Portugal and the last of Madrid

Oy I can't believe I never posted this.. I'm afraid this blog has entered the vast graveyard of blogs, though I guess that was the final destination of this one in the first place.

One of the last weekends abroad I went to Lisbon and Sintra. Portugal had to be one of the most beautiful places I had the opportunity to see; we mostly did sight seeing at various castles and ate pastries..

View of Lisboa from the Castle of São Jorge


Palácio Nacional da Pena, in Sintra, about an hour train ride from Lisboa. The architecture was an eclectic mix of Medieval, Islamic, Gothic and Neo-renaissance (strange, but very cool). To get to it we had to take a shuttle up the mountain and then walk up further through the forest. It is gorgeous, definitely one of my favorite sites.

The last week in Madrid was stressful with finals, but the last weekend was really fun and a nice send-off.I finally made it to the Crystal Palace in the Retiro..

We had a last Botellón and run around Malasaña, last walk to Sol and churros con chocolate. We were all glad to return to the States, though. I half expected to never want to leave Europe, but after those months I realized, jeez, I am so. American.
As one might expect, my time abroad seems surreal and distant, but I don't think I'll get into a retrospective now..

Acción de Gracias

My family visited me for Thanksgiving! Unfortunately I didn't get time off, but I still got to see them for a few days. On Thanksgiving day we went to Corral de la Moreria for dinner and flamenco; it was a great show and it was nice to share with everyone.
The day after my family was able to come with my program to a day trip to Segovia. It was a nice small historical city, and we had a really traditional lunch. They brought us to a place famous for its roast suckling pig.. yeah. They bring them out, head and all, and have a girl come up and cut it with a plate to demonstrate its tenderness. I couldn't stomach all of mine, but it was nice that the program took us, and it was definitely a valuable cultural experience for my family.
The next day we spent hours in the Prado, which was nice, because now I finally think I am done with that museum.. My dad went to the Thysseun on his own because he is even more of a rally-er than me, and I just hung out with my mom and brother in their hotel room.
In general I ate a lot of awesome food; one of the best things about family visiting is being able to go to nice restaurants with an unlimited budget.. We had great paella and tapas and a lot of seafood ..
It was great to see my family, especially because it is holiday season.. It is hard to notice in Madrid; there are some lights, but in general it is nowhere near Rockefeller Center or even Macys. I am super excited to get back and revel in spectacular secular decorations : )

Morocco

This past weekend I went to Morocco! We landed in Casablanca, and had planned to take a train overnight to Marrakech. However, when we got there, they told us the trains were not running. We scrambled around for a little bit, then we finally found out a bus that would get us there that night. We quickly went to the Hassan II Mosque, the second biggest in the world after Mecca. It was absolutely gorgeous; I could only use my disposable camera as my canon is not working : (
With our changed plans we could not spend that much time there, and we got to Marrakech a little after midnight. We took a taxi (which, by the way, you negotiate prices with, as you do with everything here) to what we though was close to where we were staying. After walking around a little, though, it was clear that we were in fact not. So, we took another cab to where we actually were supposed to be. None of us know French, but luckily, one person traveling with us speaks Arabic; he is Lebanese, so the dialect is significantly different, but it is enough to get by. The taxi could not go through the narrow streets so it dropped us off where the central market is held. We were instantly approached by little local boys doing cartweels and asking us for payment. We were supposed to try to call our Riad to have them bring us to them, but none of our cell phones work and all the pay phones required a calling card. We tried asking a local if we could use his phone in exchange for a few Dirham (Moroccan currency); that didn't work either, and he insisted on bringing us where we needed to be. It was pretty shady, and we knew that we would have to end up paying him, but at this point we had no choice. We were led through tons of turning tiny streets, and finally made it there. We gave him and some other local that had tagged along a few bucks, and went to our Riad. A Riad is exactly like a hostel, but it has a little central courtyard. It was super nice and pretty, and we got unlimited hookah and awesome mint tea. We were also lucky that we were able to stay the first night, was we weren't supposed to arrive until the next.
In the morning, the manager of the Riad showed us around the area and taught us exactly how to find our way back, which was really nice. We walked around the old city, saw the mosque, and shopped. I bought a lot at the markets; haggling is a part of their culture, and most were happy to. The food was great and cheap.. we ate a lot of cous cous and eggplant and kebabs from street vendors. At night, the center square is full of food stalls, and everyone begs you to come to theres.. Some get actually angry when you end up at another stall. The sweets were also awesome. Everyone asks you for one thing or another; they are either selling things, or want to paint henna on you, or let you take a picture with their snake or monkey.. Luckily, unlike a group of girls I know who went before, we didn't receive crude cat calls. We were with a couple guys, which definitely made the difference; I think the worst I got were constant hellos in Chinese and Japanese and being called flower.
That afternoon we went to Palais Bahia; it was nice, but the market was more impressive.. We were going to go out in the new city that night, but we didn't feel the need to, and were spending so much on shopping and our excursion the next day that we decided to wait until Madrid for nightlife.
The next day, we took a trip to the Atlas mountains. We saw a traditional Berber home and rode camels! Then we went on a hike, which we expected to be low key, but turned out being for real.. Of course, none of us had proper shoes.. But is was still awesome and gorgeous; it was nice to be out of a city.
That night we did more eating and shopping, and scrambled around a little trying to find out how to get back to Casablanca the next morning. We were able to figure out the bus, and everything went smoothly on our return. Coming back was difficult, though; all of these little trips are such a tease! I get a small taste of vacation, then I'm back to school.
School, by the way, is horrible right now. It has not gotten easier, and by now, I am at a loss. I don't know how to do better, and I don't really think I care. It is a shame that this is really putting a damper on things. As much as I love it here, I am ready to go home and not have to deal with Spanish class. It is also a shame that I usually love school; I am used to being enthusiastic about class, and here, it is simply a chore. I just hope this doesn't drag down my gpa; it is really not something I obsess over, but this seems like a silly thing to mess it up over.

Amsterdam

Two weekends ago I took a weekend trip to Amsterdam. We arrived on Thursday night; our hostel was in the center of town, on a street lined with coffeeshops.. Unfortunately we didn't realize that unlike Madrid, this city doesn't stay up all night; everything was pretty much closed by 2am.
Friday morning we walked around mostly, saw Dam Square and Nieuwe Kerk. Although it is a small city, we got lost often; I had a moment of hilarious realization that Amsterdam is a city of concentric circles. When we thought we were walking in a straight line, we would end up where we started. effing confusing.
That afternoon we saw Wester Kerk, and went through the Anne Frank house. It was not much, but it was cool to see and remember the book.
We went out that night to some club/bar, which was fun, but nothing too crazy.
In the morning we got pancakes, which were awesome.. It was the only Dutch food we ate I think; the city has mostly international food. We went to the Van Gogh Museum; I really liked it but there was not much to see and it was pretty expensive. Later we went on a canal cruise, but we were all so tired most of us pretty much napped through the whole thing.. That night we walked through the red light district. Prostitutes stand in big windows with red lights above them all down the street; it was pretty gross and sad so we left that area quickly. Otherwise, we had a pretty chill evening at a few coffeeshops, and the next morning we went bike riding.
Amsterdam is an awesome city to bike through, and absolutely adorable.. The canals and colors are gorgeous, and the houses are all narrow because rent is paid by width. We passed by Bloemenmarket, the flower market, and ran into their winter holiday parade. They have a slightly different version of Christmas, that includes a Sinterklaas that has black slaves as elves, although I think they give a slightly more pc account to their kids.. However, in the parade, there were tons of Dutch people as the elves, in blackface! It made me uncomfortable in general, and although I know that it is not intended to be racist, I can't help but wonder how they don't see anything wrong with that. Race relations in Europe are just a little weird; there seems to be an overall insensitivity.. It might not be as bad as I think; I don't know how many hate crimes are committed or how much outward racism occurs, but as a minority coming from America, I think I am just hypersensitive to it.
We left Amsterdam that afternoon; it was a nice trip because we didn't feel pressured to see tons of sights, it was mostly just a city to experience..
Also, during the trip, my camera broke : ( : ( : (
This time I actually didn't do anything! It just stopped working. ugh.

Rome

Our flight to Rome was early Friday morning, so we spent last Thursday night in the Madrid airport, in favor of taking the Metro instead of a cab. After dropping our stuff off at our Hostel, we went to the ancient city. We took a tour of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, which I'm glad we did because we wouldn't have known what we were looking at otherwise.. Palatine Hill was gorgeous, and it was crazy to see the ruins of one of the first cities of western civilization. Afterwards, we walked down Via del Corso and saw Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We had a long dinner but didn't go out after because we were all pretty exhausted.
Saturday, we went to the Vatican; the museum was great, but it took hours to get through and a lot of frescoes and tapestries just started blending together. It was worth going through though, to get to the Sistine Chapel. It was beautiful, and amazing to finally see in person. Afterwards, we went to St. Peter's Basilica, which was nice, but the experience was a little clouded by my general disinterest in the papacy. I have to admit that grandiose gestures in architecture don't really impress me; instead of invoking a feeling of god's greatness, it makes me think of man's greed. I tried to think of it on a strictly artistic way, and of course it is beautiful; I guess I was just being cynical..
After the Vatican, we walked by Castel Sant' Angelo, on our way to the Pantheon. We never made it, though- we ran out of time, and I guess we weren't interested enough in rushing there. Instead, we walked towards Campo de Fiori. I really liked this area; there were a lot of small shops a tea houses. Campo de Fiori itself was also really lovely at night. We had an awesome dinner in Trastavere; the weekend in general was full of food.. It took us a few tries to find good pizza; unfortunately, we were always in a really touristy area for lunch so we got the kind that you might expect.. We finally did find a good vendor though, and it was amazing : ) Dinners were full of pasta and wine; there was not enough time for it all!
Saturday night we went to Testacchio, an area of bars and clubs. It was fun, but Italian men are even more aggressive than Spaniards.. We actually brought out one guy with us who we had met in the hostel, so we weren't bothered that much, but at one club, when were were dancing and our new friend left for a minute to get a drink, a circle of creepers formed around us. We fled that corner of the dance floor and were happy to see our friend come back. Something funny- I have found that Barack Obama has inspired some new ways for guys to pick up American girls abroad. They seem to think that by mentioning his name I will simply jump into their arms out of ecstasy. no thank you. But maybe if you mention Rahm Emanuel.. :p

OBAMA

I am so proud of my lovely country. It feels so good to have elected a president that I completely support. Even if I look at it from a "two sides of the same coin" perspective (which I often do), we at least have a figurehead of progressive ideals, and I truly believe we can now start to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the global community.
And he is just so classy : )

So much love for America right now!

Córdoba y Granada

This past weekend we took a trip with our program to Córdoba and Granada in Andalucia, southern Spain. We took a bus down, and arrived on Thursday evening. We walked around a little bit, but didn't do much touring because of the rain. At night we went to a flamenco show, which was really lovely..
Friday we saw the Mezquita and mostly just walked around; it was very nice even though it was rainy.. We then took a bus to Granada. When we got there, we toured la Capilla Real, where Ferdinand and Elizabeth are buried, as well as la Catedral. We were going to tour more, but again, the rain.

At night we went to a teteria with amaazing tea, and we got kebabs and peeked in some middle eastern stores; overall it made me excited for Morocco! Later, we went to a club; it was actually Halloween night so some people were dressed up, although it is a fairly new thing in Spain and we have decided that they don't really get it yet. People were actually just dressed a little scary or bloody; there was nothing creative or anything.. It was a fun night, but a lot of us went at it a little too hard, as evidenced by how people were looking the next morning at the Alhambra.
The Alhambra was really gorgeous, the buildings, gardens and views were awesome. The detailing on the arches and ceilings is outrageous; it is all so meticulous and beautiful!
We came back Saturday night and had to spend Sunday night studying.. at least my midterms are all done in time for ELECTION NIGHT!