Sunday, 16 November 2008

• I'm finally updating! (Part 1)

  Well, it’s been almost two months since my last real update. But then, I’ve never claimed to be good at updating on a regular basis. Busyness combined with laziness just get in the way. So, here’s the first part of a rather condensed version of what I’ve been doing lately. I actually typed it up before I went to Rome this past weekend (which was amazing!), but I didn’t have a chance to put it up. Hopefully, the next couple of parts of the update will go up within the next week or so!
  
  

  
  Flowers I found in Barcelona

  
  So… school first, I guess. After all, I am studying abroad, though I may forget that fact at times! October was a CRAZY month for me school-wise. The midterm schedule here is rather stupid. There are two official midterm weeks, and both fall in October, which does not divide up the semester evenly. And then of course, I have professors who don’t follow the midterm schedule, so even the weeks between the two official midterm weeks were busy. I also had a paper due for my Modern Latin America class, and a group project for National Identity in Spain. The group project was actually quite interesting, though a bit stressful. We had to interview 5 immigrants to Spain from different parts of the world and ask them questions about their national identity and what they thought about Spain. It was really neat to hear their answers, but difficult to find people to talk to, since I don’t know much Spanish and my partner knew even less. Thankfully, the church I’m going to here in Madrid is very multi-national, and so two of the five people we interviewed were from the church. Anyway, I’m very glad October is over. I’m still quite busy, but it’s manageable, at least for now. (Well, for the most part. My Spanish oral comm. class just keeps getting worse, and is putting me off Spanish, or really, learning any new language. But I won’t go into that…)
  
  Oh, speaking of school, I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet my (hopefully final) major change. I’m still a history major, but I’m now going for a computer science minor rather than a double major. I still have the additional minor in mathematics. Since I’m no longer double majoring, I’ll be able to take more electives, which I’m quite happy about! A history major is less practical than a computer science one, but as of now, I’m not looking towards going in to the field of computer science anyway.
  
  And now, to the more exciting part…weekends! In this update, I’m just going to relate what I did during weekends in September.
  
  From Sept. 19-21, some friends and I went to Barcelona. We took an overnight bus both to and from the city, which actually wasn’t bad at all (though on the way back, we got in two hours later than planned and I had to go directly to school with my luggage still in hand). It was a bit tiring, though. The first day, we took a walking tour of the city, focused on Antoni Gaudí. I took A TON of pictures on this tour, and they were probably the best ones I took in Barcelona. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted them off my camera, so I can’t show them to anyone. It’s quite upsetting! Since Gaudí’s work really is interesting, I’ll go ahead and link to Wikipedia articles on a couple of the places, so that you can look at other people’s pictures. The first place we saw was the Sagrada Familia, a huge church that is still being constructed today though work began in 1882. We didn’t go inside, but the outside was more than interesting enough! Later, we went to the Park Güell, where Gaudí’s designs blend in seamlessly with the park's natural beauty. From there, we also had a great view of the city. Other highlights of the tour included the Casa dels ossos and La Pedrera.
  
  

  

  The Passion Facade on the west side of La Sagrada Familia

  
  That night, we went to the beach, which was quite close to our hostel (the city center wasn’t so close, though!). The next two days, we went to the beach again and did some more touring of the city, including visiting the gothic part of the city and the castle (which we reached by cable car). I only have pictures from Sunday, though, as my camera ran out of batteries on Saturday. Also, there was a festival going on the weekend we went to Barcelona, but we didn’t do many of the festival activities. It was nice to hear the live music as we were walking around at night, though, and we did stop to listen a couple of times.

  
  

  
  View of Barcelona from our cable car

  
  My favorite part of these two days was probably something we did both Saturday night and Sunday night before taking the overnight bus home. The Font Màgica, or Magical Fountain, was a fountain show synchronized to music (mostly classical) that played during the night in front of the National Art Museum. There were several shows each night, all different, and so we sat there for quite a while just watching it, then talking in between shows. Speaking of talking, I also got to know two of my acquaintances better on this trip, who are now my friends that I’ve been on several trips with (most recently my trip to Rome). So that was neat!

  
  

  
  The Magic Fountain outside the National Art Museum

  
  The next weekend after that, I didn’t do any major traveling. On Friday, I went to the mall with a friend. In many ways, the mall was pretty much like one I’d find in America. They even had a Disney store and a Claire’s (which until this trip, I didn’t know had stores in other countries)! Of course, you’d also see things that you’d never see in the US, like a couple of meat stores with raw meat (pork, since this is Spain!) hanging above the counter.

  
  

  
  Pork stores at the mall

  
  While I had fun at the mall, the shopping trip didn’t end well. I stopped at the ATM on the way to the metro home. When I put my card into the machine, it said there was an error. It then said I should take back my card, but my card didn’t come out. After a little bit, it went back to the welcome screen. My card still hadn't come out, so I didn’t know what to do. First, I tried calling the bank (since it was after hours). I had trouble understanding the people I spoke to (even with my friend helping, and she knows a bit more Spanish than I do), and when I asked for someone who spoke English, I was redirected to an answering machine. Finally, after several calls, we were able to figure out that they couldn’t help us, because my card wasn’t from that bank. So I was a bit stressed at this point, as I had no idea what to do and I didn’t speak as much of the language as I needed. I even tried calling my parents internationally, but neither picked up (they were at a conference). Finally, a nice Spanish guy told us that a police station was nearby, and that he’d go talk to them for me. After waiting a bit (we weren’t sure at the time if he was going to talk to them or if he was telling us to go over there), I went to the police station, getting there just as the guy was leaving. The police were very helpful. Basically, I had to just cancel my card and get a new one, because the bank the ATM belonged to would shred my card. By then, I was less upset, as at least I knew what to do. The only problem was that I had to wait a couple of weeks to get my card, which was my only source of money. I made do with borrowing money, though, from my parents (for online purchases like flights) and my friends.

  
  

  

  A view from the Alcazaba tower in Segovia
  

  
  Anyway, the next day, a few friends and I took a day trip to Segovia. It was my second time going, but I had enjoyed it so much the first time that I had to go again. It was nice, because I was able to do things the second time I wasn’t able to do the first. I climbed up part of the aqueduct (though I needed a bit of help getting up) and toured inside the Alcazar. We also visited the Jewish quarter, which I hadn’t the time before. It was a more relaxed trip this time, as we went without a guide (I was kind of the guide for my friends, who hadn’t been before). We were able to rest when we wanted, or stop to go shopping. It was great being able to go back!

  
  

  
  I climbed part of the aqueduct!
   

  Anyway, that's it for the first update. At least two more to come before I'm caught up!

  Currently Northanger Abbey (Barnes & Noble Classics) By Jane Austen see related

  • 11:44 PM
  • 37 Views
  • 2 eProps
  • 1 Comment