SO
This past week or so has been…interesting. Not the good type of interesting. After the last time I wrote, whatever I had got worse with a little bit of a fever and I lost my voice completely, so most of my time not in class was spent sleeping. We’ve got this really strict attendance policy here where you can’t miss more than 3 classes without your grade being automatically lowered 10%, so I couldn’t really take a full day off to recover.
Even before I got my voice back, something else happened. Michelle, one of my floormates, noticed that she was getting this weird rash, and thought that it was a bad reaction to some antibiotics. Well, so she thought until she noticed some tiny insect crawling on her pillow. Uh oh. Upon further discovery, she found more, and realized they were bedbugs. BUM BUM BUM
Anyways she threw the ones she found into a water bottle and brought them to the program center, where they set up an appointment with an exterminator the next day. Although the rest of us hadn’t noticed any bites- even the girl’s roommate- the program put us up in a hotel for the night. A hotel sans internet, I may add, which did not make catching up on all of this stuff that I have been putting off since I’ve been sick for a week and a half at all possible.
The exterminator came the next day on Wednesday and checked all of our beds, couches and everything, and it turns out that the bugs really were just in Michelle’s room. It was really weird though, because none of us had even traveled anywhere or stayed in a hostel yet, so there was no possible way that we brought them with us. Also the mattress and pillow were brand new, so we think they must have gotten in through the walls or something.
The exterminator could not come to actually take care of the problem until Friday morning, but I was actually really happy with the timing, this being Spain and all, and at least it was before the weekend. Of course just as a precaution we are in the hotel through Friday night, so that they could fumigate the Michelle and Maggie’s room and leave time for the chemicals to disperse. On Saturday morning we get to got back and clean everything. Yay.
Also the program had us bag up all of our clothes to be taken to get washed and dried in super hot water to kill any bugs or eggs that might be in there. Urrg. So at the present moment I am without kitchen, apartment, clothes, and internet. Awesome. If you guys see pictures of me wearing too small clothes in strange colors, it’s probably because my clothes got shrunk and bled into one another this weekend.
I know I shouldn’t really complain, since I didn’t get bitten and didn’t run into any problems, but it’s all be annoying to have to live like a gypsy and get behind on thing even more and all this whatnot. Also, since they only fumigated that one room, the other flatmate and I are worried about the bugs being pushed into our rooms to run away. I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out. Blah.
Other than that, not a lot is going on. Today, since I wasn’t allowed in the apartment, and I didn’t want to sit in a depressing hotel room all day, I wandered around outside a lot. I still hadn’t come to see my Spanish and Catalan professor from last semester, so I went over to where he was teaching class in the early afternoon.
I guess I showed up on the right day, because his class had a field study scavenger hunt thing, and the two of us went to a café to chat while the class figured it out. I need to remember where this café was- it was really cute, and the front was a book store. You walk down la Rambla and take the first right, and when the street starts being called Elisabet, turn right again to the back entrance of the café on the left. I remember it had an elephant as part of its logo…. Also there was a good Filipino place down there to (sigue my professor).
Later I met up with Jenn and Michelle and we grabbed lunch at another small café that I want to remember. It was to the right on a side street off of Passeig de Gracia in between Ronda St Pere and Gran Via. It was a really authentic little place with pretty good prices and nice people, which is unusual for so close to Plaza Catalunya. I need to start writing down the names of places, since there was this other neighborhood bar I went to on Sepulveda that I would like to go to again.
Anyways, the rest of the afternoon I took the roommates up Passeig de Gracia to see Gaudi’s Casa Mila and Casa Batlló, which I’ve walked past multiple times, but just never taken pictures of. I’ve been trying to take more pictures of Barcelona because for some reason I don’t have a lot of the city I actually live in. Remember, for pictures check: http://picasaweb.google.com/ToriKSpain
sábado, 7 de febrero de 2009
viernes, 30 de enero de 2009
UPF, Microbio Lab and Girona
HEADS UP: My Flickr Pro account officially expired today, so I am now putting all of my pictures up on Picasa, through Google. They are public, so here is the address that you need to go to in order to view the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ToriKSpain
This past week my classes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra started, as did my internship at the Microbiology Clinic of Dr. Echevarne labs.
The two UPF classes look relatively promising. The Barcelona History and City class will be useful I guess because I know where everything is in the city, so when the professor talks about the history of certain parts of Barcelona, I'll be able to piece it together in my head. So it looks like it'll be ok and not too hard. The teacher is younger and Catalan, so she's really easy to understand (she teaches in Spanish). The only downside with the class is that it's huuuuge- there's like 35 kids in it, and I don't know anyone there.
The other class I have there is Nationalism in Contemporary Europe, and it looks like it's going to be really interesting, but more on the challenging side. The professor is Gallego, which means that he speaks Spanish really really really fast. But the class has about 8 kids in it, so it'll be a lot of discussion and we'll hopefully all get to know each other.
Mondays and Wednesdays for four hours each afternoon I go to a microbiology lab up Passeig de Gracia- I actually have to walk right by Gaudi's La Pedrera to get there. I've only been there twice so I don't know what else they're going to have me do, but so far I've just been doing some bacterial cultures. Pretty much, doctors from all over Spain and Portugal send swabs of all sorts of disgusting things from people's bodies to the lab, where I grow bacteria on a bunch of different agar mediums.
The other day I had to grow E.Coli, Salmonella and a bunch of other ones that honestly make me sort of nervous to be working with. And contrary to popular belief, Salmonella is not Salmon colored, but black. At least on whatever the heck medium I was using. I also make slides of the bacteria once it's grown and add some different dyes that show whether or not it's gram negative or positive and whatnot under a microscope. So far it's been ok, and I have a lot of questions, but sometimes it's hard to get them answered since i don't really have spanish laboratory vocabulary. We'll see how it goes.
So yesterday (Saturday), I went to Girona with Jenn, Michelle and Amy. Girona is about an hour and half up the coast and inland from Barcelona. Unfortunately, it was raining all day so I came back with a really bad cold and no voice. I sound like a cross between a chain smoker and a 14 year old boy going through puberty. Awesome.
Anyways the town itself is worth an afternoon, it's got some pretty churches and monasteries from the 12th century, and also a really nice Jewish quarter. El Call, the Jewish Quarter, has some narrow winding streets and arches and is just pretty in general. There also some Arab style baths and a wall that encircles the city which you can walk on top of. It would be really fun to walk around when it's nice out, but Saturday was just not the day.
Recently I bought tickets to go to Morocco at the end of February with Jenn and her sister- I'm so excited! I'm still trying to figure out travel this semester, but I'm aiming for a weekend in Madrid, Granada with the family when they come, a weekend in London, and spring break as Istanbul-Budapest-Berlin. Also I'm hoping to do day trips to Sitges and Costa Brava which are near Barcelona.
My friends from high school actually want to do a trip the summer after we're supposed to graduate, going to Athens-Santorini-Prague-Vienna-Venice-Florence-Pompeii-Rome, so I'm going to save those cities to do with them (I might skip out on the last week or so, since I did those last semester though). So much saving up to do...
That's all for now...
http://picasaweb.google.com/ToriKSpain
This past week my classes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra started, as did my internship at the Microbiology Clinic of Dr. Echevarne labs.
The two UPF classes look relatively promising. The Barcelona History and City class will be useful I guess because I know where everything is in the city, so when the professor talks about the history of certain parts of Barcelona, I'll be able to piece it together in my head. So it looks like it'll be ok and not too hard. The teacher is younger and Catalan, so she's really easy to understand (she teaches in Spanish). The only downside with the class is that it's huuuuge- there's like 35 kids in it, and I don't know anyone there.
The other class I have there is Nationalism in Contemporary Europe, and it looks like it's going to be really interesting, but more on the challenging side. The professor is Gallego, which means that he speaks Spanish really really really fast. But the class has about 8 kids in it, so it'll be a lot of discussion and we'll hopefully all get to know each other.
Mondays and Wednesdays for four hours each afternoon I go to a microbiology lab up Passeig de Gracia- I actually have to walk right by Gaudi's La Pedrera to get there. I've only been there twice so I don't know what else they're going to have me do, but so far I've just been doing some bacterial cultures. Pretty much, doctors from all over Spain and Portugal send swabs of all sorts of disgusting things from people's bodies to the lab, where I grow bacteria on a bunch of different agar mediums.
The other day I had to grow E.Coli, Salmonella and a bunch of other ones that honestly make me sort of nervous to be working with. And contrary to popular belief, Salmonella is not Salmon colored, but black. At least on whatever the heck medium I was using. I also make slides of the bacteria once it's grown and add some different dyes that show whether or not it's gram negative or positive and whatnot under a microscope. So far it's been ok, and I have a lot of questions, but sometimes it's hard to get them answered since i don't really have spanish laboratory vocabulary. We'll see how it goes.
So yesterday (Saturday), I went to Girona with Jenn, Michelle and Amy. Girona is about an hour and half up the coast and inland from Barcelona. Unfortunately, it was raining all day so I came back with a really bad cold and no voice. I sound like a cross between a chain smoker and a 14 year old boy going through puberty. Awesome.
Anyways the town itself is worth an afternoon, it's got some pretty churches and monasteries from the 12th century, and also a really nice Jewish quarter. El Call, the Jewish Quarter, has some narrow winding streets and arches and is just pretty in general. There also some Arab style baths and a wall that encircles the city which you can walk on top of. It would be really fun to walk around when it's nice out, but Saturday was just not the day.
Recently I bought tickets to go to Morocco at the end of February with Jenn and her sister- I'm so excited! I'm still trying to figure out travel this semester, but I'm aiming for a weekend in Madrid, Granada with the family when they come, a weekend in London, and spring break as Istanbul-Budapest-Berlin. Also I'm hoping to do day trips to Sitges and Costa Brava which are near Barcelona.
My friends from high school actually want to do a trip the summer after we're supposed to graduate, going to Athens-Santorini-Prague-Vienna-Venice-Florence-Pompeii-Rome, so I'm going to save those cities to do with them (I might skip out on the last week or so, since I did those last semester though). So much saving up to do...
That's all for now...
domingo, 18 de enero de 2009
Back in BCN
I got back to Barcelona yesterday! It's really strange to go from -23 and blizzarding to around 57 and sunny, but a nice change. My trip back was through Heathrow again which was easy, but I ran into problems when I got here. The cab ride to the apartment should have been under 20- when I took it last time I had more luggage, and lived even further away from the airport, and it was around 19. We get to the apartment quickly, and I know we went straight there because I know the way. The meter said 16, but extra fees are usually added for luggage and if it's night and everything (which it wasn't)... well somehow the extra fees turned out to be almost 10 euro! Ridiculous! And of course there's nothing I could do to dispute it.
I only brought 23 euros and some change with, you can't pay with any sort of a card, there's no ATM in sight (to compound the embarrassment, later I find out that there was an ATM not 2 meters from the cab that I just didn't see), the RA I called was the wrong RA and I had not saved my real RA's number, and the one roomate whose number I had was not picking up her phone. After an awkward 5 minute conversation with the wrong RA, I spotted some American looking kids walking out of the building, ran out of the cab and yelled "Are you guys IES (the name of our program)?!" They were, so I quickly told them that I was a full year student that just got here, and short 2 euro. So they lent me the money and were on their way somewhere, so just left.
Keep in mind that I had been up for like 30 hours at this point, and the kids were on their way somewhere, so we didn't have time for a proper explanation/introductions, and my angry cab driver was grumbling in the background. Now I have to find said nameless kids to pay them back and (hopefully) befriend them. Though they probably have me labeled in their head as the weird girl from the taxi now. Great. And the trouble didn't stop there. I got to the 2nd floor, which was where I thought I lived (and I didn't write it down...stupid), but both doors had signs for companies so obviously it wasn't there. For some reason I hadn't saved my RA's number: before I left I checked to make sure I had it, and there was a contact saved as "Monica RA," but I completely forgot that the RA whom I barely saw last semester was a Monica too, so guess which Monica was the one I saved? Urg. I called my parents and had them log into facebook because I had both the useful Monica's and the number of one of my roomates in messages, so I got both the numbers and called. Of course, neither of them picked up. Woo.
I was just going to go up to the 3rd floor and just randomly knock on a door, because I know for sure that Monica lives there, but then Maggie (a roomate) called me back and let me into the apartment. It turns out I live on "Principal" which is really the 2nd floor: the second floor is actually the fourth floor, due to the presence of 2 unnumbered floor at the bottom. Monica picked up her phone and I went up to get the rest of my luggage, my keys and all of that. After that I just unpacked and got settled in, I was too tired to do anything.
So the apartment is nice and open. It's sort of plain, with nothing on the walls or anything, but it's also very clean and everything works (well, now it does). Except the shower head in our shower... I mean it works, but water of a certain water pressure will go over the shower curtain onto the floor. This flow rate translates to about a half inch layer of water on the entire bathroom floor over 10 minutes of showering. I know from experience.
I have a single, as does Jenn, who is across from me. Both of our rooms are about the same size as singles at a normal college campus, with a good closet and all that. We don't have windows that open outside, which is sad, but at least the rooms are well lit. There is a decent sized kitchen with everything a normal kitchen would have, sans dishwasher, and also a bigger common room with a dining table, a few couches and a tv. That room has a balcony that faces Gran Via, so it lets in a lot of light. Next to that room is a double where Maggie and Michelle live, that has another bathroom attached to it.
My roomates seem really nice, and I think I'll probably regularly hang out with a couple of them. By freak chance one of my roomates is Jenn Bert, who was in a few of my classes at LT and now goes to UOI. The other two girls, Maggie and Michelle, go to Penn State and Manhattenville, respectively, and are both from the Northeast.
So now it's in the middle of the first week of class, and I've been to a few of my classes. 2 of my classes which are at a different university and also the lab don't start until next week, so I only had the IES classes to deal with. The Gypsies and Church/State classes are thankfully taught by a really nice professor- I have her for both of them, so I was kind of nervous. They look promising. My research methodology class also looks pretty intense, and the professor has a bunch of psychology papers published in English journals (he's Canadian), so he knows what he's doing.
Other than that, nothing is really going on...the only weird thing I've noted about living in this section of the city is that people and shops actually do that whole siesta thing. Last semester I lived in a really high class neighborhood where everyone was a lawyer or in business, and I guess things were just more cosmopolitan; nowhere closed for siestas, and everywhere was open on Sundays. Here it is more middle class, so I guess that's why it's different.
I'll write at the beginning of next week once I have been to my Universitat de Pompeu Fabra classes and the lab.
Also a heads up that soon the majority of my Flickr pictures will disappear, as Flickr no longer allows free pro accounts to yahoo users. Lame. I'm going to look into something else that lets me put up a few thousand pictures without paying a membership fee. Ideas?
I only brought 23 euros and some change with, you can't pay with any sort of a card, there's no ATM in sight (to compound the embarrassment, later I find out that there was an ATM not 2 meters from the cab that I just didn't see), the RA I called was the wrong RA and I had not saved my real RA's number, and the one roomate whose number I had was not picking up her phone. After an awkward 5 minute conversation with the wrong RA, I spotted some American looking kids walking out of the building, ran out of the cab and yelled "Are you guys IES (the name of our program)?!" They were, so I quickly told them that I was a full year student that just got here, and short 2 euro. So they lent me the money and were on their way somewhere, so just left.
Keep in mind that I had been up for like 30 hours at this point, and the kids were on their way somewhere, so we didn't have time for a proper explanation/introductions, and my angry cab driver was grumbling in the background. Now I have to find said nameless kids to pay them back and (hopefully) befriend them. Though they probably have me labeled in their head as the weird girl from the taxi now. Great. And the trouble didn't stop there. I got to the 2nd floor, which was where I thought I lived (and I didn't write it down...stupid), but both doors had signs for companies so obviously it wasn't there. For some reason I hadn't saved my RA's number: before I left I checked to make sure I had it, and there was a contact saved as "Monica RA," but I completely forgot that the RA whom I barely saw last semester was a Monica too, so guess which Monica was the one I saved? Urg. I called my parents and had them log into facebook because I had both the useful Monica's and the number of one of my roomates in messages, so I got both the numbers and called. Of course, neither of them picked up. Woo.
I was just going to go up to the 3rd floor and just randomly knock on a door, because I know for sure that Monica lives there, but then Maggie (a roomate) called me back and let me into the apartment. It turns out I live on "Principal" which is really the 2nd floor: the second floor is actually the fourth floor, due to the presence of 2 unnumbered floor at the bottom. Monica picked up her phone and I went up to get the rest of my luggage, my keys and all of that. After that I just unpacked and got settled in, I was too tired to do anything.
So the apartment is nice and open. It's sort of plain, with nothing on the walls or anything, but it's also very clean and everything works (well, now it does). Except the shower head in our shower... I mean it works, but water of a certain water pressure will go over the shower curtain onto the floor. This flow rate translates to about a half inch layer of water on the entire bathroom floor over 10 minutes of showering. I know from experience.
I have a single, as does Jenn, who is across from me. Both of our rooms are about the same size as singles at a normal college campus, with a good closet and all that. We don't have windows that open outside, which is sad, but at least the rooms are well lit. There is a decent sized kitchen with everything a normal kitchen would have, sans dishwasher, and also a bigger common room with a dining table, a few couches and a tv. That room has a balcony that faces Gran Via, so it lets in a lot of light. Next to that room is a double where Maggie and Michelle live, that has another bathroom attached to it.
My roomates seem really nice, and I think I'll probably regularly hang out with a couple of them. By freak chance one of my roomates is Jenn Bert, who was in a few of my classes at LT and now goes to UOI. The other two girls, Maggie and Michelle, go to Penn State and Manhattenville, respectively, and are both from the Northeast.
So now it's in the middle of the first week of class, and I've been to a few of my classes. 2 of my classes which are at a different university and also the lab don't start until next week, so I only had the IES classes to deal with. The Gypsies and Church/State classes are thankfully taught by a really nice professor- I have her for both of them, so I was kind of nervous. They look promising. My research methodology class also looks pretty intense, and the professor has a bunch of psychology papers published in English journals (he's Canadian), so he knows what he's doing.
Other than that, nothing is really going on...the only weird thing I've noted about living in this section of the city is that people and shops actually do that whole siesta thing. Last semester I lived in a really high class neighborhood where everyone was a lawyer or in business, and I guess things were just more cosmopolitan; nowhere closed for siestas, and everywhere was open on Sundays. Here it is more middle class, so I guess that's why it's different.
I'll write at the beginning of next week once I have been to my Universitat de Pompeu Fabra classes and the lab.
Also a heads up that soon the majority of my Flickr pictures will disappear, as Flickr no longer allows free pro accounts to yahoo users. Lame. I'm going to look into something else that lets me put up a few thousand pictures without paying a membership fee. Ideas?
sábado, 20 de diciembre de 2008
I'm Home!
I’m in the airport, and soon I’ll be home! Of course, by the time this makes it onto the internet, I’ll be home for sure, and by soon, I mean in 14 hours…woo…
But I’m really excited, even though it’s like 9 degrees at home (while it has been 55ish here), and it’s going to be a rather long day. Last night I had to say goodbye to everyone, which was tough, because all of the people that I’m close with here are from all over the place- I’m trying to convince them all to end up visiting Chicago somehow this summer.
SO I said that I would elaborate on Catalan Christmas stuff. Barcelona is actually beautiful during the Christmas season- there are lights all over the place, and even though it’s nowhere near Christmas weather, but if you go to the right places, there are a ton people out shopping, and then it feels like Christmas.
Each main street downtown has a unique sort of Christmas light thing that is suspended over the street. For example, in Barri Gotic down Porta de l’Angel, there are these giant lit up star things suspended over the street. Because it’s Europe, and they love to save energy, they only light them at night from 6-9. I was actually sitting on a bench there a couple of nights ago waiting for the lights to turn on, and when they did, you could hear everyone on the street simultaneously go “Ooooh!”
On to the Christmas traditions! So in the US we celebrate Christmas as our main holiday, and do all of the family togetherness and gift giving on that day. Well Spain (and also part of Latin America- Puerto Rico, for one) has more of an emphasis on Three King’s Day, which is January 6th. My understanding is that the holiday season is more of a private celebration, and they don’t really do big parades or celebrations outside.
On Christmas itself, they don’t really put up a Christmas tree. Now you’ll see people getting mini Christmas trees, like ones 3ish feet tall, just because the tradition has sort of been imported, but it’s not really popular. What is more popular is the nativity scene in miniature. I’m sure you’ve all seen them at home, with the little figures of Mary and Joseph and stuff, but Spanish ones are crazy. I mean, they are still normal cresche sized, though slightly bigger, but they are really intricate.
You can buy them with working lights, and little handmade bridges and palm trees, and figures of chickens and cows and pretty much any possible thing you would expect to be in a scene like that. And there are a fair amount of things that you would not expect there. The one that is most notable is the figure of the Caganer. By the way, the Caganer is purely a Catalan thing, not a rest of Spain thing, so if you talk to someone from Andalucía about this, and say it’s normal in Spain, they will call you a crazy person.
The caganer figure is this little guy that is dressed as a traditional Catalan peasant with a pipe and a red gorra (a cap-y sort of thing, like a smurf). The thing that makes this interesting is he’s not just standing there, he is…pooping. Welcome to Catalunya. Wikipedia says it may have something to do with pre-Christian fertility stuff, but my Catalan professor was like “Yeah, some Catalan probably made that up to excuse our weirdness. It’s not gonna work.”
You’d think the poop ends there, but it does not. Instead of Santa Claus delivering gifts on Christmas, they have this thing called a “Caga Tió” or a “Tió de Nadal,” which translate to “Poop Log” and “Christmas Log,” respectively. So the whole way this works is you have this log- I am not joking when I say that this is an actual log, from the woodpile- and on the front it’s got this creepy face and smile, and it wears the traditional red gorra too. It also has smaller sticks on the front to kind of prop it up like legs.
So when kids are little, on Christmas they but a blanket around the Caga Tió “to keep it warm,” and they sing a song, and hit it with a stick in the hopes that the log “poops” gifts. While the kids are singing this song, the parents sneak small gifts under the blanket and every once in a while go “Look! I think it just pooped something! What is it?!” According to my good friend Wikipedia, here is the song that they sing- Spanish kids I showed this to said its right, but different families have slightly different variations of it.
caga tió,
caga torró,
avellanes i mató,
si no cagues bé
et daré un cop de bastó.
caga tió!"
poop log,
poop turrón,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don't poop well,
I'll hit you with a stick,
poop log!
Since the log is relatively small, obviously it can’t pass the larger gifts, so those are brought later by the Three Kings through methods that we consider more conventional. Other than that, I know of no other strange Catalan Christmas traditions… it’s just food and family, like here. I’m bringing home some turrón, which is their Christmas candy, and tons and tons of Christmas gifts.
I actually thought my giant suitcase would be pretty empty on the way home, but it was completely stuffed. I bought most of my Christmas gifts here, and they took up half the suitcase. Also I threw in a bunch of stuff that I had noticed I don’t use/need, some books I bought and finished reading, all my school stuff from this past semester, and other random and sundry stuff.
The thing was like 52 pounds, so it was kind of rough getting from my dorm, to the tram, to the metro to the bus, to the airport. Which was packed, I may add. Thank god for elevators. Of course, once I got off the metro, I had the good luck of using the only metro station in perhaps all of Barcelona that did not have an elevator. That was a great experience. Then I tripped all over myself trying the get the monster on to the bus, and looked ridiculous. But it’s on the plane now, and I don’t plan on actually carrying it anywhere until I come back to Barcelona (:
I leave Chicago on the 16th or so to come back. I probably won’t update over break, since the whole point of this thing is writing about Spain and travel, but who knows. Have a good holiday season everyone!
But I’m really excited, even though it’s like 9 degrees at home (while it has been 55ish here), and it’s going to be a rather long day. Last night I had to say goodbye to everyone, which was tough, because all of the people that I’m close with here are from all over the place- I’m trying to convince them all to end up visiting Chicago somehow this summer.
SO I said that I would elaborate on Catalan Christmas stuff. Barcelona is actually beautiful during the Christmas season- there are lights all over the place, and even though it’s nowhere near Christmas weather, but if you go to the right places, there are a ton people out shopping, and then it feels like Christmas.
Each main street downtown has a unique sort of Christmas light thing that is suspended over the street. For example, in Barri Gotic down Porta de l’Angel, there are these giant lit up star things suspended over the street. Because it’s Europe, and they love to save energy, they only light them at night from 6-9. I was actually sitting on a bench there a couple of nights ago waiting for the lights to turn on, and when they did, you could hear everyone on the street simultaneously go “Ooooh!”
On to the Christmas traditions! So in the US we celebrate Christmas as our main holiday, and do all of the family togetherness and gift giving on that day. Well Spain (and also part of Latin America- Puerto Rico, for one) has more of an emphasis on Three King’s Day, which is January 6th. My understanding is that the holiday season is more of a private celebration, and they don’t really do big parades or celebrations outside.
On Christmas itself, they don’t really put up a Christmas tree. Now you’ll see people getting mini Christmas trees, like ones 3ish feet tall, just because the tradition has sort of been imported, but it’s not really popular. What is more popular is the nativity scene in miniature. I’m sure you’ve all seen them at home, with the little figures of Mary and Joseph and stuff, but Spanish ones are crazy. I mean, they are still normal cresche sized, though slightly bigger, but they are really intricate.
You can buy them with working lights, and little handmade bridges and palm trees, and figures of chickens and cows and pretty much any possible thing you would expect to be in a scene like that. And there are a fair amount of things that you would not expect there. The one that is most notable is the figure of the Caganer. By the way, the Caganer is purely a Catalan thing, not a rest of Spain thing, so if you talk to someone from Andalucía about this, and say it’s normal in Spain, they will call you a crazy person.
The caganer figure is this little guy that is dressed as a traditional Catalan peasant with a pipe and a red gorra (a cap-y sort of thing, like a smurf). The thing that makes this interesting is he’s not just standing there, he is…pooping. Welcome to Catalunya. Wikipedia says it may have something to do with pre-Christian fertility stuff, but my Catalan professor was like “Yeah, some Catalan probably made that up to excuse our weirdness. It’s not gonna work.”
You’d think the poop ends there, but it does not. Instead of Santa Claus delivering gifts on Christmas, they have this thing called a “Caga Tió” or a “Tió de Nadal,” which translate to “Poop Log” and “Christmas Log,” respectively. So the whole way this works is you have this log- I am not joking when I say that this is an actual log, from the woodpile- and on the front it’s got this creepy face and smile, and it wears the traditional red gorra too. It also has smaller sticks on the front to kind of prop it up like legs.
So when kids are little, on Christmas they but a blanket around the Caga Tió “to keep it warm,” and they sing a song, and hit it with a stick in the hopes that the log “poops” gifts. While the kids are singing this song, the parents sneak small gifts under the blanket and every once in a while go “Look! I think it just pooped something! What is it?!” According to my good friend Wikipedia, here is the song that they sing- Spanish kids I showed this to said its right, but different families have slightly different variations of it.
caga tió,
caga torró,
avellanes i mató,
si no cagues bé
et daré un cop de bastó.
caga tió!"
poop log,
poop turrón,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don't poop well,
I'll hit you with a stick,
poop log!
Since the log is relatively small, obviously it can’t pass the larger gifts, so those are brought later by the Three Kings through methods that we consider more conventional. Other than that, I know of no other strange Catalan Christmas traditions… it’s just food and family, like here. I’m bringing home some turrón, which is their Christmas candy, and tons and tons of Christmas gifts.
I actually thought my giant suitcase would be pretty empty on the way home, but it was completely stuffed. I bought most of my Christmas gifts here, and they took up half the suitcase. Also I threw in a bunch of stuff that I had noticed I don’t use/need, some books I bought and finished reading, all my school stuff from this past semester, and other random and sundry stuff.
The thing was like 52 pounds, so it was kind of rough getting from my dorm, to the tram, to the metro to the bus, to the airport. Which was packed, I may add. Thank god for elevators. Of course, once I got off the metro, I had the good luck of using the only metro station in perhaps all of Barcelona that did not have an elevator. That was a great experience. Then I tripped all over myself trying the get the monster on to the bus, and looked ridiculous. But it’s on the plane now, and I don’t plan on actually carrying it anywhere until I come back to Barcelona (:
I leave Chicago on the 16th or so to come back. I probably won’t update over break, since the whole point of this thing is writing about Spain and travel, but who knows. Have a good holiday season everyone!
jueves, 11 de diciembre de 2008
Last couple weeks of class!
I can't believe today was the last day of class! The last couple weeks have been pretty tame, mostly because everyone's got a ton of papers and projects and presentations that were shoved off onto the very last second. Also I've been sort of antisocial recently, because up until this point I was never overwhelmingly homesick, since I was so far away from being home the whole time. But as soon as we got within 2 weeks or so of leaving, I couldn't stop thinking "I WANT TO BE HOME RIGHT NOW." It's also kind of weird because most kids here are never going to come back, so they're all upset about leaving and everything... but the thing is, I'm going back for another 4 months, and I'll plenty of time for all of the nightlife and the going out (which I'll be way happier about when it warms up again). I am ready to go home now. But I'm sure I'll be ready to come back after break.
So I'm really excited about going home. Of course I get to see my favorite person ever (you only get one guess who this is), and his family, who I miss too. My grandfather is flying in from Tampa for Christmas, and my mom's cousin, his kids, wife and mother are also coming in from Ft. Lauderdale! I'm really really excited, our house is going to be crazy, but it'll be great to see family. And eat awesome Puerto Rican food (arapas!!!!).
AND everyone's coming home from school, so I get to see high school buddies! Of course Sarah's abandoning us for Ghana for a few weeks, but who can blame her for that :D Just don't get malaria! I am sad that I won't get to see my Case friends though... unless anyone is going to be in Chicagoland for Xmas. I miss you guys too! I will also miss some really cool people I have met here at IES that go to schools all over... We'll definitely keep in touch.
I'm actually kind of nervous about who I am going to have as friends next semester. The thing is that all of the new students (there are only about 6 full year students) are going to arrive the 7th or so, about a week and a half before classes, to start just their Spanish classes and have orientation. I think they're doing the orientation trip to Valencia again. Since I'm not taking a Spanish class yet, and already have done orientation and all that, I don't have to go again. Plus it means I get to spend about 4 weeks at home and have a normal break. The downside is that since I'm not going to be around the first week, my roomies and everyone else are already going to know each other, so it'll be a little bit harder to make friends. Hopefully they're going to be nice!
I'm actually really excited about a couple things for next semester. I've of course got the apartment on Gran Via. I haven't been to the actual apartment yet, but in general, all of the ones from the program are really nice. Also the housing coordinator gave me single!!! Wooo! They don't have that many singles, so I'm really happy they let me have it. The apartment is a couple blocks away from a metro stop 3 down from class, so it only takes me 15 minutes to get to class at Catalunya. It'll be so nice to not have a 45 minute commute anymore.
Also, I've finally got my schedule for next semester set! I don't think I'm going to have any problems at all with being bored... I'm going to have a lot on my plate. Technically, I'm only taking 15 hours again, but it'll be slightly crazier. I am taking: Church and State in Spain from 1492 to Modern, Nationalism in Modern Europe: Emphasis on the Catalonian Case, Barcelona: the City and its History, Gypsies in Spain, and the Research Methodology Seminar. Unfortunately, two of those classes are in English, but I didn't really have a choice. Oh well...
I wanted to continue with Catalan, since I think I've actually settled into the language recently, and it's gotten substantially easier for me to speak and understand. I think I've legitimately learned a 3rd language... :D Buuut unfortunately, the Catalan class is during the research one, which I need to take, because... I have an internship!!! I am actually disgustingly excited about this. I went and had my interview last week at the HR office for Dr. Echevarne labs. I should be all set- 8 hours a week in one of their microbio labs! Pretty much, I get to play around with bacteria all day! I'll set up and run cultures, learn how to id certain types of bacteria, how to tell if it's gram negative and such like that. Also I get scrubs, Hooray! Also, no Spanish class, means no Friday class (: I'm hoping I can use those Fridays a couple of times to shadow doctors in the area.
In other next semester news, I'm deciding on where to travel next semester, since I need to budget in order to not be in debt by the time the year is over. It's alright, because all the money I've saved from summer jobs and everything was always meant to be spent this year, and when am I ever going to have the chance to travel Europe like this again? Probably not for at least 15 more years. So I've made the list of the places I'm want to visit, looked at some flights and at how much I've spent this past semester, and made some guestimations.
I'll be over what I have left to spend by maybe 200 dollars, if estimates are correct, but that is really not much, considering how much the whole semester is going to be travel-wise. I've got another account that I can take it out of, although I would really prefer not to. Also once I get home for the summer, it's straight to a summer job. That is, assuming I can find a job in this economy. So I can earn back a little bit of money without to much trouble.
What I'm thinking so far is doing a long weekend in Marrakesh, Morocco. Morocco is one of my top places to go- I know a lot of kids who went this past semester, and they all said is was amazing. Another weekend or couple of days I'll go to Granada to see the Alhambra. If my parents come visit over spring break (as I hope they do!) with my brother and sister, I'll wait and take off a couple of days of school and go with them. Otherwise, I'll just pick a weekend and go then. Some weekend I will definitely be visiting my Case suitemate Joy in London. Also I've got Spring Break during Holy Week (called Semana Santa, here in Spain), so the planned itinerary is Berlin to Prague to Budapest to Istanbul. I plan to get back for Easter, since it's a biiiig deal here in Spain. Aaaand that will be it!
It sounds like a lot, but it's about the same amount of travel that I did this past semester (Valencia, Tarragona, Zurich, Lucerne, Florence, Rome, Copenhagen, Paris, Pyrenees). But I'm really psyched for all the places I'm going. I know at least one person who's been to each of those places, so I've been emailing them about what hostels they stayed in and stuff like that, just to get an opinion from someone who I know.
The only thing I have left to do is convince people to go with me now (and book everything lol)... that does make me slightly nervous, but hopefully I'll meet some people who are thinking of going to the same places I am! I would like to go to Madrid too, since I've heard good things and it is the actual capital, but we'll see if I can afford it. I had also thought of doing Lisbon, Vienna or Greece (Santorini, or a nearby island), but I had to narrow it down. Hopefully I'll be back sometime before I die...
Well enough about all this travel business. This weekend I'm going to ski in the Pyrenees for the day, then I have finals, and then I am going HOME! It's ok Spain, I'll be back. How did I manage to write a lot about virtually nothing? Guess I'm talented... I'll update at the end of finals. Someone please remind me to elaborate on Catalan Christmas traditions, because they are very very strange. Because the notion of a fat man bringing gifts down a chimney isn't strange at all...
Wish me luck on finals!
So I'm really excited about going home. Of course I get to see my favorite person ever (you only get one guess who this is), and his family, who I miss too. My grandfather is flying in from Tampa for Christmas, and my mom's cousin, his kids, wife and mother are also coming in from Ft. Lauderdale! I'm really really excited, our house is going to be crazy, but it'll be great to see family. And eat awesome Puerto Rican food (arapas!!!!).
AND everyone's coming home from school, so I get to see high school buddies! Of course Sarah's abandoning us for Ghana for a few weeks, but who can blame her for that :D Just don't get malaria! I am sad that I won't get to see my Case friends though... unless anyone is going to be in Chicagoland for Xmas. I miss you guys too! I will also miss some really cool people I have met here at IES that go to schools all over... We'll definitely keep in touch.
I'm actually kind of nervous about who I am going to have as friends next semester. The thing is that all of the new students (there are only about 6 full year students) are going to arrive the 7th or so, about a week and a half before classes, to start just their Spanish classes and have orientation. I think they're doing the orientation trip to Valencia again. Since I'm not taking a Spanish class yet, and already have done orientation and all that, I don't have to go again. Plus it means I get to spend about 4 weeks at home and have a normal break. The downside is that since I'm not going to be around the first week, my roomies and everyone else are already going to know each other, so it'll be a little bit harder to make friends. Hopefully they're going to be nice!
I'm actually really excited about a couple things for next semester. I've of course got the apartment on Gran Via. I haven't been to the actual apartment yet, but in general, all of the ones from the program are really nice. Also the housing coordinator gave me single!!! Wooo! They don't have that many singles, so I'm really happy they let me have it. The apartment is a couple blocks away from a metro stop 3 down from class, so it only takes me 15 minutes to get to class at Catalunya. It'll be so nice to not have a 45 minute commute anymore.
Also, I've finally got my schedule for next semester set! I don't think I'm going to have any problems at all with being bored... I'm going to have a lot on my plate. Technically, I'm only taking 15 hours again, but it'll be slightly crazier. I am taking: Church and State in Spain from 1492 to Modern, Nationalism in Modern Europe: Emphasis on the Catalonian Case, Barcelona: the City and its History, Gypsies in Spain, and the Research Methodology Seminar. Unfortunately, two of those classes are in English, but I didn't really have a choice. Oh well...
I wanted to continue with Catalan, since I think I've actually settled into the language recently, and it's gotten substantially easier for me to speak and understand. I think I've legitimately learned a 3rd language... :D Buuut unfortunately, the Catalan class is during the research one, which I need to take, because... I have an internship!!! I am actually disgustingly excited about this. I went and had my interview last week at the HR office for Dr. Echevarne labs. I should be all set- 8 hours a week in one of their microbio labs! Pretty much, I get to play around with bacteria all day! I'll set up and run cultures, learn how to id certain types of bacteria, how to tell if it's gram negative and such like that. Also I get scrubs, Hooray! Also, no Spanish class, means no Friday class (: I'm hoping I can use those Fridays a couple of times to shadow doctors in the area.
In other next semester news, I'm deciding on where to travel next semester, since I need to budget in order to not be in debt by the time the year is over. It's alright, because all the money I've saved from summer jobs and everything was always meant to be spent this year, and when am I ever going to have the chance to travel Europe like this again? Probably not for at least 15 more years. So I've made the list of the places I'm want to visit, looked at some flights and at how much I've spent this past semester, and made some guestimations.
I'll be over what I have left to spend by maybe 200 dollars, if estimates are correct, but that is really not much, considering how much the whole semester is going to be travel-wise. I've got another account that I can take it out of, although I would really prefer not to. Also once I get home for the summer, it's straight to a summer job. That is, assuming I can find a job in this economy. So I can earn back a little bit of money without to much trouble.
What I'm thinking so far is doing a long weekend in Marrakesh, Morocco. Morocco is one of my top places to go- I know a lot of kids who went this past semester, and they all said is was amazing. Another weekend or couple of days I'll go to Granada to see the Alhambra. If my parents come visit over spring break (as I hope they do!) with my brother and sister, I'll wait and take off a couple of days of school and go with them. Otherwise, I'll just pick a weekend and go then. Some weekend I will definitely be visiting my Case suitemate Joy in London. Also I've got Spring Break during Holy Week (called Semana Santa, here in Spain), so the planned itinerary is Berlin to Prague to Budapest to Istanbul. I plan to get back for Easter, since it's a biiiig deal here in Spain. Aaaand that will be it!
It sounds like a lot, but it's about the same amount of travel that I did this past semester (Valencia, Tarragona, Zurich, Lucerne, Florence, Rome, Copenhagen, Paris, Pyrenees). But I'm really psyched for all the places I'm going. I know at least one person who's been to each of those places, so I've been emailing them about what hostels they stayed in and stuff like that, just to get an opinion from someone who I know.
The only thing I have left to do is convince people to go with me now (and book everything lol)... that does make me slightly nervous, but hopefully I'll meet some people who are thinking of going to the same places I am! I would like to go to Madrid too, since I've heard good things and it is the actual capital, but we'll see if I can afford it. I had also thought of doing Lisbon, Vienna or Greece (Santorini, or a nearby island), but I had to narrow it down. Hopefully I'll be back sometime before I die...
Well enough about all this travel business. This weekend I'm going to ski in the Pyrenees for the day, then I have finals, and then I am going HOME! It's ok Spain, I'll be back. How did I manage to write a lot about virtually nothing? Guess I'm talented... I'll update at the end of finals. Someone please remind me to elaborate on Catalan Christmas traditions, because they are very very strange. Because the notion of a fat man bringing gifts down a chimney isn't strange at all...
Wish me luck on finals!
lunes, 1 de diciembre de 2008
Paris
Things since Copenhagen have been pretty uneventful- I've finalized plans for moving to an apartment (I get a single, yay!), my schedule, and I have an interview with a hospital set up for this Friday. The weekend before last I just spent finishing off a final paper to turn in early, so the next weekend (this past weekend), I wouldn't have any work. Because...this past weekend we had yet another Friday off, so I headed off to Paris with Zoe, Lindsey, Steve and Margaret to meet up with some friends of Lindsey's!
We got into Paris on Thursday evening, and a little more than an hour later finally made it to our hostel. We stayed in St. Christoper's, a new hostel in the north of Paris, in the neighborhood where Amelie was filmed. If you ever go to Paris, stay here, because it was pretty much one of the nicest hostels I have stayed in. Good price too.
Anyways, there we met up with Lindsey's friend Alyssa, who is studying abroad in Copenhagen with the same program that Ariella is. We were all kind of tired from travel and planing on getting up early, so we found a restaurant around the corner from the hostel and ate there. It was good- one of those places with little grills on your table, so you cook the food yourself. You'd think the food would cost less, since you're the one doing the cooking, but you would be wrong. Still delicious.
Steve met up with us in the hostel, and we made plans for the next day. We woke up pretty early on Friday, and headed out to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur, the giant palace-y looking basilica. On the way there I misread the map, and we ended up going the wrong direction for a couple blocks, and ended up in the Red Light Disctrict Pigalle. It was pretty much a 4 or 5 block strip of sex shops, strip clubs and bars that include the original Moulin Rouge. I should probably see that movie sometime, huh?
Once we figured out that we were going in the wrong direction, we got to Sacre Coeur quickly, and climbed up the big stairs at the bottom of the hill to the top. On the way up, Steve got tricked into buying a bracelet- some guy approached him and had him hold some strings that he wove into a bracelet and tied around his wrist before Steve could say anything. Some people aren't just mean enough to ignore people like that.... :D
The view from the top was pretty, but it was foggy out, so the Eiffel Tower in the distance was kind of dim. After that we went back to the metro station and navigated our way to Versailles, the palace built by Louis XIV, the sun king. Versailles was huge but we spent several hours there and saw almost everything. We started with the main palace, and toured through all of the rooms there that we were allowed.
The rooms were gorgeous- they had preserved all of the original room decorations and everything was either pretty french patterned cloth or gold leaf. I really liked this palace in general, compared to other ones I have been too, because it had a lot of windows. The back of Versailles into this gigantic garden, so a lot of the windows were open to the garden. My favorite part was the hall of mirrors... it was still beautiful, and so easy to imagine courtiers running around in there. This would have been where Anne Boleyn learned to be French when he parents sent her to France as punishment.
We also saw Marie Antoinette's old room, where she had to close her balcony doors because the public was starving and demanding bread outside of her balcony, and about to attack her. One thing sort of annoying about Versailles was that there were these Jeff Koons pieces put in the middle of those elegant rooms- they were trying to show some comparison between modern art and the art of Versailles, but it was not a good juxtaposition. I mean, you would have this beautiful ballroom, and then a giant pink balloon animal in the middle of the room, or a lobster hanging from the ceiling, or a bunch of vacuum cleaners standing in front of an original portrait of Marie Antoinette. Strange...
Afterward 4ish hours there we went out to the gardens, which you could spend hours and hours in. They were pretty already, so they must be amazing in the Spring. I would most definitely go back there. Out in the giant gardens there were a few other buildings that we walking around in, including another royal residence that was used mostly by the Bonaparte family, and Marie Antoinette's private retreat.
There were also sheep and cows all the way back there! There were a lot of swans too- one of the guys in a work truck who was doing landscaping was driving around, and this swan-goose (it was too ugly to be a swan, but not the right coloring to be a goose. It was swan size though) just went and sat right where he was trying to drive. He honked at it a few times, yelled out the window at it, and when it finally started moving, tried to run it over. Ah, french road rage. Anyways the place is so big that they also rent out golfcarts so you can ride those around. Lets just say I was really happy to sit for that half an hour train ride back around 5:30.
Once we were back into Paris proper, we went to the Louvre. The Louvre is open till 10 and free for people under 25 on Fridays, so we had about 4 hours there. I was actually able to walk through almost every exhibit (I really wanted to see the Islamic art exhibit, but it was closed ): ), but I can completely see how you could spend a week there. Especially if you can read French- the little paragraphs they usually have under paintings and stuff were only written in French, which I can read if I try really hard. Even then I get maybe 50-75%, but it was just taking too long, so I stopped and just wandered around.
Every so often I'd see something that I'd recognize from textbooks or my mom's art stuff, and take a picture of it. They're surprisingly lax about cameras there. Of course I saw the famous stuff, the Mona Lisa, a few more things by Da Vinci, some Botticelli, Cezanne, Monet, the victory statue, and a lot more. I really liked the exhibit with Etruscan stuff.
We got kicked out around 10, and walked out the pyramid entrance. It was dark, and with the pyramid all lit up, the blue Eiffel Tower and the lit up ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde, it was pretty. But also freezing, like 35ish degrees. Oh well. We found a reasonably priced cafe in front of Palais Royal, ate, and then hopped the metro to get back to the hostel. It would have been nice to enjoy Parisian night life, but the metro closes around 1:30, it had been a really long day, and the next day was only going to get longer. We got back around 12:45 and crashed.
On Saturday morning we got up to meet Lindsey's friend Olivia near Notre Dame. She is a french history major and has been in Paris for the semester. Her french is also good, so she was really really helpful, and took us on a walk through the city to some really cool places, describing the history as she went. She was really nice to have spent her entire day playing tour guide with us.
She started us off at Notre Dame. Outside in the front is a plaque from which all points in Paris are measured- it's the center of the city. Notre Dame itself really doesn't look that big (compared to other giant churches I have been to) on the outside, but from the inside, it is gigantic. There's not really much you can say about the church itself that will do it justice; it's one of those you have to be there kind of things.
It did make me want to watch the Hunchback of Notre Dame though. Maybe I'll watch that this week (: Anyways we were lucky and there wasn't really a line, which was the case with most places we went during the day. We didn't go up to the towers, but just toured around the inside and then continued down Ile de la Cité.
Next we went to Sainte Chapelle, the old royal church attached the the Conciergerie, the royal palace used before the royal family moved to Versailles. I think of all of the churches that I have been to before, this one is my favorite. Please look at my pictures, or google image it or something, because it is so so so pretty. Even the part of the church that wasn't for the royal family was beautiful.
Since St. Chappelle is right next to the Conciergerie, we wet there next. If Olivia hadn't been there, I would know almost nothing about this building. It's sort of difficult to imagine the place as a palace, since it is preserved in "it's last historically significant condition," as a prison that it was converted to after the royal family moved. It's actually pretty neat to see how they had converted area to prison cells, and it has some artifacts from the French Revolution and Terror, when it housed a lot of political prisoners. This is where prisoners were kept before they were executed.
You could actually see where Marie Antoinette spent her last days- where her old cells used to be and things like that. The whole thing was slightly creepy, but still pretty cool. From there we walked down Rue St. Honoré next to the Seine on our way to Place de la Concorde. On the way there, Olivia took us into the courtyard of the apartment where Robespierre lived with the Dantons. Next door was this really cute bakery, the Delices de Manon, which had a penguin chocolate wafer thing. It was delicious.
Sometime on our way Olivia took us through this enclosed plaza with trees and stuff that was surrounded with little shops, all of which were either extremely expensive old cafes from the 1700s, or high priced antique places. Here there was a café where Napoleon used to hang out when he was a student in Paris, and in front of another café, the place where the French revolution pretty much started was marked on the wall.
From there we ended up at Place de la Concorde, which has had a few different names, and used to be the place where prisoners were guillotined. This is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were publicly executed. There was this giant Ferris wheel called the Grande Roue there, and also a big obelisk that the French stole from Egypt. From there we went down the Champs Elysee toward Arc de Triomphe. There was actually a Christmas market going on there, and it was fun to walk around. Arc de Triomphe is pretty, it just sort of sits there, so we hopped the metro to go over the Musee Carnavalet.
Musee Carnavalet is a museum on French history spread out across a few fancy houses of the old nobility. It's smaller, but pretty interesting, so we stayed there until we got kicked out around 6. From there Olivia took us to where the Bastille used to be. The building itself is gone, there are just some markers on the plaza, but now the area is big for nightlife. We walked around the streets and found a restaurant, and just relaxed for a bit.
Afterwards we took the metro again over to the Eiffel Tower, which was lit up all blue to look like the EU symbol. We went up to the top in the elevator and you could see the whole city lit up- it was so pretty. Although it was windy and freezing up there, it was worth it. It was also pretty cool to see all of the different places that we had been to during the day from up there. While we were up there, it "sparkled-" they had attached strobe light aaaall over the tower, and they turn then all on when the hour changes at night.
We took the stairs down, and by the time we had gotten all the way back up past the gardens, it sparkled again! We grabbed some warm up hot chocolate at a cafe looking out at the Eiffel Tower, and then got back to the hostel around one again. It was such a long day, that most of us were practically falling asleep at the cafe, so we just went to bed. Sort of- I stayed up a little to finish some postcards. I was facing the window of the hostel, and while I was there it started to snow! It was a pretty snow, with giant snowflakes- so I saw my first snow of the season in Paris this year!!!
On Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hospital. From there we were to Luxembourg Gardens to walk around, and passed by the Danton statue on the way. Everyone went to grab some crepes, but I went on a mad search to find stamps. On the way to find stamps I actually walked by the Sorbonne, and some Cluny remains. Then it was off to the airport, and home to Barcelona!!
It was a really good weekend, and although I didn't expect to, I really loved it. I liked all of the different neighborhoods, and the history behind everything and it was just a really nice city. It was beautiful even in the winter, and in the spring I bet it is ridiculously gorgeous. I would go back there in a second.
We got into Paris on Thursday evening, and a little more than an hour later finally made it to our hostel. We stayed in St. Christoper's, a new hostel in the north of Paris, in the neighborhood where Amelie was filmed. If you ever go to Paris, stay here, because it was pretty much one of the nicest hostels I have stayed in. Good price too.
Anyways, there we met up with Lindsey's friend Alyssa, who is studying abroad in Copenhagen with the same program that Ariella is. We were all kind of tired from travel and planing on getting up early, so we found a restaurant around the corner from the hostel and ate there. It was good- one of those places with little grills on your table, so you cook the food yourself. You'd think the food would cost less, since you're the one doing the cooking, but you would be wrong. Still delicious.
Steve met up with us in the hostel, and we made plans for the next day. We woke up pretty early on Friday, and headed out to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur, the giant palace-y looking basilica. On the way there I misread the map, and we ended up going the wrong direction for a couple blocks, and ended up in the Red Light Disctrict Pigalle. It was pretty much a 4 or 5 block strip of sex shops, strip clubs and bars that include the original Moulin Rouge. I should probably see that movie sometime, huh?
Once we figured out that we were going in the wrong direction, we got to Sacre Coeur quickly, and climbed up the big stairs at the bottom of the hill to the top. On the way up, Steve got tricked into buying a bracelet- some guy approached him and had him hold some strings that he wove into a bracelet and tied around his wrist before Steve could say anything. Some people aren't just mean enough to ignore people like that.... :D
The view from the top was pretty, but it was foggy out, so the Eiffel Tower in the distance was kind of dim. After that we went back to the metro station and navigated our way to Versailles, the palace built by Louis XIV, the sun king. Versailles was huge but we spent several hours there and saw almost everything. We started with the main palace, and toured through all of the rooms there that we were allowed.
The rooms were gorgeous- they had preserved all of the original room decorations and everything was either pretty french patterned cloth or gold leaf. I really liked this palace in general, compared to other ones I have been too, because it had a lot of windows. The back of Versailles into this gigantic garden, so a lot of the windows were open to the garden. My favorite part was the hall of mirrors... it was still beautiful, and so easy to imagine courtiers running around in there. This would have been where Anne Boleyn learned to be French when he parents sent her to France as punishment.
We also saw Marie Antoinette's old room, where she had to close her balcony doors because the public was starving and demanding bread outside of her balcony, and about to attack her. One thing sort of annoying about Versailles was that there were these Jeff Koons pieces put in the middle of those elegant rooms- they were trying to show some comparison between modern art and the art of Versailles, but it was not a good juxtaposition. I mean, you would have this beautiful ballroom, and then a giant pink balloon animal in the middle of the room, or a lobster hanging from the ceiling, or a bunch of vacuum cleaners standing in front of an original portrait of Marie Antoinette. Strange...
Afterward 4ish hours there we went out to the gardens, which you could spend hours and hours in. They were pretty already, so they must be amazing in the Spring. I would most definitely go back there. Out in the giant gardens there were a few other buildings that we walking around in, including another royal residence that was used mostly by the Bonaparte family, and Marie Antoinette's private retreat.
There were also sheep and cows all the way back there! There were a lot of swans too- one of the guys in a work truck who was doing landscaping was driving around, and this swan-goose (it was too ugly to be a swan, but not the right coloring to be a goose. It was swan size though) just went and sat right where he was trying to drive. He honked at it a few times, yelled out the window at it, and when it finally started moving, tried to run it over. Ah, french road rage. Anyways the place is so big that they also rent out golfcarts so you can ride those around. Lets just say I was really happy to sit for that half an hour train ride back around 5:30.
Once we were back into Paris proper, we went to the Louvre. The Louvre is open till 10 and free for people under 25 on Fridays, so we had about 4 hours there. I was actually able to walk through almost every exhibit (I really wanted to see the Islamic art exhibit, but it was closed ): ), but I can completely see how you could spend a week there. Especially if you can read French- the little paragraphs they usually have under paintings and stuff were only written in French, which I can read if I try really hard. Even then I get maybe 50-75%, but it was just taking too long, so I stopped and just wandered around.
Every so often I'd see something that I'd recognize from textbooks or my mom's art stuff, and take a picture of it. They're surprisingly lax about cameras there. Of course I saw the famous stuff, the Mona Lisa, a few more things by Da Vinci, some Botticelli, Cezanne, Monet, the victory statue, and a lot more. I really liked the exhibit with Etruscan stuff.
We got kicked out around 10, and walked out the pyramid entrance. It was dark, and with the pyramid all lit up, the blue Eiffel Tower and the lit up ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde, it was pretty. But also freezing, like 35ish degrees. Oh well. We found a reasonably priced cafe in front of Palais Royal, ate, and then hopped the metro to get back to the hostel. It would have been nice to enjoy Parisian night life, but the metro closes around 1:30, it had been a really long day, and the next day was only going to get longer. We got back around 12:45 and crashed.
On Saturday morning we got up to meet Lindsey's friend Olivia near Notre Dame. She is a french history major and has been in Paris for the semester. Her french is also good, so she was really really helpful, and took us on a walk through the city to some really cool places, describing the history as she went. She was really nice to have spent her entire day playing tour guide with us.
She started us off at Notre Dame. Outside in the front is a plaque from which all points in Paris are measured- it's the center of the city. Notre Dame itself really doesn't look that big (compared to other giant churches I have been to) on the outside, but from the inside, it is gigantic. There's not really much you can say about the church itself that will do it justice; it's one of those you have to be there kind of things.
It did make me want to watch the Hunchback of Notre Dame though. Maybe I'll watch that this week (: Anyways we were lucky and there wasn't really a line, which was the case with most places we went during the day. We didn't go up to the towers, but just toured around the inside and then continued down Ile de la Cité.
Next we went to Sainte Chapelle, the old royal church attached the the Conciergerie, the royal palace used before the royal family moved to Versailles. I think of all of the churches that I have been to before, this one is my favorite. Please look at my pictures, or google image it or something, because it is so so so pretty. Even the part of the church that wasn't for the royal family was beautiful.
Since St. Chappelle is right next to the Conciergerie, we wet there next. If Olivia hadn't been there, I would know almost nothing about this building. It's sort of difficult to imagine the place as a palace, since it is preserved in "it's last historically significant condition," as a prison that it was converted to after the royal family moved. It's actually pretty neat to see how they had converted area to prison cells, and it has some artifacts from the French Revolution and Terror, when it housed a lot of political prisoners. This is where prisoners were kept before they were executed.
You could actually see where Marie Antoinette spent her last days- where her old cells used to be and things like that. The whole thing was slightly creepy, but still pretty cool. From there we walked down Rue St. Honoré next to the Seine on our way to Place de la Concorde. On the way there, Olivia took us into the courtyard of the apartment where Robespierre lived with the Dantons. Next door was this really cute bakery, the Delices de Manon, which had a penguin chocolate wafer thing. It was delicious.
Sometime on our way Olivia took us through this enclosed plaza with trees and stuff that was surrounded with little shops, all of which were either extremely expensive old cafes from the 1700s, or high priced antique places. Here there was a café where Napoleon used to hang out when he was a student in Paris, and in front of another café, the place where the French revolution pretty much started was marked on the wall.
From there we ended up at Place de la Concorde, which has had a few different names, and used to be the place where prisoners were guillotined. This is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were publicly executed. There was this giant Ferris wheel called the Grande Roue there, and also a big obelisk that the French stole from Egypt. From there we went down the Champs Elysee toward Arc de Triomphe. There was actually a Christmas market going on there, and it was fun to walk around. Arc de Triomphe is pretty, it just sort of sits there, so we hopped the metro to go over the Musee Carnavalet.
Musee Carnavalet is a museum on French history spread out across a few fancy houses of the old nobility. It's smaller, but pretty interesting, so we stayed there until we got kicked out around 6. From there Olivia took us to where the Bastille used to be. The building itself is gone, there are just some markers on the plaza, but now the area is big for nightlife. We walked around the streets and found a restaurant, and just relaxed for a bit.
Afterwards we took the metro again over to the Eiffel Tower, which was lit up all blue to look like the EU symbol. We went up to the top in the elevator and you could see the whole city lit up- it was so pretty. Although it was windy and freezing up there, it was worth it. It was also pretty cool to see all of the different places that we had been to during the day from up there. While we were up there, it "sparkled-" they had attached strobe light aaaall over the tower, and they turn then all on when the hour changes at night.
We took the stairs down, and by the time we had gotten all the way back up past the gardens, it sparkled again! We grabbed some warm up hot chocolate at a cafe looking out at the Eiffel Tower, and then got back to the hostel around one again. It was such a long day, that most of us were practically falling asleep at the cafe, so we just went to bed. Sort of- I stayed up a little to finish some postcards. I was facing the window of the hostel, and while I was there it started to snow! It was a pretty snow, with giant snowflakes- so I saw my first snow of the season in Paris this year!!!
On Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hospital. From there we were to Luxembourg Gardens to walk around, and passed by the Danton statue on the way. Everyone went to grab some crepes, but I went on a mad search to find stamps. On the way to find stamps I actually walked by the Sorbonne, and some Cluny remains. Then it was off to the airport, and home to Barcelona!!
It was a really good weekend, and although I didn't expect to, I really loved it. I liked all of the different neighborhoods, and the history behind everything and it was just a really nice city. It was beautiful even in the winter, and in the spring I bet it is ridiculously gorgeous. I would go back there in a second.
viernes, 21 de noviembre de 2008
Copenhagen
General notice: So I know my English in this blog is terrible- I try to read stuff over and screen for some of the worse mistakes, but I still miss a lot. I forget words in English too now, it’s terrible. You’d think my Spanish would be getting better and my English worse, so they’d even out a bit, but it just seems like my English is getting worse, and that’s it… Apologies for the atrocious English…
During the two weeks after fall break, I had some papers due, 4 scholarships to apply for, a few midterm exams, 800 pictures to upload and tag, a mountain of laundry to wash, and an election to follow. It was rather busy. Election Day was crazy, or rather, Election Night, since all the exciting stuff was happening from 12-6:30 am my time, and I don’t have access to a tv, so I had to keep refreshing the internet every few minutes. Of course at this time, the internet decided it would be the perfect time to break on me. At the same time I was supposed to be editing a 10 page history paper... What ended up happening was I fell asleep for a half an hour about every hour, and finally went to sleep for good around 4:30 am my time, without finishing my paper, once Obama had won 200 or so electoral votes. I figure he was going to be ok then, but asked my mom to call me when it was official.
Apparently my mom called me around 6:00 to tell me, and I answered the phone and talked to her, but I completely don’t remember. So I woke up at 7:45, approximately when I should be eating, and had to quickly put the finishing touches on my essay, shower, get to IES early and print my paper. I was not very awake all day. Spain is obsessed with American politics, so Obama was on the front page of every newspaper, but I really wish I could have been home then. It was just really strange to walk around and feel filled with energy and like something is different, when everyone around you is going on as if it’s just another boring day. I slept a lot on Thursday (:
This past weekend we had Friday off, so I went up to Copenhagen, Denmark to see Ariella and Stephanie from Case. My (extremely expensive) flight left on Thursday afternoon, and after almost missing my connecting flight in Zurich, I got into Copenhagen, where Ariella met me in the airport. We took the metro and bus back to her place, a collegium, or dorm for Danish students. Her dorm was really strange, it was called Keops, and was made up of singles, with doors that opened to the outside. Instead of having hallways inside, the hallways were outside, where it was freezing cold.
But the room itself was nice sized, with a little mini kitchen, AND the bathroom had heated floor tiles. I was really excited about that last part for some reason… We just stayed up late that night talked and caught up- it was just nice to be around someone who’s known me for more than 3 months.
The next morning we got up and took the bus to downtown Copenhagen to walk down the pedestrian street with all of the shops. We stopped in a few of them and I bought a new hat, since it was ridiculously cold there. As we kept walking we went by the Round Tower, the Rundetårn in Danish, and took a quick look inside Helligaands Kirken. Ariella had me buy some Danish pastries, which were delicious, and also try a bunch of different types of licorice, which were apparently “very Danish” but in my opinion, very disgusting.
We got lunch at a kebab place near where she’s got class, and the guy made me order in Danish. Apparently Ariella goes there a lot, and so do a lot of students, so since he guy there knows that it’s all students, he makes them order in Danish. He would be like “Do you want cucumber?” And wouldn’t do anything unless you said “Yes, I want cucumber please, or no I do not want cucumber, thank you.” When I went “mmhmm” for yes to something, he was like “No, no mmhmm,” and repeated whatever it was I was supposed t say in Danish. It was funny.
Danish itself is funny… it sounds sort of like you’re gagging and about to be sick when it is spoken, and it apparently isn’t pronounced anything like how it’s written. Also they don’t have a word for please- you just say thank you after everything, like “Could you move your chair, thank you?” Interesting. So we ate where Ariella had classes, and I said hi to Stephanie, who knew I was there. I also said hi to 2 other Case kids I know who are studying there as well, and who were really surprised to see me in Copenhagen.
Then Ariella had a health and disease class, so I went with her and studied for my Catalan test while she took notes. It was kind of nice to have a science class, but I found her professors more interesting- they were 2 Danish residents from the hospital that the classes were at. They barely had accents. For most Danish people, when they speak English, it doesn’t really sound like they have an accent, but rather that they just speak a little bit different, like maybe they had a slight speech impediment as a little kid that they’re over now. The younger people have even more perfect English, and even know all of our slang, because their TV is actually all American shows, that are still in the original English- they’re not even dubbed or subtitled in Danish. That makes me feel pretty unaccomplished, language wise…
After her class we went grocery shopping, headed back to the dorm, cooked dinner, and chatted some more. Stephanie and her friend Katie came over, and we caught up, and got ready to go out. They all knew this girl named Karen, and it was her birthday, so they were all meeting up at Studenthuset, the bar for Copenhagen students. They had me drink something that pretty much tasted like mouthwash- again, something “Very Danish” to make the most of my time there, and we chatted with some of their Danish and Finnish friends from the Copenhagen Business School. There were plans for a dance club, but for some reason there was a cover charge (there wasn’t supposed to be), and it was late, so we just headed back and crashed.
On Saturday, about 30 minutes after we were supposed to, we got up and headed out to be touristy for the day. The day started at Rosenburg Palace, where the royal gardens and the treasury are located. Denmark still has a figurehead royal family, who everyone there loves, so she still had a lot of the jewels, but the ones that she had given to the museum were gorgeous. I want to steal aaaaall of them! The palace itself was also very pretty on the inside, although a big dark. Because it’s so cold there, all of the walls were covered either in giant tapestries, or gilt leather.
From there we went over to the harbor, where all of the pretty pictures of Copenhagen are taken. Unfortunately, it was raining and cloudy and freezing all weekend, my pictures aren’t as pretty, but they’re still cute. It’s this one part of the canal that has a bunch of boats moored by the side, and it lined on either side by multicolor houses. Along the canal there was actually set up a little Christmas market, with Christmas carols being played by the post office band and lots of people wandering around. There Ariella had me try a Pølser, which is again, “very Danish.” It’s pretty much just a hot dog, with everything on it.
Afterwards we continued past Frederikskirken to Amelienborg Palace, where the royal family lives today. Queen Margareth was actually not home, but since we couldn’t go in anyways, we went to the shore and walking along to the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid is the symbol of Copenhagen, and about the size of a normal person. It’s head and arm have been cut off before and it’s been spray paint and in general abused, but somehow it’s still a symbol of the city.
Then we looped back around toward the Danish National Museum (Nationalmuseet), went by an Anglican stone church and soldier’s barracks on the way, and stayed at the museum till it closed. We grabbed dinner at a restaurant and went back to her place. Later on we met up with a few of her friends at a local club, called Rust to go dancing.
Clubs there are very different than in Barcelona… apparently bar culture is so strong that when people go to clubs, they just stand around the bar and talk- the only guys on the dance floor are usually foreigners. In general Copenhagen seemed less European than everywhere else I’ve been- people actually give you personal space, guys don’t do the manpurse thing, nor do they dance, and of course everyone speaks perfect English. Strange…
On Sunday morning I packed up all of my stuff and we went over to the island that the airport is on (which is still part of Copenhagen), and met up with a Danish friend of Ariella’s. He lives in Christianshavn, the harbor area of the island, and he had offered to walk us around Christiania since Ariella hadn’t been there either. Christiania is interesting… It’s this town of 850ish people that’s right in the middle of Copenhagen, and is sort of self-governing. In the 70s the area was unoccupied army barracks, and so the people who lived near broke in and started building stuff there. It eventually turned into a squatter’s town, where people governed themselves and just built houses on the land. It actually made for some really interesting architecture, since everything there was done by hand, as cars are prohibited there. Around the area encircling Christiania we stopped into a few other churches, and then I hopped onto the metro toward the airport.
During the two weeks after fall break, I had some papers due, 4 scholarships to apply for, a few midterm exams, 800 pictures to upload and tag, a mountain of laundry to wash, and an election to follow. It was rather busy. Election Day was crazy, or rather, Election Night, since all the exciting stuff was happening from 12-6:30 am my time, and I don’t have access to a tv, so I had to keep refreshing the internet every few minutes. Of course at this time, the internet decided it would be the perfect time to break on me. At the same time I was supposed to be editing a 10 page history paper... What ended up happening was I fell asleep for a half an hour about every hour, and finally went to sleep for good around 4:30 am my time, without finishing my paper, once Obama had won 200 or so electoral votes. I figure he was going to be ok then, but asked my mom to call me when it was official.
Apparently my mom called me around 6:00 to tell me, and I answered the phone and talked to her, but I completely don’t remember. So I woke up at 7:45, approximately when I should be eating, and had to quickly put the finishing touches on my essay, shower, get to IES early and print my paper. I was not very awake all day. Spain is obsessed with American politics, so Obama was on the front page of every newspaper, but I really wish I could have been home then. It was just really strange to walk around and feel filled with energy and like something is different, when everyone around you is going on as if it’s just another boring day. I slept a lot on Thursday (:
This past weekend we had Friday off, so I went up to Copenhagen, Denmark to see Ariella and Stephanie from Case. My (extremely expensive) flight left on Thursday afternoon, and after almost missing my connecting flight in Zurich, I got into Copenhagen, where Ariella met me in the airport. We took the metro and bus back to her place, a collegium, or dorm for Danish students. Her dorm was really strange, it was called Keops, and was made up of singles, with doors that opened to the outside. Instead of having hallways inside, the hallways were outside, where it was freezing cold.
But the room itself was nice sized, with a little mini kitchen, AND the bathroom had heated floor tiles. I was really excited about that last part for some reason… We just stayed up late that night talked and caught up- it was just nice to be around someone who’s known me for more than 3 months.
The next morning we got up and took the bus to downtown Copenhagen to walk down the pedestrian street with all of the shops. We stopped in a few of them and I bought a new hat, since it was ridiculously cold there. As we kept walking we went by the Round Tower, the Rundetårn in Danish, and took a quick look inside Helligaands Kirken. Ariella had me buy some Danish pastries, which were delicious, and also try a bunch of different types of licorice, which were apparently “very Danish” but in my opinion, very disgusting.
We got lunch at a kebab place near where she’s got class, and the guy made me order in Danish. Apparently Ariella goes there a lot, and so do a lot of students, so since he guy there knows that it’s all students, he makes them order in Danish. He would be like “Do you want cucumber?” And wouldn’t do anything unless you said “Yes, I want cucumber please, or no I do not want cucumber, thank you.” When I went “mmhmm” for yes to something, he was like “No, no mmhmm,” and repeated whatever it was I was supposed t say in Danish. It was funny.
Danish itself is funny… it sounds sort of like you’re gagging and about to be sick when it is spoken, and it apparently isn’t pronounced anything like how it’s written. Also they don’t have a word for please- you just say thank you after everything, like “Could you move your chair, thank you?” Interesting. So we ate where Ariella had classes, and I said hi to Stephanie, who knew I was there. I also said hi to 2 other Case kids I know who are studying there as well, and who were really surprised to see me in Copenhagen.
Then Ariella had a health and disease class, so I went with her and studied for my Catalan test while she took notes. It was kind of nice to have a science class, but I found her professors more interesting- they were 2 Danish residents from the hospital that the classes were at. They barely had accents. For most Danish people, when they speak English, it doesn’t really sound like they have an accent, but rather that they just speak a little bit different, like maybe they had a slight speech impediment as a little kid that they’re over now. The younger people have even more perfect English, and even know all of our slang, because their TV is actually all American shows, that are still in the original English- they’re not even dubbed or subtitled in Danish. That makes me feel pretty unaccomplished, language wise…
After her class we went grocery shopping, headed back to the dorm, cooked dinner, and chatted some more. Stephanie and her friend Katie came over, and we caught up, and got ready to go out. They all knew this girl named Karen, and it was her birthday, so they were all meeting up at Studenthuset, the bar for Copenhagen students. They had me drink something that pretty much tasted like mouthwash- again, something “Very Danish” to make the most of my time there, and we chatted with some of their Danish and Finnish friends from the Copenhagen Business School. There were plans for a dance club, but for some reason there was a cover charge (there wasn’t supposed to be), and it was late, so we just headed back and crashed.
On Saturday, about 30 minutes after we were supposed to, we got up and headed out to be touristy for the day. The day started at Rosenburg Palace, where the royal gardens and the treasury are located. Denmark still has a figurehead royal family, who everyone there loves, so she still had a lot of the jewels, but the ones that she had given to the museum were gorgeous. I want to steal aaaaall of them! The palace itself was also very pretty on the inside, although a big dark. Because it’s so cold there, all of the walls were covered either in giant tapestries, or gilt leather.
From there we went over to the harbor, where all of the pretty pictures of Copenhagen are taken. Unfortunately, it was raining and cloudy and freezing all weekend, my pictures aren’t as pretty, but they’re still cute. It’s this one part of the canal that has a bunch of boats moored by the side, and it lined on either side by multicolor houses. Along the canal there was actually set up a little Christmas market, with Christmas carols being played by the post office band and lots of people wandering around. There Ariella had me try a Pølser, which is again, “very Danish.” It’s pretty much just a hot dog, with everything on it.
Afterwards we continued past Frederikskirken to Amelienborg Palace, where the royal family lives today. Queen Margareth was actually not home, but since we couldn’t go in anyways, we went to the shore and walking along to the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid is the symbol of Copenhagen, and about the size of a normal person. It’s head and arm have been cut off before and it’s been spray paint and in general abused, but somehow it’s still a symbol of the city.
Then we looped back around toward the Danish National Museum (Nationalmuseet), went by an Anglican stone church and soldier’s barracks on the way, and stayed at the museum till it closed. We grabbed dinner at a restaurant and went back to her place. Later on we met up with a few of her friends at a local club, called Rust to go dancing.
Clubs there are very different than in Barcelona… apparently bar culture is so strong that when people go to clubs, they just stand around the bar and talk- the only guys on the dance floor are usually foreigners. In general Copenhagen seemed less European than everywhere else I’ve been- people actually give you personal space, guys don’t do the manpurse thing, nor do they dance, and of course everyone speaks perfect English. Strange…
On Sunday morning I packed up all of my stuff and we went over to the island that the airport is on (which is still part of Copenhagen), and met up with a Danish friend of Ariella’s. He lives in Christianshavn, the harbor area of the island, and he had offered to walk us around Christiania since Ariella hadn’t been there either. Christiania is interesting… It’s this town of 850ish people that’s right in the middle of Copenhagen, and is sort of self-governing. In the 70s the area was unoccupied army barracks, and so the people who lived near broke in and started building stuff there. It eventually turned into a squatter’s town, where people governed themselves and just built houses on the land. It actually made for some really interesting architecture, since everything there was done by hand, as cars are prohibited there. Around the area encircling Christiania we stopped into a few other churches, and then I hopped onto the metro toward the airport.
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