing a four page paper about everything that I learned in the first half of the semester from Spain’s colonial rule in North America up until the U.S. gained independence in the 19th century or a detailed summary of the Spanish American War in 1898, throughout Franco’s dictatorship, up until the present day. I chose the first option and nailed it. I only missed three small bullet points from my entire study guide. It definitely helped that this class was taught in English (my only one), because I learned so much more about the history of Spain from this class than any other class I’ve ever taken in the past. 

My last exam at UPO was on Thursday for my Pragmatics class. This exam was also cumulative so I prepared by making a study guide and looking over my notes from the entire semester. This exam was composed of 20 short answer questions, and it wasn’t too bad either. My professor for this class is the same one that I had for my history class as well; I couldn’t have gotten more lucky! He was a great teacher and really made sure that we were understanding the information, by reviewing often. I’ll definitely miss him upon my return to W&J.

What I WON'T Miss

I know that I’m always raving about European food and how beautiful everything is, but there are definitely some things that I won’t miss. These reasons are why it makes coming home a little bit easier; so here they are, my least favorite things about Spain.
  1. First and foremost, our host mom’s food, among other things at the house. I cannot even begin to describe how ecstatic I am to leave my host mom’s dog food and go back to my mom’s fantastic cooking. I know I sound like a snot, but please, let me explain. Our host mom doesn’t like to spend a lot of money on quality food, and it shows at mealtime. Katie and I thought that by living with a 62 year old woman, we would experience some of the best, most authentic Spanish cuisine, but were we ever wrong about that. I had three meals at my host mom’s house that I actually enjoyed, and everything else was a struggle for me to even eat half the plate (which is so unlike me). My three favorite meals were paella (a rice based dish with meat, because she actually cooked it), lentil soup (beans in a heavy broth cooked over the stove), and plain pasta with oil and vinegar, usually complemented by a salad. Those weren’t bad, but it was the hamburger patties cooked in the microwave, the “mashed potato soup” as Katie and I called it, the mystery meats, and the godforsaken store-bought, 1.17 euro tortilla de patata (basically a disgusting potato/egg pancake) that, you guessed it, was also prepared in the microwave... and in reality, the list goes on and on of downright terrible food, but I’ll spare you the details. I’m not kidding you, Katie and I could never plan to do anything for about 45 minutes to an hour after mealtime at our señora’s house, because that time was solely devoted to laying in our beds in the fetal position and making lists of our first ten homemade meals once we were back in America... I really wish I was kidding about that. We often used this time to contemplate sabotaging the microwave so she would have to actually cook something on the stove. Another thing that really bothered me was the lack of knowledge for health food regulations. Many times, Katie and I would get home from a weekend trip and find that Encarna wasn’t home but that she had left dinner on the table; and I mean literally, sitting out on the table. We’ve come home countless times to hamburger patties, mystery meat, and other nasty foods that were just sitting out on the table to be heated up for dinner; let me reiterate that... “meat”, not in the fridge, just sitting out, for hours. Usually we estimated our meals to have been sitting out anywhere from six to eight hours; now if that doesn’t make you want to just dig right in, I don’t know what does! On nights like these, Katie and I would actually take the food and throw it out in a nearby trash can outside our house, then go out and get tapas at our favorite restaurant, Tradevo. It was a godsend that we had Tradevo in our plaza where we lived (it is seriously about 10 steps outside our door). This restaurant saved us from beginning forms of starvation... Anyway, I think you can understand why Katie and I traveled so much during the past four months and why I’m always raving about delicious food I have at restaurants. Let me just add in a few things before I end this rant... Katie and I did indeed ask our host mom countless times for things that we liked! We even went to the store and wrote a list of things that we would love that are not too hard nor expensive to prepare: broccoli, asparagus, other veggies, pineapple, strawberries, nice looking chicken breasts, ground beef, etc., but do you think we ever got any of that?? She bought me nice strawberries one time, but only because I had went out and finally bought them for myself before her. Now to end, I have to add in two quick stories for you to really understand our pain... One night Katie and I got home to find lukewarm tortilla de patatas that had been sitting out for God only knows how long, and we decided, enough was enough. The infernos of Hell would have to freeze over before we were going to eat that, and we were not going out for tapas for the third time that week, so we decided just to cook ourselves. We went to the store and got pasta, chicken breasts, lettuce, broccoli, and strawberries. When we got home, we put the tortilla de patatas aside and started cooking a delicious meal for ourselves; I grilled the chicken while Katie made the pasta and steamed the broccoli. Our final product consisted of grilled chicken pasta with some oregano, grilled chicken caesar salads, and fresh strawberries for dessert; a meal that in reality cost maximum 10 euro to prepare that fully fed both of us with leftovers! We were just sitting down to eat our meal, when we heard the door handle cranking to unlock... Encarna was home... We were not prepared for this, as we were hoping to have cleaned everything up and hide the evidence before she got home. Normally, when she leaves for the day with her grandkids, she doesn’t get home until 1am so returning at 9:30pm was extremely early. Well, this one was going to be fun to explain... She walked in the kitchen and quickly addressed the situation, “What’s going on? What are you all doing? Cooking???” to which I very sheepishly responded, “Sí.” She asked why we weren’t eating the tortilla, and in my head I wanted to say because it’s DISGUSTING, and I wouldn’t even feed that to my dog, but I quickly averted the situation by explaining to her that it would have been the second time in three days that we would have been having it, and we simply just wanted something else. I’m pretty sure she was very offended because she went off on a Spanish rant to which she called herself a “bad cook”, when in my head, I’m thinking, how can someone be a bad cook when THEY DON’T COOK ANYTHING. Microwaving food is not cooking. So again, I tried to prevent a bad situation and simply explained that she wasn’t a bad cook (lie) and that we just wanted a little more variety, to which she, surprisingly, accepted my response and moved on. The real kicker was that the next day she asked me what the bag of green veggies was in the fridge, to which I was very confused and explained that it was indeed broccoli, and she replied “ahhh broccoli”. WHAT?! How do you not know what broccoli is?! (Ok, now you’ll need to remember this part of the story... it’ll be important later.) So after that weekend, things pretty much went back to normal, Encarna kept giving us less than mediocre food, and Katie and I kept fighting over who got to go to the bathroom first after mealtime (just kidding, we didn’t fight, we took turns... ha!) Anyway, so last weekend, Encarna’s family came over to spend a few days at the house: her sons, little grandsons, everyone. Katie and I came home from school one afternoon last week, and when opened the door, to our surprise, we smelled a heavenly smell coming from the kitchen. Did we walk into the wrong house?! This couldn’t be real. I peeked into the living room and saw one of her sons eating some nice steamed broccoli, and I walked out in the kitchen for a minute, to find chicken breasts roasting on the stove and what looked like homemade chicken noodle soup; I was so happy!! I couldn’t wait for lunch that day. Katie and I went into our rooms to study a little and about an hour later, Encarna called us out for lunch. We practically skipped to the dining room to find......... rice. A clump of rice that was so overcooked that it was practically melted together and hardly edible, with some cold tomato sauce on the side. Our second course consisted of a cheap hamburger patty that was indeed cooked in the microwave because it was so disgustingly pink in the middle. We had no steamed broccoli and no homemade chicken noodle soup. I wanted to strangle her. I hardly ate any of it that day and went straight to my room. It pissed me off so much that she can cook a quality meal (with broccoli that she didn’t even “know what it was” when she asked me a few weeks before) for her sons and grandsons, but we get crap... Let’s just say that I’m ecstatic that I’ll never have to live there again, and solely based on what we were served. Encarna is actually a decently nice person most of the time, and our house was always spotless! She did all of our laundry, folded all of our clothes, and made sure everything was clean. I just hated the food and the fact that we rarely had sufficient hot water in the shower, even after I complained to our program director (to which she was really mad at me that day, and I’ll never forget her walking through the door screaming “alguien?!? alguien?!?” meaning “is someone here?!?” and then going off for 20 minutes on Spanish rants that I didn't understand anything besides I should have “just asked her if there was a problem”). Well, asking her after that didn’t really solve the issue either because our problem with the shower just went from having cold water to lukewarm water; I can count the times on one hand that it was actually hot. Great for shaving. One last thing that really made us mad was the day in April that Katie finally worked up the courage to ask if the vent looking thing near our ceiling was for air conditioning, as it was starting to get really warm outside. Encarna replied by telling us that it was only for “calor”, meaning heat. So I’m so glad we suffered for three months getting out of cold showers and walking into a cold room (60 degrees to be exact) AND spent 30 extra euros for the thickest blankets we could find for our beds when I already had five blankets on my bed AND wore flannel pajamas, a sweatshirt, gloves, socks, and winter beanie to bed... because we could never get warm, when in reality, we had heat all along. Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe the emotions I’ve experienced at our house this semester. I will say that it could have been a lot worse (because some of my friends didn’t even get meals at times), but it could have been a lot better. I also have countless friends that did not have one complaint about their host families because everything was so great; for example, my friend Tony’s family had their own personal chef and our friends Dan and Stephen practically had Rachel Ray herself for their mom. It really is the luck of the draw. My advice to anyone studying abroad in the future is to communicate with your host families early and often about any of your issues, because you can always be moved into a different place. Katie and I didn’t want to move because we were gone a lot of weekends anyway, but we actually liked our location (being one block from Dan and Stephen), speaking Spanish everyday, our room, and how clean everything was; and surprisingly, most days, we actually got along with Encarna and had good conversations with her... So all in all, there were ups and downs at our house, but the most important thing is that we made it through alive :)
  2. The post office. The postal service in Spain is downright terrible. The word efficiency is not in their vocabulary at all. There were several times where they tried to deliver a package to me when I was AT HOME, and if I didn’t have exact change, I had to watch the postman walk away with my package, to which I would have to go pick up at the post office the following day. I couldn’t even pay with a card. What kind of system is that?! Then, when I would finally go to pick up the package or try to take care of any other sort of business at the post office, it was necessary to devote at least 30-45 minutes standing in line because everyone is so relaxed all the time, and everyone just likes to stand around and look at each other. 
  3. The Spanish stare. I will NOT miss this at all. God forbid you wake up late one day and have to throw on some yogas, a sweatshirt, and your sneakers to run to the metro. Most mornings, I would have thought I had three heads the way some Spanish people looked at me. I still don’t understand why what I’m wearing matters so much to anyone else. Even when I wasn’t dressed down, so many people (women especially) would stare at my backpack, at my shoes, or at me, in general, to which I would reciprocate by staring (more or less, glaring) directly back at them until they looked away. I think they got the point after awhile.
So those are my top three things that I won’t miss about Spain! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved living here, especially since the city of Sevilla was so amazing, but like anywhere you live, there’s always going to be a few things that aren’t so peachy.

Beach Weekend to Lagos, Portugal

Two weekends ago, Katie, Dan, and I, along with many of our new friends embarked on our last weekend trip to Lagos, Portugal with a student tour group called Discover Sevilla, the same group we went with to Morocco. We were so excited to hit the beach for the weekend with our amigos and live it up before finals. It was only about a two and a half hour bus ride to the beautiful coastline of Portugal, and before we knew it, we were checked into our hotel and boarding the boat for our sangria cruise that afternoon. The boat took us along the coastline, and at one point, we transitioned into little boats to view some of the pretty grottos in Portugal. Our boat was anchored along the coast for about an hour or two afterwards, and everyone took their turn jumping off the boat; meanwhile enjoying the bottomless sangria and having the time of our lives! I even worked up the courage to not only jump off the boat, but dive into the deep blue sea. It was such a fun afternoon.

After we got back to the port, we headed back to the Doña Ana Beach right near our coastal hotel to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The beach was gorgeous! Eventually we went back to the hotel and got ready for the evening. Some friends and I went out for dinner to a nice seafood restaurant near the harbor and later went out to experience some Portuguese nightlife.

The next day, we woke up and met the group to go to a different beach for the afternoon. We packed sandwiches and lots of snacks and soaked up the sun on yet another beautiful beach in Portugal. Our trip leaders really wanted to make sure we didn’t go thirsty, so they made sure to bring lots and lots of sangria ha! Everyone had a great time swimming and playing beach volleyball; I didn’t move from the same spot unless it was to flip over (I needed to make sure I didn’t come home from Spain without a tan!!) Later that afternoon, Katie and I took a walk up the beach to see a pretty pink sailboat that we had spotted earlier in the day, and around 5:00, we headed back to the hotel so we could have enough time to get ready and go watch “the end of the world sunset”!

Now I’m sure you’re wondering, what was so special about this particular sunset? The reason it’s called “the end of the world” is because it’s the westernmost point in all of Europe, and back before the earliest explorations took place to North America, the Europeans thought the world was flat. After viewing the sunset and the ocean from the cliffs that we stood on, I can totally understand why they would have thought that. I truly felt like I was on the end of the world; I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it was. We all took SO many pictures and just loved spending time together in one of the most gorgeous places in the world.

After the sun officially set, we went back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. Dan, Stephen, Patrick, Katie, and I all went to an American restaurant called Rockefeller’s, and might I add that it was delicious!! For us Discover Sevilla travelers, they had an awesome deal that included a meal and two drinks for 10 euro; we couldn’t pass it up! I ordered the loaded nachos with pulled pork that was literally the best nachos I’ve ever had in my life, and the others all ordered the biggest hamburgers I’ver ever seen. Our waiter who was the owner of the restaurant was Irish and really friendly. He talked to us for awhile after dinner and pointed us in the right direction to meet up with the rest of our group at a nearby bar. We stayed at the bar for about an hour or so to get our free drinks and hang out with friends, but everyone was so drained after all day in the sun that we headed back pretty early. We had big plans for the following day so we needed as much rest as we could get; Katie, Patrick, and I were going surfing at the West beach!!

On Sunday morning, we left our hotel after breakfast around 10:30 to head straight to the west beach which was about 45 minutes away and somewhat close to the “end of the world sunset”. We finally arrived to the beach, and we didn’t waste any time getting up to the surf shop to gear up. For 35 euro, we were provided with a wetsuit, a board, and a two hour surf lesson. Getting into the wetsuits were probably my least favorite part (and probably Patrick’s least favorite too, considering it took him three tries to get his on, haha!) After about ten minutes of struggle, we were finally all geared up and ready to hit the beach. We received our surf boards (I was beyond excited to get the pink one... it doesn’t take much to please me), and we had a mini photo shoot on the beach, courtesy of Dan. We made a deal with him that we would pay for him to come to the West beach with us that day if he would take some pictures of us surfing or for better words, “attempting to surf”. He caught so many great pictures throughout the whole process! First, we took the time to stretch out and get warmed up. What I didn’t like was when our surfing instructor made us run up and down the beach; I wasn’t prepared for cardio. All in all, it was for the best because the water was so cold; I couldn’t have imagined not having a wetsuit. Anyway, we just got used to riding the waves by bodysurfing for about fifteen minutes, then we came back on shore and learned the next step. He instructed us to hold the board in the middle, and when the wave was coming, push up with our arms and slide up (we kind of looked like cobras...) So, we went out in the water and tried that a few times. After we had mastered that step, we came back onto shore to learn the hardest part... standing up. Our teacher went through each step of placing your one foot on the back of board and bringing your dominant foot through to the middle of the board, then standing up into the typical crouched surfing position... easier said than done. We practiced several times on land, but once we hit the water, it was 1000x harder, and the waves weren’t even the big! Surfers make it look SO easy, and let me tell you, surfing is a workout! We were out on the water for over an hour; some people were able to stand, others were not. I was so close, so many times, but it was hard for me to stand all the way up, and most of the time, I rode the waves in on my knees. For being a dancer all my life, my balance was very poor that day! It wasn’t until my very last attempt that I stood up for a second before falling off. We all agreed that if we would have had another hour, we probably could have gotten the hang of it, but those types of skills take a long time to master. I’ll absolutely try surfing again someday though.

For the rest of the afternoon, we relaxed for a few hours, and around 4:00, we left to meet up with the rest of the group to head back to Sevilla. It was the best weekend to end our travels outside of Spain, and we have plenty of pictures to prove it!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

I've Caught the Bug.

“Often when students travel abroad, they get “the bug” or find themselves itching to go somewhere else, because they enjoy taking international journeys so much. While you are probably excited to go back home and see your family and friends, is there more international travel on the horizon for you? If so, where, and in what capacity?”

I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve caught a bad case of the travel bug. Well, good for me as far as cultural experiences go but very bad for my bank account. Anyway, this semester, I’ve had the privilege of visiting eight different countries and exploring so much of Europe that I may never have seen without having the wonderful opportunity to study abroad. I’m already planning out more countries that I want to visit when I come back someday. In fact, the next time I’ll be back to Europe will be this upcoming January when I go to Italy for three weeks for my intersession class at W&J. I’ll be traveling with my advisor, along with other students, and studying Italian culture and cuisine. I’m so excited because I’ll be able to see more of Italy and revisit some of the cities I saw this semester. 

After Italy, I’m not sure when exactly my next international travel experience will be. There’s been talk within my family about taking another trip to Europe after I graduate next spring (as a graduation gift for me and my sister, since she’ll be graduating high school the same time I’ll be finishing undergrad). The European places that are still on my bucket list are Prague, Amsterdam, Switzerland, and Germany for sure; although I would absolutely love to revisit any of the countries I saw this semester and I'm always open to new suggestions, too! Plus I've already decided that I’m definitely coming back to Sevilla someday very soon as well. It’s my home away from home!

Back to Italy: Amalfi Coast

I never anticipated going to Italy two different times during the semester, but I wasn’t complaining that I was able to return. Katie and I had booked our trip to the Amalfi Coast with Bus2Alps at the very beginning of the semester, and in the meantime, we had decided to see Rome and Florence when we realized we had the entire week off for Feria. Anyway, I was so happy to see more of Italy, and of course, eat more Italian food!

Katie and I flew back into Rome after class on Wednesday evening to meet the bus we were taking with the rest of the group to Amalfi. Traffic outside of the city was so bad that night, and we were very afraid that we were going to miss the bus, but luckily for us they waited, and we made it! It was a long three hour trip on a mini bus, after our two hour flight, but it could have been worse, because there were a lot more students coming from Florence which is a 6-7 hour trip on a bus! When we finally got to our hotel in Sorrento that night, it was almost midnight, so we showered and went straight to bed.

The next morning, we saw that we had two other roommates that had come in during the middle of the night, because both of them had come with the Florence group. Just before our meeting time at noon, Katie and I went out to meet the bus to go into Naples, but there was no one to be found... the bus had left without us. I went into the reception area, and the clerk at the desk had confirmed that the bus had indeed left about 15 minutes prior. Katie and I looked at each other and had no idea what to do; the last thing we wanted to do was stay at the hotel all day. At that point the clerk offered to call our group leader, Monika, and see if they could possibly turn around. He handed me the phone, and it was actually her that apologized, because they had decided to leave 15 minutes early. Apparently they didn’t have a chance to tell everyone (Katie and myself), but she was very sweet and told me that it wasn’t our fault at all and that they weren’t very far away, so they would turn around to come get us. I quickly agreed, but we still felt bad because this is the second time in less than 24 hours that we had delayed the bus; in reality though, neither time was our fault... surprisingly. The bus showed up within 10 minutes, and we quickly got on and took our walk of shame to the back of the bus, as everyone stared at us. However, in no time at all, we were back on the road and almost to Naples. Once we arrived, we first went to get something to eat at a restaurant recommended by one of our leaders. I ordered the traditional margarita pizza, which was SO delicious, considering that we were in the birthplace where the first margarita pizza was invented. :) After lunch, we walked around to see some of the sights and met the group to head back into Sorrento later that afternoon.

That night, there was a barbecue and pool party at our hotel. It was nice to sit outside, enjoy some food from the grill, and sip some piña coladas by the pool. We hung out some of our new friends and got to know everyone a little better. After a couple hours, we called it a night and went to bed since we had to get up decently early the next day... and because we were determined not to make the bus wait again.

6:30am came pretty early, so we quickly got ready, ate some breakfast, and headed to meet the bus, which I’m proud to say that we were actually early. We had to be up so early, because our ferry to Capri was leaving at 8:30am, and it would definitely not be waiting around for anyone. We made it to the ferry with no problems, and I was getting so excited to see what the rest of the day had in store for us. Katie and I quickly found seats on the ferry, and as I was looking around, I thought I saw two familiar faces; and it turned out that our friends Shelby and Chelsea that we had met in Paris were on this trip too! I was even more excited for the rest of the weekend at that point. :) We talked the entire way over to the island and caught up about the rest of our travels since February. It was a pretty quick trip to the island, and in no time at all, we were boarding another boat to go on a cruise around the island. I absolutely loved every second of it! The scenery was so beautiful, the water, the landscape; it truly was paradise. We reached a certain point in the boat tour where we all boarded into other really tiny boats so we could go into the blue grotto. The four of us girls all fit into one boat perfectly, along with our guide for the grotto. He started rowing toward the smallest little hole in the cliffs; it was seriously the size of a basketball backboard. He made us all duck down, and he himself hunched down just enough to pull us into the grotto. I’m not kidding when I say that it was probably the extraordinary sight I have ever seen in my whole entire life. The water inside the dark cave was glowing the most beautiful color of blue that I’ve ever seen. The reason that it glows so well inside the grotto is because the sun from the outside reflects down to the bottom of the ocean, and as a result, it has a “glowing” effect. I could have stayed in there for hours, and I would have loved to have swam inside, but unfortunately we only had about 5-7 minutes to enjoy it. Once we were back outside, we loaded back onto our bigger boat to continue our tour. We viewed some other smaller grottos, the three most famous rocks in Capri used in the Dolce & Gabbana commercials, the mansion on top of the cliffs that the president of Gerber baby products owns, looked for Mariah Carey’s vacation home, and eventually finished our tour. It was such a beautiful day for a boat ride; I didn’t want it to end!

After we were back on dry land, we took a cable car up to another part of Capri. I drank one of the most refreshing drinks of my life; it was called a granita, and it was like a lemon slushy, but so much better! I’m still dreaming about how good it was. Anyway, we walked around that part of the island for a little while, took some pictures, and later, we rode up to a different little town. While we were there, we grabbed lunch, sampled some limoncello, and I even bought some customized sandals made just for me! The older man that was making them was so sweet, not to mention he had a booming business. He even made sandals for Jackie Kennedy! After we visited the sandal shop, we bought tickets for the chair lift to go to the highest point of the island to enjoy some of the best views. Although our friend Chelsea was too scared to go up, Shelby, Katie, and I had the best time. It was basically like a 45 minute photo-shoot for the three of us once we reached the top, but we couldn’t help but take so many pictures because the views were astounding! It was totally worth it to go to the top (even though I was a little scared myself when going up the chairlift). We had perfect timing too because on the way back down, it was just starting to sprinkle and later turned into a heavy rain.

Once we rode back down to the port, we did a little souvenir shopping and boarded the ferry once more to head back to the mainland. It had been a fantastic day! Once we got back to the hotel, we got ready and headed into Sorrento to eat dinner and enjoy the night life. We went to a bar with all of the other students on our trip called the English Tavern and danced the night away. After several hours, a large group of us walked back to the hotel, in order to get some rest for the next day!

Luckily we didn’t have to get up quite as early on Saturday as we did the day before. We quickly got ready and met the bus headed toward Positano for the day. I was pretty bummed out because it was supposed to be our beach day, and the weather wasn’t cooperating at all. It was pretty chilly and drizzling on and off all day, but we were determined to make the most of our last full day in Italy. It was around a 45 minute bus ride there and another 45 minute trek down all the steps on the cliff to reach the city; I only fell about three times walking down all the wet steps in flip flops. When we finally got to the bottom, we walked out onto the black sand beach and took some great pictures of the town. Even in the rain, it was still so beautiful. We decided that our next move would be to get some lunch, because we were all cold, tired, and hungry. I have to say that I ordered one of the best meals I’ve had during my whole time in Europe for lunch that day. The homemade gnocchi was heavenly; I probably could have eaten three more plates.

After lunch, we wandered in and out of some of the little shops for a little while, and our group ended up leaving a few hours sooner than we had expected since the weather was so bad. On our way out, Katie and I stopped at a little sandwich shop that our leaders recommended called Vini and Panini. I bought some ruby red fresh picked strawberries, and we decided to split a panini since we’ve heard everyone rave about how good they were. We ordered ours with chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella, pesto, and a little basil... absolutely scrumptious! I wasn’t even hungry, but I ate every last bite; it put Panera Bread to shame. If it wasn’t for the food in Positano, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the dreary day near as much, but I was so happy we went. I do really want to go back someday though, so I can enjoy the beach with some better weather!

Later that night, we had basically the same game plan as the night before. Katie and I enjoyed another wonderful Italian dinner; I couldn’t help but order the gnocchi again, but it was still so good the second time around, especially when complemented by some tasty red wine. After dinner we went to the same bar and hung out with all of our new friends for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, the next day was Sunday, which meant that it was our last day. We checked out of our hotel and stopped at our final destination of the trip before heading back to Rome. We spent the afternoon at Pompeii, the ancient city that was covered by an explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. and wasn’t uncovered until the 1700s. There have been intensive excavations since the 18th century, and now it’s one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of Italy. It was incredible to see the remains of the ancient city and to see how advanced this society really was, even in the 1st century. They had irrigation systems, running water, and the fundamental means for plumbing; it was amazing. We walked throughout all of the grounds and saw just how these people lived in the year 79, but one of the most astounding things for me was to see the people who had literally been mummified in the volcanic ash. We saw the body casts of how many people looked in their last moments before they were petrified... so crazy!

After our tour of the ancient city, I enjoyed some delicious margarita pizza for lunch and one last round of gelato before heading back to Rome to catch our flight back to Spain. What an unforgettable weekend it was! I will absolutely visit the Amalfi Coast again someday; it’s too beautiful not to go back!

What I'll Miss Most, from the Other Side

Being in Spain, I’ve made some of the best memories of my whole entire life, which makes it really hard to choose just one thing that I’ll miss upon my return home to the U.S. I’ve made some best friends and had an incredible semester overall; however, if I had to pick one thing that I’ll miss the most, I’d say that it would be the city of Sevilla, in general. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually consider it as my “home”, and I’ll always look back on these four months that I’ve been living in Spain with highest regards. I’ll miss all of the people that I’ve met along the way for sure, but I know that I’ll keep in touch with them. A majority of the friends that I’ve made are from Texas, Ohio, and Maine, but I have family in Texas, PA is a neighboring state to Ohio, and I’ve always wanted to go to New England, so I have great reasons to go visit! Even though it’s going to be one of the most bittersweet days of my life leaving Sevilla at the end of the semester, I know that someday I’ll be back. All good things must to come to an end at some point, but it’ll be nice to be back in Pennsylvania, too. :)

Feria in Sevilla

La feria is one of the most anticipated weeks out of the whole year for Spaniards. Why, you ask? Because it’s a week long festival, where no one works or goes to school, and basically it’s one giant fiesta. This is why Katie and I were able to travel all week because we didn’t have classes either. Anyway, I’m sure you’ve seen the traditional Spanish flamenco dresses before; well, the women wear basically the same style of dress all week during feria, but with much more vibrant colors. Everyone dresses up and heads to the neighborhood of Los Remedios, where all of the action takes place. To signify the start of feria, the Spaniards light up the giant portada, or entrance way, to the festival. There are hundreds of casetas that line the streets which are basically just private tents that the Spanish people rent to have their parties. The “tents” are so elaborately decorated that you would never think they were tents at all. Inside the casetas, the Spanish people dance the Sevillanas, which is the traditional dance of Sevilla. As if the Spaniards don’t stay out late already during any other time of the year, during the week of feria, everyone stays out until 6:00, 7:00, or 8:00 in the morning, just dancing the night away... kids included! There are also so many food stands, games, and carnival rides, making it an even bigger party! Luckily Katie and I were able to catch the last weekend of feria, and even though we didn’t wear a typical Sevillana dress or get invited into any of the casetas, we still had a great time! We took lots of pictures, rode on one of the rides, and ended our evening with some churros con chocolate... so yummy!

The following day was Sunday which meant that the feria would officially be over. Katie, Dan, and I walked down to the Guadalquivir RIver just before midnight to catch the fireworks which signified the end. It was a beautiful ending to a great week, but the following day was Monday which meant back to school for us!

Madrid in 24 Hours

I told myself that I couldn’t leave Spain for the semester and not visit Madrid (since we hadn’t really gotten to see much of the city, other than from the inside of the airport and the train station), so we had planned to explore for the next 24 hours! By this point, after nine days of traveling, I was absolutely exhausted (partly just from lugging our heavy bags all over Europe!), so Katie and I decided to do a bus tour that would take us around to all of the big sights. I saw the Palacio Real, the Cathedral, and the Museo del Prado to name a few; Katie saw the inside of her eyelids. :) However, in her defense, she wasn’t sleeping during the whole bus ride, only a part of it haha! We decided to get off at one of the stops to grab a late lunch, and once I saw the Hard Rock Café, it was game over for me. I couldn’t think of anything that I wanted to eat more than a scrumptious, bacon cheeseburger. (It’s a surprise I don’t weigh 500 pounds.) I had been craving American food for a long time, and I was finally satisfied; it was wonderful. After lunch, we hopped back on the bus and rode around the city for awhile longer. By mid-evening, Katie and I decided to head back to our hotel and rest before doing anything else because we were both exhausted, so much that Katie could hardly hold her head up anymore. We laid down around 7:00, with full intentions of getting up and going to dinner later that night... well, I’m sure you can see where this is going. Five hours later, we accepted the fact that we weren’t going anywhere else that night, changed into our pj’s, and went back to bed. On the plus side, since we had a full night’s rest, we were able to get up and moving decently early the next morning. Our first stop was to one of our new favorite stores, Primark, at one of the malls in Madrid. We did a little shopping before heading back into the center of the city. We wandered through the Plaza del Sol and walked down to the Mercado de San Miguel. The market was ginormous and offered so many different varieties of tapas, fruits, nuts, sweets, and drinks, among many others. After we wandered through the market, we decided it was time for some lunch, so we continued down the street to eat at the Restaurante Sobrino de Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world! We walked in to get a table and eat before heading back to Sevilla, but we were heartbroken when they told us it would be at least a half hour wait, and we knew we would never make our train in an hour and a half if we stayed. Completely disappointed, we eventually found another restaurant that didn’t look nearly as good, and grabbed some lunch before heading south. It was one of the best weeks of my life, but I was happy to be heading back to get some rest after a very tiring week of travels. Plus, we were going to be able to see the end of Feria, which I will blog about next! :)

A Small Taste of Italy: Rome and Florence!

Upon return from our paradise weekend in Santorini, Katie and I still had some more places to explore, starting with Rome! For the next two days we would be sightseeing in Rome, then taking a train to visit my sorority sisters in Florence!

Once we arrived back to Rome, Katie and I headed straight for our hotel near the train station. We got all settled in and then set out to see the sights. We only had two days in Rome, which is not nearly enough, but still better than none! We grabbed lunch at a nearby pizzeria and then headed out for the rest of the day. We met up with Liv after her class, and she showed us around a little. We walked past the Spanish steps and wandered down to the Trevi fountain. Katie and I took our turn tossing a coin into fountain (apparently I was so excited that I forgot to make a wish the first time, so I had to throw another coin in just to be sure). We stopped for gelato and spent our day wandering around the streets of Italy. However, by midday, we were exhausted after our weekend, so we headed back to Liv’s apartment to relax for the night. Liv, Sammy, and Lauren made dinner for the five of us! It was so sweet of them and so delicious. Since Katie and I were anticipating a long day of sightseeing the next day, we headed back to our hotel around 9 so we could shower and get to bed early.

The following day, we met up some friends, Diana and Nicolette, who we met in Morocco earlier in the month! We met them at the Pantheon, and they took us to an amazingly good panini shop for lunch. We ordered our paninis (which were only three euros!) and spent some time catching up with the girls near a beautiful piazza. Afterwards, they took us to one of their favorite gelato places and we said our goodbyes. It was still early at this point and Katie and I had a long “to do” list of places to visit, so we started with the Roman Forum which I absolutely loved. It was unreal to think that I was walking along the same path that Julius Caesar once had. We took some great pictures and wandered up to the Palatine Hill before heading over to the Colosseum. Seeing the Colosseum was such a surreal moment for me too, because I’ve seen it countless times in pictures, but finally it was my turn! Katie and I got some incredible shots and really enjoyed our afternoon together. We could not have asked for better weather; it was absolutely gorgeous that day! Later that afternoon, we took the metro to go see the Vatican before the sunset. We decided that we couldn’t leave Rome without seeing it, even if we couldn’t go inside. It was also a very cool experience not only because one of the cute policeman was checking me out (ha!), but because we were there not long after the new Pope was elected so all of the chairs were still set up outside. We only stayed for a little while because we wanted to go watch the sunset on top of the Poblono, which was one of Liv’s great recommendations. It was so beautiful to watch the sun sinking over the city, even though it was getting very cold at that point. Afterwards, Liv came to meet us after her class and her, Sammy, Katie, and I all went for dinner together one last time at one of Liv’s favorite restaurants, since the next day we would be heading to Florence. It was so nice to spend the evening with the girls, but it was sad to say goodbye after spending all weekend and our few days in Rome with them. Luckily I’ll be seeing Olivia in a few weeks at school! 

The next morning, Katie and I packed up our stuff another time and took the next train to Florence to meet our other friends! We’ve kept in contact with all of my DG sisters, Chelsea, Lindsay, Emma, Kellie, Meredith and Chelsey ever since we first met them in Paris at the beginning of the semester. Our train ride was pretty miserable because it was so stifling hot inside the cars, and some random Italian woman yelled at me whenever I tried to put the window down (still bitter about that). Nonetheless, it made us that more excited to get to Florence! Chelsea was waiting at the train station for us when we got there, and she took us straight to their apartment to put our bags down and relax. I must say that their apartment was HUGE!! It was twice the size of our’s in Sevilla because all six of the girls stay there. Anyway, the girls were still finishing classes for the day so Katie and I decided that it would be a good idea to nap for a little before we did anything; traveling is exhausting! After we got up, we all went out for dinner together to celebrate Lindsay’s birthday at one of their favorite restaurants. It was the first time that I’ve had a balsamic dressing in months, and I must say that it was probably the best that I’ve ever tasted in my life. The mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, pasta, and wine were scrumptious! After dinner, we all got ready and headed to a club called 21 to celebrate Lindsay’s 21st!

The next day, Katie and I slept in a little then finally got up and walked around the city, which was a lot smaller than I was expecting; it was still so charming nonetheless. Upon walking down to the river to see the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, I had felt like I had walked straight into an Olive Garden menu. Katie laughed at me when I said that, but it was completely true! I absolutely loved the scenery all along the river. The Ponte Vecchio bridge really was one of the coolest things I’d seen since I’d been in Italy... so many jewelry shops!

After walking around for a little, we decided that it was time for some lunch. We stopped at a delightful restaurant, where I ordered the best lasagna that I’ve ever eaten in my life! The trick to finding a good restaurant is not to follow all of the tourists and eat at the unvaried restaurants that aline the popular piazzas but to wander through the streets and find somewhere more hidden, which is exactly what we did. After lunch, we leisurely walked around and took the time to just enjoy the city (and admire all of the leather, too!) Katie and I made sure to see the Duomo, which was one of the prettiest cathedrals I’ve seen since I’ve been in Europe. We had such a wonderful afternoon and enjoyed our last full day in Italy. That night, the girls took us to a delicious pizzeria (I know, what pizza ISN’T delicious in Italy!), but this place truly was phenomenal. We all took our pizzas and ate outside on the steps before seeing some of the city at night. We hiked up to the top of the Michelangelo hill, and let me tell you, the view was exceptional. All of us sat on the steps overlooking the city, talked, and enjoyed each other’s company for the rest of the night. Since Katie and I had such an early flight to Madrid the next morning, we had to go back to the girls’ apartment before it got to be too late. It was really sad saying goodbye to them, but luckily they all go to school in Ohio at Kent State, which means we’ll be visiting a lot next fall since we’re fairly close!

Getting up the next morning before 5am was so hard, but I was still really excited to be moving on to our next city. Ciao Firenze, hola Madrid!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Study Abroad

Study abroad has changed me/has led to my personal growth in so many ways. First of all, it’s really taught me to roll with the punches. I’ve never traveled this much/this often in my life, so naturally there were going to be some inevitable obstacles at different points in my four month journey. Some were more costly than others, but in the end everything worked always worked out. I’ve had to think on my feet more than a few times, in order to make some impulse decisions. I’ve experienced several tense/stressful situations that have helped me to maintain composure better than I ever had in the past. I’m proud to say that I never once cried or lashed out at someone because a situation was too tough for me to handle; and there were indeed a fair amount of upsetting times that it would have been all too easy to lose my cool. I’ve talked my way through some challenging situations in Spanish and practiced my knowledge of the language with people that surpassed the simplicity of a standard conversation like, “Hola, como estás? Como te llamas?” (Hello, how are you? What’s your name?)

Additionally, I’ve grown so much as a person and have become much more globally aware. I’ve picked up on phrases in other languages, perfected my use of travel methods within a wide variety of cities, and have been able to communicate more clearly and effectively with people of different cultures. I’ve been able to connect with people on a deeper level and have made friendships that I know will last, not only with quite a few Europeans, but fellow American students that I’ve grown close to as well. I’ve also learned SO much more about Spain, as well as other European countries, in the past four months than I have in my whole life. As a result, I feel much more confident discussing the history of Spain, in addition to its present situation, than I ever would have in the past.

As my study abroad experience is coming to a close, I can’t help but have the mindset that I feel comfortable enough to take on the world. I’ve always considered myself to be fairly mature, but I definitely think that I’ve matured even further beyond my years after studying abroad, now that I’ve dealt with high tension situations, have been forced to think outside the box, and found commonalities with people that I never would expected. This journey has changed me in the best way possible, and I know that as much as I don’t want my college years to end, I’ll be more prepared for the real world than I ever would have been without this experience.

The Most Beautiful Place in the World, Santorini

Two weekends ago, Katie and I flew into Italy to meet up with my friend Olivia Thompson from W&J and her two roommates, Sammy and Lauren, who are studying abroad in Rome. From there, we were heading to Greece for the weekend! We had an overnight layover in Athens on Thursday night, but we were able to explore the city a little that day. We walked up to the Parthenon and the Akropolis. Olivia, Sammy, and Lauren were explaining to us the significance of each place since they have learned a lot about them this semester in their Greek mythology class. It was very cool to see such an ancient mythological city, plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous! For dinner that night, we enjoyed some delicious Greek food: lamb gyros, Greek yogurt, and phenomenal desserts!

We all packed into a taxi (there are really no limits on the roads in Greece) and headed back to the airport since the metro closed early for the night. Initially, the consensus was that everyone had wanted to stay in the airport for the night since we could watch each other’s bags, but around 1am everyone decided that it was going to be impossible to get any sleep whatsoever so the girls found a cheap hotel that we could at least get a couple hours of sleep to rest up for the following day. The word “cheap” was a complete and total understatement for the dump that we stayed in. It was by far the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in in my whole entire life. First off, it was in the middle of nowhere, and when we finally arrived, I had thoughts of asking the shuttle bus driver just to take me back to the airport. The entire place reeked of smoke and the rooms were disgusting. There were mosquitoes in the bathroom, and the towels were all stained. I did a very elaborate check for bed bugs on and under the mattress, and thankfully, we were OK in that department. It was the worst five hours of sleep I’ve ever gotten, and upon leaving the next day, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the thought of throwing around in the lobby and setting the place on fire didn’t cross my mind. I wish I was exaggerating. We didn’t leave Hotel Medusa soon enough for my liking, but it just made us that more anxious to finally get to our villa in Santorini!

A few hours later, we were airborne and heading to paradise. The flight was only 30 minutes, and before we knew it, we were on the ground. It was another quick 15 minute ride to our villa, and before long, we had our bathing suits on and were laying out, enjoying the warm sun. We were bummed that the pool/hot tub wasn’t filled, but we still made the most out of our vacation. After about two hours, we took a taxi down to the black sand beaches. We enjoyed a delicious lunch, (my Greek salad was SO good) followed by drinks on the beach. It was such a relaxing afternoon, which was just what I needed after our traumatic experience the night before. Before sunset, we headed back to the villa to shower and get ready for dinner. We ate at this delicious Mexican restaurant close by. Liv and I split chicken fajitas which were also phenomenal, like every other food we’ve had in Greece. We didn’t have any other plans for that night other than to rest up for the remainder of the weekend.

The next day, we walked out of the villa to find five four-wheelers waiting for us to explore the rest of the island! We had arranged to use them the day before because A.) it was cheaper than taking a taxi, B.) much quicker than walking, and C.) obviously just more fun! The hardest part was just getting up the steep hill right outside the driveway to our villa; that was interesting, ha! The first place we went that Saturday was down to the red sand beach; it was one of the most incredible beaches I’ve seen in my life! We could only ride so far, and we had to hike down the last part to actually get to the beach. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was; the sand was such a deep red and the water was crystal clear. The pictures I captured were awesome, and they still don’t even do this beach full justice. Since it was a little windier that day, we decided to do a little more sightseeing. We went into Fira and grabbed some lunch, then walked around and explored some of the cute little shops in the town. Later, we decided we were still hungry (not surprising), so we got some dessert as well and enjoyed the gorgeous views of the scenery from the restaurant located at the top of Fira.

We wanted to get back early enough so we had enough time to shower and go watch the sunset in Oía, on the other side of the island. It took nearly 45 minutes on our four-wheelers, and luckily we just made it in time. Afterwards, we drove the rest of the little trip into town and walked through some of the shops again before getting dinner that night. We met these two guys from the U.S. who invited us to eat with them, so the seven of us enjoyed great food and conversation for most of the evening. My stuffed peppers tasted as good as my mom’s (so you can only imagine how incredible they were). I know I’m always raving about the food, but I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve gotten something to eat at a restaurant that I haven’t liked. I’ve said it a million times before, but the food in Europe really is amazing!

After dinner, we mounted our four-wheelers and started on the long trip back to our villa. Unfortunately for us, it was extremely dark and freezing outside, so the trip on the four-wheeler wasn’t so fun. The guys had rented four-wheelers as well, so they followed in front and behind us to make sure we got back alright. However, once we got back to the villa, we decided that we weren’t exactly ready to go to bed yet, so we hopped back on the four-wheelers again and drove back into Fira, the town that was only about ten minutes away (luckily!) We went to one bar, but it was packed and had a very strange crowd so we didn’t stay long. We tried to look for our new friends but eventually decided to head back.

The next morning, we made the unanimous decision to rent the four-wheelers for an extra day, so we could make the most out of our last day before it was time for our flight at 8:00 that night. We rode back into Fira and got some lunch at a delicious restaurant that specialized in crepes. The girls all ordered phenomenal looking crepes, and I got an omelet which was probably the best that I’ve ever had in my life. (It’s amazing how two weeks have gone by and I can still remember every meal perfectly.)

Following lunch, I did a little shopping in one of the coolest jewelry stores I’ve ever been in, with so much handmade Grecian jewelry. Afterwards, we took the cable car all the way from the top of the island down to the port, so we could ride the donkeys up the hill. What an interesting experience that was! On the ride up the hill, which was actually more like a cliff, we took so many pictures, pointed out scenery from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie, and enjoyed spending our last afternoon altogether. Once we reached the top, we still had a few more hours to kill before our flight, so we headed back down to the black sand beaches. The sun was so hot that day so it made laying out on the beach that much more enjoyable and that much harder to leave at the same time. I actually got a tan line after just a few short days! 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and although we were all seriously considering just skipping our flight to stay longer, we knew we had to say goodbye to our dream vacation spot at some point or another. I think we all actually teared up as we were boarding the plane, but it made leaving a little easier for Katie and I because we knew we still had some exciting plans for the rest of the week, since we didn’t have school. Poor Liv, Sammy, and Lauren had to go back to school the next day. Despite our unnerving first night in Athens, it was, without a doubt, one of the best weekends of my life, and I’m so thankful I got to experience the beauty of Santorini, even if it was only for a few days. My biggest motivation for leaving was knowing that I definitely will be going back someday. Next family vacay? Honeymoon? (Just kidding, that will be a long time from now) Anyway, stay tuned for my next few blogs about the rest of our adventures throughout Feria week!