On Thursday morning we went over to the train station around 8 to catch our train to Rome. The ride was only about 45 minutes and relatively uneventful, unless you count Alex getting on the completely wrong train… It’s alright, somehow he ended up in Rome 10 minutes after we did. So we go down to the metro to head over to our hostel, but for some reason it’s packed. Can’t turn around in one spot without getting pushed in some direction by mobs of people packed. This was, of course, not actually IN the metro, but on the platform thing that you wait at before getting on. I was afraid people were going to accidentally push people onto the tracks…
The mobs were composed of a lot of kids- anywhere from elementary to university age, and some older adults carrying flags and whistles. Everyone was singing and yelling, and some people had drums and were banging them, and there was just a lot of noise in general. 2 metro train things had to go by before we finally got on, and even then, we were still smashed up next to people with our suitcases. Since there were so many people around, we decided to pretend to be Spanish.
The metro cleared out pretty quick, and we noticed this group of 3ish Italian guys across from us. I’ve never actually heard Italian being spoken before, so I didn’t know how easy it is to understand when you’re paying attention… well they were trying to guess where we were from, since it was obviously from the suitcases that we were foreigners. They decided we were Spanish, and one of them finally asked Lindsey if we were Italian. When she told them that we were American, they were really surprised, and started yelling things in English- “I love you!” and “50 cent!” It was just gratifying to be able to pass as Spanish… At the hostel (really a camping ground- Camping Village Roma), we checked in, grabbed lunch, and went back into town.
The metro was again still packed- at lunch we had seen the news and learned that the tons of people we saw we actually protesters- the Italian government was considering privatizing their entire educational system, so teachers all across the city had taken their students out of class (they were supposed to have school that day), and took them downtown to several plazas and the middle of the city to protest. I guess the whistles and flags were to make sure that all the classes stayed together. Anyways, there were so many people that the Italian government actually closed a few metro stations in order to stop more protesters from showing up there. There were police all over the place and the Italian version of the Green Berets running around.
We wandered around once we got off the metro, and eventually found our way to the Trevi Fountain. I threw in a coin- so I’ll go back someday! Of course, I’ll probably be 80 by the time I can travel again, but whatever. From there we went up the Spanish Steps, walked an obelisk with hieroglyphics on it, passed by the Column of Traja (which we couldn’t get near, because the green beret guys had blocked that plaza off), and ended at the Pantheon. It actually just started to pour as we walked into the Pantheon, so we had pretty good timing. You could see the rain coming through the big hole in the ceiling, and they had the area right under the hole roped off, where the rain was getting all over the marble floors. It was pretty cool looking.
We kept walking and passed by the Victor Emmanuel Monument, and by that time it had cleared up a little bit, so we weren’t getting as wet. We passed by the Roman Forum and the Arch of Constantine to get to the Capitoline Museum. The Capitoline Museum was all statues, so there were lots of old Roman and Greek busts, huge statues of Athena and Apollo, giant feet and hands that had broken off of larger stuff, and the bronze statue of Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf was there. Do you know how old that thing is? It’s from like the 5th century B.C!! OLD. Lindsey and I took some awkward pictures next to it…
After the museum we found an out of the way restaurant, with great food, and the most hilarious waiter. It was this old guy, with this giant white beard, who was trying to teach us words in Italian. He actually spoke Spanish, so we just ordered that way. The entire week actually, in both Switzerland and Italy I was kind of surprised to find that our Spanish was usually just as useful as English, if not more so. After the restaurant there was a hookah bar just a few doors down, so we chilled on the pillows there and got desert. Mmm, baklava…
Around 11:15 ish we started walking toward the metro, which was really far away, hoping to catch it before they closed. On the way there some people at the front walked really fast, and ended up getting separated from the slowpokes in the back (me, Grant, Lindsey). Of course, I was the only person with a working phone, and when we got to the metro, it was not only closed (at like 11:45), but the rest of our group was nowhere to be seen. Lovely. We just grabbed a taxi, and hoped that they had either made the metro before it closed, or would think to get a taxi too. Of course, it would have been easier if someone other than me had brought a phone…
Back at the hostel we had to wait around for them to get back, since my stuff was in one of their tents: since there were 7 of us, and the tents were 3-person occupancy, one of us was the odd man out, and might be sleeping with random strangers. That person was me. I had put my stuff in one of our other tents just so no one else could get to them. It was colder than I thought it would be that night, since it had been raining all day, so sleeping was not really that fun…
The next day we got up really early, grabbed breakfast, and went over to the Vatican, since we had heard a lot about the terrible terrible lines that are there. When we got there around 9 there were enough people, but not enough to be forming a real sort of a line, so we went to the Vatican Museum first. The museum is pretty much just a walk through the different rooms and hallways of the Vatican… except it feels like a museum, because every tiny surface, the ceilings and the walls and the floor are covered in such exquisite detail that I can’t imagine anyone actually living here. Of everywhere I have been so far, there has been nothing so rich as the Vatican.
You walk through the different hallways, with their gold encrusted walls, 20 by 20 feet paintings, and rooms down completely by Raphael, and you can sort of see how some rooms have ropes at the entrances for when it’s so completely packed that they have to move people through like cattle. It wasn’t like that for us, and we got to the Sistine Chapel on our own time, not being slowed down by people in font, or pushed by people behind.
We stepped into the Sistine Chapel, and to be honest, I was kind of surprised by how small it was. I guess I have been so used to all of the Gothic style churches, with their huge windows and giant doors that I expected something like that. It was about the size of my church at home, a little bit longer lengthwise though, and obviously way more elegant. The thing that was to be impressed by was that ever surface, on the walls and the ceiling, every single little surface was covered by the originals done by Michelangelo and Botticelli, among others. Also the way that Michelangelo had to get the proportions right on the curved ceiling in order for them to look normal from the floor was amazing for his time.
From there we went back outside to go to St. Peters Basilica, but by that time- around 12- there were so many people that there was a big line. There was also a huge line for the museum; while we got to walk how we wanted, the people in line were going to be in line throughout the whole museum, and some of them were stretched out the door, and around the wall encircling the Vatican itself.
Afterwards we jumped onto the metro and went to the Coliseum. We were lucky again to miss the worst of the lines, and were able to wander around pretty easily. It was actually really pretty- you could see though the main playing arena, to where the animals and the gladiators used to be held, and it now had grass growing in the different cells- it was actually very pretty. Right across from the Coliseum were Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, with lots of ruins that we walked around. There were a few different temples, the ruins of the emperor’s residence, and the Stadium of Domitian. The stadium was my favorite.
We grabbed dinner somewhere, walked around some plaza that is good for nightlife to see everyone in their Halloween costumes, and went back to the hostel. The journey back to the hostel was not cool, since once we got to the metro, the bus running back and forth from our metro stop to the camping place was no longer running, so we had to walk like a mile in the rain, past some hookers… you know… And then in my tent there was this random guy sleeping when I got in there, so I had Lindsey sleep in the other bed just in case.
The next morning we got up early, packed our stuff, and headed over to the Vatican to see St. Peter’s Basilica. Someone needed to stay outside with bags, and my feet were killing me, so I just sat out and read. It had finally gotten nice out, and there was a marathon going on, and it was just good to have some alone time. 7 forms of transportation and about just as many hours later, I was back in Barcelona, and exhausted.
The end!
jueves, 20 de noviembre de 2008
martes, 18 de noviembre de 2008
Fall Break- Florence
Yes, I'm still extremely behind on telling things... so here we go..
After the long train ride, we got into Florence in the late afternoon. We stayed at Hostel Harmony, which was behind the train station, but well priced and only about a 20 minute walk from the Duomo. The Duomo is this gigantic church that has the most intricate façade that I have seen. I could probably rock-climb up the front, if I was allowed. It’s right across from the Baptistery, with its famous golden door- it was made by Lorenzo Ghiberti, who competed against other artists for the right, and died even before it was finished.
We decided to do the Uffizi Museum and the Galleria, since it was getting dark out. The Galleria is actually a small covered section outside, with the originals of Perseus and Medusa and The Rape of the Sabine Woman. There were a few other sculptures there, but none of them were labeled, so I have no idea what they are or who they are by… which in unfortunate, since there is a pretty high chance that they’re famous somehow. That’s what I get for never taking an art history class…
The Uffizi Museum has a very large art collection from the Renaissance, so we were there until they closed. The two things that stuck out in that museum were the Birth of Venus, and la Primavera by Botticelli. There were a lot of works there by Vasari as well.
That night we headed back up the main street toward our hostel, but stopped off somewhere for dinner first. Yay for Italian food!!!! Later on we headed back out to meet some of Alex’s friends, who happened to be in Florence at the same time that we were. They took us to some Irish pub, which I was kind of annoyed about- I mean, we were in Italy, why weren’t we going to an Italian place? Oh well…
The next day we got up early and started off at the Medici Palace. The outside was actually not that impressive, but inside it was ridiculous. On the first floor they had some old Medici church stuff, which included a lot of reliquaries. There were two glass goblets, each with a vertebra in them, a glass and gilt box with an entire lower jaw, and a thin tube with what looked like an ulna suspended on the inside. Very strange. The next level of the palace was extremely opulent- it was the Medici’s private chapel, and now houses the remains of Lorenzo di Medici the Magnificent, the Medici who inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince. The sepulchers were adorned with sculptures by Michelangelo and others. The chapel was having renovations done, but it was still gorgeous, The whole walls were done in marble, with extremely oversized marble figures of Medicis in alcoves in the walls. I tried to take some pictures, but got yelled at ):
The leather market is right around the corner from the Medici Palace, so we walked through there on our way to the Duomo. We wandered around inside the Duomo for a bit, which was large, but much simpler than the outside. There was a huge line for going up to the Cuppola, the dome that covers the Duomo. The line only took about a half an hour, but the walk up the Duomo took just about as long- 463 stairs! I can’t believe this whole thing was constructed more or less by hand. The stairs to the top took you on a pathway around the inside of the Cuppola, so you could look down onto the people below, and the paintings on the ceiling were very close.
The top of the Cuppola was beautiful. It was small, with a small tower in the middle. All day it had actually been kind of rainy, but once we got to the top, it cleared up, there was a strong breeze and the sun was out. It was perfect, we got up there at 12, so all of the church bells across the city were ringing. The view was worth it- you could see the entire city, with the tiled roofs, the large churches off in the distance and the hills in the background.
Then we went to the Accademia Galleria, which was surprisingly relatively small, but the whole point of going was to see the David. I had no idea it was so big- I expected it to be maybe 8 or 9 feet tall. I had to sneak a few pictures of the David, since absolutely no pictures were allowed, and if a security guard saw you, they would take your camera and delete the photo. Afterwards we walked over to St. Croce church, which also has a pretty white façade. Inside there were the remains of Niccolo Machiavelli, Galileo, Michelangelo, Napoleon’s wife and Dante. Most of the carvings around their graves were done by Vasari.
It was getting sort of dark, so we finished off the day at the San Marco Museum, which is a converted 15th century convent and really pretty. It's got a ton of stuff on the inside, mostly done by people who I had never heard of though. Afterward we walked over to Pont Vecchio, which is a big crazy bridge that goes over the Arno. But it's like a bridge on steroids- it has small jewelry shops crowding both sides, so the bridge looks kind of like its going to fall down at any second. It would be a shame, considering all the jewelry on the thing. We just grabbed dinner at a grocery store, and sat by the river eating. It started to rain then, and we were exhausted, so we went back to the hostel to sleep and plan for Rome.
After the long train ride, we got into Florence in the late afternoon. We stayed at Hostel Harmony, which was behind the train station, but well priced and only about a 20 minute walk from the Duomo. The Duomo is this gigantic church that has the most intricate façade that I have seen. I could probably rock-climb up the front, if I was allowed. It’s right across from the Baptistery, with its famous golden door- it was made by Lorenzo Ghiberti, who competed against other artists for the right, and died even before it was finished.
We decided to do the Uffizi Museum and the Galleria, since it was getting dark out. The Galleria is actually a small covered section outside, with the originals of Perseus and Medusa and The Rape of the Sabine Woman. There were a few other sculptures there, but none of them were labeled, so I have no idea what they are or who they are by… which in unfortunate, since there is a pretty high chance that they’re famous somehow. That’s what I get for never taking an art history class…
The Uffizi Museum has a very large art collection from the Renaissance, so we were there until they closed. The two things that stuck out in that museum were the Birth of Venus, and la Primavera by Botticelli. There were a lot of works there by Vasari as well.
That night we headed back up the main street toward our hostel, but stopped off somewhere for dinner first. Yay for Italian food!!!! Later on we headed back out to meet some of Alex’s friends, who happened to be in Florence at the same time that we were. They took us to some Irish pub, which I was kind of annoyed about- I mean, we were in Italy, why weren’t we going to an Italian place? Oh well…
The next day we got up early and started off at the Medici Palace. The outside was actually not that impressive, but inside it was ridiculous. On the first floor they had some old Medici church stuff, which included a lot of reliquaries. There were two glass goblets, each with a vertebra in them, a glass and gilt box with an entire lower jaw, and a thin tube with what looked like an ulna suspended on the inside. Very strange. The next level of the palace was extremely opulent- it was the Medici’s private chapel, and now houses the remains of Lorenzo di Medici the Magnificent, the Medici who inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince. The sepulchers were adorned with sculptures by Michelangelo and others. The chapel was having renovations done, but it was still gorgeous, The whole walls were done in marble, with extremely oversized marble figures of Medicis in alcoves in the walls. I tried to take some pictures, but got yelled at ):
The leather market is right around the corner from the Medici Palace, so we walked through there on our way to the Duomo. We wandered around inside the Duomo for a bit, which was large, but much simpler than the outside. There was a huge line for going up to the Cuppola, the dome that covers the Duomo. The line only took about a half an hour, but the walk up the Duomo took just about as long- 463 stairs! I can’t believe this whole thing was constructed more or less by hand. The stairs to the top took you on a pathway around the inside of the Cuppola, so you could look down onto the people below, and the paintings on the ceiling were very close.
The top of the Cuppola was beautiful. It was small, with a small tower in the middle. All day it had actually been kind of rainy, but once we got to the top, it cleared up, there was a strong breeze and the sun was out. It was perfect, we got up there at 12, so all of the church bells across the city were ringing. The view was worth it- you could see the entire city, with the tiled roofs, the large churches off in the distance and the hills in the background.
Then we went to the Accademia Galleria, which was surprisingly relatively small, but the whole point of going was to see the David. I had no idea it was so big- I expected it to be maybe 8 or 9 feet tall. I had to sneak a few pictures of the David, since absolutely no pictures were allowed, and if a security guard saw you, they would take your camera and delete the photo. Afterwards we walked over to St. Croce church, which also has a pretty white façade. Inside there were the remains of Niccolo Machiavelli, Galileo, Michelangelo, Napoleon’s wife and Dante. Most of the carvings around their graves were done by Vasari.
It was getting sort of dark, so we finished off the day at the San Marco Museum, which is a converted 15th century convent and really pretty. It's got a ton of stuff on the inside, mostly done by people who I had never heard of though. Afterward we walked over to Pont Vecchio, which is a big crazy bridge that goes over the Arno. But it's like a bridge on steroids- it has small jewelry shops crowding both sides, so the bridge looks kind of like its going to fall down at any second. It would be a shame, considering all the jewelry on the thing. We just grabbed dinner at a grocery store, and sat by the river eating. It started to rain then, and we were exhausted, so we went back to the hostel to sleep and plan for Rome.
domingo, 9 de noviembre de 2008
Fall Break- Lucerne
Monday morning we had to catch a train really early out of Zurich HB, the main train station. That meant catching a train from the Hostel at 7:35 am, having previously gotten up, eaten breakfast, packed lunch, checked out, and walked to our train stop. Well, apparently not everyone is so great at doing all of that quickly, since we ended up having to sprint down this giant hill to catch the train to Zurich HB. I guess it was good in the end... I felt like I was going to tumble over and start rolling with my bag, so I guess it helped to wake me up :D
So we had to run around the train station to jump the right train, but found it just in time, and were all set for getting to Lucerne. The ride was only about 45 minutes. I think it may have been the first time in all of our train use that someone walked by to check that we actually had tickets- the times we took the train into Zurich's Old Town, there was never anyone there to check. GUess buying that train pass was pretty much a waste of money, oh well.
We got off at Lucerne, and headed over to the hostel, which was really really close- it was just across the Reuss River, near the old city wall. Anyways we stayed at Tourist Hotel Lucerne, which was nice, and had the slogan "Lucerne is Fantastic!." Only slightly better than "Spain is different" and "Zurich- Downtown Switzerland." Since we were right up next to the remains of this old wall, we decided to head of there first after packing lunch.
The Musegg wall is what it sounds like- a wall with a walkway on top that connects lookout towers that are about 50 meters away from each other. From the top of the towers there's a pretty good view of the Alps, the Reuss River and Lake Luzern. We pretty much just climbed a bunch of stairs and took a bunch more pictures, because it was all so pretty. One thing that was sort of interesting about that wall was that there was a high school right next to it. We were actually walking on the track strip of the high school, which ran right next to the wall. There were kids outside for gym class- wouldn't it be weird to go to school and see that every day?
At the end of the wall, headed over to this big lion sculpture that is carved into a mountain, the Löwendenkmal. Zoe was in charge of Lucerne, so when she told us about the lion, I googled it to see what it looked at. Well my understanding was that it would be bigger than a normal lion, but not that big, judging from the pictures. Haha, I was very wrong. The thing is gigantic- take a look at my pictures. There's at least one with a person in the shot, so you can see just how big it is.
It's this big crying lion that had a spear sticking out of its side, and is lying over a French shield. The lion is a symbol of Switzerland, so the monument was to Swiss soldiers. So I thought- it's actually a monument to fallen Swiss mercenaries. Now I know mercenaries are still soldiers, but somehow knowing that they were mercenaries killed during the French revolution makes the whole thing less sad somehow. I mean, mercenaries?
Afterwards we went over to Hofkirche, built for the patron saint, St. Leodegar in the 1600s. It was pretty, with a giant wooden pulpit that was wound around one of the columns near the front. One thing kind of cool about this church was that you could see the old painted name placards in some pews, showing where certain people used to sit, or had given money to the church to "buy" their seat, like at a baseball stadium or something like that.
We walked over to Lake Luzern, and crossed the Reuss River over the Kappellbruke, the oldest covered bridge in Europe. Or rather, the rebuilt oldest covered bridge in Europe. Apparently about 15 years ago there was this giant fire at night that destroyed most of the wooden parts, but they reconstructed it. During the summer it must be gorgeous- it's covered with flowers, and had mountains in the background. Unfortunately it was cloudy most of the time that we were there. It was still pretty though.
On the other side of the river, we went into the Jesuitenkirche, another old church that looks sort of like the two bell towers are topped with giant things of garlic. I'm not sure when this one was built, but since the inside looks Baraque, it's got to be younger than the other church. Anyways the inside is all pink and white, since they used this pink marble for a lot of the inside details. This includes this giant marble and gold encrusted pulpit that's just sort of stuck onto the wall. It looks so heavy- I wish I knew how they got it to stay up there.
We crossed over another covered bridge, the Spreuerbrucke, to walk back to the hostel to rest, since it had already been a long day. The plan was to do a little more hiking afterwards. So We went back to the hostel and attempted to take a half an hour nap. This is when I learned that my watch alarm does not wake me up. Nor does it wake up Margaret, Zoe and Lindsey. Conveniently, no one else had set any sort of an alarm, so everyone woke up maybe two hours later. It was already dark, so going hiking some more was not really an option. We headed into town to eat, and just walked around, window shopping and everything.
It started to rain later on that night, so we headed pack to make sure we had all of our stuff together for the 7 hour train trip to Florence. The rain didn't go away until a couple days after we got back to Barcelona...yay. Anyways, I liked Lucerne. It's supposedly a really big tourist town, but it actually didn't feel touristy at all. Maybe it's because we were there sort of off-season, but I would suggest visiting there if you want something quiet.
So we had to run around the train station to jump the right train, but found it just in time, and were all set for getting to Lucerne. The ride was only about 45 minutes. I think it may have been the first time in all of our train use that someone walked by to check that we actually had tickets- the times we took the train into Zurich's Old Town, there was never anyone there to check. GUess buying that train pass was pretty much a waste of money, oh well.
We got off at Lucerne, and headed over to the hostel, which was really really close- it was just across the Reuss River, near the old city wall. Anyways we stayed at Tourist Hotel Lucerne, which was nice, and had the slogan "Lucerne is Fantastic!." Only slightly better than "Spain is different" and "Zurich- Downtown Switzerland." Since we were right up next to the remains of this old wall, we decided to head of there first after packing lunch.
The Musegg wall is what it sounds like- a wall with a walkway on top that connects lookout towers that are about 50 meters away from each other. From the top of the towers there's a pretty good view of the Alps, the Reuss River and Lake Luzern. We pretty much just climbed a bunch of stairs and took a bunch more pictures, because it was all so pretty. One thing that was sort of interesting about that wall was that there was a high school right next to it. We were actually walking on the track strip of the high school, which ran right next to the wall. There were kids outside for gym class- wouldn't it be weird to go to school and see that every day?
At the end of the wall, headed over to this big lion sculpture that is carved into a mountain, the Löwendenkmal. Zoe was in charge of Lucerne, so when she told us about the lion, I googled it to see what it looked at. Well my understanding was that it would be bigger than a normal lion, but not that big, judging from the pictures. Haha, I was very wrong. The thing is gigantic- take a look at my pictures. There's at least one with a person in the shot, so you can see just how big it is.
It's this big crying lion that had a spear sticking out of its side, and is lying over a French shield. The lion is a symbol of Switzerland, so the monument was to Swiss soldiers. So I thought- it's actually a monument to fallen Swiss mercenaries. Now I know mercenaries are still soldiers, but somehow knowing that they were mercenaries killed during the French revolution makes the whole thing less sad somehow. I mean, mercenaries?
Afterwards we went over to Hofkirche, built for the patron saint, St. Leodegar in the 1600s. It was pretty, with a giant wooden pulpit that was wound around one of the columns near the front. One thing kind of cool about this church was that you could see the old painted name placards in some pews, showing where certain people used to sit, or had given money to the church to "buy" their seat, like at a baseball stadium or something like that.
We walked over to Lake Luzern, and crossed the Reuss River over the Kappellbruke, the oldest covered bridge in Europe. Or rather, the rebuilt oldest covered bridge in Europe. Apparently about 15 years ago there was this giant fire at night that destroyed most of the wooden parts, but they reconstructed it. During the summer it must be gorgeous- it's covered with flowers, and had mountains in the background. Unfortunately it was cloudy most of the time that we were there. It was still pretty though.
On the other side of the river, we went into the Jesuitenkirche, another old church that looks sort of like the two bell towers are topped with giant things of garlic. I'm not sure when this one was built, but since the inside looks Baraque, it's got to be younger than the other church. Anyways the inside is all pink and white, since they used this pink marble for a lot of the inside details. This includes this giant marble and gold encrusted pulpit that's just sort of stuck onto the wall. It looks so heavy- I wish I knew how they got it to stay up there.
We crossed over another covered bridge, the Spreuerbrucke, to walk back to the hostel to rest, since it had already been a long day. The plan was to do a little more hiking afterwards. So We went back to the hostel and attempted to take a half an hour nap. This is when I learned that my watch alarm does not wake me up. Nor does it wake up Margaret, Zoe and Lindsey. Conveniently, no one else had set any sort of an alarm, so everyone woke up maybe two hours later. It was already dark, so going hiking some more was not really an option. We headed into town to eat, and just walked around, window shopping and everything.
It started to rain later on that night, so we headed pack to make sure we had all of our stuff together for the 7 hour train trip to Florence. The rain didn't go away until a couple days after we got back to Barcelona...yay. Anyways, I liked Lucerne. It's supposedly a really big tourist town, but it actually didn't feel touristy at all. Maybe it's because we were there sort of off-season, but I would suggest visiting there if you want something quiet.
viernes, 7 de noviembre de 2008
Fall Break- Zurich
Alright, so there is much to tell regarding the past week and a half. I'll do each city separately, since it'll break things up a little bit, and hopefully make this less confusing.
I was traveling with 6 other Americans, all other students from my program, most of whom live on my floor here at the dorm. We had Friday off, so I spent most of the day packing and all that whatnot, and Saturday afternoon we were off to the airport!
The direct flight to Zurich, Switzerland was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, I did not have a window seat, and couldn’t watch as we flew over the Pyrenees, but I caught a glimpse of this giant forest of trees when we were landing. You know I did not realize how much I missed trees until I saw that giant forest, with all of the red and gold and yellow… I mean, Barcelona has trees, but it’s Mediterranean, so the trees are either scrubby pines, palms, or these tall thin-trunked trees with really light bark that don’t appear to be doing fall properly.
Well, Switzerland had real trees. And grass. Barcelona has no fields, and the small parks it has don’t really have grass... I guess it was kind of nice to see something that looked more like home. It was also colder- the coldest it has gotten in Barcelona so far has been in the low 60s, and I didn’t think I would miss it almost snowing around Halloween, but apparently I did. We got in to the airport, money-changed (they use the Franc- crazy talk!), and walked across the street to the train station. Zurich doesn’t really have an underground system- it’s a combination of above-ground double decker trains (sort of like commuter trains to burbs in Chicago, except all of the trains actually stay in the city itself) that radiate out from the city center, and aboveground trams that run in the street, but whose routes are really only in certain geographic areas.
Anyways, we had to catch a doubledecker to Wollishofen, walked up a big hill to get to Youthostel Zurich. The hostel was nice and clean, but expensive. We headed right back into the city that night to just wander around, hoping to find somewhere interesting. Outside of the train station it was completely dead, so we kept walking, and ended up crossing the Rathausbrucke and walked toward Lake Zurich. It turns out that’s where all of the nightlife was, so we ducked into a couple of places and stayed for a while. We’re so used to Barcelona and things closing late that we were really surprised to find that bars close there around 12 or 1 am. It was good though, since the next morning we were planning on getting up early to go around the city.
The next morning we got up and took the train downtown to the main train station, the Hauptbahnhof. Since the Landesmuseum- the Swiss National Museum- was right by the train station, we went there first. The museum is in one of the old palaces, and so the inside was gorgeous. They had a really large collection of prehistorical stuff, and then a lot of things from the Carolingian era of the middle ages. There was a ton of stained glass, richly carved wooden doors and ceilings, and a ton of other things from that time period. I would really suggest going there if you go to Zurich- the place is huge and you could spend a ton of time there.
From inside the museum we heard some noise around lunch, which I assumed to be coming from a church nearby. Well someone happened to look out a window of the museum that was facing the park, and saw maybe about 10 people just sort of standing there, playing these gigantic horn things. I had no idea you could make music like that with Alphorns. We pretty much ran outside of the museum to see then, and at lunch in the park while listening to them. It had gotten a lot warmer out, so we decided to walk around Old Town.
I was in charge of Zurich, and had looked up some walking tours before. We started at Bahnofplatz, the plaza in front of the railway station, and walked down the Bahnofstrasse toward Lake Zurich. On the way, we passed by Pestalozzi Park, Paradeplatz, and made a detour toward the water to see St. Peter’s Church. This church apparently had the largest clock on a belltower for all churches in Europe. It’s also the oldest church built in Zurich, having being built in either the 7th or 8th centuries. Because it was built before Gothic and Baroque architecture were the norm, its not that ornate, which was kind of refreshing.
We kept walking, up a few sidestreets as we made our way to Fraumunster. The church was actually having services, so we couldn’t go in, but just walked around the outside. Fraumunster’s also really old, having been built in the 850s, and used a convent for noblewomen. It supposedly has stained glass windows done by Marc Chagall and Augusto Giacometti.
Oh well…We passed by the Munsterbrucke bridge and Grossmunster, the other large church, as we continued down the waterfront to the lake. Near the lake, we sat down for a bit at Burkliplatz to look over the water with the mountains in the background. All of Switzerland was kind of strange, simple because I couldn’t understand what people were saying any of the time. They speak a bunch of languages there- everyone speaks English, German and French, but I mostly overheard German. I mean in Barcelona, everyone speaks Catalan, but you hear Castilian every once in a while.
Anyways, we walked through Burkliplatz to the Arboretum, and ran around in a field there for a while. Afterwards we headed up toward the train station, and crossed the Munsterbruke to Grossmunster. We went inside the church, which has this gigantic ornately carved wooden door, and were surprised to find that there an orchestra playing inside.
Afterwards, we walked up towards the train station again, crossed the Rathausbrucke, and bought some dinner at a grocery store. We headed back to the park next to the Landesmuseum to eat by the water. Since it had gotten dark about two hours before, we headed back to the hostel. We just ended up chilling all night there, since it was freeeezing outside, and Switzerland is super super expensive, plus we had to get up early to catch a train to Lucerne
I was traveling with 6 other Americans, all other students from my program, most of whom live on my floor here at the dorm. We had Friday off, so I spent most of the day packing and all that whatnot, and Saturday afternoon we were off to the airport!
The direct flight to Zurich, Switzerland was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, I did not have a window seat, and couldn’t watch as we flew over the Pyrenees, but I caught a glimpse of this giant forest of trees when we were landing. You know I did not realize how much I missed trees until I saw that giant forest, with all of the red and gold and yellow… I mean, Barcelona has trees, but it’s Mediterranean, so the trees are either scrubby pines, palms, or these tall thin-trunked trees with really light bark that don’t appear to be doing fall properly.
Well, Switzerland had real trees. And grass. Barcelona has no fields, and the small parks it has don’t really have grass... I guess it was kind of nice to see something that looked more like home. It was also colder- the coldest it has gotten in Barcelona so far has been in the low 60s, and I didn’t think I would miss it almost snowing around Halloween, but apparently I did. We got in to the airport, money-changed (they use the Franc- crazy talk!), and walked across the street to the train station. Zurich doesn’t really have an underground system- it’s a combination of above-ground double decker trains (sort of like commuter trains to burbs in Chicago, except all of the trains actually stay in the city itself) that radiate out from the city center, and aboveground trams that run in the street, but whose routes are really only in certain geographic areas.
Anyways, we had to catch a doubledecker to Wollishofen, walked up a big hill to get to Youthostel Zurich. The hostel was nice and clean, but expensive. We headed right back into the city that night to just wander around, hoping to find somewhere interesting. Outside of the train station it was completely dead, so we kept walking, and ended up crossing the Rathausbrucke and walked toward Lake Zurich. It turns out that’s where all of the nightlife was, so we ducked into a couple of places and stayed for a while. We’re so used to Barcelona and things closing late that we were really surprised to find that bars close there around 12 or 1 am. It was good though, since the next morning we were planning on getting up early to go around the city.
The next morning we got up and took the train downtown to the main train station, the Hauptbahnhof. Since the Landesmuseum- the Swiss National Museum- was right by the train station, we went there first. The museum is in one of the old palaces, and so the inside was gorgeous. They had a really large collection of prehistorical stuff, and then a lot of things from the Carolingian era of the middle ages. There was a ton of stained glass, richly carved wooden doors and ceilings, and a ton of other things from that time period. I would really suggest going there if you go to Zurich- the place is huge and you could spend a ton of time there.
From inside the museum we heard some noise around lunch, which I assumed to be coming from a church nearby. Well someone happened to look out a window of the museum that was facing the park, and saw maybe about 10 people just sort of standing there, playing these gigantic horn things. I had no idea you could make music like that with Alphorns. We pretty much ran outside of the museum to see then, and at lunch in the park while listening to them. It had gotten a lot warmer out, so we decided to walk around Old Town.
I was in charge of Zurich, and had looked up some walking tours before. We started at Bahnofplatz, the plaza in front of the railway station, and walked down the Bahnofstrasse toward Lake Zurich. On the way, we passed by Pestalozzi Park, Paradeplatz, and made a detour toward the water to see St. Peter’s Church. This church apparently had the largest clock on a belltower for all churches in Europe. It’s also the oldest church built in Zurich, having being built in either the 7th or 8th centuries. Because it was built before Gothic and Baroque architecture were the norm, its not that ornate, which was kind of refreshing.
We kept walking, up a few sidestreets as we made our way to Fraumunster. The church was actually having services, so we couldn’t go in, but just walked around the outside. Fraumunster’s also really old, having been built in the 850s, and used a convent for noblewomen. It supposedly has stained glass windows done by Marc Chagall and Augusto Giacometti.
Oh well…We passed by the Munsterbrucke bridge and Grossmunster, the other large church, as we continued down the waterfront to the lake. Near the lake, we sat down for a bit at Burkliplatz to look over the water with the mountains in the background. All of Switzerland was kind of strange, simple because I couldn’t understand what people were saying any of the time. They speak a bunch of languages there- everyone speaks English, German and French, but I mostly overheard German. I mean in Barcelona, everyone speaks Catalan, but you hear Castilian every once in a while.
Anyways, we walked through Burkliplatz to the Arboretum, and ran around in a field there for a while. Afterwards we headed up toward the train station, and crossed the Munsterbruke to Grossmunster. We went inside the church, which has this gigantic ornately carved wooden door, and were surprised to find that there an orchestra playing inside.
Afterwards, we walked up towards the train station again, crossed the Rathausbrucke, and bought some dinner at a grocery store. We headed back to the park next to the Landesmuseum to eat by the water. Since it had gotten dark about two hours before, we headed back to the hostel. We just ended up chilling all night there, since it was freeeezing outside, and Switzerland is super super expensive, plus we had to get up early to catch a train to Lucerne
domingo, 2 de noviembre de 2008
I'm back from my week of traveling! I'll probably update Tuesday, since it turns out I have more things to do than I anticipated. Anyways just letting people know that I'm alive. Exhausted, but alive. In general, the trip was a combination of amazing and annoying, which I will explain soon. Pictures probably won't make it up until later either- I took 755 of them....
sábado, 18 de octubre de 2008
Blaaaaah- a cranky entry. Beware.
I realize I haven't written in a while- it's just that nothing really big has honestly happened...
I have actually been sick for the past week, so I have not really been going out or doing any work ect. It was nothing too bad, just a stomach ache and a fever of a hundred or so. But it meant all I have wanted to do recently is curl up on my bed in the fetal position and either fall asleep or watch the entire first season of Boston Legal. I ended up doing both, in addition to getting caught up on Private Practice, Bones, Pushing Daisies and Heroes. Hah. This is probably the laziest week I've had in my entire life.
But I'm better now, so yay. Although it was all sort of to the detriment of my roomate, who is now sick as well. Sorry Zoe! Since before this week of being sick I had been ahead in homework, I'm about where everybody else is. Which means now I have 2 compositions due this week, a bunch of homework, and a big annoying history midterm. I'm not trying to complain, as I am fully aware that if I were at Case this week, I would probably be tearing my hair out. It's not the amount of work, it's the kind of work.
The thing is, it's not real work. Spanish and Catalan are language classes, and there's nothing much you can do with those, except exercises and compositions and things like that, so I don't mind. But my history class is different. I know a lot of people hate history and how it doesn't pertain to real life, and other people then go on rants about history repeating itself and being always relevant and all of that. Well that doesn't really concern me. The thing that I love about history is the specifics, the monarchs and the public icons, plays of power and obscure social undercurrents, years, dates, names and faces.
So far in my history class, it has been none of that. It has been fluff. And so it follows, the essay I have to write will be fluff. It hasn't been written yet, and I have no intention of writing a fluffy essay, but the prompt itself is fluff. Bad news. The class has been a lot about trying to break down stereotypes about the middle ages- how from the western point of view, the middle ages were backward, a sinkhole of science, tolerance and scholarly thinking. Well any self-respecting college student (or self-respecting anything, in my opinion, except maybe those beneath the age of 13) should know that you can't form any opinion about anything without considering the whole thing- whether it be the whole thing in terms of geography, age group, nationality, whatever.
I'd sort of expect people to know that already. If not, ok, introduce the idea, and get on with the rest of the class, instead of making that idea the class. Augh! Anyways, the essay is pretty much to choose a topic, and argue how it breaks stereotypes of the Western idea of the Middle Ages. Also challenge ideas of periodization of history into discrete sections. Sounds easy right? That's because it is. It is too easy. It asks us to prove exactly what has been drilled into our heads for half the semester (and what should have only been used as an introduction to the content instead of the actual content of the class). I've been trying all day to write it, and I just can't bring myself to do it.
I just want a challenge here. I want someone to make me think, to let me argue and discuss and turn what the professor is saying on his head. Or I could just sit and listen, and implode. It'll be an interesting year. I'm going to try to talk to the director about letting me do an independent study or something next semester. The thing is that the universities here have some really interesting sounding classes, but we're not allowed to take them since we're with foreign programs. All their study abroad students take classes with each other and are not allowed to take any of the real classes. I only have one class at the university, and it drives me crazy because the professor assumes we're all idiots and dumbs everything down, speaking extremely slow. Urg. At least I'll have an internship at a hospital or a lab next semester, so hopefully that will be interesting.
Around the beginning of November I start figuring out what classes to take, and I also need to decide if I'm going to live here next semester or not. I'll have first pick of all of their apartments, if I decide to move. Which I might. I've got some time still to figure it out, but right now I'm leaning toward moving. Realistically, the spanish kids are never going to be my friends. They are nice , and sometimes invite us out, but they have their own friend groups and their own drama to tend to. Also, they don't speak Spanish.
Well they do, but not really. It's sort of hard to understand. They can speak Spanish, but the important language here is Catalan. Catalan is the language that they speak to their parents and grandparents in. On the bus, it's the language that you address someone in, and the language of any sort of government form you have to fill out. Catalan is the official language of the elementary schools, of high school and colleges. You speak to your friends in Catalan, and if your friends don't speak Catalan, well it puts them in a separate category. You're still friends, but it's different. Because when you think, you think in Catalan, and you can't tell your friends exactly what you're thinking- you have to translate it into another language, one that you're not entirely comfortable with.
Don't take this at 100%, since this is what my impression has been, talking with students and strangers, living here for just a month. The students on my floor have been really nice in trying to speak Spanish around us, but they've said that it feels weird for them to be talking to their friends and each other in Spanish. Also a lot of strangers I talked to have mentioned how annoying it is when people come to Catalunya not even trying to learn any Catalan- they almost view you the way people at home view people who move to the country without learning english. Not with as much disdain, but it's there.
So no one's openly mean about it, but not knowing Catalan here is just as bad as not knowing Spanish is Madrid. One of the weirdest things that I miss is being able to overhear and understand people having casual conversations. People on the metro, at bars, and especially in the cafeteria. That's actually an especially poignant one, probably because that's the one that keeps me feeling like an outsider here. Mostly, the Americans all eat together because we go to meals earlier than everyone else. So in general, we don't sit with the Spanish kids since they're never there at the same time as we are.
But also, we can't understand a thing they are saying. If we sit with them, we force them to change languages just to accomodate us. It feels extremely rude to do, especially since the Japanese kids sit with us sometimes, and so I know the feeling of "Maaan, I just don't want to speak in Spanish right now. Fine..." Most of the time I just sit with the Americans, wondering what all of those students are talking about, and feeling like I did something wrong because the intelligible sounds of Catalan tend to blend and create a sort of enveloping white noise that emphasizes how really alone you are amid all of those people. Although I've got to say, as soon as someone switches to Spanish, even for just a second, I can pick it out from that fog of Catalan, and understand everything. The feeling of being able to lock onto just a phrase in Spanish amid all that Catalan as if it were English is refreshing. For a second, I actually feel like I live here. Of course, I can count the number of times this has happened on one hand.
So after all that, I haven't decided whether or not to move. But again, I'm leaning toward moving- because here I feel like I can only ever have superficial friendships with the Spanish students (and they are the whole reason I decided to live in a dorm...), plus the apartments have some nice amenities that I'm not going to complain about...
In other news, if anyone has actually made it down this far, Mary Beth from Case who is studying in Malaga, came up to visit last weekend, so we hung out and it was just sort of nice to feel like myself for a little bit. Also my salsa class started last week, which has been fun. It's taught it Catalan, which is not that hard to understand when it's enunciated, not spoken super fast, and free from slang. Also there are a lot of older women who are ridiculously good at salsa already, and it's funny to watch them try to teach Steve, who is taking the class with me, and one of 4 guys in a class of maybe 20.
The next entry for this will probably not be till the 1st or 2nd of november. I'm excited about the week we have off (That's right, I'm excited about something. This entry isn't all angry. Probably has something to do with the weather and it being straight rain for 3 days. SAD is not a fun thing guys.). We've got a week following midterms off to travel, so me and six buddies are going first to Zurich, then Lucerne, Florence and finally Rome. It will be the first time I am actually doing some travel here, so hopefully everything goes well.
Wish me luck writing that essay! Technically it's not due until after that break, but I just want to get it over with now. I should get on that now :/
I have actually been sick for the past week, so I have not really been going out or doing any work ect. It was nothing too bad, just a stomach ache and a fever of a hundred or so. But it meant all I have wanted to do recently is curl up on my bed in the fetal position and either fall asleep or watch the entire first season of Boston Legal. I ended up doing both, in addition to getting caught up on Private Practice, Bones, Pushing Daisies and Heroes. Hah. This is probably the laziest week I've had in my entire life.
But I'm better now, so yay. Although it was all sort of to the detriment of my roomate, who is now sick as well. Sorry Zoe! Since before this week of being sick I had been ahead in homework, I'm about where everybody else is. Which means now I have 2 compositions due this week, a bunch of homework, and a big annoying history midterm. I'm not trying to complain, as I am fully aware that if I were at Case this week, I would probably be tearing my hair out. It's not the amount of work, it's the kind of work.
The thing is, it's not real work. Spanish and Catalan are language classes, and there's nothing much you can do with those, except exercises and compositions and things like that, so I don't mind. But my history class is different. I know a lot of people hate history and how it doesn't pertain to real life, and other people then go on rants about history repeating itself and being always relevant and all of that. Well that doesn't really concern me. The thing that I love about history is the specifics, the monarchs and the public icons, plays of power and obscure social undercurrents, years, dates, names and faces.
So far in my history class, it has been none of that. It has been fluff. And so it follows, the essay I have to write will be fluff. It hasn't been written yet, and I have no intention of writing a fluffy essay, but the prompt itself is fluff. Bad news. The class has been a lot about trying to break down stereotypes about the middle ages- how from the western point of view, the middle ages were backward, a sinkhole of science, tolerance and scholarly thinking. Well any self-respecting college student (or self-respecting anything, in my opinion, except maybe those beneath the age of 13) should know that you can't form any opinion about anything without considering the whole thing- whether it be the whole thing in terms of geography, age group, nationality, whatever.
I'd sort of expect people to know that already. If not, ok, introduce the idea, and get on with the rest of the class, instead of making that idea the class. Augh! Anyways, the essay is pretty much to choose a topic, and argue how it breaks stereotypes of the Western idea of the Middle Ages. Also challenge ideas of periodization of history into discrete sections. Sounds easy right? That's because it is. It is too easy. It asks us to prove exactly what has been drilled into our heads for half the semester (and what should have only been used as an introduction to the content instead of the actual content of the class). I've been trying all day to write it, and I just can't bring myself to do it.
I just want a challenge here. I want someone to make me think, to let me argue and discuss and turn what the professor is saying on his head. Or I could just sit and listen, and implode. It'll be an interesting year. I'm going to try to talk to the director about letting me do an independent study or something next semester. The thing is that the universities here have some really interesting sounding classes, but we're not allowed to take them since we're with foreign programs. All their study abroad students take classes with each other and are not allowed to take any of the real classes. I only have one class at the university, and it drives me crazy because the professor assumes we're all idiots and dumbs everything down, speaking extremely slow. Urg. At least I'll have an internship at a hospital or a lab next semester, so hopefully that will be interesting.
Around the beginning of November I start figuring out what classes to take, and I also need to decide if I'm going to live here next semester or not. I'll have first pick of all of their apartments, if I decide to move. Which I might. I've got some time still to figure it out, but right now I'm leaning toward moving. Realistically, the spanish kids are never going to be my friends. They are nice , and sometimes invite us out, but they have their own friend groups and their own drama to tend to. Also, they don't speak Spanish.
Well they do, but not really. It's sort of hard to understand. They can speak Spanish, but the important language here is Catalan. Catalan is the language that they speak to their parents and grandparents in. On the bus, it's the language that you address someone in, and the language of any sort of government form you have to fill out. Catalan is the official language of the elementary schools, of high school and colleges. You speak to your friends in Catalan, and if your friends don't speak Catalan, well it puts them in a separate category. You're still friends, but it's different. Because when you think, you think in Catalan, and you can't tell your friends exactly what you're thinking- you have to translate it into another language, one that you're not entirely comfortable with.
Don't take this at 100%, since this is what my impression has been, talking with students and strangers, living here for just a month. The students on my floor have been really nice in trying to speak Spanish around us, but they've said that it feels weird for them to be talking to their friends and each other in Spanish. Also a lot of strangers I talked to have mentioned how annoying it is when people come to Catalunya not even trying to learn any Catalan- they almost view you the way people at home view people who move to the country without learning english. Not with as much disdain, but it's there.
So no one's openly mean about it, but not knowing Catalan here is just as bad as not knowing Spanish is Madrid. One of the weirdest things that I miss is being able to overhear and understand people having casual conversations. People on the metro, at bars, and especially in the cafeteria. That's actually an especially poignant one, probably because that's the one that keeps me feeling like an outsider here. Mostly, the Americans all eat together because we go to meals earlier than everyone else. So in general, we don't sit with the Spanish kids since they're never there at the same time as we are.
But also, we can't understand a thing they are saying. If we sit with them, we force them to change languages just to accomodate us. It feels extremely rude to do, especially since the Japanese kids sit with us sometimes, and so I know the feeling of "Maaan, I just don't want to speak in Spanish right now. Fine..." Most of the time I just sit with the Americans, wondering what all of those students are talking about, and feeling like I did something wrong because the intelligible sounds of Catalan tend to blend and create a sort of enveloping white noise that emphasizes how really alone you are amid all of those people. Although I've got to say, as soon as someone switches to Spanish, even for just a second, I can pick it out from that fog of Catalan, and understand everything. The feeling of being able to lock onto just a phrase in Spanish amid all that Catalan as if it were English is refreshing. For a second, I actually feel like I live here. Of course, I can count the number of times this has happened on one hand.
So after all that, I haven't decided whether or not to move. But again, I'm leaning toward moving- because here I feel like I can only ever have superficial friendships with the Spanish students (and they are the whole reason I decided to live in a dorm...), plus the apartments have some nice amenities that I'm not going to complain about...
In other news, if anyone has actually made it down this far, Mary Beth from Case who is studying in Malaga, came up to visit last weekend, so we hung out and it was just sort of nice to feel like myself for a little bit. Also my salsa class started last week, which has been fun. It's taught it Catalan, which is not that hard to understand when it's enunciated, not spoken super fast, and free from slang. Also there are a lot of older women who are ridiculously good at salsa already, and it's funny to watch them try to teach Steve, who is taking the class with me, and one of 4 guys in a class of maybe 20.
The next entry for this will probably not be till the 1st or 2nd of november. I'm excited about the week we have off (That's right, I'm excited about something. This entry isn't all angry. Probably has something to do with the weather and it being straight rain for 3 days. SAD is not a fun thing guys.). We've got a week following midterms off to travel, so me and six buddies are going first to Zurich, then Lucerne, Florence and finally Rome. It will be the first time I am actually doing some travel here, so hopefully everything goes well.
Wish me luck writing that essay! Technically it's not due until after that break, but I just want to get it over with now. I should get on that now :/
miércoles, 1 de octubre de 2008
End of La Merce, Visit to Tarragona, Novatos
The end of La Merce was pretty unspectacular, mostly because i had classes the whole time. There were a lot of concerts all over the city and at the end, on Wednesday was the Piromusical. The Piromusical is sort of like a fireworks show on steroids, set to music above Plaza Espanya. I wouldn't go again, because it´s hugely packed, and impossible to even see the fireworks. And also the music they set it all to was strange- the theme was television, so it was all themes to tv shows, like Teletubbies (why? i don't know).
In other news, the Spanish kids in our dorm just started to talk to us...yaaaay! They let us hang out with them last weekend. First, we went somewhere for dinner around 9:30 pm. After like 3 hours, since Spanish service is terrible and its normal to have 2-3 courses per meal, we left for some bar. We stayed at the bar until around 2:30, and then left for a discotec, Razzmatazz, which is this gigantic multistory and multibuilding dance club that's got like 5 or 6 different areas for dancing, all with different types of music playing. It was really fun there, but around 5ish I got tired, so me, Zoe and Lindsay left "early" with a few of the kids we came with, and got back to bed a little bit before 6. This is pretty typical for going out (according to Spaniards) here, but I would definitely not be able to do it this often.
I don't really think the students do it that often though, since the majority of them go home every weekend; most of them are either from Lleida or Girona, cities about an hour's train ride away. Most Spanish students go to college very close to home, and it's normal for them to live at home the whole time- so when students live in a dorm, they go home pretty much every chance they get. Unless they're from the Baleares (island system in the medit.) or Canarias (island system off of the African coast).
Last week they invited us to come and watch the novatos ("newbies" in Catalan.) In Spain the dorms are really big on hazing, so the first couple of weeks they take all of the new kids outside of the dorm and make them stand in lines and hold their hands up for like 3 hours, while they yell things at them in Catalan. I could understand maybe 50% of what was being said, since Catalan is like half Spanish, half French, so I caught some things about how Sant Jordi (the dorm) is a family, and how the new kids are not welcome and have to abide by dorm rules. I didn't catch most of the dorm rules, but I think they were just ridiculous things, since everyone was laughing during that time. Normally, they include every new kid in the dorm in this novato thing, even when they are third years and it's just their first time living in that particular dorm. But all the yelling was done in Catalan, so they just leave the American and Japanese kids out of it.
I don't really think the students do it that often though, since the majority of them go home every weekend; most of them are either from Lleida or Girona, cities about an hour's train ride away. Most Spanish students go to college very close to home, and it's normal for them to live at home the whole time- so when students live in a dorm, they go home pretty much every chance they get. Unless they're from the Baleares (island system in the medit.) or Canarias (island system off of the African coast).
Last week they invited us to come and watch the novatos ("newbies" in Catalan.) In Spain the dorms are really big on hazing, so the first couple of weeks they take all of the new kids outside of the dorm and make them stand in lines and hold their hands up for like 3 hours, while they yell things at them in Catalan. I could understand maybe 50% of what was being said, since Catalan is like half Spanish, half French, so I caught some things about how Sant Jordi (the dorm) is a family, and how the new kids are not welcome and have to abide by dorm rules. I didn't catch most of the dorm rules, but I think they were just ridiculous things, since everyone was laughing during that time. Normally, they include every new kid in the dorm in this novato thing, even when they are third years and it's just their first time living in that particular dorm. But all the yelling was done in Catalan, so they just leave the American and Japanese kids out of it.
Apparently though, my dorm's not that bad- I know some people in other dorms where they will break into their rooms, rearrange their furniture, and then tie all of their clothes in a rope and throw them outside. At my dorm, they just sort of yell at the new kids, make a bunch of noise when they come into the dining hall, and do smaller, but still annoying pranks. The Spanish kids explained to us that the whole process helps the kids who have been there get to know the newer kids- it's really important to them that the people in the dorm all know each other and are friends. I suppose totally embarassing each other sort of breaks the ice a little easier... At one point they had all of the novato guys pull their pants down their ankles and hop around in their underwear. What is with european guys and their aversion to boxers?
But for the novatos they did other things that I can see how it helps to form a sort of dorm camaraderie. A couple of nights ago they went over to another dorm nearby (the closest dorm being a 15 minutes walk away) and started a waterballoon fight, yelling the dorm song and in general being annoying. Last night was the last night of the novatos, when they stop being "the black sheep of the dorm" and turn into real people. Of course, not before totally embarassing them again. Around 11, they had all of the novatos wear shower caps, clown noses, diapers outside their pants, and signs that said (Catalan versions of) "I'm a Sant Jordi goldigger/cradlerobber" or "I'm a Sant Jordi Don Juan," depending on gender.
They all gathered on Avinguda Diagonal, the biggest street near the dorm, and just sang and yelled and passed bottles of who-knows-what around for about 3 hours. I'm really surprised the cops didn't come, and that we didn't even get yelled at by anyone. Then we walked about 15 minutes down the street, and all went into a smaller discotec that some guys at the dorm had worked out a deal with previously. The entire place was filled with kids from the dorm, which was pretty cool. Being lame americans, me, Lindsay and Zoe came home early around 4ish, since Zoe had to get up around 7 to travel.
Last weekend I also went on a day trip with Zoe, Lindsay and Grant to Tarragona. Lindsay and I had to go for a history project, so we got up early on Sunday and took the train out. It's about a hour ride, and the city is small enough that you can walk everywhere. About 5 minutes away from the train station is a Roman Ampitheatre, that was built in the 3rd century AD, with the ruins of a church that was built later in the middle. I know it's really nerdy, but Caesar Augustus visited the city, and you know that he for sure went to the Ampitheatre, and just being able to stand there with all of that history surrounding you is amazing.
Nearby was the Roman Circus, which they used to store food items. The circus was also used by Napoleon's army when they camped in the area, and converted part of the circus to a prison. I mean, there was only one way to get in, so Napoleon had to have walked through the exact same tunnel that did, and probably Augustus. !!!!! Tarragona also has this huuuuge cathedral that's really pretty- it's got a lot of gothic architecture around the outside, including gothic style stone faces encircling the whole roof.
We wandered around some more and found the main plaza, where there were remains of the Roman Forum. It looked like everyone had cleared our their basements and were having a giant garage sale. Apparently the day we went was a festival for them, which was why all of the Roman landmarks were free to enter. We ate lunch outside, and walked around the neighborhood somemore, ending up at the old Roman wall that used to encircle the city. After that we just wandered back to the train station, which was on the coast, and sat on the beach for an hour while we waited for our train. We were home by dinner. It was probably one of the most perfect days I have had here.
This weekend a lot of IES students are traveling, since IES gave us a three day weekend, and it's also Octoberfest. Three guesses what country half the Americans on our floor are in. We might do a day trip on Sunday again out to the small mountains (actually, I doubt they qualify as mountains...) that border Barcelona. Hopefully, we can find somewhere to go hiking and kayaking. It's cooled down a lot here, so it's not disgustingly hot, but it sticks around 65-70 with lots of sun, so it's good walking-around weather. Other than that, I guess I should put up some pictures on Flickr and start working on that history project...
But for the novatos they did other things that I can see how it helps to form a sort of dorm camaraderie. A couple of nights ago they went over to another dorm nearby (the closest dorm being a 15 minutes walk away) and started a waterballoon fight, yelling the dorm song and in general being annoying. Last night was the last night of the novatos, when they stop being "the black sheep of the dorm" and turn into real people. Of course, not before totally embarassing them again. Around 11, they had all of the novatos wear shower caps, clown noses, diapers outside their pants, and signs that said (Catalan versions of) "I'm a Sant Jordi goldigger/cradlerobber" or "I'm a Sant Jordi Don Juan," depending on gender.
They all gathered on Avinguda Diagonal, the biggest street near the dorm, and just sang and yelled and passed bottles of who-knows-what around for about 3 hours. I'm really surprised the cops didn't come, and that we didn't even get yelled at by anyone. Then we walked about 15 minutes down the street, and all went into a smaller discotec that some guys at the dorm had worked out a deal with previously. The entire place was filled with kids from the dorm, which was pretty cool. Being lame americans, me, Lindsay and Zoe came home early around 4ish, since Zoe had to get up around 7 to travel.
Last weekend I also went on a day trip with Zoe, Lindsay and Grant to Tarragona. Lindsay and I had to go for a history project, so we got up early on Sunday and took the train out. It's about a hour ride, and the city is small enough that you can walk everywhere. About 5 minutes away from the train station is a Roman Ampitheatre, that was built in the 3rd century AD, with the ruins of a church that was built later in the middle. I know it's really nerdy, but Caesar Augustus visited the city, and you know that he for sure went to the Ampitheatre, and just being able to stand there with all of that history surrounding you is amazing.
Nearby was the Roman Circus, which they used to store food items. The circus was also used by Napoleon's army when they camped in the area, and converted part of the circus to a prison. I mean, there was only one way to get in, so Napoleon had to have walked through the exact same tunnel that did, and probably Augustus. !!!!! Tarragona also has this huuuuge cathedral that's really pretty- it's got a lot of gothic architecture around the outside, including gothic style stone faces encircling the whole roof.
We wandered around some more and found the main plaza, where there were remains of the Roman Forum. It looked like everyone had cleared our their basements and were having a giant garage sale. Apparently the day we went was a festival for them, which was why all of the Roman landmarks were free to enter. We ate lunch outside, and walked around the neighborhood somemore, ending up at the old Roman wall that used to encircle the city. After that we just wandered back to the train station, which was on the coast, and sat on the beach for an hour while we waited for our train. We were home by dinner. It was probably one of the most perfect days I have had here.
This weekend a lot of IES students are traveling, since IES gave us a three day weekend, and it's also Octoberfest. Three guesses what country half the Americans on our floor are in. We might do a day trip on Sunday again out to the small mountains (actually, I doubt they qualify as mountains...) that border Barcelona. Hopefully, we can find somewhere to go hiking and kayaking. It's cooled down a lot here, so it's not disgustingly hot, but it sticks around 65-70 with lots of sun, so it's good walking-around weather. Other than that, I guess I should put up some pictures on Flickr and start working on that history project...
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